Kalavassos tenta and Choirokoitia village

 Now that we're both officially pensioners, and Richard is semi-retired, we decided we should have days out now and again. This is to ensure we stay away from our computers and get some fresh air, and also to see some parts of Cyprus that we hadn't previously explored. We compiled an initial list of places not too far from Larnaka that we would like to visit - or, in some cases, re-visit. 

Our first such outing was last Friday. Our intention was to visit a location we had seen fairly often from the highway, but had never actually been to. The 'tent' (or 'tenta') at Kalavassos. Maybe forty minutes' drive from our house. It was a nice day, if rather warmer than I like, and our car has pretty good air conditioning.

Our pronunciation of Greek is not great, but we usually manage to get the emphasis correct. So we knew we were heading for somewhere pronounced something like 'kalla-VASS-os'. Short 'a' sounds, emphasis on the third syllable.  We were mildly amused that Google Maps told us we were going to 'kuh-LAH-vuh-suss', with emphasis on the second syllable and something that sounded like 'lava' in the middle. 

This is what the 'tenta' looks like from the place where we parked:

The website told us that the entry is €2.50 per person; many sites offer half-price to senior citizens. However, the man in the little booth outside told us firmly that €2.50 was the price, so we paid up and went in. There was nobody else there, though a couple of other visitors did arrive before we left.

We were given tickets, and a leaflet:

It's not a huge site, and neither of us could be considered a history buff. But we decided to walk around slowly - it was, after all, in the shade. And we wanted to get our money's worth.

What we saw was the ruins of several small huts, which - according to the leaflet, and some of the information on the site - was excavated first in 1947, and then more throughly thirty or so years later. The date of the settlement is set as the 'Aceramic period', which I don't recall hearing of before, in the years 8200-5200 BC. Really very ancient!

However, my first random thought bore no relation to history: 'Aha! So THIS is is the origin of the secret to life, the world and the universe....'

We didn't find out why some (but not all) of the buildings have numbers, apparently at random. 

We were interested to learn that one of the walls had a painting, supposedly depicting two human figures with hands raised. This is what the official notification showed:

We found building 11, but couldn't see any evidence of the painting.

On the other hand, I saw what looked to me like a road sign image on the side of building 14...

We probably stayed for twenty minutes or so, appreciating the cool breeze, and also being glad that we were not around at this era in what looks like very cramped and uncomfortable houses. 

Our verdict: worth seeing once, and probably more interesting to people who are passionate about history. It took us 29 years to get around to visiting... and we're unlikely to go again. 

Next stop was Choirokoitia, which Google Maps didn't even attempt to say. I don't think we got it right, either. Suffice it to say that the first syllable is not said like the English word 'choir'. More like 'here', with a soft 'ch' sound at the start, as in the Scottish 'loch'.  

On the way we saw a children's playground with an old train, so we stopped and Richard got out to take some photos.

It was an old goods train, which obviously hasn't run for a long time, as Cyprus doesn't have any railways now. 

Not, of course, that it's anywhere near as old as the Kalavassos settlement...

It seems a bit dangerous to have it so close to a children's playground, as many children would be unable to resist climbing over the fence and exploring the train. But it's evidently been there for several decades; apparently the railway system in Cyprus came to an end in 1951.

After that brief digression, we drove another ten minutes or so to the Heritage site of Choirokoitia, which looked, at first glance, like a huge garden. 

There was a little information office, so we went in, and expected to have to pay another €5 for the privilege. I said we were retired, and the man behind the counter looked very suspicious. He asked to look at our passports, so we showed him our ID cards. He perused them carefully, then handed them back. We asked what we had to pay, and he told us it was free. 

We weren't going to argue. I suppose it's quite flattering that he thought we couldn't possibly be over 65...

It was noon by the time we were there, and while there was some shade, there wasn't much of a breeze and the temperature in the sun must have been about 32C. I don't do well in the heat. 

Still, we didn't have to go far to find an area that said it was reconstructed Neolithic houses. 

Richard went inside and looked at some of the information sheets. 

But I was feeling overheated, and sat down on a convenient stone in the shade.

Looking through the window hole of one of the huts showed a raised area - possibly a bed:

Somewhat rested, we found more shade and walked a bit further. Then there were some steps, which said they led to another Neolithic settlement - the actual one with ruins on which the reconstructed huts were based. 

Richard went ahead and I got slower and slower....

It was a good view, with Cyprus looking quite green for this time of year:

Unfortunately, it was clear that there were a lot more steps, not shaded at all:

Richard decided he didn't want to walk right up the hill in the sunshine, even though he deals a lot better with heat than I do. And we were both starting to get hungry.

Subsequent research suggests that the long, unshaded uphill walk might not be worth the effort, unless one is a serious fan of prehistory, or likes climbing stairs in the sun. Apparently there is another ruined settlement which is much like the Kalavassos one. 

So we left the site.

Verdict: the reconstructed huts were interesting, and it looked as if it would be quite pleasant to walk around the park/garden area. But not somewhere to take lively children, and not somewhere we're likely to want to visit again. Then again, if for some reason we were in the area on a cooler/shadier day, we might explore it a bit more, if we can, once again, get in free.

Next we drove to find a taverna which Richard had seen advertised online. It wasn't easy to find: it was hidden right behind another playground. 

But although there wasn't much on the menu, and no other customers there, the owners were very friendly (and spoke fairly good English).

It was quite attractive, too, and shady, with a pleasant breeze. 

We had no idea what portion sizes would be like but the prices were reasonable. We ordered a Greek salad to share (which turned out to be huge!), and the 'dish of the day' for Richard. It was supposedly stuffed vine leaves, though it turned out to be stuffed vegetables - he didn't find any vine leaves. I always prefer to eat vegetarian food when we're out, so I asked for halloumi - which came after the rest, and was just accompanied by some warm toasted pitta pieces.

It was a lot of food. When we'd eaten as much as we could manage, we were offered a take-away box so we filled that with the rest of the salad, half of the halloumi and most of the pitta. 

It was a good day out, despite the heat, and hopefully the precursor to more outings around the island... if we remember. 

Getting into September in Cyprus

 So, two and a half weeks have gone by. The heavy rain at the end of August - which I wrote about in my last post - didn't lead to significant cooling, although the humidity did, somewhat, reduce.

Overnight it was cool enough that I resumed early morning walks, three times per week, with my friend Sheila. I didn't want to wear socks and trainers, though, and I wasn't sure how far I could manage, so on Sept 1st we started by walking in the upgraded Salt Lake Park, including going along the bridge and observing the Salt Lake with some water, at one end, from the recent rain: 

We did then walk a little way along the trail itself and I found it wasn't too bad with sandals. We wondered how long the water would remain.

The final nine days of August

 I wondered, at the start of the month, whether I would remember to write about the details, albeit mostly rather dull, of a month in Cyprus, semi-aestivating in the air conditioning. 

And suddenly, it's the last stretch... not that September will be significantly cooler, but the days are getting shorter and by the end of September we should at least have stopped using the air conditioning. 

Sunday 23rd

As with every other Sunday, I started by watering the plants, then went for a 2km walk. I'm not keeping my phone with me every moment, as I used to do. So on days when I only walk in the mornings, I don't even register 5,000 steps. I'm more interested in what my app calls 'heart points', ensuring I reach the minimum of twenty if possible, aiming for heart health. 

We were expecting our closest local friends in the afternoon: four of them this time, which is more than usually come now. So I put a loaf of bread on (in the breadmaker), and decided to try a vegan pseudo-'cheesecake' from a recipe I found online some time ago. It suggested a complex crust using seeds, dates and nuts but I thought I'd keep it simple and use a standard cheesecake base with digestive biscuits and spread. Somewhat ultra-processed, but when it gets cooler I'm going to see if I can make digestive biscuits myself, to avoid that problem.

Third week of August in Cyprus

More than half way through August already, another week gets going...

Sunday 16th

Sunday morning I woke around six thirty. It was a tad cooler than it had been. So once again I walked to the Salt Lake park, and explored a bit more than I did last week. I won't go into detail, as I wrote an entire extra post about the upgraded Salt Lake (or Pattichio) park. But here's one photo I took, showing the nature garden, and the steps to the bridge:

By the time I got home, it was getting hot and humid. Another morning in the air conditioning, where I watched some of the church livestream. We'd decided to get a rotisserie chicken from Metro for lunch again, along with various leftovers from the previous week; I knew it would last us at least three meals. We had quite a lot of new potatoes left over, so I sliced and refried them, along with some onions. We ate about half of those. 

Pattichio (Salt Lake) Park upgrade

 Back in February, I wrote this post about ongoing construction in the Salt Lake (Pattichio) Park. It all seemed to be happening slowly and somewhat randomly. By the middle of June, when I stopped going for walks along the Salt Lake trail until the weather cools down, it hadn't progressed all that much. 

So I was amazed to see this article about the Pattichio Park come up in my Facebook feed last week. I decided to go and see what was going on - it was hard to believe that in just a couple of months the upgrade really was complete, but that's what the article said. I mentioned this in the Wednesday part of last week's general rambling update, with a couple of photos. But I didn't stray from the main path, as it was so very hot and humid.

Yesterday morning, however, the temperature was a tad cooler, and not quite so sticky. So I decided to be a bit more adventurous. I walked to the park, then wandered up the first trail I came to:

 
It led to the dog park. This is quite a nice looking area that's fenced off, with plenty of bins for dog mess, to allow dogs to run around rather than having to be on a lead/leash all the time.

Second week of August in Cyprus

Continuing on from my previous post, which covered the first eight days of August...

Sunday 9th August

When I woke, the humidity wasn't too high. My phone told me that the temperature was around 26 degrees at 6am. I read for a bit, then watered the plants on the front porch. We're theoretically allowed to use hose pipes on plants (though not for anything else). However, I feel it's less wasteful to use a watering can, so that's what I do. I have to fill four cans to give all our plants a reasonable amount of water, and they seem to be surviving, some of them blooming quite well.  

Then I walked - slowly - for a couple of kilometres around local streets. As so often, I noticed how much construction is going on in our neighbourhood. Mostly new blocks of flats. There's a housing crisis here as there aren't sufficient affordable homes - yet new ones are going up all the time. 

First week of August in Cyprus

Apparently my unexciting post with a few photos from July was appreciated by others, and of interest to some people who are not in Cyprus. So I thought I'd write a week-by-week summary of August. Assuming I remember to do so, that is. 

In that post, I spoke too soon about the lack of nasty insects. When I was getting ready for bed on the night of July 31st, I opened my closet and saw (shudder....) a roach sitting amid my tee shirts.  Thankfully Richard was close by, and he was able to get rid of it.

Saturday 1st August

August started, as so often happens, with increased humidity. I went out for a shortish walk first thing, around 6am. Although it was only around 26 degrees and I stayed mostly in the shade, I was dripping when I got home. I sat down and did a few puzzles, then - slowly - organised Richard's breakfast tray of fruit and nuts, squeezed oranges etc. I made some oat milk for his coffee and my frappé. Then I had my breakfast, hoping it would give me some energy.

It didn't.  

Half way through summer....?

 The end of July always feels like something of a milestone to me, particularly when we're in Cyprus all summer. The hot weather usually starts to feel uncomfortable by mid-to-late June, and it feels like the end is in sight by mid-to-late September. And yes I know that means that the half-way spot should be about a week into August... but I would prefer it to be today. 

I didn't take many photos in the past month. Much of what interested us was at a distance: my younger son and his wife moved to a new location, where he's now the vicar of a lively church. I watched the installation by livestream, and some of the Sunday services too. My other son and his family made a trip to the Logos Hope, where they spent two years when the children were much younger. Not a long trip, as it docked in Edinburgh for a few days.

But we've stayed in Larnaca, which turns out to have been a good thing, for a variety of reasons. It was important to be here in July because our local friends (and cat-feeders) have mostly been out of the country. And since they have three cats, I was the one who fed them when everyone was away, on about ten or twelve days of the month.

Random Larnaka images for the end of June

 May appeared to last rather a long time. But I'm not sure quite what happened to June.  As it's the last day already, here are some random local photos from the past month that I didn't use in the only other post I wrote in June. I wrote a similar post at the end of May; it may become a trend on this blog. 

We think this is some kind of fashion show that took place in Salina Park early in the month. Everything was set up the evening before, and taken down by the following evening. 

Moving on from spring

 Towards the end of April I wrote about moving on from winter - packing away our warm clothes, duvet etc. In May, we enjoyed slightly cooler weather than usual, and a surprising amount of rain. According to the Cyprus mail, rainfall was more than twice as much as normal for the month. But still there's a potential water problem, and hose pipes are still banned, other than for watering plants.

By the end of May, the temperatures were increasing, though the humidity was still low. It was time to start getting ready for the summer. By July I won't want to do anything much during the daytime. On the last Saturday of May, I did some extra laundry, so I could put away even our thinner jackets, as well as stray gloves and hats that were still out. 

We hang things on lines here, and they were all dry within a couple of hours. 

Random Larnaka images for the end of May

 Once again, after a couple of posts on specific themes, I still have other images that give something of the flavour of Cyprus.  So here is a selection from May with brief explanations:

Lady Jane investigating some plants on the upstairs balcony outside our bedroom (the only outside place she can get to). Neighbours were doing a lot of improvements and changes to their house and outside areas, and were going to get rid of these plants if we didn't want them. 

The brown metal structures in the Salt Lake Park are now surrounded by a flimsy fence. We still have no idea what they are for. 

Yet another microwave oven (Samsung brand)

 In March last year I wrote about how much we liked the Westpoint microwave we had bought a few months earlier. It replaced one which had become corroded and rusty inside; the interior surface looked more sturdy than the previous one, but we were careful to keep the door open after each use, to cover anything we cooked in it for more than a minute or two, and to dry it if there was obvious moisture inside.

And it kept working well...except for one little thing. The digital time display started to deteriorate. I suppose we'd had it for about nine months when the first bar, the bottom one at the right, started to vanish. At first it was just fainter than the rest, but over the course of a few days it disappeared entirely. 

It wasn't a huge issue, just mildly annoying that, for instance, a digital 8 looked like a digital capital A, and a digital 3 looked like a backwards capital F.  Then, a few months later, the top bar became fainter, and also vanished not long afterwards.  I don't know why I didn't take a photo of this - I take photos of pretty much everything else, after all. The only one I can find is one I took of the whole kitchen when it was quite messy, so cropping to just the microwave makes it very poor quality:

But perhaps it's still clear that it should say 12:07 and the 7 just looks like a back-slash. 

Update about shopping and ultra-processed products

 During January, I tracked all our grocery shopping, and even took photos. I was following an unofficial 'challenge' to see how long we could go without buying anything other than fresh or minimally processed foods.

I updated this at the end of February, listing the processed (possibly ultra-processed) products that we had bought during the month. They were still minimal. And by that stage I was taking more notice of the ingredients of even standard products which we had previously bought: packaged tortillas, for instance, or pitta bread. 

I did try making pitta bread early in March, but it wasn't very successful:

Quite apart from the strange shapes, there were almost no pockets on the inside. And it was a lot more complex than naan bread, which I do make about once a month; my recipe makes eight, so we use two and freeze the rest in twos. 

Moving on from winter

 It's usually some time in April when we start to feel a bit warmer, and as if winter has finally come to an end. Not that we experience 'real' winter here; there's no snow, rarely any ice, and the sun usually shines at some point. But the houses feel cold, with the high ceilings and tiled floors. 

At the end of March I was still wearing two warm layers in the house, sometimes three. I wore a knitted hat and sometimes gloves when going out for a walk, morning or evening. We were using our microwave wheat bags every night, the heating was coming on when the temperature dropped too low, and we were snuggling under our double thickness duvets at night. 

Then we spent just over two weeks in the UK, where it was chillier but mostly sunny. The houses, with carpets and better insulated walls, are rather warmer than those in Cyprus. We had heard that Cyprus had had a major dust storm and a lot of rain while we were away. But when we came back, it felt significantly warmer than it had at the end of March.

The first night back, we threw off the thinner part of the duvet, just using the medium one. We didn't even think of using wheat bags. In the morning, I only wanted one warm layer, and when we went out for walks I had no need of hat or gloves. We had turned the heating off before we travelled: we've seen no reason to turn it on again since returning. 

Two weeks out of Cyprus

 Earlier in the year, we had talked about the possibility of flying to the UK early in April, so that we could see Richard's mother on her birthday. She's living in a very nice care home now, in Sussex and they make quite a thing of birthdays. 

We then pondered going first to Carlisle, to spend Easter with our older son and his family. We checked with them that they weren't going anywhere else, and we started idly looking for flights.

Then I spotted flights from Larnaka to Glasgow on March 31st at just 27 pounds per person. It was with EasyJet: a budget airline that we have used many times, and which we generally like.  That price doesn't include any luggage, of course, other than an under-seat bag. We tend to upgrade to what they call 'easy boarding' which gives us an overhead carry-on as well, but even so - the price was excellent. 

We know from experience that prices vary all the time, and can be extremely high over the Easter period, so we booked at once. Then we filled in the details - a rental car, accommodation when not staying with the family etc - and finally booked a flight back on April 15th. 

We were all packed and ready at least half an hour before our friend Sheila came to pick us up to take us to the airport on March 31st. 

The flight wasn't until after 9.30pm, which is when I usually like to be getting ready for bed.  So I was delighted to realise that it was an almost-empty flight. This meant that once we had taken off, we could have three seats each, and lie down to rest. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but I think at least a couple of hours.  So when we arrived at Glasgow in the early hours, I wasn't as tired as I might have been.

A new printer

Short version of this post: I bought a new printer:

Long version with historical context:

I thought I had probably had my last printer, an HP laserjet, for about twelve or thirteen years. I recalled my younger son buying it - or contributing to it, anyway - when he needed to do significant printing. It was in 2013 when he came back to Cyprus after five years in the UK, so I thought perhaps it was bought around then, although I couldn't work out what it was he needed to print. 

More random Larnaka images for the end of March

 For anyone who thinks Cyprus is all sunshine and warmth... this is a screenshot from March 21st, on a morning when my friend Sheila and I decided that we would not be going out for our usual 5km walk...

According to local news reports, it has been an exceptionally wet March.  It has certainly felt that way. It's a good thing, as the reservoirs are now in a much better state than they were at the start of the year, although we're still told to conserve water, and I believe the hosepipe ban is continuing. 

On decluttering

 I see a lot of references to decluttering on social media. Perhaps it's the circles I'm in; plus, of course, as soon as I clicked one link on the topic, I was inevitably going to see a whole lot more similar posts. Clutter is something of a divisive subject. There are people who like collecting a lot of things, and are comfortable around boxes, bags and other unsorted items. There are people who would like to be organised, but have difficulty finding spaces for things, or who don't have sufficent time and motivation to do anything about it.

There is also a third category of people who somehow manage to get things away, and tidy, without any apparent effort.  I aspired to be one of those as a young adult, but was firmly in the second category. The spirit was willing - well, mostly - but I was working full-time, and then had small children.  It was far more important to spend time with them - and they seemed to acquire a lot of stuff, too, mainly gifts from generous friends and family - than to keep the house tidy. 

Moving to Cyprus in 1997 forced us to be quite radical about our stuff. We donated some things to charity shops, although we had a large room and a couple of closets full of things we had stored, in addition to what we brought out. We also stored a lot of things in a friend's garage. In subsequent years, we moved more and more things here (mainly books), and when we sold the UK house, we gave away a lot of things that we had not used for nine years, and evidently didn't need.

Random images around Larnaka

 I'm trying to post on this blog more often, and on one topic - or no more than two or three - at a time. But sometimes there are random things where there's not a lot to say... so here is a small selection of my most recent collection of local photos that don't fit other subjects, taken over the last month or so.

We were given a small papaya plant several years ago, and this is the first year that it has produced flowers:

We have no idea whether it will eventually produce a fruit; that depends on the flowers being fertilised, and whether it's a male or female plant.  The flowers aren't spectacular, but there are a lot of buds.

Paperwork and admin in Cyprus

I was beginning to feel that life in Cyprus involved rather too much paperwork.  I've written elsewhere about the need to renew passports every ten years or so. We had a flurry of bureaucracy during Covid, of course, with the need for checking airline regulations, and taking tests with accompanying paperwork to demonstrate that we were Covid-free.  

Just last year I wrote about the complicated process of trying to find suitable ID documents to prove that we are who we say we are. Also the need to prove that we are eligible for the national health system here. 

Every time we get through another round of documentation, we breathe sighs of relief.  Until the next time. Recently we seem to have had a lot of other paperwork to deal with. None of it particularly strenuous or complicated, admittedly, but somehow it feels rather overwhelming when several things come at the same time. 

But sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming. A couple of weeks ago I wrote down the things we had to do fairly urgently:

- apply for me to have a UK pension 
- validate Richard's existence, for his UK pension
- renew our European health cards
- chase up my ID card, which I applied for in October