A visit to Ikea

 As may be clear from other entries in this blog, I am not, in general, a fan of shopping. With the notable exception of bookshops, of course, and some thrift/charity shops. Grocery shopping is a necessity, but my preference is always to walk to a small local mini-market or froutaria than to have to spend time in a supermarket. 

I have rather mixed feelings about large stores like Ikea. I very much like some of their furniture, and many of their prices are excellent. They used to issue annual catalogues which I would sometimes flick through, although they were organised by room rather than by style of furniture, so I found them a bit confusing. 

We were quite excited when the first Ikea was opened, in Nicosia. When we first visited, early in 2008, we were able to find some bookcases we liked, and various other items. Since then we've made a few visits - usually when going somewhere else in Nicosia anyway.  One of our favourite things to buy at Ikea is their classic 'billy' bookcases;  I wrote a lengthy post about buying billies at the start of 2024. 

The end of summer... perhaps?

 When we lived in the UK, my least favourite month of the year was November. After the clock change at the end of October, the evenings were dark early, and it seemed to me that the daytimes were often grey and dreary too. November sometimes dragged on and on...

That's rather how I feel about September in Cyprus, although for rather different reasons. Somehow, with schools starting a new year, and shorter days, I feel as if it should be cooler. September is an autumn month, and despite nearly twenty-eight years in Cyprus, it feels wrong that September here is still an extension of summer. 

I don't like hot weather. I am often out of Cyprus for some or all of August - as happened this year so I miss the worst of the heat and humidity. When I arrived back at the start of the last week of August, it wasn't as hot as I expected, nor as humid. We were using air conditioning with our computers, and for an hour or two at night. I thought perhaps I'd escaped the worst of it. 

Then September started, and the humidity returned. There weren't any heatwaves - and on September 3rd I resumed early morning walks with my friend Sheila. I took it slowly; I didn't manage the full 4km the first couple of times, and had to take a couple of breaks to sit down. But it was nice to be out. The Salt Lake was completely dry after over three months with no rain.