The increasing necessity for ID verification documents...

When we lived in the UK - nearly three decades ago! - we had a joint sterling bank account which we used for all our income and outgoings. We did have a 'savings' account too, but it rarely had anything much in it. And a credit card, which was useful when there was a cash flow problem.

When we moved to Cyprus towards the end of 1997, we opened a joint account at a local bank here. It was originally in Cyprus pounds, but then, seamlessly, moved to euros at the start of 2008. Each month we had an automatic transfer set up from our UK account to our Cyprus account via one of the reputable online transfer places. And the amount we transferred, which was the majority of our regular income, just about covered bills, utilities, insurances etc in Cyprus. Extra generous gifts and donations allowed us to travel to the UK once a year, and a few other luxuries. 

When we arrived here, colleagues told us that we shouldn't have mail sent to our street address, as the postal system was notoriously unreliable. They all used a PO Box address instead. For a while we used that one too, and then we started to lease our own. And we made sure that our bank statements and utility bills went to the PO Box. 

Early in 2004, my last grandparent died. She was 96. Some months later we received a generous legacy from her. That, and other circumstances during that year, and 2005, made us decide that we would sell our house in the UK which had been used by one of the local churches. The lady living there at the time wanted to buy it, so the timing was perfect. And we had my grandmother's gift to use as a deposit on a house here. 

In 2006, we sold our house in the UK, after some months of uncertainty, and bought the house in Cyprus where we are still living. And since it was Richard who met the vendor to transfer our utility bills, it was Richard's name that was associated with them. It was still quite a patriarchal society, and he was much more comfortable dealing with utility board officials than I was. 

Fast forward to 2020. A year that stands out in most people's memories, when there were lockdowns, and uncertainties, and nobody knew what was going to happen. Our UK debit cards expired, and they wouldn't send new ones to Cyprus. We had used various family members' addresses in the UK for mailing, and collected them when we visited. But in 2020, no travelling was allowed. International post was either non-existent or delayed. We could access our bank account online, and make transfers, but we didn't have a card to make online payments in sterling. And sometimes we needed to do that. 

Richard had already opened a multi-currency online account for times when he travelled for his ministry, and he suggested I open one too, at least as a temporary measure. The process was easy, and while I didn't use it much at first, I gradually realised that it was quite convenient to have a separate account where I could move money between currencies at an excellent rate, and which allowed text 'notes' added to each transaction, to help me keep track. 

A couple of years ago Richard started receiving his UK state pension. We were able to stop relying on gifts from churches and friends. We found, for the first time in our lives, that we had what is sometimes called 'disposable income'. We give some away, of course, but we also transfer an amount every month to each of our multi-currency accounts. 

Then...

On Saturday morning a week ago, the multi-currency account sent me an email, and also notified me in the account when I logged in, that they needed to verify my street address. They didn't say why.  They wanted me to upload a recent utility bill or bank statement, with my full name and street address. They told me I had until June 28th to do this. 

But I didn't have any of the documents they wanted. As explained above, our utility bills were all in Richard's name, as is our equivalent to council tax. Our Cyprus bank account still had the PO Box address on statements, even though everything now comes via email rather than in the post. 

So I uploaded the annual sewage bill, which, for some reason, is in my name. 

But that was rejected because it was dated November 2024. 

So then I uploaded a recent Cyprus bank statement.

That was rejected because it didn't have our street address. 

Then I uploaded an electricity bill which has our street address, and that was rejected because it wasn't in my name. 

So I emailed customer support, uploading all three of these documents again, plus my 'yellow slip' which has my full name and street address. I explained what the problem was, and asked if a human could put together the information on these four documents, and verify manually rather than relying on the automated requirements.

The customer support person was very friendly, and seemed to understand the issue. They said that what I needed to do was take a photo of the electricity bill next to my husband's ID, and send them that. And they would forward it on to the verification department. 

It didn't quite make sense - I didn't see how that could verify who I am! -  but I did what they asked. They thanked me, and said that if there was still any problem, they would get in touch again, and make some more suggestions.

 
We realised that this issue was likely to come up again, so we decided to change one of our water bills into my name, to preempt future problems of this nature. Since our house is in two parts, we have two sets of both water and electricity bills. So on Monday morning we went into the Water Board. 

It's greatly updated since the last time we were there, which was probably nearly twenty years ago. Instead of queueing, we were given a ticket with a number, and sat down in the air conditioned waiting area. Eventually - after about half an hour - our turn came up. After checking the IDs we took in, and our house deeds,  the helpful lady on the desk changed the account over from Richard's name to mine. 

Not that it was any use for the current issue, as we paid the last water bill and the next one isn't due until August. But she printed out a sort of non-invoice, saying we owed them nothing, but giving my name and the street address.

On Tuesday morning at 8.00am I had an email saying that the latest upload - the one showing Richard's ID next to our electricity bill - was also rejected, though they didn't say why. As before, it gave a link to upload something else. So I tried to do so... 

And saw a rather terse notification that my account was closed. It said that they thought I had been using it in inappropriate ways, whatever that means.

So much for having until 28th June! They did say they would refund all the money, but it has been so very convenient having this multi-currency account. I was not happy. I was, in fact, extremely stressed. I hated the idea that I had done something wrong and didn't even know what it was. 

Feeling frustrated, I opened the 'YouBible' app on my phone, and saw the verse of the day:

'Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you' (I Peter 5:7). 

The verses of the day often seem quite random, but this one felt as if it was specifically for me. Not that it was easy to cast my anxieties, but I did feel slightly more peaceful, and tried to trust that, whatever happened, God was in charge.

 
I emailed customer support again. I sent them the non-invoice from the Water Board. 

I could see that I had the option to appeal my account closure. But when I clicked the link to appeal, the first thing I had to upload was... a document that I didn't have. As I had already explained. 

Given that banks have worldwide reporting, I was also a bit concerned that this might put our other accounts at risk. Although I was doing my best not to be too anxious. 

I didn't hear back from customer support until some hours later, and they said they were sorry to hear that this had happened, they didn't know what had triggered it, and they recommended that I appeal and upload whatever documents I thought might help, including the non-invoice from the Water Board.

I didn't want to rush into it. And Richard thought it would be a good idea to get our bank statements showing our street address. I also remembered that our house insurance bill is due around now, and that has both our names on it. 

So on Thursday morning, we walked to the bank. A helpful, friendly man on the desk examined our documents, understood our problem, and - after filling in a lot of different fields on his computer - told us that future statements would show our street address rather than the PO Box. But nothing will change on statements until the next one is generated... at the end of June.  However, he did print out some of the relevant documentation that showed our names and address. He and Richard were chatting like old friends by this stage, and would probably have continued doing so if I hadn't pointed out that a queue was starting to form behind us. 

When we got home, Richard phoned the insurance brokers. They said that, yes, they could generate a new invoice, but for some reason they couldn't email it to him. But if we were willing to go there, we could sign and collect it. So off we went in the car, and eventually found the right office. For the first twenty years or so that we lived in Cyprus, the broker came to our house, and we signed the papers here, and wrote him a cheque. For the past few years, it's all happened via email and online payments. So this was the first time we had actually been to the office.

Once again it was quite slow, punctuated by general chat, and without the benefit of air conditioning. But eventually we left, with an invoice that showed both our names, our street address, AND a recent date. Insurance wasn't mentioned as one of the possible documents that the appeal accepted, but I wanted to upload as many possibilities as I could manage. 

The insurance brokers' office is very close to where the Electricity Board used to be. And Richard thought we might as well get my name changed on one of those bills, too. So we found where the new offices are, and they had a similar process to the water board. Our ticket said we should expect to wait 17 minutes. In the event it was over 40 minutes, but eventually we were seen. Again it seemed to take a long time to do something which seemed quite straightforward to us. But at last it was done. And

they gave me a stamped verification that one of the electricity bills is now in my name. 

That afternoon, I scanned the new documents, and clicked the 'appeal' button. It allowed me to upload up to ten documents, which is good, as I had eight of them to send. There was a brief hiatus where everything appeared to upload, and then crashed. But Richard pointed out that some of the scanned documents were quite large, and the total upload was over 30 megabytes. So I scanned the larger ones again, and this time they were taken. None of the documents was exactly what was asked for, and I didn't hold out a whole lot of hope. It said that they would take up to 15 days to process them. 

Half an hour later, I received an apology email saying my account was reinstated. 

Alleluia!

But... there was still a red notification in my account telling me I needed to upload a recent utility bill in my name, and that I must do so by the end of June. Which, of course, I could not do. 

So I got in touch with customer services again. And I also made sure to download all the statements from the account, and details of exactly how much I had in each currency, and other information which I thought I might have lost. 

To my tremendous relief, about twelve hours later I had another message from customer support saying my documents were accepted, and the red notification should have gone. Which, indeed, it had. 

I was very thankful. 

As Shakespeare put it, all's well that ends well....

Except that, just after my bank account was reinstated, I had an email from GESY, the Cyprus equivalent of the NHS. It said they need to recheck that I'm still eligible, and that they do this routinely every few years. 

The email said I had to print out a form, and fill it in, and scan it, and send it back, along with my ID, Richard's ID, our marriage certificate....and a year's worth of utility bills that show my name.

Sigh. 

Replumbing the mains water

 I check our electricity usage most days. I've done so ever since we discovered that the old meter for our guest flat was faulty. But I rarely check the water. The cost of water in Cyprus seems remarkably low, given how scarce water is, and we just paid the bills, with a quick glance at the usage each time. It was typically between about 20 and 35 metric tonnes each quarter, and never more than about 70 euros, often rather less. 

But then early in February, we received a bill where the cost was a lot higher than usual. And a quick glance at the consumption bar graph showed this:

What, we wondered, could have triggered such a high water usage in the previous three months? We hadn't been watering the garden much, because it was the winter. We had previously had problems with water tanks that led to somewhat higher bills, but never this high. And we hadn't had any problems with our tanks for some time. Occasionally one of the toilets would keep flushing water through, but we usually noticed and it never lasted for long. 

We wondered if the meter was faulty. But thought we had better check first to see if we could work out what was going on. Neither the washing machine nor dishwasher was running, and none of the taps were dripping. The toilets had filled up - there should not have been any water usage. But the little dial on the meter was, albeit slowly, going around. So Richard turned the water off, and it stopped. Apparently not a faulty meter, then. 

What seemed likely was that there was a leak in the pipes running between the meter and the boiler room. Unfortunately, those pipes were underneath the driveway, impossible to access without digging it up. Not something we could do, and we didn't like to think what it might cost, let alone the potential disruption, if we could even find a plumber who might be willing to try. 

But Richard had a better idea. He had been planning to re-plumb the house either later this year, or next year anyway. For the mains water, he wanted to replace the old black plastic piping with a new type that's less flexible as it has an aluminium centre. Apparently the old style pipes are easier to join, but no longer meet European standards, as older pipes can contaminate the water with chemicals. 

So he checked Mr Bricolage, our local DIY shop, and found that it was easy to find lengths of the correct kind of pipe:

However, he had a busy few weeks ahead of him, so knew that it wasn't something he could tackle immediately. Since we didn't want to continue wasting such a volume of water, we got into a routine of switching the mains off for most of the day. It turns out to be a great blessing in this kind of situation that we still have cold water tanks as well as hot water tanks, which supply the water for the shower, sinks, toilets and appliances. The kitchen sink has a special knob to turn to get mains water for drinking.

So, every morning for about three months, after my walk or shopping, I would turn the mains water on for half an hour or so. I would then fill up water jugs with mains water for drinking, while the water tank on the roof filled up again. I also kept careful note of how much water we used each day.  

The water bill states (in Greek) that each person in a household, on average, typically uses about 11 cubic metres of water per quarter. So that would be 22 cubic metres (or metric tonnes) per quarter for two of us, and dividing that by 90 days, works out at around 244 litres, total, per day. I was pleased to find that we used between 190 and 250 litres per day, with the higher ones being days when we ran the washing machine, the dishwasher (sometimes twice, if we were entertaining), and also watered the plants.

However, on one day when I somehow forgot to turn the mains water off again until late afternoon, we used over 500 extra litres. The leak underground, if that's what it was, was getting worse. 

When our next bill arrived, a couple of weeks ago, I was pleased to see that it was around 50 euros, with a quarterly consumption of 21 cubic metres. Just under the expected 'average', despite the wastage at the start of the period, and on the day when I forgot to turn it off. I had become quite accustomed to my daily filling of jugs, but Richard decided that the time had come to replace the pipes. So he measured carefully, bought the pipes and fittings, and one of our local teenage friends came to help.

It was more complex than they had expected - as tends to happen with this kind of project - but this is just after the meter was disconnected from the old underground pipes and connected to the new ones:

I'm no good with that kind of thing, and our young friend is strong, and flexible. She is also very interested in this kind of thing, and, being considerably younger than we are, has no problem getting up and down, attaching the new pipes neatly to the wall. 

They worked for about three hours on Tuesday afternoon, and another three or four hours on Wednesday morning. There were a few glitches when one of the fittings in the boiler room wasn't quite right, but eventually all was done. It seems very strange not turning the water off each morning, and I am still checking the daily usage... but it seems to be as it should be. Richard was evidently correct in his surmise that the underground pipes were leaking.  

In the next week or two, they are going to replace the guest flat piping in the same way.

Electricity bills and meters in Cyprus

Long ago, towards the end of last century when we first moved to Cyprus, we were told that electricity was 'very expensive'.  The people Richard worked with used gas for all their cooking, and various forms of heating in the winter that didn't include electric heaters. None of them had air conditioning. 

And, indeed, Cyprus was one of the most expensive countries in Europe for electricity, so we, too, were as careful as we could be. We turned off lights when we weren't in rooms, and when we did, eventually, instal one air conditioner in our living/dining room, so that we could use computers without destroying them, we calculated carefully what the cost of running it might be, and didn't use it more than was absolutely necessary.

But costs are lower now, and appliances are more efficient. I like having an electric oven, and various other kitchen gadgets. Lightbulbs now are so long-lasting that we think nothing of leaving them on when we're out, or when we forget to turn them off. We knew, of course, that it would be pricey using our electric water heater in the winter, and the air conditioners in the summer. And, indeed, our bills for those seasons were sometimes double those in the spring and autumn months. 

However we didn't look too closely into the amounts, as they were never unreasonable; certainly not the huge amounts we heard about from some other folk here and elsewhere. 

Towards the end of July 2019, we had to replace the air conditioner in our bedroom. It was quieter than the old one, and considerably more efficient. We started wondering how long it would take to pay for itself, so to speak. And then we wondered whether, if we replaced the elderly and very inefficient air conditioner in our living room, and ran the new one more often, would it in fact cost less than turning it on only when in the room?  

Since the ambient temperature was only about 32 at the time, I wondered if running even the old unit more often at 30 degrees, rather than our usual 28, would make the whole house more comfortable. In particular it would remove the humidity which is often the worst part of the heat. 

So I started monitoring our electricity usage. The meter is outside, in a little box so it's easy enough to read. 

And since I was checking it anyway, I thought I would also keep a note of our guest flat electricity usage. 

After a few days, I realised that although the electricity usage of the main part of the house was quite reasonable, we seemed to be using an inordinate amount in our guest flat, which was empty at the time. We knew it would use perhaps one or two units each day, as all our water pumps and one or two other things are connected to the guest flat electricity.  But not ten or more, which is what we were seeing. 

We went through the entire flat, checking. The fridge and freezer were off. We turned off the wall switches for anything that had an LED light. We made sure the TV wasn't on standby.  We couldn't work out what it could possibly be. Were the pumps using a ridiculous amount of electricity? Was someone tapping into our electricity?  Or was it possible that we had a faulty meter....? 

So Richard found a different kind of meter, one he had used years ago in his office. He said he could check the daily usage of electricity from our guest flat, as well as a couple of appliances. So we plugged it into our freezer - wondering if that was using too much electricity - and our fridge-freezer, which was about fourteen years old, and the guest flat. 

I know. It's pink. I don't much like pink. But it's a useful gadget... and over the course of the next week or so, we learned two things.

1.  Our guest flat, according to this meter, was only using one or two units per day, as we expected. 

2.  Our freezer used less than one unit per day, but the older, less efficient fridge-freezer used between three and four units per day. 

The first of those was of more immediate concern. Richard went to the electricity board, and after being sent to various different departments, finally managed to explain the problem. The person he spoke to said that the electricity board could come and instal a new meter for us, and take the old one away for checking. 

If it turned out that the old one was, indeed, faulty, then this would cost nothing, and we would be refunded a percentage of the past year's bills. BUT.. if it turned out that we were wrong, and that the meter was not faulty, then we would be charged 70 euros. Not unreasonable, in the circumstances, and we were pretty sure that it WAS faulty. However we didn't know how accurate their tests would be...

The new meter was installed the following week, and started giving figures that matched with the amounts on our pink meter:

And to our great relief, we received a letter from the electricity board, informing us that our old meter was faulty, and we would receive a refund on our next bills. Which, indeed, we did.

So we were very pleased that I 'just happened' to start checking the guest flat electricity usage when I did.  

Fast forward to the middle of May this year. When we realised we would not be visiting the UK during the summer, as I wrote in another post, we replaced three air conditioning units - the very old one in our living room, and the two which are the most used, in our studies.  We also replaced our fifteen-year-old fridge freezer, deciding that if we were going to do it, then the best time was right before the heat of summer. 

And I started checking our electricity usage each day. It was quite enlightening. We realised that leaving ceiling fans running all day, as we have done some years, isn't very efficient. Unless we're actually in the rooms, there's little point as they don't change the temperature. They only use about 100 watts but that means one unit is used every ten hours.. which doesn't sound like much, but for three or four ceiling fans, it can quickly mount up. 

However, we did use our air conditioners extensively, including running the living room one almost all day on the hottest, most humid days. It was a very hot summer, with several records broken.  

Our electricity bills are two-monthly, and it happened that our meter had been read within a few days of our having bought the new fridge freezer and air conditioning units. Between the middle of March and the middle of May, usually our lowest usage, we had clocked up 785 units. That was with no air conditioning usage, and very little water heating, as the solar heating works effectively from about March through to November.  

Between mid-May and mid-July, with our newer, more efficient appliances - and a lot of air conditioning in late June and the first half of July - we used just 661 units. That compared to 1119 in the previous year during the same period.  With a temporary reduction in fuel costs in the equation, it was probably the lowest electricity bill we had ever paid. 

The second half of July was hotter still, as was August. And it remained hot in September, so we continued using air conditioning.  Inevitably our electricity usage was higher.  From mid-July to mid-September we used 1049 units; that compared to 1289 the previous year - and in 2019 we had two weeks in the UK at the start of August; I had another two-and-a-half weeks out of Cyprus.  Had I been here, as I was this year, it would have been a great deal higher.  The last time - three years ago - that we were in Cyprus all summer, we used over 1400 units.  

So we have probably already saved, in electricity bills, the cost of one of the new air conditioning units. I know we're fortunate to have been able to do this; the 'Sam Vimes Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness' holds, as ever.  But as the sterling/euro exchange rate gradually gets worse, and may plummet still further, it's good to have lower bills.  And newer appliances are better for the environment, too. 

Changing our Cablenet Contract

Four-and-a-half years ago, I wrote about how we decided to move our landline phone and Internet provider from the national company CYTA to the somewhat newer Cablenet.  It saved us about ten euros per month, and gave us a faster Internet connection.

I still have the original documentation, which shows that we signed up for the 'cable/talk + surf + view 20M' package, at €44.64 per month.

At the time, all the Cablenet packages had cable TV included, although we weren't in fact interested in that as we don't watch TV. We thought we might - but it hasn't happened. We wanted to keep our landline phone although we didn't use that much either. And when our last physical phone handset gave up working, we simply diverted the number to Richard's mobile phone; the landline was barely used, and we haven't missed it.

A couple of months after we took out the contract - which was 20M download, and 2M upload, though I'm not entirely certain what the two figures refer to - we were upgraded to 30M/3M, at a slightly inflated cost.  Perhaps that was part of the initial contract; I don't remember. Anyway, for a couple of years it worked well, and we were paying €46.90 per month for the package, plus the occasional few cents if someone dialled the landline and it was then transferred to Richard's mobile.

Shortly after that, we were upgraded again to 75M/5M, and then, earlier this year, 100M/6M. Paperwork arrived with the bill, sometimes, and we glanced at it, wondering if we would do better with a different package. Richard thought that perhaps he could transfer his mobile number to Cablenet as part of one of their new packages which included a mobile. But somehow we never got around to it.

The monthly price had gone up to €52.90 per month, which seemed rather on the high side, when compared to costs elsewhere. But a six euro increase - along with much faster speeds - didn't seem too bad in four years.

Then in the summer, we were away for over a month. Our Cablenet bill for August (it's always paid in advance) had arrived just before we flew, but by the time we collected it from the PO Box, I had turned my computer off. I knew I had until the end of the month to pay it, and since I was taking my laptop with me on our travels, I thought I could easily log into our bank before the end of the month, and pay online. So I popped the bill into my laptop case... and forgot about it.

The Internet connection wasn't great for our first couple of weeks away. But then we stayed for a week in a villa in Coronado, which had a reliable connection. I found the bill, and paid it online without any problem, despite it being about six days after the end of July.

Richard flew back to Cyprus towards the end of August, and visited our PO Box where he found our electricity and water bills, but no Cablenet bill. I was able to pay the other utilities, despite them also being rather late, but was surprised that there was no phone/Internet bill. Everything was working, and I didn't think about it until about ten days ago, when we went to check the PO Box again. Still no Cablenet bill. 

So we went to the Cablenet office. A very helpful lady was able to print off our bill - both the one we should have received in August, and the one for September which had not yet arrived. When we asked why we hadn't had the September one, wondering if they had gone paperless and we'd missed something, she said it was because the August bill was paid late, and attracted a re-connection fee of five euros.

No, that didn't make any sense to us, either.

We asked if we could pay then. Yes, she said. Did we want to pay just the September bill (which included the reconnection fee), or the October one too?  I said we might as well pay them both at the same time, and produced my debit card.

Meanwhile, Richard had been looking at the special offer card that was sitting on the desk.

It was all rather confusing, with several different offers, nowhere near as straightforward as it was four and a half years ago.

I asked if we could have an Internet connection that didn't include TV, since we didn't use that, and the lady suggested a couple of options. However, both of them had rather slower upload speeds than we had been using - and for Richard's work, he likes that as fast as possible.

But after some discussion, we realised that we could get a connection that's almost as fast (5M rather than 6M upload) with the package labelled '2play 60M Purple 2', which costs €39.90/month.

This has no TV, but does include, in addition to home Internet, a mobile phone with a monthly allowance of 400 minutes, 200 SMS and 1gig Internet.  There wouldn't be much point having my phone on this package, since I only spend about €15 per year on pay-as-you-go. I write perhaps thirty text messages in a month, but I don't think I use more than about 60 minutes a year of talking.  And even with my new-to-me smartphone, I don't want to use mobile Internet, other than, briefly, on wi-fi when I'm at home.

However, Richard's phone, which was on a CYTA contract, was costing about €20-30 per month. The basic contract was only €2.50 with what's considered low usage, but he paid another €8 or so for 300m mobile internet per month, and typically at least €10 in charges for calls and texts. Until recently he had used it mainly for work, but now he mostly uses online calling for work calls to people abroad, so the call/text charges to his mobile phone were mostly local. I had felt for a while that we should now be paying this rather than his work (which has been doing so).... 

So once the Cablenet lady had established that his current contract doesn't include any minutes or SMS, she agreed that we would do much better with a new contract. It should save about thirty to forty euros per month.

We had to take in a former CYTA bill in order for the process to begin, but since we already had a Cablenet contract, there were no further charges. Richard was given a new sim card for his phone, and told to change it when he received a text message informing him of when the transfer was done.

On Monday morning he was sent an SMS telling him to start using the new sim card at noon on Tuesday...  and shortly after lunch on Tuesday, when he realised his CYTA connection was no longer working, he changed the card, and everything - so far - has worked perfectly.

All of which is a very long-winded post to say: it's well worth checking special offers with phone/internet companies.  Facilities change, and what seems like a great deal at the start of a contract may not be the best one a couple of years later.

Will we remember to check the options in another two years time....??  That remains to be seen.

Time and Trust in Cyprus

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a lengthy post bewailing modern technology as it gradually takes over life in Cyprus. Things are no longer as simple as they used to be.

To summarise the post: I couldn't pay our van tax because it needed an MOT, and when the MOT was done I couldn't pay it because my debit card had expired. When I went to collect my new card from the bank, they had returned it because I hadn't collected it in December, despite not knowing it was there. Meanwhile I couldn't pay our PO Box fee because the 'system' wasn't working, so I left the money with the postmistress who assured me she would do it the next day...

There's something about starting a routine, or habit, which makes it become easier as the weeks go by. Those two Fridays in January, I made sure I had things to post to motivate me to walk to the Post Office. It's only a mile away, and it wasn't as cold as it had been some early mornings when I walk with my friend Sheila, but I didn't much want to go out. However, Richard was away, and I don't drive.

I decided to combine the trips to the Post Office with my usual Friday shopping at our local froutaria...

... and the connected mini-market over the road from the froutaria:

The Post Office is about a mile from our house, near the sea-front. It's another mile or so in the other direction to the fruitaria, and then a short walk home. Quite a pleasant outing, once I was out in the sunshine, even if it was rather chilly.

So each time I took my Lakeland shopping trolley (one of the best purchases I have ever made):

A few days after my foray into the bank, they phoned me to say that my card had arrived.  I could have gone to collect it at once (the bank is perhaps half a mile away) but decided I would leave it until the Friday, and do another round trip.  There was no urgency to pay the road tax, and I didn't need the debit card for anything else; I generally use cash at the froutaria and discount mini-market.

PO Box Rental part 3
So on Friday, just over a week ago, I walked down to the Post Office once again. There was no receipt in my box, so although I didn't have anything to post this time, I went inside.

Once again there was only one postmistress there, not the one to whom I had handed over the cash for the box renewal. She remembered me from the previous week. I asked her if, perhaps, the other lady had done the renewal and forgotten to give me my receipt. She checked the system, and said that no, it wasn't renewed.

However, she told me, I wasn't the only customer in the same situation. Apparently the other postmistress had been off sick, and had put the money for the PO Box renewals in some account which her colleague couldn't access.  She assured me it would be done on Monday, and they would phone to let me know.

Perhaps I should have ensured I was given a receipt for the cash when I paid it; or, even better, kept it and said I would return another time, since I did in fact keep on returning every week. But trust is important in Cyprus, and I couldn't imagine they would try to cheat me, or insist that I hadn't in fact paid anything. So I said it was okay, and I would wait.

New Debit card part 2
I quite like walking along the main shopping streets of Larnaka, occasionally popping into a shop, or looking in the windows, but my next stop was the bank.

I stood in the queue, as usual, and when I got to the front was told I needed to go to one of the desks further inside the bank. I eventually found it, and instead of just handing over my card (in a thick envelope) and asking me to sign for it, the man at the desk had to access my account, and spend several minutes entering things and eventually succeeding in printing a form. Then I not only had to sign it, I had to enter my passport number. I have no idea why, but it's a good thing I carry it with me. It would have been very annoying to have got that far and been unable to collect the card.

The design of the card is different - it's yellow rather than red - and it's equipped with contactless technology, which always slightly scares me. But we keep our contactless cards in little metal-lined folders so they can't accidentally (or maliciously) be triggered.

Car Tax part 4
I got home, and logged into the jccsmart website, and - at last! - succeeded in paying the year's tax for the van.

Success!

Side note
A few months ago, when we realised we had to write off our two old cars, the mechanic agreed to deal with the scrap merchant, and harvest any parts that could be used. They said we might possibly get €200, and that was only because one of the cars had fairly new tyres. They were supposed to let us know when the transaction happened, but we didn't hear anything. Then we went away shortly after Christmas, and hadn't thought much about it.

When Richard got back from his travels, ten days ago, he went to collect the van after its MOT.  They had had to sort out one or two things, and did a full oil change too, and - including the test certificate - the bill came to €70, which seemed quite reasonable. Better still, they said that our old cars had in fact fetched €250, so rather than having to pay anything, he was given €180 in cash as well as the van with its up-to-date MOT.

PO Box Rental part 4
There was no phone call on Monday, but on Wednesday I had a call from the Post Office! They wanted to check the details, then went ahead and renewed our box rental for another two years.

Whew.

The receipt was awaiting me when I walked down to the Post Office yesterday.  So everything is now done. It might take much longer than it should, but I should have trusted that it would work out correctly. 

Complexities of Technology in Cyprus

Car Tax, part 1
In Cyprus, we don't get reminders in the mail (or even electronically) to renew car tax. We're supposed to know that it needs to be renewed every January, although it's not usually possible to do so until at least the 7th or 8th, and there's a 'grace' period until the end of February, sometimes early March.

And whereas, a few years ago, we could take the information into the co-op banks and get it dealt with by someone else there, it now has to be done at the 'jccsmart' website, a portal that allows for the payment of many bills that can't be paid directly at the bank website.

So, on Friday two weeks ago, when I was doing our weekly bookkeeping, I logged into jccsmart, and entered the information for our blue car. No problem: it recognised the combination of numberplate and the last three digits of Richard's ID, and I was able to pay for another year's tax on my debit card.  Then I tried to pay the tax on the black van which is used for our PA system, and various other loads.  A warning message appeared: it needed an MOT before tax could be paid.

Fair enough; Richard knew it was due its MOT (they happen every two years in Cyprus). He was due to be away, so took the van round the corner to our friendly mechanic, who said that he would sort it out, make any minor repairs or adjustments necessary, and have everything ready by the time he got back.

PO Box Rental, part 1
A few days later, I had to go to the Post Office to post something to the UK.

We get our mail delivered to a PO Box connected to this post office, and we'd just received the reminder that our subscription had run out. We needed to pay for 2017 by the end of March. So I asked if I could pay it while I was there, as it can't be done online. I offered my debit card, and they tried to enter my details, but then said that the system wasn't working.

When we first moved here, the system was a huge hand-written ledger. It always took a minute or two for the postmistress to find our records, but there was never any problem.  For fifteen years we thought it was quaint, but very Cypriot. And it worked. Since they have a new computerised system, it has been much more complicated.

I had already tried to pay ten days earlier, and the system wasn't working then.  So the postmistress (a different one, but they get to know the regulars fairly quickly) suggested I leave the payment with her, and she would enter it the following day when the system was working again, and put a receipt in our PO Box. I could hardly leave my debit card, and didn't really want to give the details, but I had cash on me, so I handed over the amount for for two years' rental of the PO Box, and she clipped it to our reminder, with a note of our name and phone number.

Car Tax, part 2
On Friday, a week ago, I thought I would try again to pay the car tax.  Once again, the warning message about the MOT appeared.  Evidently they had not yet got around to doing it.

PO Box Rental, part 2
On Sunday I was in town, although the Post Office was closed, but I checked the PO Box anyway. Our electricity bills were there, but there was no receipt for the box rental payment. I shrugged, mentally. Perhaps the system was still down.

I thought no more about it until yesterday, when I needed to post something else, so I walked the mile or so to the Post Office again, and checked the PO Box. Our water bills were awaiting me, but still no receipt for the box rental.

So I went in to post my letter. There was a different postmistress there, looking a bit hassled (usually there are two of them), and when I asked about it, and explained, she said that 'the system' was now working but she would have to look for my payment and paperwork, and would let me know. She wrote down my name and phone number again. I was beginning to feel a little anxious, but this kind of thing usually works in Cyprus. So I hope I'll hear from her next week...

Car Tax, part Three
When I got home again, I logged onto the JCCSmart site, and entered the van information. This time, I was given the go-ahead to pay the tax. So the mechanic must have done whatever was needed, and it had passed its MOT.

However, as I was entering my debit card details, I saw that the card had expired at the end of January. Oops. A pity I hadn't realised earlier, as I came past the bank on my way home from the Post Office, as I needed to buy some fruit and vegetables. But I put on my shoes again, and walked to the bank....

New Debit Card
New debit cards don't get sent to the owners, for security reasons. But in the past when my card had expired - or when it was about to - I simply popped into the bank.  New debit cards were usually in a rather random looking pile of envelopes, and it would take the clerk a minute or two to locate mine, but it was always there.

At first, when they started issuing them, my debit cards were only valid for a year at a time. But the last time I collected one was at the end of January 2014. The one that had just expired had lasted for three years, so I had got out of the habit of popping in at the start of each year. Since then, the bank has moved to new, smarter premises, and updated their systems.

So when I handed my card to the clerk, after quite a long wait in the queue, he looked puzzled, but entered the number into his computer so he could see our bank account. I pointed at the date on the card, and said that it had expired, and I wanted my new one. He asked me if I wanted to withdraw cash. No, I told him, I just wanted a new card.

He asked if they had phoned me, to let me know it was at the bank. No, I said. When it had expired before, I came in, and they found my new one for me. He looked confused - this was not a clerk I had seen before - and went off to another office, before returning and saying that he couldn't find it. Then he turned to the clerk at the next desk, and asked him (in Greek) if he would deal with it.

The second clerk seemed to be more senior, but also went through the process of typing my card information into his computer. He clicked several things, and then said, 'Ah. Your new card has been cancelled.'

'Why?' I asked.

'Because you did not collect it in two months. It was at the bank on December 2nd. You didn't collect it so we cancelled it on January 25th.'

'But it hadn't even expired then,' I said, trying to stay calm and as assertive as I could. 'Why would you cancel it?'

'We telephoned and there was no reply,' he said. 'Maybe we have the wrong number?'

I checked, and they had both my mobile number and our house phone. I said that we were away for a couple of weeks after Christmas, and he said that perhaps they phoned then.

'So how can I get a new card?' I asked, realising it wasn't his personal fault that the card was cancelled incorrectly.  He said he would have to cancel the cancellation. He typed some more things on the computer, printed something out for me to sign, and said that there should be a card within the next few days, and that they would phone me....

Utility bills
So I came home again, realising that I still couldn't pay the van tax.

However, I knew I could pay the water and electricity bills at our bank website. I was pleased that they were rather lower than I'd expected, probably because we were away for a couple of weeks during the billing periods.

I logged into the bank site, and was greeted by a screen telling me I needed to update my details, for security reasons.  Yet more new technology.  I checked that they had correct phone numbers, address, and my passport number - no problem.  But then I had to fill in all kinds of other information about our status in Cyprus, and whether we filed taxes in other countries (we do, in the UK), and what my source of income is, and what it's estimated to be in a year.

I became more and more bewildered, since none of the categories applied to me, and I had no idea if they wanted figures relating just to me, or to both of us. But it wouldn't let me leave it until another time, so I had to make best estimates and keep going through several pages.

At last this was complete, and I was, thankfully, able to pay our electricity and water bills.

But what a performance.

When we first moved here, online banking in Cyprus didn't exist. Nor were there debit cards. We had to write cheques for our rent, and at supermarkets, with our home phone number considered sufficient identification. We also had to write cheques for utility bills and take them to the relevant offices.  Like the Post Office box rental ledgers, it was old-fashioned and non-technological.

But it worked.

Paying the 'Immovable Property Tax' in Cyprus

Seven years ago when we were buying our house here in Cyprus, the previous owner told us that there was one bill that would not be chased up. We thought he said it was a municipal tax related to the new sewage works.

At least, that's what we thought he said. His English was a great deal better than our Greek, but far from fluent. What was very clear, though, was that if we did not pay it, nobody would send a reminder, and one day we might have to pay a vast bill for ten years all at once.

We were a bit concerned about this, until a bill looking like this arrived:

Actually there were two of them, as we each (technically) own half of the house. Oddly one is addressed to Richard James and the other to Richard Jane; I assume the latter is supposed to be me.  I have obediently paid these bills every year and assumed that these were the ones we were warned about.

In recent months, since the banking crisis, we have been hearing rumours and reading reports about an 'immovable property tax'.  The Cyprus Mail ran an article supposedly to help us understand this tax - which implied that it was something that was payable every year. 

Not being very good with finances or the vagaries of the system, I somehow assumed that this must be the same as the municipal tax bill we had been paying every year. 

I hoped so, anyway. 

But I did start to wonder if in fact we SHOULD have received another bill every year, but that it had never arrived. It's hard to recall exactly what was said more than seven years ago, so maybe we had imagined the details, and that we were really being told about this Immovable Property Tax (which I shall henceforth refer to as IPT) - and that we were now going to owe rather a lot. 

Then I read an article which said that all IPT forms had been sent out. So, I assumed, since we had not received anything extra, it must simply refer to the Municipal bill we had been paying regularly.  

I could breathe again.

Last Friday Richard had a meeting with his sailing buddy. In the course of the conversation it transpired that someone from his office had gone to the local tax office in Larnaka to pay the IPT since there was a discount for all bills paid before October 16th. Apparently the majority of home-owners had NOT been sent an IPT bill. The whole situation, apparently, is chaotic and disorganised. 

So I did some more research and discovered this worrying article about the IPT. Our house is undoubtedly worth more than €120,000.  And while its value in 1980, as recorded on our deeds, is only €48,000, it was clear from the new banding that we definitely have to pay the tax this year, and possibly for previous years too.  Even if just for this year, the table on that page suggested that we would have to pay €880, and it wasn't clear whether that was one payment, or whether we would each have to pay that amount. 

So we found our house title deeds:

And set off for the tax office, which isn't far away.  There were two queues outside. We joined the longer one, but a helpful guy told us that this was the queue for people who were going to pay it because they were already registered, or had received a bill in the post. The other queue was for people who had not received a bill. 

So we joined the other queue, which moved quite fast despite there being only one person on duty. He took our deeds and made a phone call. He gave us forms to fill in, and told us to go to the fifth floor. 

On the fifth floor there was a group of people in the same situation. Some were sitting, some were standing, most were complaining. Our forms were in English so we filled them in, and eventually - after about an hour - it was our turn.  A young woman typed the information on our forms into her computer - interspersed with chatting with her colleagues around the office - and eventually gave us two printed forms, which contained our new tax reference numbers.  

We asked how much we owed, and she said she could not tell us - we had to go down to the fourth floor for that.

So we went down a floor, and it wasn't long before we were seen by another young woman, who entered yet more information on her computer, and presented us with two bills.  To our great relief, each bill was for €143 - apparently since we share ownership of the house, we pay 0.6% each of half the 1980 value (ie €24,000) which, thankfully, is nowhere near the large amount we feared. 

So, we asked, could we pay there and then?

No, she said, we would have to go back to the ground floor and join the queue. I asked if we could pay online, and she said that we could indeed do that, at the JCCSmart site. But not until Monday, since our information would probably not be online yet. 

She then grabbed a small scrap of paper on which she carefully wrote out the lengthy reference numbers we would need. 

When we saw the length of the queue on the ground floor, we decided to try the online option, and to my great relief our information was there when I logged into JCCSmart on Monday morning, and entered the codes. 

Moreover, since I was ahead of the October 16th deadline, we did indeed have a 10% discount... and the amount we actually had to pay was just under €130 each. It's hard to imagine how this could possibly make much difference to the huge amounts of money that the Cyprus government is having to raise, and how it can even be financially viable, given the amount of time it seems to be taking to sort this all out. 

The IPT will undoubtedly be higher next year, when our house is revalued to nearer what it is actually worth, but at least we should be in the system by then, and thus - possibly - will get our bill in the mail. 

Where has August gone?

Three weeks of August have raced by. I'm in my summer routine - get up early, do whatever chores, cooking or shopping need to be done, have breakfast, take a shower, then switch the air conditioning on in my study and turn on the computer for a few hours.

Um. Except that, today, I switched the computer on before doing any chores. As I have done a few times recently. So I'm sitting here with my study door open and the ceiling fan on only. We're trying to use the a/c significantly less this year in a bid to save electricity. We're running the air conditioners at 29C rather than 28, and mostly relying on a fan at night. But, alas, the bills are as high as ever. If not more so. And I simply can't deal with unrelenting heat. Yesterday it was a little cooler.. 'only' about 33C at most, and the humidity was lower than it has been. But still too hot to have a computer on without cooling, most of the day, and too hot for me to do anything other than potter gently.

If anyone read my post about the end of July, they might have wondered how successful the jigsaw roll was. I'm happy to report that it worked extremely well. The following Sunday I unrolled it:

And even completed it. Then I rolled it up again, unwilling to take it apart again at once, and it's sitting in a cupboard. We no longer have a huge table that can take several completed puzzles over the summer, but it was nice to do one again, for the first time in many years. 

At the start of July, we said we'd aim to go to the beach for an hour each evening, around 5.00pm, and swim. Just to get some fresh air and exercise, and because it seems silly to live a mile from the beach and not take more advantage of it.

How many times did we do this?  Perhaps four or five times in all.  Some days Richard was busy with other things, some days it was still too hot for me, some days we just forgot. 

We did have a very enjoyable beach barbecue with our friends nearly two weeks ago, on Pervolia Beach where cooking is still allowed: 

At the weekend after that, Richard and a couple of friends took the boat for an overnight trip to Cape Greko, which they very much enjoyed. 

And then, suddenly, it was last Friday. The small cell group we belong to has been meeting at a local beach during July and August, to hang out and relax. We take our own picnics and usually stay until after it's dark (which was after 8.00 at the start of July, but nearer 7.30 now). I keep forgetting to take photos, but I did take this one of Katie, putting a lot of time and effort into creating a 'cake' for Richard (whose birthday is in a couple of months), covering it with vast amounts of fudge sauce, well disguised as sandy gloop. 

It occurred to me that it's probably the last time we'll visit the beach this summer. Possibly the last time this year.

If asked what I've done in the past couple of months, it would be hard to say. Mainly writing, reading, and browsing online.  Some website updates, some email, some reviewing, and some online Scrabble with friends. But I don't really see how that's taken up all my time. I don't ever plan to do much during the hottest months; low-key aestivating is all I can manage, but there seems to be very little to show for it this year.

On Monday I defrosted our large upright freezer, delighted to find that I had run down our supplies sufficiently that everything fitted (albeit rather tightly) into the top part of our fridge-freezer. I did throw out a couple of mysterious and un-labelled bags, which I suspect may have been leftover stuffing from Christmas. And a couple of small tubs of leftover pasta which I had evidently frozen a LONG time ago as they were iced up and smelled of freezer... we eat pasta so rarely that I'm not sure what I planned to do with frozen leftovers.

Keeping the large freezer off for the next few weeks should at least reduce our electricity costs slightly. I wasn't sure that everything would fit until the last moment - I have several tubs of frozen chicken stock, awaiting soup-making season. I still have three litres of frozen lemon juice to make more lemonade with - left from the very inexpensive lemon-glut season. I still have three tubs of frozen tomatoes, too, which I use instead of buying canned ones.  They're much cheaper here, if I buy tomatoes on special offer in season, and more nutritious too. I also have at least a week's supply of frozen portions of meals from the crockpot, some frozen peas in the only brand we like that were on offer a couple of months ago.  And various other bits and pieces... but it all fit in the fridge-freezer, so I was pleased.

December in Cyprus: bills, shopping and a general day

Not that it feels any different from November. The weather is still unseasonably warm. When I walked to the PO Box this morning, I was wearing a fleece; but by the time I arrived at Tots I was pretty warm, so I took it off. And while I expected to feel chilly during the course of the morning, it didn't happen. I carried it home, and didn't feel the need for an extra layer until about 3pm.

From comments I've received on this blog, and on Facebook after the posts I link to there (by no means all of them), and the occasional related email I've received, it appears that people who read this are primarily interested in four things:

• What the weather is like in Cyprus

• What I actually do from day to day

• What it costs to live in Cyprus

• What I cook and eat

Posts about plants typically attract the odd comment, usually from someone who's found the post via a search engine. And posts about places of interest in Cyprus are usually ignored completely, or so it appears.

Not that I intend to stop writing about interesting places, if we happen to visit anywhere new. But, wanting to please my public, so to speak, I shall attempt this month to write more on the above bullet-pointed items. Unless, that is, a stream of comments tell me that - as it appears to me, sometimes - those are rather tedious topics and I should write about something else.

So. I've covered today's weather in the first paragraph. Sunshine, and around 23C in the shade, I suppose. As it's been for most of the past month or so. Chillier once it gets dark - at around 5pm - but not really cold.

What I did: paid for the next years's PO Box rental (30 euros), collected mail (mostly bills), helped at Tots - the mother-and-toddler group run by Larnaka Community Church, but open to anyone. Walked home with friends, read email/Facebook, wrote a longish email and one or two forum posts, uploaded photos from Picasa to Kodak Gallery, so I can order some prints tomorrow. Laundry in the machine and then hung out, since it's a mains water day. Watered the plants, since it hasn't rained for a week. Filled drinking water bottles from the mains tap. Popped around the corner to Orphanides Express, since we needed some more milk and cheese for the cauliflower cheese I planned to make for tonight's meal. Chatted awhile on Instant Messenger with Tim, as he was deciding which essay topic to write for his Ethics class.

Then I cooked, and we ate, and I froze the rest of the large cauliflower which I bought yesterday: we'll get at least four meals out of it.

So much for my day. I'm now blogging... ! Richard is doing something on his laptop, but in a few minutes we'll switch off and probably play a board game.

And for those interested in the cost of living - from our perspective, anyway - my visit to Orphanides Express cost us just over 21 euros. For that, I bought a 2kg bag of cat food, 2 litres of milk, 400g Cheddar cheese, 1kg Greek yogurt, 1 litre of lemon squash, and 7 free range eggs. Dairy products are not cheap in Cyprus, and free-range eggs are particularly pricey. But I can't quite bring myself to buy the other kind.

As for the bills: in the last two months we've used up 120 euros of electricity, and in the past three months we've used 23 euros of water. That's in the main part of the house where we live; both seem very reasonable. In fact, given the scarcity of water in Cyprus, the water bill seems remarkably low considering that I run the washing machine three or four times per week, and the dishwasher probably five times. And of course we have showers every day, and are not economical about flushing the loo.

We also had bills for the guest flat: around 75 for electricity; slightly more than last year, but then we've had people staying fairly often this year. The water bill for the guest flat is just over 40 euros; it's unusual to be more than in our part of the house, but then it covers the period when the guest flat tank was leaking, and had to be replaced (and thus completely emptied out) a few months ago, and also we watered the plants outside, using guest flat water, every other day during July and August. The date range, strangely, for the water bills is July to October.

(Note: if you want to convert euros to some other currency, I'd recommend the oanda.com currency converter. If you want to find out imperial equivalents to the metric weights or Celcius temperature, the easiest way is to go to Google and type something like '400g in ounces' - and the first result will show you the exact calculation)

Paying bills in Cyprus

When we first moved to Cyprus, we assumed we would be able to set up direct debits from our bank account for payments such as our rent, utilities, insurance, and so on. As we did, at no cost, in the UK.

Alas, nothing is that simple in Cyprus. Our landlady said a cheque in the post was the best way to pay rent. So that was all right, even if it seemed a little old-fashioned.

We lived very close to the old electricity board building. The easiest - and commonest - method of paying those (bi-monthly) bills was to go there, in person, and write a cheque. No problem.

The telephone/internet office is in town. Those bills come once a month, but we weren't too far away, so once I got used to it, I would walk down there and write a cheque for that too.

Being Cyprus, cheque books are not free; we had to pay something like five Cyprus pounds for the privilege of having each one, but still. At least it worked.

The water board appeared to be the most forward-looking organisation, and suggested we set up a direct debit with them. So we did. We were a bit puzzled that our bank statements didn't seem to show anything being taken out for the water board... and after six months, a very apologetic man arrived, telling us we hadn't paid our (quarterly) bills. So, as the water board was also fairly near our house, we cancelled the direct debit and I started writing a cheque and going there too.

Then the electricity board moved, considerably further away. I suppose it was walking distance in the winter, but my sense of direction isn't very good. I could pay the bills at the bank, but they charged 50c (old money) each time, which seemed a bit much. So we had to remember to drive to the new electricity board to pay the bills.

Then, a few years ago, the Bank of Cyprus introduced online banking. It was a little clunky, but it worked. At last, I could pay all three utility bills online. It was quick, easy, and best of all, it worked.

Insurance? Oh, that's different again. We had to use a broker. A very friendly, pleasant man calls round regularly to collect money for house, contents and car insurances. A cheque is fine. The amounts seemed very reasonable when we first came here, but have increased somewhat over the years. But he sorts it all out, deals with the paperwork, and when Richard needed to claim something on the car insurance, the broker appeared and dealt with it.

Medical insurance used to work the same way, but the representative changed to someone who preferred an automated system. So we do actually now pay that (quarterly) by direct debit. We had to pay a setup fee, slightly to my horror, but it wasn't huge. And it appears to work.

Then there are the fees for car tax. annually. At first we paid them at a seedy place near the sea-front, which someone recommended. A broker was involved, who took an extra fee. Then we realised we could pay at the 'co-operative' bank, so for some years we did. Now we can pay car taxes online, using jccsmart. That works well.

And then there's the annual sewerage payment, and another bill that we've only had since owning our own house, from the municipality. Some kind of rates, we assume. They both have to be paid by the end of November. And they can both be paid at the co-operative bank, too.

I realised recently that there's a co-op much nearer than I had realised. So today, bills and cheque book in hand, I went there.

'No cheque', said the woman on the till.

'No cheque?' I said, in some surprise. 'But I've written cheques before... why not?"

She just shrugged, and repeated 'no cheque.'.

So I said I'd go and get some cash. I did so, returned, and paid the bills. They charged 50c per bill, but I think that's less than our own bank would have charged.

I came home, and decided to pay the phone/internet bill.

Unfortunately... the Bank of Cyprus have 'migrated' some customers, including me, to a new internet banking system. It won't work at all in Safari, my current favourite browser.

I couldn't get it to work in Firefox, either, the first few attempts. Then finally the login screen loaded correctly and I was in.

This 'new' system is horrible. It's not obvious how it works, and it's SO SLOW. Each page takes at least a minute to load. I finally managed to pay the CYTA bill - at least, I hope so - and then thought I'd look at the current transactions page, to check it had gone through.

I tried to get there before I started typing this post, about fifteen minutes ago.

Firefox is STILL 'transferring data....'.

I had thought that paying bills online at the bank's online system was straightforward and quick.

It would almost have been quicker to walk into town and back...