October in Cyprus: kittens, eating out and cooler weather

So much for good intentions. I didn't write a single post last month. So this will be a summary (though probably not brief) of our life here in Cyprus over the past month...

Kittens

At the start of the month, I became aware that we had unexpected visitors. There were two very young kittens, wandering around and crying just outside our boiler room, at the back of our house.

We often see kittens in our neighbourhood, sometimes in one of our side yards. There are a lot of feral cats in Cyprus. They are useful for keeping down the rats and snakes, and the female cats sometimes have two litters per year.  There are sometimes national campaigns to catch, neuter and return feral cats but there are far too many cats for this to make much difference. Historically Cypriots have not liked to neuter cats, so that doesn't help. 

There's a grey cat who often appears in our street. We call 'Mama cat' as she raised three kittens in our side yard in the spring. When these tiny kittens were wandering around I saw her nearby and assumed she was their mother, and that she had gone out hunting or perhaps just to take a break from them. 

But if she was their mother, we quickly discovered, she wasn't looking after them. They looked quite hungry and were mewing loudly. I didn't want to interfere. Touching young kittens can drive a mother cat away, after all. But the little voices were plaintive. So I gave them a bit of yogurt, and they fell on it, lapping rapidly. A few hours later, with still no sign of a mother cat taking care of these kittens, I gave them some of Lady Jane's crunchies (or 'kibble', as I understand the term is now), moistened in a little water. They ate those too, gobbling them down. 

Then they mewed for most of the night. So we decided to buy them some kitten formula, and some kitten food sachets. A visiting friend bought them some other kitten food, too. The kittens seemed quite weak by this time so we realised we would have to be more proactive. Richard built a barricade to keep them in the boiler room, as we were worried about them getting into the road and not being able to get out of the way of a car fast enough. 

Thankfully they were able to lap kitten formula milk from a saucer so we didn't have to bottle-feed, as we did with the seven feral kittens we fostered for six weeks at our old house, over nineteen years ago. We guessed that these kittens were about four weeks old. They loved the wet food from the sachets too, though we were careful not to give them too much at once. And they ate the kibble without any need for adding water. 

However, although we now only have one house cat, we can't keep these kittens. Our existing Lady Jane would not allow it for one thing. For another, we have a very allergic daughter-in-law, so we had agreed already that we won't take on any more cats. And, much as we love having a cat, it is something of a bind at times. We can't go away spontaneously, and when we plan to go away we have to organise a cat-sitter. Usually our close friends do this, but it's not always possible. 

We put photos on Facebook a couple of times, but it seems that none of our local friends want kittens. 

So Richard got in touch with a nearby cat sanctuary, who said they don't take kittens until they're at least twelve weeks old, and have had their first vaccinations. Then they try to find homes for them, and they have a much wider audience on Facebook (and elsewhere) than we do. 

Thus, a month later we are still fostering them, feeding four times a day and taking them out for half an hour to our other side yard where there are plants and fake grass, to give them a chance to jump and run and play. They had their first vaccinations last week, and the vet said they seem to be very healthy. 

We haven't given them names; we refer to them as the little girl kitty and the little boy kitty. I hope that someone, eventually, will adopt them. 

Guests and eating out

We've had several human visitors in the past month, too. We do like having our ground floor used as a guest flat. A long-standing friend and colleague stayed for a few days, with a friend, at the end of September.  They left on the last day of the month, and in the evening some even more long-standing friends arrived for a few days' break. It was wonderful to see them. They spent a lot of time on the beach, soaking up some sunshine (which, they said, had been rather lacking in the UK this year).

They took us out to eat twice; once at our favourite Lebanese restaurant, Al Sultan, and once at our favourite everyday restaurant, Alexander's.  At the Lebanese restaurant we ordered a meze for two, which was more than sufficient for four of us. At Alexander's we had individual meals; I had the vegetarian moussaka, one of my favourites, with grilled vegetables. I learned about this option only in the past year and like it so much better than having a huge pile of chips alongside a moussaka. 

Later in the month we had some other guests who were here for just over a week, and who took us out to our favourite Cypriot meze restaurant, Kyra Giorgena. Meze for two there is also more than sufficient for four of us. 

Indeed, it was quite a month for eating out, something we do quite rarely on our own. But in the middle of the month we went out for a 'platter for one' at Al Sultan, to celebrate Richard's birthday:

We managed to do justice to most of it (though we left most of the extra Arabic bread). 

And towards the end of the month we were treated to yet another meze at Kyra Giorgena, by Richard's cousin-once-removed and her travelling companions. They were visiting Cyprus and spent just one day in Larnaka. 

Bathroom repairs - again

We seem to have had a lot of trouble with our bathroom, one way and another, since it was installed in 2016. There was a team of people who did it originally. While much of the work done was excellent, unfortunately the plumber cut several corners. This means we've had to have several extra repairs in the past few years. 

Most recently we found the points of two screws poking up into the bath, and the base started feeling  spongy, as if there was water below. Richard checked underneath and found several problems, including some totally disintegrated wood supports.  That meant that all the builders' foam had to be pulled out, and concrete put in to replace it. 

Thankfully our young and very competent friend L was here for a few days in the middle of the month, and able to do this for us. 

It meant that we had to shower in my study for about a week, after removing all the things stored in it, but, happily, we're now able to use the bathroom shower again. 

Weather

At the start of October the temperatures were still in the 30s during the daytime, although thankfully less humid than it had been a month earlier. We were still in tee-shirts and shorts, with just a thin sheet at night. We had stopped using the air conditioning in the middle of September, but were still using the ceiling fans until a few weeks ago.

By the end of October, we had put our light (4.5 tog) duvet on the bed, and have started wearing long trousers. First thing in the morning and in the evening I even put on a light jacket. 

Sometimes by the end of the first week of November we have a sudden drop in temperatures, but there's no sign of that predicted this year. Just as well, since we'll have to have our central heating serviced before we use it. We had a new boiler installed in February, and as it's still under warranty, we have to have an official service. But we can't do that until the kittens have moved out of the boiler room. 

And also...

During October, Richard made a brief visit to Egypt, I finished knitting some more baby hats, and continued updating images and links on my book blog. We played lots of board games, watched a few DVDs, and I did some daily Duolingo. We hosted a barbecue for a few friends a few days after Richard's birthday, and at the end of the month I made this year's Christmas cake. 

Out of Cyprus Summer 2018: A couple of frustrating days

The family break was due to begin on Sunday 5th August.  Our few days in Panama after going through the Canal followed much the same pattern as the previous days. We had hoped to get the bus into Panama City one afternoon, only to learn that the buses weren't running to schedule. As there were various commitments on board, we couldn't sit around for up to an hour each direction waiting.

The initial plan for the Sunday was that Richard, Daniel and David would get a taxi from the Logos Hope to the international airport at 8.30am, arriving around 9.15-9.30, depending on traffic. Richard had booked a ten-seater car via Avis, the company we almost always use for car rentals as they are usually good value (when insurance etc is taken into account) and reliable. He has 'Avis preferred' status which, at least in the UK, means very quick service and we often get upgraded.

They hoped to get the car by around 10.00, and be back on the ship by 11.00. We thought it might take half an hour or so to load our luggage, as the car park is a five-minute walk from the ship, and then planned to have lunch on the ship around 11.45, and set off for our holiday AirBnB villa by around 12.30.  It's in a tourist town called Coronado, about an hour's drive from the Logos Hope. We thought Esther would sleep in the car, and that we would arrive by around 1.30.

Our other son Tim was due to arrive at Panama Airport at 8.30pm although we knew his connections at Tampa and Miami (in the US) were quite tight so were prepared for a call telling us he was delayed. Assuming he was on time, Richard would need to leave the holiday villa by about 6.30pm to allow for traffic, and I planned to go with him although we didn't expect to be back at the villa until at least 11.00pm. It was going to be a lot of driving for one day, but we then expected to have six days to relax together as a family.

So much for the best-laid plans.

On Saturday evening the four of us were sitting in Daniel and Becky's cabin after the children were asleep, and someone suddenly remembered that our passports were still at the purser's office. So Becky went to see if it was still open, and was told that we would not be able to get them until 1.00pm on Sunday.  Not necessarily a problem, as we could delay our departure by half an hour, so long as Richard didn't need to have his passport in order to rent the car.  We checked the paperwork and it didn't mention needing a passport, so we hoped for the best.

The taxi arrived at the right time, and Richard, Daniel and David were ready to go. Becky, Esther and I had a more leisurely breakfast, then I finished our packing and she sorted out some toys and a few other things to take on our break. We did have a moment's anxiety when a friend commented that passports are often needed in order to buy things in Panama. She said that they want to be sure that we're there legally, and have to see the visa stamp.

First (double) frustration:

At 10.00am Becky had a message from Richard on her phone. He had been told that he absolutely needed his passport, and, worse, that there was no 10-seater car available.

Becky said she would go and see a friend who worked in the purser's office, and see if she could beg them to find our passports earlier than one o'clock. We asked Richard if we could simply send a photo of the visa to his phone, and he responded that they didn't need the visa, just the passport. I reminded him that he had a copy of it on his phone... so he showed that and thankfully they accepted it.

However this didn't solve the problem of the lack of an available ten-seater car.  Richard had to be quite assertive, as they didn't offer solutions easily - he was not impressed. Eventually they said there was a seven-seater car at one of their other local Avis centres. But although we're only seven people, there's almost no room for luggage in these smaller cars.

So they came to an agreement: they would drive Richard, Daniel and David to the other centre and let them have the seven-seater for the day.  In the evening, when Richard had to return to the airport to collect Tim, they would have the ten-seater available. So it wouldn't be too much of a problem to call into the Logos Hope to collect extra luggage that we could not fit in the seven-seater. Except that either Daniel or Becky would have to go with him, to get access.

It was after noon when they returned with the seven-seater car, but Becky had managed to acquire all our passports from her helpful friend.  We ate lunch on the ship, then finally departed, with about half of our luggage, around 1.20pm.

Esther, in a borrowed car seat, fell asleep pretty quickly.  The drive was longer than an hour; but Richard took it carefully, and there wasn't too much traffic. It was about 2.45 when we finally arrived at our Air BnB villa, booked for a week. We were greeted by John, the friendly caretaker, who doesn't speak a word of English. This looked like being a further frustration as he showed us around the place, and explained various things. Becky's Spanish is good enough for basic conversations, but doesn't really extend to explanations about padlocks and other safety features.

However, due to modern technology they were able to use translation tools on their phones.  John spoke Spanish into his phone, and it came up in English. Richard spoke English and it turne it into Spanish. Not quite a babel-fish, but not far off!

David knew there was a tree-house in the garden of our villa, but thought a tree-house was something like the hole that Owl lives in, in the Hundred Acre Wood, in the Winnie-the-Pooh books. He was thrilled with the reality:

The villa is a large bungalow. There's a huge living room/dining room/kitchen which runs the full length, and four comfortable bedrooms. Three have double beds, and one has three sets of bunk-beds and is clearly intended for children.  All were made up for us. There are four bathrooms including two ensuites, with lots of towels, and there's a securely fenced garden. John lives in a little house in the corner of the garden, and there are three large, extremely friendly outdoor dogs.

However we quickly realised that we had to go shopping, not just for food for the following day, but for basics such as washing-up liquid.

Meanwhile Richard was messaging to and from Tim concerning the next major frustration of the day. Tim's transatlantic flight was delayed by 45 minutes, but the passengers had been told that since over forty of them were due to take the Tampa-Miami flight, the plane would wait for them. They had to collect their luggage, despite it being booked to go through, as this was their first entry to the US. Tim had an Estia, and had filled in lots of information on the plane, but he got asked many more questions and had to fill in more paperwork... and time was running out.

He located his suitcase on the carousel at Tampa, and his instinct was to keep hold of it as he didn't think he was going to make it onto the flight despite the reassurances. But an official told him to load it onto the carousel, so he did.

Then he didn't get on the flight after all. Nor did several other passengers from the same flight. As far as he can tell, US citizens got on the Tampa-Miami flight, foreigners did not.

American Airlines were quite helpful at this point, booking them on the next available flight (early the following morning), and providing food and a hotel. But whereas the other passengers' luggage re-appeared, Tim's didn't.  He spent about five hours in the airport, very hungry and tired, hoping his suitcase would emerge - and was eventually told it had gone on the flight to Miami.

He was not pleased.

Meanwhile, Richard managed (eventually) to contact Avis at Panama Airport, although it took a long time to get through to them - a minor frustration, in the scheme of things.  He really didn't want to drive all the way to the airport to collect the ten-seater that evening if he then had to go back again the following day. But there was a helpful person at Avis who said that the car was there, and it was fine for him to collect it at lunch-time the following day.

So we decided to eat out at the nearest restaurant we could find, and do some basic shopping. The nearest restaurant turned out to be a pleasant, reasonably child-friendly Italian place, and while the food was a tad pricey, it was very good.

There was a small supermarket over the street, so we went there afterwards and picked up a few groceries.

Esther was a bit unsettled - she doesn't seem to like change, very much, and didn't sleep at all well, and we had some trouble with the hot water, but those were just minor frustrations the following morning. 

Since there was still luggage to be collected from the Logos Hope, Becky volunteered to go with Richard on the drive to the airport, leaving about 9.30am. Tim, we gathered from further messages during the morning, arrived safely in Miama after an early flight, but there was no sign of his luggage. So he hoped it had been sent on to Panama. His final flight was about half an hour late, du to arrive at 1.00pm.

I stayed with Daniel and the children and we had a mostly relaxing day. David and Esther played outside and dug in the dirt...

It was hot, and a bit humid but nowhere near as bad as Cyprus is currently.  We got rather bitten, presumably by mosquitoes or similar, and they were itchy... another minor frustration. But we found some white vinegar in the fridge and that's pretty good as an insect bite soother.

Shortly after lunch Daniel's phone received an update from Richard, and also from Tim.  The first good news was that Tim had finally arrived at Panama Airport.  The second piece of good news was that Richard had collected the ten-seater van. 

But the final frustration was that Tim's luggage had not arrived. He spoke to a helpful official at the airport, who said that, according to the system, his suitcase had never left Tampa.  They asked him to phone the following morning, and said that they would phone John the caretaker to get directions for delivering it. Which sounded hopeful...

However, to jump ahead three days, for a moment, the luggage still hasn't arrived. Tim has had to buy some new clothes, the cost of which will be covered by his travel insurance, but it's still annoying and time-consuming.  But about half of his suitcase contained presents for the family - over a kilogram of Marmite, some chocolate, some rooibos tea ('robot tea', as David calls it), some late birthday presents for David, an even later Christmas present for Daniel, and a power adapter they need. It also had some books Richard had ordered for people on the ship.

So we're still hoping and praying it might be found... Tim is in daily conversation with American Airlines, but apparently they won't do anything further if it's not found within five days. They don't even seem to think it's all that unusual.  This seems quite shocking to us, used as we are to European standards (or the even more efficient Asian airlines).

However, it's great to be together as a family again, despite this ongoing frustration, and Esther having a hard time sleeping.  I hope to write another post in the next few days with some of the highlights of this holiday. 

Returning to Cyprus today

The last week has, once again, flown past. Today, accompanied by Tim who is coming for a holiday, I will be returning to Cyprus. I'm looking forward to seeing the family again and spending a few more weeks with my grandchildren, having all my descendants under one roof! But I'm really NOT looking forward to the heat, humidity and sheer exhaustion that overtakes me during the summer months. Apparently last month was the hottest July for the past thirty years in Cyprus. I am, rather selfishly, very relieved to have missed the last ten days of it.

However, I can't move on, blogwise, without mentioning a delightful restaurant where I was taken on my last Saturday in Alcester. It wasn't particularly close to the house, and in the opposite direction from a large computer shop we had been visiting in the morning, looking at laptops.  Indeed, if we had not known it was there, we would probably never have driven up the small road where it was located, nor necessarily even have spotted the rather modest-looking sign on the outside, letting us know that it was The Broom Tavern:

There was a small car park, but it wasn't immediately obvious where we were supposed to go. The house looked old; apparently it was originally a farmhouse in the 16th century.

Inside the decor is attractive, with a very pleasant atmosphere.

The menu isn't huge, but with a wide variety of options including some for vegetarians; they seem to be quite flexible, too. I'm not vegetarian, though I lean strongly in that direction; I learned a few months ago that I am a 'flexitarian' - one who mostly eats plant-based foods, but also a bit of poultry or fish when offered it by other people. Since I'm married to a confirmed meat-eater, and Cyprus culture really isn't  good at understanding vegetarianism (let alone veganism) I've opted for this, at least for now.

Anyway... one of the menu options was vegetarian chili with various side dishes, so that's what I opted for.  This photo, unfortunately, doesn't really show how stunning the presentation was when it arrived laid out on a wooden platter.  One of the black metal dishes contained rice, the other an excellent veggie chili. There were tortilla chips (clearly made from tortillas rather than bought in), guacamole, sour cream, tomato salsa, grated cheese, and salad.

I didn't think I would manage more than half of it, but in the event, other than about half the rice, I ate it all. It was delicious.

My father, who is not vegetarian but highly intolerant of garlic, and whose appetite fluctuates somewhat, asked for a baked potato with baked beans and grated cheese.  That was also beautifully presented but the photo doesn't show it at its best:

After such a large first course I wouldn't have opted for dessert at all, but my father very much likes desserts, and chose a fruity sorbet one - pineapple and melon were certainly involved, and he said it was delicious:

Lorraine chose a strawberry panacotta dessert; I might have gone for that, but the dish description mentioned balsamic vinegar, and that sounded rather odd.  It was also beautifully presented, and she said it was extremely good:

I decided, since they were having desserts, I would have the basic ice cream. Three scoops, they told me, with various choices.  I opted for two chocolate and one salted caramel.  I expected three scoops in a small dish, as one might expect in Cyprus. Instead, I was presented with this:

The odd-looking squiggles on the top of each of the desserts was a kind of crystalline spun sugar. A sort of hardened, flat candy floss, I suppose.  The chocolate ice cream was good, the salted caramel out of this world... I should perhaps have had two of that. It never occurred to me that anything could be better than chocolate.

Replete from this amazing meal, we took a short walk in the afternoon...

...which included some blackberrying.  July seems rather early to me for blackberries, but there were lots on the local bushes, with plenty more to come.  Hard to see in the small version of this photo, but anyone interested in knowing what blackberries look like, just click the image and a larger one should appear.

Sunday was a relaxed day. We went to a church service at St Nicholas' Church, then home for a roast lunch followed by apple and blackberry crumble. In the afternoon we played our fourth game of Settlers of Catan in which I really hoped I wouldn't win. In the first game, earlier in the week, I won rather too resoundingly. The second was much closer, and I only won because I picked up a victory point. I don't remember the details of the third, but I won again. I had tried a different starting strategy in each.

For the fourth game, I didn't have particularly good starting places, and decided to play the 'harbour' strategy. It worked all too well, but when I was approaching twelve points we decided I'd keep playing, opting out, so to speak, of the possibility of winning.  Eventually they both reached eleven points... and Lorraine eventually reached twelve and was declared victor:

We then counted my points and I was slightly embarrassed to find that I had managed to acquire eighteen...

On Monday morning I made the train journey down to Surrey to stay a few days with Tim. It's a journey of about three-and-a-half hours by train, with three changes including a brief ride on the London Underground. I am always a bit anxious about the Underground as I haven't used it much and don't understand it... but all went well and I arrived safely at the station close to Tim's flat. What amazed me most was that the entire trip (three trains and one Underground), since I booked it in advance, cost me the grand total of £11.

In the evening, we played a game of Cities and Knights, and Tim creamed: sixteen points to my eight.

On the Tuesday we took further trains down to Sussex to spend the day with Richard's mother. It was the first day since my arrival when the sun had shone almost all the time, so we spent some time sitting outside, admiring her garden:

On the Wednesday it rained, off and on. I caught yet more trains, this time to Woking, to spend a few hours with my friend Anne, who is, as far as I can tell, my longest-standing friend. We met when I was seven and our family moved to Walton-on-Thames, as we were in the same class at school. We spent two years at Ambleside Avenue First School before moving to the larger Mayfield Middle School when we were nine.

After a year there, our family moved to Birmingham, and not long afterwards Anne's family also moved. We had agreed to stay in touch, and although our parents didn't expect us to, we wrote letters - pages and pages, sometimes - very regularly, at first, then gradually easing off to just Christmas and birthday greetings. Anne came to our wedding ten years after we parted, and at the time we said we ought to get together every ten years, but that hasn't happened. So it's over 37 years since we had actually met!

We talked endlessly, catching each other up on the past few decades' worth of news about family and friends. Then Anne drove me back to Tim's making a considerable detour through Walton-on-Thames where we went past the sites our our old schools (Ambleside Avenue is now a primary school, with rather different buildings; Mayfield no longer exists at all).

I had only the vaguest memories; my family only lived in Walton for three years, but I did vaguely remember the road where we used to live, and that our house was just around the corner from another school friend. I knew the address, so as we briefly slowed down, was able to snap this picture out of the car window. I'm pretty sure it's the right place, though I wouldn't have been able to pick it out if I hadn't known the house number:

On Friday - yesterday - Tim showed me round the grounds of the school where he teaches, then we walked into Epsom, a nearby reasonably-sized town with a good set of high street shops. I particularly wanted to go to Lakeland, to buy some of my favourite breadmaking yeast, and one or two other things. I also went to several rather upmarket charity shops and was delighted to find yet more children's picture books that were not previously part of our collection.

In the evening, Tim treated me to Indian takeaway food, and then we had another Cities and Knights game. This time I did at least reach ten points before he won.

After that we sorted out a lot of paper recycling, printed our boarding passes, and even did most of our packing.

This morning we've cleaned and tidied everywhere, turned my bed back into a sofa, emptied all the rubbish... and were completely ready to go over two hours before we need to leave. This is a bit disturbing for both of us, so I decided to write a blog post, and Tim has popped out to buy a few essentials that he will need as soon as he returns.

Visiting a taverna at Zygi

It had been a busy few weeks, but at last we had bought a comfortable and - we hope - reliable car. Richard wanted to take it on a slightly longer journey than just doing errands around Larnaka, and since we had not been on a 'date' for a long time, suggested we have lunch at the fishing village of Zygi.

My knowledge of Cyprus geography is extremely limited, and I vaguely assumed it was about ten or fifteen kilometres away, so was a bit surprised when it took us nearly half an hour to get there - it was, according to the signposts, nearly 40km away. Still, the journey was very comfortable and smooth; Cyprus roads are really very bumpy, particularly around town, but this Megane seems to smooth them out better than any other car we've previously had.

Richard had heard good things about the main restaurant looking out over Zygi marina, and it was easy enough to spot from the car park. A covered area had lots of tables and chairs, and there were several people eating. There was a big menu on the way in so we paused to take a look.

Just as well that we did. The theme - unsurprisingly, perhaps - was sea-food.  While Richard does quite like shellfish, I can't bear any of them.  Even looking at them makes me queasy. And the prices looked extremely high. So we glanced down... there was a section of the menu that said it was for people who wanted something different, but that was all steaks, at even higher prices. All we wanted was a light lunch... but there were no sandwiches, no baked potatoes with fillings. There was a pasta selection, but it was all related to sea-food.

I expect the food is excellent quality for people who like sea-food, want a large meal, and don't mind paying high prices. But I could not find a single thing on the menu that I could have eaten.

So we decided to walk into the village itself. We rejected one or two rather scruffy looking places, and then we spotted this:

'The Plateia' looked like a pleasant little taverna. There was building work going on at the side:

But it was open, and when we sat down we were brought a menu almost at once. It was exactly what we were looking for: sandwiches, filled pittas, or platters, at very reasonable cost.  We decided on the platters, after being told that they came with both chips and salad.

Richard chose sheftalia, a kind of Cyprus sausage, and I chose halloumi.  It wasn't particularly quick, but that didn't matter; evidently it was freshly cooked, and when it came was nicely presented and delicious:

They brought us a bowl of pitta bread too, but we didn't want extra carbs so we didn't have them, although I'm sure they would have been good too.

We were there for about an hour, and nobody else came to eat there, but it didn't matter. The place was secluded and quiet, and while we couldn't look over the sea, there was greenery and fresh air and sunshine, and our table was pleasantly sheltered.

Delicious Meze meal at an empty Taverna...

I've written before about our local taverna, Ta Kalyphouthkia. It's about 200 metres from where we live, tucked away in a residential area... so not the kind of place people would find easily, if out hunting for somewhere to eat.

While, as far as I recall, we have actually only once paid for a meal there ourselves, we have been treated there several times by guests wanting to take us out for a meal, and suggesting something traditionally Cypriot. A meze is the classic meal here, consisting of several dishes of food brought out a few at a time, including salads, pitta bread, olives, various dips, an avocado dish, mushrooms, scrambled egg with spinach, several varieties of meat, halloumi, pasta with cheese, tiny pastries with cheese, pourgouri (bulgar wheat)... and more. To finish with, there's even a small plate of chips (fries), and then something light and sweet.  The selections vary slightly each time, but are always delicious. 

One of the great things about meze is that you don't have to order one portion per person, if you're going with a group. There's a minimum order of two, but it's fine for four people to order just two portions; there's plenty of food, so long as appetites are not huge, and everyone gets a taste of everything. We have never yet managed to finish the entire spread; I rarely eat any of the meat as there are so many delicious veggie options. 

Other tavernas and restaurants offer different mezes; some have more meat and fewer veggie dishes, some have fish and seafood rather than meat. 

Two ladies who have been staying in our guest flat took us to the local taverna last night. As usual, we chose to go early - about 7.00pm - and, as we expected, it was entirely empty when we arrived:

The taverna is usually frequented by Cypriots, and they tend to eat rather later than Brits.

The dishes kept coming, but we didn't eat particularly fast; we were chatting and enjoying the food, explaining some of them to one of the guests who had not previously been to Cyprus.  It was nearly nine o'clock before we left... and it was then that it struck me: the taverna was still empty.  

That was not what we expected.

Every time we have been in the past, other diners have started arriving about eight o'clock. By nine, it's usually starting to get quite noisy and busy. But not last night.

Perhaps Monday night is always quiet; perhaps there were more customers later. I hope so. But my worry is that this may be a sign of things to come, with the austerity measures, and drastically reduced incomes for many around the island. It's not as if we eat out regularly, so perhaps it's selfish - in a sense - to want this taverna to remain open for the rare occasions when we might use it. But it's the principle of the thing that matters more: small shops are already being forced to close down, and it would be very sad for the future of Cyprus if small family tavernas are also forced to shut. 

Autumn in Cyprus and the changing of the clocks....

I seem to say it often around this time of year - so I hope it's not a sign of age. But I really don't know where the time goes. Tonight the clocks go back an hour in Cyprus (and indeed everywhere in Europe) signalling the Autumn season with darker evenings ahead.  It's just this week that the temperatures have dropped below 30C at midday and it begins to feel as if Summer might finally have come to an end. 

A Facebook friend commented that, looking at photos I uploaded recently, it seemed as if we'd done a lot of eating in the past couple of weeks.  This is reflected in the selection of pictures below... but it's not all we've done.  Still, even in the hotter weather of the first part of October, I did find myself doing a bit more preserving, partly using my new dehydrator, and partly taking advantage of very inexpensive fruit from a local fruit stall. With 13kg plums to use, I made my first ever plum jam:

I hadn't tried it before, under the impression that I wasn't very keen on it. But I don't eat jam anyway, other than on rare occasions... and it made a change from my usual apricot and strawberry. I was surprised to find that it was actually extremely good. 

A few days later Richard celebrated his 55th birthday, which has seemed like something of a milestone. He said he'd like to eat out, so we went to a new Mexican restaurant we had seen, not far from where we live. It has the not-terribly-inspiring name of Nuevo Mexico... a menu much like that we had previously enjoyed at Aztekas, and a rather garish Ikea-inspired decor. The waitress was excellent, the presentation of the food superb.... let down by lack of hotness, both temperature-wise and spiciness-wise. The desserts, however, were unbelievably good. We ordered two to share, including an out-of-this-world chocolate fudge cake:

Richard's second 'birthday cake', complete with candles, was a pizza cake created by friends who we had dinner with a couple of days later. The base was a giant chocolate chip cookie, the taste amazing:

Then on Friday for our cell group I made a couple of chocolate fudge cakes, decorated with dehydrated peaches. It was pretty good too, but vanished rather quickly with 16 of us involved. I didn't think to take a photo until we were half way through the second one - it tasted rather better than it looks!

And so to this week... on Friday we celebrated, in a low-key kind of way, 15 years since we first arrived in Cyprus 'for a couple of years or so'. It was a little cooler, and some of the plants on our patio looked a bit tired so we popped to the local plant shop and picked up a few bedding plants to brighten it up a little.  At last I've adjusted sufficiently to feel it 'right' that bedding plants go out in October rather than April or May.  Richard wore jeans all day and a sweatshirt in the evening, although I haven't reached that stage  yet.  But I did agree that we needed to put the thin duvet on the bed last night - and was thankful that I did. Night-time temperatures are down to about 17C. 

Given the number of extra calories I have consumed recently, including rather a lot of 'testing' of the dehydrator, it's as well that I've now got into the habit of walking, fairly briskly, at least 5km with my friend Sheila, three times a week.  Just occasionally, there's a wonderful bonus as when we rounded a bend in the path and were greeted with this: 

Words could not begin to describe it, and the photo is totally inadequate - all day, my mind kept repeating the words of the song: 'All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord'. 

Lots of good food and board games: still out of Cyprus

Another week has flown by. Tomorrow we return to the UK - so this post is a summary of the past week, although it feels like at least three weeks since I last wrote. When I look at the photos I've taken of various family members, the overriding impression is that we have eaten a great deal of food and played a large number of games. All very pleasant. 

On Saturday last week, we went out to eat at a local carvery at the end of Kings Heath. It's very inexpensive, and the food is plentiful. Tim managed to get through quite a quantity of roast potatoes (plus meat and veggies):

After church on Sunday, my sister and most of her family (including two dogs) arrived and stayed for the afternoon. Tim cooked braised steak in the slow cooker for lunch (plus potatoes and veggies, with apple and blackberry crumble and fruit salad to follow).  Since the dogs had been in the car in the morning, we went for a walk to a local park. 

On Monday, Tim produced lamb shanks in mint sauce (plus potatoes and veggies, followed by chocolate cake, fruit salad and ice cream), for the delectation of one of my brothers and his wife, who came to lunch. Afterwards we played a six-person Settlers game. This shows Richard pondering one of his initial placements:

My brother won, just pipping me at the post. 

On Tuesday morning we - including Tim - set out for Carlisle, with a detour to some friends and then some cousins in Derbyshire. Great to catch up with people we hadn't seen for a long time. We arrived in Carlisle in the evening, and Tim generously treated us all to an Indian takeaway. Here's Daniel with his veggie dish: 

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It was so wonderful to have my family all together again, even though just for a short time. After eating, naturally, we got out Dan and Becky's Settlers game (the German version) and had a game:

Daniel won that one, though in the end almost anyone could have won. It was a good game. 

On Wednesday Dan and Becky were able to have the day off, so we hung out, and chatted, and played a few short games - Monopoly Deal and Apples to Apples, which were new to me - and had a cold lunch with leftover Indian takeaway food. Then we played Ticket to Ride. 

We had just finished when Dan and Becky's closest friends in Carlisle arrived for a meal. They had planned Mexican-style fajitas, and while I did start chopping some vegetables, Tim quickly took over: 

After that, and a delicious chocolate mousse which Becky had made, we sat down to learn a new game: Squatter, which is an Australian sheep-farming game: 

Tim had made a pecan pie, but most of us didn't have room for it after the meal and mousse earlier. A few of them did, however...

On Thursday, sadly, Tim had to return to Birmingham (via train) so we saw him off in the morning. Becky made some wonderful bread, which we took to their office for lunch, and stayed there to help out in the afternoon. I got involved in stocktaking at the bookshop... interesting at first, and nice to see some of what Becky does, but not exactly the most exciting of occupations. 

 In the evening, Dan and Becky cooked a stir-fry veggie meal, then we finished the pecan pie - and since they had decided to buy a bottle of wine too, glasses were raised to toast Tim, in his absence, for the wonderful pie: 

After that, Cities and Knights was the order of the day: 

Although we're very familiar with it, it's a bit more complicated when all the progress cards are in German, requiring extensive studying of a photocopied crib sheet to determine what we could do with them. And Richard, rather to his surprise, won.

On Friday, they took another day off (since they had to work today on an event). We decided to go out to eat... a second time in one week is very unusual for us, but then we only have a short time with our children.  We went to a Toby, and  in addition to the carvery (which was excellent - Daniel and I had a veggie version) we decided to splash out on desserts as they were offering a discount. Very yummy they were, too... and rather large!

This was my one, and I didn't quite manage it all: 

Then... back home for coffee, and Ticket to Ride: 

After that, Daniel and Richard wanted to talk about something technical, so Becky and I played a couple of rounds of Rummikub: 

She won them both. 

In the evening, they all went out to set up for an event that was happening today, arriving back about 9.30pm. We decided that there wasn't time for anything that would take a long time, or which would demand mental energy, as they were all tired and had to be up early this morning. So we played a quick round of Carcassonne: 

Becky must have been on a winning streak yesterday as she won that too. 

Two restaurants in Larnaka

Last week was quite a social one for us, with something happening every evening. Monday we played a (Settlers of Catan) game with two of our friends; Tuesday evening two other friends came over for a meal and a couple of (Rummikub) games.

Then we ate out on both Wednesday and Thursday. Two evenings in a row. This is almost unheard of in our household, where we typically pay to eat out three or four times per year at most. We're also sometimes treated to meals at restaurants by friends, which is very pleasant, but unless we have a lot of visitors staying that's not very often either.

One occasion when we always try to eat out is our anniversary, which fell last Thursday. Last year we had Tim with us, the year before Daniel... but this time, with both sons in the UK, we decided to have an evening with just the two of us, to celebrate thirty-two years of married life.

However, Thursday also happens to be Richard's sailing buddy's birthday. Just to confuse us (and it regularly does...) he's also called Tim. We worked out that we were married on his 21st birthday, although of course that was many years before he and Richard met. Tim and his wife wanted to celebrate both occasions with us, so they generously asked us out for a meal. They chose Militzes, a restaurant on the sea-front beyond the fort, where we've been a couple of other times with friends:

Since it's Summer, the place was open and we sat at a table for four near the street. Portions are usually quite big, so our friends suggested we begin with a salad, then continue by sharing some pourgouri and three 'main' dishes: chicken, kleftiko and some mixed beans.

The beans were good, and the kleftiko was wonderful... I'm not usually a huge fan of this traditional lamb dish, but it was extremely tender and tasty.

It was a very enjoyable evening out.

On our anniversary, we had considered trying a new Mexican restaurant we had spotted recently. But on the day, Richard said that he really felt like eating fish and chips... and preferably the ones served at Alexander's. So, as we have so many times before, we went to this relatively inexpensive and popular place:

While other restaurants in the area are often almost empty until at least 8.00pm, Alexander's always seems to have customers.

I pondered the vegetarian moussaka which I've had several times before, and like very much, but then realised that fish and chips actually sounded quite appealing. So I ordered that too.

How very British of us...

We enjoyed the meal very much:

Afterwards, as is usual at Alexander's, we were asked if we wanted anything 'on the house' - they offer coffee, ouzo, brandy, ice cream, and various other possibilities. Richard had some decaf coffee, and I opted for ice cream:

Then we went for a walk along the sea-front, and came home to watch a DVD which seemed appropriate for the occasion, and which we both enjoyed: the Steve Martin version of 'Father of the Bride'.