Returning to Cyprus today

The last week has, once again, flown past. Today, accompanied by Tim who is coming for a holiday, I will be returning to Cyprus. I'm looking forward to seeing the family again and spending a few more weeks with my grandchildren, having all my descendants under one roof! But I'm really NOT looking forward to the heat, humidity and sheer exhaustion that overtakes me during the summer months. Apparently last month was the hottest July for the past thirty years in Cyprus. I am, rather selfishly, very relieved to have missed the last ten days of it.

However, I can't move on, blogwise, without mentioning a delightful restaurant where I was taken on my last Saturday in Alcester. It wasn't particularly close to the house, and in the opposite direction from a large computer shop we had been visiting in the morning, looking at laptops.  Indeed, if we had not known it was there, we would probably never have driven up the small road where it was located, nor necessarily even have spotted the rather modest-looking sign on the outside, letting us know that it was The Broom Tavern:

There was a small car park, but it wasn't immediately obvious where we were supposed to go. The house looked old; apparently it was originally a farmhouse in the 16th century.

Inside the decor is attractive, with a very pleasant atmosphere.

The menu isn't huge, but with a wide variety of options including some for vegetarians; they seem to be quite flexible, too. I'm not vegetarian, though I lean strongly in that direction; I learned a few months ago that I am a 'flexitarian' - one who mostly eats plant-based foods, but also a bit of poultry or fish when offered it by other people. Since I'm married to a confirmed meat-eater, and Cyprus culture really isn't  good at understanding vegetarianism (let alone veganism) I've opted for this, at least for now.

Anyway... one of the menu options was vegetarian chili with various side dishes, so that's what I opted for.  This photo, unfortunately, doesn't really show how stunning the presentation was when it arrived laid out on a wooden platter.  One of the black metal dishes contained rice, the other an excellent veggie chili. There were tortilla chips (clearly made from tortillas rather than bought in), guacamole, sour cream, tomato salsa, grated cheese, and salad.

I didn't think I would manage more than half of it, but in the event, other than about half the rice, I ate it all. It was delicious.

My father, who is not vegetarian but highly intolerant of garlic, and whose appetite fluctuates somewhat, asked for a baked potato with baked beans and grated cheese.  That was also beautifully presented but the photo doesn't show it at its best:

After such a large first course I wouldn't have opted for dessert at all, but my father very much likes desserts, and chose a fruity sorbet one - pineapple and melon were certainly involved, and he said it was delicious:

Lorraine chose a strawberry panacotta dessert; I might have gone for that, but the dish description mentioned balsamic vinegar, and that sounded rather odd.  It was also beautifully presented, and she said it was extremely good:

I decided, since they were having desserts, I would have the basic ice cream. Three scoops, they told me, with various choices.  I opted for two chocolate and one salted caramel.  I expected three scoops in a small dish, as one might expect in Cyprus. Instead, I was presented with this:

The odd-looking squiggles on the top of each of the desserts was a kind of crystalline spun sugar. A sort of hardened, flat candy floss, I suppose.  The chocolate ice cream was good, the salted caramel out of this world... I should perhaps have had two of that. It never occurred to me that anything could be better than chocolate.

Replete from this amazing meal, we took a short walk in the afternoon...

...which included some blackberrying.  July seems rather early to me for blackberries, but there were lots on the local bushes, with plenty more to come.  Hard to see in the small version of this photo, but anyone interested in knowing what blackberries look like, just click the image and a larger one should appear.

Sunday was a relaxed day. We went to a church service at St Nicholas' Church, then home for a roast lunch followed by apple and blackberry crumble. In the afternoon we played our fourth game of Settlers of Catan in which I really hoped I wouldn't win. In the first game, earlier in the week, I won rather too resoundingly. The second was much closer, and I only won because I picked up a victory point. I don't remember the details of the third, but I won again. I had tried a different starting strategy in each.

For the fourth game, I didn't have particularly good starting places, and decided to play the 'harbour' strategy. It worked all too well, but when I was approaching twelve points we decided I'd keep playing, opting out, so to speak, of the possibility of winning.  Eventually they both reached eleven points... and Lorraine eventually reached twelve and was declared victor:

We then counted my points and I was slightly embarrassed to find that I had managed to acquire eighteen...

On Monday morning I made the train journey down to Surrey to stay a few days with Tim. It's a journey of about three-and-a-half hours by train, with three changes including a brief ride on the London Underground. I am always a bit anxious about the Underground as I haven't used it much and don't understand it... but all went well and I arrived safely at the station close to Tim's flat. What amazed me most was that the entire trip (three trains and one Underground), since I booked it in advance, cost me the grand total of £11.

In the evening, we played a game of Cities and Knights, and Tim creamed: sixteen points to my eight.

On the Tuesday we took further trains down to Sussex to spend the day with Richard's mother. It was the first day since my arrival when the sun had shone almost all the time, so we spent some time sitting outside, admiring her garden:

On the Wednesday it rained, off and on. I caught yet more trains, this time to Woking, to spend a few hours with my friend Anne, who is, as far as I can tell, my longest-standing friend. We met when I was seven and our family moved to Walton-on-Thames, as we were in the same class at school. We spent two years at Ambleside Avenue First School before moving to the larger Mayfield Middle School when we were nine.

After a year there, our family moved to Birmingham, and not long afterwards Anne's family also moved. We had agreed to stay in touch, and although our parents didn't expect us to, we wrote letters - pages and pages, sometimes - very regularly, at first, then gradually easing off to just Christmas and birthday greetings. Anne came to our wedding ten years after we parted, and at the time we said we ought to get together every ten years, but that hasn't happened. So it's over 37 years since we had actually met!

We talked endlessly, catching each other up on the past few decades' worth of news about family and friends. Then Anne drove me back to Tim's making a considerable detour through Walton-on-Thames where we went past the sites our our old schools (Ambleside Avenue is now a primary school, with rather different buildings; Mayfield no longer exists at all).

I had only the vaguest memories; my family only lived in Walton for three years, but I did vaguely remember the road where we used to live, and that our house was just around the corner from another school friend. I knew the address, so as we briefly slowed down, was able to snap this picture out of the car window. I'm pretty sure it's the right place, though I wouldn't have been able to pick it out if I hadn't known the house number:

On Friday - yesterday - Tim showed me round the grounds of the school where he teaches, then we walked into Epsom, a nearby reasonably-sized town with a good set of high street shops. I particularly wanted to go to Lakeland, to buy some of my favourite breadmaking yeast, and one or two other things. I also went to several rather upmarket charity shops and was delighted to find yet more children's picture books that were not previously part of our collection.

In the evening, Tim treated me to Indian takeaway food, and then we had another Cities and Knights game. This time I did at least reach ten points before he won.

After that we sorted out a lot of paper recycling, printed our boarding passes, and even did most of our packing.

This morning we've cleaned and tidied everywhere, turned my bed back into a sofa, emptied all the rubbish... and were completely ready to go over two hours before we need to leave. This is a bit disturbing for both of us, so I decided to write a blog post, and Tim has popped out to buy a few essentials that he will need as soon as he returns.

Pondering on Swanwick after returning to Cyprus

With hands-on Grandma-duty taking up my time (and mind) for three weeks prior to going to the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, I had barely skimmed the online brochure that explained the available courses. It wasn’t until I reached Derby station that the reality hit me: I had done virtually no writing at all for a couple of months, and not much for rather longer, yet I was about to attend a writers’ conference. What had I let myself in for?

Swanwick had been on my radar for a long time; a friend attended a few years ago and her enthusiasm was inspiring. Circumstances and finances conspired to allow me to consider attending in 2014. My mind was made up when I saw that there would be workshops by the writer Della Galton and the People’s Friend fiction editor Shirley Blair. Even so, I sent in my application quite late!

Arriving at the Hayes Conference Centre, which consists of a lovely old building (and some more modern ones) set in gorgeous grounds, I felt a little like I did when I started secondary school. I had only the faintest idea of what to expect, I didn’t know my way around, I didn’t know a soul. I had chatted to someone while awaiting the bus at Derby station, and to someone else on the bus; both pleasant people, both also new to Swanwick. But they seemed a lot more organised than I was, with a good idea of which sessions they were going to attend.

I didn’t know if I had to sign up for courses, nor how quickly I had to make my decisions. My mind buzzed with queries: Were numbers on the courses limited? Were there criteria we had to fulfil before joining any particular session? What would I do if I found myself out of my depth, or if I was simply too tired? Was it compulsory to go to courses every day? What about the speakers? And did I really have to attend the discos, that didn’t begin until 10.45pm? I like to be asleep by about 10.30 at the latest, not bopping in bright lights and loud music.

Observing people as they arrived and settled in, it was obvious that there were a lot more women than men on the conference. Rather to my surprise, almost all the attendees were white-skinned. Many were white-haired too; that was also unexpected, after I saw the lively late-night programme. While there were a few young people, the majority were around my age or older, albeit mostly fit and active.

I knew that Swanwick was a Christian centre, and saw from the programme that the conference hosted a church service on the Sunday, as well as short chapel meetings most mornings entitled ‘Lift up your hearts’. But this was not a conference for Christian writers only. There were evidently a variety of beliefs represented (or none); about 15-20 people attended each of the chapel meetings, out of 240 conference members.

One of the first questions I was asked on meeting anyone was, ‘What kind of writing do you do?’ I started by mentioning fiction; most of my recent writing has been fiction of one kind or another. I clung to what felt like my credentials: I had three short stories published in magazines some years ago, and won second prize in a story competition - again, a few years back. I’ve started a few novels, three of them with NaNoWriMo though they all need extensive editing and (now I look at them dispassionately) are not actually very interesting.

So I muttered that I was mostly interested in short stories, and asked the same question back. I quickly learned that Swanwick encompassed any kind of writer. People talked about columns, and non-fiction books; amongst the fiction writers there were some who wrote for children, some who had written crime novels or historical sagas, some who mainly wrote short stories. Then there were play-writers, poets, health writers, bloggers… such a variety that I soon realised it was also appropriate to mention my websites and blogs, and that I write book reviews.

I met people who were long established as writers and regularly published, and I also met those who were not yet published at all. Not that it mattered - there didn't seem to be any snobbery or cliquishness. Some have opted for self-publication - easy to do in the e-book/print-on-demand world - and some were in a similar situation to me, with just a handful of published pieces, and a lot of rejections. Although in my case it’s been a lot of procrastination and not much writing at all for some time. When asked what I hoped to get out of Swanwick, I replied that I hoped for some inspiration and motivation to get writing again.

So I perused my programme, and on the first full day (Sunday) I opted for a ‘long’ course on short story writing (one hour per day over four days), and a ‘short’ course (two separate hours on one day) on novel editing. Nobody, I learned, had to sign up for anything, or even attend anything - we could pick and choose whatever appealed. I decided to go to the church service too, and a (secular) morning meditation, as well as a tai chi style relaxing session before dinner. Then there were workshop sessions in the late afternoon where we would be guided to do some actual writing and read our drafts aloud to each other.

With three full meals, a morning coffee break and an afternoon tea break, I was fully occupied, that first day, from 8.00am until dinner ended around 7.30pm. And then, although I’m not, in general, a fan of after-dinner speakers, I was eager to hear the People’s Friend editor, who was billed from 8.00 to 9.00pm. All day, I had been told - repeatedly - that I should ‘pace myself’, and not attend everything. I had already decided I would not go to any of the late night discos; nor was I keen to go to readings about World War I which didn’t start until 9.30. So at 9pm, my mind buzzing and my body weary, I retreated to my room. I checked my email (the onsite wifi is a bit slow, but available everywhere) and was fast asleep by 10pm.

Monday had a similar format course-wise, although there was no church service, and I decided not to ‘unwind my mind’ in a group at 5.15, but do a bit more recharging on my own between sessions and meals. I also opted out of the evening speaker. Once again, I was asleep by about 10pm. I slept extremely well, waking at 6.00am and wondering why there were so many late-night activities, but nothing at all in the morning until the chapel or meditation sessions at 8.00, followed by breakfast at 8.30.

By the end of Monday I felt as if I had been at Swanwick for at least a week. I could find my way around without consulting the plan (though I kept it in my bag), I understood how the days were structured, and I was beginning to recognise some faces. There were 60 first-timers, known as ‘white badgers’ because we were issued with white badges; as a newcomer I was made to feel welcome and accepted. Everyone was encouraged to talk to different people at the coffee breaks and meal-times - and I probably spoke to at least 100 different people through the week, maybe more.

At the same time, I began to feel rather out of my depth, almost as if I were just playing at writing. When I heard other people reading out their ‘drafts’ after the short workshop sessions, I felt like a beginner by comparison. I wandered around the ‘book room’ and was amazed to discover just how many people on the conference had written books; this was not, as I had vaguely imagined, the realm of the occasional short story writer.

Tuesday was a lighter day; I went to one talk, but there were no workshops other than a script-writing/drama one in the afternoon, which I did not plan to attend. I didn’t go to a talk on forensics, either; instead I did some editing and a bit of writing on my own. I could see quite clearly why so many of my short stories have not been accepted by magazines, reading them through on my computer many months after writing them. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to make them more interesting…

Wednesday and Thursday repeated the pattern of Sunday and Monday with courses, the writing workshops and so on. I missed the Wednesday night speakers; I did think about going to the drama performances afterwards, but they didn’t start until 9.30. I gather they were excellent. I would like to have gone to the ceilidh too, but that didn’t start until 10.45!

On Thursday night there was no after-dinner speaker; instead the 8.00-9.00pm slot was taken by a spoof game show, so I went along. It was amusing but extremely noisy. The audience had been issued with kazoos, and the PA didn’t work very well… but it was the last night, and I thought I should make the effort. This was followed by an official farewell with various awards and thankyous. It didn’t last long and I managed to get to my room by 9.30, unlike the majority who headed to the bar.

On Friday morning the coach to Derby station left at 8.30am. I didn’t have anyone in particular to say goodbye to; I don’t make friends easily, and had no interest in hanging out in the bar before meals. I was happy to wave in general to the crowd who gathered outside, smiling at a few folk I recognised. I was shattered, and relieved to be spending a long and peaceful weekend with my brother and sister-in-law, not far away, leaving the long day’s travelling back to Cyprus until Monday.

I have no idea if I'll go to Swanwick again. Lots of people go every year - I met some who had been regularly for twenty years or more. It's certainly a lovely setting, great food and accommodation and a friendly environment. The courses I attended were excellent too - and I'm sure the ones I did not attend were also very good; there were four options at each stage so I had to decide against quite a few.

So it depends partly on what courses are offered next time, and also whether I actually do some serious writing this year. There's not much point in learning about it if I don't put it into practise, after all... 

Autumn in the UK (briefly out of Cyprus again)

We spent a couple of weeks out of Cyprus at the end of October/early November. No particular reason, for a change, other than to spend time with our various family members. We had a couple of weeks when not much were happening, and flights were pretty good value. 

We had been warned of cold temperatures and potential snow... but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  Admittedly there was a lot of rain and the sky was often grey, but for our first week the daytime temperatures were in the 15-18C range.  What struck me most were the gorgeous autumnal colours.  This is something we really don't see in Cyprus, where a lot of trees are evergreen, and there's no real Autumn.

We arrived in the middle of the night at Gatwick and had booked an inexpensive Travelodge to collapse in.  On pulling the curtains in the morning, this is what I saw:

Sadly it's impossible to capture the splendour of the oranges and reds through glass on a grey day. But here's another example from a different direction:

We drove on many motorways and a variety of other roads in our 16 days, doing 900 miles in all in a rental car.  The colours were fabulous along the roadsides... but we drove by too rapidly to capture them. 

It was good to catch up with many of our family members in 'ordinary' times rather than special or sad occasions.  We still managed a few meals out and enjoyed some traditional English desserts, such as these: 

We were rather overwhelmed with the huge variety of Christmas decorations available, too: 

The prices of some of them were shockingly high.  Perhaps the recession in the UK is a thing of the past...

A week after we arrived, having driven from Sussex to Worcestershire via Berkshire, a major storm was predicted - across the South of the country.  There was a great deal of damage done, but it wasn't quite as terrible as predicted.  In the Midlands we had some high winds, making it difficult to photograph yet more Autumnal leaves: 

There was more rain than we had experienced in several years' worth of UK visits, but it was mostly quite gentle.  

I was thrilled to see rather a pretty rainbow, partly hidden behind some clouds, when we were briefly in Birmingham to see some friends: 

Then we drove further North still, to Derbyshire, where my brother took us out for a walk... not the gentle stroll around the village that we had expected, but a brisk hike across some rather attractive countryside, where we met some of the local wildlife: 

For a change, I saw a sunset rather than a sunrise: 

We did many things, enjoyed catching up with our loved ones, played games, went out for meals, and collected rather more things to return to Cyprus than we had expected.

Our final port of call was Carlisle, with our son and daughter-in-law.  When November started, the weather did turn rather chillier, and the morning before we returned to Cyprus, I saw this outside our window first thing: 

Yes, that's frost on the roofs of the cars, and quite a fog, although it dispersed later and the sun came out. 

We flew out of Cyprus with less than 20kg of luggage, and returned with 60kg of checked luggage (that's three suitcases) and rather full hand luggage too.  We got back a week ago... and although I haven't been as jet-lagged as usual, I'm only just now getting around to catching up with reviews and blog posts and everything else that is, perhaps inevitably, somewhat neglected when travelling. 

A rather geeky post while out of Cyprus

Long-term readers of this blog might recall that, almost two years ago, I introduced Ezekiel, my Mac mini computer. It didn't take me long to adjust to using a Mac, despite having been a Windows user for many years, but I didn't find myself suddenly loving all things Mac. It didn't seem all that different, really.

Fast forward eighteen months, or so, and I started thinking about the fact that I would be spending five weeks in the UK in April, and at least two at the end of October. I don't like laptops, and never wanted one... but I have to admit they're useful when travelling. Yes, I can always ask to use someone else's computer.. we always stay in households where there's at least one available, and that's fine for catching up with my email, or Facebook, or even writing a quick blog post.

But if I want to put photos in a post, that means I have to upload them onto someone else's computer. And if I get the urge to do some other writing, or to update one of my websites, well... it just isn't easy. And I can't necessarily fit all those things into a tidy hour or two - I tend to sit at my computer at home at all random times of the day, when something occurs to me. Ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there, a couple of hours later on... and that doesn't work well for borrowing other people's.

As those thoughts were buzzing around my mind, Amazon showed me a recommendation for a 'netbook' computer. A small-size, light laptop. I also realised that I still have quite a bit of birthday money left from a year ago. Idly, I browsed the Amazon Netbooks, and was surprised to find that they're relatively inexpensive, and yet have considerably more hard disc space than any computer I've ever had. I knew I could, just about, deal with a laptop keyboard even though they're a bit smaller... and, reading reviews, it seemed that on the whole people who had bought them were pleased with them.

I discussed it with friends and family. Some said, 'go for it!'. I'm not good at spending money on myself, so they thought it a great idea. Others told me I probably wouldn't use it much. Others said that if I really wanted something for travelling, I should get an iPad. I did investigate iPads online, but all I could see were several disadvantages. Touch screen. Ugh. No Flash capability - so I wouldn't be able to play Facebook Scrabble. Far too many things I wouldn't use, and it would be difficult to use software like KompoZer (for websites). Even the e-book reading capability didn't attract me, since I have a Kindle which I was given for Christmas. And they're about twice the price of the best value Netbooks.

So, to cut an already long story slightly shorter than it might otherwise be, I ordered my Netbook a couple of weeks ago. Tim took delivery, and installed the extra RAM that everyone seemed to recommend for it (very easy, he told me) and he used Skype on it, to show that the webcam worked. He said it was surprisingly light, and his only complaint is that it's very small.

Before I even flew to the UK to meet my new acquisition, it was clear to me what its name must be. Our family computers (and Richard's office ones) are all named after Old Testament prophets. Or somehow related to them. But my new venture into the laptop world, and the fact that it's a very little computer meant that there was, from a Biblically aware point of view, only one possible name.

So without further ado, let me introduce.... Zacchaeus:


Tim installed Firefox for me (although I'm glad that it has Internet Explorer, as I don't have a modern version of that on my Mac, and always like to check that my sites work in what is still the most popular browser). However I don't use Firefox on my Mac as I find it slow... and on little Zacchaeus, it's even slower. So in that photo I was downloading Chrome, which is, indeed, considerably faster than Firefox.

As well as the Netbook and RAM, I ordered a case as recommended by Amazon:


It took me a little while to adjust to the slightly smaller keyboard - at first I kept missing the right shift key, as it's smaller than I'm used to. But that wasn't difficult, and I can now touch type pretty fast.

However I do NOT like touch-pad mice. I can use them, but it felt slow and klumky. So my first task yesterday morning, in the glorious sunshine that greeted me - yes, this is England in April, but the skies are blue and the weather warm - was to buy myself a mouse. I went to Argos, and bought the cheapest USB one, which works extremely well.


Windows 7 starter is easy to use... the mouse installed itself when I plugged it in, as did the memory stick (on which I brought copies of my sites and documents) and even the camera. I suppose it's different from Mac OS, but other than the X key being in a different place, and a few other slight variations, I'm hardly noticing it.

So... the only problem was where to use it. I don't like laptops on my lap - they get uncomfortably warm, and I don't find it easy to type like that. I tried it on the dressing table, where it was a good height for reading, but rather awkward to type.

So I opened a drawer, put a box inside for stability, and am using it like this:

.. which is fine for typing, but awkward for reading. I like screens higher when browsing/reading. So, on top of the dressing table for reading, on the drawer for typing. The fact that I like my screen considerably higher than my keyboard is another reason why, in general, I am not a fan of notebook computers. An iPad would be even worse. But, for times when I'm out of Cyprus, this is about as ideal a situation as I've ever had and I'm very pleased with little Zacchaeus.

Near the end of our time out of Cyprus: Sussex park and Downs

A couple of days after Tim's birthday, Richard and I went by train to Sussex, to stay with his mother. Some friends who used to live in Cyprus got in touch, and suggested they might come and see us on the Saturday.

So we found a local place that would rent us a car for the day, and met them at Haywards Heath station. We didn't want to do anything too energetic, and it was a lovely day... one of many while we were in England! - so we drove to the municipal park and had a short walk, while chatting and catching up with our friends.

The park was at the back of a pleasant Harvester restaurant - one of a national UK chain which we'd heard highly recommended.

So we had our lunch there. Very good value it was, too, with excellent food; I particularly liked the unlimited free salad, in many varieties, that goes with any main meal.

Then we decided to drive to the Downs, since our friends had not been there before. We drove up to a place known as Devil's Dyke, and enjoyed the views:

We were surprised at how many other people were there. But I suppose a warm, sunny Saturday at the end of September is unusual enough to attract crowds.

That probably doesn't look like many people. I didn't take a photo of the pub nearby, which was packed. People were sitting inside and out, and the queue (just to get some coffee) was snaking right through. It took about 15 minutes to get to the front - and even then they got the order wrong initially.

After our coffee, we went outside again and watched some hang-gliders taking off:

A few photos from my six weeks out of Cyprus

I've finally uploaded all my photos from the camera to my computer in Cyprus. Of course, most are of relatives and friends - I shall get prints of those, and obviously won't post them publicly here. But I did take a few of places, and Daniel and Tim... so if anyone's interested, scroll down. As with any photos on this blog, you can click any of them to see a larger version if you want to.

As mentioned below in another post, we visited Christ Church, Selly Park several times. This is where Tim has decided to attend for the next few years: it's one of our supporting churches, and we all belonged there for a few years before coming to Cyprus. There were plans afoot to knock down the old, dilapidated building even before we moved here (nearly eleven years ago) and it's taken this long for the new building, finally, to be put in place.

In October last year, we happened to be in Birmingham when the Bishop laid the foundation stone, and saw the beginnings of the place amidst scaffolding. Now, just a couple of months after the new Christ Church was opened, we were able to see it:


We were very impressed. It's spacious, and adaptable with plenty of rooms, but not in any way pretentious. The kitchens and loos look excellent, yet the whole place still has the right feel about it - it's the old 'church centre' (as it used to be called) as it should be!

Tim has already played the piano there for a couple of services, and guitar for a couple more; he's organising the music for the holiday club later in the month, and hopes to help with some of the younger youth. So much for his idea of not getting involved until after his course started!

Tim set my mother up with broadband wireless internet access, and then tried to enable his mac to work with it. He's had a known problem with his notebook for eighteen months now - the built-in wireless connection simply stopped working. He was able to order a replacement from the USA, fairly inexpensively, and spent an hour or two taking his mac to pieces and installing it:


Unfortunately, it didn't work for more than about five minutes at a time.

So in the end he bought a wireless stick, even more inexpensively, from Argos - he didn't want something extra to carry around, but it works faultlessly.

The first weekend we were in Birmingham, Daniel came to visit us. The second weekend, I went up to Carlisle to see him. It's very strange that, while train travel is very expensive if you book on the day, it's extremely good value if you go into the station (or online) and book in advance.

I enjoyed seeing the scenery and even some of the stations on the three-hour journey. This one seemed like something out of Victorian times:


It was wonderful to see where Daniel was living during his two months training in audio-visual work in Carlisle. He was in a small house, shared with two other guys who were away at the time I visited. Shortly after he arrived, he wrestled with his conscience before buying a very inexpensive espresso and latte making machine - so of course he showed me how it worked:


And made me a very nice latte with chocolate sprinkles on the top. Or is that a cappuccino? I never really know the difference, not being much of a coffee connoisseur. Anyway, it was very good:


We had a pleasant, peaceful weekend doing a lot of walking, exploring an excellent second-hand bookshop, and reading. Here's the river in a park he took me to:


and a photo of Daniel that I was pleased with:


Here's Carlisle Castle. We didn't go in - neither of us is particularly interested in history, and one had to pay to go in. But it looked quite nice from outside:


After I was back in Birmingham, Tim's new digital piano arrived. He had considered shipping his large keyboard from Cyprus, but it would have cost almost as much as buying a new one in the UK. He was given some money by his church before he left, and had some Christmas money left from last year, so we spent a morning checking out the options, and getting to know the Birmingham buses a bit better too. 

Tim eventually chose a Casio keyboard with legs (I'm not entirely sure what is the difference between a keyboard and a digital piano) - it's fully weighted, touch sensitive, sounds good, and fits nicely in the corner of his attic bedroom:


Shortly before Richard arrived, I was able to visit a friend who I mainly know via an email list, and someone else I had not previously met. We had a very good day, which culminated in my introduction to Malteser cake, which is delicious:



After Richard arrived, we had a busy week in which we visited about ten different sets of friends - all of whom invited us for a meal, sometimes the whole day. It was great to catch up with the last year or two, and eat good food. But it was also nice, occasionally, to take a little time out - such as when we went for a short walk around Cannon Hill Park:


Then, after our busy week, I was able to meet three of my closest schoolfriends, one of whom I hadn't seen for about twenty-seven years! We met in the city centre, and saw how much Birmingham has changed since we were all at school there. We had lunch by one of the canals, then went for a walk and even a short canal trip. Not everyone is aware that Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice - although over a rather larger area. Here's part of where we walked:


After that, we went to Cardiff for a couple of days to visit my sister, then down to Sussex to stay with Richard's mother before Richard and I returned to Cyprus earlier this week, leaving Tim behind to start his studies in September.

Last few days on the Doulos

After Dan's half-day off when we went to Sentosa, he had more lifeboat training, including one day when it poured with rain. They had put the canvas covers up but unfortunately they weren't waterproof. However he assured us it was a lot of fun.


Richard says he will never again complain that England is a wet country... Singapore is far, far wetter!

On Thursday night, the last evening at the Cruise Centre berth, we caught the MRT (underground train, like the London Underground but far cleaner and more efficient... like most things in Singapore!) to Little India, Dan's favourite place, and ate at the vegetarian restaurant we had been to twice before, the excellent and inexpensive Komala Vilas which was recommended by someone Richard and Tim met.


We had chapati plates, a filling meal with three types of vegetable sauce, chapatis and popadums, and drinks - and the whole thing came to 24 Singapore dollars, which is roughly the equivalent of two pounds sterling per person!