Summer in Cyprus: Sweltering, Spraying, and Staying Indoors

Holiday brochures advertise Cyprus with 'sun, sea and surf' (or similar). Which is all very well for visitors, staying in hotels by the beach for a week or two. But when one lives in Cyprus, it's not quite so simple... 

June this year was - by Cyprus standards - reasonably cool. Warm enough that we didn't need to wear anything other than tee shirts and shorts. I switched from trainers to sandals, too, or flip-flops... I much prefer wearing trainers and socks but strongly dislike having over-warm sweaty feet. 

By the end of May we had started using our bedroom ceiling fan at night, and some of the other ceiling fans in the daytime, as needed. But through the whole of June there was no need for air conditioning, even for the computers. With windows open, a pleasant breeze cooled the house through the day. 

Then we spent twelve days in the UK, as I wrote about in another post. It was busy, and productive, and - for me, at any rate - a wonderful break, seeing many of the people I love the most. We arrived back in Larnaka after 10pm on July 12th and while it was warm - I had removed my coat and sweater before leaving the plane - it wasn't unpleasantly so. I was particularly pleased that it didn't feel humid, since we had to spend about ten minutes standing on the steps of the plane waiting for the bus to the terminal. 

Sweltering...

Reality hit home in the morning. I didn't wake up until about 7.30am, and it was already thirty degrees outside, according to my phone's weather app. But although I was tired, I knew I had to get to the froutaria for some oranges and other fruit for our breakfast. So I went out, keeping mainly in the shade. It was probably good to get some fresh air and sunshine first thing, but I don't think I appreciated it much. 

That was the start of a heatwave that lasted two weeks, breaking all kinds of records. Most of the southern part of Europe experienced something similar. Then a couple of days that were more normal, for Cyprus in July, and then there was another high temperature warning for the next few days.

'How do you cope?' This is a question I'm asked regularly. I've never been good with hot temperatures, and I know from experience that if I'm outside in the sunshine, or if temperatures are more than about 30C at most, I really don't 'cope'. I become slow, lethargic, and often develop a migraine. 

So over the years in Cyprus I've developed a kind of summer routine. While I often try to be out of Cyprus for a few weeks, there are always some hot summer days when I'm here. I used to say that I do everything I need to do before 8am, then 'aestivate' until the evening. I don't actually go to sleep, but I don't leave the house, if at all possible. I shop locally first thing, and if we have to go to a bigger supermarket, we go in the evening rather than the daytime. 

Spraying

One of the things I like least about Cyprus summers is the increased insect population. Not mosquitoes - they are worse in the spring and autumn, and we mostly avoid those in the house by having netting over open windows. No, my 'bête noire' is, literally, a black beast whose name I still slightly shudder to mention.  (Whispering): Cockroaches.  

I had hoped that by having our house connected to the mains drainage there would be fewer - certainly we have fewer access chambers in our side yard, and the lids fit much better. But a neighbouring house was having a lot of major renovations and for the last couple of weeks of June, and most of July, we had at least one of these nasty beasties in the house every day.  Mostly deceased, I'm relieved to say. Some caught by the cats, and some stunned by the 'biokill' spray. I use that liberally around all possible entrances and as many hiding places as I can think of. 

I did this as soon as the first one appeared in June, and again just before we went away. Then I repeated the process at the end of July.  Thankfully there have been fewer since August started.  

Salads

One feature of the last few years has been eating a lot of salads; not just lettuce and tomatoes but a wide variety of different salads, inspired by both cookery books and online sites. This, for instance, is a sardine and lentil-based salad: 

From July 1st until at least August 31st, I don't turn on the oven. Originally I determined to do all the food preparation first thing in the morning, but that hasn't happened this year. It's mostly in the half hour or so before we eat. 

After lunch on Sundays we have, for a couple of years, eaten dark chocolate Bounty bars - not entirely dairy-free but low-enough in dairy that they're not a problem for Richard. 

We used to buy these in airports before flying back to Cyprus, then for a while they were available here. Nearly two years ago, we mentioned this to some friends who were soon to fly out, and they scoured their neighbourhood, bringing out over 40 of these bars, enough to last nearly a year. Here are just a few of them:

Alas, they were discontinued nearly a year ago. We didn't realise this, but were disappointed not to find any during our UK trip in January. We did look again earlier this month, but were not surprised to find them still unavailable. 

On the Sunday after we returned, we ate the last of our stash. Possibly the last dark chocolate Bounty in Cyprus... 

Celebration

A week after our return, we celebrated our anniversary. The heatwave was intense, and I didn't even want to go out in the evening. So we ordered a Lebanese takeaway, which was delicious: 

It was excellent value, too  Supposedly a vegetarian meze for two, it was twice as much as we could eat in one sitting, so it provided a second main meal the following day.  To make it even better value Richard had just been sent a seven euro discount voucher from Foody. 

Staying indoors

My aestivation might sound like a kind of lockdown, but it's not the same at all as the restrictions we were under three-and-a-half years ago. The main theoretical difference is that it's my decision, rather than being enforced by anyone else. Richard, who deals much better than I do with heat, has been out by car in the daytime many times to see people, or visit his boat, or pick something up at one of the DIY stores.

A major practical difference between my self-enforced aestivation and a lockdown is that there's no restriction on the people we see. A few weeks ago, we were invited to a young friend's 18th birthday dinner; it was the first time I'd been out in an evening since we returned from the UK, and the outside temperature was 36 degrees even at 5.30pm. I struggled to walk the short distance from the car to our friend's home, and was thankful it was not at lunchtime (as in previous years). 

However it was a very enjoyable evening, spent in our friends' air conditioned living room. 

Our friends continue to come for games mornings on Tuesdays, though during the summer we play in my study with the air conditioning on, sitting on the floor, rather than at the dining room table:

And another young friend, far more able to deal with the heat than I am, has been doing some repairs on the side of our house, where the surface spritz had been crumbling away. 

Steps

I don't want to lose the habit of daily walking. So I still aim to get out almost every morning at about 6am, if only to walk the 500 metres or so to the froutaria and back. On mornings when the temperature shows 30 degrees or more by 6am (and that's happened three or four times) that's more than enough. 

On mornings when it is only 24-25 degrees, I walk a couple of kilometres around the local neighbourhood. It's not a lot, but it gives me some fresh air and exercise, albeit limited. For the last few days our friends have been away and I've walked to their house shortly after 6am to feed their cats and (a couple of times) water their garden. Thankfully the temperature was only 26-28 by the time I was home again at around 7.30. 

During the less hot periods of the year - usually mid-September to late June - I walk an average of about 7,000 - 8,000 steps per day, or around 50,000 - 55,000 per week. When we were in London, walking all over the place, this continued. But at this time of year, I just about manage 30,000 in a week.  

I'm relieved to know, due to some recent research, that we only actually need around 2,500 steps per day (at a reasonable pace) to benefit our hearts and blood vessels, and around 4,000 to start reducing the risk of premature dying. More than that has a greater benefit, of course; but according to a Japanese study, the optimum number is around 5,000 - 7,000. That does talk about 'older people', and I'm not yet quite at the age they mention, but for me this is achievable. Much more is not. 

I'm trying to use my indoor air conditioned time productively: sorting and backing up photos, maintaining my websites, doing some filing, tidying up my folders, spending a bit longer at Duolingo. And reading a bit more than usual. August - so far - has been a tad cooler than July (which was apparently the hottest month ever recorded globally). The days are noticeably getting shorter and a month from now we might even be able to stop using the air conditioning.

As for the beach... we went there once with our grandchildren in April, It's been too hot to go there so far, this summer, and we haven't yet found a suitable evening to go with our friends. If we don't manage it this summer, I won't mind at all.  

Shopping at Lidl

 Lidl supermarket, an international chain, has been in Larnaka for ten years this month. When we first visited, lured by some enticing advertising, we weren't all that impressed. By that stage we had got into the habit of doing one major grocery shop per month, at Metro, and in between times I would pop to the local discount shop, or the fruit shop. And it was clear that while Lidl had some products at excellent prices, the range was too limited for our regular needs.

However, in the past ten years we've been there quite a few times. Their advertising brochures arrive most weeks on Saturday, and while I throw most junk mail straight into the paper recycling, we usually browse the Lidl one. Richard has bought some inexpensive and reasonable quality tools there, and we've bought a few appliances, too, when they're on offer.  

We like their coffee beans, although we haven't been able to find any for some months now. And there's the biggest problem: we understand that the 'special offer' products, often connected with a specific country or culture, are only available for a short period. But they also have regular products, which are sometimes there, sometimes not. They always have some basics - sugar, white flour, toilet paper etc - but there's no guarantee of any particular brand, nor of some products. 

This week's catalogue showed some silicon muffin pans, something I'd been thinking about for a while. I have plenty of small cake tins, but sometimes I want to make bigger cakes, the ones generally referred to as muffins (or American muffins, as the muffins I grew up with, known as 'English muffins' in America, are rather different). These muffins pans weren't going to be available until Thursday, so we knew from previous experience that we needed to go first thing on Thursday to have any chance of buying any.

Of course 'first thing' is actually mid-morning now, since we're under 65 and in good health, so we can't go to shops before 10am.  But shortly after that hour, we headed to Lidl, armed with a short shopping list of things we would be running out of in the next few weeks, and which we have previously bought there. 

I was pleased to find that there were still plenty of muffin pans, albeit at the bottom of a box with various other silicon cookware. We pondered buying four, but decided that two would be sufficient; it's not as if I make muffins all that often. I just like to have the option. 

I didn't hold out much hope of coffee beans, which is just as well as there weren't any. On the other hand, there was a good amount of a Columbian ground coffee that we tried a while ago, and which I liked very much. We can't find Fair Trade ground coffee here, but at least it has the symbol for Rainforest Alliance.  We bought three packets, which should keep us going for a while: 

I didn't hold out much hope of finding my current favourite peanut butter, as there wasn't any last time we were at Lidl, but I was pleased to find that they had it in again. It was even on special offer, reduced by quite an amount. So I picked up two jars:

Chocolate - thankfully the basic dark chocolate is usually excellent value, and is the one I use for cooking. It's dairy-free and UTZ certified, so we're happy to buy that regularly. Perhaps six bars was a tad extreme, but I doubt if we'll go to Lidl again before the New Year. 

The only pasta we generally buy is wholewheat spaghetti, and that's something Lidl usually has in;  one 500g pack lasts us around five months as we're not great pasta eaters. Lidl is also also a good place to buy dried chickpeas, which are useful for many things. Both products were on my list, and I was pleased that I managed to find them both, even though the store shelves regularly change, presumably to encourage people to look around the entire shop in the hope of finding what they want.

We also bought some battered cod and some salmon, but I put those straight in the freezer when we got home, so didn't take photos. But I couldn't find any mayonnaise; for several months Lidl stocked our favourite brand, but I couldn't find any this time.  Nor could I find raspberry jam, something I dislike having to buy, but since we can't get raspberries here, I can't make it.  

The other thing we bought was a pack of sharp knives. I managed to break the tip off my favourite sharp knife just over a week ago, so when I saw that there were some knives on special offer at Lidl this week, I thought we might look at them. I hadn't realised that they would be in a set of four, but at €6.99 for four, we thought them well worth getting. Ernesto seems to be a reasonable brand, and they're guaranteed for three years. 

The other thing we bought was a small poinsettia plant. We like to have one each year, coming up to Christmas; our living room table by the window seems to be an ideal place for poinsettias, and they last, usually, at least until Easter. November is a bit early, but we know from experience that they can be harder to find, higher priced and less attractive looking if we wait until December. 

So, once again our visit to Lidl was something of a mixed experience. A couple of very useful non-food purchases, a few random food items that were good value... but we'll still need to go to Metro next week for groceries that we can't buy at Lidl. 

I know some people boycott Lidl; their policies for workers aren't great, and they don't score well on many of the ethical categories. However, we try to buy products with some kind of ethical labelling, and don't usually go there more than five or six times per year. 

Summer in Cyprus. Approaching yet again.

Once again, the inevitable is happening. A chillier-than-usual winter in Cyprus gave way to a pleasant spring. I very much like March and April here. The sun shines, but it's still cool overnight. I have the energy to get things done, and the landscape is green with a wide variety of wild flowers, and cultivated ones too for those who go to the trouble of growing them in their front gardens.

It's been a pleasant 20-23 C in the daytime for much of the past few weeks. Now, as April draws to a close, the predictions are for hotter weather ahead. Here's what the Weather Channel site is showing for the next couple of weeks:

Yesterday, for the first time since about November, I spent most of the day without any sweatshirt or jacket of any kind. We went into town for various errands, and I found it was too hot in the sun, though still pleasant in the shade. Last night we ran our bedroom ceiling fan. It was only on the slowest speed, and we're still using a duvet... but the air felt still, and my face was too warm without the fan.

Today we realised that we haven't used our warm jackets for a week or two, and are unlikely to do so for the next few months. This is what our coat rack looked like:

Two scarves, and about five warm fleeces and coats. I removed them all, and put most of the jackets in the washing machine.  A few hours on the line and they were dry, so they're now hung up in our landing closet upstairs. I took the opportunity to put more of my winter clothes there, and extract my shorts... which I expect I'll start wearing soon, if the forecasts are correct.

I found my sandals, too, looking rather grubby, so washed them as well, in preparation for needing them all too soon.

Then I collected our surprisingly large collection of sun hats and put them on the now empty coat rack:

If Murphy's law holds, now I've made these preparations for Summer, we could be due for some unexpected and extra chilly weather meaning I need to get the jackets out again.  I won't mind in the least if that happens, but it's unlikely in May.

In the next few weeks I shall wash all our curtains, and we'll clean the air conditioners which we try to avoid using until at least June.  We'll switch to our very light-weight duvet, too, and then - probably only a couple of weeks later - just a duvet cover or flat sheet to cover us at night.

In other unexciting but typically Cyprus fashion, we went to Lidl just over a week ago. The shop has grown on us since our first unimpressed visit several years ago when it was new to the island.

This time,  I wanted to get some of their cat litter, which is about half the price of our usual brand and seems to work just as well. I also wanted a 2-litre bottle of olive oil, as our current one was running low, and theirs is usually the best value.  We didn't even look at the weekly brochure telling us what the special offers were, because we were only going in for these two items...

This is what we ended up with (plus two bags of cat litter) :

When we arrived, we remembered that our digital kitchen scales had recently gone faulty.  They were consistently weighing everything at about 75% of its correct weight, which was irritating and I didn't always think about the adjustment.  Happily, Lidl were offering good value kitchen scales with a bowl.

Then we saw a digital medical thermometer. I'd had what was probably a sinus infection the week before, and one day felt very shivery. We realised we had no thermometer, so no way of knowing if I was running a fever. Not that it mattered much, but at 2.99 euro it seemed like a good idea to have one.

Richard needed new crocs/clogs for casual use when sailing. We know the controversies about them, and that they're a bad idea for anything other than use on the beach or as slippers in the house, but he found just ONE pair in his size, in a colour he liked. So those were added to the basket. Along with our usual Lidl dark chocolate, and a new fresh basil plant, and a couple of jars of honey, and a couple or rolls of duct tape... and some seeded bread rolls for lunch.

A nicely eclectic mixture, not atypical for our Lidl visits. We still can't find most things we want there, and their fruit/veg are over-priced (in our view) but their special offers are often very good. 

Images of Autumn in our Cyprus household...

Not sunrises this time, although I've seen a few pretty ones recently. Just a few pictures taken in the past three weeks, some of which I have pondered blogging about... yet somehow the days fly by, and the blog stays neglected. 

The deadline for Tim's MA thesis was the end of September. He was pleased to learn that he would not have to fly back to submit it, and that it could be printed and bound here rather than at his university, then sent by courier.  Better still, Richard has a comb-binding machine, so on Thursday a couple of weeks ago I did some final proof-reading, then Tim printed his magnum opus, plus bibliography and title page, and Richard used his impressive gadget:

We then had to get it to DHL, who tried to charge us more than the online quote.. however, it arrived safely, and we heard of another student in a similar situation who used a different courier service which cost more and did not deliver. At least, not until several days late. Thankfully the universities take the posting date into account, but it was still immensely frustrating for them. So we'll probably use DHL again.

After the thesis was out of the way, Tim decided to re-organise his room, which included sorting his books. Some of them had been tipped onto the floor by Tessie, who likes to sleep on bookshelves and will think nothing of pulling books out if they are in her way.  

Apparently, though, one of the books refused to co-operate, so Tessie had to teach it rather a violent lesson in submission: 

It's not often that we throw a book away.  It went very much against the grain with us all, but we had to acknowledge that it was past repair.  Besides, Tim commented that it was quite a heavy three-volumes-in-one book, and he would really prefer the three books individually.  So he quickly put them on his wishlist and we laid this sad-looking has-been book to rest in the paper recycling. 

Part of Tim's re-organising was to get at an extra closet, which meant losing a small bookcase. I knew I could assimilate it easily, but it would involve re-organising my study.  I drew a scale plan, and moved little blocks around until I found an arrangement that I thought would work... and, indeed, it did.  I like it much better than my previous layout: 

For the past week, we've had some very good friends from the UK staying in our guest flat. This is the first time they've come to Cyprus, and they spent a lot of their time exploring, paddling in the sea, eating ice creams, and enjoying some of the local shops and sights. They went on the official Larnaka walk one morning.  In the afternoons and evenings we mostly hung out, played games, and talked... but on Thursday Richard took the whole day off so we could take them out for the day, to Lefkara:

And Kurium:

On their final day here they indulged us with some delicious chocolate desserts from a local bakery:

...as well as some less photogenic Greek pastries for Richard and Tim (who are dairy-free).

Then in the evening we stopped at our favourite ice cream shop on our way to the airport, for yogurt ice creams and/or sorbets: 

The end of Summer has given way to the beginning of Autumn in the past couple of weeks, with two or three quite heavy rain sessions which have reduced the temperature.  I don't recall when we stopped using air conditioning altogether, but in the past few days we have even stopped using fans. I'm wearing a light jacket on top of my tee shirt today; at the weekend I washed our thin duvet and we installed it in a cover on Sunday. We have to use the water heater sometimes to get hot water first thing in the morning, and there's a decided chill in the air, even if the official temperature is still around 24C in the shade.  

More Fairtrade chocolate in Larnaka!

It's only a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about the fact that a small amount of fairly traded Cadbury's chocolate was starting to appear in Larnaka supermarkets. In the interests of promoting slave-free chocolate, I've bought one or two of these products since then - and was interested to note that the 'Bubbly' chocolate with the fairtrade logo was disappearing from the shelves of our local supermarket much more rapidly than the bars without the logo. 

Today I went into Achna Discount, a very small mini-market connected to our favourite fruitaria. Apparently they must recently have had a new shipment including some chocolate from the UK, because I was very pleased to spot the Fairtrade logo in evidence on the first shelf that met my eyes as I walked in. 

I was also pleased to note that the prices were a lot more reasonable than those in the supermarkets. So, in the interests of research (and of course promoting slave-free chocolate) I thought I should buy a selection: 

The logo doesn't show in the photo on the Bubbly bars, but is definitely there. And they were just €1.35 each (for a 90g bar), considerably less expensive than the €1.89 or so in other places. I was particularly pleased to see regular Dairy Milk that was fairly traded - better value still, just €1.39 for a 120g bar.  The final product is listed as children's chocolate - six mini bars, total weight 124g, for €1.35. The best value of all.

Of course these products, like the ones we've seen already, are basically just Dairy Milk in other forms. A pity there's no dark chocolate that's fairly traded, or fruit and nut... but still. It's a good start.  Chocolate in moderation is supposedly good for our health, buying this will support fair trade AND local small shops in Cyprus...

Besides, I'm now walking at least 20-25km per week, at around 6km/hour.  I don't think I'm eating any more in general, so I will be at about 1300 calorie deficit each week, according to one online calculator I found.  I don't want to lose weight... so clearly it behoves me to eat an extra 1000 calories or so... which can found in just 200g Dairy Milk chocolate.

:-)

Fair Trade Chocolate in Cyprus

For many years now - at least fifteen - we have avoided all Nestlé products due to their policies on baby  milk. This is pretty big in the UK, at least in Christian and/or home educating circles, and isn't very hard to implement. Occasionally I have a slight hankering for a KitKat, but in general it's not a problem at all. I don't make a huge deal of it - when offered Nescafé or given After Eights, I accept with thanks. But I won't buy Nestlé products myself - at least, not knowingly. 

However, I've taken something of an ostrich-style stance about how chocolate is produced in general, or what other companies do. I was shocked out of my lethargy recently by reading that Mars conducts cruel animal experiments - totally unnecessary for human safety since chocolate is poisonous to most animals. This was a bit of a jolt, since we have been buying and very much enjoying plain chocolate Bounty bars, recently, and I do rather like Galaxy. 

It was only about a week later that our young teenage friend Jacob brought out the latest issue of his single-handedly produced youth magazine 'The Onymous'. The focus was on child slavery on chocolate farms. I knew, somewhere deep down, that a lot of chocolate was produced unfairly, but I suppose I had vaguely thought that although wages were extremely low for cocoa-bean pickers, they probably were still worth having, and that if people didn't buy regular chocolate, these impoverished workers would suffer. 

But Jacob's well-researched article made sobering reading. Chocolate slaves are young children, bought from their parents with promises of wealth, made to work long days with no breaks. They live in crowded, filthy conditions and are beaten cruelly if they slow down. 

Thankfully not all chocolate is produced this way.  Some beans are produced without slaves, sold by Fairtrade organisations. When Jacob wrote his article, the only fairly traded chocolate available in Cyprus was made by Green and Black's, one of the pioneer organic/fairtrade groups. And it wasn't easy to find. In our favourite supermarket, Metro, there are several Green and Black's bars available, but they're not shelved with all the other chocolate: instead, they are in the health food aisle along with other organic products, at the far end of the store. 

However, by the time 'The Onymous' was actually printed and distributed, some ordinary Cadbury bars bearing the fairtrade logo had started appearing amongst the other chocolate bars in Metro: 

When I spotted one, I started looking through the others to see how many there were. Not many, unfortunately - but in my search, a senior member of staff happened to be nearby, and asked if I was looking for something in particular. I pointed out the 'Fairtrade' logo, and he said that this bar was in a new shipment. He asked what the logo was, so I explained, and said that it was a good thing - that customers liked to buy fairly traded chocolate.  

A couple of days later, I spotted the same bars in our local Orphanides Express. Someone there was stacking the shelves, so I talked to her about the fairtrade logo too, and she seemed impressed.

Then I bought a small packet of 'chocos': 

An unoriginal name, and I suspect just an expensive way of packaging Dairy Milk (I haven't eaten them yet!) - but although fairtrade chocolate does often cost a little more than slave-produced chocolate, I'm now convinced that we should buy it more often. I asked myself if I wouldn't happily give a few cents - even a few euros - if I knew it would free a child from a life of slavery. Of course I would.  If the only way to increase the amount of fairly traded chocolate and persuade the growers to stop the slave trade is to vote with our purses... then it seems to me an excellent reason to spend a a little more on fairly traded chocolate. Even if it means buying fewer bars overall. 

I encourage anyone reading this to do likewise. And if you can talk to a member of the shop staff about fairtrade chocolate, then perhaps they will buy more.... 

(Those who want to do this in Cyprus, but are dairy-free, lactose intolerant or vegan will probably have to stick to Green and Black's which do various plain chocolate brands but are rather more pricey still. But you could always get in touch with other fairtrade chocolate suppliers and ask them if they would consider exporting to this island)

Christmas Day 2011

Like Christmas Day 2010, my day started shortly after 6.30. I turned on the water heater, drank my coffee, read a little and sat quietly, thankful that we had cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve. 

I looked at the tree, with parcels beneath, and switched on the lights:

I remembered to turn on the steamer for the Christmas puddings, which needed another few hours, and then I finished cleaning the kitchen, which I had abandoned around 11pm the night before after making a double-sized chocolate pineapple fudge pie as an extra dessert, as well as another dozen mince pies. 

By the time we were all up, and had breakfast (if wanted) etc, it was 9.00. So we set to work to open the various parcels. Here's Richard looking at one of his new books, with a pile of mine (and a DVD) on the sofa next to him:

 It's always hard to know what to get Tim; he seems to have everything he needs, and his wants are few. However he finally suggested that we could get some extra RAM for his laptop. We had it sent to his UK address and he brought it out here for me to wrap up so he could open it on Christmas morning:

Shortly after 9.30, Tim and I departed for Larnaka Community Church, as the service was due to start at 10.00. It was remarkably short; despite several people wanting to chat with Tim afterwards, we were home again by 11.05. 

With the majority of the food preparation done the day before, Tim's role at Christmas is to pull it all together so that everything arrives on the table at around the same time. This shows the food (with the turkey and stuffing in the covered roasting pan, carved and arranged by Richard, and reheated for an hour).  

It was only when I looked at the photographs today that I spotted that we'd forgotten to put out the juice we had bought, and hadn't put dessert spoons on the table either. Oh well. At least Richard remembered to offer the adults some wine, which we were given free at the supermarket when we picked up the turkey. 

Oh, and that vast quantity of food wasn't just for the three of us. We had invited our friends with six children again. Once again, the sausages appeared to be the most popular item with the children, closely followed by potatoes. Tim had prepared an enormous number, and there were quite a few left at the end of the meal. 

Then, when we were all pretty full, we cleared the plates and brought out dessert: 

Not that most of us were hungry, but Lukas was excited by the dried fruit:

None of the children like Christmas pudding, so although I had made three - and steamed two - we only served one of them. Richard thought it might be fun to try setting it alight, but we had never done that before and didn't know that we should have heated the brandy first... 

There was a sort of flicker of flame when we looked hard, but most of the brandy (about a thimbleful in all) dripped onto the plate. It tasted good, anyway. 

After lunch, most of the children opted to watch our DVD of 'The Sound of Music', and the rest of us decided to play a game of Settlers of Catan:

After that we had a couple of rounds of Rummikub. I don't THINK Elisabeth understood what it was about, but one never really knows what's going through the mind of a toddler:  

Sophia usually escapes upstairs when the children are here. But the smells were evidently too tempting, and she has become a bit braver recently. Still, she kept out of the way most of the time:

We weren't really hungry by 6.30, but the film had finished and we had plenty of tea-time food, so we loaded the table once more, with bread rolls - made on Christmas Eve - and veggie sausage rolls - which I'd made a week or so ago - and cut-up vegetables, and a small gammon joint which I boiled on Christmas Eve, and which Richard sliced. Several of the children ate cold potatoes too... but there were still quite a few left.

Then out came the mince pies, and the Christmas cake I decorated on Wednesday, and the rest of the chocolate fudge pie... and some dark chocolate Cadbury fingers, which Elisabeth liked very much. She had at least four: 

Then she wiped her face on my convenient trousers, and Tim took the camera when she climbed on my lap: 

It didn't take long before we had all eaten our fill: 

By 8.00 our friends had gone home to put the younger children to bed, and we had done the initial clearing up. We were pretty tired, so decided to watch one of my new DVDs, 'Driving Aphrodite'. It was light, and amusing in places, and just the thing to end another enjoyable Christmas Day.

Lidl in Cyprus

Yesterday, Richard returned from a day's sailing with a bag, stapled closed, which he had been given on the sea-front in Larnaka:


Apparently there is a new Lidl supermarket opening (or perhaps opened already) in Aradippou, not far from Larnaka.

He gave it to me to open. There wasn't exactly a huge amount inside... firstly, there was this magazine:


It was in both Greek and English, and basically giving the message that Lidl is good value and good quality. There were photos of some of the products being sold - but no prices. So I have no idea if Lidl will in fact be less expensive than the other supermarkets. One day when we're out in that direction we might pop in to see, but unless the prices are dramatically better than those in Metro or our local shops, it wouldn't be worth the extra petrol to drive out that distance.

Still, delving further into the bag, they did give us this useful shopping list pad:


It has a magnet on the back, meaning I can keep it on the fridge.

There was also this key-ring, which is less useful since we have many plastic keyrings around:


Best of all, there was some chocolate. Which we started immediately, before I even thought of taking photos...


So, in gratitude for these unexpected free gifts, I thought the least I could do was to write about them.