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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Well things have changed a bit over here. Originally, Joan and I were
thinking of being away for Christmas, probably to go skiing, but then we
found that Joan only gets two days off from school, so we changed our
minds. Then we told everybody, amongst our "friends", that we were staying thinking it would be good news, they all found out about a special cheap flight deal and now they are all going to UK and leaving us to look after 7 cats. Do you think they are trying to tell us something, or just have built in cat sitters?
This evening we went out with Hans and Trix, our Dutch friends, to what used to be Errol's restaurant in Ozankoy. Since Errol moved to his own place, it has been opened up again by someone else in his family and we have to say was very nice. Worth a visit, especially on Friday evenings, when they do a fish and chip special. Just makes a nice change from all those lamb kebabs. It was great to go out with Hans & Trix again; the strange thing over here is that you develop such a wide circle of friends that you don't always see one another as often as you would like and have to make a real effort to get together now and again.Joan and I did make the mistake of diverting to the Aeria bar on the way back home, only to find that the Lapta layabouts were all still in residence. So we popped in for one with them and finally got home at 2 a.m.
Well the new curtains that Joan wanted for our bedroom are ready, so we went over to Nicosia to Omaç Cin Plaza to collect them. These are full length, on two window walls andlook absolutely great. They are a very rich golden yellow colour and make the room really warm looking, apparently what we need now is a colourful bed throw just to complete the look, how come these little extras just sneak up on one later on. I have to say, considering we only ordered these on Monday afternoon and they are 4 curtains, each 1.70 meters wide by 2.50 long and hand pleated at the top, Omaç's people have made a lovely job of them, very quickly and we would certainly recommend them to anybody.
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Yesterday wasJohn's birthday, partly the reason for the late one at the Aeria bar. Sandy had arranged a Sunday lunch for some of us to celebrate the occasion. We gathered around 1.30 for somedrinks before lunch and then made the decision to move the table outside onto the front terrace as it was such a pleasant warm afternoon.We all tucked in to a great dinner and in fact stayed outside until around 6.30 p.m.
We had lots of fun watching the kittens that John and Sandy have recently taken into their home.Sooty and Sweep came from the same litter, at Shirley Valentines restaurant, here on the Lapta seafront. These two together with their old cat, Thomas, Barbara and Michaels two cats and our two, make up the seven cats we will be babysitting over Christmas. Guess we will have our work cut out.
This evening Joan and I had a go with this new "Skype" software that allows us to talk to friends using the computer and just a headset. Les had downloaded the software also, so we were able to just chat via the internet connection. The phone line quality over here, that gives us this connection, is not that brilliant, but at least if you have a local phone link to your service provider then you are only paying local costs, the Skype bit is free to other Skype users so it is a hell of a lot cheaper than overseas calls, you just have to agree planned times in advance. Worth a try folks.
This information is for those of you who ask about medical cost here. We have always maintained that it is cheaper to keep a sum of money on deposit for medical emergencies, rather than give it away annually to the insurance companies. This works for us, because we have luckily been in good health for many years, long may it last.
The proof of our plan has shown to be accurate this week Most insurance companies want around £2,500 per year each, for us oldies and now we have finally had to dip in to our deposit account.
Some of you may recall, I was told last year, to have my gall bladder out as it basically was not functioning any more and could lead to further problems. Well I have rather stupidly been putting it off, because life is good here and it just might go away. Well lately I have had a few warnings so decided to take the plunge. I called last Friday to see Dr Nuray, who a) I know and b) has an ultrasound machine. She looked at the UK report did another sounding, told me I was a stupid boy and made an appointment for me to go into a specialised private clinic on Sunday afternoon. They are going to do a keyhole surgical job on Monday morning and hopefully send me home again next Tuesday, all for around £1,000.
So I will put a couple odd days diary notes on before the weekend and then you may get a few days silence whilst I feel sorry for myself.
Just a quick note before I head off to the hospital. Thanks for the messages of good luck from many of you. Feel sure that I will be back behind this keyboard in the middle of next week.
We have had a few very pleasant evenings out since I last made up the diary. On Thursday we went round to George and Susan's for dinner. Susan experimented with a previously untried recipe and Joan provided the pudding. The food and the pleasant evenings conversation were thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Friday saw us having an evening out with Derek and Sandra at a restaurant in Ozankoy, the one we went to last week with Hans and Trix. Sandra wanted to give it a try and again we enjoyed the food and the evening out with them. Sandra was asking about Istanbul and if we were happy to make a trip over there again next year, so that they could take advantage of our previously acquired tourist experiences. Seems like a good idea to us so we will just have to agree a suitable time.
Last night, Saturday, we went to The Padesha with Owen and Sue Lelou. They are over here taking delivery of their house, so to speak. We had put the kitchen equipment in their house recently and are installing air conditioning on Monday and this together with cleaning and furniture deliveries is keeping them well occupied. As they are staying at a friends house in Lapta, we all had dinner and then came back to Deano's for a drink on the way home.
Prior to this evening out, Joan and I went over to the south with Michael and Barbara to do some advance shopping for Xmas. We now have our turkey, some sprouts and even some parsnips for roasting, so can look forward to a very hearty Xmas dinner. Michael and I did some initial investigation for electricity generators, as they seem much cheaper over there and are becoming more and more necessary, as they try to get the utilities here to catch up with all the house building. We will just have to find out about bringing them over the border, for private use.
OUCH!
Things did not go quite to plan and now it hurts. The planned 1.5 hour keyhole jobby turned into a 4 hour, dig a big hole in Frank job. It seems that they could not cut through the gall bladder wall, to separate it, so had to revert to a conventional operation. The consequences of this of course are, no lifting, no driving, etc for some time to come. The very plus side is that all the path. lab results are very positive and now all I have to do is heal. I am also on a low fat diet for the rest of this week, but the surgeon said Xmas dinner, in moderation, will be fine by then and I finish my anti-biotics on Thursday night so should even be able to have a couple of Xmas drinks.
The Hospital, "brilliant" and despite the added operating time and the extra 5 days bed occupation, complete with blood tests and lab reports, the whole thing still only came to £1,100, try that for size in the UK. Over the next few days I am going to put together a link page on the site, as this Kyrenia Medical Centre, as it is called, should be an information must for many of you. They are revamping some of the buildings and including new equipment etc. over the next six months, so it is going to be quite a decent sized private hospital, before the end of next year. Interestingly enough, on the day I was coming out, I met John and Jean, over from the UK so that John could have an operation that they had promised him he could have within the next 3 years on the NHS.
Because of the rebuilding going on, the private rooms were all on one floor of the newer building, so I was able to witness quite a bit of the comings and goings. During my stay, a couple babies were born, with the entourage of family in attendance, but have to admit the family, on my final day, takes the biscuit. Early in the morning, mother and father to be turned up, with a couple of near relatives in the same age group. Once these were settled in in their room there was a steady stream of relatives and friends, all bearing gifts, balloons, flowers, you name it. Around 11 a.m. the immediate family turned up in convoy, clearly they had been warned that the big event was imminent. It looked to me as if there was around four generations of this lot, about 20 in all. Bringing up the rear, was what I assumed to be a very small, great, great grandmother, resplendent in black woolly tights, traditional black skirt and the headscarf, carrying a toilet roll as her contribution to the occasion. I wish it didn't hurt to laugh so much. Baby was born around 12 o'clock then the cameras started flashing, mobile phones started ringing and there was going to be a big celebration with cake for everybody in the hospital. Clearly these things must be planned and induced over here, but with all the goings on, if I had been that baby, I would have wanted to go back from whence I came.
OTHER NEWS.
General Election. The date has been fixed as 20th February for the next general election, necessary, as the current coalition has lost members and therefore the power to do anything, particularly to get its budget through parliament.
Leasehold Bill. Officially declared dead. The Prime Minister admitted that the proposed bill, published in September, had had a negative impact on the economy and even if he should be returned to power in February, then the bill would not be brought back "in its present form". The excessive reaction from all parties had forced the government to reconsider its stance.
Tax Cuts. VAT is to be is to be scrapped on basic foodstuffs and a few other things, to try to bring prices in line with costs in the south. The tax lost will be recovered by increasing the taxes on new car registrations and properties sold to foreign buyers. Interestingly there is also a new tax of 30% on the value of all goods purchased in the south, in excess of 50 Euro. Clearly they are trying to curb the quantity of foodstuffs coming over the border, as by the time you add £15 per month car insurance at the crossing + this tax it will not make economic sense.
Poor Joan, stuck with doing all the work. At least she is getting a little help with things like the Xmas decorations. Yesterday evening she got the tree upstairs and the boxes of decorations out and that provoked a littleinterest from Smudge. We decided to put the tree up on its own for starters to try to get the initial interest out of the way, but that wasn't too much of a success as help was still expected and given and those big silver balls definitely need hanging where I say they should hang. I guess that by the time this Xmas is over we should be in the market for replacing a few tree decorations.
Now that all the Lapta Layabouts have gone back to the UK, we in theory had seven cats to feed in three houses. Luckily for Joan, Barbara and Stewart have stepped in and taken over the responsibility for Sandy's two kittens, which is a great relief for her.
This evening was the performance of the Sunny Lane School annual Xmas Show. Unfortunately I was not able to go, but Joan went along to see it all and take a few pictures for us. Joan had not actually been around in school all week, as the governors had told her to go away and come back after the new year, when the invalid was able to look after himself. A gesture much appreciated by us both. The performance was as usual extremely good, even the little ones incrèche and reception classes enjoy the fun. This year the show was called"Christmas is for giving" and I believe based on a theme of take from the rich and give to the poor, shades of the Robin Hood theory, except not by force. As there are now 59 pupils in the school the stage gets quite full atfinale time.
The weather this week has been pretty damp, but today takes the ultimate prize. The rain started around 5 a.m. and not just a gentle drizzle but a great downpour, which went on for 12 hours non stop. Joan had to go down town for some shopping and banking and she said it was horrendous, streets turned in to rivers, some shops being flooded and traffic chaos of course. The electric went off just after midday and stayed off for 11 hours. For me fortunately, I don't have to go down to the hospital today for dressing changes so I was able to keep warm and dry whilst Joan did all the nasty bits.
Richard joined us during the afternoon and is staying around until after the Xmas break. We had all booked some time ago, to go to The Padesha on Xmas Eve and as I was feeling so much better over the last couple of days, I ventured out with them, together with our Dutch friend Hans. It was really nice, super food as always, nice and warm, some good musicians to entertain, so all in all very enjoyable. We left by 11 p.m., mainly because I had had enough of sitting upright on a dining chair. It was super to get out, but also very nice to get back home again.
Christmas day started off all nice and bright, so obviously the weather is turning again, to what we would expect at this time of the year. If you remember, Joan and Richard even went in the pool, last year on Xmas day, silly fools. I had to be at the hospital at 12 noon, for dressing changes, so Richard took me down there and let Joan get on with the dinner preparation.Hans joined us around 3.30 p.m. and we all sat down to a traditional Xmas dinner. Has declared that some English traditions were good, especially the traditional dinner. The Xmas pudding idea for him was something totally new, so we had to pour over the brandy andlight up the pud, but it seemed to be a great success. Well donethe chef and Richard too, who was great help to Joan with some of the finale preparations and the carving.Hans left around 7.30 to give his dog some exercise, so the three of us settled down to a DVD and a glass of wine in front of the log fire.
Just a quick note to all the Lapta Layabouts, who ran off to England. This morning we sat out on theterrace for breakfast as the temperature this morning was 20 degrees and by midday it had risen to 24 degrees. So if you are scrapping the windshields of your hire cars, tough.
Steve, out there in Aussie. If you are still reading our site please send me a mail, we need to ask you a favour.
Boredom is beginning to set in. Sitting around reading books is really nice but not quite my scene. Each day is getting better, but I am realising that this is going to take a little time before I get really fit again, even more than an hour behind the computer, sitting up straight, starts to get uncomfortable.
This afternoon, Joan took me off down to Kyrenia, so that we could pay a couple of bills and call in the shop to see my friend Ertugral. It was chaos down there as the New Year holiday is the big event for the locals so they were all out buying gifts for friends and relatives and this together with the road works going on and the locals parking methods, meant that it took around 30 minutes to do a journey of around 1 mile around the centre of town. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to get out for a while after all.
Richard is on the early morning flight to UK tomorrow, so the three of us nipped along to The Polar restaurant in Catalkoy for their traditional winter fare of :- Prawn cocktail, fish and chips, apple pie with ice cream, coffee and brandy for the grand total of £4.80 each. We really are among the worlds big spenders!!!!
Sandy and John are the first of the "Layabouts" to make it back from UK and they have invited us round for a New Years dinner tomorrow, so will report on that before we close the year off. But in the meantime, Joan and I hope that all of you have a Happy and Healthy 2005.
Super evening out at John and Sandy's. There where eight for dinner which was a real treat. Smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, prawns and home made pâté, followed by beef stroganoff and finished off with chocolate profita rolls and black forest gateau and a huge assortment of cheeses. Clearly Sandy had been raiding Sainsbury's before she came back so we all reaped the benefit. At midnight we stood outside on the terrace with champagne and watched the firework displays from some of the big hotels, shirt sleeve order at almost 1 a.m. it must have been around 12 degrees.By 1 a.m. I had personally had enough, so Joan and I left them to it and came home, but it was a great evening and a nice way to celebrate the New Year event.Will start 2005 diary shortly, in the meantime have a great and healthy New Year and for those of you who are awaiting the house completions, we hope that there are not too many trials and tribulations.
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