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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Well here we go with the start of another new month and still the heat wave persists. The weather over the last week has been soaring up to temperatures around 40 degrees, the sort of weather we would expect in August. Not really a complaint from us, as this is one of the reasons that we came over here, warm sunny weather and guaranteed, but we think that our visitors suffered this last week and were probably glad to get on that plane Friday morning. Dennis in particular found it a real problem, so guess that if they come back next year, it will be in a cooler period.
Saturday night and a night on the town for Joan and I. Well our version of a night on the town, a quiet restaurant in our own village were the food is good and we can sit and relax. Last year, Sarah and her husband Savaş, opened the Tai Restaurant on the roof of their house, we have been there a few times and find the menu simple, the quality good and the service very friendly, so in short, highly recommended. If you time it right, the view of the sunset from the rooftop can be quite stunning, but be warned, if it is very windy you might have to hang on to the lettuce leaves.
Oh yes, nothing to do with July in particular, but we have had one or two e-mails asking about crossing to the south. Well, we have not yet taken the car over, but will do shortly and will report on that, but we have been over on foot a couple of times and it is no problem at all. Joan and Barbara went over one afternoon and got a bus to M & S, just out of the main town and had a grand afternoon by all accounts and that includes the bank accounts! So those of you wondering, wonder no more, the south is now in the EU and you all have EU passports.
Another bulletin on the north south crossing. We heard today from two different friends that they had both driven over without problem. One couple, who have their legal residency permits here and drive a locally registered vehicle went over no problem and the second couple, who are still in the throws of getting their residency sorted, but who also drive still around with UK licence plates, also crossed over for a shopping spree. So it looks like freedom of movement is truly with us. We will say however, that we heard about some people who were shopping and when the shopkeeper asked them where they were staying, they replied truthfully, we live in the north; and he asked them to leave the shop and refused to serve them. So maybe for a little while, the little white lie might be useful. Why create problems
Peace reigns at last. After the initial stand offs and spitting sessions we seem to have a sort of harmony between Tiggy and Smudge. The kitten is still, of course very boisterous and wanting to play, but Tiggy either lays her on her back and stands over her saying, "I'm the boss and don't you forget it" or clears off to some high ground where the kitten can't get to her and just occasionally they lie down together in perfect peace.This evening we were just finishing dinner, waiting for Jim McGill and Michelle to come and visit, as they have recently arrived from UK, when Mehmet, our neighbour from the top of the road called for us to come to his garden and watch the snakes. We went up, armed with camera and found two black snakes, each at least 1.5 meters long, intertwined and doing what snakes do in the spring. We, together with some other local neighbours, stood and watched for at least half an hour whilst they coiled and twisted around one another in the grass. Probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to see something like this and we are extremely grateful that Mehmet called us. The picture quality is not brilliant, because I had to rely on the zoom lens and then crop the result on the computer, had I gone too near we might have scared them off, as like all snakes they are more inclined to run away from humans than bite. Never the less a picture to keep, as a memory of something tremendous to see.
I have been tremendously busy these last few weeks with the kitchen sales for my friend Ertugral, more about this in a moment, so Joan and I decided to have a day to ourselves up in the panhandle area of the island. We drove East of Kyrenia, to the end of the new road which has been built out that way and then took the old coast road on the North side and found this delightful little beach, which we had all to ourselves for quite some time. There are not many places in the Mediterranean were you can still find this sort of beauty and solitude, long may it last.
After about three hours of swimming and basking in the sun we took a bit of a drive around. First to a local village, Tatlisu, which is just up the mountain from the coast, here in amongst some very small houses and a local village shop we found this magnificent church. The style is clearly original Greek orthodox, but the village clearly Turkish Cypriot, from all the flags flying and the church is very well preserved. So for all of you who believe the propaganda about the barbaric Turks destroying all the Greek churches, take this and many other similar examples as a hint of the truth. Later we took the old coast road back towards home and stopped off at a little restaurant called The Eagles Nest for a meal. A lovely day out, maybe we will do it again next week whilst Joan is still on holiday from school.
I'm going to use this date to plug kitchen white goods to all of you coming over here to live. Don't know why I have not used our own website for this before, but here goes.
For some time now I have been helping my Turkish Cypriot friend Ertugral, with white goods sales and sales of air conditioners, to some of his English customers. We have, together with two of the major importers here in TRNC, put together a couple of packages of equipment. These packages are either Bosch or Italian Nardi with Hoover cookers and freezers etc. So far we have sold about 30 complete kitchens and installed over half of them and we seem to have some very happy customers, so here's the plug, if you are having a new home built and want to buy equipment with personal service from me, then look no further. If you want to send me an e-mail I can always send you a quote by return.
Happy Birthday to Ayşe. Joan and I were invited to the party at a friends house on the road up to Edremit. There was an absolutely stunning view from their pool terrace, down to the coast, west of Kyrenia. We all had a great evening, which included some late night swimming in the big pool, lots of tremendous food and a little drink. Joan and I decided at 3.30 a.m. that a taxi was the only sensible solution and a car pick up on Sunday.
Not a very early start to the day, but a lot of relaxing by the pool after we had picked up our car. That little monster of a kitten is now in to everything and wants watching all the time. If we say Down Smudge or No Smudge at least a thousand times a day its getting to be the normal. She is in to everything and wants constantly to know what's going on. It's the first time that Joan and I have had such a small kitten, but the fun is worth the agro. Today, despite all our shouts to get down, she insisted on trying to help with the washing up.
Today, after a lot of phone calls and e-mails we managed to get the domain name diverts working properly, so for your benefit there are two websites available under The Northern Cyprus Information links pages. First is a totally renewed Australian Construction website and now the e-mail link is working you should all get a fairly rapid response. The second is a brand new website that we have just created. It is for Omaç Cin Plaza in Nicosia " target="_blank">www.omaccin.com"> www.omaccin.com , this is a complete furnishing store that might be of interest, right down to curtain making and soft furnishings. The next thing I am going to work on, is to put together a furnishing package, together with the owner, create a website for this and then link it both to our web pages and to his website. I'll tell you when it's ready.
Today I received a very friendly e-mail from Andreas, a Greek Cypriot who lives in Southern Cyprus and one who has many Turkish Cypriot friends on this side of the border. He very rightly pointed out that, whilst on the 8th of this month, I had said, that a lovely church had been preserved in Tatlisu, it was in fact only the external walls that had been preserved by the locals, in order to use the building as a mosque, but that inside it had in fact been stripped of all its icons and anything else that represented the original Christian faith for which the church had been built. Joan and I had not been able to get into the church, but we have been in other churches now used as mosques, in the Karpaz region; and a similar situation applies.
I asked Andreas, what about the original mosques in the South and he says that mostly they have been preserved and locked. Of course according to Islam, mosques are humble and do not contain the treasures that were present in the Greek churches, so logically not victims of art thieves and dealers. Apparently quite recently, a Greek Cypriot member of parliament has been accused of smuggling antiques, some of them from Tatlisu, and selling them on to Greek Cypriot collectors for lots of money and there is also the case of the mosaics from the church "Mary of Kankaria" being found by the German Police in Munich in the flat of a Turk, apparently worth over 10 million sterling. Greed is a terrible thing, but as Andreas pointed out, whatever side of the border you come from, cultural destruction is a fact and is to be condemned.
Luckily not everybody has the same attitude to property which does not belong to them, we have also heard stories on this side of the border, where Greek Cypriots have been to visit their old homes and been presented with family jewellery and heirlooms which have been kept by the incumbent Turkish Cypriots, for all these years. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the world over, people could one day learn to live in peace and harmony, instead of this continual hatred which seems to be part of our lives today.
Today it started to blow up a right old storm from across the sea. Wouldn't you just believe it, had to be today, just when Joan and I had booked our first sailing lesson off Diana beach. There is a company here called Dolphin Sailing, who have been around for a number of years and who offer to teach you to sail in Wayfarer dinghies. Now we have always been boat people since our days in Holland, but power boats; and whilst we have looked at the possibilities here, can't see the point. Just up and down the coast to some bay for a swim and then back to harbour, so we thought lets give the more energetic form of boating a chance. Anyway we spent a couple of hours on the theory and have to wait till next week to get into a boat. Hopefully we will be able to get some pictures of the intrepid mariners for future diary notes
Yesterday was the second anniversary of our arrival here in Northern Cyprus and almost the second anniversary of Michael and Barbara moving in to their house, so we celebrated by trying out the new Jessac restaurant, here on the Lapta strip, along the seafront. We have to say they have done a lovely job of the rebuild and served some very nice food so we would be happy to say, give it a try.
Today it was little Daniel's second birthday so we went to his party. Daniel did very well for presents, a big police pedal car, toys, books a large croc to kill, his sisters also had many of their friends around, so he was a very busy boy. The gang from Lardy Dars had made him a big chocolate birthday cake and his sisters had made a chocolate dinosaur, covered in bright green icing, very frightening. I think he was slightly overawed by all the attention so had to hang on to mum during the cake ceremony.
Mark had dragged out the big bouncy castle from the garage which the kids had great fun in, especially when they sprayed it with washing up liquid and water. A very pleasant afternoon and evening and all the kids sure as hell enjoyed themselves.
Today was Barbara's birthday. Barbara and Bruce are our friends who live up in Karaman and a chance comment by Bruce, about hot weather and swimming pools meant the party was at our place. Barbara's sister Irene was also over on holiday from UK, so they all came down the mountain during the afternoon to cool off in the pool. We were joined later by Jeff and Anne Lloyd, who are here to check up on their house development. Barbara had brought over some steak and some chicken, Joan had done kleftiko lamb in the oven, so a veritable feast was enjoyed by all. Most of us even managed to sample the delights of swimming late at night, when the water is gloriously warm and those couple of glasses of wine don't seem to matter. In fact in the photo some of us look as if we are going to sleep already, or is this a séance. Sorry, only took one pic and everybody shut their eyes at the wrong moment, well we can't all be David Bailey can we.
The wind, luckily, had dropped earlier this week, so we were able to go out for our 1st sailing lesson. Clearly there is a hell of a lot to learn, including how to put the boats together for starters. We started off on the beach, learning which ropes go where and do what, such as those that control the sails, pretty vital I would suggest. It was great to be able to actually get started and we both really look forward to the next few weeks and then to be able to "fly" solo, so to speak
Girl's night out. There was a charity dinner at Denizkizi hotel, with guest speaker on alternative medicine, so the girl's decided that this was for them. We guys, Michael, George and I, just sat around under our gazebo and cooked sausages, beans and mash, washed down with a few beers. Now I don't know about alternative medicine, but we certainly enjoyed our medicine, interspersed with a lot of laughs.
We did meet the girl's later, down at Deano's; and they also seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
2nd sailing lesson and an expensive one for me. Just before leaving home, I received a phone call, popped my mobile into my pocket as usual and we set off. Shortly after springing into the boat, which you do when in about 3 feet of water, I felt this very warm sensation at the top of my left leg. No, not a senior moment, or even me getting over excited, just my mobile phone battery reacting badly to being immersed in salt water. Oops, bye bye mobile phone.
When we got home, I tried washing it again in fresh water and drying firstly with Joan's hairdryer, but to no avail, so tomorrow I'm going to have to buy a new one. Now this is one time when it would be nice to be in UK, as we believe that they are virtually giving them away over there. Perhaps I will either buy one of these waterproof bags, or even better, remember to leave it ashore in the car.
This weekend was a nice quiet one, apart that is from taking George and Sue to the airport at 5 a.m. this morning. Why is it that planes always have to leave so very early?
Still when I get back I will be able to catch up on all that computer work that I need to do and try out my new web software to see if I can put the kitchen packages within easier reach.
Tuesday again and another sailing lesson. We are really beginning to enjoy these but realise that we have a long way to go, but never mind it's great fun and Chris our instructor has infinite patience. He has now started to give us lots of homework which probably means that some of our weekend will be taken up in practicing knots and learning about sail settings etc.
For those interested in the progress of our kitten we can report that she has now been well accepted and is required to report for her morning bath. Sometimes Tiggy has to hold her down to get the job done and then the fun starts.
This evening, Sue and Peter Bonney turned up, another of our website contacts, having arrived in the early hours of this morning. They are here on a house hunting trip and this time with firm resolve to find what they are looking for. Sue, bless her, read about my mishap with the phone and had e-mailed to say that she had just upgraded in UK and so she brought her old Nokia with her for me. Joan has promised to buy me a waterproof holder, so with any luck and a little common sense on my part, all should be well again on the mobile front.
Today we kept our promise to go south. At 8 a.m. this morning, together with Michael and Barbara we set off for the border. No problem at all, straight through all the border police posts, bought some car insurance for 1 month, at cost of £15.00 Cyprus and we were off down the high speed road to Pathos.Michael and Barbara had been to Pathos some 12 years ago and we had never been so we had all said that should be our destination. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there and about another 45 minutes to find our way around to the old harbour area. The whole place is a commercial success obviously, souvenir shops by the hundred, bars and restaurants all offering happy hours all day, par ascending, speed boats, glass bottom boats and the whole tourist bit. A purely personal opinion from the four of us, been there, done that, got the T shirt and don't want to go back. I sincerely hope that over time, the same thing doesn't happen in Kyrenia.Because Joan and I had not been there before it was suggested that we took advantage and spent some time looking at the archaeological site close to the harbour and particularly at the mosaics which can be found there. It was great to see that a lot of effort had been made in preserving and protecting these wonderful pieces of history and some of the mosaics were in a wonderful condition considering their age.On our way down, we had seen a signpost for some place called Governors Beach, so unanimous opinion was, get out of Pathos and head off back there. A great choice, as we found a very nice restaurant up on a cliff top looking down on a lovely little cove. We had a superb meal and friendly service all round, Michael was able to continue occupying the table and a beer glass, whilst the three of us went down for an after lunch swim. Clearly there are some lovely places in the south of the island, so if your choice is Pathos, or somewhere like it, or if like us, you prefer the quiet spots, there is plenty to suit everyone and a little advance research should satisfy your personal choice
Second session of sailing lessons this week, this time starting in the afternoon. The wind had freshened a little since this morning and Chris explained to us that every month, a few days before the full moon, we got these stronger winds from the North East. We set off for our first hour, with Joan on helm and the wind was getting quite strong with an increasing swell. This was the first lesson when Chris had insisted that we wear our life vests. Joan found it quite hard to hold course and we heeled over a couple of times much further than we had ever done in previous weeks. By the time it came to the start of my hour on the helm, the swell was occasionally getting up to around 2.5 meters with increasing gusts of wind. After one turn round the buoy, when we again heeled over some considerable way, Chris decided enough was enough and that we where not really experienced enough to handle these conditions yet, so we hove too, dropped the mainsail and Chris brought us back to the beach with just the jib sail. We clearly need a few more hours on the water under our belts before we meet these conditions alone, but it was great fun and we both thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
On the way home we stopped off at The Villa Club to meet Trix and her daughter, our friends from Holland, who are having a house built over here. Trix is just checking on progress, this time without Hans, so we invited them round for a meal on Sunday evening. This evening we introduced Sue and Peter to the Tai restaurant here in Lapta, which they thoroughly enjoyed and the good news is that they think they have found a house that they like, here in Lapta, so maybe the number of "Lapta Layabouts" is on the increase.
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