Twelve days out of Cyprus

In my last post, I wrote about some of the things we do to prepare the house (and ourselves) for Summer in Cyprus. July and August are always hot, and usually humid. Computers don't like temperatures higher than about 28-29 Celcius, and this human doesn't either. So it was important to have our air conditioners clean and ready to be used.

We did all this towards the end of June because on the last day of the month we flew to the UK for a 12-day visit. Sometimes I stay for rather longer, but it wasn't really going to work out this year. We needed to be there for July 1st as our younger son was ordained as deacon in the Anglican church. It had been his dream for most of his life and we were thrilled to be at the service, where the Bishop of London was presiding.

Not that we could see very much; there were nearly 50 ordinands, and about 2,500 people in St Paul's Cathedral, but we could hear - and were then able to see the live-streamed service afterwards, which gave a rather better view. Our other son came down for the day, one of my brothers came to the service too, and we were also pleased to see a friend from our early days in Cyprus, who had known our sons well when they were children.

Being in London, staying a couple of nights at the Heathrow Premier Inn, we didn't rent a car at first; instead we either walked or used the Underground. I don't much like it, and find it difficult to understand; but Richard's familiar with it as he worked in London (albeit nearly half a century ago).

I did like the new 'Elizabeth' line which runs from Heathrow, and I quickly got used to the payment system: one taps a credit or debit card going into the underground area, and again on exiting, and the full amount is debited at the end of the day. However it won't deduct more than the cost of a day-saver travel card.

On the following morning we travelled back into London, this time to attend the morning service at the church where our son will be working for the next couple of years.

Afterwards we had a Subway lunch, which we ate outside in a nearby park area. We were surprised to see how tame one of the squirrels was, running around near the benches, evidently hoping for some crumbs. And when it found something, it sat there in full view, nibbling. 

After this we went to look at the flat which our son and his wife will be renting for the next year or two - they had only just been given the keys, so it was still empty. The cost of renting in London is horrendous, and the flat is tiny; part of a converted Edwardian style terrace. But the ceilings are quite high and the living area looked surprisingly spacious.

We had left most of our luggage at a nearby station, so we collected that, and then got the train to Cambridge for a few days. Our son and his wife will be renting out their house - a small but very nice 'starter home'- so our task was to help them fix a few problems (such as a rusty access chamber cover) after the movers had collected their things on Monday.

It was a full and active few days; not that I was able to do much to help in practical terms. Richard was happy to help our daughter-in-law learn to use some power tools, and although there were more things to do than expected, and - inevitably - it all took longer than planned, our task was finished by early afternoon on the Wednesday. 

Two of us took the train to London while the other two packed all the remaining bits and pieces into a rental van, and drove to London - which took considerably longer than the train journey.  So we moved and even unpacked a few of the boxes from the movers, in order to make space for the extra things still to come. 

As we ate a cold supper, perching on boxes, we realised that it was only five days since we left Larnaka...

Richard and I took the van back to Cambridge that night, and in the morning went to exchange it for the rental car which we had booked for the next week. We used Enterprise Car Rental, which we hadn't tried before. Their prices were good - significantly better than our usual choices - and their staff were friendly, and helpful... but clearly over-worked. Although we arrived in good time to pick up our car we had to wait over an hour before it was ready. Someone else, who arrived before us, was waiting even longer.

Then when we had only driven for about two hours, an engine warning light came on, and the car lost most of its acceleration. We were perhaps 15 miles away from the village where my brother and his wife live, and we were due there for lunch. So we kept going, puttering along, struggling on the hills, very thankful this had not happened on the motorway.

One excellent lunch later, Richard spent a considerable amount of time on the phone to local Enterprise Car rental places, only to be told - eventually - to speak to the one in Cambridge. They were most apologetic, but after some research told us that our only option was to have a much smaller car than we wanted to get us up to Carlisle, and then exchange that for a bigger one the following day.

We had hoped to arrive at our older son's house in Carlisle by about 5pm, in time for an evening meal with the grandchildren. But it was about 8.30pm by the time we finally reached our destination, and our granddaughter was already asleep.

However, we had a very enjoyable 'long weekend', relaxing in the family environment, with lots of hugs, and books, and games, including 'Meeple Land', which reminded me of the old 'Theme Park' computer game which we played a couple of decades ago. 

The weather wasn't ideal, but among other things we did manage to go out for a walk, taking the grandchildren roller-blading in the nearby park:  

We went to their local church service where I was very moved by our grandson answering the question, 'Who would you most like to invite to a meal at your house?' (real or imaginary, living or dead) by saying, 'My Great-Grandpa, because I had such a good time with him when he was alive.' 

And we also helped our granddaughter with some school homework: compiling a bar chart of her extended family's preferences for different zoo animals, with a choice of eight: 

But all good things, as the saying goes, come to an end. So, after walking to school with the grandchildren on Monday morning, we said our goodbyes and set off down the M6. The car acquired in Carlisle was comfortable and, Richard said, very pleasant to drive. 

We had a brief break in Birmingham, having lunch with one of our oldest, closest friends, and then a couple of hours with my step-mother. The next phase of our journey was to the Gatwick Travelodge. We hadn't been there with a car before, and were a bit shocked at the parking charges, but we needed the car for the following day when we drove even further south to spend the day with Richard's mother. 

We returned the car to Gatwick that night, not wanting to get up early the following morning (or pay for another night's parking!) so we got the friendly 'Gatwick Hopper' shuttle-bus to our accommodation. 

After breakfast on the Wednesday Richard finished all the packing - he is much better at this than I am. Our flight was not due until 15.25 but we didn't see much point remaining in the Travelodge, so we got the shuttle-bus back to Gatwick shortly after 10.00. We should probably have waited longer as it was hard to find anywhere to sit, at first, and we couldn't check in our luggage until three hours before the flight was due. 

We had flown out with two full-size cabin baggage cases and two backpacks - which is still the free allowance on BA flights. We had not used BA for some years, as they don't fly to any of the airports we generally use, and they tend to be pricey. But since we needed to fly to Heathrow, and the only other choice was Wizz Air - which charges vast amounts for any luggage other than a small carry-on bag - we used BA on our outward flight. They weren't too expensive, their luggage allowance was generous (by today's standards) and even their boarding procedure seemed quick and efficient. 

However, returning from Gatwick, the only option was EasyJet, an airline we've often used and which we quite like. We had booked their 'speedy boarding' category which costs a bit more than the basic flight, but includes full-sized cabin baggage. And we had booked an extra piece of checked luggage, since Richard had ordered a large piece of equipment that came in a big box. 

We had also bought a few extra things, as one does in the UK, from Amazon and elsewhere. In Cyprus we can't easily find things like Roomba replacement parts, or filters for our cats' water fountain; getting them posted from the UK costs more than the items themselves. Sometimes we ask visiting friends to bring out items we've ordered, but this time we were able to bring them ourselves.

We used an airport trolley for the first time in many years:

The flight was a couple of hours late, but managed to catch up some time due to a useful tailwind. Our friend Sheila met us at the airport; our cats were very pleased to see us; and we finally got to bed about midnight. 

It had only been twelve days. It felt like we'd been away for at least a month....

Back in Cyprus after six weeks away

 A week ago we were at Gatwick Airport, a tad frustrated and rather bored because our flight back to Cyprus from the UK was delayed by a few hours. Apparently there had been a major storm in the area the night before, meaning that some incoming flights had been diverted, and they were still running late. Gatwick is a perfectly acceptable airport, but there's not a great deal to do there.  

However the flight eventually took off, and was shorter than normal due to good tailwinds, so we arrived back just under three hours after our expected arrival time. Our luggage came through quickly, and our friend Sheila met us outside; we were home, with our cases, and slightly disgruntled cats wanting to know why we were up in the middle of the night, by 2am. 

I haven't felt as brain-fogged as I usually do when flying back to Cyprus, just very tired. I've done five loads of laundry so far, and cleaned fairly thoroughly on Saturday, but not a lot else. 

I flew out of Cyprus towards the end of July, to the Midlands. It was a late evening flight, arriving at nearly midnight so I'd booked a room in a nearby Premier Inn. It was clean and comfortable, and I had a good breakfast before continuing my travels.

I took a train to the city centre, then a taxi to visit relatives who recently moved to a 'retirement village'. There was a comfortable guest apartment, and we had a quiet few days, which I very much appreciated, winding down after a busy time getting ready to travel. Then on the train to Cumbria to spend four weeks with my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. 

Although we did visit the family briefly last year, and chat to them regularly via the Internet, they change so fast and it was wonderful to spend time with them. There was a nearby park where they regularly rode their bikes or used their scooters. The weather was pleasantly warm, with only occasional showers of rain. 

We also read books - lots of them! - and played games, and went for walks in some of the gorgeous local countryside.

A special treat while I was there was what my granddaughter referred to as my 'holiday within a holiday' - a visit to one of the Scottish Hebridean islands.  We went to stay at a holiday home owned by the parents of some of their friends (all of whom were there too). The beaches were gorgeous:

The airport on the island was tiny, the return flight on a plane smaller than I had ever been on before, but surprisingly not at all scary. 

Four weeks after I left, Richard arrived - he had been very busy in Cyprus while I was away, with work and other activities, and looking after the house and cats too. 

Towards the end of my stay was the culmination of the trip, our younger son's wedding. We arrived a few days beforehand and there were some things that needed doing, but nothing major. He and his bride-to-be had organised everything.  

Having said that, we did spend one afternoon thoroughly cleaning the chapel:

We also watched the marquee going up on the lawn (which was brown and hard after quite a long drought). We were surprised how many people were involved in the process, which took well over an hour:

The day before the wedding, my extended family arrived; we were all staying in a nearby Travelodge.  One of my sisters-in-law had a birthday, so my brother had arranged a family meal together, which we all enjoyed thoroughly. I had a kind of halloumi fajitas, which was delicious. 

The wedding was small - with Covid still in people's minds, it was limited to family and a small number of very close friends (eg godparents) - and awesome. Afterwards there was lunch at tables on the lawn, under the marquee:

All was finished by about 6pm, but it wasn't the end of the family celebrations. One of my brothers was just a couple of days away from a milestone birthday, so we had another meal together, the day after the wedding, to celebrate that.  

Our last few days were spent near the south coast, with another relative (who was unable to come to the wedding). And then to Gatwick, and home. 

The weather here in Cyprus is not as hot as it sometimes is in September, and we learned that there was quite a heavy downpour of rain the day we flew back.  This morning for the first time since the end of June I went for an early walk with Sheila and I was quite surprised to see that there's still some water in the Salt Lake: it didn't dry out at all this summer.

I've had a wonderful summer, one of the best ever. We're now looking forward to the arrival of some friends in just a few weeks, followed by some family members mid-October. 

Out of Cyprus Summer 2018: Taking our time returning to Europe

After saying goodbye to our family, and walking away from the Logos Hope in Panama for the last time, we returned to the guest house where we had been staying. The journey was straightforward this time, and we had a good night's sleep despite feeling a bit sad to be leaving.

The following morning dawned bright and sunny. We didn't need to leave until about 10.30am, so we wandered around the outside of the place we had been staying. It's not somewhere we would want to take children; there's a small swimming pool beside the main house (where the owner lives) and although the three guard dogs are very friendly to family and visitors, there were a lot of dog messes in the grass and elsewhere in the grounds. It made us realise just how well-trained the dogs must have been in the Coronado villa, as I don't think we saw any dog mess at all on the property!

Anyway, the second guest house, much smaller, was great for the two of us and although we didn't visit the beach - at the end of the garden! - I did take some photos of what looked like a pleasant spot to sit and listen to the waves:

It was another striking contrast to the noise, pollution and general claustrophobic feeling of Panama City, just half an hour's drive away.

We said goodbye to our hostess and handed back the keys, then set off down what looked like a winding UK countryside road:

There were some very run-down village buildings, and a police check which we had become so used to that I got Richard's passport and driving license ready before we approached each time. But there was also a lot of greenery.

Then we had to drive over the bridge to Panama City:

By late morning the traffic was running at a reasonable speed, and it only took us about forty minutes to get to the airport. We returned the rental car and checked in... the queues were long but we had plenty of time.

When we looked at return flights to the UK, it became clear that we needed to do the transatlantic flight from Mexico City, where we flew to before joining the ship a month earlier. While, within Europe, it's often cheaper to get two single flights rather than a return, this does not seem to be the case for flying to the American continents. Thus we needed to find 'local' flights from Panama to Mexico City. Finding direct flights proved impossible, so it was clear we would have to stop in another country en route.

That being the case, Richard decided that we might as well spend a whole day in another country, as it's unlikely we'll ever travel in that area again. El Salvador was a possibility but I wasn't keen on going there; happily a better value route was via Costa Rica, a country which our close friends like very much. We would only be in the capital, San Jose, but it seemed like a good plan. We booked into a hotel, and also booked a morning's outing...

Landing in San Jose was a bit depressing; it was pouring with rain, and the hotel shuttle driver, who should have been there to meet us, did not appear. We landed at something like 3.30pm and it should have been a twenty minute drive to the hotel (according to their literature). Instead, when Richard managed to get through to the hotel on the phone, we were told that the driver was stuck in traffic and would be at least another half hour... so they recommended we get a taxi.

We refused all offers of private taxis, as recommended, and opted for a bright orange airport one which was metered. Traffic was appalling; the driver said it was always bad, and it took us nearly an hour and a half to get to the hotel!  With pouring rain and grey skies, it wasn't a great introduction to Costa Rica. Nor were we happy when a hotel porter opened the door of our taxi and grabbed our bags and insisted on taking them up to our room, clearly needing to be tipped. The whole tipping culture of the Americas feels not just alien to us, but condescending and somewhat awkward.

The hotel was adequate - not great, but spacious, and reasonably comfortable. There was a restaurant downstairs, and since we didn't want to venture out in the dark (it was still raining) we ate in the hotel and slept well. The following morning, breakfast was provided free, with lots of choice. The sun was shining, and the shuttle to our morning tour arrived promptly, and was very friendly.

Richard had booked us on a coffee plantation visit - a touristy one which was fairly highly reviewed online; while a bit expensive, it included two shuttle drives (at least half an hour each way) and a good lunch, so we thought it not bad value at all.

We arrived half an hour early, thanks to light traffic, and were able to wander around the visitor area of the plantation, and look in the gift shop, and use the facilities.  There were three or four other English-speaking people on the tour, and probably fifteen or so Spanish-speaking people; we were told that some of them were a group of teachers.

The tour started with a brief explanation of how coffee spread around the world:

The tour was conducted by a young and outgoing woman called Maria, who did most of the talking, switching between Spanish and English. It was like a stand-up comedy act in places, with a young man (whom she said was her cousin, although I didn't grasp his name) as the foil. There was lots of banter and teasing, a few innuendos, and a great deal of discussion of coffee-growing in Costa Rica.

There were times when the Spanish contingent interrupted, and asked more questions, and evidently made jokes and we seemed to miss quite a bit; Maria did her best to translate, but sometimes just shrugged and said it was impossible. However, on the whole it was very well done, and they kept us interested. I was surprised to learn that coffee has to be grown under controlled conditions, ideally in a mountainous climate on volcanic soil, and that it takes three years of growth and care before the first beans appear.

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We were also somewhat startled to learn that Costa Rica has over 100 volcanoes, six of which are still active.

We were shown the beans growing on bushes - still green here as it's not the harvesting season:

Then they produced a basket and showed us how the harvesting happens. At least, they were going to, when one of the teachers grabbed the basket and strapped it around herself, and mimed coffee picking - she said she used to work in the plantations herself.

Maria explained that coffee pickers are paid $6 for a full basket, which seemed like very little pay for what is clearly quite hard work. But they shrugged, and said it was fair; their company deals directly with farmers and treats the workers well. Someone asked how much a typical picker earns in a day, and they really couldn't answer the question. They said it depends on how many baskets they pick - and that it could be anything from two to about ten.  They said that too often people get distracted by chatting with other workers - that it's a great atmosphere, and very friendly. We had the impression that they employed a lot of casual workers - perhaps students - and that it's considered a good job.

We were surprised to spot a squirrel, with an orange body and grey tail:

After the main part of the tour - with various locations to taste different kinds of coffee - we were conducted to a small cinema area, where we saw films showing how coffee beans are processed - it's quite complex, with a variety of different machines, with fine tuning leading to different blends.

The lunch was buffet-style with plenty of choice - including coffee afterwards! - and then we had a few minutes in the gift shop before our shuttle driver arrived to return us to our hotel. And although the journey was free, we knew we had to tip the driver.

We could perhaps have fitted another local tour into our schedule, but we were quite tired. The tour had been interesting, but it was loud at times, and we had felt a bit overwhelmed by bright colours everywhere. So we and decided to stay in for a couple of hours, and read.  In the evening we went out for a walk, in the hope of finding somewhere suitable to eat.

The town was a bit spread out, and we rejected most of what we saw, either as dubious quality, or additive-laden fast food. But eventually we found quite a nice sandwich place that provided something similar to Sub sandwiches, only rather more nicely presented. As with Panama, the restaurant was noisy, not just with people talking but with loud music, and traffic outside.  By the time we'd walked back to the hotel we were both feeling exhausted after being bombarded with bright lights and continual noise.

In the morning the hotel shuttle arrived fairly promptly; we had allowed a couple of hours to get to the airport, so, naturally, the traffic was light and we got there in just over twenty minutes. The check-in process was pretty quick and we had lunch at the airport, in a food court - the food was good, but the place we sat was so noisy we could hardly hear ourselves speak.

I took a photo as the aeroplane was taxiing along the runway:

In the evening we arrived at Mexico City.  We were both exhausted, and quite hungry; we were booked into the smaller airport hotel, and had a light meal there before collapsing into a huge and very comfortable bed.

In the morning the sky was clear, and this was the view from our window:

We had a whole day - we had to check in for our flight about 8.30pm - and could see that there was some kind of metro system that might avoid traffic. So we looked online for recommendations about what to do in Mexico City in our circumstances. We didn't want to go far, or do anything too tiring... and were quite relieved when we realised that the almost unanimous recommendation was NOT to go into the city, but to explore the airport mall!

Breakfast was not included in the price of the hotel but there was a buffet breakfast available so we decided we might as well eat there, although the cost seemed rather high. So it was quite a nice surprise when our bill was for about half what we had expected. We queried it, thinking we'd been given the wrong bill, and the waiter told us that we had only had a 'small' breakfast, rather than the 'full' one. We thought we'd had quite a bit...

Mid-morning we walked through the hotel and over the bridge to the airport, which does indeed have a huge shopping mall - bigger than anything we've seen in any other airport on the 'public' side (ie before checking in). There weren't just gift shops and restaurants (although there were many of them) but also a lot of specialist shops selling clothes, shoes, bags... and even the first real local bookshop we had seen on our travels:

It was huge. And although everything was in Spanish, we went inside, and I felt so happy to be amongst books, browsing different categories. This wasn't just books to grab for a flight, but high quality ones in as many categories as one would find in a bookshop elsewhere.

But it was really the only oasis in a huge, bright and noisy environment. Richard loves shopping malls, and I don't mind spending a short time browsing shops, but every one played loud music, and there were flashing lights and more bright colours, and we both felt quite drained.

There's an entire food court upstairs, not offering local food but various chains - including the first Starbucks we had seen since leaving Europe, although we didn't buy anything there. We chose a sandwich shop that had a few inside seats, as neither of us could bear the thought of eating at the extremely noisy tables of the food court.

We were supposed to check out from our hotel by 2.00pm but had been told that, if we wished, we could pay an extra half-day's rate and check out in the evening. By this stage we were so overwhelmed with lights and sound that we thought it well-worth doing.  However when Richard went to book another half day, he was told that if he signed up to be a hotel associate - at no cost - we could not only check out as late as 6.00pm, we could get a 10% discount on all food at the hotel. The only disadvantage was that he'll be sent promotional emails - but it seemed well worth doing. We wondered why we were not invited to do this when we arrived, as we could have saved 10% on our evening meal and breakfast... but weren't going to quibble.

So we relaxed, and read in our room until 6.00pm, then checked out and left our cases with the concierge (free, but yet another requirement for a tip) and ate at the hotel restaurant because we couldn't face going back to the airport mall. And yes, they gave us a 10% discount because we had a hotel card!

Then we checked in at the airport, which all went smoothly; the only incident was when I opened the bottle of water I had bought, only to discover - when it sprayed itself over me, my seat, the floor and some of Richard - that it was fizzy rather than still!

It was 11.15pm when we took off and I was extremely tired; it was another 'dreamliner' aeroplane and there was an empty seat next to Richard so he moved up and I was able to curl up and sleep... albeit waking frequently to move as it wasn't all that comfortable.

We arrived at Heathrow at 4pm UK time the following day, picked up a rental car, and drove to Tim's flat in Surrey. The sun was shining and it was warmer than Mexico had been.  We drove down to see Richard's mother in Sussex on Tuesday, then Richard returned to Cyprus on Wednesday. I'm spending more time here with Tim and then my father, seeing various other people... and return in just over a week.

It's been a good summer, wonderful to see the family, and we all enjoyed the break in Coronado very much. Tim's suitcase eventually arrived on the Logos Hope about two hours before he left, so he was able to distribute the various gifts in it, and it arrived safely back in Gatwick when he returned to the UK about ten hours before we did. 

End of the Christmas season, and an empty nest once more

When Tim decided, a few months ago, that he would come to Cyprus for nearly four weeks over Christmas and the New Year, we all hoped he would have a good break after working and studying hard all term. We had hoped that Daniel and Becky would also be joining us. However, as I wrote in a post about families, Dan and Becky went early to the Logos Hope and spent Christmas in Hong Kong, and Tim had a nasty accident shortly before the end of November, leaving him almost immobile for a while and in a lot of pain.

When he arrived, mid-December, he was limping and using a crutch, although happily he was able to discard that fairly soon. And while there was a lot of rain - not the warm sunshine Tim had hoped for - his first ten days were, I think, relaxing. We certainly enjoyed having him here, and I very much appreciated him on Christmas Eve when Richard and I were trying to recover from a nasty tummy bug. 

Then Tim himself caught the bug, rather badly, and was out of action for a couple of days. We all went down with nasty coughs and colds, perhaps due to having lowered resistance, and Tim managed to fight off an ear infection... I was pleased to get out for a walk, the Saturday after Christmas, though still coughing... and we all decided we were well enough to go to our friends' house for home-made pizza and some board games on New Year's Eve: 

This shows Tim learning the game 'Torres' which is about some castle ruins being restored. He did pretty well and liked it very much. 

At the other end of the table some serious Rummikub was happening: 

However, by about 10.15pm Richard, Tim and I were all tired, and decided that we would not make the effort to stay awake until midnight. So we came back home and I think I was asleep by about 10.30, sleeping right through the fireworks which unfortunately kept Tim awake for most of the night. 

We didn't do anything much on New Year's Day, which was fine... we kept coughing and feeling weak, although we did manage to entertain two couples for an evening meal on the Thursday evening. It was very enjoyable, but, alas, that night Tim managed to develop a second bout of the tummy bug. Not fun.  Still, he bounced back rather more quickly, if gingerly, only to manage to jab his finger quite badly while helping Richard with some electronics.  

While all feeling rather tired and convalescent, we nevertheless managed to play several games of Agricola, the new game Tim bought us, and which we all like very much indeed: 

On Saturday Richard and Tim went to see the first part of The Hobbit at the cinema; I was feeling pretty wiped out, so I took the Christmas decorations down and then spent an hour reading in bed before falling asleep about 9.30pm and sleeping for ten hours straight!

Sunday was busy, Monday was mostly quiet. Yesterday was the last day of Tim's holiday. He had planned to go out for a walk but the sky was grey and the temperatures dropping, so instead he stayed in and read Dr Seuss's famous story about racism to my small friends, here for their usual Tuesday morning:

Their sister Katie, meanwhile, who has become a fluent and avid reader in the past year, was devouring some of my old Enid Blyton books: 

In the afternoon we played one more Agricola game - now using the cards which make it all the more complicated, but more interesting too - and in the evening a round of Cities and Knights. It was a strange game, which Tim suddenly realised that he had won, quite resoundingly: 

So he finished his packing, and we all set alarms on our phones, because he had to be at the airport for about 6.30am. Not early for me, but when I set my alarm I tend to wake a few times in the night - so I'm remarkably tired today. 

Tim had checked in online, so we didn't have long together at the airport. We sat down for a few minutes after he had dropped off his luggage - a seasoned traveller now, he managed to pack exactly 19.8kg by good judgement - and looked at these slightly incongruous balls hanging from the ceiling. Presumably Christmas decorations which somebody had forgotten to take down .Or maybe they couldn't find a suitable ladder: 

Tim pointed out that I had forgotten to take my usual photo of him wheeling luggage into the airport. So I took one of him sitting with his hand luggage, waiting to go and board:

'So, Mum,' he said, 'I'll expect a new blog post featuring this photo by the time I get home'... 

Coffee and Culture Shock - Day One out of Cyprus

Night flights are no fun, but sometimes they make financial sense. So, our outward flight with Monarch was at 3.00am Thursday morning. That meant checking in at 1.00am as we didn't want to pay another 14 euros to choose seats online. We didn't start packing until about 8.00pm - I'd done the important things like charging my Kindle earlier, and had also mopped the floors, and other random non-essentials. Choosing a few clothes isn't that difficult. So by 9.00 they were mostly sorted. I had been planning to go to bed around 8.00 so as to get a few hours' sleep; but that obviously didn't happen. However, I did get to bed at 10.00 and must have fallen asleep almost at once because the next thing I knew was Richard waking me to get dressed to go to the airport. At 12.15.

I can't sleep on flights. I never have managed to, but I rested, and drowsed a little. Richard did manage to sleep for about four of the five hours we were in the air,which is just as well since he had to drive later.

We landed just after 6.00; I watched the sunrise,which was rather pretty and we were glad to see that it wasn\t raining at Gatwick. It felt like we had to walk miles to the luggage reclamation place.. at least it woke us up slightly. We got a bit worried when our luggage did not appear, and almost everyone else waiting with us had gone, but then we realised we were at the wrong carousel.

By the time we had our luggage safely, it was past 7.00 and we knew we needed coffee urgently. As we left the arrivals area, we were greeted by a Costa Coffee sign. There was no discussion; We didn't even look for an alternative.

I had a latte (delicious and extremely welcome) and Richard had an Americano, which gave him the required caffeine, but - he said - was disappointingly bitter, not as good as he expected.

Then we popped to the loos. And there I had my first reverse culture shock of the trip. Each cubicle was nicely decorated, about three times the size of any equivalent I'd ever seen before, and each one was equipped with its own washbasin! Richard had waited outside with all our luggage, but I could have wheeled it in with room to spare. There was a mirror, and an automatic dryer- everything was motion sensitive,so I didn't even have to touch anything to flush the toilet or turn the taps on.

I felt so awed by this super-loo that I didn't think to take a photo. Apparently the men's were just the same. Amazing.

As ever it wasn't particularly quick to confirm and sort out the car rental, even though we'd booked it online a couple of months ago, but at last we climbed in the car, and were on the last leg of the first part of our UK trip. Despite being slowed down by road works we arrived only a couple of minutes later than expected. around 8.30am. We had more coffee and breakfast at Richard's mother's house, then thought we might like down for a bit.

I didn't expect to sleep - I almost never can when it's light. But evidently I was so tired that I managed it... and woke feeling at least slightly more refreshed at 12.30, in time for lunch.

Last night we were both asleep by 9.00pm and I slept soundly for nine and a half hours... 

Family, friends, fun and farewell...

Daniel and Becky were here for a little over a fortnight; they arrived on a Friday night, and departed last night. We heard a couple of hours ago that they are, at last, safely back in Carlisle. Having visitors staying is always good, but of course we particularly love having either of our sons home; for Daniel, this was his first visit since he and Becky got married last year.

I already wrote about their first few days in Cyprus, and about our visit to Nicosia. But, as so often happens, time started to go faster and faster and suddenly the two weeks had vanished. I didn't even remember to take many photos - much of the time we were hanging out, chatting, or playing games. We watched a few episodes of Doctor Who (series 2) which we enjoyed, and we also watched DVDs of both Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia 2 and 3 respectively) which we had not seen before. 

Daniel wrote a post about their time here on his blog too. 

We played a couple of games of Seafarers of Catan (Fog Island), something Richard and I only rarely play on our own as it requires quite a bit of setup. Becky said she had never won a Seafarers game; it turned out that she'd only played it once or twice, but she managed to win the first game we played together during the past couple of weeks:  

Naturally we played a couple of Settlers games with our friends Jörn and Sheila too, at their house, one of them on a particularly cold evening where we wrapped up warmly... and Becky won: 

We even managed a five-player Settlers game with Tim on Facetime (similar to Skype): 

We had a microphone set up over the middle of the board, with the stand carefully balanced by a low-tech coolbag: 

We played a Cities and Knights game, too, which had such an interesting initial setup that I took photos and wrote about it on my Settlers blog, but didn't take any pictures of the people concerned. 

We wondered how the cats would cope with Daniel and Becky staying downstairs in our guest flat; somehow, it didn't seem to worry them. We're not sure they even really noticed, as they continued sleeping on us at nights. But they were all happy to see Dan and Becky whenever they appeared in the morning. Here's Tessie looking at some of their wedding photos with them: 

Daniel, who is something of a coffee geek, decided that, while he was in Cyprus, he would buy a little pan for making Cyprus coffee. Not something I like at all, but Daniel is quite keen on what's known as a 'medrio' - one spoonful of finely ground coffee, and one of sugar, brought to the boil slowly: 

The first time he did it, I was fascinated by seeing the bubbles around the edge (an important part of making Cyprus coffee) which formed an almost perfect square around the middle. But when I took these photos, they made something closer to a pentagon: 

The first few times Daniel made a medrio, he used some small cups we happened to have. But I went to the Thrift Shop on Saturday, when he and Becky were out sailing with Richard, and saw some quite tasteful little Cyprus coffee cups and saucers which were very inexpensive. I also saw several less-than-tasteful ones... but decided that Daniel would not appreciate those.

This really doesn't show the scale, but is what the little cup looks like: 

Here it is with the medrio inside, and the saucer below: 

And here is Daniel, waiting for the coffee to cool a little. Note the glass of water, an important adjunct to Cyprus coffee: 

These photos show better just how tiny the cup is.  Sophia joined him while he drank it: 

Becky wasn't feeling great on Sunday, and Daniel wasn't too well on Monday, which was their last day in Cyprus. However, they wanted another game, so we set up Seafarers (Fog Island again) once more:

Here's how it started: 

Daniel won that game - just ahead of me. Either Daniel or Becky has won most of the games we've played while they've been here! 

But, as the cliche goes, all good things must eventually come to an end. After the game, we ate an early evening meal, then took them to the airport. Being actors, they decided to pose for the camera: 

Happily, they let me take a nicer photo as well: 

We drove home feeling a little empty. We don't know when we'll next see Dan and Becky; of course it's great to keep in touch with email and Skype (or equivalent) but there's nothing quite like having people actually here. Living in Cyprus, there are a lot of goodbyes, and they only get a little easier with time.