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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Well, well that was a big surprise. As I turned into our road, late this afternoon, two men from the telecom company were grunting and groaning over the concrete lid and the other surprise was that they had a big roll of cable on their truck. I managed to understand, I think, that it was their job to feed new cable from one point to another, but that another gang would be along to connect us, what they didn't say was when the other gang would be along. At least we can say that progress has now been made.
Obviously Michael and I, trying to harmonise whilst singing "Oh to be connected now that June is here" caused them to cover their ears and say, best do the job then. Low and behold there were two men down the hole this morning busily connected the old cables to the new. When I downloaded my e-mails, via my very own telephone line, I received a photo from my very good friend in UK, Les (Biggles) Martin. So named because his hobby is flying model aeroplanes. He has owned a few, crashed a few and still enjoys the challenge. But this photo shows something a little larger than I am used to seeing from him. Now as we still do the lottery together with Les & Jill I was wondering if he was holding out on me, because his e-mail says I want one. Maybe he just arranged to take Jill up as part of the softening up process! Its great to be connected again because I have lots of work to do on websites, to create new information sources for you all. A local Turkish Cypriot friend Omaç Cin has a four storey home furnishing store in Nicosia, known for obvious reasons as Omaç Cin Plaza. He has asked for a website to be built and linked through our North Cyprus Information section. I reckon a couple of weeks should see this live and then you will find information on all your furnishing needs. Also our friend Ali together with his brother has started a new car hire business, with brand new Ford Fiestas and Focus cars, so they also want a website for their Majestic Car Hire. I will post a note when these are running live.This evening we went out, with Michael and Barbara, to the local restaurant for a portion of their fish, chips and peas. See old English traditions take a long time to die and it seems to me that you can find that meal anywhere in the world, the only difference being the quality. But out here and in this local Seranada Restaurant, it costs £4.00 for a very nice meal, plus of course the odd beer and a bottle of vino for the ladies, well worth a visit.
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It is getting considerably warmer out here day by day and the pool is getting used regularly, but strangely enough we have had about 2 weeks of really strong winds. We can't remember that it was this windy last year at this time, but maybe that's just old age and the memory going.
Today, being Sunday, Joan and I decided to relax and enjoy, at least until this evening. So out with the sun beds, slap on the protection and enjoy, then an early meal out on the terrace, because this evening we are off to a Cypriot wedding.
Many of you will recall we have frequently mentioned our friends Ertugral and Ayse, who run a kitchen white goods shop down in Kyrenia. For almost a year now I have been helping Ertugral sell complete kitchens to many of the English who buy homes over here and in return he is my sleeping partner in this website business. In order to operate legally in business over here, I need a 51% local partner and Ertugral is my man. As a result of this we have become good friends with him and his family and today, his oldest daughter, Geliz is getting married.
Joan and I collected George and Susan at around 7.45 to all go off to the wedding. Things over here happen a little differently than in UK. The wedding was to take place in the indoor pool hall of Oscar's resort, a large hotel complex to the east of Kyrenia. The bride and groom turned up together in a big Mercedes wedding car dressed especially for the occasion. The registrar was already in the pool room together with all the family, on both sides. The bride and groom then sat at a special table together with the registrar and witnesses. The registrar did all the speaking, presumably the Turkish version of "Do you Geliz take etc etc" and they each in turn only had to say one word "evett" meaning yes. Then the signing of the papers and it was all over. We have to say that Geliz looked really happy when she walked around the poolside together with her new husband Özgür, they then had their first dance together as husband and wife. The strange part about local weddings is that only the immediate family dress up for the occasion and all the invited people just queue up to wish the newlyweds every happiness and pin money on the brides dress. Probably why we ex-pats refer to it as, "a pin and push off wedding", because that's all you get. No buffet of food, no drinks all round to celebrate, very strange but highly rewarding for a bride and groom with lots of friends and family. We all hung around for about an hour in total to see what was going on then reverted to a local bar on the seafront in Lapta. Now who would have guessed that that is what we would do?
But it is not all over for Geliz and Özgür, because his family all live in Turkey, so they are going to do it all over again in two weeks time near the family home. After this wedding is over, they are both going to live and work in Istanbul. Geliz hopes to get work as an English teacher, as she has recently gained her MA from a local university and Özgür already works for a computer company in Istanbul.
For those of you who ask often about the cost of things, here's a piece of information for you. I took the Mitsubishi car that I had traded in last week, to a local garage, for a full service. Just piece of mind and everything else really. They did a complete service including new spark plugs, oil and filter changes, relined the front disc brakes, checked and adjusted everything else and charged me £65.00 for the whole. Now that's what I call value for money.
This evening we, together with around 50 other friends, were invited to Shirley Valentines restaurant to help Sandy & John celebrate 30 years together. This restaurant is right on the seafront in Lapta and tonight was very very windy, but despite that a good crowd gathered early to help with the celebration of this milestone. A tremendous buffet meal was laid on with copious quantities of the local red and whites to wash it down and Roger B provided the music for us all to dance afterwards. Great evening, thanks Sandy & John
Ugh, very early morning for me. George and Sue had to go back to UK very quickly, due to an illness in the family and guess who volunteered for the 4 a.m. airport run. Hope all goes well for them over there and that they also get to see some other family members whilst there. Have still been doing some work on the websites and will let you know when the links are up and running. Also for info I am still getting a lot of e-mails which superonline are cutting out with their virus protection software. I get to see the addresses and some of them look as if they might be real UK service provider addresses , so once again if you are not getting any response sorry, but I can't take chances with all the current silly viruses which are around. Check your machines and try again is the only thing I can suggest.On a lighter note. For some time now, Joan and I have been thinking that we needed a mate for our cat Tiggy, we always had two in UK and generally they enjoy the company of another cat. Well we had heard about some friends whose cat had produced four kittens, which were now about 10 weeks old, so we had been to look and decided to pick one up today. This means we can spend the entire weekend with both of them and hopefully fend off any potential early trouble. So here is Smudge, all sharp claws, teeth and a bundle of fur, but lovely with it. It's absolutely amazing just how much energy these things have and then how they can suddenly, just crash out and sleep for ages, thank heavens. Guess we are in for a busy weekend
It was down to me to do the shopping today so that Joan could keep an eye open at home for the meetings which inevitably take place between cats. So far so good, a little swearing and growling but no immediate claws out fights.It was so very nice today that Joan and I decided to sit quietly outside with an evening BBQ, leave all the doors open and see if Smudge would venture down the stairs. It was so very mild that we in fact sat out until gone 11 p.m., with the kitten curled up asleep on Joan's lap and Tiggy on a chair nearby, pretending to be asleep, but in reality with one eye open to keep on top of things. She is going to get that message across somehow as to who is boss around here. Its evenings like this that make you realise just why you enjoy life here so much. I know its warm in UK right now, but we can guarantee this until end October at least.Oh yes another thing to tell you. Michael and Barbara also decided to take one of the kittens from the litter so guess I'll have to go and take some pictures for all you cat lovers
This afternoon, Peter and Averill Davies came round to see us. They are having a villa built in the next village, so from time to time we have been going and taking some progress pictures, especially when stage payments were due and Peter wanted to check on progress. Ever the cautious lawyer.
They had kindly brought us the latest UK newspapers and some bits and pieces we had asked them to get and then Peter took us down to the local restaurant for dinner. Very nice to.
After dinner, Michael picked me up so that he and I could go to Pine Bay to watch England/France. Oh dear, very sad to see the trouble England got themselves into during the last three minutes but suppose that there is still every opportunity to go through to the next round, here's hoping.
Joan and I have just returned from a charity luncheon were the guest speaker was Sir Bernard Ingham. There is a link to these charity lunches on our web pages, but this is the first we have attended, this one was mainly because I always used to enjoy the TV shows that Sir Bernard was involved in just after the Margaret Thatcher era. A highly amusing speaker with lots of anecdotes from his time as press secretary to Margaret Thatcher.
This luncheon was also attended by Mr Rauf Denktas, President of TRNC and I believe that this is the first time he has shown a serious interest in these functions. Unfortunately were we sat it was extremely difficult to get good photos, mainly because they had plate glass windows behind them, so we will have to make do with the buffet shot.
This is the last week of the school term at Sunny Lane, so the kids all put on their annual show on for the parents and guests. So much enthusiasm is always shown by these kids and they produce such great entertainment for us all. We always start with the real little ones from the Crèche & Reception classes and then there are exercise exhibitions from gym classes and singing and dancing. This year they gave us a show called The Magic Telephone Box, which included some red indians some space girls and a very small prince and princess. The finale of course was everybody on stage to receive their justly awarded audience appreciation
Our friends Dennis & Linda arrived at midnight last night for a two week stay with us. last time we saw them was in UK, in August 2003, when we went to stay with them for a few days. It is always good to see old friends and we think much better to have them over here in the sunshine than in the possible "rainshine" in UK. Guess we can look forward to a couple of weeks of fun and laughter with these two
This week we received a surprise e-mail from Alan & Marie, to say they were coming over to the south on holiday and could we meet. The last time we saw Alan & Marie was almost 24 years ago, when Marie was bridesmaid to Joan at our wedding. Immediately after we got married we moved to Holland and by the time we came back to UK and moved down south, they had gone to live in Cumbria. Somehow, despite Xmas cards and all the usual promises, none of us seemed to find time to meet up together. We arranged to walk across the border and meet them and then come back to our home for a swim and BBQ and a chance to catch up on all the local gossip from home. Joan & Marie worked together for almost 9 years in NCR Preston and Marie still sees some of the other girls, that they worked with, so she had lots to tell Joan.
We had a great day all together and as Dennis & Linda are also here, we were able to all enjoy the pool and the food and of course some wine. Also Joan realised that Marie had never seen the wedding photos taken all those years ago, much hilarity and sayings like "did I really look like that then". No, I'm not going to scan any of those old photos in for you to see, there's been enough comment over here already.
We hope now that the contact is re-established that we will see more of them, maybe next time over here, staying with us, 24 years is far to long.
It has been really hot over here and personally I have been quite busy these last few days, with the installations of a couple of kitchens for Ertugural's shop, as he is still in Istanbul for the second half of daughters wedding.Dennis, Linda and Joan have been enjoying the pool and sunshine whilst keeping an eye on Smudge. She and our older cat, Tiggy, seem to be finally getting on very well. Tiggy has established who is boss and whilst Smudge just wants to play, Tiggy just wanders off to a high place when she has had enough of all this boisterous behaviour. We all spent ages looking for Smudge this afternoon and finally found her sleeping in the winter woodpile. We guess it must be cool in there and she feels sort of safe hidden away. At least now we know were to look in future and it sure makes for a pretty picture
This evening we all four went to Michael & Barbara's for a drink. It really is so very nice to be able to just sit outside until very late, knowing that you are not going to have to rush in for a winter sweater. It was also the opportunity for us all to meet Daisy, one of Smudge's sisters. Michael & Barbara seem to have got the quieter one, she is not a bit like the tearaway we have around our house and is content to sit around on somebody's lap, all evening
We introduced Dennis & Linda to Bob & Maggie, at Henson's restaurant, this evening, the finest homemade steak & kidney pie on the island. Many would say that it isn't the weather for steak & kidney pie, but when it's that good I just can't resist. Earlier in the week we had also taken them to our local Serenada restaurant and also to The Mediterranean Breeze, all of which had been enjoyed immensely. I suppose that when you get visitors you also get to eat out a bit more frequently.
I'm not going to mention the football matches that Dennis and I had been to see during the week, I suppose that the professional journalists have had their say on that matter.
Today being my 66th birthday we had organised a boat trip out of Kyrenia harbour and got a group of 16 friends together, all like minded about the pleasures of a day out with lunch and swimming and in a few cases a blazing hot sun deck. We really should do this more often as it is a very pleasant day out and why do we have to wait for an occasion to arrange it all.
As Dennis and Linda are still with us this week, we decided that a little pool party would be a good idea. Invites went out to George & Susan, Michael & Barbara and on the basis, any excuse they all came to enjoy. We got out our last years rubber mini boat, which has two handles, some instructions which say, only to be used under strict supervision and this article has no steering or brakes. The idea is to sit in the centre and paddle gently around the pool. Joan proceeded to show how its done and then George said that looks easy. Well just to prove a point we have a sort of "now you see him" and "now you don't" scenario. He never did master it and tried to say that he must be too heavy. Later we all enjoyed a feast of lamb chops, sausages and chicken kebabs, cooked by my own fair hand, on the barbeque, with Joan in supporting role as provider of all the ancillary bits. A veritable feast, washed down well as usual. A great afternoon and evening in great company and a nice change for our house guests to be with other friends from sunny Cyprus
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