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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
December has started with a bang. A bang of thunder, that is. Remember those sunny photos from last weekend, well take a look at this, also at this. The weather has really changed over the last few days, it started to cool off a little Monday and Tuesday, yesterday Joan and I both got soaked to the skin in Kyrenia and the power went off, then we had some rain early this morning again. Now as I was preparing some things for the site, I looked at the thermometer and the temperature is down to 14 degrees, a drop of 15 degrees since last Sunday and now we have torrential rain together with the necessary thunder and lightening. Even the cat has taken to her basket indoors.See it's not only the UK that gets rain and when we get it here it comes down with a vengeance. Still we must count ourselves lucky, we need the rain for the summer months water supply and we are lucky that we are not suffering as much as they seem to be in the South of France. To think that that is one area that Joan and I considered buying our retirement home.Something else has changed in our lives. Joan has started to go to work again. She was asked, probably because of her experience at the University College, if she would go to Sunny Lane School and set up their admin and registration systems. The school teaches both English and Turkish curriculum to children from 3 years to 11 years, at the moment. The school only opened last year September, you may remember that we have featured some of the school plays etc. in earlier diary notes. So she has gone in, part time only, to act as school secretary. This is her 4th week and she really loves it. It is giving her a real interest outside of housework and gardening etc. and she still gets all the summer off, because school closes for 3 of the hottest months. Guess the next thing is going to be, can I have my own car, as it will make me really independent
Joan and I have had an uneventful few days, Joan has been going off to school in the mornings and I have been talking to a few companies about having links on the website to get you more information. But we have had a couple of really delicious dinner invitations over the last few days. Wayne and Tracey have now moved in to their rented villa at Edremit and asked us up for dinner on Friday evening. They have got themselves a lovely villa and it looks as if the pool will be completed for them by spring so they are definitely a couple of happy bunnies for the moment. Adding to their comfort is a little ginger kitten that seems to have strayed in and found a good home. What is it about some of the kittens around here, they seem to know exactly where the best homes are. Wayne did a tremendous job on the dinner menu, huge prawns in shell as a starter, beef bourguignon followed by a fresh fruit salad, that had seen just a little alcohol in the making.On Saturday we dined out again. This time at Derek and Sandra's, where the combined efforts of all in the kitchen produced a super meal. Lorraine was in charge of starters, Derek cooked a delicious Paella with lobster tails, green lipped mussels etc.etc. and Sandra produced a dark chocolate fondue, for us all to dip marshmallows and fresh fruit into. To hell with the calories, delicious everyone and thanks, from two people who enjoy good food, wine and very pleasant company. Today, Sunday, was Joan's turn. David is over for a few days from Nairobi, checking on a few extra things going on at their house in Karaman, so as he was on his own we decided that traditional lunch was a good idea. We had managed to get a nice piece of roasting pork from Bell foods so Joan served up an English Sunday lunch. The weather has turned around again today, so we were able to sit out on the front terrace for lunch. It still starts to go cold around 3.30 p.m. but it was very enjoyable while the sun shone.Now I am going on a strict diet for the rest of the week
We have had some sort of on/off weather over the last few days and that was a problem for starting work on our new fire installation. We have an outside water tower and as it was necessary to replace the water tank and put up a new expansion tank for the back boiler, nobody relished the idea of going up there in the rain. Today the plumbing guys turned up and had the old tank down, the new up and the pipe work into the house pretty smartly, so at least we still have hot water via the immersion heater until the fire installation can be completed. Whilst all this has been going on, I have been trying to get a few people interested in having links on the site. You will see that there are a few extras, under the Northern Cyprus Info tab and hopefully they will continue to grow
Richard came back from the UK last night and thankfully the plane was on time, as we had agreed to pick him up. This afternoon he came round with the bits and pieces we had asked him to get for us, plus a few extras, like a nice piece of stilton for me and a home made fruit cake from his mum. Thanks Mrs C, we promise that we only let Richard have a little piece with his tea. Around 4.30 p.m. there was the most spectacular sunset over the mountains. We all watched it for some time and towards the final sundown it looked just like The Fires of Hell, you would have sworn that there was huge forest fire over the mountain, if you had not seen the developing sunset
At lunch time today a crowd of around 10 of us went to Henson's restaurant for an English roast Sunday lunch. There are one or two restaurants who do this traditional English thing in the winter time and with a crowd it is always good fun and an excuse, if ever one was needed, to enjoy a little of the liquid grape.
Joan and I left them all at the restaurant around 4 p.m., because Chris and Joan Callaghan were coming round to take a look at our house. Chris and Joan have been a regular website contact and they arrived a couple of days ago, intent on house hunting, they also brought over a few jars of special English marmalade and another Xmas pud. Last night we had picked them up from their hotel, The Mountain View and taken them to Errol's in Ozankoy, where we all had a very enjoyable meal as usual.
Today was general election day here in T.R.N.C. It is a very important election , because people are seeing it as a referendum for the future of the island. For a number of weeks now there has been some very active campaigning on behalf of the parties, but of course as we ex-pats, all have only visitor style residency permits at this time, we are not eligible to vote. The outcome though remains of the utmost importance to us all.
Well, first indications of the election results are an equal split between the current party in power and the opposition, so we will have to now await the official declaration, which will probably be made on Tuesday and see what the next move is. There is already talk of another election taking place in 3 months time.
Well as predicted, the election result was a neat 50/50 draw. So now we will have to wait to see if there is any form of coalition drawn up, if not then in 3 months we will start again. So now we just sit and wait to see what happens.
Well the fire is in and burning brightly. Gary has to come back and sort out the pipes at the back, but there are many more calling for their installation pre-Xmas, so we are happy to wait. Tiggy, the cat, has her bed about 5 feet away and we don't think she is planning to move for some months.
More great fun tonight. The annual Carol Service, organised by the St Andrews Church committee. There were enough of us from the Lapta area, so Sandra organised a bus, a good thing really. The event was at The Treasure restaurant, up in Karaman village and nobody wants to drive back down the mountain after a couple of wines. There were 100 people there in total, we were informed and it would seem that almost everybody, thoroughly enjoyed the evening, although we did hear later that some considered there to be too much enthusiasm. Strange really, its Xmas, this is an evening of entertainment, not a Carol Service and some Carol's were included for their entertainment value. One Carol, which was met with lots of enthusiasm, was The Twelve Days of Xmas. Each table was allocated a day and George's family did their 5 gold rings with lots of verve.
The L.A. Hotel is just down the road from us here and Joan, through some contact, had been invited to put together, a table of 10 people, for a dinner and entertainment, at a cost of only £6/ per, including all drinks.
Now those who have read this website before, will know for sure, that we are not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth and we had no problem finding eight more like minded souls. It seems that what the evening was about, was that it was a sort of dress rehearsal for New Year's eve.
George and Susan came with there son and daughter, currently here on holiday, our friends Liz and David, who are here house hunting, Mike and Barbara, Joan and myself and after pleading with the General Manager, Joan got an eleventh place for Richard. This was because we had heard Miss T.R.N.C. was attending. So what did we get for our £6.00. Lots and lots.
First there was wine and beer, by the bucket full, there was a wonderful buffet starter, of traditional Turkish Meze with many things we had not had before, this was followed by a chicken dish and then rounded off with the sticky honey sweets and coffee. After dinner, whilst the waiters kept replenishing empty bottles, we were entertained, firstly by a keyboard player, then by a whole host of good looking guys and gals, who will do a fashion show on New Years eve, the last of which was Miss T.R.N.C. (Think Richard fell in love, or should that be lust !). The Turkish belly dancer, I would say was standard at these sort of functions, but this girl was very very good, finally the keyboard player was accompanied by a couple of solo singers. A brilliant night out, only spoilt by the fact that this dumbo forgot to take his camera and you thought you were going to get a peek at the beauties, sorry folks, anyway at your age you shouldn't even be thinking it.
George and I spent today hanging stage curtains and snowdrops, in the school hall. Yep, after lots of rehearsal and preparation, the Sunny Lane School Christmas show has come round again. This year the theme was Santa's Toys, with a real Father Christmas and Mrs Christmas. We had performances, as Teddy Bears, by The Crèche, real cute, especially when you think the youngest is still only three. The Clowns where portrayed by years 2 and 3 and the whole was closed by a great sing-along for us all, this time with all the pupils on stage. A brilliant performance, we just wish we had unlimited space on this website to show you all the pictures, these shows just get better. This time the local TV was present and were filming all night, we understand that it is all going to be on a magazine show on Boxing Day.
Some of us rounded off the night at the local Chinese restaurant.
A Very Merry Christmas To You All.
Yesterday evening it was all down to George and Susan's. Susan has the misfortune to have been been born on Christmas Day, so we had to have a little party to celebrate. That of course had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that George still had a couple cases of John Smiths Bitter from out of his container. Anyway, Susan got some extra cards, some presents and lots of kisses from all, so it was beer well spent George.
This morning we had the fried breakfast to fortify us for the rest of the day and Joan started the preparation work for the full Xmas dinner. But do any of you remember that other promise made; "The Pool Dip".
At precisely 12 noon they stood there beginning to regret the decision. It was almost 19 degrees outside temperature but don't have a pool thermometer so couldn't tell them the worst. Joan went down the steps and Richard dived straight in, the fools, anyone agree? They swam two lengths each and stood there putting very brave faces on it, but reality was somewhat different. Hot showers. a warm drink and then the present opening soon got the shock to pass.
Margaret and Norman came around 1 p.m. to join the celebrations, but strangely enough, about an hour later, I started to shiver violently and was running a high temperature. There was only one thing for it, take to the bed. I have never known anything come over me so quickly and its a long time since I felt that bad. The others say the turkey, pudding and all the rest were just wonderful. Sorry folks, but I just wanted to curl up in bed alone. I was a little better the following day, but then Joan started with similar symptoms and certainly neither of us ate again until 29th.
We learn now that George, who flew to UK on 26th, slept all through the flight and immediately took to his bed for a few days, Susan also went to bed feeling bad, his UK doctor suggested salmonella poisoning.
So there you have it folks, not quite the Xmas we had planned and my excuse for being behind with all your e-mails and this site.
We are having a small New Years eve party at our place, so I will report on that and include some more photos to round off the year.
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