Brief visit to Potamos

Another year has rolled by, accounting-wise, and our accountant friend has come out to stay for another week to work on Fixed Assets and Year-End and other such essentials for Richard's work.  While she's here, we usually try to take her somewhere that she hasn't been before.  Last year we went to Agia Napa, for instance.  Four years ago - hard to believe it's so long ago! - we spent a day in Limassol, visiting Kurium and Kolossi Castle.

This time, we decided to go out on Sunday afternoon, and our friend suggested Potamos, a fishing village highly recommended by one of the tourist books. It's somewhere I had never been in our fifteen years, although I have heard others talk about it. Richard has been there a few times, but only by boat. Apparently it's about thirty nautical miles by sea to Potamos from Larnaka, so a good destination for a day sail in the dinghy.

It was apparently 46km by road which is about 28 miles, and took us half an hour or so to reach. I had little idea what to expect. The word 'Potamos' in Greek just means 'river', but Richard told us that it was just a little inlet of salt water where fishing boats stay. Our first sight of the bay was this:

It was a pleasant afternoon; sunny, but only around 16C. We decided to walk along the beach first of all. Although there were one or two people with barbecues, it was mostly deserted: 

The water was extremely clear, with gentle rock pools and some seaweed floating around, although clear water is pretty much impossible to show in a photograph:

There's very little tide in Cyprus, so the sand was soft making it hard to walk in places. Where we could, we walked on damper sand; in other places we walked along a rough path.  As in Larnaka, there are yellow wildflowers just about everywhere:

Of course, nowhere is a true idyll. I was quite shocked to see quite a bit of litter lying around, some of it looking quite recent:

Other litter had evidently been caught up in the foliage:

There was some slightly larger litter too, which would be rather more difficult to remove:

Or perhaps that's what happens when waiting... and waiting... for a bus.

As we walked back, we passed a very busy fish restaurant, and saw some prickly pears growing wild:

We didn't even consider picking them, however! We would have needed rather strong gloves. 

Many of the fishing boats looked old and tired, and the walkways over the sand decidedly ramshackle:

I think this pretty much sums up the relaxed attitude to the law that's prevalent in Cyprus (you can click the photo to make it bigger - but in case it still isn't clear, the white squarish sign surrounded by parked vehicles says 'NO PARKING':

I loved the reflections made by this boat, which looked a bit cleaner and brighter than many:

Before long we reached the end of the water, and saw what must once have been a hotel of some kind:

We all shuddered a bit at the thought of the metal bridge that gave access from the other side!

While I'm not surprised that an old hotel would still be standing, albeit abandoned, I did wonder quite how this hut continued to stay upright:

As we returned to the car, I looked out over a landscape which was green enough that it could almost have been a roadside in the UK:

.. except that, moving a little to one side, there was yet more large-size 'litter' in the form of ancient rusty boat trailers:

It was a pleasant enough place to go for a walk, and on a warm day the beach might have been quite fun for children. But the sea was too rocky to be much use for swimming, and there wasn't really a whole lot to see.  We've been here fifteen years now, and this is my first visit. I don't think I've missed out on anything.

Still, as a typical example of an old-style fishing 'village', Potamos is perhaps worth a visit for an eager tourist wanting to see traditional Cyprus. 

An evening socialising

In these annals I have regularly made reference to my small local friends, although I don't seem to have done so for a while. That doesn't mean we haven't seen them - far from it. They come over on Tuesday mornings, and we see them - and the rest of their family - every Friday evening.  They also come over on alternate Sunday afternoons to watch a DVD while the adults play a game, and then we have a cold meal together. 

Yesterday was one of those Sundays. The film of choice was 'The Wizard of Oz', and the rest of us played a game of Cities and Knights.  After we had eaten, the children were beginning to get a little hyper as bed-time approached, so their parents were starting to get them ready to go home, when the two ladies staying in our guest flat at present came up to say hello.  One of them has small grandchildren, and my extra-special friend Helen (now four) was very taken with her; particularly when she showed them how to make simple origami boats: 

Katie (seven) was pleased to learn how to make them on her own: 

Lukas (10) made a whole fleet, but for some reason I didn't take any photos of him. However, Elisabeth (two years and five months) wanted me to take a photo of the one that was made for her:

Meanwhile, on a galaxy far away, Marie (15) was busy with NaNoWriMo... which, to my great admiration, she does - including word counts! - by hand: 

Disclaimer: I did hesitate a little before writing this post, not wanting to give Sheila another excuse reason not to post... but I don't think she took all these pictures, and besides, I couldn't think of any other topic for today's blog post! 

A brief visit to Agia Napa

Last week, our friend Alison was here to help with the year-end accounts for Richard's work. All was completed in record time, so Friday was a free day. The weather was a little warmer than it had been, and the sun was shining... so we offered to take her out for the morning. Alison had never been to Agia Napa, which is about forty-five minutes away from here, and a popular tourist resort. We would never go there in the summer when the town is packed with people on 16-30s type holidays, along with vast quantities of intoxicating substances, both legal and illegal. 

But in February, rather like the last time I was in Agia Napa - just over a year ago - it's quiet, almost empty. 

Our first stop, as usual, was the monastery. This time, it was open so we wandered in. We were intrigued by this animal's head and had some debate about it; a brochure explained that it is supposedly a boar's head:

Here's a view of the cloisters:

Inside, there was still considerable renovation going on, so there wasn't a whole lot to see, but still, it was a peaceful place and good to spend a few minutes wandering around. 

Just outside the monastery entrance is my favourite gnarly tree: 

And, as usual, there were some rather lovable kittens who would love to have come with us. Mostly they moved too rapidly to be photographed, but I was rather taken with this one: 

We decided to walk down to the marina. Richard always likes to look at boats, I like the sea (and sea-breezes) and Alison was happy to see anything new. At least, until she spotted the rather gaudy boat approximately in the top middle of this picture: 

We wandered around, then stopped to watch some men who wanted to get a fishing boat onto a boat trailer, without getting their feet wet. They did manage eventually! 

We then looked for an ice-cream place, but almost everywhere was closed. Eventually we found one cafe that was open, which sold dessert-like ice creams. Alison had one, but Richard and I opted for coffee instead. 

Then we drove home, and I took a picture out of the car window. I didn't really capture the beauty of the day, or the sun glistening on the sea, but there's perhaps a hint of it: 

And here, less beautiful, is one of the small electricity plants for the island: 

Going to Agia Napa for a few hours off-season makes a pleasant outing from Larnaka; it's about 45 minutes' drive, so not something we'd want to do often, but around once a year is fine for me. The only time we do anything 'touristy' is when we have visitors! 

A large box arrived...

I was upstairs mopping the floors mid-morning today, when the doorbell rang.

I wasn't expecting anyone, I hurried down the stairs to open it, hoping I didn't look too hot and dishevelled! Perhaps, I thought, it was someone coming to borrow books. Or, as often happens, somebody looking for someone I'd never heard of.

It was a young man, with a clipboard. He asked if Richard lives here. I said that he does, and a slight look of resignation passed over the guy's face. 'I get box', he said with a sigh, and went down our outside staircase to the street.

I didn't think we were expecting any boxes, but waited at the door. When the young man appeared again, I could see why he checked first that it was the correct house, before bringing the parcel up. He struggled to balance it in his arms as he came up again, and it was evidently not light. He put it down in some relief just inside our front door, and I signed for it.

I glanced at the label, which was indeed addressed to Richard. From, as far as I could gather, somewhere in Italy.

At last!

It's the mock-up of the engine for King Malu, something which he and his sailing buddy have been waiting for for over a year now.

I didn't attempt to move it. It's really quite big:


Cleo, who has always loved cardboard boxes, investigated immediately and quickly realised that she couldn't get inside. But she likes sitting on top of things too. And, by Cleo standards, seems very relaxed and comfortable:


I'm not entirely sure how she'll feel when the box is taken to the boat... but I can't say it adds to the ambience of the room to have a large and rather ugly cardboard box there, even if Cleo has taken to it in a big way.

Epiphany in Cyprus

Epiphany is quite a big deal in Cyprus. The population is mainly Greek Orthodox, but they don't celebrate Christmas today (unlike the Coptic Orthodox). However, it's yet another public holiday. Schools don't start again until next Monday, and most businesses and shops were closed today, other than the tourist ones.

A big tradition in Larnaka is that a large cross is thrown into the sea during the morning, and then several young men dive to try and retrieve it. In a slightly odd mixture of religious fervour and superstition, it's done after a ceremony by priests, and whoever finds it is supposed to have good luck for the rest of the year. We went to watch this ceremony once, many years ago, but it wasn't interesting enough to go again. At least it was warm today, and the sea isn't as chilly as it can sometimes be at this time of year.

Anyway, as it was a day off work, Richard and his sailing friend Tim decided that it would be a good day for their respective families to have a picnic on King Malu, recently returned to the water after her short dry-dock period. I had not been on her in the water at all, but, I was assured, the gangplank was complete, and the boat - despite an outboard at the back - able to be reversed into the berth so long as there wasn't too much wind.

They had thought about going out for a gentle sail today, but there wasn't any wind at all expected. So they went down at 8.30, hoping to get there before the traffic around the sea-front became impossible (due to the Epiphany ceremony), to turn the boat around to make it easier to get on and off.

Late morning, Tim's daughters arrived to collect me, and while it might have been quicker to walk, given the amount of traffic around the Larnaka marina, we reached King Malu eventually. She was, indeed, reversed into place:


And while the gangplank was a little scary, I made it to the boat. Here's the evidence - all four of us who were persuaded to join the guys:


Unfortunately the very slight motion of the boat from side to side was actually more disturbing to my insides than I've ever before noticed on any kind of boat. However, we were given halloumi and tomato rolls (very good they were too) and I felt better for eating.

Here's Richard's description of the morning, including details about manoevering King Malu around to make this possible.

We only stayed a little over an hour. Rather dark grey clouds were coming in overhead, and we didn't want to be caught in more rain.

We had to drive back along the sea-front... and to my surprise (having not ventured into town on Epiphany for some years) there were stalls and booths up right along. I suppose it's another chance to make money, catching tourists who aren't used to euros, and will happily buy junk while on holiday:

A few busy days

I keep an ongoing online 'to-do' list attached to my gmail account, which includes both the important (such as bill-paying) and the trivial (such as mopping the floor); I can schedule things ahead or list tasks to do each day. I'm not actually very organised, naturally, but keeping a list that pops up every time I open my email is quite constructive. I usually have several things hanging over from previous days - if I don't re-schedule them - and find it oddly satisfying to check things off and then clear them from the lists.

On Thursday night, I actually got to the end of the things I'd planned to do for Thursday and the previous days. I was rather pleased with myself.

On Friday, Richard and I had planned to go by car to the Froutaria - it's only five minutes' walk away, but I wanted a kilo or so of lemons (for lemonade), two or three kilos of apricots (to make jam), a couple of kilos of tomatoes (to chop and freeze), some potatoes and sweet potatoes, apples, oranges... and I know from experience that there are often some irresistible bargains in the 'pink bag' aisle where produce is reduced. No way could I carry all that - and more - home on foot in one trip. Particularly as I would also need to buy two or three kilos of sugar (there are some other groceries available in the froutaria - it's not just fruit and veg). I wanted to make the year's supply of apricot jam as well as a new batch of lemonade and since I had nothing else planned on Friday, thought I would do it then. Apricots are plentiful and have come right down in price, but I don't want to wait any longer since the weather is getting hotter and stickier.

Thursday night, I didn't sleep all that well and for some reason woke about 4.30am. I couldn't get back to sleep so at 5.30 I got up. I had some coffee, and read for a while, then thought about doing my usual early morning mop of steps (inside and out) when I had a strong urge to switch on the computer.

I thought I would probably get distracted but decided I'd read email and Facebook for twenty minutes, and then get on with the mopping.

I found a long email from my friend Sheila who lives around the corner and who was expecting her sixth baby any day. About half way through the email, I did a double-take. She said that she had resumed writing in the middle of the night because her waters had broken... and then the next few sentences were punctuated with contractions at decreasing intervals. Since I was on call, day or night, to look after her three daughters during the birth (which was planned to be at home - unusual but not illegal in Cyprus) I rushed upstairs to take my shower and get dressed, mentioning to a rather sleepy Richard that I might get a phone call any minute.

Sure enough, Sheila phoned. So I walked to their house, collected the girls around the same time as another friend collected the two boys, gave Sheila a hug, and brought the girls back here. They were equipped to stay overnight if necessary, but I didn't think that was very likely since the contractions were about every two minutes by that point....

It was around 7.15am by the time we got back here. I hadn't even had breakfast. For the next three hours I sat on the floor and played lego, printed pictures for Katie (nearly 5) to colour, answered continual questions from her, produced bananas and cereal at random intervals for Helen (21 months) ... and realised that I am actually rather older than I was when I had my own two sons at that age. Sigh. I did remember to put bread ingredients in the breadmaker but nothing else remotely domestic.

At 10am Sheila phoned... and said the baby had arrived nearly two hours earlier! The midwife only got there just in time to catch the baby girl, who did not yet have a name. So we went over to see them :-)


I took some photos for them, and they asked me to stick around for a while... after about half an hour the two little girls were getting increasingly hyper and excited so I suggested I might take them for a walk for an hour or so.


Twenty minutes on the local swings was easy for me, but then we walked to the nearby nature trail which was hard going pushing a buggy... and Helen fell asleep within about five minutes so she couldn't get out and walk. And Katie talked non-stop...

We got back, hot and very thirsty (having forgotten to take water) by about 12.15 and I left half an hour later, so I could get lunch ready. Thankfully Daniel and Becky saw how tired and hot I was, and did that for me.

In the afternoon, we drove to the Froutaria to do the shopping I'd planned for the morning. We bought so much that we had to use a trolley - for the first time since we moved here! - and I was very glad we took the car. When we got home, we chatted for a while to some friends whose daughter was practising on Daniel's drums.

Then we had to go out to choose a gift for a family who are leaving soon, and I wanted to get something for the new baby too (I couldn't get it in advance as we didn't know the gender). The first was relatively easy... but finding a baby gift is not so easy in Larnaka. Richard wanted to do something at the marina so dropped me in the town centre for an hour... and I went into dozens of shops, with no luck. Eventually we met up around 5pm and drove to a bigger shop and managed to find something we liked there.

Dan and Becky cooked us a potato curry in the evening, and even cleared up, which was wonderful. Then we played a board game, and then Richard and I called in to see Sheila and the baby, as she'd texted to see if we could go over... and it was 11pm before I was in bed. Which is late for me.

And for some reason I didn't get to sleep for ages despite being exhausted. And woke at 5.30 on Saturday morning. Surprisingly, although I was tired and a little brain-fogged, I didn't have a headache. Dan and Becky spent the day in Troodos helping to put tents up at the camp-site, and Richard was working on King Malu. So I had the day to myself. Since it's getting warmer, things seem to take longer; I had to pop to the local supermarket for cheese and milk and a few other bits and pieces, and I also made the planned lemonade/cordial/squash since by then we had completely run out. I also made some more almond milk... Richard's trying to go dairy-free.

In the afternoon I made 12 jars of apricot jam, and also sorted out some photos to upload. Then I blanched, skinned, chopped and froze a couple of kilos of tomatoes, and also chopped and froze about 800g mushrooms which had been on special offer at the Froutaria. It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but it took most of the afternoon.

I was asleep by about 10pm and slept until nearly 6am, which is a huge improvement... but I woke with a nasty headache. I decided not to go to church, knowing I had to spend yet more time in the kitchen. At lunch-time we were going to the farewell meal for some friends, and I'd been asked to take a couple of desserts. I'd thought about something baked, but realised I could throw together some store-cupboard cold desserts and not use the oven. We also have our friends (the ones with the new baby...) over tonight for a shared cold meal, so I needed to make bread and desserts for that too.

So I made some jellies and banoffi pies, and the breadmaker made a couple of loaves of bread. I cleared up the kitchen and mopped everywhere since it hadn't been done for a couple of days.

We were out for about two hours at the lunch-time get-together, and enjoyed good food and catching up with various friends - although of course we're sorry to say goodbye to yet another family who are leaving Cyprus. It happens all too often.

And now I'm sitting down for half an hour; I even switched on the air conditioner in the study, as it's quite sticky today. All I need to do now is empty all the bins (since the dustmen come Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in our area) and set the table for eleven.

Perhaps I'll get time to work on my websites or do some writing tomorrow...

Out of Cyprus: afternoon in Brighton

While staying in Sussex, Richard wanted to visit the Chandlers at the Brighton Marina. I remembered going there some years ago, when we parked at one end... then walked what seemed like miles before we found the Chandler. Richard assured me we could park a bit closer... and indeed we did. But sadly, not a lot closer.

So we still had quite a walk along the marina - restaurants on one side, boats on the other. Lots and lots of dinghies and small yachts...


Not terribly interesting to me, but Richard loves looking at boats of all shapes and sizes.


After about a mile - I suppose - his mother was tired, and the weather was surprisingly warm so we sat on a bench while Richard went the last distance and browsed around the shop which we would also have found rather dull.

Then we went to Asda's to get some shopping, and drove through Brighton in a fair amount of traffic although it wasn't as busy as we'd expected:


After being out of the country for so long, I enjoy seeing the typical Brighton buildings which I would scarcely have glanced at 12 years ago:

And of course one has to spot the bizarre palace built at huge cost by the Prince Regent in the 18th century:

I'm not sure who this statue is... but it demanded a photo:

King Malu is now in the water at Larnaka marina

Although Tuesday was a slightly frustrating day, with King Malu unable, at the last moment, to go in the cradle, it all worked out well yesterday. We're not at all sure how the boat did get in the cradle... Richard and Tim arrived there about 10am to find she was already there. But there was no sign of the next-door boat having been moved at all.


Shortly before 2pm Tim's wife came to collect me, so we, and Tim's mother, could go to watch the launch. At least, we hoped that's what would happen... we got to the marina to learn that (a) the tow-boat was out of the water, having repairs, so Tim had had to borrow a friend's motor boat and (b) another large boat was waiting to come out of the water, so rather in the way... but these minor considerations were soon solved, and at last the crane started its ponderous path to the launching place.


I suppose it was around 3pm by the time she was finally lowered into the water:


By that stage, I was on the video camera since Richard was in King Malu. So I filmed her being towed away by Tim on his friend's motor boat, then rushed around to the place where she would be taken. Part-way there, I noticed that she was sailing across a patch of water in the harbour, so I stopped for a quick photo:


.. and got to the new place just after she arrived. She still had to be brought in, carefully, so as not to bump into the neighbouring boats.


Richard has written a great deal more about King Malu's launch on his blog, and linked to almost ten minutes of video, if you want to see how it all happened.

The day that King Malu did not, after all, go in the cradle...

I must preface this post by stating that Cyprus is a wonderful place. The people are great, and in many ways it's an ideal place to live. Even this winter has been remarkably mild, at least so far.

But one has to learn that in some things Cyprus simply doesn't operate like mainland Europe. People are not good with times, for instance. We - and they - joke that two o'clock 'Cyprus time' is really anything from two thirty onwards. If someone wants us to arrive somewhere between ten and eleven, they might say 'Oh, about ten o'clock Cyprus time'.

King Malu, the boat in which Richard was given a share, and on which he has been working extremely hard for the past few weeks, was looking very smart, ready for being moved into the water on January 13th. Tomorrow, in fact. There's still plenty of work to do inside, so she probably won't actually be sailed until March or even April, but the underneath is all now painted and sealed, and ready for launch.


Other than the very bottom - the tiny strip of the bit sticking out underneath (which I am reliably informed is the keel) that is actually touching the ground. While the boat is still standing with those props, it can't be painted. So Richard spoke to the people who operate the crane that moves the boats in and out of the water. No problem, they said. Today - Tuesday - they would bring the crane when they had finished their other jobs for the day, and lift King Malu into the cradle. Then Richard and Tim could do the necessary sanding, priming, painting and anti-fouling at two-hour intervals in the evening and/or early Wednesday morning, and they'd move her into the water around 9am (Cyprus time) tomorrow. It would cost more, of course, but seemed worth doing.

Richard thought the move into the cradle would be around 5pm. Then, when he popped down to the marina this morning, they said 2pm. So after lunch, since the day was overcast, I accompanied him down to the marina. We wandered around for a while and learned that the crane-moving people weren't going to be around until 2.30. We weren't surprised.. so we went for a walk to find out why my phone was refusing to send texts. We were assisted by a very helpful man at the MTN shop who fixed the problem in about five seconds, and got back to the marina around 2.30. No sign of the crane-moving people, so we sat down for a while.

Around 2.45, we saw the crane start to move. Was it coming our way? Apparently not, since it moved instead towards the place where boats go in and out of the water. Perhaps another job had come up. Richard went to ask - no, apparently they needed to put some extra bars in the crane, and it was then coming to King Malu.

About twenty minutes later, the crane started on its way again. It stopped temporarily when a car was in the way, and for a bit longer to fill up with diesel. But at last we could see it coming down the little aisle where King Malu has been sitting for the past eight years. Richard started filming with the video camera.


It wasn't long before the crane was in position to turn around, and then move slowly in alongside the boat. So we moved to the back of King Malu, to photograph and shoot its careful progress:


The crane moved very carefully - which is a good thing, of course. It got to about half way. And then it stopped.


The men got out, and started gesturing, and walking around. We could see it was a very tight fit to get it in place. The boat on one side is not centrally placed in its parking slot, and the crane was perhaps an inch away:


On the other side is a large lamppost, which may even have been put there in the past eight years, since King Malu arrived:


Could the crane be angled carefully? No, they had already tried that. The man in charge of the crane said he really didn't care about the lamppost. That could be knocked down. But the base of it is made of concrete, and if the wheels of the crane went over that, the whole thing would tilt to the side and probably damage the boat on the other side.

Here's the video Richard made of events to date, with annotations:



It's a good thing they care so much about the boats. But it meant that there was no way that King Malu could go in the cradle tonight. The crane operator said that he would get in contact with the boat next door, since they would have to move it further away, and so it can't be done until tomorrow.

So the plan is now that, around 10am (Cyprus time) they will first move the nearby boat a few inches further away, then they'll put King Malu in the cradle. Richard and Tim can then prime and anti-foul the base (apparently the epoxy layer isn't so vital) with a couple of hours gap between, and she can then be put in the water at some point in the afternoon.

Perhaps.