Three weeks out of Cyprus

On August 20th, I flew to the UK for a three-week visit to family and friends. This was partly prompted by the need to get out of Cyprus for a few weeks in the hottest part of the year, partly by a wish to see the family again, and partly so that I could deposit a cheque in our UK bank account which, if successful, would actually pay for the flights! (see note at the end for explanation)*

The flight took me to Gatwick arriving around 10.30pm so I had checked into a Travelodge nearby, which I reached via the useful shuttle bus. I slept well, had a good breakfast, and then returned, also by shuttle bus, to the airport. That's because the next part of my journey was by train. While I am very comfortable with buses, and reasonably so with aeroplanes, I didn't grow up using trains, and find them a little nerve-wracking, at least until I'm safely seated and have had ample confirmation that I'm on the right one.

The train was on time, and I even thought to take a photo of a station that we passed through; living in Cyprus for so long, even railways stations strike me as interesting:

Tim met me in Surrey, where he's now living and working, and I checked in at a very nice 'airb&b' place about a mile and a half from where he is now staying. We had lunch out, and during the course of the day did rather a lot of walking - seven miles in all, he calculated - which unfortunately left my knees very painful for a while. Perhaps middle age is finally hitting me; arthritis is on both sides of the family.

So when it was time for me to return to my b&b, he introduced me to 'Uber taxis', which he booked and even paid for via his phone. Inexpensive, efficient, and quick. Technology is sometimes a good thing.

On Monday we caught a local train into Epsom, so I could bank my cheque. And while I'm not a great fan of shopping in general, I do like the variety of big UK stores, so I popped into several, becoming gradually aware that Tim was hustling me on.  I then discovered that he had a terrific surprise awaiting me:

Yes!  A Lakeland shop waiting to be browsed!  I was so pleased.  Not that I bought anything, since I recently had a delivery to Cyprus from their website, but I do like looking around.  Other than bookshops, Lakeland is probably my favourite of all UK shops.

By using trains and another Uber taxi, my knees were fine by the end of the day. But we were both tired, so we decided to spend Tuesday in a large park about mid-way between where we were both staying. The weather was warm, the benches inviting, and we both had our Kindles.  There's a small library in the park so Tim joined it and took out his first book.

We had lunch at a nice little cafe set around the back of the library, and in the afternoon I was able to meet up with a university friend who lives just a few miles away, and whom I had not seen for 34 years. It was very good to catch up.

On Wednesday we caught more trains to go and visit my mother-in-law who lives about an hour's journey away, and on Thursday we decided to hang out in the park again and have another quiet day. We watched the birds on the lake:

... and I had a sudden craving for ice cream. Joy of joys, the little cafe sold Magnums:

Tim, being dairy-free, had to have a Calippo, and we were a little startled to notice that one of the three languages on the side was Greek:

We had dinner out, in the evening, with my aunt and uncle who are also about an hour's journey away, and then on the Friday I got on another train to travel to the Midlands. Actually it was four trains in all: three normal ones, and one London Underground. I was particularly nervous about the Underground as I'm not at all familiar with it, but was reassured to learn that it was a fifteen-minute journey, and I had an hour between my two trains.

I was met at Stratford by my father and his wife, in good spirits and, happily, good health, and after we arrived at their house my sister and niece arrived for the day.

We had a delicious lunch, which included this wonderful looking (and even better tasting) cheesecake:

On Saturday we spent most of the day with some step-relatives, on Sunday we went to the local church and had a peaceful afternoon. On Monday, which was a public holiday in the UK, my two brothers and their wives came for lunch and the afternoon, and when we went for a walk we took some carrier bags so that we could collect some local blackberries:

The following day we drove into Stratford so my father could buy a reconditioned laptop, and it was a beautiful day:

Among other things we popped into the Stratford Lakeland - not a surprise this time, as I knew it was there, but still interesting to see:

And here's the obligatory photo of Shakespeare's birthplace:

The rest of the week passed peacefully with local walks:

I was very interested to see this telephone box. It's not exactly a tardis but nonetheless a great deal bigger on the inside than it appears, since it functions as a local free library/book exchange:

The week passed happily, doing a bit of gardening, and on Friday I caught another train, this time to Birmingham. I was met by one of my closest and longest-standing friends who treated me to lunch in the Art Gallery, and we then looked at some of the painted benches that have been part of a schools 'book' project. I particularly liked this one portraying Alice in Wonderland:

Outside, Birmingham seems to have endless construction work; it's different every time I visit (which, admittedly, isn't all that often!)

I stayed for the weekend, spending lots of time catching up on our lives and families, and also meeting my friend's new grandson - the son of my goddaughter - who is delightful.

And then, at last, another train, up to Carlisle to see Daniel, Becky, and my wonderful grandson David who has just turned two-and-a-quarter:

The weather wasn't nearly so good as it had been further south; but then September had started.

David is very lively so we went on lots of walks:

He's interested in everything, but most of all anything technical or mechanical. Here he is, pausing to look at some diggers...

The time went all too quickly, and on Saturday I caught yet another train to Manchester Airport, and flew back to Cyprus. I wasn't prepared for the humidity, but at least it's a few degrees cooler than it was when I departed three weeks earlier.


*I mentioned back in April that my flight to the UK then was delayed by 24 hours. We put in a claim, and within a few weeks of my return I was sent a cheque for 400 euros. I was surprised at how easy it seemed to be, from a budget airline that isn't renowned for paying out compensation claims quickly.

The first problem arose when I tried to deposit it in our Cyprus bank account. At the bottom was a note saying that the cheque could only be deposited in the UK. Bizarre, I thought, since it was a euro cheque, but Tim was flying to the UK in May, so I signed the back and made sure he had our UK bank account details, and passed it to him. When he tried to deposit it, he was told that I would have to authorise the commission charges and exchange rate, so it could only be deposited by me.

Since the cheque was going to expire within six months of issue, it was the final push I needed to check details and arrange to visit various family members for three weeks in August.

Happy New Year (from a chilly but mostly sunny Cyprus)

After the busy-ness of the pre-Christmas season, and the socialising and eating of the day itself, we decided to take a couple of days out as a family. As there are six of us, we rented a large car for a couple of days (courtesy of our friendly local car rental guy who had taken his seven-seater off the road for the winter, but was still prepared to give us a good price to use it).

The weather was due to be mostly sunny but a bit chilly on New Year's Eve, so we thought we'd head to Kurium, the archaeological site a little beyond Limassol. Becky had only been there once before - when she and Daniel were newly engaged, and we went to see a Shakespeare production - but there was no opportunity, then, to see anything other than the amphitheatre.

We had a slight contretemps on the way there, when David reached for the door handle of the car, while we were driving along the motorway, and managed to open the door.. but Becky held it closed until Richard pulled over onto the hard shoulder, and after some study of the car manual Daniel discovered how to set the childproof lock on the door.

By the time we arrived, David was more than ready for some walking. He's very independent and doesn't like holding a hand, unless he needs it for extra balance, so he wears a little backpack (which he loves) that has an attached leash to keep him safe:

We were impressed with the way he climbed the amphitheatre steps at great speed, full of energy, despite the fact that each stair was about waist-high for him:

Since the last time we visited, more paths have been set out, making it easier to visit the entire site, which is pretty big. Although we've been several times before, we'd never previously noticed what Becky pointed out: a floor with hexagonal tiles to play an ancient game of Settlers of Catan....

Despite being decidedly chilly in places, walking kept us warm, and the sunshine on the nearby sea was very attractive:

Here's a place showing how the under-floor heating for the Kurium baths would have worked a couple of thousand years ago:

And here's one of the mosaics that still remains, despite being battered by the elements over the centuries:

Richard took his big camera and a tripod so we could take some family photos using the timer, and David insisted on carrying the tripod some of the time:

Eventually we'd had enough of walking and decided to find a nearby taverna to have some lunch. Here we are finding our way back to the car:

In the evening we were invited for a meal at our local friends' house, followed by some games:

We didn't stay till midnight. David and his parents left about 8.30, although Becky returned half an hour later once he was settled, but by about 11.15 at least two of us were yawning, and could see no point in staying up just for the sake of saying we'd done so. By the time I'd done a bit of necessary pottering in the kitchen, after returning home, it was midnight anyway so I heard the short burst of local fireworks, but shortly afterwards was fast asleep. And to my astonishment, I slept until 8.00am... two hours later than usual.

Today we decided to go in the opposite direction and explore some of the region beyond Agia Napa, where there are sea caves and (we've been told) some interesting walks. Since it's New Year's Day we didn't want to risk potentially spending a long time trying to find an open restaurant, so we took the makings of a picnic; I made some hummus and cut up some vegetables and removed some pittas from the freezer...

It was even colder when we arrived at Cape Greko, but good to be able to see the caves, even though we had no desire to get wet trying to explore them. This is the area where hardy and brave people like to jump into the sea, but it doesn't appeal to any of us... and there was nobody attempting it today.

Another scenic shot of sunlight glinting on the sea with some rock formations in the foreground:

We soon realised there wasn't very far that we could walk easily, so we drove a bit further to Konos Bay, considered a particularly attractive spot. Daniel decided to carry David in the Ergo carrier, after he (David, that is) had done a bit of running around:

We set off on a reasonable looking path to find some other caves, or perhaps the beach:

However the path got more complex, requiring significant scrambling, and we didn't feel like continuing to the end.

We looked at the beach - which colleagues took us to visit eighteen years ago, but which we hadn't been to since - but it looked cold, and the place selling drinks was closed, and we were beginning to feel a bit peckish.

We hadn't planned to have our picnic on the beach, but were surprised to find that eating, along with various other activities, is prohibited:

Since everything was closed - even the loos - we decided to use the outside restaurant tables and chairs to eat our lunch, which was slightly delayed due to the pittas being still partly frozen... however we waved them around in the sunshine, and laid them out separately on our plastic plates, and gradually they thawed sufficiently to eat.

However we felt extremely cold by the time we'd finished, so packed up and drove into Agia Napa, hoping to find somewhere to buy hot drinks.

It was like a ghost town: most places were closed, many boarded up or empty. But at last we saw an open Coffee Island, and it even had a parking space outside:

It was playing standard UK secular Christmas music of the kind I haven't heard in a long time. I commented to Daniel that it was the first time this year I'd heard the song 'I wish it could be Christmas every day...' and he said, 'Ha ha.' I'd forgotten that it was the first day of a new year...

After hot drinks all round (and a large cookie for David!) we decided to return home, where two people took naps, three played another game, and I decided to upload my photos and write my first blog post of the year.

Different spelling, different forecast...

From time to time I check the weather forecast on the site calling itself 'The Weather Site'. It's UK based but gives reasonable forecasts that are usually fairly accurate for any city around the world. We're having visitors for the next ten days, and it's stayed warmer than usual for the time of year, so I wondered if it was expected to continue. I took a look at the weather site today, and without thinking, typed in 'Larnaka', which is the way we usually spell our town.

A forecast appeared, and when I asked for the month view, it showed me one.. but, mysteriously, did not show me the actual recorded temperatures for the earlier part of November. I realised that I have previously asked for Larnaca (with a 'c') so I typed that in. Sure enough, the month view showed me the temperatures for the earlier part of the month.

Then I noticed that this wasn't the only difference (you may have to click the image to be able to read the text):

The changes aren't vast - just a degree or so most days - but I was particularly struck by the fact that rain is forecast next Thursday in Larnaka, but not, apparently, in Larnaca...