What a weekend....

I posted on Facebook recently, asking whether anxieties about one's offspring ever go away, and had a response from a wide variety of people. The consensus was 'no'. Once a parent, always a parent. Which is just fine as far as I'm concerned.

And now I'm a grandmother too! But more of that below...

The last couple of weeks have been somewhat more stressful in the parental respect than usual. Tim was involved in his primary school's first ever musical theatre production. One of the teachers produced it: she organised the scripting and coached the actors (all Year/Grade 6 children, aged about 11-13) while Tim orchestrated and recorded the music and trained the choir (including some slightly younger children). Far from an easy task as many of the children had previously done no drama, and not much singing. Arts are not taken very seriously in schools here, which is rather ironic considering the history of Cyprus.

Tim also ended up responsible for PA and general technology for the production; with 20 or so inexperienced children on a biggish school hall stage, some of them singing solos, it became clear that a large number of radio microphones would be needed. Tim arranged to hire some from a friend in the next town and also to be in charge of the PA in general.

Then there was a dress rehearsal with younger children from the school watching, and three full performances, two of which were sell-outs. Richard and I went to the last performance on Saturday night and were very impressed - amazing backdrops, terrific music, children who could sing, and lots of details, right down to the design of the tickets, beautifully done. Some of those with speaking parts inevitably stood out above the rest, yet they all did well: nobody forgot lines, and if some of them talked a bit over-fast at times, we could still hear every word.

At the end the cast took a final bow, the teacher who was producing it went on stage, and then some of the choir members stood up and called for 'Mr Tim!' to join them too.

Alas, photography was not allowed so I can't post any pictures of the production, but some official ones were taken and a local newspaper was there at the first performance. It was given an excellent review.

Tim was just recovering from the buzz late Saturday evening when we received a text telling us that our daughter-in-law was in the early stages of labour. This is the other reason we've been feeling a bit stressed for the last couple of weeks: our first grandchild, due near the end of May, had not yet put in an appearance.

We spent most of yesterday wondering how things were going, feeling anxious, praying... and then had a text message from Daniel letting us know that all was well and that our grandson David had arrived safely after a long labour.

Four and a half kilos (9lb 15oz) - that's a big baby.

Here's Daniel with his newborn son:

When I saw the photo, I was struck immediately by the resemblance to Daniel as a baby. I'm not one to notice newborn resemblances, in general, but it sent me to my 1986 photos; here's one of me with Daniel at a couple of hours old for comparison:

We are so pleased, and very relieved that David has arrived at last. Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of the Church, the start of many new things: a perfect day for Daniel and Becky to start on the lifelong adventure of parenting.

Alice's Wonderland (in Cyprus)

A long overdue review... 

It's almost four weeks since the premiere of 'Alice's Wonderland', at Scala Theatre in Larnaka. Our friend Catherine was the creator of this amazing stage show for children; formerly with Theatre Antidote, she now runs 'Little Muse Youth Theatre', and this is her first professional production under that banner. The show is loosely based on Lewis Carrol's classic 'Alice in Wonderland', with a nod to the 1999 film adaptation, which begins with a moody Alice refusing to sing for her rather harsh and pushy parents. 

In the Little Muse version, Alice is played by Catherine, and all the other parts are performed by Lefteris, a musician who specialises in using recycled materials.  As we entered the theatre, about twenty minutes before the play began, Lefteris was giving us a wonderful demonstration of his talents on the drums, with occasional calls of 'Alice!'  

In Cyprus it's normal for people to arrive late, so it's quite a tribute to Catherine's advertising and charisma that the first members of the audience had waited for more than half an hour before they could go in. Invited guests had been allocated seats, but for everyone else it was 'first come first seated' - although in Scala Theatre pretty much every seat is a good one. And with ten minutes to go before the opening, most of the seats were filled: 

Lefteris plays Alice's father at the start of the show. He's a travelling musician who really wants his only daughter to sing.. but she can't. Her early attempts at music are really quite painful:

However she's more than willing to announce her father when he performs: 

He won't give up. He dresses Alice up, and is determined to make her sing:

In desperation, she runs away. And suddenly she finds herself meeting the oddest of characters... 

Those familiar with the classic book will recognise them, but it's not necessary to know the original story. I was so engrossed I forgot to take many more photos. 

Lefteris is a natural comedian as well as a musician, and manages to play the March Hare, the Queen of Hearts, and also the Mad Hatter: 

The backdrop works like the pages of a book, something I had never seen before, moving back and forth to show us the different scenes - and it all works flawlessly.  Naturally Alice learns to sing in the course of the show, and becomes more confident, encouraging the audience to follow their dreams. It's a message that might be thought most appropriate for older children and teens, yet there were children as young as two and three who were absolutely engrossed by the story.  

This fifty-something adult was also captivated.  The pace is perfect, with no scene too long, and just enough humour to ensure a little laughter without breaking the flow.

All in all, it was magical. 

For those in Cyprus who would like to see this show, the 'Alice's Wonderland' Facebook page has details of all performances.

Last few days in the UK...

Our last couple of weeks in the UK went by very quickly.  We didn't manage to get to see many friends in Birmingham, although we very much enjoyed meals with a few families who we've been close to for many years now.  All too quickly it was our final Sunday... and Tim was playing in the music group at Christ Church: 

As well as interviewing Richard about his work, they prayed with Tim and said an official goodbye to him, since he's moving back to Cyprus for a year or two.  

We had a new experience in our final week; the washing machine in my mother's house stopped working. It was quite old, and good timing in one sense... but we had only taken a week's worth of clothes with us. I tried doing some washing by hand but it wasn't very effective, and was decidedly messy. Then as there's no washing line, it was remarkably difficult to get things dry and I was worried about overloading the tumble drier. 

So we found a launderette  They're not all that common, apparently, but right by 'studentville' (the popular area for Birmingham University students) we discovered a small and friendly one, with a very helpful man who explained how the machines worked and estimated how many we would need.   We had taken several carrier bags of dirty clothes, bedding, and so on...  and ended up using three machines: 

It wasn't particularly expensive, but suddenly we could quite see why students are renowned for taking piles of laundry home to their parents.  I would have done too, if the only alternative was to use a launderette. Not that it was a problem once - it was quite an interesting experience.  But it would work out quite pricy and time-consuming to go there every week. 

It was while our clothes were churning away that we thought of a new problem: how we were going to transport the clean laundry back to the car?  There was nowhere to park nearby, so we were probably a couple of hundred metres away.  We could hardly walk through the streets carrying huge piles of wet washing... and we certainly didn't want to pile it back in the carriers we had used for the dirty stuff. 

So while Richard waited, I wandered around the local shops in the hope of picking up some useful 'bags for life'.

I had no luck at all. There were only small 'express' style supermarkets nearby, and none of them seemed to sell strong bags. 

Then finally I went into an art/craft shop.  And I found them. Possibly the ugliest carrier bags I have ever seen, not something I would wish to be seen carrying... but sometimes, as it's said, 'needs must'.  The bags were plastic, and looked pretty sturdy.  I bought four of them....

 They did make it easier to carry the wet laundry back. Since it had spun, we decided to use the tumble drier at my mother's house, rather than paying - and waiting longer - at the launderette.  And we also decided that this was an experience we did not particularly wish to repeat.

We spent a lot of time in our last couple of weeks clearing more of my mother's house, sorting paperwork for her, and had a major blitz day on our final Saturday, when all my siblings and their spouses came for the day. It was good to be all together again, albeit briefly.

Happily the bags had another use on our final Saturday, enabling my siblings to transport various small items home with them. 

Last day out of Cyprus: Carlisle shopping and a lengthy detour...

It feels like a very long time since we flew back to Cyprus, although it was less than a week ago. As ever, it's as if one life fades into the background as another resumes.

Still, I have one more day in the UK to write about. It was last Saturday. Was that really only five days ago? I suppose it must be.

So...

Daniel and Becky's organisation were helping with a big stage production in Carlisle, at a community centre called the Sands Centre. The show was, I believe, a fund-raiser: an international show called 'Mysterious?'.  Daniel was doing some kind of technical operation, Becky was working on graphics during the show, and Richard was co-opted in to help with the sound.  There wasn't anything for me to do, but I said I'd be happy to potter around the town centre for a few hours, and then probably go to the show in the evening.

They had to be there at 8.00am for setup, rehearsals etc; not a problem for me, as I usually wake much earlier than that, so I went in the car with them despite the fact that it was (um.. theoretically...see later in the post!) only a ten-minute walk from Dan and Becky's home.  Daniel gave me instructions on how to get into the town centre, and suggested I return to the Sands Centre for lunch.

The day was grey but not cold; I was armed with a light cardigan and waterproof jacket, and set off in good spirits. I was pleasantly surprised at the attractiveness of the underpass which I had to navigate in order to reach the town centre:

There were even some flower beds in the middle section:

I'm not good at finding my way around but took careful note of landmarks, and soon found myself in the main shopping area: 

Of course, it was only about 8.20 by then, and not much was open. But I found a large Wilkinson's, which was interesting to browse, and bought a few useful items; I also found a newsagent that stocked some magazines I wanted for writing research purposes.

I walked around the whole precinct, checking the indoor shopping centre ('The Lanes') as well as the outdoor place, and noted that most of the interesting shops didn't open until 10.00.  However, by then it was 9.00, so I was able to pop into Holland and Barrett for some tea tree oil, although unfortunately they had run out of Vitamin C powder. 

I was sorry to see another Julian Graves health food store boarded up and closed down, and then rather shocked to find that Hawkins Bazaar - one of my favourite shops - was also, apparently, 'under administration' and closed, although I'm pleased to see that their online shop still exists. 

By then I'd been in the town centre for an hour, and - not being a fan of shopping, to employ a nice British understatement - was beginning to wonder what I would do for the rest of the day. 

Then, in The Lanes, a wonderful sign met my eyes: 

What bliss. We don't really have libraries in Cyprus, so this wasn't just a place to sit down and read for a while, but an unusual treat. 

I slowly walked up and down the aisles, breathing in the unique scent of library books, feeling my muscles relaxing as I sensed that I was - albeit very temporarily - at home.  I found lots of interesting books to browse through, and  sat in one of the many comfortable chairs. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't even think of taking my camera out... 

An hour and a half slipped by rapidly, and I decided I was ready for another onslaught of shops. I wanted to look in a couple of charity shops which I knew should be open by then, but I hadn't taken note of whether they would remain open in the afternoon. 

So a little reluctantly I left the warm embrace of the library, and ventured back into the town. I found one good charity shop where I picked up a few books, and glanced in several others. I was a little puzzled that I kept hearing what sounded like bagpipes, just playing a few notes. I couldn't locate the source of the sound, so assumed it was either a radio or perhaps my imagination... 

One of the highlights of Carlisle town centre is a huge, rambling second-hand bookshop called 'The Bookcase'. Apparently there are around 30 rooms of books; since many of them are enormous I would have guessed rather more than that. I wasn't entirely sure where this shop was, but knew it was close to the Cathedral. So I found that:

And, sure enough, The Bookcase was just along the street: 

I spent, perhaps, half an hour in there. Just walking around the books was almost as relaxing as walking around the library, although it was a little musty in places. And on so many different levels that I did start to feel quite tired with all the stairs. 

I was tempted by several books, but they were mostly hardbacks and none were particularly good value... so I resisted.  

It wasn't quite time to head back to the Sands Centre, but I thought I'd better make sure I could find my way there when I needed to, so I set off in the right direction... 

.. and suddenly, I saw this:

Yes! A library AND a pipe band on one day!

I stood and listened to about three pieces before the band took a break, which was just as well as by then it was time to buy myself a sandwich and trek back to the Sands Centre.

Happily, I found my way back, and was just in time to find my family who were about to eat lunch. There was some coffee available, and when they were about to start back to work, I realised that I could not face any more shopping. I wondered if there was a quiet spot where I could sit and read, and Richard suggested the back of our rental car.

That worked well, and I read an entire novella on my Kindle, while feeling a bit disturbed - off and on - by the sheer volume of some of the music that was being played for the show rehearsals.  If it was almost deafening, inside a car parked outside the building, I was pretty sure I would not want to hear it from the audience of the show!

So when Richard came to find me, I said that perhaps I would do better to walk back to Daniel and Becky's house, if they could explain how to get there in simple terms.

Daniel agreed that this was a  good idea, so he and Becky gave me instructions as well as a quickly-drawn map which seemed quite straightforward.

I set off about 3.45, and easily found the first mentioned landmarks. I even looked in a couple more interesting-looking shops that I passed, though I didn't buy anything.

Then I got slightly confused at the number of traffic lights and bridges, which didn't seem to quite match the drawn map. I was about to go in what I thought was the right direction when I spotted the huge Matalan store which we had driven past quite a few times. I thought I might pop in there too.

As I came out, I studied my map. Matalan was not mentioned, but I was pretty sure I knew which way we usually drove past it. So I set off with confidence.

Then we started passing places which I did not remember seeing before, and my confidence waned.

Then I saw a billboard advert. I forget what product it was for, but it was something about a chalice made of glass.  I knew I'd seen that one from the car, so I felt confident again. The word 'chalice' always makes me think of the classic film 'The Court Jester', so I kept walking with my mind elsewhere, while not really taking much notice of where I was going.

The next thing to look out for, according to my map, was a little co-op shop on the right.

Gradually, I realised that no co-op shop was appearing. And when I checked the time on my phone, I found that I had been on this particular road for over 20 minutes.

I could have turned around and returned to Matalan, but I had no idea where to go after that. So I was pleased to see a little Post Office/convenience store. The kind of place we'd call a Periptero in Cyprus.  They had some street maps on display, so I went in and asked if they had a local map.

They didn't, so I asked if they could possibly direct me to Dan and Becky's road. Two of the assistants looked blank, but the third was extremely helpful. She looked at the drawn map I was clutching, and explained exactly where I'd gone wrong.

I thanked her profusely, and set off, a little more slowly this time, to walk the mile or more back to Matalan. Thanks to the PO lady's instructions, I quickly found the right road, and soon saw the small co-op.  Then it wasn't long before I collapsed, exhausted, in Daniel and Becky's living room.

A walk that should have taken me about ten minutes had actually taken me an hour and a half.

Oh well.  I suppose a bit of exercise was a good thing, in light of all the good food we had eaten recently...

(And I was very glad that I didn't stay to watch the show; not only was it, apparently, quite loud in places, even in the outside broadcast truck, but they didn't finish packing up until after 12.30am... which is long past my bedtime!)

Brief cameos from May in Cyprus

Not only have I rather neglected this blog in the past few weeks, I've hardly used my camera, either. I'm not sure why. But here, for anyone interested, are a few brief updates from the past month, along with the rather paltry contents of my camera... 

Firstly, a scene that I thought very pretty when we drove past the Salt Lake one evening at sunset. We just stopped at some traffic lights so I didn't have time to try different settings on the camera. I didn't even keep it still enough to be sharp - but the silhouettes are quite attractive:

The Salt Lake is still very full, given that it's the end of May. We've had a couple of quite heavy rain showers this month, and even today there was a little rain. The long, relatively cool spring is very pleasant. While people in the UK are currently basking in (or complaining about) temperatures of 25-28C, I've acclimatised sufficiently to find similar temperatures in Cyprus pleasantly cool. 

The downside of a longer, wetter spring is that mosquitoes seem to have bred out of all proportion, and we've even had some 'no-see-um's' around, giving nasty bites that swell like those of biting spiders. Last night we made the mistake of having a couple of windows open after dark. This morning I found hundreds of little mosquitoes all over them. Apologies to animal activists... but I showed no mercy. 

The majority of May has been taken up with the closing down of the office about a kilometre away where Richard has been working for many years.  His colleagues are leaving, for various reasons, and the costs - particularly electricity bills - were becoming far too high. So the organisation has down-sized, and Richard will now be working from home. He was in the middle of the first sabbatical he had taken in over twenty years, so had to put that on hold for a while, to move equipment and furniture, and re-organise a couple of rooms in our house. He had already taken over what was Daniel's room as his study; he has now completely redesigned the 'studio' in our guest flat as a video editing suite. 

Ten days ago was the official closing date of the bigger office; we got together with the workers (past and present) and their families, and the trustees of the organisation in our home for a big lunch and party to celebrate the last twelve or so years. Change is not necessarily a bad thing, and it was good to catch up with so many people - but I didn't think of getting the camera out to record such a momentous occasion. Ah well.

Since then, Richard has worked hard to clear out the rest of the office, culminating in a skip last Friday. It will be handed back to the landlord at the end of the month. He would like to resume his sabbatical in June, but may have to spend some weeks on sorting out some technical things first. 

Although the office relocation has taken up almost all of Richard's time, and much of our emotion for the past month, life has continued as ever, spending time with friends, playing games, and so on. 

Earlier in the month, we attended a Greek Orthodox wedding for the first time. It was in a local church with magnificent paintings up high, and a large number of people in the congregation. The bride is the daughter of some of the people we have known longest in Cyprus. 

Then, last Friday evening, at the regular informal 'cell group' we belong to, Richard and our almost-ten-year-old friend Lukas had an enjoyable half hour experimenting with some old brass goblets which we had no use for (but Lukas loved), filling them with different amounts of water and testing the pitch. Richard's iPhone was able to tell them the approximate note, and Lukas eventually played a tune - of sorts. 

It was what we thought of as a typical 'home education' moment - I'm not sure if one would class it as physics or music, or just a bit of exploratory science, but it's the kind of thing that arises spontaneously and which we would miss, now we're empty-nesters, if it weren't for our nearby friends. 

Oh, and for anyone wondering about my broken toes... they seem to be mostly better. I made my first trip to a local shop on my own about a week ago, and even walked to the Anglican Church on my own yesterday (it being Pentecost Sunday in the Western calendar). But they're still not 100%, and my pace is a great deal slower than I like to walk. 

Busy times for Tim

We've got so used to having Tim here for the past seven weeks that it's going to feel like having an empty nest all over again when he flies back to the UK next week. Still, he's been managing to ease us slowly into this state. Last week he was out every morning from 7.45am until nearly 1.00pm. He was a group leader at the local church SU-produced holiday club, 'Mission Rescue' which featured spies, and secret codes, and amazing rescue efforts.

Tim disguised himself as James Bond for the week - he was still smiling on Friday, though his bow tie seemed to have gone a little lop-sided:


(Photo kindly taken by my friend Sheila who had three children attending the club).

Note the secret code symbols in the background. They were pasted all around the walls of the church building for children to de-code.

Some of our small friends locally were able to attend the holiday club, which clearly caught their imagination; Lukas was wearing a different kind of disguise when we saw him on Friday evening:


Tim was pretty tired on Saturday, but there was no time to rest because the inter-church youth group had their variety night in the evening, to raise funds for their forthcoming camping trip to Troodos. Tim was part of the youth group for many years and is going to camp as a team leader, and co-ordinator of the music.

The variety night went well, with a mixture of items, from a skit about 'Veggie Tales'...


... to a newly formed choir, singing with aplomb:


I set up our video camera on a tripod to record the entire thing, but it takes time and effort to transfer that to the computer. So Tim had also asked me to film one item on my regular camera, since it's so much easier to upload. Holding it steady wasn't easy with several small people around me! Elina and Marie are singing 'Phantom of the Opera', with Tim accompanying; they only had a couple of rehearsals but I thought it went very well:

(The little girl doing her hair in front of the camera is my small friend Katie, Marie's six-year-old sister. )

Since I'd deleted almost all the photos from my camera to make room for these videos, I discovered that I still had room for more. So when Tim got up for his solo item, 'These are the things you don't say to your wife':


..I recorded that too:

(For anyone who didn't catch them all, the lyrics are here)

Since that was so short, I also had room to record Tim's third musical item, accompanying Marie in 'The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy'. They had only rehearsed this once, at our house, and perhaps once more at youth group; it's a pity nobody was doing the solo dance, but it seemed to go pretty well:

On Sunday morning there was a holiday club service at the Community Church, for which Tim was playing keyboard... in the afternoon he had a final camp leaders meeting, and then a good night's sleep, which is rather important before youth camp as he's unlikely to get much while there.

On Monday morning, he set off with around fifty teenagers and a few other adults for the Troodos mountains, thus moving us into the next adjustment stage before our nest is once again empty:


- and no, I didn't actually wait around to see them off, or even go with Richard to take Tim to the coach. My friend Sheila who was seeing off two of her children took that photo for me.