| |
Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
It is exactly one year today since we got the keys to our lovely home. Joan and I are saying that we are so content and happy here that it seems like much longer. A change of lifestyle, is always done with some trepidation, but in our case, we are very pleased we made the change and came to live on this island. During the last week we had a real change in the weather here. It went much colder during the day and also in the evenings. There have been a few evenings when we lit the gas fire to take the chill off, we even had some rain on a few days. In fact one lady was seen in the supermarket car park, standing with her arms spread out and the rain running down her face, saying "what bliss, the first drop of rain I have felt since the beginning of May". Bet she didn't do that on Thursday afternoon, it came down in buckets full for a little while. Michael Smith said he was on his way back from Kyrenia and pulled over for a few minutes, as he couldn't see a thing. In true Cypriot style, the locals were still roaring around at 50+, with no lights on. The Arabic word "inshallah" springs to mind. Because. like in the UK, we changed the hour to winter time, it is starting to go dark much sooner now. The advantage is also that the sun goes down behind the mountains earlier so I have been able to get up on the gazebo roof and finish it off in the late afternoons. We found that we were able to buy some roof shingles at a builders merchants in Kyrenia. These are made of roofing felt, in either dark red or green and are cut in strips to look like tiles. We bought dark red to match the house roofing tiles and are very pleased with the finished job, should keep us in the shade for a long time to come
Beautiful hot sunny day again today, so Richard came round for a swim and to stay and enjoy the fruits of our labours in the kitchen.
The pool is definitely getting a little colder now, in fact if we are completely honest, it's a bit of a shock to the system when you first get in there, but remains very inviting on such a sunny day. To prove the point here is a genuine picture of two incredibly brave, or should that be slightly stupid, people trying to put a genuine smile on their faces.
These two say they are going in on Xmas day, not even for a bet, just because they think it is a good idea. Me I am not quite that stupid, I am going to record the event and stand around with the hot chocolate and brandy. Who do you think is the more sensible ?
Two bits of information today for those interested. First:-
Eye tests. Glasses and lenses are supposedly cheaper here than in UK and we are about to find out. The opticians do not have eye test facilities so it is necessary to go to the eye clinic, which is down Kyrenia high street. We both had eye tests at a cost of 30 million TL each (around £12.50). I am lucky that my eyes have not changed but Joan needs new glasses, so now we are about to find out about costs, but that must wait until tomorrow, because we are due to meet our builder at the house.
That brings us to the second item. The need to change our fireplace to accommodate the multi fuel stove, with back boiler. Our original fireplace is a super wood burner, but like any open fire, not quite that efficient. It is necessary to cut out a section of the top and to lower the base stone to floor level, to accommodate the extra height, also they are going to have to take out the firebrick surround and replace with a square, white brick backing. The stone mason says that he can do the work, but he could build three new fireplaces in the time it will take to alter ours, so after negotiation we agreed a price of £500.
So for anybody who is interested in putting in one of these heating/ hot water/ central heating systems, we would suggest, think about it when having the house built, it will save time, money and mess. Our fire, is to be knocked about, in 3 weeks time and they have already warned us that it will make a mess.
This morning we went down to the opticians for Joan to select some new specs. We were very pleasantly surprised by the superb choice of frames available. Joan choose some Ralph Lauren fashion frames made in titanium, which makes them very light and almost unbreakable. We had looked at these in UK and were horrified by the cost, so when we were told that the total would only be £198.00 we were highly delighted. This is for varifocal lenses with anti-reflection and special hard coatings and in addition the optician suggested that he replace her existing sunglass lenses with varifocals also, at a cost of only £68.00.
This evening we managed to get together with Derek and Sandra for a meal at Errol's restaurant in Catalkoy. The atmosphere at Errol's is always good and it had been a long time since the four of us had got together for an evening, very enjoyable. Joan drove home, so I was able to enjoy an extra after dinner brandy.
Don't know what happened, but we were both fast asleep until about 3.30 a.m., when some idiot got a wrong number and called our landline. At times like that I just wish that my Turkish would improve more quickly, don't think that choice anglo saxon works very well on the locals. Isn't it just an absolute sod, trying to get back to sleep again.
For those of you following the saga of George and Susan Roberts and their car import, things are still unclear. They managed to get the car out of the docks, but it would appear that they are only allowed to keep it here for 3 months. George is frantically trying to sort it out with the lady at customs who originally said they could import it, but so far has not been able to contact her again. So all we can say is watch this space, but also be warned, all is not so easy when it comes to importing vehicles. This evening, members of the FEC ( Friday Evening Club), went down to the Sempati Hotel to check out the bar there. Nice big comfy bar with Sky TV for anyone who wants it and we all had a meal in the restaurant there, which was very acceptable at good local prices
Joan and I were invited out for dinner this evening. Some people who are buying a similar house in the next village, in fact our house was used as the show house to help them make their original decision to buy. Earlier in the week they had been down, to look at our house, particularly the extra rooms underneath and then a couple of days later, I had taken them to Nicosia, to buy their kitchen goods, so this was a sort of thank you.
We introduced them to the Acmenya restaurant in Alsancak, which we all enjoyed immensely, this was aided by music and the late appearance of a wedding party, which livened things up a great deal.
Now the last few days have been sort of overcast and much cooler, in fact in the middle of Friday night, we had a huge thunderstorm with very little rain, most strange. But low and behold, today we awoke to bright blue skies and sunshine again.
Because Richard and I wanted to go down to Pine Bay Sports Bar, to watch Liverpool v Man.United, (Ugh, we lost, or really we was robbed), we lit the BBQ and cooked three lovely sea bass, which went down well with the Cyprus new potatoes which are available now and some fresh green beans.
Where else could you sit outside, in T shirt and shorts, on 9th November and enjoy such lovely sunshine and food. If your jealous over there in UK, then I'm sorry, but couldn't resist rubbing it in.
This evening, Joan and I had more visitors, from website contact, namely Fiona and Keith Norton. They very kindly had brought over a Sainsbury's Xmas pud. and some crackers for the Xmas dinner, thank you folks, we shall enjoy and remember your visit. Fiona and Keith are also having a house built in the Lapta area and are over on an inspection visit.
This evening, Joan and I had a visit from Jeff and Ann Sutherland, who found our website, are having a house built over here and strangely enough lived less than 1 mile away from us in UK. We did not know one another, in those days and it was only when somebody discovered our website, directed them to us, that they discovered New Romney, Kent, being mentioned at regular intervals. It is indeed a small world
Today I went over to Nicosia with Owen and Sue Lelou to sort out their white goods on behalf of my friend Ertugral. Sue and Owen are having a villa built on the edge of Karsiyaka, the next village along the coast to the west. We succeeded in getting everything sorted for them and Ertugral will keep it in his store until the builder needs.
Owen particularly wanted to meet Ertugral, because he is still a serving policemen and Ertugral a retired one. We agreed to all go out to dinner together on their next visit over.
Today was big celebration day. 20 years since the TRNC was officially formed. There were parades all over the place and fireworks in the evening, as well as a visit from senior politicians such as the Turkish prime minister.
Joan and I went down to Kyrenia and watched some of the festivities and in particular the air display. The weather was good so they were able to complete their entire program. Some of the manoeuvres, such as the cross over, looked from the ground, to be quite close and dangerous.
This evening we had invited the entire Lardy Da's gang over for dinner. I suppose it made a change for somebody else to do the cooking in their case. A long time ago we had promised to make Russian Fish Pie for them, this we duly did, only to find out that Lorraine doesn't like fish. Now she tells us and it was her idea in the first place. Never mind, a great evening and a few drinks to wash it all down.
This afternoon, England were playing Denmark in a friendly international, so in order to get permission to go and watch football again, it was off to the Acmenya restaurant in Alsencak for a Sunday lunch. They have started to do a traditional English roast during the winter season, choice of either roast beef or roast pork, with starter, sweet, coffee and brandy for 15 million per person. (That's around £6.00 in old money). Good food, plenty of it and worth another visit. We have always liked this restaurant anyway but they will probably get a few more winter visits.
Great pity that the England performance didn't match up to the restaurant quality.
Oh yes some further information on the George and Sue car import situation. It would appear that George has been successful in letting the customs people agree to him keeping the car here. This despite the fact that it is over 3 years old and he has not owned the vehicle in the UK for a period of time. However it should be pointed out that not everyone has George's persuasive powers and gets to keep an older vehicle and in addition it is going to cost them around £2,500 and that on a car that only cost £1,600 in UK.
This evening we went out with Margaret and Norman to the Mountain Breeze restaurant. This was for no other reason than the fcat that we had not had an opportunity to meet together for some time. This was a new restaurant for all of us, but came recommended. The food quality was excellent and there was so much of it that we all struggled. An added bonus was the arrival of a friend of the owners, whose birthday it was and who was a super guitar player. This guy really knew what he was at and also enjoyed himself whilst playing, a real added bonus and for us a real treat.
Further news today on George and Susan's car. They came around for a drink this evening and said that they had been over to the customs in Nicosia and there they had got all their papers, stamped up and signed, to allow them to keep the car here. However the really good news is that they don't have to pay their duty until 18th November 2004, a full 12 months after their arrival. So with the high interest rates paid by banks over here they can earn a few bob before they have to part with the money. Nice one George!Anyone watching the world weather will know that the warm days are still with us, in fact we are still wandering around in shorts during the day. This has clearly been good for our local farmer, who farms the fields behind us. He has been out with his tractor and changed the whole look of the countryside, ready no doubt, for his seeding of wheat or corn. Last year around this time he did the same thing, then eventually grew corn as winter feed for his sheep and goats. The amazing thing was that he hand scythed the whole field in the blazing heat in June.One thing that struck me as funny was, I took three pictures of him ploughing, just over our garden wall, one was quite close up and I thought showed his happy smile very well. I took the camera inside, connected up and printed all three pics for him, called him over and gave then to him. He kept saying "chock merci" (Turkish for - thank you very much) and wandered off back up the field scratching his head. Methinks he is still wondering how I managed to do that so quickly. It is a great shame that technology like that has probably long overtaken people like our farmer, its highly possible that he can't even afford a basic camera and film, but he is such a happy chappy and works damned hard
Now all you regular website watchers, may have noticed a couple of changes. If you haven't noticed then that's sad, cos it probably means I should have put a bigger banner up.If anybody should click on the web counter, bottom left of every page, then you will see that we have had over 18,000 hits on our site. We thank you immensely for this as it makes it all worth the effort. But, these hits do generate many e-mails asking the same questions, particularly about, how to get flights, about holiday locations, about property and estate agents etc.etc. and in addition we are getting many local traders, hotel owners etc. asking for links on the site. So we have decided to increase the direct knowledge available on the site and you will find that the old "Links" tab has now changed to "Northern Cyprus Information". On here we will have basic info re weather, tourism etc. and then more specific pages relating to individual subjects. We intend to spend some of the winter months talking to hoteliers, restaurant owners, travel companies and the like, to try to increase the amount of information you have access to. So bear with us whilst we build up these files and web links and we just hope that you find it all worthwhile.Having said all this, we don't want you to think we don't appreciate the personal contacts and particularly the free coffees etc. at Lardy Da's. So please keep up the e-mails if you want to ask specific questions, that you think we might be able to respond to; we enjoy the contact and are happy to try to point you in the right direction, so that you might get some of the information you want. At the same time we hope that the expanded website helps you to get some immediate answers
This week has been Bayram. The feast at the end of Ramadan. After one month of fasting, between sunrise and sunset, the local Muslim people have now a chance to enjoy family get togethers and feasting. A bit like our Xmas holiday really, also a religious festival.The weather was glorious and many people from mainland Turkey took advantage of the extra flights laid on for them. The hotels and restaurants had an extra busy time and Kyrenia town was particularly busy.Banks, Government Offices and some of the shops were closed for the middle three days of the week, not that it mattered very much to us, we just took advantage of the weather to get some extra things done around the house and garden. Joan was reminded by this mornings view of the mountain, that she needed to make the Xmas cake, there are some lovely smells coming from the kitchen, she will just have to hope that the cake will make it through to Xmas.Tomorrow they have promised to come and knock our fireplace about, ready for the new stove, so we had to strip the lounge completely and therefore decided to go out to the Mediterranean Breeze restaurant. Afterwards I was able to go to Pine Bay Club and watch the Liverpool game, while Joan went home and retired to bed with her book
True to their word, the stone guys turned up to start knocking the fireplace around. There was another big discussion about the size of the hole needed and how it was going to be possible to fit a multi-fuel burner in their fireplace. I think the problem is, that they don't really understand the concept, so what I am going to do, is invite them back, when it is all up and running, so that they can see how it works. By close of play this evening we had a large hole in the fireplace and a promise to come back tomorrow, Saturday, to finish the job.
The FEC (Friday Evening Club), are still experimenting with venues for an evening drink. By mutual agreement, we all went up to one of the restaurants in Lapta village, we explained to the lady owner that we only wanted to sit and drink and talk and she seemed more than delighted with the business. So we started off by ordering five beers and two glasses of red wine, with which she then disappeared across the road to the village shop and came back with the goodies. This was the pattern for the rest of the evening, almost every time we ordered, she had to go across and top up the stock. Panic set in when we were still there at 11 p.m., because the supermarket shop was closing, so we ordered a last round and said that would be sufficient. We left around 11.30 and have to say that they looked after us very well, a table set up especially and some plates of nuts to nibble at and at the end of the evening, having consumed, we think, a total of 16 beers and 2 bottles of red wine, the bill came to £4.00 per person. Methinks we may just go back there again !
Today was the local St Andrew's Church, Xmas bazaar at the Palmera Rouge Hotel. We left a key in the front door for the workmen, this is Northern Cyprus, so you can do that here without any worries and went off to buy raffle tickets and some other goodies to support a good cause. The church has recently had a major rebuild so they need all the funds they can get. The event seemed to be fairly well attended, we didn't win anything on the raffle, but Joan bought a large fruit cake. I suppose she thinks that might just protect her Xmas cake.
The stone guys finished the new fireplace work today and as you can see it is a bigger hole than the original which we showed you on November 3rd. This is necessary because the new stove, currently sitting in our garage, has to go in there together with hot water piping and chimney pipe.
After the work there was stone dust everywhere, so we had to set to and wash all the floors etc. George and Susan came round and helped us get the two settees back up the stairs again and some of the heavier pieces moved back in. At least with the gas fire temporarily in place and the tele. back in situ, we were able to enjoy a warm comfortable evening after dinner.
The last day of November and the lovely weather continues. This morning we had breakfast on the terrace and it was already 21 degrees at 8.45 a.m. I suppose, among other things, this is one of the reasons for living here, especially when we hear from friends of night frosts and road gritting, brrrr.
Having continued to put the lounge back together, which included waxing the pine furniture and setting up the new trellis for the bougainvillea to climb up we sat out in the sun for lunch again. The temperature had risen to 29 degrees by this time and Joan said that she would like a swim if only the water was a few degrees warmer. So, ever willing to help. She then managed a few lengths, which she said was a practice run for Xmas day and as Richard is freezing in UK at the moment she might take an advantage over him by acclimatising.
See you all next month.
|
|
