A visit to Ikea

 As may be clear from other entries in this blog, I am not, in general, a fan of shopping. With the notable exception of bookshops, of course, and some thrift/charity shops. Grocery shopping is a necessity, but my preference is always to walk to a small local mini-market or froutaria than to have to spend time in a supermarket. 

I have rather mixed feelings about large stores like Ikea. I very much like some of their furniture, and many of their prices are excellent. They used to issue annual catalogues which I would sometimes flick through, although they were organised by room rather than by style of furniture, so I found them a bit confusing. 

We were quite excited when the first Ikea was opened, in Nicosia. When we first visited, early in 2008, we were able to find some bookcases we liked, and various other items. Since then we've made a few visits - usually when going somewhere else in Nicosia anyway.  One of our favourite things to buy at Ikea is their classic 'billy' bookcases;  I wrote a lengthy post about buying billies at the start of 2024. 

A few more additions to our house...

In this, the tenth anniversary of our selling our UK house and buying one in Cyprus, we have done a LOT of renovations and repairs. Some of them should really have been done years ago, including repairing some of our rotting windowsills and frames, but we're not very good at making decisions or at getting around to this kind of thing.

So we started by employing a teenage friend to some painting, and he did such a good job that he's done a great deal of sanding, repairing and more painting, and even some plastering.

In the middle of that, we had a damp-proof course installed. While it's still early days, and hard to tell now that the weather's warmer, we do think our guest flat seems to smell less damp and the kitchen and bathroom cupboards are a lot less musty.

Then we did the most major work of all, having our bathroom renovated. I'm still glad I was out of the country while that was going on, and am very much appreciating the new bathroom. It was basically complete about a month ago, but since then we've done a few extra bits and pieces - I bought a wooden toilet-roll holder in the UK, and Richard put that in.

We replaced the bathroom bin and loo-brush holder, both of which were ancient, and even bought some new scales when Lidl had some on special offer.

We spent a lot of time looking for towels, either in cream or peach, but couldn't find any at all despite searching in several shops locally.  The towels we had been using were ten years old and getting rather scruffy as well as having lost any hint of fluffiness. They were cheap ones and served us well, but having spent a significant amount on the new bathroom, we thought it deserved new towels.

We also realised that there was a bit of a gap in the corner next to the toilet, and that we needed somewhere to store toilet rolls. So after much pondering, we decided to buy another Ikea unit, in the same range as our sink cabinet and mirror.

The shelf in the middle clearly needed a plant, so we spent ages looking for one that would survive in partial shade and would not need too much attention, and are happy to report that, four weeks later, it's not just alive but has some new leaves:

Any time we go to Ikea - which is just outside Nicosia - we seem to find several other things we weren't expecting to buy... and in this particular trip, we found some rather nice brown towels, both large bath sheets and some hand towels that would fit perfectly on our towel rail...

... and even a matching bathmat.

Bathroom complete, we didn't want to do anything else major, but we realised we had a new problem. For the last few years we have used an upright fan in our bedroom overnight, from about May through to October.  In the hottest weather, when the humidity is high, we use our air conditioning too, but right now the heat is dry, and a fan is all we need.

The trouble with the fan was that in order for it to be effective, it had to be in a place where Richard tripped over it or bumped into it almost every night. So he thought about affixing a wall fan in a corner, out of the way. I don't think wall fans look particularly nice and didn't know if it would work well enough, so for a few days recently we put the upright fan on top of the chest-of-drawers, and angled it with a couple of books underneath... far from ideal.

The obvious solution is one we had thought about ten years ago... a ceiling fan. We even bought one at Kleima, but it had the wrong kind of fitting so ended up in our guest flat. We had thought that nice ceiling fans, such as we have in our living areas (bought second-hand just before we moved in, from friends leaving the island) would be very expensive new.

But Leroy Merlin, a big hardware/DIY store in Nicosia (not far from Ikea) sells ceiling fans at very reasonable prices. So we went there yesterday, and bought ourselves a ceiling fan, of very similar style to our others. It's perhaps twice the price of an upright fan, but the ones we have elsewhere have lasted well over ten years, whereas upright ones tend to stop working after three or four.

Richard and Tim, between them, put the ceiling fan up yesterday afternoon....

I think it looks good - and more importantly, it was absolutely wonderful overnight. I felt pleasantly cool, Richard even complained of being cold this morning.

As I write this, the ceiling fan in my study is on, providing a pleasant breeze; they are wonderful inventions, and I am so thankful we now have one upstairs too. 

Family, friends, fun and farewell...

Daniel and Becky were here for a little over a fortnight; they arrived on a Friday night, and departed last night. We heard a couple of hours ago that they are, at last, safely back in Carlisle. Having visitors staying is always good, but of course we particularly love having either of our sons home; for Daniel, this was his first visit since he and Becky got married last year.

I already wrote about their first few days in Cyprus, and about our visit to Nicosia. But, as so often happens, time started to go faster and faster and suddenly the two weeks had vanished. I didn't even remember to take many photos - much of the time we were hanging out, chatting, or playing games. We watched a few episodes of Doctor Who (series 2) which we enjoyed, and we also watched DVDs of both Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia 2 and 3 respectively) which we had not seen before. 

Daniel wrote a post about their time here on his blog too. 

We played a couple of games of Seafarers of Catan (Fog Island), something Richard and I only rarely play on our own as it requires quite a bit of setup. Becky said she had never won a Seafarers game; it turned out that she'd only played it once or twice, but she managed to win the first game we played together during the past couple of weeks:  

Naturally we played a couple of Settlers games with our friends Jörn and Sheila too, at their house, one of them on a particularly cold evening where we wrapped up warmly... and Becky won: 

We even managed a five-player Settlers game with Tim on Facetime (similar to Skype): 

We had a microphone set up over the middle of the board, with the stand carefully balanced by a low-tech coolbag: 

We played a Cities and Knights game, too, which had such an interesting initial setup that I took photos and wrote about it on my Settlers blog, but didn't take any pictures of the people concerned. 

We wondered how the cats would cope with Daniel and Becky staying downstairs in our guest flat; somehow, it didn't seem to worry them. We're not sure they even really noticed, as they continued sleeping on us at nights. But they were all happy to see Dan and Becky whenever they appeared in the morning. Here's Tessie looking at some of their wedding photos with them: 

Daniel, who is something of a coffee geek, decided that, while he was in Cyprus, he would buy a little pan for making Cyprus coffee. Not something I like at all, but Daniel is quite keen on what's known as a 'medrio' - one spoonful of finely ground coffee, and one of sugar, brought to the boil slowly: 

The first time he did it, I was fascinated by seeing the bubbles around the edge (an important part of making Cyprus coffee) which formed an almost perfect square around the middle. But when I took these photos, they made something closer to a pentagon: 

The first few times Daniel made a medrio, he used some small cups we happened to have. But I went to the Thrift Shop on Saturday, when he and Becky were out sailing with Richard, and saw some quite tasteful little Cyprus coffee cups and saucers which were very inexpensive. I also saw several less-than-tasteful ones... but decided that Daniel would not appreciate those.

This really doesn't show the scale, but is what the little cup looks like: 

Here it is with the medrio inside, and the saucer below: 

And here is Daniel, waiting for the coffee to cool a little. Note the glass of water, an important adjunct to Cyprus coffee: 

These photos show better just how tiny the cup is.  Sophia joined him while he drank it: 

Becky wasn't feeling great on Sunday, and Daniel wasn't too well on Monday, which was their last day in Cyprus. However, they wanted another game, so we set up Seafarers (Fog Island again) once more:

Here's how it started: 

Daniel won that game - just ahead of me. Either Daniel or Becky has won most of the games we've played while they've been here! 

But, as the cliche goes, all good things must eventually come to an end. After the game, we ate an early evening meal, then took them to the airport. Being actors, they decided to pose for the camera: 

Happily, they let me take a nicer photo as well: 

We drove home feeling a little empty. We don't know when we'll next see Dan and Becky; of course it's great to keep in touch with email and Skype (or equivalent) but there's nothing quite like having people actually here. Living in Cyprus, there are a lot of goodbyes, and they only get a little easier with time.

A few hours in Nicosia, crossing the border at Ledra Street

Becky hadn't been to Nicosia, and Daniel - who had been there, many times, during his teens - wanted to walk down Ledra Street, the border to the North that was opened to the public back in the spring of 2008. So as Thursday was forecast to be a sunny day - for a change - and we had nothing else happening, we drove up to Nicosia late morning.

We didn't take a map, but Daniel and Richard both have a great sense of direction, and we soon arrived at Ledra Street, which is a fairly typical small pedestrianised road full of shops. I was a little surprised to see a Peacocks store - I almost forgot that we were in Cyprus:

And of course we sighed when we saw the ubiquitous Starbucks and McDonalds:

Still, the clear blue skies, fruting orange trees and occasional Greek shop names did remind us that we were, in fact, in Nicosia: 

I think something must have got lost in translation with this shop, 'Pull and Bear':

At last we reached the area which used to be boarded up, with armed guards ensuring nobody crossed. It didn't exactly look very enticing:

We had to take our passports to some rather bored looking officers in booths, and get our free visas which are on separate pieces of paper. Fortunately we didn't have any counterfeit or pirated goods with us...

Just in case we had any doubt as to where we were, this helpful sign reassured us:

There was a great deal of graffiti, random signs, and 'occupy buffer zone' posters in the short area between the South and the North:

At first, things didn't look too different in the North - there were jewellery shops galore, a surprising book shop full of old hardback British books (and some others) and a coffee shop, the only difference, of course, being that signs were in Turkish rather than Greek:

However it all quickly started looking rather run down and generally unkept. Not really a good way to entice tourists to explore and spend money. We wondered about having lunch somewhere in the North, but didn't see anywhere particularly appealing.

At least the sun came out again, for a while:

We didn't really have any planned route - we wandered around, and came across a church that was being restored, slightly to our surprise:

By this time I was feeling distinctly hungry... only to discover that we were lost. Richard and Daniel did manage to take us in the direction of the border, but of course there are only a few places where it can be crossed. Cyprus mobile phones don't work in the North, so Richard could not use his GPS, but we managed to find a useful sign:

Well... it wasn't that useful; we found ourselves in a covered market, with no way out, and had to retrace our steps. But eventually we found ourselves back on the Northern part of Ledra Street, much to my relief. We had to show our passports twice - once on leaving the occupied North, and once on re-entering the Republic of Cyprus.

It was strange, but as we walked back into the South, it felt as if an oppressive cloud lifted from the top of my head.

I was surprised and pleased to spot a Holland and Barrett, newly opened - but a quick perusal of the prices showed that it's still better value to order online from the UK:

By the time we reached the small café which Richard knew of, it was nearly 2.00 and I was excessively hungry. We had a good lunch with halloumi and salad, then walked around a bit more looking at the various tourist shops. However the afternoon was starting to get a bit chilly, so, rather than doing any more sight-seeing, we returned home to Larnaka. 

Renewing a British passport from Cyprus

My current passport expires in the middle of November. I have been aware of this for some months, but knew that travelling in April would be fine - as there was more than six months left. However, I realised that I needed to have it renewed before our planned trip to the UK in the middle of October. In April, I did briefly check whether I could get it renewed while we were in the UK, but the cost seemed high for 'quick' options, and there did not seem to be any guarantee that the 'regular' option would return the passport to me in time for my return trip to Cyprus. Moreover, it seemed like a waste to lose the last six months of validity.

A pity I did not investigate further, since apparently up to nine months of remaining validity can now be added to new passports.

Moreover, it is even more complicated than it used to be to get a passport renewed while in Cyprus.

Previously, such as when renewing Daniel and Richard's passports over five years ago, we went to the British High Commission in Nicosia, with photos, passports, and filled-out forms. Someone would then glance over the paperwork, ensure that the photos were good enough and satisfactorily endorsed, and then send it all away. Typically it would take less than two weeks, after which time we could call to check whether it was ready, and return to Nicosia to collect it.

So, during May and June I didn't think about it too much. During July I forgot about it entirely, with Tim visiting. August is typically holiday month in August with many businesses and organisations closed down, so I assumed we would renew my passport early in September.

Yesterday I thought I'd check the High Commission website to see the opening hours and costs of passport renewal.

To my surprise - and horror - I saw that passports can no longer be renewed in Cyprus. Instead, they have to be sent to a regional processing office in Spain. It can take around four weeks from the time when the fee is processed, it costs considerably more than I had expected, and they warn people not to book flights until their new passports arrive.

Oh dear.

When Richard arrived home, I told him about this, and he said that it's not even legal for courier companies to carry passports over international borders.

What to do??

It turns out that many couriers do in fact transport passports even if it isn't legal, including the better-known ones. It also turns out that there is an application form which can be downloaded and printed, and filled in to send with the passport. I was in panic-mode, which tends to make me freeze up, incapable of anything, so Richard did this, and even filled the form in, tellling me exactly where to initial and sign.

This morning we went out to get photos taken. There are no passport booths in Larnaka, as far as I know, but we've previously used a good photographer who didn't charge much. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the place where his shop used to be, it was no longer there. So we went a little further, and found a photographer shop.. but it was closed. Perhaps still on August break.

Thankfully we did manage to find yet another shop - Photo Jimmy - where we were told that yes, they did passport photos. It was a lovely Cypriot small shop, with a child wandering about, several adults engaged in different activities, and seats for us to sit on.

We had to wait a while until the photographer was ready, then she took about five or six different shots before getting one that she was happy with. Conscious of the instructions about British passport photos I had to stay serious; not a hint of a smile is permitted. I was a bit puzzled that the photo was taken with a green background, but that was soon changed by the young woman sitting at the computer.

We had to wait a while longer while the printing machine was cleaned - by the photographer and the guy whom we assumed to be the owner - and were then asked if we wanted four or nine photos. Since I only needed two, we asked for four. They printed some, then came to check the dimensions. Richard had printed out the full, detailed instructions about passport photos including 'good' and 'unacceptable' variations, so they double-checked, ,and then printed some slightly smaller versions. When done, we measured them and they were exactly correct.

We were charged 7 euros for the photos, which seemed like good value to me, given the amount of time spent by so many people - and the owner even gave us the slightly-too-large versions free as they were obviously of no use to him. So we gave him the printed instructions, which were no longer of use to us, but which could be helpful for producing passport photos for people who don't know the rules.

This afternoon Richard is asking a banker friend to endorse one of my photos, and he will then take the envelope with documentation, passport, payment instructions and photos to one of the courier companies to take to Madrid. I just hope it arrives back more quickly than expected, so that we can book flights to the UK for the middle of October.

In all it's going to cost over 200 euros for my passport to be renewed, which is rather a shock to the system, but if we think of it as 20 euros per year, it's not so bad.

What did give me pause for thought, however, was realising that the next time I need my passport renewed, I will be 61...

The Mall of Cyprus

On Saturday, we decided to go to Ikea in Nicosia. We wanted some blackout blinds; particularly one for Tim's bedroom. About six months ago, our neighbours had their house repainted on the outside. One of their improvements was a couple of movement-sensing lights. Unfortunately, they're extremely sensitive and switch on any time a car goes by. And Tim had a balcony that overlooks these lights. With french windows. So his room was getting lit up brightly at random intervals through the night.

Next to Ikea we had noticed, on previous visits, something called 'The Mall of Cyprus'. It hadn't really occurred to us before, but there really aren't any malls to speak of in Cyprus. Most shops are outside - the weather is usually good, after all - and although malls are popular in Asia, and America, and parts of Europe, they hadn't appeared in Cyprus.

Until now.

So we thought perhaps we should have a quick look, just for the sake of research and interest. Not that it's huge, by any means. This is what it looks like upstairs:


And there's a mall-map, just as one would find in any Asian mall, except rather smaller. Even many of the same shops - such as Next and Starbucks.


There was also a fairly large Carrefour.

That morning, our citrus juice extractor gave up the ghost. It had been making unpleasant graunching noises for a while, so I wasn't surprised. It has been extensively used, although it's not quite two years old, but it was a very cheap one.

So we had a look at the electrical section, and found a Braun juicer that should meet our needs. And one or two other rather useful items....

We didn't need a trolley, but there's one of those useful escalator-ramp things that will catch hold of a trolley, should one need it:


Then we went to Ikea. We found blackout blinds, and - as always - various other bits and pieces.

A successful morning, in all. I don't like shopping much (though Richard does) but when we manage to find all the things we wanted, and a few others that we hadn't realised we needed, it feels like a satisfactory trip. Even though I was totally shattered for the rest of the day!

A digital piano

When we sold our UK house last year, and had some 'change' (so to speak) from buying the house here, one of the things we said we would buy was a decent piano of some kind for Tim. He's at around Grade 8 level now, and the piano he's been using for the past nine years is rather old and needs a lot of work. It can't be tuned to concert pitch, and it has to be treated somewhat gently; difficult when his teacher gives him music that is supposed to have very loud sections.

Moreover, the old piano is downstairs in our guest flat, in a location that suits it perfectly. But on a cold day Tim doesn't necessarily feel like going downstairs - via an outside staircase - into a room which isn't heated. (There is central heating available in the guest flat, I hasten to add, in case any potential visitors are reading this; but we don't switch it unless someone's staying). And when there are visitors staying, the flat might be warm and welcoming, but Tim likes some privacy when playing.

So... we did think about getting a nicer regular piano. But: (a) good ones are pretty expensive (b) getting one upstairs would NOT be easy (c) we couldn't figure out anywhere to put one in the main part of the house.

So we started looking at digital pianos, which look and sound nicer than keyboards, but are lighter and less tall (and less expensive) than regular pianos. Tim visited several shops in Larnaka and Nicosia and played a large number of keyboards and digital pianos last Autumn. At first he didn't think he would find anything he liked.

But we had heard that Behringer were bringing out a new and inexpensive digital piano that was supposed to have wonderful new technology and a sound like much pricier pianos. They were supposed to be available last summer.

They weren't.

They were supposed to be available in the Autumn.

They weren't.

Then we found the Kawai shop in Nicosia, and Richard took Tim there last October. Tim was pretty impressed with one of their digital pianos, but thought he would like to wait to try the Behringer before making any decisions.

In Singapore visiting Daniel in November, Richard and Tim visited several music centres, wondering if they would have the Behringer piano. Unfortunately, they only sold Yamaha, and Tim isn't keen on the 'bright' sound of Yamaha pianos.

So when we got back, Richard phoned the Behringer supplier in Nicosia, who said he hoped there would be a digital piano on the next shipment.

There wasn't.

We decided that if the Behringer piano hadn't come by the time our first visitors of the year arrive (half-term in February) we would go ahead and buy a Kawai. Richard phoned the Behringer supplier yesterday, and he said that no, there won't be a piano in the next shipment (due mid-February) though he hopes it might be on the one after that.

We were going to go and look at the Kawai centre yesterday afternoon, leaving Larnaka at 4.40pm... but fortunately I suggested Tim phone them to check their opening hours. Most places in Cyprus are open till at least 6pm, but it turned out to be a good thing he called as they apparently close at 5pm.

So we went today, instead, which was probably better as Richard was pretty tired yesterday after a long week of meetings and four air flights.

As it's this side of Nicosia, it took less than half an hour to get there. The shop was basically a warehouse full of pianos of all shapes and sizes. Most of them were real pianos, but there were some digital ones, including the one Tim was interested in. He played it for a while, and said that yes, it was really just what he was looking for. It sounded pretty good to my untrained ears. So we went and chatted with the owner, a very friendly guy, who said he would drive it to our house immediately at no extra charge.

However when we saw that they were going to tie it on the back of an open truck, with no packing - not even a cardboard box! - Richard thought it might be better to get it in our car. It was a bit difficult, but we succeeded. Then Tim and Richard had to lift it up our stairs, which wasn't easy either, but they made it. And here it is:


Apparently Tim's piano teacher doesn't really approve of digital pianos, but this doesn't particularly worry him!

The reason we couldn't have a real piano is that it would block the light from the window (behind the curtains in the picture), and also a piano really needs to face a wall for the sound to be right. Tim prefers to face into the room.

General updates

Richard's been away for a week, with a heavy round of meetings in Cairo and Tunis. He got back this morning, pretty tired but otherwise fine. He's brought some rather bright material from Cairo to use in the studio room downstairs, which he's going to soundproof. Possibly this weekend since there's a stack of fibreglass padding lying in the kitchen, and a load of other clutter, and we have someone coming to stay next week...

We told him about the new Argos and decided to go and peruse the catalogue in the shop itself. It really looks nothing like a British Argos store - no little booth things to check catalogues, no obvious system for ordering or for products to be produced. Just a table in the corner with a couple of ladies chatting in Greek, and a friendly dog roaming around the store. Then there were a few stacks of merchandise, some of which didn't look at all like Argos products.

But the catalogues were the new Autumn/Winter 2006 ones, and they said we were welcome to sit at another table and browse. We asked if they could get all the products easily, and they said that they had some here, and there are more at their main store in Nicosia. But if we want items that aren't already in Cyprus, it will be a 4-6 week wait, and if we want furniture it will be a two-month wait.

Ok....

We found some lightshades we liked, and decided to order those. We looked at mirrors but didn't see any we really liked. We browsed various other things - the catalogue is so much nicer than the online search facility - but decided in the end just to start with the one small order, and see how long it really does take.

Having made the order, we were given a free catalogue to bring home, so we can browse more at our leisure. They also gave us a free sunshade thing for the car windscreen (something we'd been looking out for but hadn't found) - advertising some completely different company.

I'm not sure that Argos will catch on at all in Cyprus .. but it will be interesting to see what happens.

Next we went to the Thrift Store to see if there was a suitable bedside table for Tim. We'd seen several last time we were there. This time there were only a couple of possibilities, and he didn't really like either of them. He says he doesn't really need a bedside table. However we did find a nice mirror and also a much better watering can than the one we had already. That's how shopping often seems to work here: we go looking for one thing, and find something completely different that we couldn't find when we were looking for it.

A Midsummer Night's Dream in Kourium

Kurium is one of the best-known tourists spots in Cyprus, complete with an ancient amphitheatre and some quite well-preserved mosaics and parts of old temples. When we first moved out here, nearly nine years ago, there was an annual Shakespeare performance in the amphitheatre, and we went to see a couple of them.

A few years ago Kurium was closed for a lengthy time, for renovations. I'm not sure when it re-opened, but for various reasons we had not been back since the re-opening, partly because it's around an hour's journey away and many of our guests have been already.

But this year, our church house group decided to go and see 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' which is this year's production, and booked tickets for Saturday night. Trying to sort out the logistics of getting twelve people there in the minimum of cars took an unbelievable twenty minutes of our group on Friday.. but we all got there, about half an hour before it was due to start.

We were impressed to see that it seemed very well-organised, with stewards telling us where to park, and a shuttle bus taking car passengers up the hill. The amphitheatre isn't that far from the entrance - about a ten-minute walk - but at 7.30pm it was quite warm and humid, and we didn't want arrive hot and sticky.

There's a new visitor centre, the mosaics have been covered to keep them away from the sun, and there are safety guards at the edges of the amphitheatre. All very tastefully done. We were impressed.

We found seats, armed with cushions (sitting on stone for lengthy periods is NOT recommended so we had brought our own - but could have hired some at the entrance) and immediately loved the look of the set: mainly green, with a trampoline disguised as a pond.

The tickets said that the play would begin at 8.00pm prompt... we wondered if it really would, but were not surprised that it started at 8 o'clock Cyprus time, ie about 20 minutes late. A couple of people were adjusting lights at the last moment, so perhaps there were technical problems.


When it started, the amphitheatre only seemed around half-full, but more people drifted in even after the opening. It probably seats around 3,000 or more at full capacity, so even half-full there was still quite an audience.

The acting was not as brilliant as that in the play we saw on Thursday, but then it was not a professional cast. The main characters did well, including some who did not have English as a first language, and we thought the costumes excellent. It was certainly much more colourful and visual than 'As you Like it'.


After the opening scene in which Hermia is ordered to marry Demetrius, or die, there's humour in the form of some village workmen planning a play. Bottom the weaver was superbly cast, and really carried much of the show. The man cast as Thisbe in the workmen's play was also very good.
It's a story I know well - we must have studied it at some point in my secondary school days, since there were three or four speeches which I found I could recite in my head almost word perfectly along with the cast, much to my surprise. The amphitheatre setting meant that sound carried well, so even the more quietly-spoken members of the cast could easily be heard.

Some children from a dance and theatre school played the parts of fairies, well-choreographed and confident, using the trampoline effectively to give the impression of flying on and off stage. Unfortunately by the time they appeared, it was getting dark and photographs of movement from a distance, with longish exposure don't really work.

Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the fairies, were clear and quite imposing, but perhaps the star of the show - or sharing the honours with Bottom - was Puck, played by someone who looked and sounded like a teenager. He gave exactly the right impression of a slightly mischievous sprite, with constant movement and a lot of humour.

All in all, very impressive.


Apparently 24th June is Misummer's Day, or so one of our friends told us. I thought it was June 21st, but she told me that's the first day of summer. By that reckoning, June 27th should be the last day of summer, but while the UK sometimes has little more than a week of true summer weather, we're only just at the start in Cyprus. By the time the play finished, around 11pm, the air temperature was pleasantly cool (around 20C/68F) although rather sticky. This time we did not wait for shuttle buses - we could have queued for hours - but walked back to the cars. Downhill at night was no problem.

I was almost asleep on my feet by the time we finally got home, and almost freaked when I discovered I was sharing the bathroom with the first live cockroach of the year. Ugh. I had seen three dead ones in the house in the last couple of weeks, but those are easily dealt with. This one must have got in the window while we were out. Thankfully, Richard dealt with it.

An afternoon in Nicosia and a cultural evening

It started when we learned that the Bristol Old Vic theatre school were doing a tour in Cyprus, showing Shakespeare's 'As you like it'. Their Larnaka performance is this Saturday, at Theatre Antidote and we would love to have gone to see it. However we had already booked with our church house group to go to Kourium, to see - oddly enough - Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Nights' Dream' on Saturday night.

But, since there was a Thursday night performance of 'As you like it' in Nicosia, we decided to go to that. Tim likes Shakespeare but hasn't seen many live performances (well, neither have we...), the Old Vic company have a great reputation, and Richard and Tim wanted to visit a couple of other places in Nicosia anyway. The prices weren't even particularly high. So after lunch yesterday, we filled up with petrol and drove to Nicosia.

The car air-conditioning is just about working, but it's not very effective and I was partially in the sun all the way, so it's a good thing that it only takes about 40 minutes to get to the outskirts. We wanted to look in the Super Home Centre store first and reckoned it was big enough that it would probably be open all day, rather than closing for a couple of hours over lunchtime for siesta, as most shops do. Sure enough, it was open so we spent half an hour wandering round. Unfortunately there's something about the lighting in that shop that makes me feel queasy after more than about twenty minutes, so we didn't hang around.

We were hoping they might have some good beds - we've promised Tim a new bed when we move house -but the choice was limited. Nor did they have any bookcases other than veneered plastic-looking ones, and rattan - attractive, but not very big, and the cats love to sharpen their claws on rattan. They didn't have any widescreen TVs, and their general choice of kitchen appliances etc was slightly worse than those in Larnaka. Nor did they have any curtains. We did see some quite nice rugs that were machine washable, and may consider those when we've actually moved, but we didn't buy anything.

Then we went across the car park to another store called Mega-Mart, which turned out to be not very mega at all, although quite interesting. It had an eclectic mixture of ornaments, lighting and furniture, plus kitchen bits and pieces, crockery, and so on. There were some very attractive country style wooden bookcases, but the prices were unbelievably high.

Tim wanted to visit a couple of music shops, as we're considering getting an electronic piano rather than buying the piano we've currently borrowed. He would really like something at concert pitch and has been impressed with some electronic pianos recently. They'll never be quite as nice as a good quality real piano, but then we don't want to pay several thousand pounds! His keyboard is actually good enough for him to do future exams on (it's a full keyboard, fully weighted, touch sensitive, etc) but that's going to live in the 'studio' room in our guest flat, and we'd like a piano of some sort in our main living room. Behringer are apparently bringing out a new electronic piano in a couple of months, which is excellent value, and has an action which Tim particularly likes. However as it's new, he doesn't know what it will sound like or whether he will like the feel of it, so he's considering other options too.

We hunted for the Kawai shop in vain. The address was from a three-year-old Yellow Pages, so perhaps they've moved. We did find Nakas, [NB most of their web-site doesn't work in Firefox, unfortunately] but they were closed for siesta, re-opening at 4pm, and it was only quarter to four when we arrived. We didn't plan to sit around outside in the excessive heat (despite Nicosia being distinctly less humid than Larnaka, it's usually even hotter) so we went on to look for the Mitsubishi showroom to check what they had second-hand, since Richard's looking for a four-wheel drive car to use for work, and also to have a rather better vehicle than our current 17-year-old Lancer.

By then I had already had enough of shopping, so I stayed in the car and read - thankfully I had remembered to pick up the book I was currently reading - while Richard and Tim had a look at what was available. They were pleasantly surprised to find prices much better than they had expected, although there isn't a huge choice of used cars. Once we've moved and settled in to our new house, they may return for a test-drive.

We returned to Nakas, and Tim tried out their least expensive Clavinovas, but wasn't impressed. The better specification ones cost several thousand, so we're not considering those.

Since we still had plenty of time, Richard suggested we look at one of the new indoor shopping centres. After some driving around (Nicosia is a sprawling city, very confusing for visitors) we found it. It looked just like a British indoor shopping centre, even down to a multi-storey car park. Rather a good idea in Cyprus since it meant the car was parked out of the sun! There was a big Orphanides there, where we bought some juice and water, although as it was all on one floor it seemed huge. I prefer the Orphanides in Larnaka where there are three storeys.

Most of the other shops in the centre seemed like typical shopping centre places... SockShop, various small clothing boutiques, a stationer, and so on. Boring. Next-door to Orphanides there was a home furnishings shop, but I couldn't face another shop by that stage. Richard loves shopping even when not planning to buy things (I know this is supposed to be a female trait, but in our family it's the other way around) so he wandered around that, while I sat on a convenient bench and read some more.

The only two places to eat in the centre were McDonalds (which we never go to - ugh) and Pizza Hut, which was tempting - but as Tim is not eating any dairy products, that was no good. So we left and drove for half an hour (how can any city be so huge?!) and found a Goody's. Richard and Tim had club sandwiches with chips (Tim carefully removing his slices of cheese) and I was pleased to find there was a salad bar, so I had a large bowlful with quite a variety including an excellent tuna/pasta salad.

Then we drove to the Russian Cultural Centre, which we found very easily as it's marked on the map, after slight confusion when we saw that it's Greek name was the Russian Political Centre. There was a large foyer with a lot of paintings on the walls and some comfortable chairs. The doors to the theatre opened at 8pm and we were glad to be early, as it meant we could get good seats near the centre. By 8.30, it was pretty full and it only started about five minutes late - not bad for Cyprus!

There was a minimalist set, no backdrop and no curtains at the front of the stage. Twelve actors were involved, most of them taking more than one part. We were entranced almost immediately, and very much enjoyed it. The seats were nowhere near as comfortable as those in Antidote Theatre, but there was a break of about half an hour in the middle, when about half the audience rushed outside to smoke! We were horrified when we first came to Cyprus, to realise how prevalent cigarettes are, but at least they're now banned inside theatres and cinemas.

The second act didn't begin until about ten o'clock, by which time I was pretty tired - I usually get up about 6am, and am NOT a night-owl - but I managed to stay awake. I was somewhat irritated by two people behimd me who started chewing gum during the second act... a disgusting habit, with loud chomping and smacking of lips. So rude in a theatre! I thought it must be teenage boys, and was quite shocked when the play ended, and the house lights came up, to realise it was two nice-looking American ladies who must have been in their sixties! However by covering one of my ears I managed to block out most of the chewing noises and concentrate on the play, which continued to be excellent, including some very well-performed songs and a couple of short basic dance routines.

All in all, highly recommended. There's only one more performance in Cyprus (the one at Theatre Antidote on Saturday) but they may be touring elsewhere. Advance booking recommended.

By the time the play had finished, it was 11.15pm and I was nearly asleep on my feet. I sat in the back of the car and must have dropped off almost at once, since it felt to me as if the journey home took no more than ten minutes!

It occurs to us that we've been out more in the evenings in the past week than we have for many months. Youth group variety night last Friday, music school concert last Saturday, Famagusta service on Sunday, theatre in Nicosia last night, and theatre in Kourium (just beyond Limassol) on Saturday. When we arrived back, Sophia greeted us very noisily, informing us in no uncertain terms that she was NOT impressed at our being out so often, or so late!

A trip to the North

Since we seem to be over half-way through the packing, we didn't do much more on Sunday. Instead we sorted through a lot of old paperwork, retrieving the few important receipts and other items which we needed to keep, and putting all the rest for recycling. Richard packed some more of his tools, and I packed a box of empty box files and jiffy bags.

In the afternoon the three of us had agreed with some friends from our housegroup to drive to Famagusta, in the North of Cyprus, to attend a lively mostly African Anglican church whose (English) minister we know. The service starts at 5,30 approximately (African time is even more flexible than Cyprus time!) and the journey is about 45 minutes, so we left in a convoy of three cars at 4.30pm. Despite living here over eight years, I had never before been to Famagusta. It's only in the past few years that it has become relatively easy to visit the North, but as the closest checkpoints are three-quarters of an hour away, it's quite a drive, so not something we would tend to do often.

Unfortunately there was a lengthy stretch of road on which we were all stuck behind a rather slow driver, so by the time we reached the border it was 5.20pm. There was no queue, but since we don't go regularly to the North we had to buy car insurance for the day - a hefty £15! A whole year's insurance for travelling in North Cyprus is only £45; the two other cars with us go more often, and had taken out annual policies. Had we thought about it, we could have squashed into one of the other cars for the extra five minutes' drive on the North side. Oh well. It only took a couple of minutes.

I was interested to see two flags waving at various places around the checkpoint. One was white star and moon with a red background, the other red with white background, exactly the same but in reverse. Apparently one of them is the Turkish flag, the other the flag for North Cyprus.


At least the visas were free - just a routine stamp on a piece of paper for Brits. Although as we bought the insurance, a coach pulled up with 35 passengers, and the driver got in front of us to get all the necessary stamps. Moreoever there were four students who had come in the other cars with us, one from Cameroon and three from Nepal, and their visas took slightly longer. So by the time we finally left the checkpoint, it was about 5.35.

Still, we only had a few minutes' more driving to get to the church, and then a couple of minutes' walk. We got there just before quarter to six. The church was originally Greek Orthodox, and was comandeered when the invasion happened in the North in 1974. It's now owned by the Anglican church, and is a peaceful place. Not that it seemed peaceful when we went in, since there was a fairly loud African singing group accompanied by keyboard and drums, heavily amplified, singing some worship songs for which I simply couldn't work out either the rhythm or the words. Tim wished we had arrived earlier since he loves that kind of music, but as the volume was almost at my pain threshold, I was rather glad we didn't! There was about ten minutes remaining of this music - and then an informal fairly typical Anglican service, with the singing group leading quieter songs from 'Mission Praise'.


We spoke briefly to a couple of people we knew there on the way out, then went with the friends we had come with, to a restaurant, about five minutes' walk away. I was interested to see that Famagusta looks like any tourist resort, with a mixture of old buildings and modern shops and banks. The Northern part of Nicosia (where I have been previously) looks very run-down.






I had expected the restaurant to be inexpensive - where we had been previously in the North, food was extremely good value. We hoped we could buy a sandwich or something, as Tim had cooked us a full roast meal at lunch-time. But, alas, this restaurant had discovered tourism and the ability to charge high tourist prices. It looked lovely - very modern and with good service, and I was impressed that glasses of fresh water were given to everyone at no cost. But we decided to eat when we got home rather than pay over the odds for a large meal we didn't want. Some of our friends had ice cream or other drinks but we didn't stay long.

Returning was quicker - just a couple of minutes at the checkpoint to show our visas and passports, and no slow drivers to delay us. An interesting experience, but I don't think we'll be going often. Some of our friends in Larnaka go to this service a couple of times a month, but driving for nearly an hour to get to church seems rather extreme to us.

Weekend

On Saturday morning, Richard and Tim drove to Nicosia to collect some microphones Richard had ordered for his PA system (several weeks ago - but things don't generally happen rapidly in this country). Tim bought a sustain pedal for his keyboard, something he had been looking for, so he was pleased.

Meanwhile I attempted to cut the 'grass' at the back of the house, only to have the lawnmower stop working after about ten minutes.

After an early lunch, Richard went to meet our sailing friends and his mirror dinghy - bought back in September last year - finally had its maiden voyage.

I didn't go, thinking it would be chilly sitting on the shingle and that one of our friends would be in Richard's boat. In the event, Richard started on his own and did so well that our friends simply sailed their boat alongside - and took some photos. It was a pretty calm day, so not too difficult.

In the afternoon Tim was playing his keyboard for a 'ladies' tea' organised by the Greek Evangelical Church at one of the restaurants downtown. A friend from youth group was playing violin with him for half an hour, and he was also accompanying a singer from the GEC. I gather it went well. He got back about 6.30, had a quick bite to eat, then Richard drove him to a friend's house where some of the Youth Group were gathering to play 'Risk'.

Since Tim was out, we went out for a meal - to Alexander's, an open-air restaurant by the sea-front that's inexpensive and usually good quality. Also very quick, and they nearly always give us something 'on the house' at the end. This time we had some hot chocolate as we were feeling distinctly chilly. Partly because of the weather (although we were under a cover with a heater keeping it reasonably warm) and partly because we indulged in some rather delicious ice-creams...

On Sunday was the 'celebration' service for the end of the '40 days of purpose' campaign (which I wrote about in this post). It was the last one in Antidote Theatre, so the last time Richard had to load up his PA system at 8am ready for a 10.30am service. The service wasn't bad - the children did a few items and we were particularly impressed with one or two in a drama sketch who (we happen to know) attend Antidote classes.

Unfortunately the question about the future, church-wise, is still open and rather stressful. I'd pretty much decided it was right for me to continue attending the Community Church, at least for a while. Richard is much more unhappy about all that has been going on, and doesn't want to go there at all. Last night we talked for a long time about the pros and cons, going round in circles as one does in a late-night conversation, and I was horrified to find it was 2am by the time we finally got to sleep. All the worse because Richard had agreed to take some friends to the airport for 5am, so had to set his alarm for 4.30, and naturally I woke up too. Then Sophia, our cat of schedule, insisted on waking me up as usual at about 7am. I suppose I had about three hours sleep in all, so felt pretty exhausted all day.

I spent much of the weekend working more on my home education site - a time-consuming task trying to ensure all the pages match, and that links are up-to-date. I still have to wade through a couple of years' worth of emails to find those which asked me to include other links or sites... and I haven't finished the basic simplifying yet. I hope later this week...

Pre-Christmas schedule

I quite like it when Christmas is a Sunday. It feels tidy, somehow. A week beforehand, there's no weekend to get in the way. Not that shops close on Sundays in December any more - Cyprus becomes more European each year - but we try to make Sundays a bit different in general, and don't rush around doing things.

The first Christmas event was on Friday, with the inter-church carol concert. This is the third year for Tim as pianist in this concert, and this year he organised most of the music too. Thankfully someone else did the final directing and the conducting on the night, and it all went well, but it's been a stressful few weeks. Dan played clarinet although as he was right behind Tim he can't be seen in this picture:


On Saturday there was an extra Christmas performance of 'The Little Man's Best Friend' by Theatre Antidote although it was really last year's show. Dan plays clarinet in this, so we took my mother along to see it. It was a busy day for Dan because an hour earlier he did a ten-minute 'slot' at the church children's party: juggling, with a Christmas message. According to everyone who saw him it went very well, although he wasn't quite sure what he was going to do until he got there!

In the evening Tim was playing the piano for an outreach Christmas service at a club in Oroklini, one of the villages not far from Larnaka; Richard and Dan went to a birthday party for one of the Antidote people. It was quite late, and isn't really my kind of thing, so I stayed here.

On Sunday our church had a family carol service. We used this year's Scripture Union service, which had plenty of participation from adults as well as from the children. I was supervising some small 'angels' from my under-7s Sunday School class. I had also downloaded and copied angel templates for everyone to tear out, and they were hung on strings around the church. None of us were quite sure how that would work, and it was rather chaotic - but quite effective.


There was a humorous story about a little angel too, with congregational participation, a song by the children, and plenty of carols and readings. Almost reminiscent of family services back home at Christchurch, Selly Park. I very much enjoyed it, and others seemed to as well. Afterwards there were a huge number of refreshments available, many of them left over from the children's party the day before.

Tim was playing the organ for the morning service at St Helena's. That was an ordinary service but in the evening they had their service of lessons and carols (only seven lessons rather than the traditional nine). Tim sang in the choir for that - a small and fairly informal choir - and read one of the lessons, so I went along with my mother. There were refreshments after that too, mostly mulled wine and mince pies.

Meanwhile Dan was in Nicosia all day, as there was another performance of 'The Little Man..' there in the afternoon.

Then this morning both boys went carol-singing around rest-homes in Larnaka. Actually they weren't singing: Tim was playing his keyboard, and Dan his clarinet. The singers were some of the choir from Friday, and a few others. This afternoon Dan's in Nicosia for his last clarinet lesson before leaving in January for the Doulos, and Tim hopes to do some Christmas shopping before his last singing lesson of the year.

Tomorrow we'll try to buy the last two small presents for the boys first thing, then there's not much more happening (other than stage combat and drama for Dan all afternoon and evening) until they attend a party in the evening. On Wednesday Richard's colleagues and their families are coming to lunch, on Thursday Dan's in Nicosia yet again, and there's a gathering for the Antidote folk and families in the evening.

On Christmas Eve the boys will be playing for carol-singing at hotels, and the rest of us spending the evening with friends. On Christmas Day itself, after church, we're having two families from Limassol over to lunch...

Oddly enough I feel pretty well-prepared at this stage. Rather worrying, really as I'm usually rushing around in a panic a week before Christmas. I do need to ice the cake at some point, and make some more mince pies, and perhaps some fudge and other sweets. But the cards are posted, the tree is up (we did that yesterday afternoon) with the family presents around it, and the freezer's pretty well stocked with soups and other kinds of cake and various other bits and pieces we might need.