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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Today our neighbours, Brian & Lil, left to go to New Zealand for a month. They won't be back again until 5th March, so its going to be real quiet around here. They have been looking forward to seeing their grandchildren again, who they haven't seen for almost two years, we sure hope they have a great time and look forward to the pictures and stories on their return.There was only one slight snag about them going today, in a rash moment some weeks ago, I said we will take you to the airport. Earlier this week we found out that their flight was at 0600 hours and its an hour to the airport + a further hour before flight time to check in. So there we were, loading up their bags at 0345 this morning, ugh! As you might guess, Joan and I were curled up back in bed again at 0600, for a couple of hours catch up. Our cat Tiggy opened one eye, looked at us rather strangely and also went back to bed.We had invited our Cypriot friends, Ertugral & Ayse around for dinner tonight so Joan prepared a nice big beef stew with dumplings, something really English, which they enjoyed. We had a very pleasant evening, a nice warm log fire, good food, a few glasses of wine and very nice company.
For some time now, Joan and I had been considering whether to change our car or not. We had come to the conclusion that we should have been less impetuous when we first arrived and waited until we had found a larger 4 x 4 than the Suzuki. We had in fact seen a nice Mitsubishi Shogun but needed to sell our existing vehicle. Luck was on our side, because Reg & Kathy Chard, who have had a house built in Bellapais, wanted a Suzuki Vitara and had been out in our car last week. Today they rang to say, could we agree a price.I called the dealer, who had the Mitsubishi, and established that it was still available. He brought it over to us for a further test drive and we still liked it, so we made arrangements to close the deal on Wednesday. The dealer in fact left the vehicle on our drive, took the key with him and said see you tomorrow. Reg was to make a bank draft out to the dealer, we were going to pay the difference and the dealer was going to do all the paperwork on both vehicle sales. This was a real bonus for us as wheels grind very slowly at the Cypriot equivalent of the DVLC and the dealer new the way in the back door.
This morning we met Reg & Kathy, did the bank drafts, found a Notary to stamp the official papers agreeing to the private sale between us and then went over to meet Hakan, the dealer in Nicosia. Now his company is Maxxum Ltd, a specialist in American imports, especially Dodge and Chrysler 4 x 4 vehicles. We were all four standing around waiting for him, in the sun and admiring his Jeep Grand Cherokee cars on the forecourt. There was one absolute beauty there, silver grey metallic, leather trim etc., in fact fully loaded as they say in USA and in absolutely beautiful condition. We all had a little joke bet about the price and came to the conclusion that none of us could afford this car.
When Hakan turned up we started to do the paperwork for the Mitsubishi, as the money was all in his bank, Joan jokingly said, how much is that Grand Cherokee? We were all staggered when he gave a price only £500 more than we had agreed on the Mitsubishi. So there we where off for another little test drive. Now we were in a quandary, our original diesel choice or the big petrol engine Cherokee. It was a bit like "eeny meeny" or such similar nursery rhymes.
Joan and I went for a little walk in the sun to consider what to do, but really at the end of the day, the beautiful Grand Cherokee had us both totally hooked. What the hell, you're only young once and easily sold by all those wizzy things like electric seats, full leather trim, auto climate control etc.etc. Now the big fight is, who gets to drive most.
Today we came down to earth. The log man came and dumped two tons of the things on our drive. They all had to be carried around to our log store, under the terrace staircase, before we could even get out of the garage. We have been burning quite a bit of wood lately, because (a) its lovely to have a big log fire in the evenings and (b) the temperature still drops to around 8/10 degrees in the evenings. We are so lucky because our fire burns very well and the whole house is as warm as toast in no time. What more comfort could a man want, a roaring log fire, a bottle of wine, soft classical music and a good book.
With all those creature comforts Joan still wanted to go out for dinner and chose the Yenihan restaurant, owned by our good friend Mustapha. We had the usual quality meal and wine and because it was quiet, Mustapha came and joined our table later, bringing a bottle of Famous Grouse and two glasses. Now I understand the ulterior motive, Joan gets to drive home!
Today is Sunday and the morning was a little brighter than the last few days, so it was out to do some work in the garden. Serdar our friend from the bank had called round Wednesday evening with his wife, they had news of the baby, its going to be a girl, due in April. They had stopped for a little supper and a few drinks and had brought us some plants from their garden, so now we had the planting to do.
It was a lovely sunny morning and Tiggy had been to fetch her friend from next door but one, so they both played tag around the garden.
Mike and Barbara Smith, from 2 doors away found this kitten on their doorstep last July, took it in and named it Mandu (as in Katmandu). It really is a lovely cat and luckily as they are both really kittens, they have both become firm friends, once they sorted out the pecking order that is.
Tomorrow is the eve of Bayram, a Muslim religious feast which lasts the rest of the week. So we have to get up and lay in food just like the UK Xmas period as everything closes at least until Friday.
Since I last updated this website we have had some very interesting weather changes . As I said before, this week is Bayram, a Muslim religious holiday, so obviously the storms have been saving themselves for just this occasion. Banks and government offices were open Monday morning and then everything closed down, generally until next Monday. This is time for the locals to go visiting family and friends and officially to give to the poor and needy.Tuesday, the first day of Bayram was beautiful, Joan and I were out in the garden doing some planting and enjoying the warm sun. Early in the morning of Wednesday, we were woken by the wind rattling the shutters and this was shortly followed by rain. It has not stopped since and the rain is at times very heavy. If it keeps this up, they won't need to come along at the end of the month to fill the pool. So if anybody thinks that it is always sunny with blue skies here in Northern Cyprus, then take it from us, the winter months can be wet and cold. This is the second period of heavy rainfall and cold winds we have had in the last couple of months. Joan and I have resolved to buy a nice electric blanket next time we are in U.K. Age creepeth on!We are still getting e-mails from people who are interested in Northern Cyprus, either buying property, coming on holiday and many other queries. Its great to know that our website is being read, 1,955 hits on the site since we opened it up in August 2002, it makes the effort all worthwhile. Keep them coming folks, we are happy to respond were we can. If there are any specific things you think we should include then make suggestions, we will try to oblige.
Well Bayram is over and so is the rain, thank goodness. Our pool is looking very sad again with about 1 meter of dirty water. We have resolved to go to see Cyprus Pools next week and ask them to put some pipes around the end of the terrace to take excess rain water away. We seem to get this very heavy rainfall about twice a year, but if the pool had been properly filled, then this extra water would have created real problems. I suppose the fact that we still owe them the balance of our pool costs might get some quick results.This evening we had a little party for eight of us at Luciano's Italian in Kyrenia. No special occasion just a few very good friends getting together. There was, Reg & Kathy Chard, who were able to announce with a great deal of glee that they finally had electric and water, so will be able to move into their own home next week; they have only been waiting since Xmas. Hakan and Sonay from Maxxum Motors, Kemal and Stacey who run Abbey Estates in Bellapais and Kem is a real "man who can" when you want to get things done here and finally Joan and myself. We had a thoroughly enjoyable meal, a nice change to eat Italian, and we really enjoyed the great company.
This afternoon I went to a first division game. Kyrenia versus Famagusta, which Kyrenia won 3-1.
I went with Kemal, who used to play for Kyrenia some time ago, but who had to stop playing after a serious accident and John Buckley, another ex-pat, who lives in Bellapais. There is lots of enthusiasm amongst the 100+ spectators and when one of the Famagusta players got floored in a tackle, his mother climbed over the wire fencing and was having a right go at the ref. She had to be restrained by other supporters and persuaded to get back to her seat. English premier league it is not, but good fun all the same.
Just a brief update to let everyone know that we are definitely in the middle of our winter here. The temperatures around midday are about 10 degrees and at night they drop down to around 5/6 degrees. But it is not just the lower temperatures that are the change, it is the constant high winds, obviously blowing in from some very cold climate and they sometimes gust up to wind speeds of around 90 kph (that's 56mph for the don't knows). Add to that a lot of very heavy rain and you have the TRNC winter.
The locals tell us that this is the norm for February, so we know what to expect in future years. What seems to go hand in hand with these storms are power cuts. Last night the electric went off around 1 am and then came back on around 9.30 am, only to go off again at 10.15 am and not come back on until almost 1 o'clock. Now we can cope with the fact that we have no hot water in the morning, so have to go around a bit smelly until the power comes on, but, Alan & Lesley Fairley; one of the two Ilgaz houses; and their son Mark are here this week. We all had dinner at Yenihan's on Tuesday and we invited them round for dinner tonight, so we are rather hoping that we will not be serving up cold food. Still I suppose if we wash it down with enough beer and wine, they might not notice.
Last night I went down to the Pine Bay Club to watch Birmingham v Liverpool. Having been born a scouse there is really only one team in my book and I saw this as an opportunity to wind up a few of my Man U friends about the 1.1 score against Bolton. Oops! No doubt I can expect a few e-mails from the UK this week.
Today we had another surprise, the electrician turned up, with the man from the electricity board, to check that all our electric's had been properly installed. Now we have only been in here since 1st November last, so for 4 months we have been paying contractor rate tariff, which has produced bills of £80.00/month. So now that everything has been passed and providing we go down on Thursday and pay £32.00 administration fee, we can expect future bills of approximately half the cost. One can't help thinking that it would have been nice if this check had been done as soon as we moved in, but; "this is Cyprus"
This morning we awoke to rain again for a change! The temperature this morning was only 4 degrees so I suppose it was no real surprise when around midday we saw snow on the mountains. Now this is not what we expected in sunny Cyprus, some of you may recall the picture I took on December 1st, when we sat outside for breakfast, well it sure isn't going to happen today, but the locals say this happens occasionally. Maybe we should have installed central heating after all. As it was so cold, it was an ideal time to switch on the blow heater and up date the website. I particularly wanted to do this as I had an e-mail from Hakan at Maxxum Ltd, the guy we bought our car from. He had sent a list of new car prices and as I get many queries from people wanting to know costs, it seemed opportune to add them to the Link page of the web.
So all who want some indication of car prices, go to the Link tab and click on Maxxum Ltd, new car prices.
Now here is a lesson for all those who are planning to come and live out here. Yesterday, Joan and I decided to take a trip to "The Other Side" as it is known here. That involves going to Nicosia, getting a one day visa, driving to Famagusta and then across the border to the British Army base. There is a big supermarket over there, where we can buy things like cornflakes and pork and sausages etc. at very reasonable prices. A sort of once every six weeks day out, with lunch.
When we got home, I thought, check the e-mails, as I was expecting some incoming. When I tried to log on this voice in both Turkish and English said your phone has been disconnected. I thought, that's nice, give us a phone on 17th January and then take it away again on 25th February. I checked Bri and Lil's phone, as they are still away in New Zealand, and also with Michael and Barbara, low and behold, they had all been disconnected also.
So this morning I was off to the telecom office, all guns blazing only to be told. Ah, but you are not a citizen, so you have to pay your phone by the 21st of each month or we disconnect you. I said, nobody told us and the reply was, well your are supposed to know !!!!!!!! Anyway the moment we paid we were reconnected, so now we know.
Because Bri & lil are still away we also paid 65 million for them. Lets hope they have some money left when they get home.
This evening, Joan and I went to the Dome Hotel, to the AGM of the Anglo Turkish Society. We had decided as a personal choice that this was the society that interested us most. The joining fee was a mere £4.00 but the interest for us is that they hold many functions which both Turkish and British attend, an opportunity to get to know some of the locals. In addition we discovered that they arrange for Turkish language classes, so we put our names on the list for the next basic course, which starts in around 4 weeks time. I suppose that now is the time when I am going to find out if this old brain can absorb the intricacies of a new language.
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