When we brought out a large amount of freight from the UK last October, we wondered what we would do with it all as we already had furniture for the house we were renting in Cyprus. But although we did throw out/give away vast amounts of stuff, we still brought rather a lot, and it felt right to do so.
When we found the house we eventually bought here, with a guest flat as well as a three-bedroom house, we realised where the extra stuff would go. And sure enough, although we've had to buy a few extra things, we found that it did all work out very well, giving us - effectively - two fully-furnished houses.
We did wonder how much the guest flat would be used. Shortly after we bought the house, friends and relatives asked to come and stay, but the first ones were booked for February half-term next year. As described before, we had to put the guest flat into unexpected use at the end of July, with an Australian refugee from Lebanon; then a work colleague of Richard's stayed overnight when he couldn't find a hotel, and our Australian friend returned for a further week before flying back to Lebanon at the end of August.
Last week some friends from the UK stayed there for a week, on a last-minute break booked only ten days in advance, and tomorrow we're having yet more people staying - a family with four children, who are taking a few days' break from the country where they usually work. Hotels are almost impossible to find at the last minute - our friends couldn't book one, so I should think it's impossible for a family of six - so they're going to stay here from tomorrow evening until Sunday.
It works out very well - people can be entirely independent if they wish, or (when it's friends or relatives staying) we're just up the outside stairs, so we can spend time together and have shared meals. I feel much more relaxed about people staying there, in general, than I ever did about having folk staying in our other house, where we tended to trip over each other somewhat. And since people stayed last week, the guest flat is tidy and clean, so all I had to do to prepare for tomorrow was a quick dust and mop, and make up beds. There are basic supplies (tea, coffee, sugar etc) in the guest flat, and they'll be bringing or buying their own food.
It all works out so much more neatly than I could ever have imagined!
Showing posts with label freight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freight. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Alongside the house saga....
... Life goes on. It's been chilly, grey and windy (though no rain) for a couple of days now. Rather miserable. I did a couple of loads of laundry this morning and hung them out, but will leave them overnight; that usually works best. I suppose a tumble drier would be a good idea for the rainier times of year (as suggested in a comment a while ago) but they're expensive to run, they use a lot of energy, and they're not particularly good for clothes. About half our clothes can't be tumble-dried anyway (they would either shrink or grow!) and of course if things get left in a drier for more than about ten minutes after it's finished, they crease and then need ironing.
So I much prefer hanging out in the fresh air where possible ... inside out, so they can just be folded and put straight away when they're dry. I iron about twice a year, and that's usually when Tim's playing in a concert needing a white cotton shirt, and it wasn't hung up properly so looks crumpled.
About ten o'clock this morning we went to the bank, to try to open a savings account. Since significant amounts of money will be transferred here while we're in process of buying a house, we thought we might as well get a bit of interest (current accounts don't give any here). There were lots of options but we chose one with instant access. Should have been easy, but there were computer problems at the bank, and it seemed to take ages before the printer produced the forms to sign (about six times each) to set up the account.
This afternoon Richard went with a friend who's in the building trade, and an architect, to look at the house we're still hoping to buy...details in the post below.
Shortly after they left a friend from Limassol arrived to collect some things his family left here when we last saw them, and we chatted a while. He mentioned that someone he knows, who's in Larnaka tonight, flying out tomorrow, will be visiting the Doulos at the weekend - and is going to make a point of saying hello to Daniel!
Tim took a look at our friend's laptop - he was asking some technical questions which I didn't understand - and then, after checking Dan's downloads and starting some more (thank goodness for Broadband!) he rushed off to his singing lesson. After that he had half an hour to eat before rushing out again to the 'Christianity Explored' course that his church is running. When he got back - with some doughnuts from the bakery - he started copying Dan's stuff onto CD.
While he was out, some more friends popped over for an hour to chat. Then Richard phoned the guy at the hotel who's going to see Daniel, and discovered that he has lots of luggage space! Wonderful... that means we can send the software CDs directly rather than having to put them in a package to Germany to be forwarded via air freight. We can also send out some more thin trousers and shorts, which he wanted (I've sent some but they probably won't arrive for several more weeks), and all the chocolate he had at Christmas but didn't have room for... and Richard's sending him a text message to ask if there's anything else he'd like while we have this opportunity. Apparently he'll actually join the Doulos on Sunday; we're not quite sure how the group will get there, but assume there won't be any more flights, so no more limits of luggage weight.
So I much prefer hanging out in the fresh air where possible ... inside out, so they can just be folded and put straight away when they're dry. I iron about twice a year, and that's usually when Tim's playing in a concert needing a white cotton shirt, and it wasn't hung up properly so looks crumpled.
About ten o'clock this morning we went to the bank, to try to open a savings account. Since significant amounts of money will be transferred here while we're in process of buying a house, we thought we might as well get a bit of interest (current accounts don't give any here). There were lots of options but we chose one with instant access. Should have been easy, but there were computer problems at the bank, and it seemed to take ages before the printer produced the forms to sign (about six times each) to set up the account.
This afternoon Richard went with a friend who's in the building trade, and an architect, to look at the house we're still hoping to buy...details in the post below.
Shortly after they left a friend from Limassol arrived to collect some things his family left here when we last saw them, and we chatted a while. He mentioned that someone he knows, who's in Larnaka tonight, flying out tomorrow, will be visiting the Doulos at the weekend - and is going to make a point of saying hello to Daniel!
Tim took a look at our friend's laptop - he was asking some technical questions which I didn't understand - and then, after checking Dan's downloads and starting some more (thank goodness for Broadband!) he rushed off to his singing lesson. After that he had half an hour to eat before rushing out again to the 'Christianity Explored' course that his church is running. When he got back - with some doughnuts from the bakery - he started copying Dan's stuff onto CD.
While he was out, some more friends popped over for an hour to chat. Then Richard phoned the guy at the hotel who's going to see Daniel, and discovered that he has lots of luggage space! Wonderful... that means we can send the software CDs directly rather than having to put them in a package to Germany to be forwarded via air freight. We can also send out some more thin trousers and shorts, which he wanted (I've sent some but they probably won't arrive for several more weeks), and all the chocolate he had at Christmas but didn't have room for... and Richard's sending him a text message to ask if there's anything else he'd like while we have this opportunity. Apparently he'll actually join the Doulos on Sunday; we're not quite sure how the group will get there, but assume there won't be any more flights, so no more limits of luggage weight.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Cold and Grey
The weather, currently, is miserable. The sky has been grey all day, the house has felt chilly, and none of us feel like doing anything much. Rain is predicted for most of the week. Yes, we need it. No, we don't like it. Or if it must rain, I prefer it either overnight, or in a great downpour followed by sunshine. Not this ongoing dampness where we never seem to feel really warm. Except when waking up in the morning, and then we have to get up into the cold bedrooms and even colder bathroom...
Today I packed and sent a parcel to Daniel. He phoned on Friday, shortly before leaving Germany for a week of pre-ship safety training. It was lovely to hear from him, difficult to say goodbye. He was waiting for a washing-machine to finish...
He asked if I could send him another pair of his 'long shorts' and another pair of thin cotton trousers. He's realised that in going around parts of the Gulf and then India and on to the Far East, he'll be in summer climates for the next year or so. He took a fair number of clothes for winter, remembering how chilly he got in South Africa in August, and that limited his weight for cooler-weather wear.
He also asked if I could send him the clarinet part for some music he's been playing. Somehow he managed to take the piano part with him (which he doesn't need) and forget the clarinet part! He did say that if it was too expensive, I shouldn't bother. But he also asked if I could do it as soon as possible, since the next container leaves Germany on Feb 1st on its way to the Doulos. All mail has to go to the OM centre in Germany, where it's forwarded either by air freight (if under 300g weight) or by container, for heavier parcels. We're warned that the containers aren't sent out very often, so it can take up to six months for packages to arrive.
I thought I might send the shorts on their own, so that if they arrived too late for this container they could be sent via air freight and arrive a few weeks later. Unfortunately, when I put them in a jiffy bag, they weighed over 300g. Not much over, but I expect they're very exact about what they will and won't send by air. Did I mention we bought some electronic kitchen scales a couple of weeks ago? Our old analogue kitchen scales had almost broken, and were never really very accurate. These scales weigh in 2g increments and tell us the temperature of the room too!
So I found a larger jiffy bag, and put in the music, the shorts and the trousers. That came to about 800g. I checked the Cyprus air mail costs, and realised that anything over 500g and under 1kg costs the same amount to send to Germany (£8 - which is about $15US) so I thought I might as well fill it up a bit. Alas, I couldn't enclose one of the 200g bars of Christmas chocolate he left behind or the cost would have shot up even higher. However I made a CD with all the photos of the house we're going to buy (God willing) and some pictures of the cats. That took the weight to nearly 900g, so the last thing I added was a selection of herbal tea-bags. He took quite a few with him in his luggage, but they're very light and he may not be able to buy any easily.
I stopped at 930g. Electronic scales are very useful, but I didn't know how well they'd match the scales at the Post Office. Thankfully the parcel was under the 1kg mark so I sent it off this morning. I hope it arrives in time.
Even after walking as fast as I could to the Post Office, wearing a sweatshirt, a warm sweater AND my winter jacket, I still felt chilled. By the time I'd walked home again I was a little warmer but when I took off my jacket I put on my fleece immediately. Then sat in front of an electric halogen heater.
Nearly time to go and make a hot water bottle...
Today I packed and sent a parcel to Daniel. He phoned on Friday, shortly before leaving Germany for a week of pre-ship safety training. It was lovely to hear from him, difficult to say goodbye. He was waiting for a washing-machine to finish...
He asked if I could send him another pair of his 'long shorts' and another pair of thin cotton trousers. He's realised that in going around parts of the Gulf and then India and on to the Far East, he'll be in summer climates for the next year or so. He took a fair number of clothes for winter, remembering how chilly he got in South Africa in August, and that limited his weight for cooler-weather wear.
He also asked if I could send him the clarinet part for some music he's been playing. Somehow he managed to take the piano part with him (which he doesn't need) and forget the clarinet part! He did say that if it was too expensive, I shouldn't bother. But he also asked if I could do it as soon as possible, since the next container leaves Germany on Feb 1st on its way to the Doulos. All mail has to go to the OM centre in Germany, where it's forwarded either by air freight (if under 300g weight) or by container, for heavier parcels. We're warned that the containers aren't sent out very often, so it can take up to six months for packages to arrive.
I thought I might send the shorts on their own, so that if they arrived too late for this container they could be sent via air freight and arrive a few weeks later. Unfortunately, when I put them in a jiffy bag, they weighed over 300g. Not much over, but I expect they're very exact about what they will and won't send by air. Did I mention we bought some electronic kitchen scales a couple of weeks ago? Our old analogue kitchen scales had almost broken, and were never really very accurate. These scales weigh in 2g increments and tell us the temperature of the room too!
So I found a larger jiffy bag, and put in the music, the shorts and the trousers. That came to about 800g. I checked the Cyprus air mail costs, and realised that anything over 500g and under 1kg costs the same amount to send to Germany (£8 - which is about $15US) so I thought I might as well fill it up a bit. Alas, I couldn't enclose one of the 200g bars of Christmas chocolate he left behind or the cost would have shot up even higher. However I made a CD with all the photos of the house we're going to buy (God willing) and some pictures of the cats. That took the weight to nearly 900g, so the last thing I added was a selection of herbal tea-bags. He took quite a few with him in his luggage, but they're very light and he may not be able to buy any easily.
I stopped at 930g. Electronic scales are very useful, but I didn't know how well they'd match the scales at the Post Office. Thankfully the parcel was under the 1kg mark so I sent it off this morning. I hope it arrives in time.
Even after walking as fast as I could to the Post Office, wearing a sweatshirt, a warm sweater AND my winter jacket, I still felt chilled. By the time I'd walked home again I was a little warmer but when I took off my jacket I put on my fleece immediately. Then sat in front of an electric halogen heater.
Nearly time to go and make a hot water bottle...
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Boxed freight and books
Just for the record, this is what our 'Atrium' looked like after we (and a friend) had unloaded the 49 boxes after the freight arrived. The cats were keen to investigate: Tessie quickly managed to find the highest box so she could survey the scene thoroughly.
We didn't unpack everything. But we did get out the dining table, the four bookcases, all the books, some pots and pans and a few other items. Oh, and about nine warm jumpers (sweaters) belonging to Richard. I spent several hours cataloguing all our books on the computer, having moved around the old bookcases and rearranged the order. Our cats have always liked sitting on top of the rattan bookcases; Sophia and Jemima seemed even more pleased to find that (now we've moved them closer together) they could sit next to each other on top of bookcases.
And yes, the Atrium is now clear of boxes. What we didn't unpack is either on top of the fitted wardrobes in our bedroom, or packed away in the tiny loft space above the bathroom.
We didn't unpack everything. But we did get out the dining table, the four bookcases, all the books, some pots and pans and a few other items. Oh, and about nine warm jumpers (sweaters) belonging to Richard. I spent several hours cataloguing all our books on the computer, having moved around the old bookcases and rearranged the order. Our cats have always liked sitting on top of the rattan bookcases; Sophia and Jemima seemed even more pleased to find that (now we've moved them closer together) they could sit next to each other on top of bookcases.
And yes, the Atrium is now clear of boxes. What we didn't unpack is either on top of the fitted wardrobes in our bedroom, or packed away in the tiny loft space above the bathroom.
What happened to the past week?!
So, our freight came and I was pretty occupied with finding space for books, and kitchen utensils.
But it didn't take THAT long, yet I don't seem to have written anything much for over two weeks. I suppose it's another odd time of year... cooler, but not cold. Dark evenings, but warm sunny daytimes. Only three weeks until Christmas, but despite the climate here being similar to that of Bethelehem, it doesn't feel like Advent. Even though we have Advent candles at our church, and poinsettias decorating the window sills.
Tim's had a really bad cold for the past week, and although the rest of us seem to have avoided it - so far, anyway - I've felt tired and a bit headachey for the past couple of days, and Dan's had a 24-hour gastroenteritis type of bug. At least, we hope it's a 24-hour one. The worst of it took place this morning. Even boiled water wasn't staying down at first, but I remembered a doctor's tip to give fizzy drinks, and dug out a bottle of Sprite left over from some party. It contains valuable electrolytes, apparently, and sure enough he found that was acceptable. Funny how something basically rather unhealthy can have good results during sickness.
Organised people are 'ready for Christmas' by about the end of November. One day perhaps I'll join their ranks, but I doubt it. We do better than we used to: most of the family's gifts were sorted while we were in the UK in October, and there are only one or two more to order. Online buying has made life a great deal easier in that respect. I made my Christmas cake a couple of weeks ago too. That always needs about six weeks to mature, ideally, and for once it should have it.
But the mincemeat and Christmas pudding ingredients are still sitting in the cupboard. Dan's thinking about a Christmas card design but hasn't yet produced one. We were thinking of taking some family photos but haven't got around to it. And our annual newsletter is no more than a few jottings in the back of a notebook, so far.
There's also a fair amount to do before Daniel joins the Doulos for two years. Such as booking his ticket to Germany on Jan 11th or 12th, where he has to go first for a conference! He also needs a new passport: his current one is a children's five-year passport due to expire at the end of next year. Apparently it can't be turned into an adult one, instead we have to buy a new full one. Shouldn't be a problem, but it means getting photos and going to Nicosia to the British Embassy. And probably hanging around for a few hours.
He probably needs one more vaccination before leaving, and we also need to sort out his medical and travel insurance, and the insuring of his laptop computer and clarinet while away. Oh, and I need to sew name-tapes onto some of his clothes... something I thought I wouldn't have to do any more once we started home educating. Just as well I kept the ones we didn't use!
Still, our church and some of our friends are generously helping with his financial support for the two years he'll be away, so that's very encouraging. And he did have most of the necessary vaccinations before going on the short-term trip in the summer.
But it didn't take THAT long, yet I don't seem to have written anything much for over two weeks. I suppose it's another odd time of year... cooler, but not cold. Dark evenings, but warm sunny daytimes. Only three weeks until Christmas, but despite the climate here being similar to that of Bethelehem, it doesn't feel like Advent. Even though we have Advent candles at our church, and poinsettias decorating the window sills.
Tim's had a really bad cold for the past week, and although the rest of us seem to have avoided it - so far, anyway - I've felt tired and a bit headachey for the past couple of days, and Dan's had a 24-hour gastroenteritis type of bug. At least, we hope it's a 24-hour one. The worst of it took place this morning. Even boiled water wasn't staying down at first, but I remembered a doctor's tip to give fizzy drinks, and dug out a bottle of Sprite left over from some party. It contains valuable electrolytes, apparently, and sure enough he found that was acceptable. Funny how something basically rather unhealthy can have good results during sickness.
Organised people are 'ready for Christmas' by about the end of November. One day perhaps I'll join their ranks, but I doubt it. We do better than we used to: most of the family's gifts were sorted while we were in the UK in October, and there are only one or two more to order. Online buying has made life a great deal easier in that respect. I made my Christmas cake a couple of weeks ago too. That always needs about six weeks to mature, ideally, and for once it should have it.
But the mincemeat and Christmas pudding ingredients are still sitting in the cupboard. Dan's thinking about a Christmas card design but hasn't yet produced one. We were thinking of taking some family photos but haven't got around to it. And our annual newsletter is no more than a few jottings in the back of a notebook, so far.
There's also a fair amount to do before Daniel joins the Doulos for two years. Such as booking his ticket to Germany on Jan 11th or 12th, where he has to go first for a conference! He also needs a new passport: his current one is a children's five-year passport due to expire at the end of next year. Apparently it can't be turned into an adult one, instead we have to buy a new full one. Shouldn't be a problem, but it means getting photos and going to Nicosia to the British Embassy. And probably hanging around for a few hours.
He probably needs one more vaccination before leaving, and we also need to sort out his medical and travel insurance, and the insuring of his laptop computer and clarinet while away. Oh, and I need to sew name-tapes onto some of his clothes... something I thought I wouldn't have to do any more once we started home educating. Just as well I kept the ones we didn't use!
Still, our church and some of our friends are generously helping with his financial support for the two years he'll be away, so that's very encouraging. And he did have most of the necessary vaccinations before going on the short-term trip in the summer.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Quick update
Our freight arrived on Tuesday! Excellent company, pallets well-stacked, everything in great condition.
So much of the week has been spent sorting and cataloguing books and finding places for other stuff we unpacked. We did put a few of the boxes away in our tiny loft space, for when we move, but it was fun finding all the books - in all we have about 2,500 now - and the four bookcases we brought out with us.
It's all been very tiring though.
So much of the week has been spent sorting and cataloguing books and finding places for other stuff we unpacked. We did put a few of the boxes away in our tiny loft space, for when we move, but it was fun finding all the books - in all we have about 2,500 now - and the four bookcases we brought out with us.
It's all been very tiring though.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Freight.. or fraught?
When we were in the UK, sorting out our house to sell it, we had to look through a huge number of boxes. As mentioned below. Although, as Daniel pointed out, we had survived without all that stuff for eight years so we might as well get rid of it all, we decided to bring a fair amount out to Cyprus where we intend to settle for the foreseeable future. I think we're only bringing about a third of what was left, and very little of the furniture.
Then, having roughly estimated what we wanted to bring, Richard started contacting freight companies. Hunting through the Yellow Pages yielded dozens of possibilities, but most of the phone calls were frustrating in the extreme. They didn't send things to Cyprus. They only did entire containers. They couldn't insure anything. They weren't operating any more. And so on...
We did get a few quotations, but they were fairly high.
Then Richard contacted a number he was given by Cyprus Airways, a special offer on air freight since he's a frequent flyer. He didn't want to trust Tim's new keyboard to sea freight, despite its strong flight case, and Tim wanted it within the next month or so in Cyprus. Previous experiences had taught us that even if sea freight is estimated to arrive within a couple of weeks, it's more likely to be at least a couple of months.
The company (called Signet) were very helpful, and gave a good quotation. They collected the keyboard when they said they would, and a colleague picked it up from Larnaka airport a couple of days later.
So Richard asked if they knew a company who did sea-freight, and they said they did that too. Their quotation was the best we had been given, insurance was not much extra. We would have to deal with the freight (or organise its delivery) once it got to Limassol port, but we didn't mind that. Having seen how some sea-freight is treated at the port, Richard felt he would prefer to supervise it himself anyway. We know someone with a transit van which we might be able to borrow if we need to collect it ourselves.
So we had the freight collected, we posted a cheque, and we had an email saying that it would arrive at Limassol on 14th Nov, and their agent in Cyprus would contact us. They even gave us a number.
On Tuesday (15th Nov) Richard tried phoning the number. No reply. But he left it till the afternoon, and some companies only work mornings.
Yesterday he tried again. No reply.
So he phoned the company in the UK, to check the number. The lady he had dealt with was on holiday, and the man answering the phone said he would check for us. He said there was no record of our having sent anything....
Richard asked him to check again, and this time he said we had sent air freight not sea freight, and we should have received it weeks ago. No, Richard said, that was different. We have signed paperwork accepting our sea-freight, and an email confirming arrival of our cheque, giving information about the arrival of the ship....
All rather worrying, but thankfully the guy did eventually find our details. Apparently their filing system isn't computerised or well-organised - something we have come to expect in Cyprus, but not in England!
They also gave Richard a completely different phone number for the Cyprus agent. By this time it was nearly 6.00pm here, and the Cyprus agent office closed at 5.30.
This morning he tried again. He got through to someone who said that yes, they do have our paperwork, but the ship has been delayed and should arrive this weekend.
What a relief.
We don't hold out high hopes for actually getting the freight next week; previous experience has taught us that it can take up to a week to be released, and that inevitably there will be further delays. When we came out here eight years ago, we sent some freight which was due to arrive in the first week of November. It actually arrived just before Christmas and had two parcels missing. They were insured, and the contents replaced, but it was very annoying.
However the time-frame was quite good compared to others we've heard of: one family discovered their freight had been sent first to Malta, then to Greece (huh?), and was then on its way to North Cyprus... at a time when it would almost certainly have been lost irretrievably if it had arrived there. Thankfully they were able to get it diverted to the south in time, but in all they waited about three months rather than the expected three weeks.
Tim hopes the freight arrives before mid-December, since one of the items coming is a very strong keyboard stand which he wants to use in the inter-church carol concert. I'm in two minds: I'll be relieved when it's safely here, but I have NO idea where we're going to put it. I also suspect we're going to find that we want to extract one or two items from every single box so we won't even be able to leave it neatly stacked away somewhere.
Then, having roughly estimated what we wanted to bring, Richard started contacting freight companies. Hunting through the Yellow Pages yielded dozens of possibilities, but most of the phone calls were frustrating in the extreme. They didn't send things to Cyprus. They only did entire containers. They couldn't insure anything. They weren't operating any more. And so on...
We did get a few quotations, but they were fairly high.
Then Richard contacted a number he was given by Cyprus Airways, a special offer on air freight since he's a frequent flyer. He didn't want to trust Tim's new keyboard to sea freight, despite its strong flight case, and Tim wanted it within the next month or so in Cyprus. Previous experiences had taught us that even if sea freight is estimated to arrive within a couple of weeks, it's more likely to be at least a couple of months.
The company (called Signet) were very helpful, and gave a good quotation. They collected the keyboard when they said they would, and a colleague picked it up from Larnaka airport a couple of days later.
So Richard asked if they knew a company who did sea-freight, and they said they did that too. Their quotation was the best we had been given, insurance was not much extra. We would have to deal with the freight (or organise its delivery) once it got to Limassol port, but we didn't mind that. Having seen how some sea-freight is treated at the port, Richard felt he would prefer to supervise it himself anyway. We know someone with a transit van which we might be able to borrow if we need to collect it ourselves.
So we had the freight collected, we posted a cheque, and we had an email saying that it would arrive at Limassol on 14th Nov, and their agent in Cyprus would contact us. They even gave us a number.
On Tuesday (15th Nov) Richard tried phoning the number. No reply. But he left it till the afternoon, and some companies only work mornings.
Yesterday he tried again. No reply.
So he phoned the company in the UK, to check the number. The lady he had dealt with was on holiday, and the man answering the phone said he would check for us. He said there was no record of our having sent anything....
Richard asked him to check again, and this time he said we had sent air freight not sea freight, and we should have received it weeks ago. No, Richard said, that was different. We have signed paperwork accepting our sea-freight, and an email confirming arrival of our cheque, giving information about the arrival of the ship....
All rather worrying, but thankfully the guy did eventually find our details. Apparently their filing system isn't computerised or well-organised - something we have come to expect in Cyprus, but not in England!
They also gave Richard a completely different phone number for the Cyprus agent. By this time it was nearly 6.00pm here, and the Cyprus agent office closed at 5.30.
This morning he tried again. He got through to someone who said that yes, they do have our paperwork, but the ship has been delayed and should arrive this weekend.
What a relief.
We don't hold out high hopes for actually getting the freight next week; previous experience has taught us that it can take up to a week to be released, and that inevitably there will be further delays. When we came out here eight years ago, we sent some freight which was due to arrive in the first week of November. It actually arrived just before Christmas and had two parcels missing. They were insured, and the contents replaced, but it was very annoying.
However the time-frame was quite good compared to others we've heard of: one family discovered their freight had been sent first to Malta, then to Greece (huh?), and was then on its way to North Cyprus... at a time when it would almost certainly have been lost irretrievably if it had arrived there. Thankfully they were able to get it diverted to the south in time, but in all they waited about three months rather than the expected three weeks.
Tim hopes the freight arrives before mid-December, since one of the items coming is a very strong keyboard stand which he wants to use in the inter-church carol concert. I'm in two minds: I'll be relieved when it's safely here, but I have NO idea where we're going to put it. I also suspect we're going to find that we want to extract one or two items from every single box so we won't even be able to leave it neatly stacked away somewhere.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Some photos from our recent trip to the UK
I was going to call this 'holiday snaps', but it wasn't really a holiday in any sense, although it was lovely to spend time with family and friends. Having lived out of the UK for eight years (and it's exactly that - today is the 8th anniversary of our arrival in Cyprus) I found myself noticing things I might previously have taken for granted. And having a digital camera, of course I took dozens of snaps which I shall never get made into prints. Here are a few to give a flavour of our visit... oh, and if anyone reading this isn't familiar with blog photos, any of them can be clicked to see a larger version. But on a dial-up connection that might be quite slow.
We began in Sussex, staying with Richard's mother. The boys both inherited some money last year and wanted to buy professional musical instruments after many years on student types. So we spent much time in the first week in music shops, mostly about half an hour's drive away. Tim selected this keyboard after playing a huge variety:
... and Daniel eventually chose a clarinet from Hanson's, a store in Yorkshire, which sent it down for him to try before buying. They're both very pleased with their purchases!
At the end of the first week we drove to Birmingham to spend a couple of weeks staying with my mother. The day after we arrived, my sister and her family came to spend a day, and in the afternoon we went for a walk with their dog to the local Highbury Park. I found myself amazed afresh at the beauty and greenery of Birmingham parks, and particularly liked this pond:
Daniel's birthday was approaching fast, and he was interested in some Irish tin whistles. We'd been recommended a shop in Birmingham called Hobgoblins, which turned out to be a very friendly place full of fascinating instruments, some of them quite unusual. He was able to play several of the whistles and chose four in separate keys.
We were amused at the wall surrounding the car park we found nearby. After reading the notice saying that cars which had not paid sufficient parking money would be clamped, Dan asked if they received even more drastic treatment if they were left for even longer...
Yes, it was a wall of crushed cars! We made sure we paid for a couple of hours. After spending time in Hobgoblin's we still had a bit of parking time left so we went for a brief walk and saw this astounding statue. The boys posed at its feet just to give an idea of the size. Rather incongrous in the middle of a kind of shopping centre, we thought:
The following weekend, after spending most of the week trying to sort out the various boxes in our house, we spent the day with some friends who live near the enormous Sutton Park. We went for a walk in the afternoon, and enjoyed seeing wild ponies:
and wild mushrooms. Or perhaps toadstools. They were amazingly colourful and bigger than I had expected. Suddenly I could see why Enid Blyton wrote about them as fairy houses:
As well as continuing to sort our freight the following week, we spent time with lots of different friends. At the weekend we made a quick trip to the Cadbury shop which is quite close to our house, and I took this quick snap of the famous factory... people used to ask us if there was a problem with factory smells, living in Birmingham. We always replied that we loved waking up to the smell of freshly-made chocolate!
After that we drove along a road I used to take quite for granted - the Bristol Road, or A38, a two-lane dual carriageway that's very busy. It also happens to be lined with trees which were in gorgeous shades of yellow and red, as Autumn approached. In my teens I went along that road every day going to school, and barely noticed the colours.
Two days later we drove to Cardiff to spend nearly a week with my sister and her family. On the way - or rather, not on the way at all! - we took Dan to Oswestry for an interview, as he's hoping to return to the Doulos ship for a couple of years, and so has to join the organisation officially. While he was there, the rest of us drove to Lake Bala. It wasn't as dark as it looks in this picture - it was mid-afternoon. I just haven't yet figured out all the camera settings, so the bright sunshine made it look as if it was dusk. Still, I liked the way this turned out:
We watched some ducks too, very tame and sleeping peacefully when we sat down nearby. Then a couple of women approached with toddlers in pushchairs. Immediately the ducks and nearby doves woke up and rushed towards them, quacking and calling. Evidently they associated small children with food, and sure enough a child started throwing them pieces of bread. Just like we used to when the boys were smaller.
On the way back we drove through Chirk, a small town which has a castle, although we didn't go in. We were a bit horrified to see this pollution pouring into the sky, although I suppose it's better to be in a country area than in the middle of a big city.
We were even more horrified when we realised where it was coming from: another Cadbury factory.
Finally we got to Cardiff. We did get slightly lost, but thank goodness for international roaming mobile phones (which, from Cyprus, aren't even very expensive). Dan called my sister and she navigated us to her home over the phone using her A-Z street map. Our time with her was a bit less busy, although we did a bit more shopping including buying some extra luggage. Cardiff is a lovely city; here's just one of the buildings near where we parked on our last day:
Finally we drove back to Sussex for a couple of last days before flying home. We'd almost forgotten how slowly night falls in the UK, and how beautiful some of the sunsets can be. This shot was taken from the car as we drove south, about 6pm.
The old rhyme about 'Red sky at night' was correct, as our first day in Sussex was lovely: mostly sunny, and quite warm. Indeed it was remarkably mild and dry for October during most of our stay.
We began in Sussex, staying with Richard's mother. The boys both inherited some money last year and wanted to buy professional musical instruments after many years on student types. So we spent much time in the first week in music shops, mostly about half an hour's drive away. Tim selected this keyboard after playing a huge variety:
... and Daniel eventually chose a clarinet from Hanson's, a store in Yorkshire, which sent it down for him to try before buying. They're both very pleased with their purchases!
At the end of the first week we drove to Birmingham to spend a couple of weeks staying with my mother. The day after we arrived, my sister and her family came to spend a day, and in the afternoon we went for a walk with their dog to the local Highbury Park. I found myself amazed afresh at the beauty and greenery of Birmingham parks, and particularly liked this pond:
Daniel's birthday was approaching fast, and he was interested in some Irish tin whistles. We'd been recommended a shop in Birmingham called Hobgoblins, which turned out to be a very friendly place full of fascinating instruments, some of them quite unusual. He was able to play several of the whistles and chose four in separate keys.
We were amused at the wall surrounding the car park we found nearby. After reading the notice saying that cars which had not paid sufficient parking money would be clamped, Dan asked if they received even more drastic treatment if they were left for even longer...
Yes, it was a wall of crushed cars! We made sure we paid for a couple of hours. After spending time in Hobgoblin's we still had a bit of parking time left so we went for a brief walk and saw this astounding statue. The boys posed at its feet just to give an idea of the size. Rather incongrous in the middle of a kind of shopping centre, we thought:
The following weekend, after spending most of the week trying to sort out the various boxes in our house, we spent the day with some friends who live near the enormous Sutton Park. We went for a walk in the afternoon, and enjoyed seeing wild ponies:
and wild mushrooms. Or perhaps toadstools. They were amazingly colourful and bigger than I had expected. Suddenly I could see why Enid Blyton wrote about them as fairy houses:
As well as continuing to sort our freight the following week, we spent time with lots of different friends. At the weekend we made a quick trip to the Cadbury shop which is quite close to our house, and I took this quick snap of the famous factory... people used to ask us if there was a problem with factory smells, living in Birmingham. We always replied that we loved waking up to the smell of freshly-made chocolate!
After that we drove along a road I used to take quite for granted - the Bristol Road, or A38, a two-lane dual carriageway that's very busy. It also happens to be lined with trees which were in gorgeous shades of yellow and red, as Autumn approached. In my teens I went along that road every day going to school, and barely noticed the colours.
Two days later we drove to Cardiff to spend nearly a week with my sister and her family. On the way - or rather, not on the way at all! - we took Dan to Oswestry for an interview, as he's hoping to return to the Doulos ship for a couple of years, and so has to join the organisation officially. While he was there, the rest of us drove to Lake Bala. It wasn't as dark as it looks in this picture - it was mid-afternoon. I just haven't yet figured out all the camera settings, so the bright sunshine made it look as if it was dusk. Still, I liked the way this turned out:
We watched some ducks too, very tame and sleeping peacefully when we sat down nearby. Then a couple of women approached with toddlers in pushchairs. Immediately the ducks and nearby doves woke up and rushed towards them, quacking and calling. Evidently they associated small children with food, and sure enough a child started throwing them pieces of bread. Just like we used to when the boys were smaller.
On the way back we drove through Chirk, a small town which has a castle, although we didn't go in. We were a bit horrified to see this pollution pouring into the sky, although I suppose it's better to be in a country area than in the middle of a big city.
We were even more horrified when we realised where it was coming from: another Cadbury factory.
Finally we got to Cardiff. We did get slightly lost, but thank goodness for international roaming mobile phones (which, from Cyprus, aren't even very expensive). Dan called my sister and she navigated us to her home over the phone using her A-Z street map. Our time with her was a bit less busy, although we did a bit more shopping including buying some extra luggage. Cardiff is a lovely city; here's just one of the buildings near where we parked on our last day:
Finally we drove back to Sussex for a couple of last days before flying home. We'd almost forgotten how slowly night falls in the UK, and how beautiful some of the sunsets can be. This shot was taken from the car as we drove south, about 6pm. 
The old rhyme about 'Red sky at night' was correct, as our first day in Sussex was lovely: mostly sunny, and quite warm. Indeed it was remarkably mild and dry for October during most of our stay.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Home again!
It seems as if we were away for months while we were in the UK - we did so much during the past four weeks. We stayed in three different homes and spent time with a large number of relatives and friends. Both the boys bought professional level musical instruments they had been wanting for a long time, using some money they had inherited, which took quite a bit of travelling and trying things out. Richard spoke at four different churches, too.
But one of our primary aims was clearing out the last of our possesssions from our home in Birmingham, since we're hoping to sell it to one of the people currently living there. There was far more than we had expected, so it took three days just to sort it roughly. We gave about four carloads of stuff to charity shops, took about the same amount to the municipal dump (why did we keep such rubbish?!) and the rest we moved to the garage belonging to some friends of ours, not far away. we then re-sorted with more space, got rid of a bit more, and packed the rest into boxes to be shipped out to Larnaka via sea freight. Here's Richard with the majority of it:
- which might not look like a huge amount, but there was more behind that front layer, and more still just out of the picture on the left. The whole came to seven-and-a-half cubic metres. What a relief it was when it was collected, although we weren't so happy to discover we had managed to miss an entire bookcase of books which we had to sort through a day later, and bring out as part of our luggage.
We also bought some necessary clothes - mostly from Primark and Bewise - and various other bits and pieces which kept mounting up until we found we had about 160kg of luggage between us. Oops. The limit for checked-in luggage is 20kg per person, and hand luggage is supposed to be under 6kg per person although we've never known it to be weighed. We ended up leaving three bags of books in Richard's mother's attic for next time. We packed our hand luggage rather fuller than we should have done, and still found our main bags came to 108kg. We hoped they would allow it through as Richard is a frequent flyer with Cyprus Airways. As it turned out, the check-in girl barely looked at the weights of our bags. Possibly this is because the flight wasn't full so they could allow a bit extra.
We took off at 11pm last night, nearly an hour later than expected, but the flight was otherwise uneventful (thankfully!) and we landed at about 5am Cyprus time. All the luggage arrived safely and we were home - exhausted - by about 5.45.
Our fourth cat Tessie had apparently vanished several days ago; the lady looking after our house was very worried about her but thankfully she reappeared early this afternoon looking much thinner than usual but otherwise healthy. We can only imagine she must have got shut in someone's shed or garage.
More tomorrow - perhaps - when I've had a chance to edit a few more photos.
PS - no, that tall box in the picture doesn't contain a new enormous widescreen TV!! It's a box that belonged to someone else, and contains a bookcase that belonged to my grandfather. Packed inside the bookcase (which has removable shelves) are several bubble-wrapped oil paintings done by my grandmother.
But one of our primary aims was clearing out the last of our possesssions from our home in Birmingham, since we're hoping to sell it to one of the people currently living there. There was far more than we had expected, so it took three days just to sort it roughly. We gave about four carloads of stuff to charity shops, took about the same amount to the municipal dump (why did we keep such rubbish?!) and the rest we moved to the garage belonging to some friends of ours, not far away. we then re-sorted with more space, got rid of a bit more, and packed the rest into boxes to be shipped out to Larnaka via sea freight. Here's Richard with the majority of it:
- which might not look like a huge amount, but there was more behind that front layer, and more still just out of the picture on the left. The whole came to seven-and-a-half cubic metres. What a relief it was when it was collected, although we weren't so happy to discover we had managed to miss an entire bookcase of books which we had to sort through a day later, and bring out as part of our luggage.We also bought some necessary clothes - mostly from Primark and Bewise - and various other bits and pieces which kept mounting up until we found we had about 160kg of luggage between us. Oops. The limit for checked-in luggage is 20kg per person, and hand luggage is supposed to be under 6kg per person although we've never known it to be weighed. We ended up leaving three bags of books in Richard's mother's attic for next time. We packed our hand luggage rather fuller than we should have done, and still found our main bags came to 108kg. We hoped they would allow it through as Richard is a frequent flyer with Cyprus Airways. As it turned out, the check-in girl barely looked at the weights of our bags. Possibly this is because the flight wasn't full so they could allow a bit extra.
We took off at 11pm last night, nearly an hour later than expected, but the flight was otherwise uneventful (thankfully!) and we landed at about 5am Cyprus time. All the luggage arrived safely and we were home - exhausted - by about 5.45.
Our fourth cat Tessie had apparently vanished several days ago; the lady looking after our house was very worried about her but thankfully she reappeared early this afternoon looking much thinner than usual but otherwise healthy. We can only imagine she must have got shut in someone's shed or garage.
More tomorrow - perhaps - when I've had a chance to edit a few more photos.
PS - no, that tall box in the picture doesn't contain a new enormous widescreen TV!! It's a box that belonged to someone else, and contains a bookcase that belonged to my grandfather. Packed inside the bookcase (which has removable shelves) are several bubble-wrapped oil paintings done by my grandmother.
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