A new printer

Short version of this post: I bought a new printer:

Long version with historical context:

I thought I had probably had my last printer, an HP laserjet, for about twelve or thirteen years. I recalled my younger son buying it - or contributing to it, anyway - when he needed to do significant printing. It was in 2013 when he came back to Cyprus after five years in the UK, so I thought perhaps it was bought around then, although I couldn't work out what it was he needed to print. 

But when I searched Google photos to see if I could find any old pictures of it, I found this, from July 2012:

and this, from June 2009:

It wasn't new then; that photo was for this blog post about the new Mac mini that I had been persuaded to buy after my Windows computer finally died. 

Then, looking for relevant blog posts, I found this, from 2008, about mysterious test pages appearing.  Same printer.

So now I'm thinking the printer must have been bought in 2006 or 2007, around the time our son was doing an 'open' correspondence course that required a lot of printing. That makes more sense, but I'm astounded to think that the printer may have been close to 20 years old.

It was a good printer, and extensively used. About four or five years ago, it started becoming a bit temperamental. If I tried to print more than about five or six pages at a time, it would jam. Annoying, but I learned to print things in small batches, then wait a few minutes. I suspect it was getting too warm.

It also became increasingly difficult to find toner cartridges for it. For the first twelve years or so, we could go to Cartridge World and buy a reconditioned compatible cartridge easily. Not that we needed one every year; on average I suppose it was every other year when the printing became too faint to be useful. Sometimes even longer.  

The last time I bought a new cartridge was in 2021. We looked on the Cartridge World website, and it showed that there was a cartridge compatible with this printer.  We went into the shop, and they sold us one, which was not, in fact, correct. So we took it back, and they had to put in an order for the right one. That took a week or so, and cost me €45.  

I suppose I haven't done a huge amount of printing in recent years, but in the past year I was aware that the quality was getting worse and worse. I looked on the Cartridge World site last year, and they didn't have anything compatible with the printer. I looked at other sites in Cyprus, and I did find one that was selling a suitable cartridge for around €70, but that seemed excessive. So I didn't order it. 

Richard has a printer in his study, so if necessary I would use that. But it's less convenient, and I really need to print things myself: utility bills that are sent by email, bank statements that I download, travel documents, and so on.  When I realised that I could not read any of the times or dates on a flight information documents, I decided I would have to either buy a new toner cartridge, if I could find one, or consider a new printer...

As far as I can tell, nowhere in Cyprus sells the cartridges any more. I suppose that's not surprising if the printer really is twenty years old. I could get one in the UK, but bringing or sending a toner cartridge by air would damage it. And a bit of research demonstrated that a new, basic laser printer costs between €100 and €150 anyway.  While many things have become a lot more expensive in recent years, technology becomes cheaper and cheaper. With a lot more options, too.

In general we like to choose ethical brands where possible, and there's a handy page that lists the most ethical brands of printers. Brother had been recommended to us as a good brand, so we narrowed down the search to that, and discovered that our favourite local technology shop, Stephanis, had a new-in inexpensive compact laser printer at an excellent price. Better still, even the branded cartridges were less than €30 each. 

I'm not one for impulse buying, and had expected to do more research and pondering... but it seemed too good a deal to miss. And I had some bills and travel documents that needed to be printed. 

So I bought it. 

I was a tad shocked at the sheer volume of paperwork that came with it - and a CD, which is useless as my computer doesn't have a CD drive.

There was an instruction manual, too, in ten different languages. And none of the paperwork was any use; Richard had to do a lot of research online in order to get the printer to speak to my computer.

But eventually it worked, and while it's a tad noiser than the previous one, and possibly a little slower, the resulting print-outs are beautifully clear. It's nice and compact, too, and the paper tray can be folded up when not in use, which should reduce the dust. 

Lady Jane was very happy with the new box:

More random Larnaka images for the end of March

 For anyone who thinks Cyprus is all sunshine and warmth... this is a screenshot from March 21st, on a morning when my friend Sheila and I decided that we would not be going out for our usual 5km walk...

According to local news reports, it has been an exceptionally wet March.  It has certainly felt that way. It's a good thing, as the reservoirs are now in a much better state than they were at the start of the year, although we're still told to conserve water, and I believe the hosepipe ban is continuing. 

The next photo is of groups gathering outside the Municipal Theatre, in celebration of Greek National Day on March 25th:

I had entirely forgotten that it was a public holiday last Wednesday. I didn't see the marching, which would have happened earlier, involving uniformed organisations and a lot of the local schools.  Years ago when our older son was in the marching band, we would often go to watch the parades on national and other holidays.

This image, below, is of a pink shrub that has been flowering in our side yard. It's one we planted ten years ago, and which didn't do particularly well until the plant next to it died last year. Now it's flourishing.

According to Google lens, it's an Indian hawthorn. Plant shops here rarely have labels with plants, and I doubt if I would have remembered the name even if I had known. I'm not usually a huge fan of pink, but I think this is rather pretty. 

I can't end March photos without some reminders that this is (or was, when we first came here) known as 'yellow month'. Yellow wildflowers are blooming everywhere:

I saw that scene, and the one below, while walking along the Salt Lake trail one morning:

The photos don't begin to do justice to the beauty. My phone doesn't take the best pictures, and I didn't have my camera with me. Clicking the images to enlarge make them clearer, at least on a computer.

Here's a closer look at one of the plants:

This kind of plant is prolific too:

I asked Google Lens about that one, too. Apparently it's an acacia.  All these plants survive the hot summers without water for, usually, at least four or five months. Then when the rains come, the foliage springs back to life, with the blooms culminating in March and April.  

But though many are yellow, there are occasional splashes of other colours, such as this, which I think is a red poppy:

Daylight savings (or 'summer time') started a couple of days ago, and I'm already appreciating the later sunrise in the mornings, and the longer evenings. I've also very much liked the longer-than-usual springlike weather. 

On decluttering

 I see a lot of references to decluttering on social media. Perhaps it's the circles I'm in; plus, of course, as soon as I clicked one link on the topic, I was inevitably going to see a whole lot more similar posts. Clutter is something of a divisive subject. There are people who like collecting a lot of things, and are comfortable around boxes, bags and other unsorted items. There are people who would like to be organised, but have difficulty finding spaces for things, or who don't have sufficent time and motivation to do anything about it.

There is also a third category of people who somehow manage to get things away, and tidy, without any apparent effort.  I aspired to be one of those as a young adult, but was firmly in the second category. The spirit was willing - well, mostly - but I was working full-time, and then had small children.  It was far more important to spend time with them - and they seemed to acquire a lot of stuff, too, mainly gifts from generous friends and family - than to keep the house tidy. 

Moving to Cyprus in 1997 forced us to be quite radical about our stuff. We donated some things to charity shops, although we had a large room and a couple of closets full of things we had stored, in addition to what we brought out. We also stored a lot of things in a friend's garage. In subsequent years, we moved more and more things here (mainly books), and when we sold the UK house, we gave away a lot of things that we had not used for nine years, and evidently didn't need.

Our old rental house had large rooms. I did try, on the whole, to keep it tidy, although we had a lot of shelves with a lot of stuff on them, not just books: 

But I rarely did much actual cleaning, unless we were expecting guests. We had a passageway at the back with metal shelves, and totally unsorted clutter, gathering dust...

When we moved to our current house, in the summer of 2006, I was determined to be better organised. We were going to have homes for everything, and either use it or get rid of it.

Or, of course, we could put things in the downstairs part of the house, which is used regularly as a guest flat...

On the whole, we've managed to keep the main part of the house reasonably clear, and have regularly sorted and upgraded the guest flat, as funds permit. Having Roomba robot vacuum cleaners keeps the floors clean, and has the added bonus that we don't leave random things on the floor for them to chew up. 

But there are a lot of built-in closets, and we have tended to put things away: out of sight, out of mind. 

Neighbours have been doing some radical sorting of a house where an elderly man used to live. Over the course of a few weeks they have filled up two entire skips, and many more bin bags of what I assume is rubbish. It got me thinking about reducing at least a few of our unwanted items and clearing a bit of space in my overcrowded closets and shelves. 

For instance,  in my study I had a lot of empty folders:

I also had my old photo albums which I don't want to get rid of, even though I've made photobooks of most of them. They were in several different random places. 

I had a whole shelf of old handbags and small bags, some of which we'd been given and never used. They used to be played with by visiting small people, but not for many years. 

Then on my shelf of useful wrapping paper, birthday cards etc I had a large number of cards which I knew I would ever send: not my taste, or not a sentiment I wanted to pass on. 

I regularly buy cards from the UK as there's a much bigger selection than there is here, but we've also been given some, over the years, some of which I have used and others will never use. I've also probably picked up packs of them at times, using a few and rejecting the rest. 

By the time I'd collected the things which I knew I would never use, I had rather a lot of bags:

Thankfully, the local thrift store was happy to accept it all as donations.

While Richard was away earlier in the month, I got out the stepladders and sorted the top closets in my study. I didn't do the drastic decluttering I've heard of, where everything is either given away or thrown if one isn't actually using it. I have a cupboard full of jigsaw puzzles, for instance; I haven't done a jigsaw for some years, but I might, one day. I have some unsorted stamps from various collections, too. One day I hope to pass them on to someone who might use them.  And I now have all the old large photo albums in one high cupboard.

On the other hand, when I found about a hundred old jiffy bags (I'm not exaggerating!) taking up most of a cupboard, I took more drastic action. I threw most of them away, although a friend was willing to take about twenty of them. And I did keep some, easily accessible, as they occasionally come in useful for broken glass or other sharp objects that need to be binned:

When he got back, we went through some clothes we had put aside - about a year ago - to donate to the local organisation that helps refugees and asylum seekers. And we went through our closets, discarding some clothes we had been given but had not worn, some which we had worn a few times but didn't particularly like, and some which appeared at some point, but we've no idea how. We don't buy clothes very often, but we both seemed to have a lot of things that we don't wear: a large number of quite smart shirts for Richard, for instance. I had some tops which I didn't like, or didn't find comfortable, and there were some dresses and skirts which I don't even remember. 

I was pleased with the results of the main closet in my study when it was tidied and sorted:

But I didn't feel the sense of elation one is supposed to feel after getting rid of surplus stuff.  And the empty shelf on one of my bookcases is quite disturbing, even when I put some useful folders on part of it:

No doubt we'll acquire more stuff and fill up the shelves, and we still have stuff that we really don't need. But I think I've had my fill of decluttering, at least for now. 

Random images around Larnaka

 I'm trying to post on this blog more often, and on one topic - or no more than two or three - at a time. But sometimes there are random things where there's not a lot to say... so here is a small selection of my most recent collection of local photos that don't fit other subjects, taken over the last month or so.

We were given a small papaya plant several years ago, and this is the first year that it has produced flowers:

We have no idea whether it will eventually produce a fruit; that depends on the flowers being fertilised, and whether it's a male or female plant.  The flowers aren't spectacular, but there are a lot of buds.

In contrast to these tiny flowers which we almost missed, we were delighted that our bird of paradise plant bloomed for the third year in a row:

Meanwhile, lemons continue to be seen on every street, and are inexpensive in the shops. So I bought a few extra, grated some zest to freeze, and also made several ice cube trays of lemon juice:

These will be very useful in the summer, when the lemons in the shops will be small, with minimal juice, and much higher priced. 

A less successful experiment in the kitchen involved an attempt to make pitta bread. Unlike the naan, which I've now done twice (and which work beautifully) the pittas were very messy to make, and I could not get them to the right shape. These are probably the best:

These are the worst:

And while they taste reasonably acceptable, they don't really open into pockets... and, to me, that's the most important part of pitta bread. 

So that's one thing I won't be making in future, despite my focus on avoiding ultra-processed ingredients. One of the things considered least bad is bread, and while I make most of my own bread, I shall, in future, continue to buy locally made pittas. 

I walked into the city centre a few days ago to collect a photobook that had arrived at the Post Office, and on the way back took a couple of photos of the ongoing construction in one of the main roads into town:

There are paths for pedestrians, but it's noisy and dusty... and seems to have been going on for a very long time. 

Here's Lady Jane looking over her dominion. She's on quite a narrow ledge three storeys up.. but, thankfully, her balance is extremely good. 

Here's one of Richard's photos which I have stolen. He calls it 'Schrödinger's pharmacy':

We didn't check whether or not it is, in fact, open or closed.

I've written elsewhere on this blog about restaurants we have been to, but we tend to stick to the ones we know we're going to like. However a friend took us out to eat at a very nice Chinese restaurant:

I was a little concerned about it, since I react badly to both MSG and soy sauce, but our friend assured us that they were able to deal with all tastes. Sure enough, they don't use MSG in the cooking, although they do generally add a little to enhance the flavours. But when we requested no MSG, it was no problem.

The manager did rather pale when I asked for no soy sauce, however. This is a staple in many Chinese dishes. But he said he would make rice and vegetables without it, and that I could have a lemon chicken which was soy sauce free. The rest of the party had a shared selection of dishes which looked very good, but I stuck to my lemon chicken with the rice and vegetables - and it was excellent. 

And finally... for now, anyway.  I wrote in January about the pot-bellied pig which has made itself at home along the Salt Lake trail. We've seen a little shelter built just outside the park, with bowls of water, and there's also what was evidently a feeding place inside the park. 

Then a couple of days ago, above the feeding place in the park, we saw this notice:

Local people continue to bring random food, which the pig eats when hungry. We thought 'Rooney' was an odd name for a pig, until I had a lightbulb moment - as you do - early one morning, when I recalled, from the depths of my subconscious (and from Duolingo), the Greek word for pig: γουρούνι. Which is said something like 'you-roony'.  

Basically it's like calling an English pig 'Piggy'. 

Paperwork and admin in Cyprus

I was beginning to feel that life in Cyprus involved rather too much paperwork.  I've written elsewhere about the need to renew passports every ten years or so. We had a flurry of bureaucracy during Covid, of course, with the need for checking airline regulations, and taking tests with accompanying paperwork to demonstrate that we were Covid-free.  

Just last year I wrote about the complicated process of trying to find suitable ID documents to prove that we are who we say we are. Also the need to prove that we are eligible for the national health system here. 

Every time we get through another round of documentation, we breathe sighs of relief.  Until the next time. Recently we seem to have had a lot of other paperwork to deal with. None of it particularly strenuous or complicated, admittedly, but somehow it feels rather overwhelming when several things come at the same time. 

But sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming. A couple of weeks ago I wrote down the things we had to do fairly urgently:

- apply for me to have a UK pension 
- validate Richard's existence, for his UK pension
- renew our European health cards
- chase up my ID card, which I applied for in October

I had not expected to be eligible for any UK pension, as I only worked as a paid employee for four years.  After leaving to have my children, I did a couple of self-employed jobs, but was under the limit for National Insurance contributions. However, it appears that for every year when I received child benefit, a contribution was paid on my behalf.  That was eleven years when we lived in the UK, and another seven in Cyprus, as we were still filing taxes in the UK. So according to the online calculator, I will be eligible for something later this year.

But in order to find out for sure, I had to fill in an extensive form online, covering several pages, with some questions which seemed almost irrelevant. Then I had to print it all out, sign it, and send it to the UK. I also had to send my birth and marriage certificates. It took most of a morning to sort this, and I was quite stressed by the end.

There's also requirements to prove that one is still alive and eligible for pensions; every year Richard has to go online to verify who he is for his BBC pension.  But for the state UK one, he has to find a local professional who has an official stamp, and get them to sign a declaration that they've seen his identity documents. 

And then there was my ID card. Six months ago, I didn't see any reason to have one.  I have a British passport, and a 'yellow slip' giving me permanent residence in Cyprus.  It was immensely complicated getting the yellow slips, something else I wrote about at the time. But mine had worked every time I needed to prove my residency.  Then we learned that yellow slips are being discontinued, and that non-Cypriots are required to have a biometric ID card.  And they're bringing that requirement in by this summer for British citizens.

But there's very little information online about how to go about it. I trawled through the government website - which seems to change every time I look at it - and eventually found an email address to contact, so I wrote and asked what I should do. I had a reply almost at once, telling me that I had an appointment at Immigration on October 3rd last year. I had to open the email on my phone to show it when we arrived:

We were mildly amused at the word which looks like 'Panty boy' although what looks like a capital P is in fact a Greek capital R, and the B sounds like an English V.  It doesn't take much to amuse us.  It was then quite satisfying to realise that the word, though translated as 'appointment', is in fact a Greek version of the French phrase 'rendez-vous'.  The 'NT' combination is something like a D.  (The word above it means 'printed form', which is a bit strange in an email message). 

I'd downloaded a form and filled that in. So we went to the appointment armed with my yellow slip, my passport, the deeds of our house, an electricity bill in my name, and other paperwork that they might have asked for. Then all they needed to see was my yellow slip, and they didn't take the form I'd filled in; instead, they printed out something identical, and filled that in by asking me for my name, address, phone number, etc. 

Then they took a photo of me, and I had to give some fingerprints. My fingerprints are quite faint, and it took a couple of tries before anything registered.  And that was the end of the appointment. I was told that I would get my ID in the mail. 

I didn't suppose it would be quick, and there was an article in one of the online papers saying that something had broken down, so ID cards were taking longer than usual.  But by the beginning of December I was starting to be concerned. I trawled the government site again, and found a form I could fill in to enquire about delayed documents, which I filled in. And I wrote an email to the address I had used previously.  

I didn't get responses from either of them, but then I found a system where I could send a text message, giving the number on my application form, so I did that. I had a response telling me that my application was approved, and that I would get an official response from them by mail. 

With Christmas coming, and postal delays, I put it out of my mind, and then didn't even think about it until the end of January.  I started checking our mailbox every day, but there was no sign of anything. 

As an aside, Richard had applied to renew his British passport in November, as it was expiring, and received his new one within a couple of weeks.  He has a Cyprus passport already, but new rules require that he will need a British one to travel to the UK.  I thought it a tad ironic that a passport issued in the UK arrived considerably more quickly than my local ID. And with considerably more information - he received text messages regularly telling him what was happening.  I received nothing at all..

Back to the present, and it was approaching five months since I had applied for my ID. I sent another text message at the end of February, and this time was told, 'your permit is valid'. I was quite concerned that it had got lost in the mail, and the process of having a replacement for a lost one is apparently very complex. But Richard wondered if it was waiting for me at the Immigration office. I was dubious... they had told me, twice, that they would contact me by mail. 

But on the last Friday of February, we decided to visit Immigration anyway.  I didn't know if we'd be able to get in; when I had my appointment in October, there was a guard in a little booth outside, ensuring that only people with appointments could go in.  However, this time the guard booth was empty, and the gates open. People were milling around, and we spotted an office that said, 'ID cards'. As we waited outside, while someone else was talking in Greek to the man sitting there, we saw a crate  full of what looked like ID cards...

Eventually we went inside, and started explaining that I had heard nothing and that I'd applied back in October. The man stopped us, and asked for my name. He rifled through the cards in the crate, and pulled one out. The photo was rather faint, but it was definitely my card. Then he wrote for a while in a huge old-fashioned looking book, to say that I had collected it. 

What a relief to have it, at last, and to know that it had not been lost or stolen. 

Perhaps, we thought, the system had changed in the months since I had applied, although it was odd that I had not received any notification that the ID card was ready. 

Yesterday I glanced in our mailbox, and saw an official letter addressed to me. 

It was, at last, the official approval of my ID card, with a notification that I should collect it within thirty days.. Dated January 15th: 

The postal system here is not great, but it doesn't usually take almost two months for a letter to arrive. Just as well that I wasn't, in fact, required to collect it within 30 days or present that document. 

After all that, we were pleased that renewing our European health cards, later yesterday morning, was surprisingly easy. We had to set up an appointment in advance, by phone, with the citizen centre.  Knowing that they sometimes require all kinds of paperwork, I gathered up everything I could think of. In the end, all they needed was evidence of our identities. So I used my ID card for the first time,  and within about five minutes we had our health cards. 

Apparently it's not just Cyprus that has all this complex paperwork and systems, however.  Coincidentally, the unit I've been doing in my Duolingo French in the past couple of weeks is about different permits, and how to go about getting various IDs - passports, residency permits, birth certificates, driving licences, etc.  And it sounds just as complicated, with forms to fill in, paperwork required, and people being sent to different offices in order to apply and collect. And - according to Duolingo, anyway - there's also a 'family record book', where everyone is required to fill in details of important dates, with copies of relevant certificates. Interesting from a future genealogy point of view, I suppose, but at least that's one thing we don't have to worry about here. 

 

Continuing to itemise my grocery shopping

 During January, I uploaded photos of most of my grocery shopping, and summarised at the end. I wanted to know how long I could go without buying anything other than fresh fruit and vegetables, and whether I could avoid anything ultra-processed.  The reason was that there's increased awareness of the dangers of eating too many ultra-processed foods. And while there doesn't seem to be any absolute definition of what constitutes an ultra-processed food, the working definition is anything that contains ingredients that one would not normally find in a regular home kitchen. 

I've never bought a lot of ultra-processed products, in part because many added ingredients are migraine triggers for me. What used to be a nuisance turns out to be a blessing, if it's true that artificial nitrites are carcinogenic, and that everyone should avoid additives such as MSG and artificial sweeteners.  Of course there are other problems with the western diet - too much sugar, for instance, and too much red meat. But very often they go together: for instance, deli meats are often from pork, and contain ultra-processed additives. Some sweets have no valuable nutrition, containing nothing other than sugar and additives. 

I continued taking photos of shopping this month, for my own interest, but I won't bore readers with uploads of everything. Suffice it to say I spent rather more, since several things had to be replenished. We did more entertaining in February, too, and I had used up most of the meals that I had prepared previously and frozen. 

I continued mainly buying fresh fruit and vegetables.  But in addition, during the first week of February, I also bought:

800g chicken mince
2 x 800g chicken breast
800g chicken thighs
1kg pangasian frozen fish
4 x 70g pots of tomato paste
1kg Greek yogurt
2 4-packs of toilet paper
2kg wholegrain bread flour
1kg sugar
1kg white cake flour
500g oats

On the first Friday, we went to Lidl, mainly for canned 'wet' cat food.  We were fairly restrained - we didn't need any more chocolate, for instance - and this is what we bought:

In addition to cat food we bought coffee, washing fluid, soap, frozen beans, large lentils, frozen salmon, more frozen pangasius fish (as it was on offer), and - yes - our first possibly ultra-processed product of this year, Alaska pollock fillets in breadcrumbs.  I had read an article online from a reputable source (though I can't now find it) which said that, while we should in general avoid anything highly processed or ultra processed, there are some foods which are beneficial in other ways that we shouldn't boycott. They included jarred pasta sauce (so long as free of nitrites or colourings), wholegrain bread, ideally with seeds, and fishfingers.  We're all supposed to be eating more fish, after all. We don't generally eat fish fingers, but we do like these breadcrumb-coated fillets, and the ingredients list isn't too bad. So they were included in our Lidl shop. 

I did not, however, buy any puff pastry - something which is good value in Lidl - and I experimented with a flaky pastry recipe using hard vegan spread [bought in December], to make spanokopita. Rather more work than using ready-made puff pastry, but I was able to use half wholegrain flour, and it turned out pretty well. 

The following week, as well as lots more fresh fruit and vegetables, I bought some cartons of juice, some small jars of spices to replenish ones we were running low on,  some cartons of passata, a bag of dried red lentils, frozen peas, frozen broad beans, and a box of twelve free-range eggs. 

In the second half of February, I bought another kilogram of Greek yogurt (I do like on my breakfast muesli; it's my one regular dairy product), two 300g tubs of 'planton' vegan yogurt, a bottle of apple cider vinegar, and some coconut oil. 

We went to Metro, for the first time since Christmas, as I wanted to buy some more dry cat food; once again we were mostly quite restrained, and this is what we bought:

Cat treats as well as dry 'Brekkies' food, some white cleaning vinegar, some malt vinegar for cooking, two jars of instant coffee (another thing I have to admit to liking, though I know it's not considered real coffee by many), pineapple chunks, brown basmati rice, a rather large bag of garam masala, but I haven't been able to find it in smaller quantities, two cans of coconut cream with minimal additives... and some mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is processed, maybe ultra-processed, but I haven't been successful in making it, and it's a lot of hassle. And we don't eat a lot of it.

We made another nut shop visit, too, and bought our standard nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc, as described last month.

The following week, as well as yet more fresh fruit and veg, I bought another kilogram of wholewheat bread flour, and one of white bread flour. I also bought a bag of cornflour, and another processed product: a pack of digestive biscuits. I use them from time to time to make various desserts, and don't like to run out. But I'm going to look for recipes, to see if I can make something equivalent to keep in the freezer.

So, rather more 'extra' products this month, but the only ones that might be considered ultra-processed are the breaded fish, the mayonnaise and the digestive biscuits.  Given that reports state that, in most western countries, over 50% of the food eaten is ultra-processed, I'm not too worried. 

Construction in the Salt Lake Park

When our sons were younger, we liked the Salt Lake Park for safe bike-riding, though we didn't go all that often. When visitors came with young children, we would sometimes go, too; there was a nice little playground. However, that was demolished many years ago and now the park mostly seems to be used by dog-walkers. 

On early morning walks with my friend Sheila, we take different routes to the Salt Lake trail, depending on where we meet in between our houses. And, fairly regularly, we go through the park - also known as Patticheo Park - as it has a path that takes us to the trail. 

Construction in the Salt Lake Park

It's more than two years, now, since we were aware of something happening in the Salt Lake Park. I took this photo early January 2024:

Evidently something was about to happen. I found an online article which talked about a huge development, with a nature centre and a park and a restaurant. Here's the official announcement about it: redevelopment of the Pattichio Park area. Spelling of names in Cyprus can be somewhat variable, which is why this article calls it Pattichio. I've seen Pattichion, too, as well as Patticheo. 

I don't know when that article was published, and note that it doesn't give any details about the expected completion. Online newspaper articles seem rather difficult to find, but I had seen one which mentioned early 2025 for completion, and another which said the end of 2025. There was a haiatus, when environmentalists pointed out some problems with the potential plans; I'm not sure if that was before or after the article above was posted. In any case, construction paused for a while, and then resumed.

At least, something started happening. This is what we saw in May 2024: 

Gradually, more paths started to emerge, mostly quite attractively edged with stones. Some of them are quite steep, and seem to wander in random directions, but clearly something was being done. Slowly, and somewhat unpredictably, but there was progress.

In December last year we were startled to see this odd-looking metal construction near the entrance:

It went up over the course of a few days, and we discussed what it might be. There's a similar one near the other main entrance. 

It's clear that things are happening, although they all seem a bit random.  Early in February, we took a detour before joining the Salt Lake trail.  Here, for instance, is a pile of gravel:

Here are some new paths, currently fenced off:

This is evidently going to be a new restaurant... eventually:

Here are some steps going to a stone plinth:

No idea what this might be:

A view of the bridge, which was started well over a year ago, and which has at least some planks to stand on, but no way to get to it. We're not sure where it's going, or what it might be joining:

Back to one of the side trails... evidently more construction is happening here:

And here's a deeper hole, fenced off, and stopping access to the path:

We wondered whether there is an overall plan - we assume there must have been.  But are all the contractors working to the plan?  Are the measurements exact?  It seems that so many parts of the park have the beginnings of something, but nothing is finished.  If it all works as it should, then eventually it will all join up, and make an interesting place to walk.  But at present it all seems very confusing, with only random progress, some of the time, on one or two areas.

On February 19th, it appeared that the strange metallic structures were going to be painted grey. But we were puzzled as to why they were only partially painted:

A few days later, we saw a truck nearby, with a young man evidently about to start painting some more. We asked what the metallic structure was, but he had no idea. 

And his paint was brown. So the next time we went to the park, it was back as it was when we first saw it: