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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
A nice lazy afternoon with Trix Doelman and her daughter. Trix is over from Holland checking up on their property build and showing her daughter some of the delights of the island. For Joan and I, not only is it a chance to enjoy their company, but also an opportunity to brush up on our Dutch again, as we don't get so many chances these days to keep up the language.
We sat around the pool and chin wagged for ages, then Joan dished up lamb kleftiko for us all to enjoy. Trix and her husband Hans hope to be over here and settled in time for the next holiday season, when Hans is going to start his conducted holidays, which will be all about the history of the island during The Crusades. There is masses of history from around that period and Hans is a real fan of the time and is very knowledgeable about it all, he has a website for those interested:www.allcrusades.com" target="_blank">www.allcrusades.com">www.allcrusades.com
Today we were trying to get the kitchen equipment installed in two houses, but the importers van broke down and they were stuck on the wrong side of the mountain, so we gave it up and Ertugral kindly helped me by going over to Nicosia in his truck to collect a stone table we had ordered for the terrace. Joan and I had decided that one of these tables would be a boon on the rear terrace, as it should just be able to be left there in all weathers. We had ordered this direct from the factory, where they make them out of concrete with stone inlays and all beautifully polished up. It cost originally around £40.00, but because we did our own pickup, we got a 20% discount, a real bargain. Now came the problem bit, these things weigh an absolute ton, or that is what it felt like and it had to go up the stairs. So, we got two strong guys from the nearby building site, got them to carry it up for us and gave them the 20% discount, still think it was a real bargain.We have also been to our favourite wrought iron man, "Metal Mickey" and asked him to make four chairs to go round this table. George and Susan had bought some metal chairs in an auction and we loved the design, so we had borrowed one of these to copy from, they should be ready in the next week. Oh yes, for the cat lovers amongst you. They are getting along fine, although Tiggy sometimes has to go and find somewhere to hide, were Smudge can't get at her with all those teeth and claws. All in all they have got it pretty well together by now, and the little one is growing very quickly
Another sailing lesson day today and its going fine. Chris from the sailing school says we should be out on our own next week, that will be very enjoyable and the thing we have been working towards.
Before going off to the beach, we cut the bananas off the tree and then cut down the top half of the mother tree, leaving the rest to feed the new baby trees coming on. They are still green but have to hang in a darker place to ripen we are told, so we suspended from the curtain pole in the utility room and covered them with a black plastic bag, so it's a case of watch this space again I suppose.
Having got the car insurance to go to the Greek south last week, we decided to make use of it today and go with Michael and Barbara to the hypermarket there and see what the shopping was like. Sandy and John Oram wanted to go across as well and as they had not been across before, followed us to the border and then to the hypermarket. The shopping complex is a bit like one of those French shopping centres in Calais and we all spent some time in there hunting out the cheaper things. If you look around, many things can be bought for less than you would pay here in the North, pork I suppose was the prime example and there were some things available that you just can't buy here, so an occasional trip across, with four in a car, soon recovers the insurance cost.
Since George and Susan went to the UK, almost two weeks ago, we have been struggling with their pool builder who supposedly finished everything off just two days before they left. Unfortunately it has taken 10 days to get the electrician back to wire up the pump properly and now the time clock is not working. There are other problems as well, so we can't get the pool cleaned or filtering, so have this nasty feeling that there is going to be a lot of very green water by the time they get back.
At lunchtime we went down to The Pegasus, the weekly meeting place for the British Residents Society. We had arranged to meet John Sutherland, his wife and delightful little daughter, Anna. They are here on a sort of info gathering trip, to see what they want to get involved in and maybe were they want to live, so felt it would be useful to take the opportunity to talk to somebody who had been here a little while. Lets hope we were able to help their deliberations.
This evening we went down to Deano's cabin, along the Lapta strip as it is known, had a few beers and listened to Roger B's music. It's very pleasant there on a Friday evening, especially now, in the summer evenings when the temperature stays around 28/30 degrees.
Spoilt again. Lunch up in Karaman, at Barbara and Bruce's together with a couple of friends of theirs who are just moving over here. Sunday lunch that starts around 12.30 with pre-dinner beer and finishes around 5 p.m. is very very pleasant, especially when the food is that good. Their dining terrace has a superb view down to the coast, but was a little too hazy to take pictures unfortunately. We did watch the Tandem Paragliding people jumping off the mountain above Karaman to land down near the coast, they say it's quite exhilarating, but am not sure about paying £50 to step off a a mountain.
Had an e-mail in today from our friends Jill and Les who have booked to come over on 26th September for two weeks. These two we really miss, as we were friends for a very long time and we are both looking forward to them coming over. Les included some pics of a special birthday trip he had organised for Jill. They took a private plane from Lydd Airport and flew to Southend for coffee and then back to Lydd. Jill (Mrs Biggles) was allowed handle the controls and Les said that she came back buzzing. Must have been great and what a great thing to do for morning coffee. Me jealous, never!
Another pic. of our little bundle of mischief. A form of endless entertainment for us.
Last of our initial sailing lessons today, next week we go solo. Today, together with a number of others who have been taking lessons, we formed a capsize team. The idea was to go out in pairs, like helm and crew, deliberately turn the boat on its side and then practice the drill for righting it again. Apparently they do this also in UK on RYA courses, but I think we were much happier doing it in the warm Med. We got the boat over no trouble, no comments about weight please, and with Joan acting as crew and me standing on the centre board, or keel to you, up she came, no problem. Great fun.This week, The Wilkinson family are over for a visit and to check up on their house in Arapkoy. We arranged to meet and go to Henson's for dinner. Tony just had to have another plate of the famous steak and kidney pie that Maggie makes. We met their boys, Thomas (11) and James (9) for the first time and they appeared to enjoy the fare as much as we did
Oops. It's actually the 22nd today and I am only just doing an update. Sorry folks but seem to have been very busy doing, I know not what.
Today the 12th, Joan and I needed to go into Nicosia (known as Lefkosa locally) so having finished there around lunchtime, decided to slip across the border and find the Euroblind company. The idea being to possibly change our dining room curtains for a pull down blind and use the curtains to increase the fullness of the curtains in the lounge. That's the boss's theory anyway so we will have to see. However we discovered that the last three weeks in August are holiday time and everything around the industrial estate was closed, so apart from a quick nip into the hypermarket for some wine etc, it was a bit of a wasted trip across. Never mind, I was allowed in M & S to buy myself some new shorts, so that was a bonus for me at least.
Had to be, Friday 13th. Spent much of the time today trying to get a builder to supply the promised carpenter, to cut worktops etc to put in a kitchen. I had gone up to the site at 9 a.m. to arrange for the carpenter to be on site by 11 a.m., when the installation engineers were due, No Problem, was the promise. By 3.30 and with the engineers getting a little uptight and me making numerous phone calls to everybody but the president, this guy strolls up wondering what the fuss was about. Frustrating, proceeded by some Anglo-Saxon words, is all you can say, but that's what it's like out here. Being Friday evening and with nothing else pre-arranged, we strolled down to Deano's place to listen to Roger B and sample the local waters. It's always very pleasant down there and you can guarantee a good chinwag with friends. We actually met Ted and Chris Osborne down there also, they had spoken about kitchens with me, earlier in the week and they decided to go ahead and have their kitchen fitted out, with one of our Bosch kitchen packages, so it turned out to be a good day after all
We had bought some pork fillet, some brie and camembert cheeses and a 3 litre boxed cabernet sauvignon when we were across in the south of the island, so Michael and Barbara came round to help us do justice to this little feast. The pleasure of sitting outside till very late just relaxing with some nice food and friends, never dwindles. It's what life here is all about really and makes it very easy to forget carpenters and worktops etc.
On the funny side of things here, we had seen this superb Turkish with English translation notice in a hotel pool area. I'm thinking of having one copied for alongside our pool, that should upset the neighbours.
First day solo sailing for Joan and I. Great fun and according to Chris, who had done the teaching, we didn't make too much of a mess of things. We had 2 hours out there, with me taking the first hour on helm and Joan the second. When you have nobody with you to say things like "left hand down a bit" etc. it is quite difficult to judge the wind direction, but we felt much more confident when we came back inshore. Having to judge it all for yourself makes the learning curve a little steeper. At least with this Dolphin Sailing course, we now have free use of one of their boats for the rest of this summer, so we will try to get out a couple of times a week to get a real hang of it. When you consider that we paid only £100 each for 12 hours of, on the water, tuition, followed by about another 4 hours of theory lessons and then use of the boat for the rest of the summer, I think it's a real bargain, for anybody who wants to learn to sail.
Joan went off this morning with Barbara, because they had promised to show Sarah, from the Tai restaurant, how to get over to the shops in the south, by walking across at the Ledra Palace crossing. Just an excuse for a lunch out really, but apparently Sarah spent the day going oooh, aaah at all the shops.
This evening, Joan and I went round to Roger and Jill's for a drink and take away pizza. Roger is the Roger-B of musical fame, who performs a couple of times a week, at The Mediterranean Breeze on Thursday evenings and Deano's on Friday. They live quite near us and we had been promising to go round for a little while now. Super evening, thanks guys.
Another day of air conditioners and kitchens, but this time it all went smoothly thanks to the cooperation of the builder.
This evening we went to Tony and Sue's, as their container had arrived a few days ago and they had managed to get a phone line installed, but needed some help to set up the computer for e-mails and internet. Everything went OK, except the mouse wouldn't work at all. Close inspection seemed to indicate that the connector plug had been damaged, so will have to drop back tomorrow with a spare that I have got and see if I can complete the job. Sue is anxious to re-establish contact with their friends back in UK, so she was getting really excited at the prospect. It's one of the problems when you first arrive, just bits and pieces of furniture or rented accommodation, probably no phone line except for an expensive mobile and your computer somewhere on the high seas, but in the end it all comes together.
Joan had a meeting this morning, about the reopening of the school, for the start of the new year. That's it holidays nearly over now, one more full week and then it's back to mornings of work. She is quite looking forward to it, because they are moving up into Secondary Education for the first time this year there will be lots of new things to get a grip of.
Keith and Fiona Norton came round for some of the afternoon and the evening and Keith had brought me some software that should allow me to transfer all our old LP's on to CD's, through the computer. It all works beautifully except for one thing, the input source on my computer is only mono. All the best laid plans can come to a sticky end, when you don't have all the right equipment. I'll have to take a look at Ertugural's laptop and what he has got for facilities and maybe borrow that for few days.
When I have finished this update, it's off to the airport to pick up George and Sue. They have just had 4 weeks in UK, visiting relatives and sorting out some personal things over there. When they get back here, George will have some fun trying to sort out his pool builder, who has made a really bad job of work and left things unfinished, I hope that the guy is going to sort things out, as he certainly didn't want to do anything for me, on Georges behalf, I suppose he who pays the piper etc will apply. There is a moral somewhere there, use the guys who know what they are doing, like Cyprus Pools, in the end you end up paying out for repair work so you might as well have paid the proper money first time for a professional job.
When we get back from the airport, we are meeting Tony and Kate Wilkinson, with their two boys at the Açmenya restaurant. Tomorrow they go off back to UK until their house is a little further along. No doubt we will be in touch as we have their kitchen goods in store for them.
You have got to believe this. Poor old George, his suitcases were the very last ones on to the conveyor belt. He was beginning to look quite worried.
Another morning of solo sailing, we feel as if we are really beginning to get there now out on our own. Just wish I had a waterproof camera bag as there would be some good photo opportunities.
On our way back home, we went into the garden centre and got a few cacti to go in some big pots on the edge of the terrace. Joan got quite a bit of help with the planting. Digging holes in soil and fun things like that, are just the sort of thing that a kitten needs to help with. This kitten is just great fun but not always a quickest way to get things done.
We nipped over to the south again today with Michael and Barbara. They wanted to get some bits and pieces before they go off on holiday and Joan and I had seen some chairs, which would be great on the front terrace and which we wanted to price up. The hypermarket over there is quite good and there are some odd bits and pieces that are cheaper and sometimes not available in the north.
We bought and paid for the table and chairs set, but it wouldn't go in the car with all of us in there, so Joan and I will nip across early next week to collect and then we will put a picture on the web, as we felt that this set was good value for money and better than we had seen here in the north.
This evening Joan and I were taken out to dinner by Tony and Sue Durose. We had given them some help in there early days of arriving over here and they wanted to firstly, go to The Padeşa restaurant, because they had heard all the good reports from us and secondly say thanks for the help. Tony used to be grounds man at Manchester City, so it was a good chance for me to remind him that they were beaten 2-1 by Liverpool last weekend.
The good news was, that I had got their computer and e-mail all set up and working the other day, on their brand new phone line. The bad news was that they have had the line taken off them again until September 1st, as that is the date when their contract commences. The old saying applies - "This is Cyprus"
We took Michael and Barbara off to the airport early this morning. They are off to Turkey for a couple of weeks holiday, looking up some of the old holiday haunts they used to visit.
Joan and I will be cat sitting for the next couple of weeks, as they have Smudge's sister and our Tiggy's friend, Mandu (as in Kathmandu), so we can probably expect a few visits from them.
This evening we went with Mark and Hayran to the St Tropez Restaurant Français. They recently opened a wine bar here as well and we decided to give that a look as a prelude to dinner. Very tastefully done but shame that nobody else came to see what it is like. The restaurant remains one of the very best on the island, lovely food and a real attention to service and detail. Worth a visit when you are over and even an advance look on www.saint-tropez-cyprus.com" target="_blank">www.saint-tropez-cyprus.com">www.saint-tropez-cyprus.com . Remember to book in advance as it is nearly always full at weekends.
That's not really a plug for them but just a reminder to ourselves that we always enjoy this one.
Today is our 24th wedding anniversary so we decided to do a few things that we enjoy so much, like going out for a sail and then dinner for two in a good restaurant.Now you know that theory about everything happens in 3's well it did.First the sailing. There was quite a heavy swell and a wind that came directly on to the beach, so Joan popped in first to rig the boat whilst I hung on in the swell, giving instructions of course. Then when I jumped in and we tried to set off we just turned a full 360 degrees and headed back to the beach and the rocks. I had to jump out again and hold the boat off, to try again. Chris came over and explained that we had forgotten to put the centre board down, so without any form of keel the boat was at the mercy of the wind. Oops, big mistake and a lesson learnt. Second time lucky and we had a good sail out there, followed by a talking to by Chris, after we had put the boats to bed. He is right of course, because it is important that all these things are right, for the safety of the boats and the people in them, that's why he is a Coach/Assessor in the RYA and not just a sailing instructor. We did see some very lovely beach lilies just growing in the sand. It seems that they don't grow anywhere else and if you try to transfer them to a garden they just die. They grow some long way from the waters edge and just seem to pop up here and there along the beach.Second thing. We went back to our car to head off home, dead battery! Would you believe it, we had left home no problem and then there we were, miles from Lapta, on a Sunday and no hope of starting. I had the presence of mind to call one of the English directors of the company we bought from to see if we could get one of their mechanics to do some Sunday work. Within 1/2 an hour two of the English owners of the company, came zooming down to the beach with a set of jump leads and we were soon on our way again. Looks like I'll need to buy a new battery on Monday, but can't complain about the service from these guys. So when you want to buy a car for over here then take a look at the Tasaş Car Sales link on our web pages.The third thing. The restaurant we went to this evening. The Effendi House has been taken over again by the man who owned it around 5 years ago and we were told that it is brilliant. Well, the food was good and freshly cooked for each guest, the service was just about there, a sort of: lets pamper to some of our regular customers and do just enough for the others to see if we can get a tip. Also by local standards it was very expensive, so in short we were disappointed, especially after the previous evenings restaurant, so wont be rushing back there. Having said all of the above, we enjoyed our anniversary and next year it will be 25 years, maybe an excuse for a party or maybe just a twosome getaway, who knows, maybe both!
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