A new desk, and a tribute to the old one

Short version of this post: my wonderful husband spent three hours putting together a flat-pack desk for me, early last week. This was the result:

For those who like to read my ramblings, here's the longer version:

When we first moved to Cyprus, quarter of a century ago, we bought some furniture inexpensively from the organisation my husband was seconded to. Much of it was quite old and well-used, but also solid and likely to last at least as long as it had already. One of those pieces of furniture was a heavy desk which we put in my study, where I had my computer: 

At some point both the computer and the screen were upgraded by my husband and sons, and we acquired a scanner. The desk stayed in the same place, easily able to hold these, a large keyboard, and whatever books or other random additions I needed: 

When we moved to our current house, sixteen-and-a-half years ago, we discussed whether I might like something smaller. I already had a flat screen and a more compact keyboard by that stage. But I was quite attached to the desk. It had four good-sized drawers and a cupboard on the other side, and I liked the old-fashioned wood look. So some strong people who helped us to move carried it up the stairs to my new, larger study, and there it sat: 

This study had a lot more scope for moving furniture around. That happened several times, leading to, for instance, this: 

And, later, this:

.. which is where it remained since about 2016, facing the door. This is my preferred orientation for the desk. I did move other furniture around, but the desk stayed where it was. 

About a year ago, the desk started to become a bit wobbly. Perhaps all the moving had weakened one of those legs. They are quite small compared to the size of the desk. Having a large cat jumping on and off probably didn't help, either, but the desk, we reckoned, was probably fifty years old. It didn't owe me anything. I wondered whether I might be able to find something similar, with stronger legs.  

I looked at several possible shops online, none of which had desks I liked. Those they had in the shops seemed extortionately priced. I would have shrugged and forgotten about it, until one day I realised the wobbliness was worse. One of the front legs had become detached. 

Creative as ever, Richard found a temporary solution:

This was shortly after I had upgraded my elderly computer and laptop into a newer laptop that could be used with my screen, keyboard, mouse (etc) while not travelling. Richard made me (from scratch) a very nice wooden shelf to raise the screen, and to house the laptop. 

Inevitably there were a lot of wires, as well as the speaker, and a kind of hub thing which enabled the laptop to connect to the screen and other peripherals. Our white cat Alex liked sleeping on the desk, knocking off anything that came in his path. Hence the rough cardboard box, in stark contrast to the  pristine wooden shelf:

We spent a morning, early last summer, looking for possible replacement desks. We tried the Thrift Store, a couple of second-hand furniture shops and several large stores which sold desks of all shapes and sizes. We didn't see anything I really liked. I didn't want a modern streamlined table with movable drawer units, nor a metal desk. Since I had a (mostly) functioning desk, I was only going to replace it if I found one that felt absolutely right. 

Richard wondered whether he could repair the broken leg. It would have meant considerable disruption, but he thought he might possibly do it while I was away last summer. In the event, he was so busy he didn't have a moment to himself, let alone the time needed to find a way to repair it that was going to last, and which would also need to have strengthened the other legs. If one breaks, we realised, it's probably not long before others follow suit. 

So the dictionaries remained in place. Richard said, once or twice, that he should think about repairing the desk, but I was reluctant to go through all the hassle of disconnecting everything and emptying out the drawers and moving the desk...

Then, nearly two weeks ago, the computer refused to connect to the screen. That happened a couple of times before and Richard had shown me a sequence of unplugging wires and re-starting the computer that seemed to work. 

Not this time. And when I tried to follow the wires to their sources, wondering if something had become unplugged, I realised that the hub conversion gadget thing had no lights on. Re-plugging that didn't help. Without it, there was no chance of connecting to the screen. I could use the laptop as a laptop but nothing else, and it looked as though the computer was not even charging...

Richard wasn't home, and I was due to meet my younger son and daughter-in-law online for a crossword-solving session.  Thankfully my son is familiar with the system, and managed to talk me through - on the phone - plugging in the charging cable, and also temporarily enabling the printer so I could print out the crossword they sent me. 

So the solving session happened, and we successfully completed another tricky one. 

Since the hub thing (Richard calls it a 'breakout box', and its official name is 'multi-port adapter') was less than a year old, and did not seem to be working at all, we took it back to Stephanis in the evening. They said they would send it away for repair. It would probably take about a week, they said. 

So I had to use the laptop with its built-in keyboard (which is okay) and touch-pad (which I don't like at all) and its small screen for the next ten days until it was finally acknowledged that the hub/box/adapter was broken, and they supplied a new one. 

BUT...

In the meantime, I was looking on the Superhome Centre website and happened to see a desk which looked ideal. I mentioned it tentatively to Richard, as I'm always reluctant to replace things that aren't totally broken. He said he thought I should get it. We went to have a look, and made an order, and a couple of days later went - in our van - to collect it. 

Richard hoped it might be in three separate pieces (two sides and a top) rather than all put together as he thought it could be rather heavy to get upstairs. What we had not expected was a single flatpack box, reminiscent of Ikea, but with considerably more parts. The advantage of that was that we could carry it up in several trips. The disadvantage was that it was evidently going to need a significant amount of time to put together. 

The instructions had no words after the first page, and suggested that it would take two hours for two people to put together:

I removed the drawers from the old desk, while Richard disconnected and removed the wires and peripheral computer bits and pieces. Then we managed to lift the old desk into the living room, and ran the Roomba in the space underneath, where it hadn't been able to get before. 

He then used the old desk as a workbench to start constructing the new one:

There wasn't anything I could do to assist in the actual construction, but I did empty out the two large bags of screws, dowels and other bits of metal and plastic, and sorted them:

I then passed over each item as needed. I didn't begin to understand the pictorial 'instructions', but Richard had no difficulty. This, I realised, is why building Lego models from instructions is an important life skill. Freestyle building is more creative, but for something as complex as this desk, I wanted it to be built as designed by the manufacturer rather than a creative model that might be more interesting, but would probably be less useful.

I did assist about three times, holding things that needed to be screwed in place, and moving completed parts out of the way. But I'm not sure that having a second competent pictorial-instruction-follower would have made it much quicker.  It took about three hours in all. I felt a bit guilty: had I known it would be this complex, I wouldn't ever have mentioned it. 

However, the resulting desk is exactly right. It's not as deep as the old one, and the drawers are, therefore, smaller. I was able to get rid of some ancient paperwork and other stuff that was unneeded, and they are much better organised. 

This all happened a week before we were able to pick up the new hub/adapter thing, so I had to use my laptop without the add-on peripherals. But it gave Richard a chance to think how to get the wires reasonably neatly stored so that (1) they weren't on the desk getting in my way, or pushed over by cats (2) they weren't on the floor (where the Roomba might try to eat them) and (3) they weren't dangling at the back, where the cats would want to play with them, and pull things off the desk. 

One of the features of the desk is that instead of having four drawers on the left, there are three, with a shelf at the top. So Richard drilled a few neat holes in the back. My hubs, hard drives and random essential wires are able to be housed there, out of sight, and yet not too difficult to access if needed:

Alex's cardboard box was looking very tatty, but he still likes it, so I covered it with some sticky-backed paper, and put it on the scanner rather than the desk. He's not as keen on it as he was, but in this rather chilly time of year he prefers to sleep on a beanbag anyway.

And the old desk...? 

Some teenage friends have been doing some outside painting for us. They came the morning after Richard built the desk, and were happy to help us move the old one down, prior to taking it to the dump. Our indoor cat, Lady Jane, has twice raced between our legs as we come in the front door, and down the stairs to the desk. She didn't want to escape, just to smell it and roll around underneath. Thankfully she was easily bribed indoors again. She hasn't tried to get out for a long time but evidently saw the desk from the upstairs balcony, and recognised it. 

Since we don't want her getting out - she has no road sense - we were thinking about getting it to the dump, when another young friend said he had a use for it, as a kind of outdoor work bench (under shelter) with different, taller legs that he will construct. I had felt a little sad about abandoning the desk entirely, so am very pleased that it will still be useful. 

Summer in Cyprus

 After over two decades, I am used to summers in Cyprus. I don't like them, but with ceiling fans, air conditioning, and somewhat cooler temperatures in the early mornings, I've learned to cope. Mostly. This year, despite excessive heat in various other parts of the world, we haven't had a major heatwave here yet. June was, if anything, cooler than normal. I kept walking the 4km trail with my friend Sheila three mornings per week almost until the end of June.

Facebook kept reminding me about the annual tradition Richard and I established a few years ago, where we go out for ice cream on the first day when it feels really hot. We decided to declare June 22nd as that day; and had a pleasant evening walk with some excellent ice creams.

We and our friends also decided that from July 1st we would move our Friday evening get-togethers from their home to the beach, as we usually do over the hottest months. 

I try to get out for a short walk around the neighbourhood each morning first thing, staying in the shade, and doing no more than about a kilometre; I know how difficult it is to establish a good habit and how easy to break it, so I do go out, if only for ten minutes, and generally feel better for it. 

And then I do whatever food preparation I need to do in the kitchen, before 8am. For the past few years I have managed to avoid turning on the oven for the whole of July and August. We mostly eat salads - and that doesn't mean lots of lettuce and tomatoes; I have discovered all kinds of excellent variations on salads, and usually make one or two new ones each morning. 

I always ensure at least one salad contains protein (black beans, chickpeas, eggs, canned tuna or canned salmon, for instance), and we have some form of basic carbohydrate. That's often potatoes, cooked or reheated in the air fryer before eating. But I've also made rice salad with peas and corn, or rather a nice pasta salad with wholegrain farfalle pasta, sun dried tomatoes, pesto and some vegan parmesan.

Remembering something I was taught many decades ago in school domestic science, I use as many different coloured fruits and vegetables as possible: red and orange peppers, cucumber, avocado, mango, tomatoes, frozen peas, chopped onions, peaches, lightly steamed broccoli... no more than two or three of them per salad, with a little lemon juice and olive oil as dressing. 

Summer is when soft fruit is in season, and often very good value. A couple of weeks ago, I went out early on Saturday morning to the local fruit market, planning to buy a kilogram or so of apricots to stew for a Sunday afternoon get-together. The best value, however, was a crate for two euros, which contained nearly 4kg apricots. We ate a few raw, and they were very good but clearly needed to be used quickly. I didn't want to make more jam. So I stewed half of them, and then used the dehydrator for most of the rest:

I had been wary of using the dehydrator in the summer months, but it wasn't too unpleasant; it didn't seem to add much to the heat or humidity of the kitchen, and I mostly kept out of the room anyway, after setting it going.

At the weekends we do eat hot food: on Sundays I use the air fryer and stovetop some weeks; other weeks we buy a takeaway roast lunch from a local taverna, which has sufficient chicken and potatoes to last us at least three full meals, although the salad that comes with it is only enough for one meal. Still, at just over 14 euros, it's pretty good value, so I make other salads to go with it during the week. 

I usually have portions of previously-made curries in the freezer that I heat on Saturday evenings. Yesterday we were expecting friends from Limassol for the evening, so I used the slow cooker to make my favourite pinto bean curry, and a similar one with chicken. My three-pot slow cooker is excellent for allowing me to cook a variety of different things at the same time, and a slow cooker is perfect for the summer. All the preparation was done before 8am, and it simmered gently through the day, generating very little heat. 

Something else I make in the summer more than other times of year is ice cream. I hadn't tried using our ice cream churn for a couple of years, as it had been somewhat disappointing. I thought I would give it another chance this year - and it appears that the fridge freezer we bought a couple of years ago to replace our elderly and inefficient one gets the churn sufficiently cold that it actually works as intended! I'm very pleased with it, and have made not just my favourite coconut milk vanilla ice cream, but a chocolate sorbet which is easy to make, and very good:

All of which covers the mornings from around 5.30-6.00am up to about nine o'clock, by which time I've also squeezed fresh orange juice, had breakfast and a frappe, and set Dustin the Roomba off to clean the main floor area.  It's still getting a lot of cat hair every day, and has done, slightly to my embarrassment, over a thousand 'dirt events' since we starting using it less than three months ago. 

Then I might give the floor a quick mop, or put on laundry etc, and Richard and I usually chat - about the day, and what we might have read or heard on the news (or Facebook), and whatever else comes up. But usually I'm showered and ready to turn on the air conditioning by about 10am. We run it at 28-29C, in 'eco' mode in our studies, which means the computers don't overheat; the reduction in humidity means it feels significantly cooler than the rest of the house even though it's only 30-31C most of the time.

On Tuesdays my friends usually come over for board games, on Fridays we shop, and on other days I catch up with email, and Facebook, and forums, and DuoLingo on the computer. For a week or so I was doing some proof-reading for a book that's just been published. I try to keep up with photos, adding more to photobooks, although I haven't done as much as usual this year. In the past couple of weeks I have been re-organising and finalising my recipe folder, something I used to do every few years as I like to keep all my recipes in one place - but also like acquiring new ones, and trying variations.

The most recent folder has been a long time in production: our last family recipe folder was in 2014, but at last I have a completely revised 2022 version, containing everything I make, with adaptations and notes; nearly 100 pages in an A4 pocket folder, which opens almost flat and fits nicely in my perspex cookery book holder that sits on the microwave. 

Not that I use exact recipes, necessarily, but I like to have them to refer to, even if it's something I make so often that I don't actually need the recipe. Such a relief not to have to keep digging out scraps of paper with recipes scribbled on them, or my 2014 folder which had become quite tatty.  I know most people nowadays use their tablets or phones for recipes, but I still prefer them in print. 

As for the afternoons, when I'm not working on photos or recipes: I tend to read more in the summer than I do in the winter, and as ever I write book reviews for my book blog. I keep in touch with various people, and pay bills and keep track of finances... and play the daily Wordle and Worldle and Quordle, and of course Lexulous and Words With Friends and one or two others. Just once a day, usually for half an hour or so after lunch. 

In the evenings, we might play games with friends, or watch a DVD, or just continue with what we were doing in the daytime. I usually put the computer to sleep by about 8pm and if we're not doing anything else, I read.

It probably all sounds quite dull to those who lead more active lives, but I'm learning that it's good for me to slow down, to rest when I'm tired. But I'm very much looking forward to over a month out of Cyprus, seeing relatives and taking a break from looking after the house.  The pandemic made that impossible for the past two years, although we did manage a week late summer last year. This time, I should have the opportunity to be a grandma in person rather than online, thankful though I am for the technology that enables us to keep in touch.

I'm relieved that I'm not going this weekend, however, since the UK is predicted to be significantly hotter than Cyprus, at least for the next couple of days... and without air conditioning, that is not going to be at all comfortable. 

Changing our phone/internet provider, and a surprising consequence

Back in October of last year, I wrote a post called 'Images of autumn', which was a rather pretentious-sounding title for what was essentially a summary of several unconnected occurrences which I had not got around to writing about.

Amongst them was this picture of my newly-reorganised study, except that I have managed to add a little arrow near the bottom left:

The arrow shows where our wireless router was put, beside the tall bookcase, connected to the cables that can be seen (if you enlarge the photo) running untidily along behind my chair. 

A couple of months ago, Tim was looking at the costs of various phone companies that now operate in Cyprus, and commented that we could save ten euros per month AND have faster speed if we switched from CYTA - the national company - to Cablenet. We would also, for the first time, get access to cable television. Not that we watch any television, but the occasional news broadcast might be nice, and there was no package that did not include this. 

Various people had experienced good things with this company, so we went to enquire, and made the necessary arrangements. Richard and Tim spent a lot of time deciding how the house could better be wired, and said that the router would have to be behind our television. 

The workmen arrived when they said they would, and after doing some noisy drilling and installing, followed by some tweaking by Richard and Tim (this is about as technical as I get) we now have this arrangement:

And this is what we see on the wall behind:

The television, bizarrely, only shows us black-and-white pictures, because (apparently) there's something wrong with it, or perhaps it's too old (all of seven-and-a-half years), but no worries. Cablenet Internet works, and Richard returned the CYTA router at the end of last month. If CYTA ever manage to get their act together, our phone - on the same number - should work on Cablenet too.

Meanwhile, on an entirely unconnected subject - or so I thought - middle age has been creeping up on me. Last October, a few weeks after I re-started my walks with Sheila, I realised that I was getting backache. I put it down to carrying a heavy belt-bag with my purse and camera, so I stopped taking it. This helped slightly, but I still found my back was aching very badly any time I had been shopping, or if I spent more than about half an hour standing in the kitchen. 

I tried heat, I tried stretching, I tried wearing different shoes. Most of the time it was chronic rather than seriously painful, but there were moments when the twinges meant I had to sit down. Buying a shopping trolley from Lakeland made it easier to do the shopping, and we started getting most of our groceries by car on Fridays.  

But still, my back ached almost continually. I became gradually resigned to it, moving more carefully, doing less in the kitchen, carrying nothing I could avoid. 

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly realised that my back was not aching. I stood in the kitchen doing various things, and was entirely without pain. It seemed so unusual that I commented on it; I assumed it was a temporary reprieve from the back pain, but it continued. I had not realised quite how continual the ache had become  until I was without it. I noticed it as I came downstairs, as I sat on the floor to put my shoes on, as I got up from my beanbag, as I was able, once more, to do things in the kitchen for an hour or more.

This happy state of affairs has continued. There's still a bit of an ache when I wake in the mornings; I suspect we need a new mattress, or at least a mattress topper. But it goes within a few minutes. And that's it for the day! I've had no painful twinges, and moving is, once again, easy. I'm still avoiding any heavy lifting, and I'm using my shopping trolley - no point taking unnecessary risks - but I am very much appreciating having a back which no longer aches almost continually. 

A few days after my backache so mysteriously vanished, we were talking somewhat about electromagnetic sensitivity: a long name for an increasing condition, where people are (or become) sensitive to mobile phones, or wifi devices. I have never liked mobile phones - in the early days they all gave me a tingling sensation in my hands, almost like a mild electric shock - and although modern ones are better, I still have a problem with smartphones, or even my Kindle when the wi-fi is switched on. We used to think I was some kind of over-sensitive freak; in recent years we have met more and more people with the same kind of sensitivity. 

Then, idly browsing on the topic, I came across this article about electromagnetic sensitivity. Symptoms are far wider than a bit of tingling. I browsed some more, and found a surprising number of anecdotes about people who had aches and pains of all kinds, often headaches, which disappeared as soon as a wireless device - or router - was moved further away.  The 'problems' seem to happen when a device was closer than a metre to a sensitive person.

And, yes... this is where the diverse topics of this post converge. When we thought about it, we realised that the day my backache vanished so unexpectedly was the same day that Richard took the old wireless router back to CYTA. The one which had been about 60cm away from my back whenever I sat at my desk. Which is at least two or three hours per day, often more.  Prior to my re-organising of my study (and prior to my backache) the router had been in a small unit about a metre and a half away from me. 

Anecdotal only, of course. Anecdotes, as Tim has reminded me, do not constitute research. Nonetheless, it seemed to be a good idea to add my experience to the pool. If anyone who happens to see this has unexpected aches or other symptoms, and spends much of their day less than a metre from a wireless router (or smartphone/tablet) then it would do no harm at all to try a few days without it - and might, just possibly, make a difference.  

A week in the life....

Some of my Facebook friends aim to take (and post) a photo every day for a year, to chart the course of their lives. I thought it a great idea, but forgot to take any pictures on January 1st - so that put paid to that idea. I have my camera with me most of the time, but still often forget to pull it out of my bag.

Or perhaps there just aren't so many photographic moments. How many more sunrises can I capture, after all?

Well, maybe just this one, from Thursday:

I only walk along the trail three times each week; my friend Sheila goes out every morning, but she usually wakes earlier than I do. And the rest of the week, I like to have a few hours to myself. Tim gets up early three mornings a week when he has to be at work by 7.30am, but we're not very chatty first thing.

So I potter around, and clean the floors, and do laundry, and read, and chat to God, and squeeze oranges for our morning juice, and perhaps put something in the slow-cooker for our evening meal, or make more coconut milk... or whatever needs doing. There always seems to be something.

Sometimes I put the ingredients for a loaf of bread into the breadmaker, if we've run out of frozen slices from previous loaves, but this week Tim said he would bake a 'white bloomer' on his day at home. It turned out very well indeed:

At times I feel that I should be able to get things done more efficiently, but somehow it always takes me at least four hours from the time I wake up to the time I am out of the shower and looking respectable once more.

So how does a typical week look, once I've finished walking/chores/cooking/etc?

On Monday mornings I do our account and pay any bills (such as utilities) online. On Tuesdays, Sheila and her two youngest daughters come over so the little girls can play/colour pictures/listen to stories. And on Fridays, Richard and I try to work through a list of jobs outstanding for the house, or our life in general - and usually do some shopping.

A couple of days ago we finally got around to submitting our tax return, two weeks before the deadline. Richard extracted the information from our accounts package, and entered it online; meanwhile I dug out our financial records (statements, utility bills etc) from nine years ago and shredded them, and moved a more recent year's information to a box file to store. Then we went fruit and veg shopping. At some point we plan to do some repainting of parts of the house, but haven't yet got around to that.

In the afternoons (and Wednesday/Thursday mornings) I tend to write, or do other things at the computer: sometimes email, sometimes a book review or DVD review on the relevant blogs. I've been working on my home education site this week, changing broken links and adding in a few more; I've also fully updated and re-printed our family recipe folder, which I last did in 2010. I'm also doing other writing - for other blogs, bits of fiction, ideas that may come to nothing. It's been reasonably productive this week, spurred on by a group I'm part of which aims to write 1000 words per day for 100 days. I'm pretty much on track so far, which is encouraging.

I'm also trying, yet again, to learn a bit more Greek, although as ever it feels like one step forwards and two steps back. Nobody speaks Greek to me, as I'm so fair-skinned and obviously not Cypriot. Vocabulary is a stumbling block for most foreigners, unless they're married to a Cypriot, and as for the grammar... all I can say is that it's been simplified since the days of Ancient Greek (which I studied at school many decades ago). But it's still confusing and I'm not good with languages.

In between working, or attempting to work, I catch up on Facebook, or do the day's puzzles on a couple of different sites; relaxing and also (I hope) helping to stimulate my brain cells.

Around 5.30pm I do meal preparation, usually; I pull the curtains, and perhaps put away laundry or empty the dishwasher, and generally potter some more. We aim to eat about 6.30pm, and try to do something as a family at least three or four times a week - either a board game or a DVD. On Thursday this week Richard and I had been invited to some friends for a meal, which was very pleasant; on Fridays we all go to a low-key 'home group' with other friends.

This morning (Saturday) I went for a walk, then after general pottering and a bit of reading, I made some tomato and apple chutney, since we were on our last jar of the previous batch, made about a year ago, and I also made some more tomato ketchup as we had almost finished our last pot, made about four weeks ago. I was very pleased to have found a small crate of about 4kg tomatoes for a euro at the fruit stall yesterday, which makes them even better value.

Of course there are variations on the above themes. But this past week has been reasonably typical, as much as any week can be.. and, I hope, answers the question I'm asked, from time to time, 'So what do YOU do in Cyprus?'

Where has August gone?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Technology and communication

While there are many good things about living in Cyprus, it's not easy being thousands of miles away from our sons, most of the year. So we're very thankful for modern technology which enables us to stay in touch regularly. Tim and I often chat briefly via Google Chat (on Gmail), and we've used Yahoo! Instant messenger regularly too.

It was nearly fifteen months ago when we experimented with a game of Settlers via Skype with Tim. It was so successful that we've played several similar games since. So many, indeed, that I don't tend to blog about them any more. Last night we played another game, from 8.30 until about 9.30 (Cyprus time). We use 'Facetime' now rather than Skype, with the video camera to project the game board to Tim, but the general idea is the same as it was when we first thought of it, and it works well.

However, there are always questions, at the end, about how we might improve the quality of either the sound or the picture. We also wondered whether we could try having another computer open with a different kind of chat, so that Tim could see us as well as the game board. We did manage that the first time, but our bandwidth is not great, and it reduces the quality. So they tried Google chat... it didn't work too well on Richard's computer, so we fetched the Chromebook - wanting to give it something to do - and Richard played around with that:

Then Tim spotted that Daniel was online too. He and Becky are currently staying in Barcelona with Becky's Mum; we had a good online chat with them on Sunday evening. But Tim thought that, using the 'Google Plus Hangout' system, we might be able to have a three-way chat.

He was correct. The sound quality wasn't bad at all, and although the pictures went a bit pixellated at times, we could see small images of all three of us, and a larger one of whichever of our sons was talking at the time. So this is what we saw when Daniel or Becky was speaking:

And this is what we saw when Tim was speaking:

All very clever stuff. Dan and Becky couldn't stay for very long as they were going out, so we never did discover if we could have set it up on both the laptops here, to have a four-way chat... I couldn't quite see the point of Richard going to another room to join in, but sometimes people in my family are just curious to know what can be done in theory...

A rather geeky post while out of Cyprus

Long-term readers of this blog might recall that, almost two years ago, I introduced Ezekiel, my Mac mini computer. It didn't take me long to adjust to using a Mac, despite having been a Windows user for many years, but I didn't find myself suddenly loving all things Mac. It didn't seem all that different, really.

Fast forward eighteen months, or so, and I started thinking about the fact that I would be spending five weeks in the UK in April, and at least two at the end of October. I don't like laptops, and never wanted one... but I have to admit they're useful when travelling. Yes, I can always ask to use someone else's computer.. we always stay in households where there's at least one available, and that's fine for catching up with my email, or Facebook, or even writing a quick blog post.

But if I want to put photos in a post, that means I have to upload them onto someone else's computer. And if I get the urge to do some other writing, or to update one of my websites, well... it just isn't easy. And I can't necessarily fit all those things into a tidy hour or two - I tend to sit at my computer at home at all random times of the day, when something occurs to me. Ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there, a couple of hours later on... and that doesn't work well for borrowing other people's.

As those thoughts were buzzing around my mind, Amazon showed me a recommendation for a 'netbook' computer. A small-size, light laptop. I also realised that I still have quite a bit of birthday money left from a year ago. Idly, I browsed the Amazon Netbooks, and was surprised to find that they're relatively inexpensive, and yet have considerably more hard disc space than any computer I've ever had. I knew I could, just about, deal with a laptop keyboard even though they're a bit smaller... and, reading reviews, it seemed that on the whole people who had bought them were pleased with them.

I discussed it with friends and family. Some said, 'go for it!'. I'm not good at spending money on myself, so they thought it a great idea. Others told me I probably wouldn't use it much. Others said that if I really wanted something for travelling, I should get an iPad. I did investigate iPads online, but all I could see were several disadvantages. Touch screen. Ugh. No Flash capability - so I wouldn't be able to play Facebook Scrabble. Far too many things I wouldn't use, and it would be difficult to use software like KompoZer (for websites). Even the e-book reading capability didn't attract me, since I have a Kindle which I was given for Christmas. And they're about twice the price of the best value Netbooks.

So, to cut an already long story slightly shorter than it might otherwise be, I ordered my Netbook a couple of weeks ago. Tim took delivery, and installed the extra RAM that everyone seemed to recommend for it (very easy, he told me) and he used Skype on it, to show that the webcam worked. He said it was surprisingly light, and his only complaint is that it's very small.

Before I even flew to the UK to meet my new acquisition, it was clear to me what its name must be. Our family computers (and Richard's office ones) are all named after Old Testament prophets. Or somehow related to them. But my new venture into the laptop world, and the fact that it's a very little computer meant that there was, from a Biblically aware point of view, only one possible name.

So without further ado, let me introduce.... Zacchaeus:


Tim installed Firefox for me (although I'm glad that it has Internet Explorer, as I don't have a modern version of that on my Mac, and always like to check that my sites work in what is still the most popular browser). However I don't use Firefox on my Mac as I find it slow... and on little Zacchaeus, it's even slower. So in that photo I was downloading Chrome, which is, indeed, considerably faster than Firefox.

As well as the Netbook and RAM, I ordered a case as recommended by Amazon:


It took me a little while to adjust to the slightly smaller keyboard - at first I kept missing the right shift key, as it's smaller than I'm used to. But that wasn't difficult, and I can now touch type pretty fast.

However I do NOT like touch-pad mice. I can use them, but it felt slow and klumky. So my first task yesterday morning, in the glorious sunshine that greeted me - yes, this is England in April, but the skies are blue and the weather warm - was to buy myself a mouse. I went to Argos, and bought the cheapest USB one, which works extremely well.


Windows 7 starter is easy to use... the mouse installed itself when I plugged it in, as did the memory stick (on which I brought copies of my sites and documents) and even the camera. I suppose it's different from Mac OS, but other than the X key being in a different place, and a few other slight variations, I'm hardly noticing it.

So... the only problem was where to use it. I don't like laptops on my lap - they get uncomfortably warm, and I don't find it easy to type like that. I tried it on the dressing table, where it was a good height for reading, but rather awkward to type.

So I opened a drawer, put a box inside for stability, and am using it like this:

.. which is fine for typing, but awkward for reading. I like screens higher when browsing/reading. So, on top of the dressing table for reading, on the drawer for typing. The fact that I like my screen considerably higher than my keyboard is another reason why, in general, I am not a fan of notebook computers. An iPad would be even worse. But, for times when I'm out of Cyprus, this is about as ideal a situation as I've ever had and I'm very pleased with little Zacchaeus.

Settlers by Skype, and a slightly confused cat

One of the problems of living in Cyprus is that we don't see our sons very much. They can't just pop home for a weekend, as they could if we were in the UK.

So I'm continually thankful for computers and other modern technology that allows us to be in regular contact. A few weeks ago I wrote about a game of Settlers we played with Tim, via Skype. It worked so well that we tried again last night. This time, we decided to use our dining room table, where there's more space, and where we didn't have to kneel on the floor to play. Richard didn't remember exactly what settings he used last time, but he set up my portable webcam on his computer, and also our video camera to focus on the Settlers board:


The picture of Tim didn't seem as clear as it was last time, and it didn't feel quite so comfortable having him sitting on the table... but still, it worked pretty well and was good to be able to chat while playing:


I win Settlers games far more often than I'm comfortable with. Earlier in the evening Richard and I had played our two-person version of Cities and Knights, and I won by rather a large amount. So I had decided I was NOT going to win this game, and indeed, for a while I was a point or two behind the others.

So although at one point I could have won, I decided (and told them) that I'd rather prolong the game a little longer, and did a different move that gave me 11 points rather than the winning 12.

I was glad I did, since in the next round Tim managed to win with 13 points:


I cleared the game away, while Richard and Tim talked more about the technology, and which chat programs worked best, and how to make the sound better, and other such geeky stuff.

Tessie evidently heard Tim's voice, and jumped onto the table (not that she's allowed to do that... ) and stared at the computer:


Tessie is Tim's cat, primarily. She looked rather confused. He called her, and she actually walked right over and sniffed at the screen:


Then, knowing from the scent that Tim was nowhere to be found, she jumped down and started washing.

Out of Cyprus, day two

We flew out of Cyprus on Monarch Airlines, for the first time. Theoretically a budget airline, we chose it because the dates and airports were most convenient. By the time one has paid for the seats, and the luggage, they're no cheaper than Cyprus Air. But several friends have used them this year, so we thought we'd try them. No meals are provided, but with a flight leaving Cyprus at 9.40pm, that wasn't a problem. Indeed, it's something of an advantage not to be woken up for aeroplane food, when trying to get some sleep.

The flight was smooth, and landed half an hour early - as many Monarch flights seem to - although the descent was sharp enough that I ended up with bad earache. Our luggage came through fairly quickly, and we were able to get a taxi to my mother's house. The driver evidently had a sat-nav unit, since his route was the best one we've seen from a taxi, and the fare lower too.

Yesterday was - a little to our surprise - bright and sunny. About 20C, I suppose. A lot less than it has been in Cyprus, but nice not to have any humidity. Besides which, I like getting back to jeans and trainers after three or four months in shorts and flip-flops.

Shortly before we left, when I was going to close my computer down, Tim came in with his memory stick and said he was going to save my Firefox settings. I wasn't entirely sure why, but yesterday he arrived in the bedroom where Richard and I are sleeping, carrying a large Apple computer - it looked huge compared to my tiny Mac Mini.

This computer, in keeping with our Old Testament name theme, is called Solomon. Tim bought it on Ebay a while ago, when his old notebook computer was getting unreliable, before he finally decided to buy a new one. He's planning on selling it again, but said he would leave it until we're about to go, so that I can use it while we're here. He brought down his rather nice flat screen, too:

We found a suitable corner of the room to set it up, and he then imported my Firefox settings. So when I switch on, it looks very like my Mac mini back home in Cyprus. Except for having a wide screen, and no photo of Daniel and Tim on the background...


So I was able to read my email, reply to a few, update Facebook, and one or two other things. It's not exactly the most comfortable of locations, sitting on the floor, but very nice to have this facility to myself.

A few minutes ago I was feeling uncomfortable again, wondering if there was some way I could raise the keyboard off the floor. My eye landed (not, of course, literally) on my carry-on luggage, which was sitting by the window. The perfect height. A box and Richard's notebook cover provide a mouse stand and pad... and I'm all set up:


Yesterday morning Richard and Tim walked - in the sunshine - to the friends who are kindly lending us their second car for the next fortnight, chatted awhile, then drove it back. In the afternoon, we all went to Kings Heath, the nearest biggish shopping centre. We could have walked, but were all fairly tired, so we drove. It's looking a bit run-down since we were last there. Woolworths, which closed earlier in the year, has turned into a Poundland, with a Clarks shoe shop as part of the old building. Holland and Barrett have moved to a move useful location, but with a much smaller shop - and thus less stock.

We popped into the Abbey, too, and asked if we could order a card for me to use for online banking. Much easier than attempting to do so on the phone, as we've done before. I do like the way the Abbey is so customer-friendly. No queues, any more; instead one takes a little ticket, and then sits down on the very comfortable red sets, awaiting a call to the cashiers. I was also impressed to notice, in one of the little private screened booths, one of the staff moving the screens so that one of the customers could feed her fractious and hungry small child.

We looked in several charity shops too, but none of the books leapt out and said 'buy me!'. My to-be-read shelf back in Cyprus is still bulging, and I'm beginning to think we've almost reached saturation point. Well, not quite. I still have books on my wishlist, and we have a few more Chalet School books to take back to Cyprus - mostly hardback editions which we only have in paperback.

We did, however, manage to buy a new egg-slice (much needed) for the huge sum of 69p, and in Poundland we found more liner sheets for cooking (for a pound), and some shampoo (which I forgot to bring - also for a pound). Oh, and a large selection of birthday cards for various family and friends over the next year. They are MUCH better value in England than in Cyprus.

August rushes by in Cyprus

Due to the surprising popularity of my 'photo clues' in a post a couple of weeks ago, I offer another guided tour of selected parts of our house, with a different set of clues to a considerably more pleasant event.

Let me take you first into our dining room where, in a biscuit tin which has set empty for some months, there are now some Bourbon biscuits... or Bourbon clones, anyway. No dairy products in the ingredients.


Moving into the kitchen, and a rare glimpse inside the cereal cabinet: on the right, my usual muesli. Next to it, two items that have not been in the house since April: almond milk, and a large box of Weetabix:


If I quickly open the fridge (not too long, since the weather is still very warm in Cyprus) you might notice another package of almond milk, some pineapple juice, and a partly-empty bottle of home-made lemonade:


On the other side of the kitchen, the cupboard with walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and so on has an extra addition: a jar of salted cashews:


Back to the dining room, and a clue that would confuse the issue for a lot of people: an almost complete set of Chalet School books by Elinor M Brent-Dyer nestling in our fiction shelves between the Binchys and the Boyds on one side, the Brontës and the Browns on the other:


Now into the living room, where, in front of the television, is a DVD with the last four episodes of the final season of 'Quantum Leap':


And the digital piano, which has lain quiet and uncluttered since April, now has various pieces of music on it, not to mention an empty glass:


Those who knows us well will, of course, realise that all this means that our younger son Tim is home, after completing his first year at Newman University in the UK. We have missed him enormously, and yet in some senses the time seems to have raced by.

Why all the extra items around the house?

Well, we don't usually bother with biscuits when Tim isn't here. There is generally an unopened packet or two in the cupboard, either given as a gift or bought on special offer. But we don't get around to opening them unless we have visitors. The same is true of pineapple juice. I usually have at least one carton in the cupboard, but we're more likely to open an orange or apple juice if we feel like packet juice. I mostly drink water anyway. And squeeze fresh juice every morning. As for salted cashews, they're very moreish and we all like them. But we really don't need the extra calories so I don't usually buy them.

Neither of us eats Weetabix or uses almond milk, but as Tim is dairy-free, that's his regular breakfast. And while I do make lemonade during the winter and spring, lemons are not in season now, so I hadn't made any for a couple of months. But last Friday I saw some quite nice looking lemons, imported from Argentina. They were rather more expensive than Cyprus lemons, and I don't usually buy fruit from so far away... but in Tim's honour, I did make one batch. About three and a half litres. Richard enjoys it too... but I continue to drink mostly water.

The music on the piano is self-explanatory. Tim is our pianist, and chose this digital piano about six months after we moved to this house. Yesterday afternoon he had several of his youth group friends over to try out music for the youth group variety night on Saturday evening. The empty glass was probably left by one of them... I found several glasses and an empty water jug on the table after they had left. Teenagers in Cyprus seem to drink a lot of water.

Quantum Leap? I used to love the series when it was on television, many years ago. When it was closed down, I stopped watching TV altogether. There wasn't anything else that interested me. So I was very pleased when I discovered that Quantum Leap was available on DVD. Over a few years, I bought or was given the five series that were broadcast. Before Tim went away, we watched one or two episodes most weeks as a family.

When he left, we had most of series four and all of series five left to watch. We did see most of them. But decided to leave the last three for Tim's return. We forgot all about them at Easter, but on Monday evening this week, we decided to watch one of them. Leaving the DVD out should - we hope - remind us to see the others too while he's here.

Oh, and the Chalet School books.

I've been reading that series since I was a teenager. I had about thirty of them mostly in paperback, which I had collected from charity shops in the UK. Two of my friends here (one aged 11, the other 70...) borrow them regularly. My mother had the whole series in the UK, with a fair number in hardback. When she moved to her current house, she asked if I would like them. But since there was no way of getting them here, they went temporarily to my sister's house, where they sat in a box in her guest room for a few years. And we kept forgetting about them.

Finally we arranged for my sister to take them to my mother's house, where Tim lives in the UK. I asked Tim if he would bring three or four of the earlier ones which I didn't have... and somehow he managed to fit about thirty of them in his case. Tim has also read the series many times, and - to my amazement - managed to remember which ones we had, and to bring all the others. Plus a couple in hardback which we only had in paperback.

I shall probably re-read them in the next few years, and I'm sure my two local friends will too.

As for Tim: he arrived - earlier than scheduled! - on Sunday evening. On Monday, he slept late, played 'Risk' in the afternoon with the children of some local friends. In the evening we watched the QL episode mentioned above. On Tuesday, he relaxed and read most of the day, and we went to play Settlers of Catan with local friends in the evening. Yesterday he went to visit the local inter-church holiday club for an hour or so in the morning, then worked on music, and had his friends over in the afternoon. Then while Richard and I went to the beach to meet the Cyprus home educators' group, Tim went to a leaders' meeting to plan for next week's youth group camp in Troodos.

So three days have raced past. Today we have nothing planned; Tim is reading and doing things on his computer: