Family in Cyprus again!

It's only three months ago that we had our family all together for a few weeks; Tim has moved back here for a year or two while Daniel and Becky came for a holiday.  We had a good time, tinged with sadness at the end when my mother died. We then had a busy week in the UK, much of it with the family, but did not really expect to see Dan and Becky for some months.

While they were here in May, Richard had hoped to film a couple of episodes for a pilot video series which he has been thinking about for several years. Daniel was going to be the sound recordist/engineer. But there were too many delays and problems, so that in the end all we managed to do was spend a day in the mountains looking for suitable locations. 

Then one thing after another conspired to put the project off until at last it all came together for the first half of August.  

Except that there was nobody to do sound. Richard was directing and had found a local guy to do the camera, and his young friend Jacob to assist... but could not find anyone able and willing to do the sound. So he asked if Daniel would be available, and realised that the funding for the project would allow flights to be paid for... and hoped that Becky would come too, as stills photographer. 

It all came together, very much at the last moment. They were in Germany working at a conference until almost two weeks ago, and when they arrived in Cyprus on August 4th they were exhausted. 

They had few days in the sun, with plenty of time to sleep, and - naturally - a few games of Settlers of Catan - here shown with our friends Jörn and Sheila:

They had two busy days of filming with Richard in a school in Limassol, disguised so that it would not look Cypriot. They reported that it mostly went very well, although it was quite tiring. 

Then a week ago, an old friend called Reti was in Cyprus, so came to dinner followed by a game of Dixit: 

We followed that with a few games of Ligretto, but that's so fast that there was no way I could take a photo!

Tim, meanwhile, had been working all week at a church holiday club called Kingdom Rock; he roped Daniel in to play drums on the Sunday morning for the end-of-club service at LCC: 

This week the filming days were Monday and Tuesday; despite having looked at a large number of villages, they ended up using part of Lefkara (with permission from the mayor). Here's Daniel... though I have no idea what he might be doing: 

The days raced by. We did play a few other games; we hung out; Daniel and Tim helped Richard with some computer installations and discussion about various geeky/technical topics.  I found it quite amazing that although Daniel went off - seven-and-a-half years ago - to work as a deckie on a book ship, mostly around the Far East, and Tim went off - five years ago - to do a theology degree in the UK, both have also kept up-to-date in the general media and technical world, and now often know more than Richard does on some of these topics. 

Last night, Tim went to a party for some of his old friends from the inter-church youth group, and the rest of us decided to have ice cream at Richard's favourite place in the McKenzy area of the sea front. We were a little put off by the garishness of the plastic chairs (although they were quite comfortable) but the lure of real fruit yogurt ice cream was too strong for both Daniel and me, while Becky had a coconut/chocolate one, and Richard a dairy-free fruity one: 

Afterwards Daniel and Becky took their flip-flops off and waded just a little way into the sea: 

All good things come to an end; they're now packed and will be flying back to the UK tonight hoping to spend at least a few weeks in their home in Carlisle.  But first, just a few more games - and Becky was eager to play Mahjong again: 

It's been great having them here and we're going to miss them. 

Ten days into February....

Sometimes the days and weeks go by so rapidly that I forget to write about them. I start to take my life here in Cyprus for granted, forgetting that, to those elsewhere, even the smallest details can sometimes be interesting. (Or not. But I hope that those who find my anecdotes dull will not be reading this anyway...)


So, here are a few photos from the past week... representative of my life in general.

Last Sunday, our good friends came over mid-afternoon, as they do every other week. We gradually evolved a schedule whereby the children take it in turns to choose a DVD to watch (out of a carefully controlled selection of appropriate ones) and the adults hang out and play board games. Often it's Settlers of Catan, but last Sunday there was a visitor who was not familiar with it, so instead we played a low-key round of Dixit.

Our friends don't have a television, so watching a film is a twice-monthly treat for the children. We don't suppose it does any harm, but it's still a bit shocking how quickly they become mesmerised by the screen: a 'plug-in drug', indeed:

Two-and-a-half-year old Elisabeth is actually not yet very interested in films or television, so she usually comes to join us, and plays happily with spare game pieces.  After the film and game we have a cold meal together. Well, mostly cold. I make a couple of loaves of bread during the day, and during the winter I also make a big pot of soup. They usually leave when the children are ready for bed. 

On Monday last week I hosted the monthly meeting of the Larnaka Christian Writers' group: only four of us were there, as others were away or unable to come, but I think we had a good morning. In the afternoon I did email, some online writing, caught up with our accounts, and paid some bills. 

On Tuesday mornings, I usually walk for an hour or so with my friend Sheila, first thing, then walk to the fruit shop.  After breakfast and a shower, Sheila and her youngest three come over for a couple of hours to play.  Elisabeth has been intrigued by Lego since she was far too small for it (officially) - now she loves to play with the little people, getting them to wave to each other, or talk, or ride horses... 

She often tips the entire box of Lego people on the floor, but is extremely good at putting them all away again when it's time to go. 

Tuesday afternoon I do more writing and reading, usually. Then in the evening we set up a game of Settlers-by-Skype with our son Tim, who lives in the UK. We've been doing this long-distance game-playing sporadically for over two years now, but this is the first time we tried it using the television to show Tim's face:

Wednesday is my day for changing our sheets and pillowcases, and cleaning upstairs, and I often do a bit of cooking too. I had to make a new batch of lemonade on Wednesday; happily, some friends had dropped off a large bag of lemons from their tree a few days earlier, so I didn't have to buy any. I made another batch of coconut milk, too; we get through about two and a half litres each week. 

We're both getting over bad colds that we had over Christmas - the colds have gone, but the coughs linger.  It's not a huge problem, mostly, but does mean that my energy levels are not as high as normal. So just doing a bit of cleaning and cooking took up most of the morning.  In the afternoon a friend came over to borrow books and we chatted awhile, then I did a bit more writing, while it rained outside for most of the time. 

On Thursday morning the sun was out and most of the rain had dried up by the time Sheila and I went for our walk. There was quite a big puddle as we approached the aqueduct:

I liked the reflection when we got a bit closer: 

It felt almost as if spring were coming. March is, supposedly, 'yellow month', but the relatively mild temperatures and rain seem to have brought the wildflowers into bloom earlier than usual: 

Here are some more of them growing by the side of the trail:

The area around the Salt Lake has been growing gradually greener as winter has progressed. This, I think, is about the greenest it will ever be:

After the walk - we did the whole 8km - I went to the fruit shop, did more housework, more writing... and the day flew by like all the others.

On Friday evening our friends flew out of Larnaka, to Germany via the UK and then on to Costa Rica to visit some unofficially adopted relatives. We will miss them, as will this blog.  I didn't do a Salt Lake walk on Saturday... I hope I will, at least a few times while they're away, but without the motivation of a friend to meet I may just lapse back into inactivity. 

End of the Christmas season, and an empty nest once more

When Tim decided, a few months ago, that he would come to Cyprus for nearly four weeks over Christmas and the New Year, we all hoped he would have a good break after working and studying hard all term. We had hoped that Daniel and Becky would also be joining us. However, as I wrote in a post about families, Dan and Becky went early to the Logos Hope and spent Christmas in Hong Kong, and Tim had a nasty accident shortly before the end of November, leaving him almost immobile for a while and in a lot of pain.

When he arrived, mid-December, he was limping and using a crutch, although happily he was able to discard that fairly soon. And while there was a lot of rain - not the warm sunshine Tim had hoped for - his first ten days were, I think, relaxing. We certainly enjoyed having him here, and I very much appreciated him on Christmas Eve when Richard and I were trying to recover from a nasty tummy bug. 

Then Tim himself caught the bug, rather badly, and was out of action for a couple of days. We all went down with nasty coughs and colds, perhaps due to having lowered resistance, and Tim managed to fight off an ear infection... I was pleased to get out for a walk, the Saturday after Christmas, though still coughing... and we all decided we were well enough to go to our friends' house for home-made pizza and some board games on New Year's Eve: 

This shows Tim learning the game 'Torres' which is about some castle ruins being restored. He did pretty well and liked it very much. 

At the other end of the table some serious Rummikub was happening: 

However, by about 10.15pm Richard, Tim and I were all tired, and decided that we would not make the effort to stay awake until midnight. So we came back home and I think I was asleep by about 10.30, sleeping right through the fireworks which unfortunately kept Tim awake for most of the night. 

We didn't do anything much on New Year's Day, which was fine... we kept coughing and feeling weak, although we did manage to entertain two couples for an evening meal on the Thursday evening. It was very enjoyable, but, alas, that night Tim managed to develop a second bout of the tummy bug. Not fun.  Still, he bounced back rather more quickly, if gingerly, only to manage to jab his finger quite badly while helping Richard with some electronics.  

While all feeling rather tired and convalescent, we nevertheless managed to play several games of Agricola, the new game Tim bought us, and which we all like very much indeed: 

On Saturday Richard and Tim went to see the first part of The Hobbit at the cinema; I was feeling pretty wiped out, so I took the Christmas decorations down and then spent an hour reading in bed before falling asleep about 9.30pm and sleeping for ten hours straight!

Sunday was busy, Monday was mostly quiet. Yesterday was the last day of Tim's holiday. He had planned to go out for a walk but the sky was grey and the temperatures dropping, so instead he stayed in and read Dr Seuss's famous story about racism to my small friends, here for their usual Tuesday morning:

Their sister Katie, meanwhile, who has become a fluent and avid reader in the past year, was devouring some of my old Enid Blyton books: 

In the afternoon we played one more Agricola game - now using the cards which make it all the more complicated, but more interesting too - and in the evening a round of Cities and Knights. It was a strange game, which Tim suddenly realised that he had won, quite resoundingly: 

So he finished his packing, and we all set alarms on our phones, because he had to be at the airport for about 6.30am. Not early for me, but when I set my alarm I tend to wake a few times in the night - so I'm remarkably tired today. 

Tim had checked in online, so we didn't have long together at the airport. We sat down for a few minutes after he had dropped off his luggage - a seasoned traveller now, he managed to pack exactly 19.8kg by good judgement - and looked at these slightly incongruous balls hanging from the ceiling. Presumably Christmas decorations which somebody had forgotten to take down .Or maybe they couldn't find a suitable ladder: 

Tim pointed out that I had forgotten to take my usual photo of him wheeling luggage into the airport. So I took one of him sitting with his hand luggage, waiting to go and board:

'So, Mum,' he said, 'I'll expect a new blog post featuring this photo by the time I get home'... 

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

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

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

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

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

My brother won, just pipping me at the post. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She won them both. 

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

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

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:

Tuesday evening games-fest II

It's nearly eight months since my good friend Joan and I, in the temporary absence of our husbands, held a five-hour 'games fest' evening. It so happens that this week, once again, our menfolk are away at the same time. So we thought we might try a re-run.  Not that it was quite the same... for one thing, I knew I would not be able to walk even as far as the local Souvlaki Express.  I thought I had bruised my toes badly three weeks ago. The advice and observations of various knowledgeable people, combined with the rather slow healing process, suggets that two of them were in fact broken. So I'm not walking anywhere at present. 

Joan offered to pick up some halloumi souvlaki (if that's not a total oxymoron...) on her way.  And since we'd both eaten lunch early, we ate that at once, while it was still hot, along with some rather spicy and delicious falafel which she had also bought.  

Then, not sure what we would play, I got down a selection of our games:

Joan suggested starting with Bananagrams, as it was at the top of the pile, and is a pretty non-competitive game that would get our brain cells going.  So we did this one, where I think I finished about half a second before she did: 

Followed by this one, where Joan was about two seconds ahead of me. I photographed this upside-down (as it was her grid) and rotated it, which is why it looks a bit odd:

Joan wasn't too sure about RUSED... I thought it was probably all right. It wasn't until posting it right now that I spotted NAJ. I'm decidedly dubious about that word... !

Here's my grid done at the same time, with the last two letters that I hadn't quite had time to place. I think I had more than my share of 'tricky' letters, although the two Qs were in my starting tiles, along with a U, so not difficult to play:

Then we did one more, and as far as I recall finished at exactly the same time:

Brain-cells now functioning, Joan asked about Boggle - a game I hadn't played in years.  So we did a few rounds - I think it was five in all. 

The timer didn't seem to be working so we just stopped when we'd both decided we were getting bored (or repeating words). As far as I remember, I won all the rounds - not that it mattered. 

After that, we switched to Upwords. Yes, a third word game - and this time, it was Joan who was the winner.  Quite interesting, really, that different kinds of word game must still use different kinds of skills, tactics and strategies. 

Here's our second game of Upwords, which Joan also won:

We did consider Scrabble, but we play Lexulous online anyway. We decided not to play Rummikub, since Joan's husband, who is not much of a game player, is usually happy to play it. So we decided to try a round of Settlers of Catan. It was just after 9.00pm by then and we thought it might be the last game of the evening. 

We were just placing our first settlements when my other good game-playing friend Sheila texted; we'd suggested she join us if she was able to get out, and she wanted to know if she could come.  So we removed our settlements and waited until she arrived.  A three-person game is more fun than two-player anyway, as it involves trading.  

This isn't the most flattering photo of either of them, but for some reason it's the only picture I took with faces in: 

Sheila won.  If she hadn't done so that turn, Joan would have done. I was trailing. 

It was a good game.

By then it was 10.00 and I was beginning to get a bit tired, but we thought we might play a quick game of Dixit  - something that isn't possible with only two people. The three-player rules looked as if it would make the game faster than playing with more people, and Sheila hadn't played before. 

I got so interested that I forgot to take any pictures during the game, other than this selection of cards:

It wasn't that quick. Shortly before 11.00 Sheila's husband called to say that the children were all fine, but that it was rather later than she had expected to be... we were a couple of turns away from the end by then. 

Sheila turned out to be extremely good at Dixit, and won - she was about three or four points ahead of Joan, who is also very good at it.  I was so far behind that they almost lapped me on the board. I'm not sure if it's just that my creativity is a different sort, or whether my being strongly a morning person (and thus mostly closed down after 10pm) meant that I was even worse than usual. It was fun, anyway.  

I was in bed by 11.30...