Christmas Eve and our latest newsletter

Continuing the theme of a fairly low-key Christmas, I didn't make mincemeat or Christmas puddings this year, because we still had some left from last year. I did make mince pies earlier this week, and our usual traditional Christmas lunch is currently in the oven, to be cut and refrigerated tonight, re-heated tomorrow along with cooking roast potatoes and carrots and brussels sprouts, and so on.

I iced our cake yesterday, but since it looks much the same as it always does, though rather less tidy (since I put marzipan only on the top) I haven't taken a photo yet.

Thank you so much to all who were concerned and prayed for our granddaughter Esther after my last post; within a few days she was home and free from infection, so we are very thankful and relieved. They are remaining in the UK for Christmas, with other relatives visiting.

Meanwhile our tree has continued to suffer from the cats' enthusiasm. Alex looks rather pleased with himself here:

It's currently standing, however, and has done for a couple of days, so perhaps they have finally lost interest.

One entirely new thing that happened this year was that Richard was co-opted as 'Santa' for a couple of performances of 'The Snowman' by Little Muse Theatre.  I didn't see the show this year, not having a small child to take, but I gather it went well. He wondered if our grandson would have recognised him; when I saw the photos, I'm pretty sure I would not have recognised him before he spoke!

It's been a strange week. The sky has mostly been grey, and there has been a lot of rain - more than we can remember in some years, although statistics online show that December is usually rather a wet month in Cyprus. Sheila and I didn't walk on Thursday as it had rained all night, and hadn't stopped by the time we usually go out.

But this morning it was clearer, so despite the trail being a bit soggy in places we did our usual 4km walk, and saw that the Salt Lake was looking quite full once more.

And finally, here's the link to this year's family newsletter.

Wishing all who see this a joyful and peaceful Christmas, as we celebrate again the birth of the world's most important Baby, and every blessing for 2017.

A very happy new year to all!

I know it's not yet 2011, but we're going to be out this evening and I shall probably be too tired to post anything tomorrow. I don't know quite where 2010 went; time seems to fly faster than ever, the older I become. After a fairly warm and sunny week with our visitors, yesterday was rather overcast, today is worse with a distinct chill to the air. I expect it will rain later.

I've finally remembered to post this year's Christmas newsletter on our family website for the record, and for anyone who hasn't seen it already by mail or email. If anyone new to this blog wants to know quickly what our family did in 2010 - in a nutshell: I turned 50, we celebrated 30 years of marriage, and our older son became engaged to be married - our 2010 newsletter is the best place to find out.

Happy New Year! Wishing many blessings to all in 2011.

Rain in Cyprus, the gasman cometh, and a belated Christmas newsletter

Yesterday I decided to walk to the Post Office and back. Not that I was expecting anything, in particular, and I knew I could go today, before or after Tots (which meets in the new community church building nearby). But I felt like a bit of a walk, and I wanted to pop to the health food shop nearby to buy some molasses.

I set out about 9.30am, and enjoyed the walk on a day that wasn't too cold, but was quite overcast. I didn't go particularly fast - it took me about 20 minutes to get there, and it's only around a mile away. There were various letters for the office and one bill for us.. not very exciting. I went round the corner to the Olive Tree health food shop, and chatted to the owner while buying the molasses and a couple of other things.

Then I made my way home in a fairly leisurely way, calling into one of the bakeries to buy some milk, thinking it would save me a trip out to the supermarket later.

About five minutes after I got home, it started to rain. Just lightly at first, but I was pleased I'd arrived home before it started. I assumed it would stop before long, as is usual with Cyprus rain.

I was wrong. It rained, solidly, for twelve hours. Sometimes fairly lightly, sometimes heavily, always steadily. No storms, not much wind... just lots and lots of rain. I didn't go out of the house for the rest of the day - instead I took some of the photos off the wall by the stairs where our roof is still leaking, and mopped up when the drip went outside the carefully placed bucket.

I really hope yesterday's downpour has been good for the reservoirs. Today more rain was predicted, but there have only been a few light showers.

This afternoon, the gas man arrived. We have a large gas container which has to be refilled by a truck, and the man comes about once a month during the winter (since our central heating is gas-powered) to fill it up. It's the first time I've seen him since last March.. but not the first time he's been. One of the great things about Cyprus is that nobody minds if payments are made late, and there seems to be a lot of trust. Early in November, the gasman came before I was up; I was vaguely aware of someone banging somewhere, but didn't realise what it was until I found a notification that he'd been, with attached invoice, in our outside mailbox.

He's often done that before; usually he phones Richard to let him know he's coming, but if he doesn't, then he doesn't mind at all if we pay on his next visit.

But his next visit was in the middle of December, when I was out. I had begun to wonder if our gas supplies were running a little low, and came home to discover another slip and invoice in our outside mail box. Since then I've been wondering when he would come again... hoping it wouldn't be first thing in the morning before I was up. So I was pleased when he came mid-afternoon, in between rain showers, and filled our gas barrel up again.

Of course I had to write him a cheque for all three lots of gas at the same time. It was just under 430 euros, which seems like a huge amount. I suppose for all our heating since the start of November, and the gas used in the hob on our oven since last March, it's not too bad. Except that, until the past week or two, it's been a remarkably mild winter and so far we've only used the heating for an hour in the mornings, and three hours in the evenings. We only run it at about 16-17C, too.

And finally... after much procrastination, I've put our 2009 Christmas newsletter up at our family website. Some of the people reading this will have seen it already, either by post or email. Some of it is already out of date: Daniel and Becky are now in Carlisle, for instance, and Tim went back to the UK nearly three weeks ago.

I've also moved the last four year's newsletters from this blog to the family website, which makes more sense. It wasn't particularly difficult but I'd been putting it off for weeks.

Procrastination is a great thing, in moderation

It's been weighing on me for a few weeks, now. The annual newsletter, that is. I started writing it, full of good intentions, towards the end of November. Then we heard the news that the MV Doulos will no longer be allowed to sail after the end of the year. It was possible that Daniel and his girlfriend might be coming to Cyprus in January. So naturally, I had to wait until we knew for sure what they were going to do before finishing the newsletter.

It was last weekend that we heard that they are going to Carlisle for three months, to work in their organisation's audio-visual department. So they won't be coming to Cyprus until April, which was the original plan. So I could write the newsletter on Saturday, write Christmas cards on Sunday, have the newsletters printed at Richard's office on Monday, and then post them on Tuesday, when I went to the PO Box.

No problem... but somehow the metaphorical weight of this newsletter had increased. I did search for a few relevant photos, and exported them to a useful size. But on Saturday, we did our big shop, so I had to put vast amounts of groceries away, and fold up the carrier bags to re-use. We were given some lemons earlier in the week, so as the mains water was on, I thought I'd better make our first batch of lemonade for the season. The laundry on the line was dry, so I had to put all that away in between rain showers. I even did a bit of ironing. And of course I had to fill the drinking water bottles. And I do a couple of Facebook games at weekends. In the evening we were out for a game of Settlers. And so the day went by, and I didn't write the newsletter.

On Sunday, we were expecting friends in the evening for our breakaway get-together of part of our renegade cell group. So I needed to make bread (three loaves), and soup (tomato) and our first batch of mince pies - not for the evening but for the following day. And I really needed to do some general sweeping and mopping, and keep up with my email, and Facebook. And I realised that I needed to look at the anthology that I'm going to produce for the writing group. Our friends came at 4pm to watch the musical 'Annie', and then we had an enjoyable evening together. So the day went by, and I didn't write the newsletter.

On Monday I was hosting the writing group, which includes one person who is allergic to cats. So I dusted and swept and mopped again, and vacuumed all the soft furniture, and then - since I had some extra time - I even cleaned some of the windows. And spent a bit more time looking at material for the anthology, so we could discuss it at the meeting. Since it's the last one of the year, we all brought some finger foods and had lunch together. And in the afternoon I did some laundry, and read and wrote email... and the day went by without me writing a newsletter.

On Tuesday I help at Tots. I did get to the PO Box first, which wasn't easy since I'd stubbed a toe quite badly on Monday morning and it was rather painful on Tuesday. I was thankful to have a ride home after Tots. And am always so tired by the end that I couldn't do anything much in the afternoon, other than sorting through the mail, and putting away the laundry, and writing some lengthy emails.

On Wednesday, I knew I had to get to the newsletter. But Wednesday is the day when I clean the upstairs and make the bed with clean sheets, so I determined to do that first. I did a very good job. I cleaned the entire house on Wednesday morning, and made up Tim's bed as well as ours, since he's coming back for Christmas. And I made some bread, and a slightly more organised lunch than usual since we were entertaining Richard's book-keeping colleague, and his small assistant at King Malu.

Then I'd offered to play games with our friends' children in the afternoon, so that was another couple of hours. By the time I got home I needed to start cooking for our evening meal, and when we'd eaten Richard suggested some board games.

So I still hadn't written the newsletter, but at least the house was sparkling clean by the end of Wednesday.

Today, the boy who usually spends the morning here wasn't coming, so I knew I had to write the newsletter. But first I had to proof-read Tim's latest essay, which he sent me last night, and which has to be handed in tomorrow.

Then I looked at my 'task' list in gmail, and was a bit shocked to see just how many things I'd neglected in the past few days. And I remembered a few short, urgent emails that I needed to write. So I did those. I made an online payment that was outstanding. I finally got around to ordering prints of the past five months' worth of photos which I'd uploaded to the Kodak gallery. I wrote reviews of the last two books I'd read. I realised that the Bibliophil.org site where I've kept my full list of books for the past few years really isn't functional - it hasn't been, for a few months now - so I searched for a new place to have as backup (Goodreads being my prime book list) and decided to try Shelfari. So I had to export and import the list.

In fact, I got right up to date with everything on my lists for the past few days. Other than one item...

.. and finally, I had nothing left on the list other than the newsletter. Procrastination had to be put aside. It didn't even take me particularly long to put in the photos, write a bit more, and adjust it to fit on one side of paper. Tomorrow Richard will print it on his office colour laser printer, and I hope to post them next Tuesday. Or possibly even Monday.

But if I hadn't procrastinated about the newsletter for so long, I probably wouldn't have got all those other things done...

Family newsletter 2008

According to the BBC news site, round robin letters are annoying. Personally, I enjoy getting them and I hope our friends and relatives don't find them too irritating, since we continue to send one out each year by post and/or email. Here, for the record, is this year's missive with a few minor omissions such as addresses, and a few link additions:

Dear Family and Friends,

The latest installment in the lives of our family, beginning with the boys:

... the rest of this newsletter can now be found on our family website. See 2008 Christmas newsletter

Family newsletter, Christmas 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Hot off the press, yet another summary of a year in our life in Cyprus.

January


We spent much of January redecorating our guest flat, in preparation for visitors...







You can now read the full 2007 newsletter at our family site.

Tuesday tiredness

It always happens.

I feel as if I'm doing quite well with Christmas preparations - one or two things to do each day as we approach the 25th, but nothing too strenuous or time-consuming. I don't hurry through preparations so as to avoid too much stress, thinking it will be nice to do just a little each day.

Then I wake up one day feeling utterly exhausted, for no apparent reason. Perhaps my brain has gone into overdrive or something. Or too many carols have worn me out.

But I never remember that this is going to happen. So when, yesterday, I had no enthusiasm for anything and kept yawning most of the day, it seemed very odd... I didn't get to the PO Box as planned, nor did I do any of the cooking I had planned for yesterday. Such as the first mince pies of the season...

Today I woke up with a slight headache. I never get much done on Tuesday morning as I help at the local mother-and-toddler group. Still, I did manage to leave half an hour early to give me time to get to the PO Box, where there were several Christmas cards waiting for us, and a book Tim needed for his theology degree course.

I turned on the computer just before lunch and was pleased to see an email from Daniel, who we hadn't heard from in over a week. He suggested it would be a good day to phone, preferably around 7pm his time. The Doulos has just arrived in Bacalod in the Philippines, and that's six hours ahead of Cyprus at this time of year, so shortly after 1pm I phoned. He said it wasn't such a good time after all, since people had suddenly arrived to load water on the ship - one of his big responsibilities as Waterman when they arrive anywhere new. So he had to supervise it for a while. He asked if I could phone back around 8pm his time, which was actually more convenient since we usually eat lunch around 1pm.

It was so good to talk to him. He said it was an enjoyable voyage - they've been at sea for about four days - and he's been taking things easy as he was getting so tired during the recent dry-dock. Loading water was hectic, but he hoped the next few days would be reasonably relaxing. They do get two days off over Christmas, then afterwards will be preparing to welcome the new group of people who will join them in Manila later in January. Unbelievable to think it's almost a year since he went.

I did remember - at last - to post this year's Christmas newsletter and photos on this blog. So that's something. And will probably go and make some mince pies in a few minutes.

But I'm still pretty tired.

Christmas Family Newsletter 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

We knew this would be a year of change. It seems as if it's mostly been a year of farewells....

The rest of the 2006 family newsletter can now be found on our family website.

Ups and downs

The Christmas cake looks as though it turned out fine. I turned the oven off after four hours, but left the cake in as it cooled down. This morning I wrapped it in greaseproof paper and foil, and put it in an airtight container. Other than feeding a couple of times with more brandy (if I remember) I don't need to worry about it again until a few days before Christmas, when I'll do the marzipan and icing.

So that's one thing to cross off my list.

I also wrote three cards. That means there are only about 75 left to do.

I went to the PO Box this afternoon, expecting a few items I'd ordered from Play.com to have arrived. As I got there, I remembered that Richard's colleague still has my PO Box key, which we gave him while we were away so he could check for mail. Very irritating. But I did post a parcel to Daniel (a few music books we'd ordered that arrived just after we left, and a CD Tim has made for him).

Which reminds me, anyone who reads his blog, he's updated it a couple of times this week - not much text, but there are a couple of new photos. Not mentioned on his blog is that the Doulos is currently having lifeboat inspections by a company in Italy. The lifeboats are safe (ie they won't sink!), and the crew have been complimented on their hard work, good attitude, and extensive safety training. On the other hand, the lifeboats are very old and may well not pass the new international safety requirements.

On the way back, I popped into Argos. It was nearly three months ago that we ordered a pair of fluted lightshades from them. We were told they would take 4-6 weeks to arrive. Well, I suppose this IS Cyprus. We were just wondering if the order had got lost or forgotten, when I had a phone call yesterday (asking for 'Mrs Shoe') telling me they had arrived. And indeed they had, packed nicely in a carrier bag, for someone called 'Richard-Sue'. I didn't need any identification, and as soon as I said Richard's name they produced it. That's a good side of life in Cyprus: tust and friendliness.

I also started uploading photos this afternoon, to DirectFoto, so I could order some prints, something I intend to do every couple of months, but keep forgetting. Unfortunately I got in a muddle as I apparently uploaded some before, which I didn't order. And my computer started complaining that it was low on virtual memory - something that happens relatively often when I have Picasa open. Bah. I left the rest till tomorrow.

I wrote the Christmas family newsletter, complete with photographs, about a week ago. Tim set up the colour deskjet printer on the 'guest' computer which runs Windows 98. My computer runs Windows 2000, and for some reason the deskjet printer won't work with that, so I have the black only laserjet printer on my desk.

But no problem, I emailed the newsletter to myself on gmail, then retrieved it on the guest computer.

I could probably have got hold of it somehow through the network. But it seemed easier to do something I understood, and I wanted to see what it looked like as an email attachment anyway.

When I printed it, the black ink looked smudgy. Tim installed a cleaning/setup thingy - the printer hadn't been used since we moved in July - but it made no difference. Indeed, each test print was slightly worse than the previous one. Evidently we needed a new black cartridge. We've had one refilled for the past few years, but I recalled that it wasn't very good last time, and it clearly hasn't lasted well, so it's probably at the end of its life.

But a new cartridge for this rather old printer costs over £20 in Cyprus. If they're even still available. The colour one will probably run out before long, too, and it costs even more to replace new. Which is totally ridiculous, since we can buy a new deskjet printer, complete with new cartridges, for under £40. Truly we live in a disposable society.

Tim suggested I take the file to the photocopy shop and have it printed there. But last time I asked about colour copies, they quoted me 50c per page. 80 copies at 50c each... that too would cost more than a new printer.

But we don't WANT a new colour printer. We only use it once a year. It was an impasse...

However Richard and his colleague have been discussing buying a colour laser printer for the office, for publicity (among other things). They were given a good price, and decided to order one so we can all print our Christmas newsletters on them. Assuming it arrives tomorrow. I might even get our cards and newsletters posted before the 'last posting date', which would be unusual.

Just to round off a rather mixed day, Tim was finishing the last few words of the third assignments for his theology degree course when his ibook notebook computer failed. Dramatically. The mouse ball thing refused to work at first, and when he tried to save his latest version using the keyboard, he got a grey screen (apparently the Apple equivalent of 'Blue Screen of Death') and couldn't do anything other than switch off. When he switched on again, the same thing happened. And again.

Richard thinks it's a hard drive problem. But, alas, the computer is just one month out of warranty. Even worse, there's no Apple repair centre in Cyprus. If it had gone a few weeks ago we could have taken it to the excellent Apple centre in Singapore...

So now Tim's downloading something (on my computer) to enable him to save all his data. Then he'll try reformatting and see if that helps. But he's very frustrated, particularly as he was within about an hour of emailing his essay to the course tutor. It's due tomorrow, though he may be able to get an extension if he has to work on the computer all day.

Still a little disorientated

It's a bit strange having been away for most of November. October is when Autumn starts - roughly - in Cyprus. Rain after months of drought, less humidity, pleasant temperatures. Jeans rather than shorts. Sweatshirts in the evenings. Light duvets on the beds. And all the music schools and church clubs and so on get started once more.

I suppose November is transition month, but we've missed that, being in Singapore. So now it feels distinctly chilly. We need to take our winter clothes out of the extra storage closet, and pack away the summer ones. We need to think about Christmas cards and a family newsletter. We need to think about Christmas presents, and Christmas lunch. I realised this when Tim (being our resident true Anglican) told me that next Sunday is the first in Advent, meaning that yesterday was Stir-up Sunday. I don't even know if the 'stir-up' collect is still used, but it's a good day to make Christmas cake and puddings, and mincemeat. That is, if you've bought the ingredients in the previous week, knowing that Advent is approaching fast...

On Saturday afternoon I was too tired to think about anything much. Yesterday I was so glad to feel human again, I caught up with hundreds of emails and overdue blog posts. We felt a bit cold in the evening, but just turned on the portable halogen heater which we had dug out for our cat-minding house-sitting friend while we were away, as she feels the cold quite a lot.

Today we realised we need to get in touch with the guy who owned this house before us, as he said he would show Richard how to service the central heating. Yes, we have central heating, with English-style radiators in every room. But of course the boiler needs servicing before we can switch it on, and Richard has no idea how to do that yet. So he texted, and the guy phoned back and will come over this evening. Perhaps we can be warm during the winter!

And I suppose I should pop round the corner to the very local supermarket to buy large quantities of raisins and sultanas and suet and so on, and get started with the Christmas baking.

But I probably won't until the end of the week.

A typical Cyprus Saturday in April

Tim had a busy day today.

The youth group were doing a 'car wash' in the church car park this morning, to raise funds for their summer camp. So he set off at 9.30am armed with a bucket and an old nappy... yes, when we were back in the UK last October, we discovered a pile of old terry nappies packed away. They made very useful cloths to wrap ornaments in, so they came out here. They're not really in good enough condition to give them to anyone as nappies for babies, but they're just fine as general cloths. So one of them ended its useful life today, washing cars.

He got back at lunch-time, pretty tired, and surprisingly not very wet. Some of the younger youth members had apparently got bored and ended with a water fight, which was probably fun but not very helpful for the people who still wanted their cars washed!

At three o'clock this afternoon he was out again, this time setting up some kind of basic sound system to enable CDs to be played in the church grounds, for the post-Easter children's fair. He also tried to organise some games, but the children just wanted to play football (ie soccer) so he sat and watched.

At half past five he came home, picked up his laptop computer, and went out again - this time to help setting up and running a projector for an inter-church evening, listening to some people who have been working abroad. There was a potluck meal beforehand so he wasn't in to eat.

He just got home. It's only half past eight, but he's shattered!

Meanwhile, I wanted to cut the 'lawn' today. The lawnmower has been very unreliable, and Richard and Tim have given up on trying to fix it. I've discovered that spraying a bit of WD40 into the moving parts seems to trigger it into working for half an hour or so. I don't know why, but that doesn't worry me. We only need to keep it going until we move house, when I shall - with great thankfulness - no longer have to worry about any kind of lawn.

I didn't finish it, but at least neatened up the parts near the house.

Meanwhile again, Dan sent me his latest newsletter, which I've proof-read and forwarded on to family, friends and supporters who've asked for it, and he also sent me some brief posts for his blog, including a picture of himself in a kilt. There's not a whole lot of Scottish blood in him (I think I'm about an eighth Scottish myself) but Scottish country dancing certainly runs in the family. I used to be in a demonstration team, in my late teens and twenties. Dan only took it up recently but seems to have inherited both an interest and skill. Or else he's welcomed and put in the display team because most of the Doulos folk who like to dance are girls, and men are always needed. Oddly enough, this is not sufficient motivation for the majority of the other lads on board to join in!

New Year's Eve

2005 has been a year of milestones, as outlined in our Christmas newsletter. A good year, on the whole. 2006 is going to be much more of a challenge: primarily because Daniel is going to be leaving home in ten days' time, to join the Doulos. He's feeling the mixed anticipation of looking forward, yet hating the thought of goodbyes and of actually leaving.

I'm feeling something of the sort too, but without looking forward to his being away. I'm thrilled that he's strong and healthy, that he wants to be more independent, that he has so many talents. I'm even more pleased that he's never given up on God, and that he's embarking on two years of missionary life and travel. And I'm thankful that he's been happy to stay at home until he's past 19, and even more that we've home educated for the past eight years.

I remember, when Dan was small, I was already aware of the rapid passing of the days. My baby had become a toddler, my toddler was fast turning into a small child. Tim, my second baby, wanted to grow up even faster. I found myself wishing children didn't change so fast, that I could somehow freeze time. Then we met a family with a child who would never grow up. He had multiple serious health and mental problems, meaning he would never walk, or eat independently, or stop wearing nappies. He couldn't talk, and had to be taken everywhere in a custom-designed wheelchair. He had to have medication injected each day, and was going to be entirely dependent on his family for the rest of his life, however long that was.

I was humbled, and saddened. I also realised that it's right and good for children to grow up, to develop new skills, and eventually to become independent. I started to give thanks for the contented passing of the days, and my children's growing skills, rather than regretting the swift passage of time.

In retrospect, nineteen years seem to have whizzed by. They've been the most fulfilling of my life, and I don't feel ready for the 'empty nest' just yet. I'm glad Tim will still be here for at least another year or two, although I'm sure he'll want to be independent before long.

This week, there's a lot to do. Dan's been working on de-cluttering his room, and the last couple of workbooks from his home education coursework. He's worked out what he wants to take with him (maximum 20kg, plus hand luggage) and done an initial packing. He has one more drum lesson, and perhaps one more clarinet lesson. He's teaching himself German. He's practising his juggling and working out how to make more clubs when he's on the ship:


He also wants to learn to cook. Tim started cooking about nine years ago and is now competent at almost any meal. Dan hasn't been interested in any cooking other than making salads and herbal teas (from dried herbs). But on the Doulos there aren't many options for vegetarians, and in the two months he was there in the summer, he got very bored of white rice and vegetables. Apparently there are extra little kitchens where people can make their own meals if they want to - on occasion - so he wants to know how to cook a few favourites.

I learned to cook by following recipes, and Tim seemed to pick it up by osmosis (and reading), as happens in home education. But Dan hasn't, and I don't really know how to teach him. But we've decided that for the next week he'll choose the menus for our evening meals, and cook them too, with me directing. Tonight we started with basic spaghetti and an onion/garlic/tomato sauce. One of Dan's favourites, and pretty simple. He also cooked frozen peas in the microwave, and stir-fried courgette slices in oil:


It turned out fine, and I'm sure he'll turn into a competent cook once he's more confident. So long as he doesn't get distracted...

Oh, and there's one more thing I've agreed to do. Something I never expected to have to do when we decided to continue with home education after our initial trial. Indeed it's a bit of a standing joke in some British home ed circles, due to something written in the book Free Range Education. One of the mothers who contributed ended her piece by saying that an added benefit of home education was that she would never again have to sew on name-tapes.

But guess what Dan needs for his time on the Doulos? Name-tapes! All the laundry is done centrally, and although small items go in a mesh bag, all the trousers and shirts and so on need to be labelled clearly. We still have plenty from his time in school in the UK, so this is going to be a big task for me this coming week.

I usually prick my finger several times when sewing, so if there are a few tears in my eyes I can always explain them away...

Christmas family newsletter 2005

December 2005

Dear Family and Friends,

2005 has been quite a year of milestones for the whole family....

... the rest of this newsletter can now be found on our family site, at the Christmas newsletter 2005 page.

Encounter in the Post Office

Note to self: allow a WHOLE DAY next year for writing Christmas cards, printing and folding newsletters, and getting them posted.

Why do I always think these jobs are going to be quick?!

In the past few years, Daniel's designed Christmas cards for us but this year he was too busy, and out of inspiration, so we decided to send ordinary ones. We always do a family newsletter but I had some ideas, and plenty of digital photos to use. Our colour printer was almost out of ink, but we have a refilling place not far away so on Monday I took the cartridges in, and they were ready Tuesday morning. By then I'd written the newsletter (which I'll post on this blog soon) and got plenty of cards. I got out last year's list, and reckoned we'd need to print about 75 newsletters, and write about 90 cards (local friends don't need newsletters, after all, and there are some people who just get our newsletter).

Then on Tuesday Tim and I spent ages trying to get the printer to work correctly. The images - which should have been excellent quality with our new camera - were blurred, or grainy, or even stripy. Was the cartridge not filled properly, I wondered? Yet the text was fine, and when we did a cartridge align and clean-up in Windows, they showed perfect test pages. We tried different software, we re-sized the photos, and eventually they were acceptable though nowhere near as good as previous years.

That took much of Tuesday. On Wednesday I printed the newsletters, ten at a time, and set to work to write cards, fold newsletters and address envelopes. Since I had other things to do as well, it was after midnight by the time I'd finished.

And so to the Post Office early Thursday morning. I got there by 9am and there was only one person in front of me. The postmistress was a bit surprised when I asked for 70 stamps to the UK (and two to the USA) and I was pleased to see there was plenty of space at the table for me to do my sticking of stamps! Thankfully there was one of those little roller gadgets with water so I didn't have to lick over 210 stamps (two 15c and a 1c per letter).

As I got started, so the Post Office began to fill up. I had to move to make room for others. And then after about half an hour about 20 small children came in, with three or four harrassed looking adults. Presumably some nursery school or kindergarten class, come on a little field trip to see the Post Office, and to see how to post letters. Maybe they had made cards for their parents, since one of the teachers had a list of the children, and called them one at a time to post a letter. Meanwhile the others milled around - and it's not a big place. It's a sub Post Office, not the main one, and with 20 children there wasn't much room for anyone else.

Some of them were very interested in what I was doing, and asked me about it. But, alas, they were Greek children and even after eight years here I speak almost no Greek. Usually this isn't a problem as most adults have excellent English, but these children were only about four or five years old. I smiled at them, and nodded, and they nudged each other and kept on talking but of course I couldn't communicate.

For the first time, I felt really bad about not speaking Greek. Usually I get along well with children, and I'd love to have been able to talk to them about what I was doing, and who I was sending cards to, and why I needed so many stamps. Cyprus doesn't yet have a strict child protection policy like the UK (where, probably, children wouldn't be allowed to go near strangers in the Post Office, no matter how many teachers were present) but in general I don't come in contact much with Greek-speaking children.

I don't make New Year resolutions as such, but at that moment I determined that I would put a lot of effort into learning Greek next year!

What happened to the past week?!

So, our freight came and I was pretty occupied with finding space for books, and kitchen utensils.

But it didn't take THAT long, yet I don't seem to have written anything much for over two weeks. I suppose it's another odd time of year... cooler, but not cold. Dark evenings, but warm sunny daytimes. Only three weeks until Christmas, but despite the climate here being similar to that of Bethelehem, it doesn't feel like Advent. Even though we have Advent candles at our church, and poinsettias decorating the window sills.

Tim's had a really bad cold for the past week, and although the rest of us seem to have avoided it - so far, anyway - I've felt tired and a bit headachey for the past couple of days, and Dan's had a 24-hour gastroenteritis type of bug. At least, we hope it's a 24-hour one. The worst of it took place this morning. Even boiled water wasn't staying down at first, but I remembered a doctor's tip to give fizzy drinks, and dug out a bottle of Sprite left over from some party. It contains valuable electrolytes, apparently, and sure enough he found that was acceptable. Funny how something basically rather unhealthy can have good results during sickness.

Organised people are 'ready for Christmas' by about the end of November. One day perhaps I'll join their ranks, but I doubt it. We do better than we used to: most of the family's gifts were sorted while we were in the UK in October, and there are only one or two more to order. Online buying has made life a great deal easier in that respect. I made my Christmas cake a couple of weeks ago too. That always needs about six weeks to mature, ideally, and for once it should have it.

But the mincemeat and Christmas pudding ingredients are still sitting in the cupboard. Dan's thinking about a Christmas card design but hasn't yet produced one. We were thinking of taking some family photos but haven't got around to it. And our annual newsletter is no more than a few jottings in the back of a notebook, so far.

There's also a fair amount to do before Daniel joins the Doulos for two years. Such as booking his ticket to Germany on Jan 11th or 12th, where he has to go first for a conference! He also needs a new passport: his current one is a children's five-year passport due to expire at the end of next year. Apparently it can't be turned into an adult one, instead we have to buy a new full one. Shouldn't be a problem, but it means getting photos and going to Nicosia to the British Embassy. And probably hanging around for a few hours.

He probably needs one more vaccination before leaving, and we also need to sort out his medical and travel insurance, and the insuring of his laptop computer and clarinet while away. Oh, and I need to sew name-tapes onto some of his clothes... something I thought I wouldn't have to do any more once we started home educating. Just as well I kept the ones we didn't use!

Still, our church and some of our friends are generously helping with his financial support for the two years he'll be away, so that's very encouraging. And he did have most of the necessary vaccinations before going on the short-term trip in the summer.