Three months slipped by...

I knew it was a while - too long - since I last wrote on this blog. I'm shocked to find that it's almost three months. I've thought, more than once, about a blog post in recent weeks, but no one topic stood out as blog-worthy.  However,  the longer I leave it the harder it will be to get back into it... so I've grabbed a few of my photos for a whistle-stop tour of life in Cyprus, from my perspective, since the end of February.

Immigration and Citizenship
My last post was about our visit to Immigration, and the successful granting of yellow slips. That was a huge relief. They demonstrate that we are living here legally as European citizens, and - in theory, anyway - there are no expiry dates. What will happen after the UK leaves the EU is still unknown, so Richard is still hoping to acquire Cyprus citizenship.

The next stage in that process was to get a criminal record bureau check, something that is fairly common around the world now, for people working with children or other vulnerable folk. Neither of us had needed one before, but in the event it was straightforward. We drove to Nicosia, found the correct police department, submitted paperwork (and twenty euros), then went and had coffee.

I was mildly amused by this sign we spotted as we walked back to the office, suggesting we might want 'criminal record certificates'.  Happily everything was straightforward, and Richard now has a piece of paper stating that he has not committed any crimes.  This wasn't just backdated a few days to the granting of our yellow slips, so we still don't know why we needed them!  Our Alien Registration Cards, which we have had for over twenty years, have the same ID on them.

So we scanned and printed this document, and the yellow slips, and added them to the enormous pile of paperwork necessary for Richard to apply for citizenship.  We had to pay 500 euros just to submit it all; someone glanced through the paperwork and at first said that it was no good because he only had the yellow slip for a few days. So he came home, and wrote a note explaining why we didn't have them for our first twenty years here, and the following morning a different official accepted it. They didn't need all 1000 sheets of documentation, but they glanced at some, and took copies of all they required, plus of course the application form itself.

The next step will be an interview, but that could be anything from six months' time through to about six years.

Meze
Our guest flat has been very busy this year, with friends, friends-of-friends, acquaintances, and (currently) acquaintances of local friends. At the start of March, four friends came out for a week; one of them worked hard trying to get Richard's work accounts in order for last year, and the others relaxed and had a holiday. One evening they took us out for a meze at Kura Georgina, which is probably our current favourite restaurant, with the added bonus of being within walking distance.

One thing we particularly like about it is the fresh fruit platter offered 'on the house' as dessert:

In the background are some candied fruits, also part of the dessert, and a few minutes later we were given some loukomades, but were so full we could barely eat them.

Plants
I usually post photos of yellow wild flowers in Cyprus in March. There were, indeed, many of them. But for a change, here's rather a pretty pink plant that was also in bloom around the Salt Lake trail in March:

Long-term readers of this blog (if there are any...) might remember that last October we employed our teenage friend Jacob and his worker Mike to transform our side yard into a little garden, complete with artificial grass and some custom-built wooden planters.  We bought a random selection of small shrubs and other plants at local places, and were given a few extras by a neighbour.

We're not great with plants in general, and most of them weren't labelled so we didn't know what kind of watering or sun/shade situation they would need... nor do we know whether they will survive the summer, even supposing we manage to give them sufficient water.  But this is how one part was looking at the start of April - the rest of the plants, likewise, seem to be blooming.  So far, anyway.

Fresh air and walking
We're both quite keen on fresh air where possible, and during the last couple of months have sat outside in the garden swing to drink our after-lunch coffees.  I'm still walking three mornings a week, first thing, with my friend Sheila. When we get back, we sit in the swing to cool off a little, and chat.

Richard was beginning to feel a lack of exercise, but he is not, in any sense, an early bird. So we thought we might try a few late afternoon or evening walks.  I think we've managed three so far.  More than once we have been put off - or forced to return after only a short walk - due to increased levels of dust in the Cyprus air.  This usually happens during one weekend each spring, but this year has happened several times.  It was particularly bad one Sunday when we planned to walk... so we didn't get far:

National Days
25th March and 1st April are always public holidays here. If they fall on weekdays, schools have days off, and banks and some other institutions are closed. There are parades along the sea front and some of the side streets, and we used to go and watch - over twelve years ago now! - when our older son was in the town band.

We never can remember which of these dates is Greek National Day and which is Cyprus National Day. 1st April this year was also the Western rite Easter Sunday, so we went to the local Anglican church for morning service. All the other churches we know of, including other Protestant ones, celebrate Greek (Eastern rite) Easter, which this year was on April 8th.

Walking back from the service, we had to pause while part of a parade went past:

Since the Greek flag is clearly in evidence, and there was blue and white bunting, we assumed that it must have been Greek National Day.

We were wrong. Apparently that was a week earlier, and 1st April is in fact Cyprus National Day.

UK trip
We managed to miss Greek Easter entirely, since we flew to the UK for ten days on April 5th. It was an early flight, via Blue Air, which landed mid-morning. That meant we were in plenty of time to have lunch with some close friends, before driving to stay with my father for a few days.

Our main reason for going, however, was a very special birthday celebrated by Richard's mother. Twenty-four of us gathered in a restaurant for the main party, a few days after the actual birthday. Since all our photos contain people, who might not want to appear on a public blog, I won't illustrate it.

It was a busy ten days, catching up with quite a few family members on both sides, and seeing some friends we hadn't seen for a long time. Richard spoke at two church services and we bought various things we can't easily get hold of in Cyprus.

Although we flew out to the UK with just one suitcase, we had to fly back with two. That's partly because of various things we had bought, and partly because my generous family had given me a lot of birthday presents in advance, to save on international postage. Happily, my father had a large-size suitcase in excellent condition, which he no longer used, so he gave it to us.

Knitting
After completing a knitted nativity scene in 2016, and knitting several toys for family and friends in 2017, I wanted a new project. I find knitting relaxing, and it's supposed to be good for cognitive functions... so I was delighted to find a Facebook page which coordinates knitted blankets, 'bonding squares' and other items for premature babies at hospitals in the UK.

I had some yarn in stock and bought a bit more locally, and by the time we were in the town where there's a collection point for knitted blankets, on our UK trip, I had completed five.

If anyone wants to know in more detail how this works, and what patterns I used in these blankets, I have a separate blog about knitting. The most recent post describes what I did. I've completed another one since returning to Cyprus, and several 'bonding squares' and am over half way through another large blanket.

(Bonding squares, in case anyone was wondering, are pairs of small knitted squares, identical in colour, size and pattern. When a baby must be separated from the mother, each takes one square to sleep with. Every six or eight hours, they are switched.  This enables the baby to breathe in the mother's scent, and become used to it; it also enables the mother to breathe in the baby's scent even when she cannot be near him or her, and that can aid in her milk production). 

Jam making
I usually make strawberry jam in March, and apricot jam in May.  But although strawberries started appearing in the local shops in February, as usual, they weren't all that great, and were quite expensive.  During March I watched out for special offers, but it appeared that strawberries were late this year.

Since we were away for ten days early in April, I wondered if I would miss out entirely on this year's jam-making. But a week after our return, I saw this at the local fruit stall:

3kg strawberries for 2 euros seemed like a very good deal. I used the sugar tongs that used to be my mother's to hull them quickly, and made just over eight pots of jam:

Rose
In the evening of my birthday we had our usual Friday meal with our local friends, and they gave me this lovely miniature rose, which we planted out on a balcony near our 'garden':

Oven
It's almost twelve years since we moved to this house, so it's not surprising that some appliances have started to misbehave. I wrote in October last year about having to replace our freezer.  About a month ago I turned on the knob for our oven... and the electricity went off. I thought at first it was a power cut, but went to check the power trip thing and found it had tripped off.

So I turned it on... and then, when I tried to turn the oven on again, the same thing happened.  It wasn't urgent to use the oven that day, and Richard wasn't there. So I used other methods to cook, and looked online to see if I could work out what the problem might be.

It was an Ariston oven, so I knew from TV advertisement indoctrination in the 1980s that it would go 'on and on and on and on'... which, indeed, it has.  It wasn't new when we bought the house in 2006; at a rough estimate, we think it was probably at least ten years old then.  It's worked well, on the whole, although a few times the glass front fell out and was complicated to put back. At Christmas our son Tim commented that it didn't seem to be heating as well as it should... and I had noticed it was taking much longer to warm up than it used to. 

Google told me that the most likely cause of the power tripping was that the heating element would need to be replaced.  When Richard came home, we discussed it, and - taking into account the age of the oven - decided that it would be more sensible (and not THAT much more expensive) to replace the oven.  

So, a few days later, courtesy of George Theodorou (from whom we buy all our white goods, and who offers free delivery and installation as well as pretty good prices and excellent service, when needed) our new oven was installed:

We didn't want anything fancy, and I definitely didn't want a touch screen. It had to fit exactly in the space given, and we wanted a rotary fan at the back, as well as easy-cleaning... so once we'd narrowed it down, we chose what looked like the best value.  So far, we've been very pleased.

Reducing plastic
At the start of the year, Cyprus was supposed to introduce a one-cent charge for plastic carrier bags, in preparation for the requirement to implement a higher charge in July. Most of Europe did this some years ago, but as happens in so many situations, Cyprus lags behind. We have used cloth carrier bags - when we remember - for a couple of years, now. But the locals, who don't necessarily travel outside Cyprus, are used to the free plastic carriers . Until recently, we haven't seen any real encouragement to reduce them.

But a couple of weeks ago, on what has become an every-other-month visit to Metro Supermarket, we saw an advert for trolley bags. I'd seen this idea in a catalogue and it had seemed ingenious: different sized bags, joined by velcro, which could be used in a supermarket trolley, then separated for putting into the car and carrying into the house. Metro were selling them - although they weren't easy to find! - at a better price than I had seen before.  So we decided to get some.

They would be ideal in supermarkets with self-scanning, but that hasn't come to Cyprus yet, and I doubt if it will any time soon. Still, they were fine to pack things into after they were scanned at the checkout; the blue one at the end is a cool bag but we had too much cold/frozen stuff for it to close:

I wasn't sure if these bags would fit in other supermarket trolleys, but this week we went to Lidl (also an every-other-month exercise) and they worked well there.

I was going to write even more in this post - about theatre productions, and macaroni straws, and heatwaves, and a new (to us) boat... but I've been writing for over an hour, and it's well past my bedtime.  So perhaps, if I get back in the habit of blogging, they'll be mentioned in my next post.

Special spring days in Cyprus

There seem to be a lot of public holidays in Cyprus, many of which feature parades, with chosen school students and Scouting groups marching around the town. In past years, when our older son was in the Municipal Band, we used to go and watch; but one parade is much like another. With no special person to watch, the parades held little interest after we had seen a few.

Greek Independence Day
There are two national days celebrated in Cyprus, exactly a week apart. The first is Greek Independence Day, on March 25th.  It's related to the Greeks rising up against the occupying Ottoman empire back in the 1800s, but also, a little confusingly, is connected with the Feast of the Anunciation, nine months before Christmas.

Bunting is put up in the streets, and roads are cleared on the day so that the parades can take place.

Whereas Greek Independence Day is a public holiday if it occurs on a weekday, there's no extra day in lieu if, as happened this year, it falls at the weekend.

Clock-changing Day
March 25th was also the date when clocks had to be put forward for summer time, or daylight savings, or whatever other variation you call it. I very much like the 'spring forward' change. The evenings are lighter - it's now not dark until well past 7.00pm - and it's still pleasantly cool for walking with my friend Sheila at 7.00am.  Ideally we start out half an hour earlier than that, but the disadvantage of the clock change is that I wake later for at least a week or two.

Mothering Sunday
Not to be confused with US 'Mother's Day', Mothering Sunday is always three weeks before Easter. So this year it fell on March 26th. The origins are uncertain, although I gather it existed before the Reformation. In the 19th century it seems to have been the day when girls 'in service' in the UK were able to go home to their 'mother church' - and, I assume, their families - before the busy Easter period.

However, in the middle of the 20th century it became popular as a day to give cards or flowers to mothers. It's not something that was part of my culture growing up; my mother didn't like it, and it was nowhere near such a big thing as it is now.

When my sons were small they made cards or crafts of some kind at school. But then we moved to Cyprus when they were 9 and 11. It's not celebrated here (although Cyprus has a low-key variation of Mother's Day early in May) and none of us ever remembered it. Sometimes there would be a mention at a church service; occasionally flowers were given, or crafts made in Sunday school.

I went to the local Anglican church this year, forgetting that it was Mothering Sunday. Little posies were given to everyone in the congregation - men as well as women - so I was happy to put this in water when I arrived home:

A couple of hours later, a knock at the front door revealed my friend Sheila's 17-year-old son, with a bouquet, from my son Tim in the UK:

I was overwhelmed!  Tim is now a teacher, at a school where Mothering Sunday is mentioned regularly, so he said that helped him to remember.

Jam-making Day
Three days later I went out to the fruit shop, and popped over to look at the connected stall, where they sell large crates of fruit or vegetables at excellent prices. The big crates are far more than we can use, but they often have excess produce, or items past their best (or at the peak of ripeness) for just a euro or two.

I spotted some strawberries; in the fruit shop itself they're about €1.50 for 500g, and I'd bought a couple of punnets a few weeks earlier.  A small crate, which looked as if it had at least a couple of kilogrammes in it, was €4. I bought them, and was pleased to discover, on weighing them, that there were three and a half kg in all.  Excellent value.  They were perfectly ripe, and I knew wouldn't keep much longer, so Wednesday, unexpectedly, was my strawberry jam-making day:

A little over 2kg went into making eight jars of jam, and I pureed and froze most of the rest, keeping a few to eat.

Wednesday was also the day that the UK Prime Minister formally triggered the 'Brexit' process. I was surprised how very sad it made me feel; we knew it was coming, after all, although I had temporarily forgotten while making jam. Nobody knows what agreements will happen, if any, or how things will work out for Brits abroad, and other Europeans in the UK. All we can do is wait and see, hoping and praying that something positive might emerge.

Cyprus National Day
Much of the world knows April 1st as April Fool's Day, and indeed there were pranks on Facebook, and on some of the news websites. It's a bit difficult to know what's true these days anyway; so many sites offer 'fake' news, or exaggerations, or speculations which may never happen. And some news stories which are genuine are quite bizarre.

However, April 1st is another public holiday in Cyprus, exactly a week after Greek Independence Day. It celebrates the start of the uprising of the Cypriots against the occupying British, back in 1955. When we used to watch our son marching with the band, we would sometimes be asked by locals if we knew what the day was about. They thought it a bit odd that we would be out there watching!

Kittens' Birthday
And finally, April 4th. Until three years ago, I only knew this as my brother-in-law's birthday; indeed, I didn't take much notice of the date when Sheila's cat Conny gave birth to kittens back in 2014.  But four months later we adopted Alexander the Great and Joan of Arc, and Tim, who was living in Cyprus at the time, adopted Lady Jane Grey. Sadly we lost Joan a little over a year ago, but then we adopted Jane when Tim moved back to the UK.

At first Jane was terrified and we wondered if the two would ever get along, but now, at the mature age of three (and really no longer kittens, but we still think of them that way) they get along very well:

Faraway Families...

One of the hardest things about living as an ex-pat in Cyprus - or, indeed, anywhere else - is being far away from our family.  Bad enough when we moved here fifteen years ago, saying goodbye to relatives and friends, changing our lifestyle, getting used to a new culture.  But that was nothing compared to the pain of saying goodbye to our sons when they - for different but excellent reasons - both left home, when they were nineteen. 

This month seems to have been particularly poignant, thinking about loved ones in the UK.  We missed an important family birthday at the start of the month: it was great to spend some time chatting on Facetime:

But obviously not the same as being there in real life.  We're missing another family get-together for another special birthday this weekend. 

Worse still, in a sense, is not being around when we might be needed. When relatives are taken to hospital, we feel  helpless, unable to do anything from this distance, other than to pray... and breathe a sigh of relief when they return home. 

A few days ago I felt helpless again when our younger son Tim was hit by a car when crossing a road in the evening in heavy rain. He said it was only a relatively minor hit, but still - a speeding car which knocked someone down and sped away is a terrifying thought for any parent.  I was overwhelmingly thankful that it was not a split second earlier, that he was on his way to a small group where he could be looked after and given some ice, and that he seemed to be reasonably all right the following morning, which is when we first heard about it.  Unfortunately he's still in pain nearly a week later; nothing is broken, but he has badly pulled ligaments. I wouldn't be able to do anything if I were there - but it's hard being so far away. We're looking forward very much to seeing him for a few weeks over Christmas when he comes to visit. 

As for Daniel and Becky, they are even further away, as they have now gone to spend three months on the ship Logos Hope. They had also hoped to come to Cyprus for Christmas, but just three weeks ago were asked if they could fly out to join the ship at the end of the month.  They departed on Monday evening, and arrived in the Philippines this morning (which was late last night, Cyprus time).  It was a long, long journey and they are very tired, as well as somewhat overwhelmed with the tasks ahead of them.  I was extremely pleased to receive an email from Daniel this morning, letting us know that they had got there safely. 

Feeling a bit morose, I looked through my photos to choose the one which I placed near the start of this email.  And noticed, of course, many pictures of local friends. I thought about Easter, when two couples who have become close to us came to lunch, and last Christmas when our other good friends came over for the day.

And then I saw this, taken recently, which reminded me that although our own children are grown up and our blood relatives are all far away, there are some lovely small people who live close by, and who have pretty much adopted us as part of their extended family:

This sounds like a cliché and I hate 'religious jargon'... but can't think of a better way to put it: we are very blessed. 

Autumn in Cyprus and the changing of the clocks....

I seem to say it often around this time of year - so I hope it's not a sign of age. But I really don't know where the time goes. Tonight the clocks go back an hour in Cyprus (and indeed everywhere in Europe) signalling the Autumn season with darker evenings ahead.  It's just this week that the temperatures have dropped below 30C at midday and it begins to feel as if Summer might finally have come to an end. 

A Facebook friend commented that, looking at photos I uploaded recently, it seemed as if we'd done a lot of eating in the past couple of weeks.  This is reflected in the selection of pictures below... but it's not all we've done.  Still, even in the hotter weather of the first part of October, I did find myself doing a bit more preserving, partly using my new dehydrator, and partly taking advantage of very inexpensive fruit from a local fruit stall. With 13kg plums to use, I made my first ever plum jam:

I hadn't tried it before, under the impression that I wasn't very keen on it. But I don't eat jam anyway, other than on rare occasions... and it made a change from my usual apricot and strawberry. I was surprised to find that it was actually extremely good. 

A few days later Richard celebrated his 55th birthday, which has seemed like something of a milestone. He said he'd like to eat out, so we went to a new Mexican restaurant we had seen, not far from where we live. It has the not-terribly-inspiring name of Nuevo Mexico... a menu much like that we had previously enjoyed at Aztekas, and a rather garish Ikea-inspired decor. The waitress was excellent, the presentation of the food superb.... let down by lack of hotness, both temperature-wise and spiciness-wise. The desserts, however, were unbelievably good. We ordered two to share, including an out-of-this-world chocolate fudge cake:

Richard's second 'birthday cake', complete with candles, was a pizza cake created by friends who we had dinner with a couple of days later. The base was a giant chocolate chip cookie, the taste amazing:

Then on Friday for our cell group I made a couple of chocolate fudge cakes, decorated with dehydrated peaches. It was pretty good too, but vanished rather quickly with 16 of us involved. I didn't think to take a photo until we were half way through the second one - it tasted rather better than it looks!

And so to this week... on Friday we celebrated, in a low-key kind of way, 15 years since we first arrived in Cyprus 'for a couple of years or so'. It was a little cooler, and some of the plants on our patio looked a bit tired so we popped to the local plant shop and picked up a few bedding plants to brighten it up a little.  At last I've adjusted sufficiently to feel it 'right' that bedding plants go out in October rather than April or May.  Richard wore jeans all day and a sweatshirt in the evening, although I haven't reached that stage  yet.  But I did agree that we needed to put the thin duvet on the bed last night - and was thankful that I did. Night-time temperatures are down to about 17C. 

Given the number of extra calories I have consumed recently, including rather a lot of 'testing' of the dehydrator, it's as well that I've now got into the habit of walking, fairly briskly, at least 5km with my friend Sheila, three times a week.  Just occasionally, there's a wonderful bonus as when we rounded a bend in the path and were greeted with this: 

Words could not begin to describe it, and the photo is totally inadequate - all day, my mind kept repeating the words of the song: 'All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord'. 

The last ten days of July

As I wrote in my previous post about restaurants, we had a very busy week, out every evening seeing various local friends. It seems a long time ago now. I got as far as our anniversary on Thursday 19th July, but that wasn't the end of the busy period. On Friday we had our usual 'cell group' get-together on the beach, as we do during July and August. We hang out, swim a little, play with the children, eat our picnics, and chat about life, children, and anything else that comes to mind, staying there until darkness falls shortly after 8.00pm.

On Saturday we were out in the evening again, playing a Settlers game with our usual game-friends, and on Sunday they came to us for a DVD (for the children to watch) and yet another game for the adults, followed by a cold shared supper.

Then on Monday we were privileged, once again, to be invited to the 'family dinner' for our friends' daughter Katie, who was about to turn seven:

It was actually a day before her birthday, but she was about to go to Germany for ten days with her mother and two younger sisters, so she had an early celebration including a star-shaped cake:

I contributed some home-made ice cream, as I usually do.  Katie was expecting to have a 'proper' party after her return from Germany, but for various reasons there were no dates that worked with her chosen guests, so it was all the more special that we were counted as part of the family for her birthday meal. 

And then... 

We had a VERY quiet ten days. I don't just mean because we didn't see my three favourite small people who were away for that time, but we didn't see the rest of their family either, other than for a couple of minutes when they came to borrow a drill. 

And I didn't see any other friends, since just about everyone else we know seemed to have gone away to the UK, or US for a while. It makes sense to get out of the heat and humidity of Cyprus during the summer months, but I don't recall quite such a mass exodus last year.  

Besides, last year Tim came home for a couple of months, which was wonderful. This year he has a job, so is not coming back until Christmas. 

Richard has been working on cataloguing the various tools and other bits and pieces we have in multiple locations, and I've been reviewing and writing and reading, and keeping the house going, and generally coping with the high temperatures. In the evenings we played games, and watched more DVDs than usual, but by Sunday afternoon I was feeling in the need of something different. 

Richard had made the comment a few days earlier that I hadn't done any jigsaws this year. I replied that I hadn't done any jigsaws for, probably, seven years.  Other than a couple of small ones done for fun with friends at Christmas, the last time I did any real amount of jigsaws was Summer 2005 - I posted about the completed jigsaws in September that year. 

I pointed out that we no longer have the huge table where it was easy to do jigsaws and cover them with a cloth for meals. And I don't have anyone to do the puzzles with, now the boys have left home. And since we have small people visiting quite regularly, I don't think a puzzle would be very safe to leave out.  There were lot of good reasons for not doing them... 

Then on Thursday morning Richard needed to get some glue on special offer at Lidl. I wanted to go to the nut warehouse nearby, so I went with him, and in wandering around I spotted a 'jigsaw roll'. It supposedly allows a jigsaw puzzle up to 2000 pieces to be rolled up when partly done and put away.  It wasn't expensive, and I have a hard time finding anything I want to buy with my birthday or Christmas money, so I decided to be impulsive and buy it.

On the Friday evening the Olympics opening ceremony was broadcast and Richard had a link to watch it via his computer... but since it didn't start until 9.00pm UK time, that was 11.00 here, which is past the time I like to be asleep. He'd been sailing with a 

And on Sunday I got it out. It was just the right size for our small Ikea kitchen table. I also found a puzzle that I was given last Christmas, but had never done. Actually there were two puzzles in the box, so I picked one at random, not knowing which one it might be.

It was a bit strange working on green felt, and I had a bit of a battle to keep the cats from jumping onto it but at least pieces didn't go flying everywhere.  And it was useful having the approximate outline for a 1000-piece puzzle. It looked quite tricky, with patches of colour and not much to focus on, but I sorted, off and on, while cooking lunch, and then set to work on the sky, and it was a lot easier than I had expected: 

After lunch I pottered a bit, and kept sitting down to do just a little more to the puzzle, but had to give up eventually as I was getting neck-ache.  Still, I was quite pleased with what I'd achieved: 

So then I rolled it up and put it away!  I haven't got it out again yet... 

On Monday evening we watched an entire film on DVD (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) - something we do maybe two or three times a month at most. And on Tuesday evening, we played a game of Seafarers of Catan (Fog Island), where Richard insisted I take a photo at the end to show my rather excessively long 'trade route' - I think it was 28 roads and/or ships in all:

The inexorable march of Summer in Cyprus continues, albeit slowly...

It's ten days since I wrote about the start of summer 2012 in Cyprus. Since then, we've had a few more smoothies and several frappés. I've continued wearing shorts, as well as my new sandals. Last Wednesday I put away our thin duvet, so we're just sleeping under a duvet cover now.

The cats, of course, can't do anything much to keep cool. They're moulting (shedding) all over the place - I keep finding clumps of fur. Tessie doesn't mind being quite inelegant at times in the warmer weather:

When it gets warmer still, she'll lie on the floor rather than a sofa.

We still haven't switched on the air conditioning - although the temperature has risen to about 30C or more in the daytime outside, it's not yet particularly humid, and our house never gets as hot as outdoors. We're using the ceiling fans quite a bit, and for the first time have started using an upright fan in the bedroom, which keeps the room cool enough at night. At least for now.  When the humidity starts, we'll be using the air conditioning.

At the weekend I went to see the end-of-year performance of 'The Enormous Crocodile' by the children's group at Antidote, which two of our young friends were in, with Lukas in the title role:

On Monday were privileged, once again, to be counted as part of our friends' extended family when Elisabeth celebrated her second birthday. We sat outside for a while and Helen hid in a box...

Then very much enjoyed a meal with our friends, and Elisabeth's cake:

I got to celebrate twice, because the following morning Elisabeth had a small party for a few of her little friends, and also one or two older ones like me: 

Meanwhile we've had friends from Egypt staying in our guest flat. In the evening they treated us to Souvlaki, and then we went for a short walk along part of the Salt Lake Park trail. The Salt Lake is still very full after the wet winter and spring we had in Cyprus this year, but the plants are already beginning to turn brown:

We probably only walked a couple of kilometres in all; the evening was pleasant, not too hot at all, and we took it slowly.  I was glad to see the park again - I don't think I've been there since I broke a couple of toes at the end of April. The sun doesn't start setting until about 8.00 at this time of year:

We didn't walk far because one of our friends is pregnant, the other doesn't much like walking, and Richard was meeting someone else at 9.00.  But although I'd like to have gone further, I was glad we didn't because by the time we left the Salt Lake trail my toes were beginning to ache a bit... they're getting better all the time, but I begin to wonder if they will ever be completely right.

Early stages of Summer in Cyprus...

So.. a few weeks ago, I switched to our thin duvet at night.

Then, we started using the ceiling fans a little in the evening.

Then I started making sure I did any household chores/cleaning and shopping first thing in the morning - before about 8.00am if possible, while it was still pleasantly cool.

Then I started keeping my study door open and the ceiling fan on, most of the day.

On Friday I cleaned the air conditioners.

On Saturday, I made our first smoothies of the year:

Watermelon, peach and pineapple. A slightly odd combination, but it worked and they were very refreshing.

On Sunday, I found our frappé maker, gave it a quick wipe, and put it out in the kitchen to use over the next few months:

I had my first frappé too:

I felt hot on Sunday. I was out late morning for the first time in a while, at a group baptism including our young friend Marie... only half an hour or so in the sun, but I felt quite migrainey later.

Still, the sky was blue and I think the sea is beginning to warm up.

In the evening we went to the end of Jacob's 13th birthday party, and stayed on for a game.

Today is a public holiday, for Greek Orthodox Pentecost Monday, also known as Kataklysmos. Richard is out sailing, and I'm having a peaceful day on my own at home. 

Oh, and I finally put on some shorts today. For the first time this year.

Birthday cake!

When I wrote about the busy day we had on my birthday last Friday, I mentioned in passing that I wasn't going to have a cake this year, since Tim was not here. 

So imagine my surprise and delight when, having supper with our good friends Mark and Joan last night, they produced this as a slightly belated birthday cake for me:

It was beautiful, although Joan said that the icing (frosting) was a little runny.

It was also extremely delicious - a carrot cake, with pineapple and all kinds of good stuff.  Yum. Then they insisted we take the leftover cake home with us, to enjoy over the next few days. 

We feel very blessed with our various friends. 

Another birthday rolls by

Although we've been 'empty nesters' for nearly four years now, I've managed to spend the last three birthdays with at least one of our sons. I wasn't entirely sure what one does for a birthday with just the two of us - but in the event, it was a pleasant and relaxing day.

I had a pile of presents that had already arrived or been passed to us from various relatives, first thing in the morning: 

They were DVDs and books - mostly from my wishlist - and a new webcam as my previous one was rather unreliable with the sound. 

Then we drove to Immigration - not something I'd have chosen to do on my birthday, but Richard was happy to spend the morning doing random things around Larnaka, so that was our first stop. I wrote yesterday about our experiences, past and present, with Immigration, so won't repeat that here. 

Next stop was the Land Registry Office, since we had managed to lose one part of our house deeds. We were told that it was an easy and inexpensive process to get replacements, so we went to the place where we first acquired them... only to find it totally closed down. 

We had parked in nearby Lidl - not the branch we had been to before - so thought we might as well take a look and see if it had anything more interesting this week: 

It didn't. I was seriously tempted by some delicious looking white chocolate with strawberry pieces, only to see, from the ingredients on the back, that it contained maltodextrin - one of those annoying migraine-inducers. But we wandered around the rest of the store in vain. Nothing that appealed was good value. 

So Richard checked the map on his phone, which gave directions to the new Land Registry Office, which we found easily. It was a lot grander than the previous one:

We spoke to a helpful receptionist who filled in the forms for us, and explained where to go. It was, indeed, quick and easy. We had to pay a grand total of 1.71 euro for new copies of both our deeds. It took about fifteen minutes in all, and involved five different workers... one to fill in the form, one to take our money, one to write the date and direct us to the lift, one to produce the actual deeds, and one to give the inevitable official stamps. 

It was only about 9.30 by the time we had finished all this. As we came out, we saw this:

Unlike me, Richard likes looking around shops, particularly new ones, so he suggested we take a look. It wasn't very interesting. Lots of junk - toys, ornaments, garden tools. There were some clothes, and we took a look at the 'crocs', since Richard needs a new pair, but they weren't very good quality. 

So, as the Land Registry Office is right behind Carrefour, we thought we'd take a look in there to see if they had any crocs. And we thought we might have coffee too...

Unfortunately, the café didn't open until noon. And they didn't have any crocs, nor indeed anything else that interested us. 

We thought we might drive by the Post Office to see if any mail had come: I walked there on Wednesday and picked up a fair amount, so was quite surprised to find all these packages and letters awaiting us: 

They included some bills, and books for review, but also some cards and yet more presents from relatives.  I was pleased to find that I had seven cards, which seems rather a lot for a non-special birthday:

Later on a friend called by with yet another. I had two e-cards as well, and about sixty birthday greetings on Facebook! Social networking is a wonderful thing. 

This is the pile of gifts by the time I had opened them all.... 

We spent an hour or so at home, then went out again to get a new printer cartridge at the place that does recycled ones. For some reason it was cheaper than the one we last bought, about three years ago. 

Without Tim at home, I wasn't going to get a cake, so next we took a look in Zorpas, a bakery which sells delicious looking cakes and desserts. We thought we might buy a couple of small ones, or two slices... but they were full of cream (Richard tries to avoid dairy products) and very expensive for what they are. I didn't want a cake THAT much.

By that time it was one o'clock and I was getting hungry. I'd forgotten to take bread out of the freezer, so Richard suggested we go to the café at the marina for toasted tuna sandwiches and salad, which was very pleasant. However I forgot about taking any photos!

In the afternoon we had a very good Google video (like Skype) chat with Tim, using my new webcam, for over an hour. I do like modern technology for keeping in touch with our sons. And we pottered at home, caught up with email and Facebook and so on.

Usually on Fridays we go to a cell group with a meal at our good friends locally, but they're away at present so the group was cancelled. Richard and I had decided to go out to eat - and since I don't like making decisions, we opted for our favourite inexpensive sea-front restaurant, Alexander's.  They had some new menu options but we went for tried-and-tested dishes...

Richard had fish and chips:

I had veggie moussaka:

One of the things I like best about Alexander's is that they almost always offer something 'on the house' after a meal. So Richard had a de-caf coffee, and although I was feeling extremely full (it's rare for us to eat out at all, let alone twice in one day!) I chose the ice cream. Last time I did that, one of the scoops was strawberry. This time it was yellow:

It was really very yellow, more so than the photo shows. It was artificial banana... not unpleasant, exactly, but rather odd. Anyway, I ate it all and enjoyed the chocolate part... and then was surprised how very cold I felt!