... that the sixth Harry Potter book was published today. I don't even know if it was released in Cyprus. The Greek version won't be available until late Autumn, apparently, though I'm sure the English one will sooner or later.
However I couldn't forget about it for long, as it seems to be the main topic of discussion on many forums and blogs today. Not surprising, I suppose: it has been an astoundingly successful series. Personally I think all the hype is ridiculous - encouraging children to queue up for hours just to get a copy at midnight, or pre-ordering online so as to have the book the day it's published. Not to mention all the extra marketing junk that's grown up around this series.
But I do like the books. Sooner or later, we'll probably get the new one. I know there are some Christians who would consider me a heretic - or worse - for thinking they're good books. But then most of the hype against them is (in my opinion) just as ridiculous as the manufacturing hype surrounding them. I found an excellent, well-balanced article here which talks about positive ways in which Christian parents can use the series. Not by banning them, or insisting they're full of every kind of evil, but by talking about them, seeing the good themes (of which there are many) and realising, most of all, that they're fiction.
Why is there such a huge reaction against these books, yet few people seem to worry about witches or wizards in - say - JRR Tolkien's work, or Terry Pratchett's, or the classic children's book and film, The Wizard of Oz? As far as I understand it, it all started back in 2000 when the satirical online newspaper The Onion posted an article saying that children reading these books were turning to satanism. Not actually a funny suggestion, but it was written in such an over-the-top way (with ridiculous pictures) that nobody in their right mind would take it seriously. The whole site is full of spoofs, some of them in very bad taste - it's not something I generally read at all. But I certainly wouldn't believe anything I read there.
Unfortunately, some people did believe it. Email messages started circulating, blowing the entire thing out of proportion. And then, of course, people who had never even heard of the books before, or hadn't bothered reading them, decided to find out what the fuss was about. Here's a summary on Snopes of what happened. I expect the publishers were delighted: controversy like this was bound to multiply their sales hugely, and that's what happened.
So Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is out, and apparently will answer some questions from the previous novels. I'm somewhat intrigued, and am sure it will be a good read. I expect my sons will enjoy it too. Perhaps I'll read it aloud to them when Dan gets back from Africa in late August. But even if we're in the UK when the seventh and final book comes out, I won't be queuing at midnight for it.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Considering Canon cameras....
Following the sad (and annoying) loss of our digital camera on holiday last week, I've been pondering replacing it. Thanks to generous relatives I have some birthday and Christmas money unspent, as well as some - unexpectedly - in honour of our 25th anniversary.
The choice is overwhelming. There are several well-known quality camera manufacturers - Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Canon, etc - who each seem to make a huge variety of digital cameras. I tried researching on Amazon UK, Ciao UK and Dooyoo UK, but they didn't help. It seems that most people are happy with whatever they've bought, and they all have similar features within any price range.
I asked on an online forum, and was directed to the excellent DPReview site. Here, up to ten cameras can be selected from a lengthy list, and compared side to side. Some of them have online galleries, most of them have brief reviews. There's also a way of selecting by features and price, to narrow down the selection.
However I was also advised to have a look at actual cameras, see what appealed, find out how easy they were for me to use. So this morning we went into the town and visited three or four camera shops. There aren't any huge electrical stores that sell dozens of options - instead each shop seemed to sell from just a couple of manufacturers, and only one or two models. Prices were much higher than in the UK, but we didn't expect to buy one here unless offered a considerable discount. I found in handling them that I didn't like the very light ones. They seemed fiddly, and I thought they would be difficult to hold still. My 35mm camera weighs about 250g, and the lost digital was about the same; I decided that was around the weight I was looking for.
We jotted down brands and prices, and came back to compare with Amazon UK. Most of the models here are no longer available in the UK, apparently, and if they are they're about 75% of the price.
So we went back to DPReview, and checked the galleries. I have a high-resolution flatscreen monitor on this computer, so differences in quality were quite amazing. Not that any of the photos in the galleries were bad - they were all at least as good as our old camera, mostly better.
But there were just a few cameras which stood out as being stunning - unbelievably sharp, excellent colour, a real delight on the screen. Every one of them was, to our surprise, a Canon. Even at the cheapest ranges and lowest megapixels, Canon stood out from the rest in photo quality.
So now we've narrowed the vast choice down to four, all of them by Canon: A85, A95, A510 and A520. The latter two are newer models, but they all look excellent. The A520 is a little beyond our expected price-range, but then again if it's good enough for enlarged prints, I wouldn't need to use my 35mm camera at all, and that would save costs over the next few years.
To my surprise, it seems as though Amazon UK has the best prices for these cameras. They won't deliver cameras outside the UK, but that's OK: we'll be back there in October, or may be able to get a delivery sent to someone coming out here. The only places cheaper are one or two online shops that only deliver within the UK to the registered credit card address. Even more surprisingly, Argos - supposedly the discount catalogue store - is significantly more expensive than anywhere else!
Any comments about these cameras, positive or negative, would be very welcome.
The choice is overwhelming. There are several well-known quality camera manufacturers - Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Canon, etc - who each seem to make a huge variety of digital cameras. I tried researching on Amazon UK, Ciao UK and Dooyoo UK, but they didn't help. It seems that most people are happy with whatever they've bought, and they all have similar features within any price range.
I asked on an online forum, and was directed to the excellent DPReview site. Here, up to ten cameras can be selected from a lengthy list, and compared side to side. Some of them have online galleries, most of them have brief reviews. There's also a way of selecting by features and price, to narrow down the selection.
However I was also advised to have a look at actual cameras, see what appealed, find out how easy they were for me to use. So this morning we went into the town and visited three or four camera shops. There aren't any huge electrical stores that sell dozens of options - instead each shop seemed to sell from just a couple of manufacturers, and only one or two models. Prices were much higher than in the UK, but we didn't expect to buy one here unless offered a considerable discount. I found in handling them that I didn't like the very light ones. They seemed fiddly, and I thought they would be difficult to hold still. My 35mm camera weighs about 250g, and the lost digital was about the same; I decided that was around the weight I was looking for.
We jotted down brands and prices, and came back to compare with Amazon UK. Most of the models here are no longer available in the UK, apparently, and if they are they're about 75% of the price.
So we went back to DPReview, and checked the galleries. I have a high-resolution flatscreen monitor on this computer, so differences in quality were quite amazing. Not that any of the photos in the galleries were bad - they were all at least as good as our old camera, mostly better.
But there were just a few cameras which stood out as being stunning - unbelievably sharp, excellent colour, a real delight on the screen. Every one of them was, to our surprise, a Canon. Even at the cheapest ranges and lowest megapixels, Canon stood out from the rest in photo quality.
So now we've narrowed the vast choice down to four, all of them by Canon: A85, A95, A510 and A520. The latter two are newer models, but they all look excellent. The A520 is a little beyond our expected price-range, but then again if it's good enough for enlarged prints, I wouldn't need to use my 35mm camera at all, and that would save costs over the next few years.
To my surprise, it seems as though Amazon UK has the best prices for these cameras. They won't deliver cameras outside the UK, but that's OK: we'll be back there in October, or may be able to get a delivery sent to someone coming out here. The only places cheaper are one or two online shops that only deliver within the UK to the registered credit card address. Even more surprisingly, Argos - supposedly the discount catalogue store - is significantly more expensive than anywhere else!
Any comments about these cameras, positive or negative, would be very welcome.
Watermelon woes
On the whole, we love watermelon. They're huge at this time of year in Cyprus, and very inexpensive. A couple of weeks ago we had a beautifully sweet and juicy one, so we decided to buy another yesterday morning, when doing our weekly supermarket visit. Richard's been shown by the locals how and where to tap a watermelon to tell when it's ripe, so he tapped several, and managed to find a smallish one that sounded exactly right. With Dan in Africa, and Tim camping in the mountains with the youth group this weekend, there are only two of us in the house for a few days.
I put the watermelon straight in the fridge when we got home. In the evening, after supper, Richard cut it up - or half of it. He cut off the peel and chopped it into chunks. The colour was gorgeous, a deep pinkish-red, and there weren't even very many pips (seedless watermelons are unknown here).
I took my first piece. Cool and crunchy, yes. Juicy, yes. Sweet - no, not really. Rather bland, in fact. Ah well, it happens. Even tasteless watermelons are refreshing.
I took another piece. It gave me a faint fizzing sensation on my tongue, rather unexpectedly. I frowned. I commented that perhaps we should eat it fairly quickly as I didn't think it was going to keep long, since it tasted as if it was about to ferment.
Richard took a piece. He was less fortunate than me... he took one bite, and couldn't eat the rest. He said he thought it had already gone bad. I tried one more piece, and agreed with him. When we smelled it closely, there was a definite (albeit faint) sour aroma.
We've never had this happen before; usually watermelons start to go soft before they go bad. But... this is Cyprus. Life is rarely predictable. So we shrugged and then threw the entire thing on the compost heap.
I put the watermelon straight in the fridge when we got home. In the evening, after supper, Richard cut it up - or half of it. He cut off the peel and chopped it into chunks. The colour was gorgeous, a deep pinkish-red, and there weren't even very many pips (seedless watermelons are unknown here).
I took my first piece. Cool and crunchy, yes. Juicy, yes. Sweet - no, not really. Rather bland, in fact. Ah well, it happens. Even tasteless watermelons are refreshing.
I took another piece. It gave me a faint fizzing sensation on my tongue, rather unexpectedly. I frowned. I commented that perhaps we should eat it fairly quickly as I didn't think it was going to keep long, since it tasted as if it was about to ferment.
Richard took a piece. He was less fortunate than me... he took one bite, and couldn't eat the rest. He said he thought it had already gone bad. I tried one more piece, and agreed with him. When we smelled it closely, there was a definite (albeit faint) sour aroma.
We've never had this happen before; usually watermelons start to go soft before they go bad. But... this is Cyprus. Life is rarely predictable. So we shrugged and then threw the entire thing on the compost heap.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Hot, hot, hot....
Yes, Summer is here. I don't do well in the heat although I've acclimatised somewhat in the (nearly) eight years we've been here. I no longer find 25C to be unbearably hot, as I did when we lived in the UK. On the other hand, I still don't cope with 35C [95F] and that's what the shade temperatures have been for the past couple of days. Richard likes it, and Tim's been out and about with some of the youth group without problem, but I find it draining and can get little done.
The last couple of days I've been doing some early-morning weeding - the back garden needs it badly, despite lack of rain - but by about 8.45am it becomes too hot for me, as the sun creeps over the garden and the shade temperature rises beyond about 28C [82F]. So I come inside, turn on the aircon unit in the living room, and spend most of my day in here. I don't think it's working as effectively as it did last year, but the room stays around 27-28C and is dehumidified, so it's a great deal pleasanter than the rest of the house.
The kitchen has usually cooled to 28C by about 6pm, but last night it was still 34C even at that time... not good. I guess this is a heatwave even by Cyprus terms, but it's no fun. We had a minimal-cooking meal, of which Richard organised the majority, and I didn't clear up the kitchen until 10pm by which time it was just about bearable. Thankfully I don't have problems sleeping, so long as there's a fan running, but somehow Summer feels like an endurance test out here.
The last couple of days I've been doing some early-morning weeding - the back garden needs it badly, despite lack of rain - but by about 8.45am it becomes too hot for me, as the sun creeps over the garden and the shade temperature rises beyond about 28C [82F]. So I come inside, turn on the aircon unit in the living room, and spend most of my day in here. I don't think it's working as effectively as it did last year, but the room stays around 27-28C and is dehumidified, so it's a great deal pleasanter than the rest of the house.
The kitchen has usually cooled to 28C by about 6pm, but last night it was still 34C even at that time... not good. I guess this is a heatwave even by Cyprus terms, but it's no fun. We had a minimal-cooking meal, of which Richard organised the majority, and I didn't clear up the kitchen until 10pm by which time it was just about bearable. Thankfully I don't have problems sleeping, so long as there's a fan running, but somehow Summer feels like an endurance test out here.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
The Mini-Cruise
After much fighting with wires, drivers and other techie stuff, Tim managed to get the scanner working on his computer. So I scanned some of Richard's photos of our holiday last week, and with a bit more effort Tim transferred them to my computer. Then I started writing.... and after about ten minutes the browser crashed. 'Recover post' did nothing, so I'm trying again... and ensuring I save draft copies several times!
We set off from Limassol port early on the Sunday afternoon. Our ship, the SS Ausonia, was towed out by a tug-boat. It was very calm, even once we were out in the Mediterranean, so much so that I was barely aware of the motion.
Lunch was served almost immediately, although as we'd bought filled rolls in the port we weren't very hungry. Still, the vast array of buffet choices was tempting, so we had some salads. We were a bit disappointed to find that coffee was not included along with the meal - nor was any other drink - but managed to find a comfortable lounge bar which sold reasonable coffee afterwards.
Our cabin was pleasant - reasonably roomy with quite a bit of storage space to unpack all our clothes. It looked out over a sundeck, with mirrored glass in the window so nobody could see in! The only problem was that it was directly underneath another sundeck, so when we tried to rest for a bit, we were almost deafened by the thumps of children rushing around exploring the ship! Still, there were plenty of other places to sit and read, the only disadvantage being a distinct lack of non-smoking areas. Most of the passengers were Cypriots, and this is a nation which, by and large, smokes very heavily.
The evening meal was more formal, with allocated places at tables and a menu (albeit not particularly well-printed!). There were four courses, each with two or three options including vegetarian ones. Service was smooth and efficient, and the food excellent. We were at a table with another 'foreign' couple and an Egyptian waiter.
On Monday afternoon, as per schedule, we arrived at Patmos. The stop at this island was one of the reasons we decided on this particular mini-cruise: it's the place where John the Apostle was exiled, and where he wrote the book of Revelation. We had booked a guided tour which was with other English-speaking people and a bilingual guide. We all had to climb into a small 'tender' boat (like a bus on water) to get from the Ausonia to the shore.
Of course we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the cave of the Apocalypse, or the monasteries. We had to buy a postcard for this image of the inside of the cave where - apparently - John (or his scribe) did most of the writing. To the Greek Orthodox majority of visitors this is a very holy place; they lit candles and kissed icons. To those of us who are Protestant Christians, and even to some with no faith, it was still an awe-inspiring experience.
I took several photos of the various places we visited, on the digital camera which I later lost. Sigh. Richard took a few although most of them had me in the foreground - such as this one, where we waited to go inside a monastery. We lost track of the number of different places we visited; each of them was fascinating but since we had to fit the tour into about three hours, we didn't really have long enough anywhere. It would be good to go there again one day, with longer to see around at our own leisure - and fewer crowds of people!
This is part of another postcard, showing another of the monasteries. In one of them, the Greek Orthodox people were able to take part in a brief communion service, but of course this option wasn't open to Protestants. Still, it meant we had slightly longer in the museum. Perhaps the most awesome things we saw were preserved documents from the Bible - one ancient piece of papyrus, and some beautiful calligraphy-style copied works from the Middle Ages. I began to see how the monks and priests several hundred years ago really did work to give glory to God in the painstaking care they took to preserve and copy the Scriptures.
After the tour, we did get a chance to shop in the harbour town - Skala, as it's called locally - which was pleasant and cool. To our surprise and delight we found a small bookshop which had second-hand books, many of them in English, upstairs. This is a most unflattering picture of me, but editing it out cut out too much of the rest of the photo!
Although we left the ship via tender, the Captain had managed to manoevre it into the harbour, so we could re-board whenever we liked. No doubt he saved a bit by not having to book tenders again, but I'm sure he must have regretted this decision heartily over the next 16 hours. The Ausonia bumped the side of the dock on the way out, and we had to wait for 16 hours until an inspector arrived from Athens to check that the ship was still seaworthy. As a result, we missed out on the trip to Kos which should have been on our schedule.
On Tuesday we were given free drinks with all our meals, which I'm sure helped to keep people cheerful as we sat and looked out at Patmos for hours! By early afternoon, we set off again on a revised schedule, and arrived at the lovely island of Tinos by early evening. There were plenty of shops, still open, clearly geared at tourist so we wandered around for a while before finding ourselves at the top of a small hill, where this church was the centre of attraction. After dark it was floodlight, and really very attractive. We didn't go inside, though.
On Wednesday morning we arrived at Volos. We thought this was a bit of a mistake, really - it's a port in mainland Greece, apparently the third or fourth largest city in the country, and famous for having been the home of Jason (of Argonaut fame). However it was basically just a large, busy city. We would have preferred the revised schedule to have missed out Volos and visited Kos, and we were not alone in this!
Some people had booked excursions from Volos, but they included two-hour drives in coaches to and from the places to be visited, and we didn't really want that. So we wandered around the town in the morning, went back to the ship for lunch, and then sat reading by on one of the decks outside, taking advantage of the relative emptiness of the ship as most other people were out and about.
On Thursday we arrived in Santorini in the morning. This is part of a volcanic island, but we did not stop for long enough to visit the still smoking crater. I was rather dubious about visiting the town of Thira, which is at the top of a cliff. The only way to get there is via cable-car, or via donkey, unless one wishes to walk up 560 or so steps. We decided the cable car would be quicker, cooler,and less terrifying for someone like me who does not like heights! Sure enough, it only took five minutes and I shut my eyes for most of the journey. Richard took this photo looking down into the harbour where the Ausonia was anchored. This time we had to take tender boats to and from the shore!
Santorini was a delightful town with lots of interesting shops, although as I lost my digital camera here (and can only assume it must have been stolen since it wasn't where I must have left it, nor had any of the shop-owners nearby had it handed in) I have mixed feelings about it. It was as Richard took this photo of an unusual church tower that I realised the digital camera was missing. I was already feeling hot and sticky but we rushed back to the place where we had stopped for ice-creams a little earlier, and I was very upset to find the camera gone.
Of course we had to get back down to shore again, and by this time it was nearly 12.00 noon. The last tender for the Ausonia was due to leave at 1.00pm so we had plenty of time to catch a cable-car. Or so we thought! Unfortunately, when we reached the place where the cable-cars started, there were crowds and crowds of people waiting. Not just from our ship, but from other ships which had arrived shortly afterwards. With only six cars taking six people each, we guessed it would be at least an hour and a half before we got a place.
So our only option was to go back to the steps. No way was I going to ride a donkey - the poor things looked hot and tired, and not very happy, besides probably being uncomfortable! But more than that, the thought of riding down that many steps was not something I could even consider. So we set out to walk.... not easy since we shared the steps with the donkeys, and there wasn't a whole lot of shade. There was no way to avoid stepping in donkey mess, either. By the time we'd walked down those 560 steps I was utterly exhausted, my legs were shaking, and my clothes were totally stuck to me! The only thing I wanted was a cool shower - something which, thankfully, was easy to take as soon as we got back to our cabin before lunch.
In the evening was the final dinner, at which some people dressed up a little more than usual although many didn't. Richard's tie never came out of the wardrobe all week! The waiters, mostly Egyptian and Filipino, were a talented bunch - a couple of times during the week, including that last evening, they entertained us with some songs. On the last evening they sang 'Leaving on a jet-plane' and others with similar sentiment!
For the grand finale of the evening - and the culmination of a week of absolutely fabulous food - the chef had organised baked alaska. For 350 people. The waiters did a parade around the room with one each, set alight to brown the meringue outside. Actually it wasn't the best dessert I'd eaten during the week, but probably the most impressive.
So that was really the end of the trip, although it took until Friday mid-afternoon to get back to Limassol. It sounds quite a short trip, and we had been a bit worried the time might fly past, but in the event it actually felt like more than five days. I suppose seeing somewhere new each day means there are plenty of different experiences, and we certainly felt more relaxed by the end despite the many stresses (see the post below this one!).
We set off from Limassol port early on the Sunday afternoon. Our ship, the SS Ausonia, was towed out by a tug-boat. It was very calm, even once we were out in the Mediterranean, so much so that I was barely aware of the motion.Lunch was served almost immediately, although as we'd bought filled rolls in the port we weren't very hungry. Still, the vast array of buffet choices was tempting, so we had some salads. We were a bit disappointed to find that coffee was not included along with the meal - nor was any other drink - but managed to find a comfortable lounge bar which sold reasonable coffee afterwards.
Our cabin was pleasant - reasonably roomy with quite a bit of storage space to unpack all our clothes. It looked out over a sundeck, with mirrored glass in the window so nobody could see in! The only problem was that it was directly underneath another sundeck, so when we tried to rest for a bit, we were almost deafened by the thumps of children rushing around exploring the ship! Still, there were plenty of other places to sit and read, the only disadvantage being a distinct lack of non-smoking areas. Most of the passengers were Cypriots, and this is a nation which, by and large, smokes very heavily.
The evening meal was more formal, with allocated places at tables and a menu (albeit not particularly well-printed!). There were four courses, each with two or three options including vegetarian ones. Service was smooth and efficient, and the food excellent. We were at a table with another 'foreign' couple and an Egyptian waiter.
On Monday afternoon, as per schedule, we arrived at Patmos. The stop at this island was one of the reasons we decided on this particular mini-cruise: it's the place where John the Apostle was exiled, and where he wrote the book of Revelation. We had booked a guided tour which was with other English-speaking people and a bilingual guide. We all had to climb into a small 'tender' boat (like a bus on water) to get from the Ausonia to the shore.
Of course we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the cave of the Apocalypse, or the monasteries. We had to buy a postcard for this image of the inside of the cave where - apparently - John (or his scribe) did most of the writing. To the Greek Orthodox majority of visitors this is a very holy place; they lit candles and kissed icons. To those of us who are Protestant Christians, and even to some with no faith, it was still an awe-inspiring experience.
I took several photos of the various places we visited, on the digital camera which I later lost. Sigh. Richard took a few although most of them had me in the foreground - such as this one, where we waited to go inside a monastery. We lost track of the number of different places we visited; each of them was fascinating but since we had to fit the tour into about three hours, we didn't really have long enough anywhere. It would be good to go there again one day, with longer to see around at our own leisure - and fewer crowds of people!
This is part of another postcard, showing another of the monasteries. In one of them, the Greek Orthodox people were able to take part in a brief communion service, but of course this option wasn't open to Protestants. Still, it meant we had slightly longer in the museum. Perhaps the most awesome things we saw were preserved documents from the Bible - one ancient piece of papyrus, and some beautiful calligraphy-style copied works from the Middle Ages. I began to see how the monks and priests several hundred years ago really did work to give glory to God in the painstaking care they took to preserve and copy the Scriptures.
After the tour, we did get a chance to shop in the harbour town - Skala, as it's called locally - which was pleasant and cool. To our surprise and delight we found a small bookshop which had second-hand books, many of them in English, upstairs. This is a most unflattering picture of me, but editing it out cut out too much of the rest of the photo!Although we left the ship via tender, the Captain had managed to manoevre it into the harbour, so we could re-board whenever we liked. No doubt he saved a bit by not having to book tenders again, but I'm sure he must have regretted this decision heartily over the next 16 hours. The Ausonia bumped the side of the dock on the way out, and we had to wait for 16 hours until an inspector arrived from Athens to check that the ship was still seaworthy. As a result, we missed out on the trip to Kos which should have been on our schedule.
On Tuesday we were given free drinks with all our meals, which I'm sure helped to keep people cheerful as we sat and looked out at Patmos for hours! By early afternoon, we set off again on a revised schedule, and arrived at the lovely island of Tinos by early evening. There were plenty of shops, still open, clearly geared at tourist so we wandered around for a while before finding ourselves at the top of a small hill, where this church was the centre of attraction. After dark it was floodlight, and really very attractive. We didn't go inside, though.On Wednesday morning we arrived at Volos. We thought this was a bit of a mistake, really - it's a port in mainland Greece, apparently the third or fourth largest city in the country, and famous for having been the home of Jason (of Argonaut fame). However it was basically just a large, busy city. We would have preferred the revised schedule to have missed out Volos and visited Kos, and we were not alone in this!
Some people had booked excursions from Volos, but they included two-hour drives in coaches to and from the places to be visited, and we didn't really want that. So we wandered around the town in the morning, went back to the ship for lunch, and then sat reading by on one of the decks outside, taking advantage of the relative emptiness of the ship as most other people were out and about.
On Thursday we arrived in Santorini in the morning. This is part of a volcanic island, but we did not stop for long enough to visit the still smoking crater. I was rather dubious about visiting the town of Thira, which is at the top of a cliff. The only way to get there is via cable-car, or via donkey, unless one wishes to walk up 560 or so steps. We decided the cable car would be quicker, cooler,and less terrifying for someone like me who does not like heights! Sure enough, it only took five minutes and I shut my eyes for most of the journey. Richard took this photo looking down into the harbour where the Ausonia was anchored. This time we had to take tender boats to and from the shore!
Santorini was a delightful town with lots of interesting shops, although as I lost my digital camera here (and can only assume it must have been stolen since it wasn't where I must have left it, nor had any of the shop-owners nearby had it handed in) I have mixed feelings about it. It was as Richard took this photo of an unusual church tower that I realised the digital camera was missing. I was already feeling hot and sticky but we rushed back to the place where we had stopped for ice-creams a little earlier, and I was very upset to find the camera gone.Of course we had to get back down to shore again, and by this time it was nearly 12.00 noon. The last tender for the Ausonia was due to leave at 1.00pm so we had plenty of time to catch a cable-car. Or so we thought! Unfortunately, when we reached the place where the cable-cars started, there were crowds and crowds of people waiting. Not just from our ship, but from other ships which had arrived shortly afterwards. With only six cars taking six people each, we guessed it would be at least an hour and a half before we got a place.
So our only option was to go back to the steps. No way was I going to ride a donkey - the poor things looked hot and tired, and not very happy, besides probably being uncomfortable! But more than that, the thought of riding down that many steps was not something I could even consider. So we set out to walk.... not easy since we shared the steps with the donkeys, and there wasn't a whole lot of shade. There was no way to avoid stepping in donkey mess, either. By the time we'd walked down those 560 steps I was utterly exhausted, my legs were shaking, and my clothes were totally stuck to me! The only thing I wanted was a cool shower - something which, thankfully, was easy to take as soon as we got back to our cabin before lunch.
In the evening was the final dinner, at which some people dressed up a little more than usual although many didn't. Richard's tie never came out of the wardrobe all week! The waiters, mostly Egyptian and Filipino, were a talented bunch - a couple of times during the week, including that last evening, they entertained us with some songs. On the last evening they sang 'Leaving on a jet-plane' and others with similar sentiment!For the grand finale of the evening - and the culmination of a week of absolutely fabulous food - the chef had organised baked alaska. For 350 people. The waiters did a parade around the room with one each, set alight to brown the meringue outside. Actually it wasn't the best dessert I'd eaten during the week, but probably the most impressive.
So that was really the end of the trip, although it took until Friday mid-afternoon to get back to Limassol. It sounds quite a short trip, and we had been a bit worried the time might fly past, but in the event it actually felt like more than five days. I suppose seeing somewhere new each day means there are plenty of different experiences, and we certainly felt more relaxed by the end despite the many stresses (see the post below this one!).
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Brief update
We're home again. The air conditioning seems to be dripping fluid so I'm typing in 32C heat with a noisy fan in the background, hoping the computer doesn't overheat.
The mini-cruise was wonderful in many respects. The food was superb - vast choice, enormous quantities, excellent service. No need to dress up at all, although some people did for the last night. We were at a table with a very nice couple each evening, an Australian Cypriot man and a Chinese lady. The excursion in Patmos was very interesting, albeit a bit rushed as we saw a cave, a museum, a monastery and a nunnery within a short space of time. The islands of Tinos and Santorini were also beautiful, although we didn't spend very long at either. Our cabin was comfortable and reasonably roomy. The staff were friendly and helpful. The sea was calm, the weather warm but with a pleasant breeze, and not humid. Accommodation was more like that of a hotel than a ferry, with towels provided and thorough cleaning done every morning.
Unfortunately, every silver lining has a cloud! It seemed as if something went wrong every day of our trip, although most of these were not related to the cruise itself.
On Sunday, the car overheated on the way to Limassol. This was the first long trip Richard had done since it was repaired a few weeks earlier after the same thing happened on the way to Nicosia. It wasn't a disaster: turning off the air-conditioning and switching on the heater meant that the temperature stabilised, although it's not much fun driving along the motorway in summer with the heating on! We got to the port in plenty of time and found we could park the car there, albeit at great cost. But no more so than the cost of getting a service taxi there and back would have been. We also learned that although meals were all included in the price, we would have to pay for all drinks at lunch and dinner - even water. Coffee and juice were included with the breakfasts, though, so that was good.
Shortly after we left, Richard had an urgent message from his colleague back in Larnaka, with a computer server problem. Thankfully after several texts to and fro, it was resolved.
On Monday, after the excursion to Patmos, the ship managed to bump into the side of the dock. I overheard someone say that one of the ropes had not been untied properly. Whatever the reason, the dockmaster insisted that we wait just outside Patmos until an inspector arrived from Athens to check whether it was safe to proceed. So we waited 16 hours. Far better in a ship than in an aeroplane, of course, but rather frustrating. Still, we were at least offered free drinks with our meals for Tuesday.
On Tuesday there was another, more serious server crash at Richard's office - this time with one of the London servers. It ended up being down for nearly 24 hours, potentially a big problem for several different people. As well as rapid text messages to and from Richard's Egyptian colleague, he heard from other people who were not receiving email, or hearing the radio station. Richard had hoped not to have to think about work while away, but ended up spending much of Tuesday evening (and Wednesday morning) troubleshooting via text messages (and a few voice calls) on his mobile phone.
On Wednesday it was Tim's turn to have a big problem, and it took him an hour to contact us as Richard had left the phone in our cabin while we sat outside reading. Four months ago, I wrote this post - about an electrical pole in our street being damaged by a drunk driver. The pole was fixed, but the crash seemed to have jerked a couple of power cables slightly out of their fittings in our home. All electrical cables here are overhead rather than underground. Richard mentioned it to the workmen at the time, and phoned the electricity board several times over the next few days, but although they kept saying they would come and fix it, they didn't. And somehow, we forgot about it.
Unfortunately, on Wednesday there must have been a stronger wind than usual. Tim arrived home from a music practice to find there was no power in the house. Suspecting a power cut, he looked outside, and saw one of the cables right out - loose, lying on a tree. Thank goodness for the tree, since otherwise it could have landed on the (metal) fence at the front of the house, making it live.
When Tim finally got through to Richard, we told him to go and speak to our neighbour over the road who could explain in Greek what had happened to the electricity board. Besides that, he's a safety officer! When Richard phoned back five minutes later, he learned that repairmen had arrived already - clearly this was an emergency! So power was resumed to the house.
Thursday's disaster was my fault. I managed to lose our digital camera. We were in Santorini, and had stopped for ice creams. I put down various things I was carrying as we sat on a wall to enjoy them. When we got up again, I was carrying a carton of juice and although I picked up everything else, I somehow must have forgotten the camera. When we discovered this, about ten minutes later, we hurried back to the spot but it was gone. We asked around, but nobody had seen it. It was two years old, we didn't even pay for it (we bought it with Nectar points accumulated over the years from our credit card) and it wasn't a great camera - but by that stage I'd taken 20 pictures intended for this blog. Richard took some with his 35mm camera too, but I'd hoped to use my digital ones today. I can't believe how sad I was about my poor little camera, which won't even be any use to anyone else since we have the cable here and I don't suppose the software's available any more as the camera's obsolete.
On Friday we arrived back in Limassol at 3pm - later than the original 11am, due to the delay after Patmos. The trip to Kos had been missed out, sadly. We found the car and it did start, but by the time we had reached the end of Limassol it was overheating dangerously. So we stopped and called the Cyprus AA, only to find that our subscription had expired. Apparently we had never received the renewal form. They did send out a recovery vehicle but we had to re-join the AA for this year, and also pay for the truck. Not a huge amount, but it was very annoying.
Still, we got home safely. We went to the youth group variety night which was very enjoyable. All four cats are fit and well. Tim coped fine without us. This morning I received two email messages from Daniel, so anyone following his Doulos blog can read those. We feel as if we've been away at least a fortnight, not just five days, and are much more relaxed despite everything! Richard took his photos to the local place to be printed, and they've come out reasonably although the colours are nothing like as good as we expect from UK printers. So we do at least have some pictorial record of our holiday.
Tonight we're going to an inter-church beach barbecue so I won't be posting any more today. Perhaps tomorrow I'll scan in some of Richard's photos and write about what we actually did!
The mini-cruise was wonderful in many respects. The food was superb - vast choice, enormous quantities, excellent service. No need to dress up at all, although some people did for the last night. We were at a table with a very nice couple each evening, an Australian Cypriot man and a Chinese lady. The excursion in Patmos was very interesting, albeit a bit rushed as we saw a cave, a museum, a monastery and a nunnery within a short space of time. The islands of Tinos and Santorini were also beautiful, although we didn't spend very long at either. Our cabin was comfortable and reasonably roomy. The staff were friendly and helpful. The sea was calm, the weather warm but with a pleasant breeze, and not humid. Accommodation was more like that of a hotel than a ferry, with towels provided and thorough cleaning done every morning.
Unfortunately, every silver lining has a cloud! It seemed as if something went wrong every day of our trip, although most of these were not related to the cruise itself.
On Sunday, the car overheated on the way to Limassol. This was the first long trip Richard had done since it was repaired a few weeks earlier after the same thing happened on the way to Nicosia. It wasn't a disaster: turning off the air-conditioning and switching on the heater meant that the temperature stabilised, although it's not much fun driving along the motorway in summer with the heating on! We got to the port in plenty of time and found we could park the car there, albeit at great cost. But no more so than the cost of getting a service taxi there and back would have been. We also learned that although meals were all included in the price, we would have to pay for all drinks at lunch and dinner - even water. Coffee and juice were included with the breakfasts, though, so that was good.
Shortly after we left, Richard had an urgent message from his colleague back in Larnaka, with a computer server problem. Thankfully after several texts to and fro, it was resolved.
On Monday, after the excursion to Patmos, the ship managed to bump into the side of the dock. I overheard someone say that one of the ropes had not been untied properly. Whatever the reason, the dockmaster insisted that we wait just outside Patmos until an inspector arrived from Athens to check whether it was safe to proceed. So we waited 16 hours. Far better in a ship than in an aeroplane, of course, but rather frustrating. Still, we were at least offered free drinks with our meals for Tuesday.
On Tuesday there was another, more serious server crash at Richard's office - this time with one of the London servers. It ended up being down for nearly 24 hours, potentially a big problem for several different people. As well as rapid text messages to and from Richard's Egyptian colleague, he heard from other people who were not receiving email, or hearing the radio station. Richard had hoped not to have to think about work while away, but ended up spending much of Tuesday evening (and Wednesday morning) troubleshooting via text messages (and a few voice calls) on his mobile phone.
On Wednesday it was Tim's turn to have a big problem, and it took him an hour to contact us as Richard had left the phone in our cabin while we sat outside reading. Four months ago, I wrote this post - about an electrical pole in our street being damaged by a drunk driver. The pole was fixed, but the crash seemed to have jerked a couple of power cables slightly out of their fittings in our home. All electrical cables here are overhead rather than underground. Richard mentioned it to the workmen at the time, and phoned the electricity board several times over the next few days, but although they kept saying they would come and fix it, they didn't. And somehow, we forgot about it.
Unfortunately, on Wednesday there must have been a stronger wind than usual. Tim arrived home from a music practice to find there was no power in the house. Suspecting a power cut, he looked outside, and saw one of the cables right out - loose, lying on a tree. Thank goodness for the tree, since otherwise it could have landed on the (metal) fence at the front of the house, making it live.
When Tim finally got through to Richard, we told him to go and speak to our neighbour over the road who could explain in Greek what had happened to the electricity board. Besides that, he's a safety officer! When Richard phoned back five minutes later, he learned that repairmen had arrived already - clearly this was an emergency! So power was resumed to the house.
Thursday's disaster was my fault. I managed to lose our digital camera. We were in Santorini, and had stopped for ice creams. I put down various things I was carrying as we sat on a wall to enjoy them. When we got up again, I was carrying a carton of juice and although I picked up everything else, I somehow must have forgotten the camera. When we discovered this, about ten minutes later, we hurried back to the spot but it was gone. We asked around, but nobody had seen it. It was two years old, we didn't even pay for it (we bought it with Nectar points accumulated over the years from our credit card) and it wasn't a great camera - but by that stage I'd taken 20 pictures intended for this blog. Richard took some with his 35mm camera too, but I'd hoped to use my digital ones today. I can't believe how sad I was about my poor little camera, which won't even be any use to anyone else since we have the cable here and I don't suppose the software's available any more as the camera's obsolete.
On Friday we arrived back in Limassol at 3pm - later than the original 11am, due to the delay after Patmos. The trip to Kos had been missed out, sadly. We found the car and it did start, but by the time we had reached the end of Limassol it was overheating dangerously. So we stopped and called the Cyprus AA, only to find that our subscription had expired. Apparently we had never received the renewal form. They did send out a recovery vehicle but we had to re-join the AA for this year, and also pay for the truck. Not a huge amount, but it was very annoying.
Still, we got home safely. We went to the youth group variety night which was very enjoyable. All four cats are fit and well. Tim coped fine without us. This morning I received two email messages from Daniel, so anyone following his Doulos blog can read those. We feel as if we've been away at least a fortnight, not just five days, and are much more relaxed despite everything! Richard took his photos to the local place to be printed, and they've come out reasonably although the colours are nothing like as good as we expect from UK printers. So we do at least have some pictorial record of our holiday.
Tonight we're going to an inter-church beach barbecue so I won't be posting any more today. Perhaps tomorrow I'll scan in some of Richard's photos and write about what we actually did!
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Away till next weekend
Tomorrow morning Richard and I leave directly after church. We have to drive to Limassol, which is about an hour's journey, and hope we can leave the car at the port. We're going on a mini-cruise thing to some Greek islands for five days, in celebration of 25 years of marriage (well, nearly. The anniversary is actually in a couple of weeks). It's the first time we've been away on our own in five years. Five years ago when we had a couple of nights in a hotel in Limassol for our 20th anniversary, that was the first time in over 13 years - ie since Daniel was born.
A friend went on this same mini-cruise a few years ago and highly recommended it. As I don't like flying unless it's essential this seemed like a much better idea than going on holiday by plane. It worked out less expensive too. Cruises are often thought of as luxuries, and of course in a sense every holiday is a luzury, but there are quite a few which go from Limassol, which are very reasonably priced. Particularly if one goes early in the season, as we are.
Food is all included, that much we know. And we've booked a guided tour for the day we're in Patmos (where the book of Revelation was written). Other than that, we know almost nothing about what to expect. Do we have to dress up for the evening meal, for intance? We're taking some less casual clothes for the evenings, but hope it won't be too formal. Richard certainly doesn't want to have to wear a tie, although he's taking one. And what about towels? I would think they would be provided - I'm guessing the facilities are somewhere in between a hotel and a passenger ferry - but perhaps not swimming towels. So we're taking a couple.
And what about my early-morning coffee? I usually wake about 6.30am and make myself my first cup of coffee immediately. I only have one other cup per day (after lunch) but if I miss one I get a headache.
Then there's the possible heat. It should be cooler than it is here, due to the sea-breezes. But will there be plenty of shade on the deck? Will there be lounges to sit in and read? If I'm out in the sun when it's hot, that's another way of getting a bad headache.
Ah well, I've learned over the years that it's better not to worry too much about these things, but to take life as it comes. This morning after I had spent a couple of hours watering the garden, we did our packing. Or rather, Richard did. I found what I needed, and he organised it tidily into cases. I've spent most of today trying to catch up on finances (ie putting everything into Quicken) and emails.
This evening I cleaned out the fridge somewhat - throwing on the compost heap some rather tired looking lettuce and some almost-fermenting leftover watermelon chunks. Tim's going to be here, along with four young men from a church youth team (three from Northern Ireland, one from the USA) who are in Larnaka for three weeks looking after various youth activities. Two of them have arrived already, the others come on Monday. So he'll have plenty of company.
We get back on Friday but may well go to our favourite second-hand bookshop in Limassol before we return. In the evening there's a youth group variety night, so I may well not switch my computer on until next Saturday. I certainly won't tomorrow since church starts at 9.00am and we'll be leaving immediately afterwards.
A friend went on this same mini-cruise a few years ago and highly recommended it. As I don't like flying unless it's essential this seemed like a much better idea than going on holiday by plane. It worked out less expensive too. Cruises are often thought of as luxuries, and of course in a sense every holiday is a luzury, but there are quite a few which go from Limassol, which are very reasonably priced. Particularly if one goes early in the season, as we are.
Food is all included, that much we know. And we've booked a guided tour for the day we're in Patmos (where the book of Revelation was written). Other than that, we know almost nothing about what to expect. Do we have to dress up for the evening meal, for intance? We're taking some less casual clothes for the evenings, but hope it won't be too formal. Richard certainly doesn't want to have to wear a tie, although he's taking one. And what about towels? I would think they would be provided - I'm guessing the facilities are somewhere in between a hotel and a passenger ferry - but perhaps not swimming towels. So we're taking a couple.
And what about my early-morning coffee? I usually wake about 6.30am and make myself my first cup of coffee immediately. I only have one other cup per day (after lunch) but if I miss one I get a headache.
Then there's the possible heat. It should be cooler than it is here, due to the sea-breezes. But will there be plenty of shade on the deck? Will there be lounges to sit in and read? If I'm out in the sun when it's hot, that's another way of getting a bad headache.
Ah well, I've learned over the years that it's better not to worry too much about these things, but to take life as it comes. This morning after I had spent a couple of hours watering the garden, we did our packing. Or rather, Richard did. I found what I needed, and he organised it tidily into cases. I've spent most of today trying to catch up on finances (ie putting everything into Quicken) and emails.
This evening I cleaned out the fridge somewhat - throwing on the compost heap some rather tired looking lettuce and some almost-fermenting leftover watermelon chunks. Tim's going to be here, along with four young men from a church youth team (three from Northern Ireland, one from the USA) who are in Larnaka for three weeks looking after various youth activities. Two of them have arrived already, the others come on Monday. So he'll have plenty of company.
We get back on Friday but may well go to our favourite second-hand bookshop in Limassol before we return. In the evening there's a youth group variety night, so I may well not switch my computer on until next Saturday. I certainly won't tomorrow since church starts at 9.00am and we'll be leaving immediately afterwards.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Yesterday I spent all morning finishing tidying Tim's room and the study/guest room, and cleaning, and making up beds so everything was ready for four young men who will be staying here for the next few weeks, mostly doing youth work in the neighbourhood. I took it slowly, had a cold drink every hour or so, and didn't get too over-heated. The first person arrived yesterday afternoon and has been out most of the time since then.
In the afternoon we put the air conditioner on in the living room and I read email... the a/c does seem to be working a bit, although not very effectively. Still, it reduces humidity (which can get high in the afternoons) and keeps the room slightly cooler than the outside so it's better than nothing. Since we're hoping to buy our own house within the next year or so, it's probably worthwhile trying to keep this one going for the next couple of months rather than installing a new one.
Today I had an email from Dan on the Doulos - the bulk of it is included in today's update on his blog. I was very pleased to hear from him - it seems such a long time since he left, although it's only a week. He wrote the email on Monday but for some reason it didn't arrive until today - very strange. However the ship left Tanzania on Monday shortly after he wrote, and arrived in Mozambique on Wednesday or Thursday, so perhaps they didn't send outgoing mail until this morning.
I won't be blogging next week since Richard and I are going on a mini-cruise of some Greek islands - which might sound like an expensive luxurious holiday, but isn't really - these mini-cruises run weekly from Limassol, which is about an hour's drive from here. It's our treat to ourselves in celebration of our upcoming 25th wedding anniversary.
In the afternoon we put the air conditioner on in the living room and I read email... the a/c does seem to be working a bit, although not very effectively. Still, it reduces humidity (which can get high in the afternoons) and keeps the room slightly cooler than the outside so it's better than nothing. Since we're hoping to buy our own house within the next year or so, it's probably worthwhile trying to keep this one going for the next couple of months rather than installing a new one.
Today I had an email from Dan on the Doulos - the bulk of it is included in today's update on his blog. I was very pleased to hear from him - it seems such a long time since he left, although it's only a week. He wrote the email on Monday but for some reason it didn't arrive until today - very strange. However the ship left Tanzania on Monday shortly after he wrote, and arrived in Mozambique on Wednesday or Thursday, so perhaps they didn't send outgoing mail until this morning.
I won't be blogging next week since Richard and I are going on a mini-cruise of some Greek islands - which might sound like an expensive luxurious holiday, but isn't really - these mini-cruises run weekly from Limassol, which is about an hour's drive from here. It's our treat to ourselves in celebration of our upcoming 25th wedding anniversary.
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