Special spring days in Cyprus

There seem to be a lot of public holidays in Cyprus, many of which feature parades, with chosen school students and Scouting groups marching around the town. In past years, when our older son was in the Municipal Band, we used to go and watch; but one parade is much like another. With no special person to watch, the parades held little interest after we had seen a few.

Greek Independence Day
There are two national days celebrated in Cyprus, exactly a week apart. The first is Greek Independence Day, on March 25th.  It's related to the Greeks rising up against the occupying Ottoman empire back in the 1800s, but also, a little confusingly, is connected with the Feast of the Anunciation, nine months before Christmas.

Bunting is put up in the streets, and roads are cleared on the day so that the parades can take place.

Whereas Greek Independence Day is a public holiday if it occurs on a weekday, there's no extra day in lieu if, as happened this year, it falls at the weekend.

Clock-changing Day
March 25th was also the date when clocks had to be put forward for summer time, or daylight savings, or whatever other variation you call it. I very much like the 'spring forward' change. The evenings are lighter - it's now not dark until well past 7.00pm - and it's still pleasantly cool for walking with my friend Sheila at 7.00am.  Ideally we start out half an hour earlier than that, but the disadvantage of the clock change is that I wake later for at least a week or two.

Mothering Sunday
Not to be confused with US 'Mother's Day', Mothering Sunday is always three weeks before Easter. So this year it fell on March 26th. The origins are uncertain, although I gather it existed before the Reformation. In the 19th century it seems to have been the day when girls 'in service' in the UK were able to go home to their 'mother church' - and, I assume, their families - before the busy Easter period.

However, in the middle of the 20th century it became popular as a day to give cards or flowers to mothers. It's not something that was part of my culture growing up; my mother didn't like it, and it was nowhere near such a big thing as it is now.

When my sons were small they made cards or crafts of some kind at school. But then we moved to Cyprus when they were 9 and 11. It's not celebrated here (although Cyprus has a low-key variation of Mother's Day early in May) and none of us ever remembered it. Sometimes there would be a mention at a church service; occasionally flowers were given, or crafts made in Sunday school.

I went to the local Anglican church this year, forgetting that it was Mothering Sunday. Little posies were given to everyone in the congregation - men as well as women - so I was happy to put this in water when I arrived home:

A couple of hours later, a knock at the front door revealed my friend Sheila's 17-year-old son, with a bouquet, from my son Tim in the UK:

I was overwhelmed!  Tim is now a teacher, at a school where Mothering Sunday is mentioned regularly, so he said that helped him to remember.

Jam-making Day
Three days later I went out to the fruit shop, and popped over to look at the connected stall, where they sell large crates of fruit or vegetables at excellent prices. The big crates are far more than we can use, but they often have excess produce, or items past their best (or at the peak of ripeness) for just a euro or two.

I spotted some strawberries; in the fruit shop itself they're about €1.50 for 500g, and I'd bought a couple of punnets a few weeks earlier.  A small crate, which looked as if it had at least a couple of kilogrammes in it, was €4. I bought them, and was pleased to discover, on weighing them, that there were three and a half kg in all.  Excellent value.  They were perfectly ripe, and I knew wouldn't keep much longer, so Wednesday, unexpectedly, was my strawberry jam-making day:

A little over 2kg went into making eight jars of jam, and I pureed and froze most of the rest, keeping a few to eat.

Wednesday was also the day that the UK Prime Minister formally triggered the 'Brexit' process. I was surprised how very sad it made me feel; we knew it was coming, after all, although I had temporarily forgotten while making jam. Nobody knows what agreements will happen, if any, or how things will work out for Brits abroad, and other Europeans in the UK. All we can do is wait and see, hoping and praying that something positive might emerge.

Cyprus National Day
Much of the world knows April 1st as April Fool's Day, and indeed there were pranks on Facebook, and on some of the news websites. It's a bit difficult to know what's true these days anyway; so many sites offer 'fake' news, or exaggerations, or speculations which may never happen. And some news stories which are genuine are quite bizarre.

However, April 1st is another public holiday in Cyprus, exactly a week after Greek Independence Day. It celebrates the start of the uprising of the Cypriots against the occupying British, back in 1955. When we used to watch our son marching with the band, we would sometimes be asked by locals if we knew what the day was about. They thought it a bit odd that we would be out there watching!

Kittens' Birthday
And finally, April 4th. Until three years ago, I only knew this as my brother-in-law's birthday; indeed, I didn't take much notice of the date when Sheila's cat Conny gave birth to kittens back in 2014.  But four months later we adopted Alexander the Great and Joan of Arc, and Tim, who was living in Cyprus at the time, adopted Lady Jane Grey. Sadly we lost Joan a little over a year ago, but then we adopted Jane when Tim moved back to the UK.

At first Jane was terrified and we wondered if the two would ever get along, but now, at the mature age of three (and really no longer kittens, but we still think of them that way) they get along very well:

Coffee at Al Dente on Greek Good Friday

For perhaps the first time ever, we've had coffee out for two weeks in a row. That's three times so far this year - more than I think we've ever had coffee out in the space of four months.

We parked at the music school on Friday morning and wondered how many shops would be open, as it was a religious holiday for the 'Eastern' Good Friday. The local population are almost entirely Greek Orthodox here, and while for many of them it's quite nominal for most of the year, they make a big effort on the special and most holy days.  As we passed St Lazarus Church, we saw people emerging, dressed in black; presumably from a service to mark the day.

It was quite warm and sunny, and by the time we'd walked down to the sea front and past several restaurants, I was feeling already as if I'd been for too long in the sun. So we stopped at the first suitable looking place we came to.  Al Dente is an Italian restaurant, with photos outside showing, among other things, pizza and pasta dishes:

In between the restaurant buildings and the main part of the street, are more temporary structures where people sit to eat or have coffee; there are several of these, with plastic 'windows' that will be removed when the weather gets warmer:

We went inside and sat down at a comfortable corner table. Nobody else was there, and it felt quite peaceful despite plenty of noise in the areas outside. There was gentle romantic music from the 1970s coming through the speakers in the ceiling, but it was quiet enough that it was not at all intrusive, and we hardly noticed it, other than when we recognised songs from our teenage years.

A waiter brought us a menu; there were various coffees and frappés available, mostly at €2.90. Richard decided on an Americano hot coffee, and I opted for a frappé as I was still feeling quite warm:

We liked the fact that they came in a real mug and glass rather than plastic disposable ones. We also liked the comfortable, if slightly odd decor:

So on all aesthetic counts, we liked this place rather more than last week's Coffee Island. It was more comfortable, much less crowded, played quieter, more pleasant music, and had soft furnishings to improve the acoustics. It was nice to be waited on, too, rather than having queue; then again, we were paying almost half as much again.

Unfortunately, the drinks were not as good as those of Coffee Island. They were nice enough: we appreciated the break, and the caffeine boost, and there was nothing wrong with either the coffee or the frappé - no bitter or strange taste.  But nowhere near as good as last week's.

We sat in comfort for maybe half an hour, and one or two other customers wandered in.  When we left it started spitting with rain, and I felt quite chilly after my iced drink.

As we walked back to the car, past St Lazarus Church, we saw a queue of people - mostly locals, again - waiting to go in by a side door. The larger windows had been covered so it must have been very gloomy inside. We don't know if they were waiting for another Good Friday service, or perhaps going in to light candles and pay their respects to the ikons.

The banks and post offices were closed, but all the shops were open.  For most people, it was simply a day off work.

Cyprus May Day

Somewhat predictably, for Cyprus, it's quite warm today. Around 27-28C in the shade outside, according to the UK Weather site. Then again, that site claims that we're having wall-to-wall sunshine today, which isn't true. The sky, right now, is decidedly grey. I don't think it's going to rain, but it looks as though it could.  The forecast is for a few degrees cooler over the next ten days or so, and that's fine with me. I know that in another month I will probably be feeling uncomfortably hot, and we'll start discussing whether or not we want to use air conditioning at night. Not yet, though. Not before June at the earliest.

I'm still wearing jeans, although I finally gave up wearing fleeces a week or so ago, using instead a very light-weight long-sleeved top; I shed that a couple of days ago. A tee-shirt and jeans is very comfortable; I'm in no hurry to progress to shorts. We still have our medium-weight duvet on the bed, too, although when I change the sheets tomorrow I may think of switching to the light-weight one for a few weeks, before it becomes too hot to use anything but a single sheet on top of us at night.

Today is a public holiday in Cyprus, in a low-key kind of way. Schools and banks are closed, and probably the Post Offices. A lot of shops are shut, too, but not all of them. Bigger supermarkets tend to ignore minor public holidays, and stay open for at least a few hours.  Not that I'd be going anywhere... my foot is still somewhat uncomfortable, and becomes painful if I walk too much. Richard has been driving me even to the local froutaria, which feels very decadent but probably a good idea, since I would very much like my foot to heal as rapidly as possible.

Life racing by in Cyprus once more

It's strange how, sometimes, life seems to go by quite slowly. The winter seemed endless, although it was only a couple of months .I know that the summer is likely to drag too. But now that spring is here, a couple of weeks appear - if it's not too much of a cliché - to have flown by. I had to look on my calendar, and then my camera to see what we'd done. 

There were the usual two public holidays on March 25th (Greek National Day) and April 1st. Since both those dates fell on a Sunday this year, there wasn't any obvious effect on the general public. Shops and businesses were closed anyway. We don't even live near any schools or the parade route any more, so we weren't awakened early by drum beats and whistles, as we were in our old house.

Still, I did go to a church service with my friends a couple of weeks ago, and then popped to the PO Box to collect mail. We happened to be there just as one of the parades was starting around St Lazarus Church, so we paused for a moment to watch: 

We seem to have spent a lot of time with different friends, too. We often see friends several times per week, but not, in general, quite so many different ones. Very unusually we were treated to meals out three times in two weeks, each by different people. All meze meals, but at three different places. One was a fairly newly-opened Syrian restaurant, which was rather up-market and very pleasant. One was at our favourite local taverna, and the third was on a rooftop restaurant near St Lazarus Church, which offered vegetarian meze. It included this rather delicious feta/tomato/onion dish:

And also this (melted cheese on sliced aubergine): 

However, my camera is devoid of pictures of anything much else. 

Possibly this is because our world has been rather taken up by forthcoming changes in Richard's office; for various reasons, almost everyone else will be leaving in the summer. So, with rising costs (and signifcantly reduced funding from the US) it was deemed to be time to close the office. He will be continuing some of the production work for at least another year or two, probably more, but will be doing so from the 'studio' in our guest flat. 

So although he is still officially on sabbatical, his time and energy has been taken up in beginning to dismantle some of the current office furniture and equipment, moving it here, and setting up a new production office in the studio. This has meant that the studio - which had become a general dumping ground for sailing and other equipment - has had to be cleared out... and our guest flat is currently in chaos. I haven't been much involved in the physical work, but somehow this, and related discussions, have taken up a huge amount of emotional energy.  

Sunshine after the rain, and a pleasant walk

It's been wonderful having Tim here for the past two weeks. But all good things, as they say, come to an end - and he departed in the early hours of this morning for his flight back to the UK.

Today is officially a public holiday - I did pop out earlier to see if the fruitaria was open, but even that was closed - and, indeed, it's still technically a holiday week; many businesses and all schools are still closed, until after January 6th.

But still, it felt like the proper start of Richard's sabbatical, and of life assuming some kind of normality - if such a thing is ever possible in Cyprus - after the Christmas break.

We had very heavy rain on New Year's Eve, and for most of yesterday morning, but today the sun had come out. In the afternoon, we decided to go for a walk, just down to the PO Box.

The rain must have been even heavier than I had realised; I don't think I have ever seen quite such deep puddles in some waste ground:

I just hope they dry up soon, or we could be in for a major infestation of mosquitoes in the spring.

As we approached Larnaka town, we were amused by this life-size Christmas scene outside the municipality music school:

What amused us wasn't that Santa was apparently reading a book, but that the cat sitting under the reindeer was in fact a real cat, who watched us and twitched its ears a few times.

There were a couple more Christmas cards awaiting us at the PO Box. Mail from the UK was very delayed in December, and we collected several parcels and a couple of cards on Friday, so I wasn't really expecting much today.

Christmas Day 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Half-way through August in Cyprus...

... and so far, it really hasn't been too bad at all. The power cuts have been fewer than expected, with none at all since the end of last week. Yesterday was a public holiday, and the EAC website said, yesterday, that they did not expect any emergency cuts throughout the long weekend, or even today. It's now nearly 4.30 and electricity has been on all day.

We still have to be careful - but we never ran our air conditioners at lower temperatures than 28C anyway, and turn off lights when we're not in rooms. Mid-August is the main holiday period for Cyprus, with lots of businesses closed and many families away in the mountains, or abroad; at the same time generators from Greece and elsewhere have been installed. So it seems as if the crisis may be over, for now. At least for the majority of the population. Those who lost loved ones in the explosion a month ago are still grieving, of course.

Moreover, the temperatures have not been too high this year. We have not had a major heatwave this summer - at least, so far - and although the evening are humid, the daytimes are not too bad at all. 30-32C in the shade, and while we run air conditioners to keep the computers at less than 30C when they're on, we haven't needed to use a/c much anywhere else, other than at night.

Having Tim home has been very enjoyable - six weeks have gone past quite quickly, with plenty of time to relax, and play games, and see friends. I haven't aestivated as much as I usually do. With milder temperatures than usual, I haven't needed to get all my household chores done before 8.00am, and have tended to potter a bit more, through the morning. I've worked a bit on my websites, and read plenty of books - aided by the power cuts which forced me to turn my computer off mid-afternoon - and enjoyed being with Tim.

Usual activities with friends have continued, including one morning when I babysat for my three smallest friends while Richard started teaching their mother to sail. Tim came back after an hour or so and read to Katie and Helen from my favourite children's book, 'Dogger', since my voice was running out by then after reading so much else.


Meanwhile Elisabeth, who is usually a contented little person, played with Lego:


We don't usually do much entertaining during the summer, and I thought it would be even more difficult with potential power cuts - but when our other friends Mark and Joan returned from a long time away, we wanted to have them over for a meal and a game:


However, I haven't taken many photos at all recently. We had more friends for a meal (which Tim cooked) on Sunday evening, but I didn't even think about getting out my camera.

This week Tim is helping at a church holiday club every morning; next week he will be away in the mountains for the inter-church youth camp where he will be leading one of the groups. Then after a couple more days in Cyprus he will be back to the UK for a few days before starting his PGCE course at Newman.

I'm surprised how easy this summer has been, at least so far. There's always time for a heatwave, as it won't really cool down until mid-to-late September, but either I've acclimatised at last, or Cyprus really has been far less oppressively hot and humid than usual.

A remarkably busy couple of weeks in Cyprus

There has been a long silence on this blog. Regular readers (if there are any left) might be puzzled that I made extensive reference, a couple of weeks ago, to my preparations for Daniel and Becky's visit ... and then said no more.

The problem was not a change of plan, nor volcanic ash. It was simply that we've been busy - really surprisingly so - and I've felt pretty tired. Today is a public holiday for Kataklysmos (Pentecost) and there's nothing happening. Tonight, for the first time since they arrived, the four of us will have an evening to ourselves.

A quick summary of our evenings in the past fortnight:

• 11th May - Daniel and Becky arrived at 9.30pm. A bit late, with the flight slightly longer than expected, but otherwise fine. Hungry - they came on EasyJet which doesn't provide meals - but in good spirits.

• 12th May - our friend Joan and her daughter Emily (here for ten days from the USA) came over for a meal, to meet Daniel and Becky. We played a game of Settlers of Catan... in which Daniel showed his propensity for playing with the pieces rather like Richard does...

• 13th May: the four of us went over to our friends Jörn and Sheila to play a game of Settlers with them. Becky won.

• 14th May: Daniel and Becky had been invited to speak at the Larnaka inter-church youth group, about their time on the Doulos. Richard and I went to the usual fortnightly inter-church cell group for a meal.

• 15th May: We were asked for a meal at Jörn and Sheila's, followed by - surprise, surprise! - another game of Settlers of Catan. As we set the game up, I helped my youngest best friend Helen understand a little more about the rules...
  
  
  Afterwards, Daniel and Becky were asked to write in the guest book since it was the first time they'd had a meal there. Daniel likes to do these things thoroughly, so he wrote and wrote...
  
  
  If you're really interested, you can click the next photo to see a larger version, and might even be able to read what has to be the longest sentence in the entire guest book...
  
  

• 16th May: Our friends Mike and Marlene arrived from Birmingham in the evening, in time for a meal with us. Daniel and Becky decided to go out on a date.

• 17th May: I know I said I was just going to write about the evenings.. but in the afternoon some of our friends' children came over for a game of Settlers. I mention this because I liked this photo of the winners:

In the evening we were invited to pizza with our friends Mark (returned from his trip away) and Joan; Emily was still there. And since the three young people finished their meal before their aged parents, they played a quick card game while they waited for us:

Since Emily had enjoyed her first game of Settlers, we had yet another foray into Catan. And at the end, since Emily's unlikely to be in Cyprus for at least another year, I took a group photo:

• 18th May: Since Mike and Marlene were staying in the guest flat, I cooked a meal for them, plus Daniel and Becky in the evening. We didn't play any games, just hung out and chatted.

• 19th May: Daniel and Becky were asked to a meal with Daniel's old friend Haroon; Mike and Marlene took Richard and me out for a meal at our favourite local meze restaurant. We forgot to take a picture until nearly the end, when we had eaten our way through several excellent dishes, and they still kept coming...

• We didn't manage the meat that came at the end, or many of the chips, and didn't finish the dips, or the pasta. But we managed pretty well, we thought. We know from experience that when four people want a meze, we only need to order for two since there is always way too much food. And at this restaurant, they still bring out four little desserts at the end - at no extra cost - even if only two meals, technically, are ordered.

• 20th May: Mike and Marlene had a meal with us again, and we enjoyed spending time with them.

• 21st May: Daniel and Becky were running games at the youth group, but were able to have a meal with us - and Mike and Marlene - beforehand. I was very tired by about 9pm so we didn't have a late night.

• 22nd May: Daniel and Becky had arranged to go to a curry evening at Larnaka Community Church; since it was Mike and Marlene's last evening in Cyprus, they said they'd take us out for another meal. We decided not to try the sea-front, since it was a Saturday night and the day before Kataklysmos - so the sea-front was crowded with stalls and booths and people - and went, instead, to the Art Cafe; an indoor restaurant a little way away from the front. Excellent food, although I forgot to take any photos

• 23rd May: On Sundays when we didn't have a cell group, our friends Jörn and Sheila and their children come over to our house for a cold evening meal, which for some reason we have started referring to as 'not cell group'. Daniel and Becky were at the Global Day of Prayer meeting - Daniel playing drums with the music group. They should have been home shortly after 7pm but it overran, and it was 8.45 before they were home.

So. A very enjoyable couple of weeks, with friends, games, and lots of food. I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing meals, and desserts... including ice cream and cookies. I've been to the local shops almost every day for more fruit and veg, milk, cheese, or other necessary ingredients. And of course I've done my regular cleaning of the house, and laundry, and helped at Tots, and looked after the lad who comes on Thursday mornings. I've kept up to date with my Settlers of Catan blog, as evidenced from the links above, because if I didn't I wouldn't have a hope of remembering what happened in the games.

Richard, meanwhile, has been working most hours, and also spending some early mornings and the weekends at King Malu. They really, really hope to be able to start sailing her soon. On Saturday he took Mike and Daniel sailing for the morning.

Today, being a public holiday, Richard is at the boat all day. Becky is busy reading, and Daniel hasn't got up yet...

Easter and other public holidays in Cyprus

It was quite a week for public holidays. April 1st is always a holiday in Cyprus: it's Greek Cypriot National Day. I don't know quite what that means, but teachers in schools are probably quite happy that they have a day off and thus avoid having any April Fool jokes played on them.

Last week, of course April 1st was also Maundy Thursday, so the schools in Cyprus were closed for the Easter break anyway. Easter came early this year, and - as happens infrequently - the Western and Eastern Easter dates coincided. Thus Good Friday was also a holiday, with many offices and businesses closed. Most of the shops were still open, in anticipation, I suppose, of the long weekend.

Saturday was a normal day - as normal as life ever is here in Cyprus, anyway - although people started setting off fireworks as soon as it got dark. Traditionally they're done at midnight, to welcome Easter. But as far as we can tell, there were fireworks from about 8pm until around 6am, when it started to get light again. I managed to sleep through most of them, but it was a sleepless night for people who happen to live near Greek Orthodox churches.

Sunday was then a major holiday; one of the two days of the year when even the bakeries (most of them) are closed. I like to go to a traditional service with Communion on Easter, so after I'd made an apple cake for lunch, I went off to St Helena's for their 9.30am service. The church was pretty full, with a fair number of visitors. There's a locum minister, who gave a fairly short sermon along the lines of the classic book 'Who moved the stone?' - pointing out that the Christian faith rests on the question of what happened to Jesus after he died. None of it was new to me, and I don't know how it struck the majority of the congregation, but it was undoubtedly sound.

And we had a good selection of Easter hymns, even though the music came from some kind of canned music contraption and was a recording of an organ rather than a piano. Afterwards I chatted to a few people I know, then Richard arrived - having been to his boat for a couple of hours - and drove me home. Since I knew we were likely to have a late lunch, I'd thawed some fruit from last summer, and made us some strawberry-peach yogurt smoothies.

Then, with the apple cake, we drove to the bilingual house church service which some good friends attend regularly. One can arrive any time from 10am onwards and there's a general informality which is quite appealing. I can read Greek even if I can't understand most of it, and I sat next to our friends' eldest daughter, who told me where I could find all the songs in the books provided. They were all rather 1980s... that selection often found in home-produced songbooks that are neither ancient nor modern. Still, I knew most of the tunes and quite like singing them on occasion. There was an excellent pianist and guitarist, and plenty of percussionists of varying abilities.

Besides, it was interesting seeing a church service with people sitting in easy chairs, children dancing with scarves with scant attention to rhythm, and other people arriving or wandering in and out. I also enjoyed having my 18-month old friend climb on me, and repeat her latest word ['moo' which is a noise made by cows, and also, according to her, by donkeys, horses and goats. Oh, and butterflies. Sheep, however, say 'baa', dogs say 'wuff', and cats apparently screech slightly.]

There was a Communion celebration, then at about 12.30 the children were gathered up, and the pastor spoke to them - with translation - for a few minutes, then they went into the kitchen for their activities, and we had a sermon, the gist of which seemed to be that we shouldn't celebrate Easter because if we're believers we know all the time that Jesus is risen. Which is true, but it seems a bit sad not to have special celebrations as extra reminders. Jesus himself celebrated Passover and other traditional festivals, after all.

I'm not really sure what the rest of the sermon was about - it was translated into English, but my mind wandered after about twenty minutes. The chair was comfortable, and I'm not an auditory kind of person. Besides, it was interesting watching other people around me. Probably only about 20 adults; there were at least as many children. It made a change to be in a church group where we were some of the oldest people present.

By about 1.45 the service part had finished and people started organising food in the kitchen. It was a sumptuous spread, and we enjoyed chatting with our friends and various others. At 4pm we and our friends left, as we'd agreed to play a game of Settlers of Catan with four of them; then we went to their house for a light supper, and in the evening played another Settlers of Catan game. I'm happy to say that I won neither.

It was a different kind of Easter; we didn't even remember to eat any chocolate, which we usually do on a Sunday. But much more relaxing eating somewhere else rather than our usual Easter roast meal and entertaining here.

Monday, of course, was another public holiday in Cyprus, as in most of the Western world (Easter Monday). A major one, where most of the shops were closed, and all the businesses (except restaurants, of course). Richard spent the day at King Malu while I had a peaceful day on my own at home. Amongst other things I completely defrosted our big freezer - something I last did in June two years ago. We're going to the UK for three weeks at the end of this week, so I had been running down the contents of the freezer anyway. I was able to fit what there was into the freezer section of our fridge-freezer, meaning that the main upright freezer can be left switched off until we return.

I did walk down to the Post Office in the afternoon, to see if there was any mail; it was quite warm (26C earlier in the day) but although there was no mail to speak of, it was a good walk; I didn't hurry, but managed the two miles there and back in half an hour.

In the evening, Richard's sailing buddy and his wife took us out to a meal at a restaurant called Mojo, which had a nice selection of dishes. Richard had a huge meal of spare ribs, chips, and salad. I had an excellent mild curry. We walked there and back too, but I doubt if that made any difference to the vast number of calories consumed...

Today is yet another holiday, for Easter Tuesday. Businesses are mostly closed, but at least some of the shops are open. Not that I need to buy anything, other than perhaps some milk and a bit of fruit.

Green Monday picnic and kite-flying attempts

Today is the first day of Lent in the Protestant/Western church. Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, when many of us made and ate pancakes - traditional for the last day before Lent; historically it was to use up sugar, eggs etc from the household store, preparatory to Lenten fasting.

However, Lenten fasting doesn't seem to happen much in the Western world - at most people might give up chocolate, or perhaps computer games. Not flour and eggs.

This year, unusually, Western and Eastern Easters fall on the same date: April 4th. So that means that Lent starts the same week for us all. In the Eastern calendar, however, it's counted a little differently so that Lent actually began on Monday this week, after the Carnival weekend (where children dress up and go on parades... although traditionally it was the time to eat up the household meat, again prior to fasting.)

On Green Monday in Cyprus, people - I'm told - clean their houses from top to bottom (it's also sometimes known as 'Clean Monday') and then go out on picnics with their families and friends, and the children fly kites. Even if they're not fasting or cutting out meat during Lent (increasingly rare, even here) they don't eat meat on Green Monday.

We don't usually do anything to mark the date; however, Green Monday is a public holiday, so Richard planned to spend his day working on King Malu. But on Sunday we had text messages from a friend - the wife of one of his colleagues - suggesting we might get together for a picnic on the Monday. Since the weather was good, and it sounded like a good idea to get out and socialise for an hour or two, we said we'd like to do that. We were going to go somewhere near the Salt Lake, but in the event it was totally packed with Cypriot picnickers, even at 12.30 (which is earlier than they usually eat lunch).

So our friends suggested we go up to the Aradippou picnic site. The top area with benches and tables was apparently also full of people having picnics already, so they found a pleasant spot part-way up the hill.

They had brought some kites. During and after our lunch, the various children attempted to fly them:


- but without any success. Richard, who watches wind speeds and other weather conditions closely since learning to sail, said that there wasn't enough wind. There were occasional gusts and the kites appeared to bob about for a few seconds, only to come crashing down.


Still, the children had fun in the attempt, and in playing together for an hour or so, and the adults enjoyed the fresh air and catching up with each other.

You can see from the photos how very green Cyprus has become with the heavy downpours of rain we've had in the past few months. It really was a lovely day, too. Yesterday was warm as well, probably about 22C; today's a bit cooler and has been rather grey, though still nothing like as cold as it was earlier in the month.

Summer in Cyprus - time whizzes by

Ten days since I last posted. I had to check my Google calendar to remember what we've been doing - and it's not much. Summer is undoubtedly here. My jeans and trainers have gone away, and I'm in shorts, a tee-shirt and flip-flops. The air conditioning is running in my study at the moment, as the computer is on and computers don't like temperatures over 30C.

There don't seem to be any more mosquitoes about - they don't like hot weather. Instead, there are cockroaches. Ugh. Since we're up a flight of steps, we only get flying ones that manage to get in the house, and they're the ones about to die anyway, or so rumour has it. The last couple of mornings I've come down and both times discovered two roaches, lying on their backs, giving a last wiggle. The yogurt pot technique works well, and has even been adopted by a couple of friends.

So.. a summary of the past ten days.

Monday 1st June: last proper meeting of the Larnaka Christian Writing Group before the Autumn. A half-hour walk to get there, but one of the members kindly offered me a ride home. I accepted gratefully since the weather seemed to have turned into summer overnight.

Tuesday 2nd June: I helped out at Tots, as usual - the local church-run mother-and-toddler group. I mainly work in the kitchen, plus clearing up at the end, but also chat to some of the mums when I have a free moment. I enjoy it, but the hall is warm. It closes in July and August, which is just as well. A ten-minute walk to get there on a good day, but it took me more like fifteen in the hotter weather. I was offered a lift home which I gratefully accepted.

Wednesday 3rd June: I change the sheets, wash sheets/pillowcases and towels, and clean the bedrooms on Wednesdays. And we have the bookkeeper at Richard's office to lunch. So cleaning and lunch preparation (even though it's just bread and cold things) takes most of the morning, now it's hotter.

Mid-afternoon, Richard took the older son of some friends sailing as a birthday treat, and I spent the afternoon with the rest of the family. Then we stayed to dinner, and a game of Carcassone. Very enjoyable, but I was shattered by the end of the day.

Thursday 4th June: my last morning until the Autumn for looking after a home educated boy who lives in Nicosia, while his mother attends a meeting in Larnaka. Not that I do very much - he brings some work, and some books, so I just offer space, chat a bit, and make him a drink. But it does mean I have to be up, dressed and breakfasted before 8am.

Friday 5th June: In the morning, we did a biggish shop at Metro supermarket, and I did some ironing. In the evening, some other local friends came for a meal, with their visiting young adult nephew. We had a good evening, and played a round of Tabloid Teasers, which they hadn't played before.

Saturday 6th June: Richard went sailing with two youngsters. I washed and hung out the throw on my study sofa, as it was looking pretty grubby. I went to the Froutaria and bought some more fruit and veg, and made us three more litres of lemonade (lemon squash) since we were running low. In the evening, Richard and I watched a DVD.

Sunday 7th June (Greek/Eastern Pentecost): Richard went sailing with some people whom he met at a gathering of Larnaka home educators. I decided I would go to the service at the new building leased by the Larnaka Community Church congregation. It's a little further away than the Greek Evangelical Church, where services used to be held, but I got there, walking, in fifteen minutes, which wasn't too bad in the heat.

Can't say I enjoyed it, other than the part where the nine-month-old baby of some friends wanted me to hold her for about twenty minutes. It was too hot (air conditioning is not yet installed) and sticky (chairs still have plastic covers, since there's work being done on the ceiling still). There were far too many people for me to feel comfortable, including, I suspect, quite a few visitors. The PA system howled around three or four times, which was very painful, and the whole atmosphere was too emotional for my liking. Still, it was interesting to see the new building, converted from a gym in the past few months, and to catch up with one or two people I had not seen for a while.

Monday 8th June (Kataklysmos): this is a major public holiday in Cyprus, celebrating not just Pentecost but legends to do with Noah's flood, since Larnaka was, reputedly, founded by one of Noah's grandsons. Booths selling local sweets and cheap toys (etc) are set up along the sea-front all week, and it seems that half the island is present. That doesn't include me. I went once, years ago. Never again.

Richard, however, went sailing once again, for the annual Regatta. Yes, that's three days in a row. It's a good thing I like my own space, and am very happy being at home with just the cats for company. I didn't do anything much - I did some cleaning and laundry, reviewed a couple of books I had finished reading on my book blog, did some more reading, wrote some email, spent time on Facebook and forums, and so on.

Tuesday 9th June: Tots in the morning, again. Even hotter than last week, so I was very glad of a lift home with some friends, who came in for a drink of lemonade and a chat for an hour or so.

Wednesday 10th June: I went out to the Froutaria shortly after 7.30am and noticed that there were some apricots on special offer. They will probably get cheaper still as summer progresses, but I decided that if I was going to make apricot jam it should be now, rather than when the weather is even hotter. So I bought a couple of kilograms of apricots, among other things, and made double quantities of my jam recipe, which produced about eight jars. I think we now have enough jam to last the next year or so, which is good.

I also made another jar of lemon curd although it looks as though lemons won't be available for much longer. They're basically a winter/spring fruit.

I didn't finish all that until midday, which gave me an hour to do my sheet-changing/laundry/bedroom cleaning, plus taking a shower, and organising cold lunch for Richard and the bookkeeper. I banked on them not arriving until at least 1.15, which is just as well as I wasn't ready until then.

This morning: I finally got around to ironing and folding the sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers from the guest flat, and also defrosted the little freezer in there as it was getting iced up, and didn't have anything in it anyway.

So.

Interesting.

I had felt as if I'd done almost nothing in the past ten days, but checking the calendar and completed task-list, it's more than I thought. The problem is that when I've been busy in the mornings, I don't seem to be able to do anything constructive in the afternoons - well, other than filling water bottles and watering the plants, when the mains water is on (every other day), and catching up with email, and Facebook, and forums. And chatting, from time to time, with Dan or Tim online. And of course sorting out our evening meals, but there are so many individual portions of leftover food in the freezer that I haven't been doing a lot of actual cooking.

Tomorrow evening we'll be going to a local independent house group, Saturday Richard will probably sail again, Sunday we're invited out to lunch with yet more friends, Monday I'm out for lunch again, this time with the Larnaka Christian Writing group. Oh, and I need to ensure the guest flat is clean, and make up beds, and buy a few groceries for it since our next visitors are arriving early on Tuesday morning.

Green Monday and a walk by the Salt Lake

Yesterday was a public holiday in Cyprus. Yet another one! This time it was for Green Monday (also known as Clean Monday), the first day of Lent for the Greek Orthodox and other Eastern churches. Eastern Easter is only a week after Western Easter this year, so their Lent begins the week after the Western Lent - except that it begins on the Monday, not the Wednesday.

According to Steve, a Greek Orthodox friend in South Africa, Clean Monday is a day for forgiveness. However, I have not come across that tradition in Cyprus. This is a country where over 90% of people call themselves Orthodox... However, as a friend in Paphos explains, Green Monday is when everyone goes out on a picnic. They don't eat any meat, and the children fly kites. I did hear, some years ago, that people traditionally clean the house from top to bottom before the picnic, and I did notice some neighbours extensively cleaning their patio in the morning. But the main focus here is the picnic, even when - as happened yesterday - there's not much sunshine, and a distinct chill in the air.

I didn't go on a picnic. I've only done that once in the eleven years we've lived in Cyprus. However, in the afternoon I did join a friend for a walk around part of the Salt Lake. She hadn't done that before, and I hadn't been for a couple of months. we were both amazed at the abundance of the wild flowers:


I haven't seen such an amazing display of wild flowers in many years. The large amounts of rain we had in February are no doubt responsible for their size and splendour.


Most of them are yellow - as I've said in previous years, March is sometimes known as 'yellow month' in Cyprus. There were many other colours too, however.


The Salt Lake was looking pretty good, too. More water than I've seen in a while, although it will probably go down if the sun comes out in the coming weeks.


It might have been on the chilly side for a picnic - although evidently most people didn't agree. We saw several families who had been picnicking and kite-flying in the Salt Lake Park - but it was, from my perspective, a perfect day to go for a walk. There was enough chill in the air that I didn't feel too warm, and there was no sun to give me a headache.

Yet another public holiday in Cyprus?

We usually go to Metro to do our weekly supermarket shopping on Fridays. But we didn't need anything much today, so we didn't.

I did ponder popping around the corner to Orphanides Express to buy a few potatoes, and to see if they had any Marmite, as we are running low of both. But it hardly seemed worth it.

Then, this afternoon, I was feeling both tired and a bit cold. Not quite cold enough to put the heating on early, and not quite tired enough for a siesta... so I decided to have a cup of coffee.

Then I realised we had almost run out of milk. There was just a drop in the carton... nothing like enough. So, I thought, I'll just pop out now, and get some milk, as well as potatoes and Marmite.

To my surprise, there was no sign of life at Orphanides Express. There was a note on the door saying that all their stores would be closed on both January 1st and January 2nd. How strange, I thought. Obviously it would be closed yesterday - as it was last week on Thursday and Friday with Christmas and Boxing Day. But surely things are back to normal today?

Ah well, maybe they're re-stocking, I thought. So I walked a little bit further to Froutaria Achna, where I get fruit and vegetables, and which also sells milk.

It was also closed.

Over the road from the froutaria is a new Tesco Express. It was also closed.

I'm now wondering if January 2nd is yet another public holiday. Or perhaps just an extra break for the shops.

I walked just a little further, to our old faithful Perseus, the bakery, which also sells milk:



Perseus was open, as it is every day other than Christmas Day and Greek Easter. So I bought the milk. The potatoes and Marmite will have to wait until tomorrow.

By the time I got home again, I was no longer feeling either cold or tired. And the coffee was lukewarm. But I drank it anyway. At least I won't have to pop out early tomorrow to get some for Richard's coffee...

Attempting to post Christmas cards to the UK

After getting our decorations up on Tuesday, and hosting the work lunch on Wednesday, I realised that I needed to write our annual family newsletter. So I did that on Thursday, and gave it to Richard to print on the office colour laser printer on Friday.

He brought 90 copies home on Friday evening, but I couldn't do anything about it then since our house group meets here on Friday evenings.

So I set aside Saturday for writing our Christmas cards, and folding the newsletters. We keep trying to cut down slightly on the number we send out; I keep a list, and if we haven't heard from someone in five years or more, we consider whether to leave them off the following year's list. So difficult, though. I hate to lose touch with people.

Still, there are now only about 70 to send to the UK, which is thirty less than it was ten years ago, even though there are now rather more local ones to write.

It took me about four hours in all, with breaks for washing and hanging out laundry and other such thrilling tasks.

Next job: making a year calendar with photos of our cats. I've done this for the past two years, and sent copies to Daniel and also our parents. I did consider not doing it this year, but had a couple of very nice shots of the cats. Not quite enough: with only three cats this year, I needed four good pictures of each of them to make a year's calendar. So on Saturday afternoon I took several more, hoping that some would be acceptable.

I make the calendar at the BigHugeLabs site - I have to upload one photo at a time, giving the correct month and year, and then save each one on my computer. Unfortunately these are not high-quality; naturally, they want customers to pay to join their service to be able to produce high quality calendars. Equally naturally, we don't wish to do that. So, the first time I made them, Richard showed me how to open each image in my photo-editing program (Arcsoft Photo Studio, which came free with the digital camera), and then paste in the image directly from the higher quality version on my computer. Then a few extra adjustments, and voila!

I started the process on Saturday, and finished it on Sunday. Sunday evening we went to the office to print the calendars. A few photos had to be adjusted, and one or two didn't come out as well as I had hoped... but never mind.

This morning, I punched the necessary holes, collated the calendars, put the ones to send out in envelopes and addressed them.

Then, feeling quite pleased with myself, I set off to the Post Office, as I always do on Monday mornings, to collect mail from our PO Box and to buy stamps for all the cards and the four calendars I'm posting.

There was mail in our PO Box. However, the blinds were up over the Post Office itself, and it wsa locked, with a 'closed' sign.

Sometimes the postmistress does pop out for five minutes, but when she does so, there is usually a notice saying 'back soon'. Not this time.

I heard in church yesterday that the former President Papadopoulos died at the end of last week. It didn't make world news, and I rarely remember to check local news websites, so I had no idea until then. It occurred tome to wonder whether today had been made an extra public holiday in respect. But the banks were open, as were all the shops nearby. So I decided that probably the postmistress was sick, and they couldn't find a substitute.

So I walked through the town - where, as far as I could tell, everywhere was open - to the main Post Office.

It was shut too, with a scribbled notice on the door saying it would be closed to the public on Monday 15th December.

It seemed like terrible timing, when so many people are trying to post things for Christmas, albeit rather later than we ought to. But there was nothing I could do about it, so I came home again, carrying the mail from the PO Box as well as all the mail I was hoping to have posted.

I've now learned that today has, indeed, been declared a public holiday, as a gesture of respect towards President Papadopoulos. It seems rather odd that only the Post Office would be closed - not even the banks. And rather annoying, too.

But, this is Cyprus. These things happen, and there's no point getting uptight about them. Tomorrow I'm helping at the toddler group party, so I shall take the mail with me and go to the Post Office afterwards. Post Offices aren't open in the afternoon (other than Thursday) in Cyprus, so it has to be done in the morning.

Ochi Day in Cyprus, and the first sweatshirt of the season

I just went and found a light sweatshirt to wear over my tee shirt.

Well, you might think, it's nearly November. The UK is having pretty cold temperatures at present, and in parts of the USA it's been freezing for some time.

But this is Cyprus, and the weather doesn't usually start to get chilly until the end of the first week of November.

Stranger still is that I must have acclimatised significantly, since the thermometer in the kitchen is showing 21C, which really isn't cold. That's about 70F, for anyone who still thinks in old currency.

However, I was beginning to feel very chilly. I was fine earlier: the sun was out, and it was apparently 22C. But that's the shade temperature, and it always feels warmer. But now the skies are grey, and we just had a brief rain shower.

Today is Ochi Day, which, translated, is 'No Day'. It's the anniversary of the day when the Greek leader of the time said 'No' to an ultimatum given by Mussolini. It's really a Greek celebration, but Cyprus loves public holidays so it's day off here too. Banks and businesses are closed, and many of the shops.

There was no toddler group this morning, and Richard went sailing, so it's felt like a Saturday to me. And, I think, to Sophia who is walking to and fro across the keyboard mewing as I type.

I did wander out, at around 10.15, to see if the parades had started. I thought I might even take a photo. But there was no sign. Not even people gathering. So I came home again - at least I had a pleasant twenty-minute walk in the warmth. I just hope the parades finished before the rain started.

Back to Cyprus life, Ochi Day and green grass

It's hard to believe we've only been home in Cyprus for just over two days now. Our travels feel like a different world - or a different life, perhaps. It's always like that when we've been away. Perhaps it has to be. One life switches off, another switches on.

The cats are extremely pleased to see us, and very affectionate. They've been well looked after by our house-sitter. The plants are looking healthy, too. Our clothes are all unpacked and I've done one load of laundry, although the basket is overflowing. I'll catch up slowly during the week. I only have space to hang out one load at a time.

I have papers all over the study - receipts, magazines, random notes and jottings, cards, opened mail... tomorrow I hope to sort through all that and get our accounts up-to-date, and get back into some kind of routine. It's been good to have the weekend to recover in. It was nice to go back to our various churches this morning, too, and feel welcomed by friends.

A few random things that have struck me since returning:

- it's great knowing where everything is in the supermarket
- putting toilet paper in a bin (rather than down the loo) feels surprisingly natural
- I like the way that drivers stop for pedestrians here, rather than speeding up
- the weather is perfect: 26C, sunny, but not at all humid
- it's nice to have home-cooked food again rather than eating out all the time

We're not as tired as we were. Having the extra hour this morning helped, although I woke rather early. The first thing I heard was a drum band practising (yes, at about 7am); I remembered that it's 'Ochi Day'. Anyone who has no idea what that is, if you're interested, can look at last year's post about Ochi Day.

When I came out of church, I noticed that the police had started putting up traffic barriers so that the roads would be free for the parades that would follow shortly. As I walked past the library, I saw the Larnaka Municipal Band and another group gathered in front of some burning incense, waiting to get going:


I didn't hang around. We used to go and watch the parades when Daniel played clarinet in the municipal band, but it's much the same each year. And I don't like standing round when the sun is shining. Besides, the parade goes on for ages since all the schools and uniformed organisations are usually represented too.

But seeing this photo does remind me of one thing that always puzzles me. We've just had a hot summer, and I'm told it hasn't rained yet. There's a hose-pipe ban, and serious fines imposed for breaking it. Lots of grass looks parched and brown... but there in front of the library it's fresh and green.

Why? Because there are sprinklers running, most days, during the morning, right through the summer. Owned, I assume, by the municipality. Hardly a good example to set to home-owners if they're trying to discourage them from using excess water. Inefficient, too, since the water evaporates rapidly during the heat of the day.

But... this is Cyprus.

Oh, and I quite forgot to mention that Friday, when we arrived back in Larnaka after our seven weeks away, was a special date for our family. It was exactly ten years since we first arrived in Cyprus.