Family visiting us in Cyprus

 The family departed on Thursday evening. As always, we were very sad to see them go, but I think it's been an enjoyable visit, albeit shorter than the one two years ago. Just twelve days in all, but we managed to fill them pretty well. 

Before they came, we had made a list of all the places we might go to, and things we might do, including 'ice cream every day', although we didn't quite manage that. We were extremely thankful that some friends who are out of Cyprus at present were willing to lend us their seven-seater vehicle. That meant we could plan outings that needed a car easily without having to leave one of the adults behind, or borrowing an extra car and then having extensive discussions about who goes in each one...

We had also decided to have a basic, simple menu for evening meals rather than anything that would require a lot of time and effort. Last summer my granddaughter (seven and a half at the time) wrote this, as her ideal main meal menu for a couple of weeks:

I didn't follow that - I rarely cook any kind of pasta, for instance, and I don't think I have ever bought chicken nuggets. A casserole seemed an over-complicated thing to do, too, when out of six people there's one vegetarian, one dairy-free person, and two who don't like any cooked vegetables, or hot spices. 

But still, we bought some dairy-free milks rather than me making them; we bought some jarred sauces, and ready-made burgers. We even had a bag of oven chips (fries) which someone had left behind in our guest flat. Then we planned to have at least two take-aways (one of them pizza), and a meal out. 

I love being able to watch a flight path online when we're expecting visitors: 

They arrived on a Saturday evening, quite late, and were tired Sunday morning. We played some games and the children found plenty of books to read. I had put on food in the slow cooker for lunch - my slow-cooker has three separate compartments, so I could make one chicken dish with chopped onions and a little hot spice, one chicken dish without onions and with less spice, and one chickpea version (with onions and hot spice). This would account, I hoped, for all preferences. With roast potatoes.  I made sure I had cut up plenty of carrots, cucumbers and red peppers for each meal, as well as cooking other veg for the adults. 

After lunch we took them for a short walk to the newly-built local 'Salina Park':

Later in the afternoon our close friends came over - our grandchildren call them their 'Cyprus cousins' - for games and a film followed by a shared meal. They also brought their turtle, Jabba, since our  granddaughter is passionate about turtles, and wanted the opportunity to look after one. Since our friends were going away a week later, this worked out perfectly. 

We didn't go out for ice cream on the Sunday, but I had made some pineapple/coconut (dairy-free) ice cream, which was part of our dessert in the evening. 

On Monday, as described in more detail in a longer post, we went to the Camel Park in Mazatos, followed by a picnic near the Angeloktisti Church.  Then we came home to play a board game, followed by ice creams at our local (excellent) Italian gelateria. We all decided to be a little adventurous, and I selected a scoop of the forest fruits yogurt ice cream. It's one of the best I had ever tasted.

On Tuesday morning, the 'Cyprus cousins' came over, as they do every Tuesday, for a games morning. In the afternoon, we went into the town as the children wanted hats and sunglasses.  We also took them to have a look at the ice-age exhibition that was on display in Zouhouri Square:

Then we walked along the sea front, and bought some ice creams from one of the little booths. It was okay, but nowhere near as good as the ice creams at the Italian shop. 

On Wednesday we had our longest trip, to the Paradox museum in Limassol, as written about in detail in another post.  We then had our picnic in the Limassol municipal park, which was huge. 

We were all quite tired when we got home, and didn't manage to get out for ice creams. But after our evening meal, we got out our sorbet-maker, a gadget we haven't used in several years. We had bought some bags of ready-frozen fruit, and it made an excellent dessert.

On Thursday, we were invited to a cooked lunch at the 'Cyprus cousins', which was very enjoyable. And we were quite full afterwards. But after a little break, we did manage more ice creams at 'Milk and Honey' by Mackenzie sea front. 

On Friday, we had our third (and last) full morning trip out, this time to Cyherbia, as described in this post, followed by a picnic in Rizoelia park.  I don't think we went out for ice creams that day, but in the evening we finished up the ones in the freezer. 

Saturday was more of a lazing around day; we find it important not to rush around too much, and we were all quite tired after an enjoyable but quite busy week. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the Salt Lake trail, including climbing up to the bird-watching place.

We didn't see any flamingoes, but it was a pleasant walk, and we came back through the park area. Near the main park entrance where we came out is a small corner shop that sells speciality nuts and dried fruit.  Friends had told us that they also did ice creams, so we went in there, only to be told that they no longer sold ice creams. So much for eating at a different place each day - over the road is the Italian place we like so much, so it didn't take much persuasion for us to go there again. 

Sunday was another relaxing day, the one where we had planned to go out to lunch. So after some board games in the morning - nobody felt awake enough to go to one of the church services - we drove to town, and had an excellent lunch at Alexander's. It's family-friendly, the menu is extensive, and it's pretty good value. It also offers something 'on the house' after eating, and three people opted for ice cream. 

Since the family would be leaving before Easter, we decided to give them the Easter eggs we had bought a week early. So there was plenty of chocolate for the afternoon, and I had made some more ice cream at home for our evening dessert. So we didn't go out for any more ices that day. 

On Monday, we thought we might look at the 'Alice in Wonderland' themed Easter fair which had been advertised for Salina Park.

No times were given anywhere, but we had seen the decorations with streamers and cards and 'Alice' figures. We assumed it would be open by ten o'clock, so around 10.30 we got there. There were some deflated bouncy castles in a corner, and several closed booths that were evidently intended to sell things. But nothing open. 

So we walked a little further to the Municipal Park, which our grandchildren had very much enjoyed in previous visits.  And we knew that there was a little cafe there selling ice creams, (and other things) which we had never been to. So we bought ice creams there, and liked them very much. They were less expensive than other places we had been to, too. 

The children particularly like the zip-line, and since there were almost no other children there, they had it mostly to themselves.

We wondered if the Salina Park fair might be opened when we returned home for lunch, but there was still no sign of any activity.

In the afternoon we stayed in for more board games, and our granddaughter took Jabba the visiting turtle outside for a swim in the lid of our sand box.

In the evening, around 7.30pm, Richard and I walked back to the park, wondering if the fair was open in evenings only. Evidently something had been happening, as there were a couple of booths closing down, and a few children on a bouncy castle. We saw a caravan with an office, so he went in to ask when it was open. We were told 4pm-8pm on Tuesday, and 10am-8pm Wednesday. 

The family had been here for nearly ten days and we hadn't yet been to the beach. So we determined to rectify that omission on Tuesday. Our daughter and son-in-law went out on a lunchtime date in town, while we looked after the children, then we met on one of the local beaches in the afternoon. It was perfect weather, and although I mostly sat on my own in a shady spot, everyone else had a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we walked to another of the Makenzie beach ice cream places, Dolce. Most of them, slightly to our surprise, were closed. We all liked the Dolce ices very much, and the ambience of the cafe too. 

On Wednesday, three of our party went sailing. Our granddaughter adamantly didn't want to, and wanted her mum to stay with her. So the three of us remaining at home thought we might wander along to Salina Park; after all, we had been assured that it would be open from 10am.  Knowing that things often don't start on time, we waited until nearly 11am. 

And nothing was happening. The bouncy castles were still deflated, and the booths were still empty. Still, the playground was, for the first time, open for use:

So we spent some time there - there were almost no other children about, even though the Cyprus school Easter holidays had now started. There isn't a lot of equipment there, but enough to keep an eight-year-old occupied for fifteen minutes or so. 

Then we walked around the park again, looking at the empty booths.... 

By this stage, the bouncy castle was being inflated again, and we saw one table where someone was putting out board books in Greek.... and there was a popcorn stand open. But nothing else. And no signs of anyone else doing anything, even though it was now nearly two hours after the fair was supposedly open. 

In the afternoon, when the guys got back after a good sail, the popular vote went to the Italian place on Fanoroumeni, for the third time, for the day's ice creams. And yes, it was very good as well as conveniently close. 

Thursday dawned all too quickly, the last day of the holiday. Our son and daughter-in-law were treating us all to a meal out, at one of our favourite restaurants in town, Al Sultan (Lebanese). The four adults shared an excellent 'grand mezze' intended for two people, and the children had halloumi in pitas with chips. 

And we were all so full by the end that we decided against ice creams. There was still pre-Easter chocolate to be finished anyway before they had to be at the airport for their flight back to the UK.

It was a really good break for us all; I felt relaxed afterwards too, after time with people I love, outings to different places, minimal cooking... and lots of ice cream. 

Family visiting Cyprus

 It feels like a LONG time since I last wrote. It's only four weeks, but our generally relaxed empty-nest routines were thrown out for a while. The house looked more lived-in than usual, with the coffee table piled high with books. The usual weekly cleaning didn't happen. The Roomba only ran sporadically, and I barely managed half an hour at my computer most days. We didn't watch a single film or even an episode of a DVD series. I usually read at least two books per week; in the past month I've only finished three full-length books, although I read a large number of shorter ones....

It was awesome. 

Our family - son, daughter-in-law and their two children - came to stay over the Easter holidays, with a few extra days each end (authorised by the children's school) so they could find affordable flights.  For just over three weeks they were with us, in Cyprus for the first time since the summer of 2017. 

Life is very different with children in the house.  At eight (nearly nine) and six (and a quarter) our grandchildren are a delight. At times they are noisy, and they rarely sit still, but they're loving, curious, and interested in everything. They love playing games, too - so we played a lot of board games. 

The Lego proved popular... though it only came out a couple of times.

They love books - they can both read fluently, but they like listening to books too, as my own sons did, well into their teens. My grandson discovered Garfield for the first time. We have quite a collection of the books, and I loved hearing his chuckles as he devoured them, one after another. 

In the first week Richard took them out sailing, and we had an afternoon on the beach. I thought we might have had more beach afternoons, but somehow they didn't happen... sometimes it was too windy, or even wet; more often there were simply too many other things to do. 

Cooking was an interesting challenge: my son is vegetarian, which is fine; I have leanings that way myself. But others like to eat meat at least a few times each week. My husband is dairy-free, but eats meat: so normally our house is dairy-free, but we bought cheese and yogurt for the family. Then the grandchildren won't eat any cooked vegetables, though they love raw ones. They also don't like strong flavours such as hot curries, and are reluctant to experiment too much with new foods although they're pretty good about trying things they're not sure about. 

Unusually for us, we ordered takeaways via Foody about once a week, since both of us had discount vouchers. Besides, I needed a break from cooking sometimes, to be able to enjoy an afternoon out.  Sometimes I cheated, too, with ready-made burgers (meat or vegetarian) or breaded fish (or chicken or vegetables). 

But I prefer to eat 'real' food (enchiladas, perhaps, or spanokopita, or chicken pie, or a jalfrezi curry and rice...)  and on the whole it wasn't too difficult to suit everyone's tastes, it just took some planning - and a lot of oven space - if I was making two or even three different main courses, some added form of carbohydrate if needed, and two or three cooked vegetables. 

Before the family came, I made a mental list of places that we could visit. There are local playgrounds and parks, of course, but our first bigger outing was to Cyherbia. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, but the children were thrilled to hear about the famous maze, apparently the only one in Cyprus.

We took a twelve-year-old friend with us, which is a good thing as the children raced around the maze, and our young friend was the only one who could keep up with them. 

Cyherbia also has a walk in the shape of the island of Cyprus, where we could see different landmarks, and there's a beautiful fairy village which we all admired: 

We spent a couple of hours walking around (or running, in the case of the children) and would have stayed out longer, but it started to rain. So we went to find our complementary hot herbal tea in the tea room, and the children spotted that there were ice creams. Ice cream was quite a feature of their visit; we lost track of how many they ate when out at various places.

Over the Western Easter weekend, our son and his wife drove part way into the mountains for a couple of days by themselves, and the children moved upstairs to what used to be our younger son's bedroom. It's become an electronics room for Richard, so although he tidied it up prior to their arrival, it's not ideal... however the children liked being with us upstairs so much that they slept there at nighttime for the rest of their holiday. 

While we had the children on our own, we had our second further-away outing, this time to the Camel Park.  It's somewhere else we'd never been, although we'd heard good things about it. We were very impressed with the wide range of activities: a playground for younger children, exercise equipment for slightly older ones, plenty to see including a terrapin pool: 

We bought fairly inexpensive bags of animal feed (carob pods) which were doled out to the many different animals in the park. Perhaps the enclosures were a bit small, but the animals seemed contented and very eager to reach out for their food. 

The highlight was a camel ride, which both the children enjoyed thoroughly: 

They even went in the swimming pool, although we thought it rather chilly. I felt a bit anxious the whole time, since neither of us are good swimmers and we had no intention of going in. I would, of course, have jumped in fully clothed had either of the children got into difficulties, but thankfully they stayed in the shallow end, splashing about and enjoying themselves until they finally admitted that it really was too cold. 

We'd been at the Camel Park for two hours and it was past noon, so we thought we would go to the restaurant for an early lunch. We had checked the menu in advance: they offered sandwiches of various kinds, and a children's section as well as quite a wide variety of Cypriot foods.

Then we had a disappointment: there was a big party at the Camel Park, so the restaurant wasn't serving meals. They did say that we could have something from the buffet (although it wasn't available for another half hour) but they couldn't tell us what it would consist of - and the cost was quite high for something that we probably wouldn't want, and the children most likely wouldn't eat. We asked if they would at least make sandwiches, and they said no - they weren't providing any other food until 4pm! 

So we bought bags of crisps at the kiosk nearby, as we were all surprisingly hungry; then we left to have our cold lunch back home. We would have stayed another hour or more if we'd been able to eat there. Picnics are not allowed in the Camel Park, so we couldn't have taken our own food. 

As often happens on holiday, the second half of the visit seemed to race past. The children went to local parks several times, and visited the fort in the town. On Greek Good Friday (a week after the Western one) my daughter-in-law organised a hunt for small chocolate eggs for the children around the house and side yard; they took some finding as the hiding places were quite creative. 

I made hot cross buns (I never can get the flour paste on the top to look right, but they tasted good). In the afternoon, the children went to our friends' house to experiment with dyeing and decorating hard-boiled eggs. It's  something my grandson had read about but they had never previously tried.

For the next four days, the family was even more enlarged as our younger son and his wife made a short visit, staying in a local AirBnB, and bringing the warmest weather we'd had all year. Just as well, since my new daughter-in-law is very allergic to cats, so they couldn't come into the house. 

On the Saturday, they all visited an interactive science fair not far from Nicosia, which we'd seen advertised.  I decided to have a day to myself, so I didn't go. The children enjoyed it, but overall the adults felt that it was a bit disappointing. 

The advertising said that visitors would need at least two hours to interact with all the different displays. In the event, about 25% of them were not working - or not working properly - but there were no staff available to assist.  Not that it was crowded - despite being Greek Easter Saturday, there was almost nobody else there.  So they spent as long as they wanted to at all the working exhibits, and still finished in under an hour. 

On the Sunday, we barbecued lunch outside after going to church services to celebrate the Resurrection. Our local friends came over in the afternoon for games followed by a cold evening meal, with 14 of us in all sitting around tables in our side yard. I think it's the most people we've had sitting down to eat out there at one time, and probably the maximum we could accommodate from the point of view of comfort.

On Monday they had a morning of sailing. On Tuesday morning, our friends came over for games, then one of my sons treated us to lunch out in the town. In the afternoon we took a walk by the Salt Lake... and in the evening our younger son and his wife departed to return to the UK overnight. On Wednesday afternoon we took the children to St George's Park, followed by ice creams, and our other son treated us all to food in the Metropolis Mall. And so, time gradually speeded up in our perception as their imminent departure was measured not in days but hours... 

When they left I was sad, but not as devastated as I felt five-and-a-half years ago when they departed after staying all summer.  That's mainly because, in 2017, they were going to join a ship the other side of the world, and we had no idea when we might see them again. Now we see them more often, and video chat fairly regularly so it's not such a wrench. 

I wish we lived closer and could see them more frequently; I certainly hope they come again before another five or six years have passed. But for holidays to be special, they need to have their own everyday lives with their own routines.  And I was quite tired; much as I miss them, it's good to have my own space, with time to relax on my own to recharge my psychological batteries. 

Lighting Candles

 A week ago, I realised that we had stopped using our ceiling fans. One by one, we slowed them down, finally turning them off so that the lights work without them. 

Which meant that we could start using candles again. And since, in the Anglican Church year, it's officially 'ordinary time' (despite this year having been anything but ordinary) I got out a green candle. We'd used it a few times previously, but it still has plenty of wax, and there's something special about having a candle lit while we're eating, particularly as it's now dark well before supper-time. 

It's not something we've done regularly over the years. We've often had a candle on the table around Christmas-time, but not long-term. However we've been given candles as gifts, from time to time, so I had quite a collection of them in my ornament cupboard, a few un-started, some of them slightly used.  

I suppose the idea of using them regularly started last December. Instead of lighting an elderly or small candle, we actually bought a new one, and lit it at almost every main meal over the Christmas and New Year season:

When it had almost gone, we realised that we liked having a candle, so I got out a red, star-shaped one. And when that started to collapse, I found a spherical pink one:

We had realised that having the candles on little glass plates was all very well, but if wax dripped off it went onto the wood of our table, and that wasn't so great. So we were using a table mat, but that wasn't ideal either.

At the end of January, when we were briefly in the UK, we took Richard's mother out to eat at a garden centre, and she bought us a little tray that I had been looking at - one which I thought would be ideal for candles.  The spherical pink candle was burning low, so I added a purple one, and the tray caught any drips perfectly:

By the end of March Cyprus was in lockdown mode; we lit a special candle to have in the window, on days when the world churches were praying specifically about the pandemic.  And as it was Lent, traditionally a time for purple linen in the Anglican church, we were using two purple candles:

I should add that I had not previously previously noticed liturgical colours. But during the lockdown, we started a new Facebook page for St Helena's Church, and I thought it would be a good idea to have a photo of the communion table area with the appropriate coloured linen. So I started taking notice of the colours used - and we just happened to have unused purple candles. 

By the time Easter came around, the purple candles were pretty much used up, and I remembered that, years ago, we were given a orange candle as an Easter decoration. So I decided we would burn it this year:

We were starting to take our candles for granted; lighting them at mealtimes became a routine. And then the weather got warmer, and in the middle of May, when Summer really started, we switched on the ceiling fan in the dining room while eating.

Ceiling fans and candles are not compatible. The candle went out. 

I moved it to the other end of the table, but it didn't help.  So, as ceiling fans seemed to be much more important during the summer months, I cleaned the tray, and the little glass plate things, and put them all away for five and a half months. 

There were a couple of scented candles in my cupboard, but I really don't like those - the scent gives me a headache, and I know that scented candles can be toxic for cats. So I got rid of them. I don't know where they came from - possibly gifts, or more likely a 'gift exchange' game with former colleagues around twenty years ago.  I don't like throwing out anything that isn't rubbish, but reminded myself that I was never going to use them, so it was really just decluttering, which is generally considered a Good Thing. 

The only ones left in my cupboard now are white; we also have quite a lot of tea-lights. But we bought them from Ikea - and although they seemed like excellent value, they don't last very long, and don't burn all that evenly. 

Perhaps we might even buy another new candle to use in December.... 

March draws to a close...

On March 20th, there was a solar eclipse which was seen in totality in the UK. We only had a little bit of an eclipse here in Cyprus; not enough to have been aware of it at all, had I not seen it on the news. The last eclipse that was of significance here was in 2006.

Still, we got out the binoculars, and just about managed to focus two small dots on the floor, with a tiny chunk taken out of the two tiny images of the sun at the height of the recent one, just for the record:

On Monday, we achieved a hat-trick of eating out: three restaurants, three Mondays in a row. I wrote about the first two restaurants already; this time, the visiting friends gave us a choice so we opted for Alexander's, the place we have been to most often, which has a wide variety of food, with large portions at reasonable prices.

I didn't feel like anything more adventurous because I had developed an ear infection, the first one I can ever remember suffering from. I treated it with garlic-infused olive oil, which seems to be the currently recommended method. Although it was extremely painful on Monday, it was rather better by Tuesday, and almost entirely cleared up by the end of the week.

On Thursday I decided to take my camera on my early-morning walk with my friend Sheila. The sun was shining and the sky was blue, and I realised I hadn't thought much about the wild flowers and blossom that are so in evidence at this time of year, particularly after such a wet winter.

March, as I have often mentioned before, is known - for good reason - as 'yellow month' in Cyprus:

However there are plenty of other colours if one looks around - I don't much like pink, but this dusky pink blossom was quite attractive against the sky:

I always find the 'bottle brush' trees amusing; the name is so apt:

The trail had been getting very overgrown in recent weeks, with grass and bushes growing tall and leaning over onto the trail; as well as attracting insects, this can make for quite a wet walk if it's been raining.

But on Thursday, there was a grass-mowing vehicle driving up and down, and some nice clear verges:

I like the way that the council looks after the trail, at least most of the time. Here's another view, looking back where we had walked:

On Friday I walked down to the Post Office to check for mail; we get it delivered to a PO Box about a mile away. It's rather a boring walk down a busy main road. When I reached the main square by St Lazarus Church, I saw this decidedly non-religious Easter decoration, incongruous in its garishness:

I walked along one of the shopping streets, so I could buy some stationery at Estia, and then back along a less busy main road. Outside the municipal library (of mainly Greek books) I saw this monument:

I'm not sure who the lady in the statue is, but the offerings at her feet were no doubt presented as part of the parade on Wednesday, which was Greek National Day.

On Saturday morning, I went out to the froutaria, and there I spotted strawberries on offer: 79c for 500g. Strawberries have been in season for several weeks now, and these ones looked past their best. I wondered if the season was coming to an end, and decided it had to be jam-making day. So I bought a couple of kilograms of strawberries, and some extra sugar (69c per kg at the fruitaria) and spent the morning making six-and-a-half pots of strawberry jam.

I don't particularly like jam-making, but it's part of my heritage: my mother used to enjoy preserving more than any other kind of cooking. Both my grandmothers also made jam, and I honestly did not know that jam could be bought ready-made (other than at church stalls, when it was made by friends) until I was about eighteen. It would still feel like sacrilege to buy jam.

Last night we put the clocks forward by an hour; in the UK we called it 'British Summer Time' but in the rest of Europe I suppose it's just 'daylight savings' (as in the US) or maybe, simply, 'Summer Time'. 

The end of Lent

Given to us in Advent, our poinsettia, now outside my study, is still thriving at the end of Lent:

We don't usually do a whole lot during Lent, other than (if we remember) eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and hot cross buns on Good Friday.

But at the end of February, while chatting over the dinner table about food in general and the cost of groceries, Richard made an idle comment that perhaps we could try giving up meat for Lent. Since I have decidedly vegetarian leanings I thought this was a great idea, and Tim said that in Anglican tradition, Sundays (and other feast days) are excluded from Lenten fasts, so perhaps we could stop eating meat for six days a week only...

As it happened, in the first week of Lent we had friends staying, one of whom is a vegetarian anyway. So it made a good excuse for me to experiment with a few new recipes, as well as making some old favourites such as Spanokopitta, or vegetable and nut cobbler.

It doesn't help that Richard and Tim are both dairy-free; cow's milk products cause their ears to block up. Goat and sheep cheese are fine in moderation - perhaps once or twice per week - but it meant that I had to experiment with other forms of protein, primarily beans and lentils. Some of the things we ate were pretty good; others less successful, although I don't think anything was inedible.

It's been interesting, but although I haven't felt any cravings or inclinations to eat meat for the past six weeks, Richard definitely has. I'm convinced that some people actually need meat for their metabolism and general health, and he seems to be one of them. So we'll be back eating meat four or five times per week as of tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Daniel and some of his colleagues in the UK were producing a series of mini videos which they released during Lent; one per week at first, and then several this past week. They are in the form of a modern video blog, taking the events leading up to Easter as if happening in the 21st century, from the point of view of the apostle Matthew.  This is the trailer for the whole series:

It took me a little while to get used to the style, but I've liked it very much. It's quite thought-provoking, and certainly helps to understand a little better what it might have been like to be one of the first disciples.

Links to the whole series can be found (with the most recent at the top) at the Matt's Blog, or the related Facebook page.

When we first moved to Cyprus, Lent was quite a big thing: the Greek Orthodox (who are the majority in this country) are supposed to fast from meat and various other foods during Lent. But even in fifteen years, secularism is growing stronger, and there seem to be fewer and fewer who take any notice of Lent.

Well, other than some teenagers and young adults, presumably bored and unemployed, who collect wooden items from around their neighbourhoods - not always with permission - and have bonfires each evening, usually culminating with a huge one on Easter Saturday. Here's a site of an unofficial bonfire site near where our friends live:

In recent years these have become more competitive, and are often accompanied by home-made firecrackers, which are extremely dangerous as well as illegal. Every year there is an accident of some kind; last night our friends' neighbour, a young man in his twenties, was rushed to hospital after a firecracker exploded in his hand. The police were involved, and the bonfire site cleared, later on; but how terrible for the young man and his family.

Selected people and places from the past month...

I have been procrastinating. Nothing new there, but it wasn't until today, when I received a note from a concerned friend, that I realised what a long time it has been since I last wrote anything on this blog. All the more concerning, I suppose, because my last two posts - over a month ago now - were about the Cyprus financial crisis.

But life continues, and it is more than time for an update.  Thank you, Rosemary, for inspiring me to pick a selection of photos and start writing.

Back in March, I continued walking on the Salt Lake trail three times a week with my friend Sheila... and although the weather started warming up, we had some rain too. Here are some quite big puddles that showed one morning late March:

Naturally we spent time with friends, and played some board games:

The last day of March was Western Easter.  Greek/Eastern Easter won't happen until May 5th (they are as far apart as is possible this year) but we tend to celebrate the Western one. We went to St Helena's Church with some friends in the morning, and then cooked and hosted a roast lunch for eight:

It all seemed to go well, and it was good to have several good friends together for a leisurely meal:

Cleo is fifteen now, and her coat is getting quite brown in places, thin in others.  She no longer runs and jumps as she used to: we suspect arthritis, but as she does not seem to be in any pain, we don't worry about it too much.  She still loves boxes of almost any shape and size:

At the other end of the cat spectrum, I must mention Makenzy, a kitten adopted by my friend Sheila and her family just a few days later, after she was found in a large dumpster: 

Makenzy is extremely cute.  She's also very friendly, unlike most feral kittens.  

Just to add to the randomness of this post, here's a jigsaw puzzle which Sheila started doing some months ago, and which a few of us helped her to complete early in April.  It was a remarkably difficult one, and we were very pleased that all the pieces were there: 

On Saturday 6th April I went for what may be my last Salt Lake walk for several months.  It was a beautiful clear morning, but even in the early morning it was beginning to be too hot for me:

I might have continued until the end of April, but a couple of days later we flew to the UK, where we are currently; we return to Cyprus on Greek Easter Day.

We flew to Heathrow, since - oddly - BA flights were the best value that week.  After booking our flights we discovered that renting a car at Heathrow costs a hundred pounds more than the same car (from the same company) at Gatwick. However, getting to Gatwick by coach from Heathrow would have cost us 50 pounds each, and by train even more (as well as being decidedly inconvenient with all our luggage).  Researching online revealed that the best thing to do would be to collect our hire car from Crawley (another 50 pounds cheaper than at Gatwick)... and to travel there from Heathrow via taxi.  Yes, whoever would have guessed that a taxi would be considerably less expensive than any form of public transport?!

So a very nice man met us at Heathrow and dropped us at the hire car place, giving Richard a chance to rest after flying before driving. 

We had heard dire warnings about the land of ice and snow, and told to bring lots of winter woolies.  So we were pleasantly surprised that on arrival the sun was out, and while 12C is not exactly warm, it certainly wasn't the arctic waste we had been warned about. 

We then spent a couple of days having a mini-break in the tiny town of Arundel.  It only has a handful of shops (including a rather nice second-hand bookshop) but it boasts a Roman |Catholic cathedral, rather unusually dedicated to two saints, one of whom we had never heard of:

Philip Howard, it transpires, was the Earl of Arundel some centuries ago, who refused to attend a Protestant church service. He was put in the tower of London for such treachery, and eventually died of dysentery. I'm not quite sure why that makes him a saint, or why he would share the cathedral dedication with Mary...

Here's a bigger view of the Catholic cathedral, which was impressively large:

The inn where we stayed was in the shadow of this cathedral:

... as can be seen from this view showing where we stayed, in what was probably once the stable block:

It was fairly basic but large and comfortable,with coffee-making facilities, and very peaceful.  Breakfast was included, so although Richard's breakfast is usually a handful of fruit and nuts (at most) while I usually opt for granola, fruit and yogurt, we both ate excellent cooked breakfasts for a couple of days: 

We didn't do anything terribly exciting; we just needed a couple of days to read and relax.  We did drive into the nearest reasonable sized down (Littlehampton); even though I don't really enjoy shopping, it was nice to browse a few traditional British shops: 

Later on we went for a walk around Arundel.  We saw that the Catholic cathedral was open, so went inside and found it peaceful and attractive:

It's obviously quite a lively place, with links to all kinds of ongoing activities.

We took a look at the castle...but we're not really into history, and it was quite expensive, so we didn't go inside. There was a craft fair nearby so we did wander around that, but didn't see anything of great interest. 

We walked along a path next to a stream and saw some ducks - something else we never see in Cyprus:

|After our mini-break in Arundel, we drove to stay with Richard's mother for a few days. Tim came down from Birmingham to join us, as she was celebrating a special birthday. We went out to lunch and were joined by other relatives, at a very pleasant inn:

Richard spoke at his mother's church on the Sunday, and then we drove up to Birmingham.  My mother recently moved to a small apartment in a residential home as she has been having some health problems, so we knew we would be spending lots of time helping to move furniture for her, to make an inventory for my siblings so that we can all decide if we want anything, and generally helping to clear the house, where Tim has still been living.  On Monday one of my brothers and his wife came down for the day, and we moved my mother's large bureau to her flat, followed a day later by a selection of her books:

Tim has been applying for jobs in the UK but with no success - nobody seems to care about academic qualifications these days; the important thing is to have experience.  He has a possible job offer in Cyprus, although it remains to be seen if this will happen - the financial crisis means that unemployment is going to be high, with many jobs cut.  Nevertheless, he made the decision that he will come and live with us again for at least a year, possibly more, and see what happens.  We are, of course, delighted.  

Richard had to ship some things for King Malu so Tim took the opportunity to sort out his books and his favourite chair, to add to the shipment. It was quite tight fitting everything into our small rental car:

Last Saturday was my birthday.  I was greeted with gifts from the immediate family, and several cards:

However it felt a bit odd that it was my birthday, since another reason for being in the UK right now is that my father was hosting a rather belated celebration for a special birthday.  During the meal my teenage nephew demonstrated an even greater appetite for roast potatoes than Tim:

.. and later on showed that he is almost as tall as Daniel:

Meanwhile. Daniel had bought a slightly random gift for Becky: 

We've been out to very enjoyable meals with two different sets of friends, but I forgot to take any photos. We've done a bit of shopping, a lot of sorting, and moved many more bits and pieces to my mother's new flat. Tim is trying to finish his MA assignments (other than his dissertation, which does not have to be complete until September) and we're trying to see other friends where possible.

While we've had two or three days of rain since our arrival two-and-a-half weeks ago, we've seen the sunshine most days, and a couple of times the temperature has exceeded 18C.  We really can't complain about the weather. 

And finally...on Sunday as I walked down the street I felt someone glaring at me.  The source turned out to be a cat, not quite the famous 'Grumpy Cat' but a decidedly disgruntled cat who seemed very unimpressed that I dared to walk past his home: 

I hope that it won't be quite so long before my next post!