Christmas Eve 2023

 I quite like Christmas being on a Monday. It means we collected our turkey and did the last bits of shopping yesterday, so today was - theoretically - a bit more relaxing. I thought of it almost like an extra Saturday. Not that I've sat down much; I've been pottering in the kitchen, making extra food, cutting up vegetables, washing up at least three times for items that won't go in the dishwasher. 

I made our Christmas cake at the start of November, put almond paste on it a few days ago, and iced it yesterday. I rarely do anything new or creative despite having many books with amazing looking ideas. Here's this year's effort, anyway:

I see, glancing through this blog, that it's very similar to the one I made in 2014. 

I didn't have any handy aquafaba and it seemed silly to open a can of chickpeas just for a few tablespoons of the cooking water. But I really don't like using raw egg white in royal icing. So I tried 'No Egg', something which is an inexpensive commercial egg replacer which we bought from Holland and Barrett a few weeks ago. I don't know how it works, but it was quite effective, though I had to add a tablespoon of extra water and another teaspoon of lemon juice to get the icing to bind together. 

We cooked the turkey yesterday, too. Well, Richard did most of the work. I just made the stuffing. It's now neatly sliced in a pan in the fridge, to be reheated tomorrow. 

I don't know why Christmas entertaining feels a whole order more complicated than normal evening or Sunday lunch entertaining. And I know the food and friends are not what Christmas is really about. But still, no matter how simple I try to keep it, I usually do some food preparation most days of December, with a lot on the last couple of days, and a full schedule Christmas morning. 

Advent was very short this year, only three weeks; today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. We put our tree up on December 1st, and hung up last year's cards. Fewer and fewer cards arrive each year, which is fine; electronic communication is more efficient, and considerably less expensive. Postage from the UK is shockingly high, and we know from experience that other cards will arrive next week, or later in January. So this year's cards will be hung up next year. 

This is a poignant time of year for many, a stressful time for even more. The world news is increasingly depressing. But I'll still take this brief moment to wish anyone who sees this a peaceful, blessed and encouraging day tomorrow, however you might celebrate - or even if you don't. 

Selected people and places from the past month...

I have been procrastinating. Nothing new there, but it wasn't until today, when I received a note from a concerned friend, that I realised what a long time it has been since I last wrote anything on this blog. All the more concerning, I suppose, because my last two posts - over a month ago now - were about the Cyprus financial crisis.

But life continues, and it is more than time for an update.  Thank you, Rosemary, for inspiring me to pick a selection of photos and start writing.

Back in March, I continued walking on the Salt Lake trail three times a week with my friend Sheila... and although the weather started warming up, we had some rain too. Here are some quite big puddles that showed one morning late March:

Naturally we spent time with friends, and played some board games:

The last day of March was Western Easter.  Greek/Eastern Easter won't happen until May 5th (they are as far apart as is possible this year) but we tend to celebrate the Western one. We went to St Helena's Church with some friends in the morning, and then cooked and hosted a roast lunch for eight:

It all seemed to go well, and it was good to have several good friends together for a leisurely meal:

Cleo is fifteen now, and her coat is getting quite brown in places, thin in others.  She no longer runs and jumps as she used to: we suspect arthritis, but as she does not seem to be in any pain, we don't worry about it too much.  She still loves boxes of almost any shape and size:

At the other end of the cat spectrum, I must mention Makenzy, a kitten adopted by my friend Sheila and her family just a few days later, after she was found in a large dumpster: 

Makenzy is extremely cute.  She's also very friendly, unlike most feral kittens.  

Just to add to the randomness of this post, here's a jigsaw puzzle which Sheila started doing some months ago, and which a few of us helped her to complete early in April.  It was a remarkably difficult one, and we were very pleased that all the pieces were there: 

On Saturday 6th April I went for what may be my last Salt Lake walk for several months.  It was a beautiful clear morning, but even in the early morning it was beginning to be too hot for me:

I might have continued until the end of April, but a couple of days later we flew to the UK, where we are currently; we return to Cyprus on Greek Easter Day.

We flew to Heathrow, since - oddly - BA flights were the best value that week.  After booking our flights we discovered that renting a car at Heathrow costs a hundred pounds more than the same car (from the same company) at Gatwick. However, getting to Gatwick by coach from Heathrow would have cost us 50 pounds each, and by train even more (as well as being decidedly inconvenient with all our luggage).  Researching online revealed that the best thing to do would be to collect our hire car from Crawley (another 50 pounds cheaper than at Gatwick)... and to travel there from Heathrow via taxi.  Yes, whoever would have guessed that a taxi would be considerably less expensive than any form of public transport?!

So a very nice man met us at Heathrow and dropped us at the hire car place, giving Richard a chance to rest after flying before driving. 

We had heard dire warnings about the land of ice and snow, and told to bring lots of winter woolies.  So we were pleasantly surprised that on arrival the sun was out, and while 12C is not exactly warm, it certainly wasn't the arctic waste we had been warned about. 

We then spent a couple of days having a mini-break in the tiny town of Arundel.  It only has a handful of shops (including a rather nice second-hand bookshop) but it boasts a Roman |Catholic cathedral, rather unusually dedicated to two saints, one of whom we had never heard of:

Philip Howard, it transpires, was the Earl of Arundel some centuries ago, who refused to attend a Protestant church service. He was put in the tower of London for such treachery, and eventually died of dysentery. I'm not quite sure why that makes him a saint, or why he would share the cathedral dedication with Mary...

Here's a bigger view of the Catholic cathedral, which was impressively large:

The inn where we stayed was in the shadow of this cathedral:

... as can be seen from this view showing where we stayed, in what was probably once the stable block:

It was fairly basic but large and comfortable,with coffee-making facilities, and very peaceful.  Breakfast was included, so although Richard's breakfast is usually a handful of fruit and nuts (at most) while I usually opt for granola, fruit and yogurt, we both ate excellent cooked breakfasts for a couple of days: 

We didn't do anything terribly exciting; we just needed a couple of days to read and relax.  We did drive into the nearest reasonable sized down (Littlehampton); even though I don't really enjoy shopping, it was nice to browse a few traditional British shops: 

Later on we went for a walk around Arundel.  We saw that the Catholic cathedral was open, so went inside and found it peaceful and attractive:

It's obviously quite a lively place, with links to all kinds of ongoing activities.

We took a look at the castle...but we're not really into history, and it was quite expensive, so we didn't go inside. There was a craft fair nearby so we did wander around that, but didn't see anything of great interest. 

We walked along a path next to a stream and saw some ducks - something else we never see in Cyprus:

|After our mini-break in Arundel, we drove to stay with Richard's mother for a few days. Tim came down from Birmingham to join us, as she was celebrating a special birthday. We went out to lunch and were joined by other relatives, at a very pleasant inn:

Richard spoke at his mother's church on the Sunday, and then we drove up to Birmingham.  My mother recently moved to a small apartment in a residential home as she has been having some health problems, so we knew we would be spending lots of time helping to move furniture for her, to make an inventory for my siblings so that we can all decide if we want anything, and generally helping to clear the house, where Tim has still been living.  On Monday one of my brothers and his wife came down for the day, and we moved my mother's large bureau to her flat, followed a day later by a selection of her books:

Tim has been applying for jobs in the UK but with no success - nobody seems to care about academic qualifications these days; the important thing is to have experience.  He has a possible job offer in Cyprus, although it remains to be seen if this will happen - the financial crisis means that unemployment is going to be high, with many jobs cut.  Nevertheless, he made the decision that he will come and live with us again for at least a year, possibly more, and see what happens.  We are, of course, delighted.  

Richard had to ship some things for King Malu so Tim took the opportunity to sort out his books and his favourite chair, to add to the shipment. It was quite tight fitting everything into our small rental car:

Last Saturday was my birthday.  I was greeted with gifts from the immediate family, and several cards:

However it felt a bit odd that it was my birthday, since another reason for being in the UK right now is that my father was hosting a rather belated celebration for a special birthday.  During the meal my teenage nephew demonstrated an even greater appetite for roast potatoes than Tim:

.. and later on showed that he is almost as tall as Daniel:

Meanwhile. Daniel had bought a slightly random gift for Becky: 

We've been out to very enjoyable meals with two different sets of friends, but I forgot to take any photos. We've done a bit of shopping, a lot of sorting, and moved many more bits and pieces to my mother's new flat. Tim is trying to finish his MA assignments (other than his dissertation, which does not have to be complete until September) and we're trying to see other friends where possible.

While we've had two or three days of rain since our arrival two-and-a-half weeks ago, we've seen the sunshine most days, and a couple of times the temperature has exceeded 18C.  We really can't complain about the weather. 

And finally...on Sunday as I walked down the street I felt someone glaring at me.  The source turned out to be a cat, not quite the famous 'Grumpy Cat' but a decidedly disgruntled cat who seemed very unimpressed that I dared to walk past his home: 

I hope that it won't be quite so long before my next post!

Faraway Families...

One of the hardest things about living as an ex-pat in Cyprus - or, indeed, anywhere else - is being far away from our family.  Bad enough when we moved here fifteen years ago, saying goodbye to relatives and friends, changing our lifestyle, getting used to a new culture.  But that was nothing compared to the pain of saying goodbye to our sons when they - for different but excellent reasons - both left home, when they were nineteen. 

This month seems to have been particularly poignant, thinking about loved ones in the UK.  We missed an important family birthday at the start of the month: it was great to spend some time chatting on Facetime:

But obviously not the same as being there in real life.  We're missing another family get-together for another special birthday this weekend. 

Worse still, in a sense, is not being around when we might be needed. When relatives are taken to hospital, we feel  helpless, unable to do anything from this distance, other than to pray... and breathe a sigh of relief when they return home. 

A few days ago I felt helpless again when our younger son Tim was hit by a car when crossing a road in the evening in heavy rain. He said it was only a relatively minor hit, but still - a speeding car which knocked someone down and sped away is a terrifying thought for any parent.  I was overwhelmingly thankful that it was not a split second earlier, that he was on his way to a small group where he could be looked after and given some ice, and that he seemed to be reasonably all right the following morning, which is when we first heard about it.  Unfortunately he's still in pain nearly a week later; nothing is broken, but he has badly pulled ligaments. I wouldn't be able to do anything if I were there - but it's hard being so far away. We're looking forward very much to seeing him for a few weeks over Christmas when he comes to visit. 

As for Daniel and Becky, they are even further away, as they have now gone to spend three months on the ship Logos Hope. They had also hoped to come to Cyprus for Christmas, but just three weeks ago were asked if they could fly out to join the ship at the end of the month.  They departed on Monday evening, and arrived in the Philippines this morning (which was late last night, Cyprus time).  It was a long, long journey and they are very tired, as well as somewhat overwhelmed with the tasks ahead of them.  I was extremely pleased to receive an email from Daniel this morning, letting us know that they had got there safely. 

Feeling a bit morose, I looked through my photos to choose the one which I placed near the start of this email.  And noticed, of course, many pictures of local friends. I thought about Easter, when two couples who have become close to us came to lunch, and last Christmas when our other good friends came over for the day.

And then I saw this, taken recently, which reminded me that although our own children are grown up and our blood relatives are all far away, there are some lovely small people who live close by, and who have pretty much adopted us as part of their extended family:

This sounds like a cliché and I hate 'religious jargon'... but can't think of a better way to put it: we are very blessed.