Out of Cyprus in August

At the start of July, I wrote a longish post about preparing for summer in Cyprus. And that's the routine I followed, more-or-less, during July. I finished our 2024 photobook and had it sent to our elder son's home. I went out for a short walk early most mornings, around the block or to the local shop. And we ate different combinations of salad dishes as our main meal most days. 

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary in a fairly low-key way. It was too hot and humid to eat out anywhere, so we ordered food from our favourite Lebanese restaurant. It's theoretically a meze for two. It lasted us nearly three days.

On July 28th we finished all our leftovers, cleaned the fridge, packed our cases... and in the evening, our friend Sheila drove us to the airport for a break in the UK.

Summer in Cyprus. Again.

 I have probably written about summer in Cyprus more than anything else in the past twenty years since I started this blog. And while I've started another couple of posts in the past few weeks, both are awaiting further developments before I can finish them. 

So, in the absence of anything else which I can write about today, here's yet another post about how summer crept up on us this year...

During May, I switched from jeans to shorts. I stopped wearing sweatshirts. We moved from our thin duvet at night to a duvet cover only, and then, by the end of the month were using just a flat sheet as a cover. I started using 'cold' water for showering; it doesn't really get cold in the summer, and the tepid, not-quite-lukewarm temperature of the water that has been in the outside tank is perfect for me. 

We cleaned our guest flat air conditioners at the end of May. We were expecting guests early in June, and wanted to ensure the air conditioners were available for them if they felt uncomfortably hot. We are at least somewhat acclimatised, and don't turn them on unless the room temperature exceeds 28 degrees. It had not, as yet, done so. 

However, by the first Friday of June, the forecast was for weather approaching that milestone. So we decided to go ahead and clean our upstairs a/c units. There are four on the main floor, and three upstairs; it took us perhaps forty minutes to complete the job. The house was pleasantly cool for a little longer, since they have to be run as cool as possible for ten minutes or so after using the cleaning spray.

Some of them, Richard said, looked fairly dirty inside. So next year we'll probably get them professionally cleaned. Assuming, that is, we remember before doing them ourselves...

Since the humidity was still low, I decided that it was an ideal day to start the annual curtain-washing. Up to 2013, this was an essential chore, and should probably have done more often than once a year. One of our cats, Tessie, used to spray. She was female, and spayed, but apparently it's not uncommon. Some of our books on lower shelves suffered, as did the curtains. As the weather got hotter, the smell in the curtains became more potent.

Tessie vanished twelve years ago, but I've continued washing the curtains almost every year in May or June. Cyprus is quite dusty, and I always like the fresh scent that permeates the house after washing curtains and drying them outside.  I say 'almost every year' because last year we flew out of Cyprus to the UK mid-June, and the curtains didn't get washed. After two years, they definitely needed doing. 

We have quite a few curtains, and I can usually fit three at a time in the washing machine. Everything I hung out on the line was dry within about an hour, so the washing machine was on almost continually, that day, and the following day too. 

With the curtains taken down, two or three at a time, I saw how dirty the windows were. It's unlikely to rain again until September or October, so I cleaned all the windows, inside and out. 

Along with curtains, I also washed the covers of our wheat bags, and the thin blankets we use when watching DVDs in the winter. When dry, I folded them to pack away in an airtight bag. We've learned from experience not to leave things like this unsealed, as they attract not just dust, but moths, and potentially other undesirable insects.

Since the weather wasn't yet too hot, I continued my early morning walks with my friend Sheila. On some evenings I went for short walks locally with Richard. In the middle of the month we went to Salina Park to an advertised 'Makerspace fair', which had a lot of booths showing what kind of things are done at the centre for youth.  We were surprised at how many people were there, given the minimal amount of publicity we had seen.

We were also interested to see that the café building, which had been empty since the park opened at the end of last year, was serving coffee. We didn't want coffee in the evening, but it was good to know that it was being used. 

I knew I wouldn't be using my oven much longer, and that we would start wanting ice cream. So I put the inner container for my ice cream maker in the freezer, in preparation. 

Regular June activities included a birthday lunch for one of our teenage friends, and the local Christian writing group last meeting of the season, followed by a potluck lunch. Richard has been assisting one of the members of the group with self-publication of her book. 

We were delighted to host some other friends for a leisurely lunch on June 20th. One of them was my most long-standing friend Anne, whom I met when we were both seven. We managed to stay in touch all this time, and even met up in the UK a couple of times, a few years ago. This time, my friend and her husband were in Cyprus for a wedding. It was the other end of the island, but they made the two-hour journey to visit us, which was very enjoyable.

As June progressed, the weather was slowly, inexorably, warming up. My last morning walk of the season with Sheila was on June 21st. She was going away for a week, and it was already approaching 25C at 6.15am.  My last use of the oven for the season was on June 22nd when we had our twice-monthly get-together with Sheila and her family, and I made a cake for dessert. 

And on Monday 23rd June, we started on our summer salads. Which doesn't mean we limit ourselves to lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes all summer.  In 2020, when we knew we would be here all summer, I scoured my recipe books for salad ideas. I checked the Internet, too. I jotted down some of the most appealing ideas, and - of course - adjusted them to our preferences, and the available produce. I try to make three or four salads first thing in the morning with a balance of ingredients. At least one will have some protein such as canned fish, air-fried chicken or legumes.  

On 23rd June I prepared a salmon (canned), cucumber and avocado salad; a peach, tomato and onion salad (with 'fake' vegan feta); and a wholemeal pasta salad with sundried tomatoes. 

This was our main meal, in the evening, but we only managed about half of it. So we had the same thing the following day, with the addition of some coleslaw with a lemon juice dressing rather than mayonnnaise. 

Another example is this, which we started a couple of days later:

The protein dish at the top is chopped boiled eggs with lightly boiled broccoli and leeks, the one next to it is mushrooms, new potatoes and green beans. Underneath the egg dish is a salad with lettuce, red grapes, avocado and walnuts, and the other one is the what remained of the coleslaw, which lasted us three days rather than two. 

There was rather a lot that had to be cooked in that second example, which is why I prepare these salads in the mornings, around 6.30 or 7.00 usually. The kitchen isn't too hot at that time, and there's plenty of time for cooked ingredients to be chilled in the fridge. 

There's enough variety in the salad recipes I use that I don't have to duplicate anything for a couple of weeks, but I might do so depending on what ingredients I can easily find. Our fruit shop has inexpensive, great quality avocadoes at present, so I've bought quite a few. They keep well in the fridge, for weeks, and give a nice smooth texture to contrast with the crunchiness of some other salad ingredients.

So we're all set for the summer, I hope. First thing in the morning I walk either to the fruit shop or round the block, to get a bit of exercise. Three days a week, I then prepare salads. I'll deal with laundry or whatever else has to be done before it gets too hot, then aestivate in my study with the air conditioning set to 28C. Not that I will actually sleep. I'll work on photos (I still haven't finished our 2024 photobook, and want to order it soon), and deal with any bills, and do some writing. I'll blog about the books I read, and perhaps work on my sites. 

Temporarily out of Cyprus: last half-day in Egypt

The four days we spent in Egypt felt much longer, as we had seen (and eaten!) so much. Daniel, Tim and I were due to return to Cyprus on Monday afternoon, with a flight at 4.15pm, meaning we had to get to the airport by about 2.15.

Another friend wanted to see us for coffee in the morning, and then another couple invited us to their home for an early lunch, saying they would drive us to the airport.

All of which would have been fine, except that Daniel awoke about 4am with diarrhoea, which kept him awake for a couple of hours, when he started throwing up. Evidently he had caught the so-called 'Cairo Curse' - which seems to afflict random people visiting Eygpt. We have no idea what caused it, since we were very careful only to drink bottled water, and only to eat at good, clean restaurants. I don't think it can have been anything we ate on Sunday, since we were taken out to two very nice places, but some people get the Cairo Curse just from using tap water to brush their teeth - which, of course, we had done. I would have thought the hotel would have acceptable water, but we had one friend - years ago - who got sick every time he came to Egypt.

It was surprising that it struck Daniel, who hasn't had any kind of stomach upset in the two years of travelling around the world on the MV Doulos, but as he said, it was all part of the Egyptian experience.

So Dan stayed in bed for the morning, while Richard, Tim and I were taken to a coffee house called 'Cilantro' on the sea front. Tim and I had rather nice spiced hot apple juice (confusingly called apple cider). Our friend said his driver would take us to our other friends for lunch, which was very nice of him.

I was very glad we weren't doing any sight-seeing as it was extremely hot (over 37C apparently) on Monday. Not quite that hot sitting in the shade mid-morning with a breeze, but hot enough.

So we returned to the hotel and packed. Daniel really wasn't well enough to do anything, but we'd found some medication supposed to help this condition. Unfortunately it didn't. He felt considerably worse by the time we reached our friends' apartment, not helped by the bumpy and very crowded roads on the way.

But the great thing was - one of our friends is a pharmacist, and his wife is a doctor! So they were able to advise us on medication, and she gave Daniel an injection supposed to keep him comfortable for up to six hours.

They had ordered some delicious Egyptian pizza for our lunch, which Daniel would have liked very much if he'd been feeling better. The rest of us enjoyed them very much. It was only a short visit, since we had to get to the airport, and thankfully once we were there Dan coped - mostly sleeping or dozing, but no worse.

The flight was on time and pretty smooth, and we were all very pleased to be home again. I was a bit surprised to find it rather hotter than I expected - when we left Cyprus the previous Thursday, it was distinctly chilly. Our cat-sitter even used the electric heater a couple of times.

But Summer in Cyprus seems to have started in our absence; on Tuesday it was 32C here, which is more than I like at any time, let alone April.

This IS Cyprus....!

Cyprus is a great place to live, in many ways. The people are friendly, the lifestyle relaxed, and while I don't do well in heat, the weather is at least reasonably predictable. We love having a lot of space in our home for visitors, and it's been a wonderful place to bring up our sons.

But it's still a strange culture, in some ways. Bizarrely, even the Cypriots are aware of it. They are the ones who will shrug and say, 'This is Cyprus!' at any oddities of life. Such as crossing the road when there's a space, rather than at a pedestrian crossing.

We fly to the UK tomorrow, on the start of our seven weeks away. So here, in the meantime, are a couple of the oddities that we still haven't got used to:

Banks

I wrote last week about some problems with the Cyprus banks. Richard wrote another post about his frustrations with the banks both in Cyprus and in the UK.

Oh, and a friend of ours tried to withdraw a large amount of money to pay his children's school fees, at a branch other than his own, and was told that he couldn't do so. He thought perhaps the amount was too great for his ATM card, so tried to withdraw a smaller amount. It wouldn't let him, saying he didn't have enough money. He went to his own branch and asked what was going on.. and they said the entire amount was 'blocked'. Why? Because he had tried to take it out, but hadn't completed the transaction. And no, his own bank couldn't do anything about it - he had to get the other bank to unblock it.

Eventually the other bank did release the money, but it was very frustrating for a few days. Nobody quite knows what it means for money to be 'blocked' but it's a commonly used word here. When we pay a UK cheque into our Cyprus bank account, the money is 'blocked' for 21 days. It takes about one week to clear... but we don't have access to it for three weeks.

Compared with all that, my latest little snippet is hardly worth mentioning.

Last week, Richard went to close down the business accounts he had been using that were in our personal name, and open up new ones in the organisation name. It had only taken about two years to get that sorted.

In the process, he discovered that £38 had been transferred from our personal account to the old business account. They thought the account was going to go overdrawn by £38, apparently - and rather than letting us know, they do tend to go ahead and make a random transfer from an account that has money in it.

It turned out that the account was actually only going to go overdrawn by £6, because of a cheque book which he didn't need (yes, we even have to pay for cheque books here). So he gave them some cash to cover it, and asked that the money be transferred back.

A few days later I was working on our accounts, and checked our online statement. It showed a transaction of £35 out of our personal account, but no corresponding transaction into it. I thought maybe it would take a few days, but today I had another look and still there was no repayment. And it wasn't even the amount they said they had transferred.

Then I saw that our savings account had an extra £38 in it. That, too, turned out to be a bank transfer.

But why take it out of one account, and then pay it into another? And even more oddly, why did we apparently gain £3 from it???

This is Cyprus!

Hairdressers

For over two years now, I've been going to a pleasant girl who runs her own business on her own, very close to where we used to live. She doesn't talk too much, she does exactly what I want, and she only charges £4 despite usually working for nearly an hour on my hair, even when it's just a trim.

It's a bit of a walk from our new house, but I've been going back there because she's so good. I last went in early June, as far as I recall. I asked then if she would be closed at all during the summer. She said yes, she would have to close for a week in August as it was the law. But that was all.

I was going to go in July, but it was hot and humid, and I wasn't in that neighbourhood, and anyway my hair looked OK. So I didn't.

I thought about it in August, but realised I didn't know which week she would be closed. Then I realised that, as we'll be away for seven weeks, it would be best to wait till the first week of September anyway.

On Tuesday this week, the mothers-and-toddlers group (where I help out) started again after a two-month break. It's quite close to the hairdresser, so I walked back past the shop, intending to pop in and either book a trim or - if she wasn't busy - have it at the time.

But it was closed. There was a note on the door saying that it was going to be closed from August 15th-19th, so I just assumed she had gone to lunch or something.

On Wednesday, we had to do a few errands and drove through the same area. So I thought I'd pop in. Once again, it was closed. The same note was still on the door. And then it occurred to me that the hairdresser is very tidy and organised, and would surely take down her holiday notice when she went back. So it looks as though she has not returned to work. Either she's sick, or she's decided it's not worth running the business - she never seemed to draw a huge amount of traffic.

But that means I have no idea where to get my hair cut.

However, I remembered a place in the town that some friends have recommended, and I also knew there was a hairdresser just five minutes walk from our home. Today I wanted to go into the town to check our PO Box, so I thought I'd go this afternoon and then call in at the hairdresser there, and see what they were like. I've been told that appointments aren't usually necessary.

Trouble is - it was closed.

So was the hairdresser near our house. And so was another one I saw on the way back.

Then I remembered that while Wednesday is the regular early closing day for shops, Thursday is the early closing day for hairdressers. It does make sense, I guess... shopkeepers can get their hair cut on a Wednesday afternoon, and hairdressers can do their shopping on a Thursday afternoon.

It's just that, despite having lived here for nearly ten years, I had totally forgotten.

MOT

Cyprus has, at last, got the MOT theory sorted out. All cars have to have this test ever two years, and there has to be a valid MOT certificate before we can apply for car tax.

Of course, it's quite possible to pay the car tax up to a year (or more) late - that doesn't seem to worry anyone.

Anyway, the tax on our newer car (the one that's only ten years old) is well overdue, so - nothing like leaving things to the last minute before we go away - Richard took it for its MOT test today. It had a thorough service not long ago, and the mechanic said it was up to MOT standard, so he thought it would be fairly straightforward and quick.

Not so.

The car has tinted windows at the back and sides. Very pleasant in the summer as it cuts down the glare of the sun, and also means the car doesn't get too hot.

Unfortunately, new MOT regulations mean that tinted windows are not allowed. At least... they're allowed if the glass itself is tinted. But if there's a thin tinted film painted on it, that's not OK. Unfortunately, our car has the latter type. Why that should be 'worse' than tinted glass, I've no idea.

Richard did not think it possible to remove the tinted film. But then one of the junior mechanics produced a small double-sided razor blade, and demonstrated that it is possible. In about five minutes, he managed to remove about a square centimetre.

Labour is very cheap in Cyprus, so the garage owner said he would employ someone for a day to remove all the tinting, so that our car can pass the MOT tomorrow, so that we can pay the tax. Would they really go to that much trouble in other countries??

What's even more bizarre, though, is that our old car (the one that's 20 years old) had its MOT on Tuesday. It has a tow-bar which Richard had fitted a couple of years ago, when he bought his first dinghy. Apparently the new regulations say that a tow-bar should not stick out quite as much as ours does.

So, the mechanic told us, if we get asked about the tow-bar, we have to say that we fitted it after the MOT was done....

So let's hope nobody asks about it, since we're not going to tell lies about it, but also don't want the mechanic or the MOT folk to get into trouble!

Yes, this is Cyprus...

Water restrictions in Cyprus

It was bound to come eventually. I wrote, a few weeks ago, about the water shortages becoming severe in Cyprus. Yes, there is a desalination plant, but it doesn't cope with the constantly increasing demands on fresh water, coupled with lack of rain in the past couple of years. Moreoever, desalination isn't good for the environment, or the sea. Apparently the waste products from the process are put back into the Mediterranean... meaning that, in a decade or two, it could end up like the Dead Sea.

People simply don't seem to care. There are letters in the papers blaming foreign maids for wasting water, but that's not what I've observed. I see Cypriot women getting up early to wash their patios with hoses, then they wash the pavements outside their houses, and then they even wash the streets. It's unbelievable, in the face of rapidly diminishing water supplies, but they don't seem to care. They get up early so that the police won't find them. A few high-profile fines might solve the problems - but increased warnings don't seem to make any difference.

So, this afternoon for the first time in many months, our mains water was switched off. I assume it was deliberate, not merely someone working on the water pipes, since it's Sunday. I don't know how often this is going to happen - we haven't seen any announcements about water restrictions, just mention that it might happen if people didn't make more effort to conserve water.

When we first moved here, mains water was only switched on for three days per week. When the water shortage was at its worst, a couple of years later, we only had mains water twice a week: once overnight, and one full day. We kept about 24 bottles of drinking water, and only ran the washing machine when the mains was on. Our tanks only ran out a couple of times; we got used to conserving water as much as we could, taking short showers, and so on.

In the past few years, with constant mains water, we've got careless, We now only keep about five litres of drinking water in bottles, including two in the fridge. I hate the thought of going back to severe restrictions, but at least this time I can understand why it happens. If we don't conserve water in a major way - or have a huge extra amount of rain this winter - Cyprus will almost run out of water by the end of the year.

Nearing the end of Summer in Cyprus

So, it's nearly the end of August, and theoretically nearly the end of Summer. Official siesta time will end this week, schools will start back within the next couple of weeks, and many people who have gone either to the UK or into the mountains for July and August will be returning to Cyprus. The inter-church youth group has already started after a month's break and they're going to enjoy a long weekend camping at the end of this week.

Summer seems to have gone by remarkably quickly this year. Or perhaps it's just my age. People do say that time rushes by at ever-increasing speeds as one gets older. Living in this house, with air conditioning units in every room, is a great deal more pleasant than living in the other house, where we had only one. I run the one in my study for about eight hours a day, when my computer is on. We only run the bedroom aircon for a couple of hours at night, but it makes such a difference. We've hardly used the living room one, or the kitchen one. But on the days when the heat or humidity has been oppressive, it's so nice to have the option available.

I tend to 'estivate' during the summer, using as little energy as possible. Things seem to take longer, anyway. I do any necessary jobs or shopping first thing in the morning - shops open at 7am during the summer, and I tend to wake at 6am - and then have my shower after I've finished cleaning/laundry/whatever. Since we don't have so much regular laundry during the summer (shorts and tee-shirts take up much less space in the washing machine than jeans and sweatshirts!) I've washed all our curtains in the past few weeks. We've been here a year, after all, and although they didn't look dirty, Cyprus is pretty dusty. They do look fresher now they're hanging up again, and I was relieved to find that most of them didn't need ironing!

As for my 'computer time', I've spent much of this summer updating my home education site - it was originally written in two different pieces of software that didn't produce very good code, and I discovered a couple of months ago that many of the pages were displaying rather strangely in Internet Explorer. I had only checked in Firefox. So I decided to go through all 126 pages, upgrading the code, re-writing where necessary, and ensuring they were all compliant with official regulations. I finally finished yesterday!

I've also been trying to get up-to-date with my book reviews blog. I had kept written reviews of every book I read since the spring of 1999, and have been entering them (with the relevant dates) gradually. I haven't finished that yet, but it's an ongoing project. I also decided, this summer, to make the site look more interesting so I joined the Associates program for both Amazon UK and Amazon USA, and have been learning how to generate links to each, and insert them into my book reviews.

Oh, and we've had guests in the guest flat off and on. Two people came in July, for a couple of weeks, and although they were helping Richard in his office during the daytime, they ate most of their meals with us. Now we have a family of four staying - they arrived just over a week ago and are here until Monday. We didn't know them (they were contacts of Richard's via email) and they've been out and about, doing their own thing, so we haven't seen much of them. But I still had to ensure the flat was clean, tidy, and had beds made up before they arrived. We're really pleased at how much the guest flat has been used since we moved here.

Richard has gone out in his little boat almost every Saturday in the past few months - and a few extra days too - and has set up a new blog about sailing. He and Tim have also spent much of their 'spare' time working on the DVD for the musical of 'Esther' which was performed at Kurium Amphitheatre in June. Tomorrow someone is coming to re-record something, and they hope to have it finished by next week.

We've only been to the beach about four times, and only swum twice. Ah well.

At the end of next week, unlike most of our friends who are returning to Cyprus after spending the summer away, we have stayed in Cyprus all summer and will be flying to the UK for just over two weeks in September, then on to Hong Kong to see Daniel on the MV Doulos. Our time in the UK will probably be even busier than usual - as well as seeing friends and family, and Richard speaking at various church events, Tim wants to look at at least two universities, as he's hoping to transfer there in the Autumn of next year.

In our absence, someone will be staying in our home to look after the cats, and some friends will be in our guest flat for three weeks. By the time we return, towards the end of October, Summer in Cyprus should well and truly have finished.

Update on plants

Somehow, I have managed to remember to water my patio plants at least three times per week during this hot summer, and have even given them some Phostrogen once a week. Most of them have survived pretty well, to my surprise.

Not that it's all been a bed of roses (so to speak). The bi-coloured bougainvillea, which was doing so well only a month ago, has lost most of its bracts:


I suspect this may be because I had the not-so-bright idea of moving it a little, so that it was directly underneath the outlet pipe for my study air conditioner. I thought this would be an excellent way of saving water, if it went directly onto a plant. I forgot, temporarily, that bougainvilleas like to be pretty dry, or at least to dry out between waterings. Steady dripping through most of the day wasn't good for it.

So I moved it back to where it was, and then nearly killed it by forgetting about it completely for a week - it's not with the other plants - until I spotted the leaves withering and yellowing. But a bit of water has revived it, thankfully.

More puzzling: last year we bought two flowering succulents. They're not mesembryanthems, which have daisy-like flowers, but we don't know what they are. Anyway,they provided a lovely display of colour for a couple of months last summer, then died away somewhat.

I treated them exactly the same through the winter. Then one of them started coming back to life, and the other stayed dormant. Here's the one that survived:


I didn't bother to take a photo of the other one. We should probably replace it, but somehow time has rushed by this summer.

I wrote this post about plants just over a year ago. Of those plants, the lavender didn't survive very long at all. I don't know what went wrong with them. The cuttings (geraniums and bougainvillea) from our old house didn't survive either. Probably it was the wrong time of year.

But the two hibiscus plants, although they looked a bit frail over the winter, seem to be doing well:


And this one - a palm of some type, or perhaps a yucca - is doing amazingly well! It's even producing extra plantlets from the base:


For some reason I didn't post a photo of this one at the time, but it's also doing extremely well. I believe its name is mother-in-law's tongue:


My petunias aren't doing brilliantly - but then again, it's the first year that I've had any petunias survive beyond about the end of May. They're still flowering somewhat, and seem to be producing little baby petunias. It will be interesting (to me, anyway) to see what happens to them:


As for the new plants we bought in April they all seem to be doing very well. The fig tree still has about five small figs, too hard to pick, but perhaps they'll be ready later in the year. Or even next year, since I seem to recall that figs take a LONG time to ripen.


The two larger plants are doing well too, although not much different from when we bought them. The eugenia seems healthy:


So does the other plant, whose name we still don't know.


What particularly surprises me about all these plants is that they're in direct sunshine for most of the morning,including the very hottest part of the day. Yet they all seem to be thriving.

So far, anyway!

August holiday period in Cyprus

Traditionally, most businesses in Cyprus used to close for a fortnight at the start of August. Shops have big sales in July (January is the only other time of year they're allowed major sales), then close down for the first couple of weeks of August, to give the owners a break in the mountains, or just at home with their families.

But even in the (nearly) ten years we've been in Cyprus, things have changed. Supermarkets always stayed open during August, but ten years ago - even five years ago - they still shut for siesta time (1pm-4pm) from June to August. No longer. They now open at about 7am and stay open until 7pm five days per week, and until 3.30pm on Wednesdays.

While some businesses continue to take the two-week August break, many more seem to stay open now. Of course, hotels and restaurants wouldn't close at this time of year when there are so many tourists, but there are more shops open than closed, or so it seems. Our favourite art/stationery shop is closed, as are several hairdressers and computer stores.

But whereas building work also used to stop in Cyprus during this period, there seems to be more of it happening this year. Our neighbours are having a huge amount of renovation - they've gone away, and there are workmen ripping out old units, mixing cement and carrying in bricks from about 6am each morning. Perhaps they're builders who are on holiday from another business....

Water shortages become severe

Our water bills for the last quarter arrived this week.

There was a little insert with the bill, with Greek on one side and English on the other. Presumably saying the same thing - the English is very formal, but then official Greek does tend to be formal, so I guess it's a direct translation. It's an official announcement from the Water Board of Larnaka. It says:

Dear Customers,

Due to prolonged drought period in Cyprus, the balance between the available water supply and actual demand was pushed to its limits and hence the available quantities of water are not enough to fully cater for our needs until the end of 2007. It is, therefore, required by all of us to take all necessary measures to save water and avoid its irrational waste.

To safeguard against water waste the Water Board of Larnaca is obliged to enforce the requirements of the Water Saving (Special Measures) Law. In accordance with the Law, the use of hose for cleaning cars, pavements, roads, verandas or fences is strictly prohibited. Anyone who violates the Law is guilty of criminal offence and, in case of conviction, can be sentenced to a maximum of three month imprisonment or to a maximum penalty of three hundred pounds or both punishments. Extrajudicially such an offence can be settled with the payment of a £30 fine to the Board, which is expected to increase to £50.

We expect all citizens to contribute towards water saving, otherwise there will soon become a necessity to enforce water restriction measures.

The silly thing is, this law has been in force - supposedly - since the start of the year. Does anyone take any notice? Nope. Well, they do avoid using their hoses during the busy parts of the day, but most people in our neighbourhood use hoses to wash their cars and verandas (yes, and even the pavement outside) during the early hours of the day, or on Sundays, when of course the police and water board won't be working....

I really hope we don't end up with water restrictions again (when we moved here nearly ten years ago, the mains water was only switched on twice per week - the rest of the time we had to rely on our tanks) but I'm beginning to see why they had to restrict water. People in Cyprus just don't seem to care.

Less heat, less humidity, less swimming....

Visitors to Cyprus (of which there are many during July and August) think it's very hot at present.

Residents of Cyprus are relieved that the heatwave and high humidity seems to have passed. At least, for the past few days.

After last Friday's trip to the beach, we thought we might try and go about three times per week. On Tuesday Tim helps at a Community Church group for students, and on Thursday he runs the choir practice at the Anglican church. On Saturdays he does the cooking, and usually makes us some curry and naan bread, which makes it hard to leave the house for more than a few minutes.

So we thought that Monday, Wednesday and Friday would be good days to go for a swim. Moreover, on Wednesdays in the summer, Grace Church have a get-together on the beach from 6pm with picnic or take-away food, swimming and a game or two of Boules. Being a good inter-church family, we thought it could be fun to join them.

On Monday, the humidity of the previous fortnight appeared to vanish. The weather site no longer said the temperature was 32C, feeling like 40... instead, it said it was 32 feeling like 32. The house didn't feel unpleasantly hot and sticky when leaving an air conditioned room, and there was a pleasant breeze. It was even somewhat cloudy, off and on, during Monday. Most unusual for Cyprus in August.

The sea didn't feel so warm, either. Richard decided it was too chilly for him, so he went to lie on the sand for a bit. Tim and I did swim, and felt quite warm by the time we had been in for five minutes or so. But the breeze was distinctly chilly, so we only stayed in for half an hour.

On Wednesday Richard left the office later than he planned to. It was nearly 6.30pm by the time we found the group. We decided it was too cold for any of us to swim, although some hardier souls went in, even after dark. We thought we would go, with some others, to a convenient fish'n'chip shop, only to discover it had closed down. So we went, by car, to our favourite Souvlaki Express... but by the time we'd done that, and eaten, it was nearly 7.30. There were a few games of Boules, and lots of chat... it was a very pleasant evening, and we'll probably go again next week.

The weather has remained slightly cooler and much less humid, so that we're only air conditioning the bedrooms for an hour or two at night, and the study only when the computer is on. We haven't used it in the kitchen or living room all week.

In the past, sometimes August in Cyprus has been less humid and cooler than July, although it can change any day. In the meantime, I'm very much appreciating it.

Beaches in Larnaka

Sometimes, when people hear that we live in Cyprus, they wonder if we spend all our time at the beach.

It seems that, when people associate somewhere with a holiday resort, they tend to think that people who live there must spend their time in relaxation and lounging in the sun. This is, of course, not the case. When you live somewhere - anywhere - much of your time must be taken up in day-to-day living: shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc - and many people work long hours. Yes, there's a siesta time in the summer in Cyprus from about 1pm - 4pm, when nobody is supposed to make any noise, and when a lot of people sleep. But shops and offices which close for siesta time often open at 7.30 or 8.00am, and then remain open until at least 7pm, after the siesta.

As for the beach, we find we spend very little time there. In the Summer, it's packed with tourists, many of them getting serious sunburn. In the winter, it's chilly and empty. I don't do well in heat or sunshine, so the only time I can go to the beach in the summer is either before about 8am or after 5pm. So far, I've been once this year. On Friday, since there was no youth group for Tim and no house group for us, we decided to go for a swim; it was the first time I had been in the sea since last Summer. We do try to go two or three times per week during July and August some years, but somehow didn't get around to it at all during July.

There are several bits of beach in Larnaka. The one that the tourists know best is the Finikoudes - or palm-tree promenade - seafront, right by the town and many of the hotels and apartments. It's convenient, with plenty of shops and restaurants just over the road, ice cream booths nearby, and a useful toilet block. You can go a long way out before getting out of depth, so it's ideal for children. It's also rather commercialised, and not very interesting.

Cypriot families and resident foreigners like ourselves tend to go to McKenzy beach, near the airport, which is by a whole load of restaurants and a shower block, with a big car park over the road. Aeroplanes fly low, right overhead, as it's the flight-path into Larnaka, so it can be a little noisy, but there's more sand than there is at the Finikoudes beach, and less seaweed. It also has a long, shallow slope meaning it's safe for children, other than one place (usually marked by buoys) where there's an undertow.

However in the last couple of years, the car park prices at McKenzy beach have shot up - it used to be free after 6pm; last year it costs £1 even for a short stay. Not too bad if you're spending the day there, but rather steep if you just want a quick half-hour swim in the evening.

So these days we usually go to a small bit of beach accessed from the main road, which isn't quite as far along as McKenzy beach. There's a field nearby where people park, one or two restaurants, and this year, for the first time, there's a porta-loo setup on the beach. It's not particularly attractive, and there tends to be some seaweed... but more and more people are starting to go there.

Oh, and in the other direction, beyond the marina and towards Dhekelia, there are more small beaches, many of them attached to hotels.

Beaches in Cyprus tend to be clean, safe and friendly, and the water is very warm during the Summer. So they're ideal for swimming... even though we go there so rarely ourselves.

Heat, humidity and Harry Potter

The last few days it has felt very hot and humid. Yes, we expect this in Cyprus during the Summer, particularly in July, but that doesn't make it any pleasanter! Even at 6.30 in the morning I feel as if I'm damp all over, just walking downstairs to the kitchen. There's a cool breeze outside when I open the windows... but I still feel sticky. I do housework and other chores more-or-less first thing, peel off my clothes and step into the shower around 9am ... and then, even after I'm theoretically dry, still feel damp.

The weather site tells me it's currently 32C, which doesn't sound too hot. But the humidity is 75%, and apparently it 'feels like' 42C. I can believe it.

Air conditioning, of course, makes a huge difference since it reduces the humidity as well as the heat. We run ours at 28C, which seems to be the ideal temperature. Computers don't function well over 30C, but they're fine at 28. People also don't function well much over 30C! I know some people run their a/c much cooler, but if we do that (a) it's much more expensive (b) it feels much worse when going into another room or outside if the difference is more than a few degrees.

So we run the bedroom a/c overnight - sometimes switching it off automatically at midnight, if it's not too humid - and during the day we run it when needed in certain rooms that we're in. My study has a/c on from about 10am until I've finished with the computer in the evening. Tim uses his bedroom one, sometimes, if he's reading or working in there. I run the kitchen one when I'm cooking, and we sometimes run the dining-room one when eating. We're very thankful to have so many units - at the other house we had only one, in the living/dining room.

I spent most of the weekend reading the latest Harry Potter. Tim began it on Friday, and finished it Saturday morning. He reckoned it took him about seven hours. I don't read as fast as he does; I think it took me about ten hours, in all. What an amazing book it was, too. There was Christian symbolism sprinkled throughout, particularly in the ending.

If anyone's interested in knowing more of my thoughts about it, there are plenty of them on my other blogs: a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at my books blog, and some lengthy ramblings about Harry Potter as a Christian allegory at my abstractions blog, which gives links to several even longer articles on the topic.

Bi-coloured bougainvillea

We had a lot of success with bougainvilleas at our other house. But the cuttings I made before we moved all died. So on one of our plant-buying expeditions we chose a small bougainvillea. It had a few deep pink bracts, like the huge one at the front of our old house.

Bougainvilleas don't need a lot of care - a bit of water, plenty of sunshine, and lots of neglect. Just my kind of plant, in fact. And sure enough, although the pink bracts fell off fairly quickly, the new one sprouted new leaves and has kept growing in several directions.

A couple of weeks ago I was surprised to see that it had produced white bracts:


I thought I must have been mistaken about the deep pink, but wasn't worried. They were rather attractive, anyway, and I knew we would probably buy another bougainvillea at some point.

Then, about a week ago, having neglected the plant other than the occasional water, I was amazed to see that there were indeed deep pink bracts as well as the white ones. Indeed, the white ones seemed to have turned into a very pale pink:


But there are definitely two clear colours on one plant. Very odd. I've previously assumed that when two colours of bougainvillea were showing entwined on a large plant that it was two individual plants growing together - but perhaps not.

Attractive, anyway.

Kakopetria break

On Thursday, it was our 27th wedding anniversary. Richard had been feeling a bit overwhelmed with work, and over-tired, and I had been feeling tired with the heat and humidity. So he decided it would be nice to go away for a couple of days, into the mountains. Many people in Cyprus go to the mountains for the summer; they aren't always cooler, but the humidity is considerably lower.

He booked us into the Mill Hotel in Kakopetria, a small village in the Troodos mountains, on the recommendation of some friends who had recently stayed there. It took about an hour and a quarter to get there, going towards Nicosia and then Troodos. Much nicer roads than going to Troodos out of Limassol!


It wasn't too hard to find, and turned out to be very pleasant, with enormous rooms and a stunning view over the valley from our balcony.


It wasn't actually any cooler than Larnaka - the temperature gauge in the village told us it was 36C - but it felt much nicer due to the dryness, and by evening it felt pleasantly cool. There was no air conditioning in the bedrooms, just a ceiling fan, and that was fine. We were a bit surprised to see that there were very few other visitors in the hotel - only six tables were set in the dining room for breakfast! - despite a huge staff, and excellent service.

We walked around the village - just a few shops and houses - and found the 'bad rock' after which the village of Kakopetria is named:


Not exactly a cheerful story: apparently Pagan customs mixed with Christianity in Cyprus, several hundred years ago. A newly-married couple were celebrating their marriage by dancing around a huge rock to Aphrodite, goddess of love, who (legend had it) was born in Cyprus. The rock fell and crushed them. The rock now takes a place of honour and has a village named after it...


We drove the 16km into Troodos on the morning of our anniversary, and were pleased to find that the road works of previous years had finally gone. Not that there's very much in the village: a small grocery store, a children's playground, and several tourist stalls selling souvenirs, sweets, and so on. Oh, and a couple of small restaurants. We had some cold drinks, and browsed the stalls but didn't buy anything. It was definitely cooler in Troodos, even though it's not much higher than Kakopetria.


It only gradually occurred to us that the general view didn't look very Cypriot. This is partly because it's so green - in the mountains there doesn't seem to be any lack of water - and partly because the houses don't have water tanks and solar panels on the rooftops:

All in all, it was a lovely break - although Larnaka felt all the more humid when we got back yesterday morning.

New York... in Cyprus?

Mostly, we have our main cooked meals in the evenings. On Sundays, however, Tim likes a traditional British-style roast meal, so generally he cooks it for us.

However, Cyprus summers are hot and humid, and even with air conditioning, he doesn't necessarily feel like cooking during July and August. So sometimes Richard pops out to New York to pick up a ready-roasted chicken, which we eat with french bread and salad (unless Tim has decided to roast some potatoes and cook some broccoli).

Of course, it puzzles some of our visitors when we say Richard will pop to New York... but we've been here so long that, like other locals here in Larnaka, we refer to our favourite take-away place, not the city in the USA. It does have a fake statue of liberty outside:


.. but the food doesn't seem to be very American, other than (perhaps) the excellent roasted chickens. They also serve a variety of pasta dishes, a few vegetarian options such as cauliflower cheese, and various vegetables. It's a very hot place - they don't seem to use any air conditioning - but the staff are efficient and helpful, and the food excellent.

Today, Tim was invited out to lunch with some friends, so Richard and I decided to have something different from roast chicken. We settled on moussaka, which is decidedly Cypriot, or at least Greek. And some salads, which are sold in little tubs in the fridge.

It was excellent, too.

Sophia, the organised cat, strikes again....

On most Friday evenings through the year, a church house group meets in our home. We have a meal together (different people bringing different parts), we chat and socialise and pray around the dining room table, and then we move through to the living room to have an informal Bible study. We chose Friday evening when the group started a few years ago because it's Youth Group night; so Tim is usually out. We start the meal around 6.30 and usually finish the Bible study around 9pm or a little later.

Yesterday there was no Youth Group, so Tim had something to eat with us, then went upstairs to catch up with his email while we had the rest of the meeting. Sophia, our highly scheduled cat, usually appears from wherever she was sleeping as we go through to the living room. The owner of her favourite lap is in the UK at present. After sniffing everyone's legs to ensure he wasn't there, she opted for my lap as second best, and ensured my attention was at least partly on her for the next hour.

By about 9.30pm everyone had left, and Richard then had to pop back to the office to switch something off. As he went out, Sophia asked to go out, too. I assumed she would wait for Richard, and come in when he returned. He got back about half an hour later, but she was sitting on the window ledge by the front door and refused to come in.

We don't mind if our cats are out all night - there's no cat door, and only Cleo has figured out how to get up to the next storey to get in by the small bathroom window - but Sophia is a very vocal cat. If she gets shut out when she doesn't want to be, she mews to let us know. Her mew gets louder and louder, sufficient to wake us up. So, since her current routine is to sleep on my legs at night, we didn't really want her to stay out. But she refused to come in for me, or for Richard.

Inspiration struck. She was evidently waiting for Tim to get back from Youth Group (which can be any time from about 10pm until midnight or even later). She hadn't noticed that he was in the house all evening, since he wasn't with us during the Bible study.

So Richard asked Tim to let Sophia know he was home... and sure enough, as soon as he opened the door and called her, she came straight in, acknowledged his presence, and then came up to sleep on my legs as usual.

Larnaka beach in the evening

We've had two friends from the UK staying in our guest flat for the past fortnight - a mother and daughter. Both helping - greatly - at Richard's office. They've been coming home for lunch and evenings with us, and I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by.

On Monday evening they took us out for a meal at our favourite sea-front restaurant, Alexander's, and afterwards we walked along the beach a short way, the (probably vain) hope of reducing the calorific effect of the meal. There were a few people still out there: reading peacefully, or building sandcastles, or dipping in the sea in the cool (relatively speaking) of the evening.

We don't get much of a sunset here in Cyprus, with so few clouds, but the effect as the sun went down was still quite pretty:

Cyprus bats

It was almost a year ago (well, eleven months anyway) when we had an adventure with a bat in our bedroom.

We thought it was just a one-off oddity - after all, in nearly nine years at our previous house, where our garden had a huge tree with bats nesting in it (and flying around over the garden at dusk every evening) we never had a bat come inside.

So I was a bit surprised - and horrified - on Saturday morning to discover a half-eaten bat on the floor of the living room when I came downstairs, guarded by two of our cats. Poor little thing. I assumed one of them must have caught it, while exploring the neighbouring rooftops, and brought it inside.

Then on Sunday morning, Tim noticed yet another bat, clinging to the living room air conditioner. It was a very small one:


It was obviously alive, since it moved position very slowly through the day. We thought it best to leave it there while the sun was out, assuming it was asleep anyway. It didn't even notice when we switched the air conditioning on in the afternoon - but then the air doesn't blow from those vents. The bat probably felt nice and cool.

In the evening, Richard opened one of the windows, and managed to catch the bat in his hand and put it outside on the window ledge. It stayed where he had put it for a few minutes, perhaps a bit traumatised, or maybe just waking up. However, an hour or so later it had flown away.

We don't have any trees here so we've no idea how this bat got in the house - but at least it's now free again.

Buying fruit in Cyprus

When we moved here, in 1997, we bought our fruit at the supermarket, when we did our weekly shop once a week. As we tended to in the UK.

Friends told us that there were some lovely 'froutaria' shops - greengrocers, as we would call them in the UK - and sure enough I found one that was excellent, and would go there perhaps once a week for extra fresh fruit and veg.

Then it closed down.

When we moved, last year, we found a very close fruit shop - just two minutes' walk from our house. It was useful when I'd run out of onions or lettuce mid-week, but the prices didn't seem great, the produce wasn't really as good as that in the supermarket, and - worst of all - despite no-smoking signs everywhere, I saw several men with lighted cigarettes in the shop, and no attempt made to stop them. Ugh. At least smoking in supermarkets seems to have been banned in the past five or six years.

Friends told us that there was a much nicer froutaria a little further away, but it took me a while to try it. Now I'm hooked. I go there usually twice a week, first thing in the morning during the summer (it opens at 7am).


There are always lots of reduced fruit and vegetables outside, as shown in this picture. I assume they're the previous days' produce, since they're always in good condition, and the prices are amazing. Inside, the shop is air conditioned, usually pretty full of Cypriots (always a good sign) and the quality and selection of produce is superb. In addition, there's a refrigerated section with milk, lunch meats, cheeses (etc) and a few extra items - sugar, salt, some cans, and so on - that would be found in a regular supermarket.

I make freshly squeezed juice every morning, and (during the summer) pure fruit smoothies most afternoons, so this froutaria is very useful, particularly now when there are lots of soft fruit in season, which wouldn't necessarily keep for a whole week if we bought them at the supermarket.

Are they expensive? I get asked that fairly often. The prices vary during the season, they vary from shop to shop, and one person's idea of good value is another person's 'very expensive'. If you're from a country other than Cyprus, a lot depends on the exchange rate too.

But for what it's worth, here's what I bought this morning:

1.25 kg apricots (from the reduced section)
just under 1kg nectarines (from the reduced section)
just over 1kg grapes
0.75 kg black cherries
0.65 kg kiwi fruit

I should add that the black cherries are the most expensive of the lot. They were a whopping £2.99 per kilo. But worth it. The reduced apricots and nectarines cost 69c per kilo. (For those in America, that's about 69 US cents per imperial pound)

The total bill was £6.30. (That's around £7.40 sterling, or $13 US)

Is that expensive compared to other countries at this time of year? I'd be interested to know.

Siamese tomato?

When we first came to Cyprus, it was hard to find cherry tomatoes anywhere. We could buy large, rather tasteless tomatoes all year round, and nice fresh (large) tomatoes for a few weeks during the summer. But that was all.

A year or two later, cherry tomatoes appeared during the summer. I'm glad that fruit and vegetables tend to be seasonal, and we enjoyed the fresh, sweet taste most days. But missed them when they vanished from the supermarkets, and we were left with the large tasteless variety.

A few years later still, cherry tomatoes began appearing all year round. Prices varied somewhat, but either Cyprus growers had worked out how to do climate control of some kind, and could produce tomatoes themselves whatever the season, or they were imported some of the year. Sometimes they were better than others, but always better than the large ones.

This week, the local cherry tomatoes are excellent. And we were particularly taken with this one:



No trick, it really is a pair of conjoined cherry tomatoes.

It seemed a pity to eat them, but they wouldn't have survived long, even in the fridge. So, with one cut of my knife I separated them, and very good they were too.