End of August, out of Cyprus

I was planning to blog almost every day while out of Cyprus, but somehow the last week has flown by. So just a few highlights instead.

On Monday, which was the August bank holiday, we decided to go and visit a garden centre a few miles away, just to have an afternoon somewhere different. It was a pleasant place:

We hadn't been there long when Richard said, in some surprise, 'Wow! There's an optimist!' I looked around, wondering who he had seen. Was it, perhaps, a girl in a skimpy sundress, quite unsuited to the grey skies? Or maybe an elderly man pushing an enormous trolley, planning to buy huge numbers of plants.

No... it wasn't in fact an optimist he was referring to, but an Optimist. A small dinghy. Right in the middle of the garden centre:

We have no idea why it was there, other than to make the place considerably more interesting to Richard.

Thus - well, apart from about three games of Scrabble - ended our time in Sussex.

On Tuesday we drove up to Birmingham, making a brief diversion to High Wycombe to drop something off. We stopped for lunch at a service station we had previously rejected because it advertised a kind of coffee that Richard doesn't much like. However it turned out to be a sort of food court with several possible places to eat - we were tempted by three or four kinds of sandwiches, all good value. Eventually we opted for this:

The baguettes were extremely good, and I think the coffee would have been good if we'd had it in crockery cups. We didn't realise until part way through eating that we'd bought our lunch at the take-away section of a shop that also did coffee in proper cups. Unfortunately take-away cups always seem to taste rather plasticky.

By mid-afternoon we were in Birmingham, re-united with Tim.

On Wednesday we spent the day in Alcester, where we played four games of Rummikub among other things.

On Thursday Richard had a meeting with the new Trustees of his organisation, where he had a surprisingly good experience with a local bank. Meanwhile I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of reminiscing and laughter with two very good friends whom I've known since my teens, but have not seen much of for some time.

In the evening, we played our first game of Settlers of Catan for over a week. I think we must have been in withdrawal after all that time.

It was a good game; Tim won eventually but nobody was far behind.

Then at last Friday dawned, really the most important day of this UK visit, the one around which we planned our travels. Our goddaughter Emma was married to Jon, in a lovely ceremony at St Germain's Church:

It was followed by a reception at Rowheath Pavilion, which felt a little strange as it used to be almost home territory for us. The Pavilion housed both the toddler group and playgroup that our sons went to, twenty-plus years ago, and we walked through the park every day when they went to school.

The park looked much the same as it ever did, although the trees were perhaps bigger:

A week of board games

If the previous week was a week of beaches around Larnaka, I think this past week would have to be categorised as a week of board games.

Yes, if you thought that board games were just for small children, you are mistaken! I grew up in a family that enjoyed games at weekends ... mah-jong being a favourite, with the occasional Scrabble, and a few card games such as Canasta. As adults, we continued playing games together when we gathered. And, naturally, we introduced our sons to games at a fairly early age, continuing into the teenage years. Rummikub was probably our family favourite.

In the past few years we have got together, a few times, with friends who enjoy Scrabble evenings. My strategy has improved significantly; I'm not particularly competitive, but enjoy the challenge of getting the best possible score out of my hand, whatever it happens to be. Playing online at Facebook has also helped, of course!

But it's only in the past four months or so that we've started to enjoy playing Settlers of Catan, which seems to be quite a 'cult' game in various parts of the world. We heard, only yesterday, of people who play it avidly in Egypt. We first came across it when Daniel introduced us to it, on the Doulos. Tim has a set, and plays with friends in Birmingham. And we now play with Jorn and Sheila, new friends who live just a few minutes' walk away.

Last Sunday, we had a Settlers evening. We finished the first game by about 9.45, and - for the first time - decided to play a second. Possibly a mistake, since I'm not a night owl (and, indeed, I was extremely tired on Monday). To our surprise, Richard won that second game; his first win in Settlers. There's some luck in the opening placement order, and more in the throw of the dice, but there's also a lot of strategy. Evidently we are improving.

On Monday afternoon, I went over to the same friends to play Risk with the three older children and Sheila. I'm not a huge fan of Risk, although I can remember playing it late in the evening with friends when we were in our twenties. I don't really like the idea of world domination... and everyone seemed to find it amusing that I apologised when I took over someone's country in the game.

Risk is mostly luck, and I was very lucky in my initial cards, which gave me most of Africa, and other countries nearby. I was also lucky in that siblings like to attack each other, and mostly left me alone... so that within about an hour, only two of us remained in the game. I was much stronger, so would probably have won, but couldn't face the thought of another half hour or more of dice-throwing and gradually taking over the world, so I suggested we declare a draw.

On Thursday evening,we went for another round of Settlers. Yes, that's twice in one week! But the evenings in Cyprus summers are hot and humid, so we don't want to go for a walk or do anything else energetic. We don't watch TV, and I can't manage watching more than about one DVD per week, at most. Sitting at our separate computers is fine sometimes, but we don't want to do that every evening, so an evening out with friends playing a game is a great way to socialise without being too active.

To my utter amazement, I won the game. I was so surprised, I took a photo of the final board:

My pieces were the orange ones. I had five settlements, two cities, the longest street, and an extra point from a development card. It was a very strange layout, with resources grouped together mostly. I remembered a hint I'd read, to ensure some clay... and as I was the first to play (by lucky throw of the dice) I did exactly that. Evidently a good hint.

Then last night, some other new friends decided to hold a games evening, with seven adults and six older children. We chatted for the first part of the evening, then got organised into two games of Rummikub, and one of Scrabble. I played Scrabble, and managed to win by a few points... it was a good game, and again I was lucky with my tiles. As well as having had a lot more practice than the others playing with me!

We didn't leave until about 9.45pm, by which time our hosts' youngest child had dozed off on the floor with their dog....

Playing Scrabble

I've always enjoyed board games. Well, some of them. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Monopoly. Or games of pure luck such as Ludo or Snakes and Ladders. Nor do I really enjoy two-player thinking games like Chess or Mastermind, although I used to play them from time to time. I was even in charge of the Chess Club at my high school for a while, MANY years ago, though I'm not entirely sure how that happened.

I used to play board games with my siblings, and then when we had children of our own we played games with them, too. The word game Probe was popular for a while; in their later teens we played Mah-jong from time to time, and Rummikub fairly often. One year we had an ongoing Rummikub tournament to see if one of us really was the best player, or if it evened out over time. (In case you are interested, it was Daniel. Without any shadow of doubt. I still have the score sheets! In 2002, we played forty games in total. Daniel was first, with 633 points. I was in second place, with minus 74...)

Now our boys are grown up and have left home, you might think we play fewer board games. This is far from so. We have learned some new games in recent years (Settlers of Catan being a current favourite) and we have also found some Scrabble-playing enthusiasts. This in addition to playing extensive games of both Scrabble and Lexulous on Facebook with various people.

On Friday evening, our friends Mark and Joan (from the USA) came over for a meal and a couple of games. Joan also plays on Facebook, but our husbands don't. While there is, evidently, some luck in the tile distribution, there's also a great deal of skill in word placement. We play in a fairly co-operative kind of way, with a full two-letter word list printed out for all to access, and allowing each other to look up words before playing them in the Official Scrabble Words book. We also sometimes point out better placements to each other, if someone could make a much better move, and then allow them.

Online, it's quite common to score 'bingos' - the Facebook word used for using up all seven tiles in one move. But then on Facebook we have plenty of time. Sometimes I only make one move in a day. Not that I spend the rest of the day thinking about it.. but there's no time pressure. Playing 'live' is more difficult, even though we don't enforce any time limits as such. By the last round of the game, there had not been any seven-letter words. I had the word 'polite' in my hand, plus an N. I noticed a U and wondered whether UNPOLITE was a word. I didn't suppose it was (the reverse of 'polite', after all, is 'impolite'. But I looked it up anyway. To my surprise, it existed. Even more surprising, nobody took the space I wanted to use.

So I played a 'bingo' and also ended the game, as there were no tiles left, with UNPOLITE. And then took a photo since I don't think I can ever remember finishing the game with a bingo:


Since nobody exepcted me to go out, there were a few high-scoring tiles in hands, too, which counted against them.

Then we played another game, and Tessie decided to advise Mark on his moves:

It seemed to be successful, since he achieved his ambition of scoring 100. I was lucky enough to have another bingo: 'SMOKILY'. And then we had quite a discussion on how on earth one would use that word in a sentence. Other than something like 'I scored a bingo by playing the word "smokily" ' of course. Perhaps, 'He emerged smokily from the blazing room'?

I won that game, too, thanks to the bingo (using all seven letters in one turn gives a bonus of fifty). Joan decided I had scored an A grade, and then set to work to figure out how everyone else would be graded, if using the American system of percentages. It got very complicated, so Richard pulled out the calculator on his phone to enable exact calculations...


Yes, we still have the kinds of bizarre discussions we used to have with other home educating families when there were teenagers at home...

A week with Tim home in Cyprus

The past week, unsurprisingly, has whizzed past. It is very good to have Tim home again, even though it's for such a short time.

It's been a very sociable week since I last posted. Thursday morning, I took Tim to meet some new friends who live just a few minutes' walk away. The three-year-old daughter took to him instantly and he was persuaded to read her a story. Thursday afternoon, he went out and about with Richard doing a few errands.

Friday morning Tim went into American Academy, a local private school where he volunteered regularly a year ago. He was, I'm told, greeted with great enthusiasm. He spent the morning there, including helping another friend set up a puppet show for their end-of-year assembly.

He got home about 1.30, just in time for a lunch with 12 people, for Richard's colleagues and their families.



One family stayed chatting awhile afterwards, then Tim went to visit the church group for 6-11s, followed by leading a band practice for the inter-church youth band. That was followed by a pizza/souvlaki night for the youth group, plus sleepover (which of course really means 'not much sleep-over'), then Saturday games in the Salt Lake Park and lunch. He got back mid-afternoon, shattered!

Sunday morning we all went to St Helena's Church for their Easter service, since Tim was playing the piano - lots of good old hymns, and a packed building with plenty of visitors. Then we had invited some friends to lunch, where we ate the 'spare' turkey we had kept from Christmas, and - since there was one in the fridge, still - a Christmas pudding.

The friends stayed chatting till about 6pm... and once again I was extremely thankful for our dishwasher!

Monday, Richard took the day off, and spent a considerable amount of it mending the winch that brings our shopping up to the main part of the house. It involved a lot of driving around Larnaka asking for spare parts, and being directed elsewhere. Tim was very tired and didn't do very much.

In the evening, we were entertained to a delicious meal and Scrabble game by some other new friends who live nearby:



On Tuesday morning I helped at the Tots Easter party, which was enjoyable and went well, but left me totally exhausted! Tim had thought of coming too, but was so tired that he slept for most of the morning. In the afternoon, he got the downstairs studio sorted out and set up to do some recording, and in the evening he went to Lighthouse, the Christian group for international students, and caught up with yet more friends.

Wednesday morning, some of the youth band came over and spent the morning recording vocals with Tim in the studio. Richard's part-time bookkeeper came to lunch, then Tim went back with them to spend time in the office looking at some new equipment.

In the evening we went out for an excellent meal cooked by some other friends, who wanted Tim to help with various computer issues. Ironically we found that Richard could do part of what they wanted, and I could also do some of what they wanted, so Tim supervised a little and helped to mend a flute that was lying around...

And so the week disappeared.

This morning Tim got up late again, and we went out to lunch with the new friends he met for the first time last Thursday. Very enjoyable indeed.

I don't seem to have got a great deal done amidst all the busy whirl of socialising. But it's been great to have Tim with us. He's still here until Monday afternoon, but I know the next few days will go extremely quickly.

Cyprus meze at a local taverna, and some Scrabble

Last night, we were taken out to eat at a local taverna by some new friends. After perusing the menu, we decided to opt for meze (pronounced something like MEZ-ay). This is a Cyprus speciality, consisting of about 15 or more different items, brought to the table a few at a time. It usually starts with salads, then small pieces of different sorts of meat, vegetables, the ubiquitous chips (aka french fries), pasta and cheese, and more.

We knew, from previous experience, that meze meals tend to be HUGE. So suggested that we just order two mezes rather than four. This was fine with the waiter - he said that we could always ask for extra individual dishes if we wanted more.

The food was excellent, and as we expected, it kept coming. Even with just meze for two, we couldn't manage it all.


Afterwards we went to our friends' apartment to play Scrabble. I have recently been playing a lot of Scrabble on Facebook, where of course there's a button to check whether or not words are valid. Moreover, it's possible to try out several possible moves to check what the scores would be, and there's usually at least 24 hours to think about each move, if one wishes to.

Richard hadn't played for a couple of months. And for some reason, he confused it with Rummikub at first. He was supposed to start... he glanced at his hand, said he couldn't go, and picked up another tile from the bag!

I pointed out that he didn't need to make thirty points, he just needed to make a word of some sort over the centre pink square. So he did something I have never seen before:



Yes, he had both blanks in his initial hand, and used them both in his opening move!