| |
Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
Today I spent a little time updating some of the links on the website. Now if you look on the Northern Cyprus Information tab you will find a list of Frank's Specials. As many of you know, I have for some time been working with a kitchen white goods and air con supplier, to assist those of you who need some good quality stuff installed in your villas.
Well now I have put some special pages on the links so that you can see prices etc and ask for more information. Also I have managed to establish a contact with a very good hire car company that does some of the best deals in the north of the island. All designed to help if you need it.
Having done all that, we then decided that a night out was needed. Our neighbour Stewart has been running an evening of Family Fortunes + Play Your Cards Right at Carol's restaurant, on the road up to the GAU university. We had heard that this was a fun night, out with fish and chip supper at only 9.5 YTL (that's £3.80 to you) so the remaining Lapta Layabouts, George and Susan are in UK, went to take on the established opposition players. Good night out as promised and even better when The Layabouts won the first round and prize money of 25YTL. That made the supper even cheaper.
The place was full and everybody enjoyed, a not too serious night of fun, well done Stewart, good fun, we will come again.
Having just had a lovely week of real sunshine weather, last nights downpour and today's storms are no fun. It has suddenly gone very cold and wet again, so much so that Joan and I lit the open fire this evening, much to the delight of the two cats. The only good thing is that we know it wont last very long and by mid week we will probably be eating breakfast outside again.
This week I managed to gather a few bits of news for both local residents and those of you who live in the North East of UK.
Firstly for all us locals. A company over here called Simogen, more about them later, are trying to boost the TRNC image by arranging visits and sporting functions jointly with UK companies. The very first is a visit by Huddersfield Town Football Club. The first team, together with the club manager and coach are coming out here from 8th to 11th May next and will play a representative side from TRNC clubs at The Ataturk Stadium in Nicosia on 10th May. Well done Simogen a real positive move which should help to counteract some of the negative publicity which seems to be always in the press.
For those of you in the North East who want to travel over here. I received an e-mail from Liz Graham this week about flights from Newcastle to Ercan. All I know is that there is a company called Seaside Travel, telephone 01915 279090, organising something, so they may be worth a call, who knows.
Now this weeks Cyprus Today news: More rubbish about Ken Livingstone, enough said about that man, who probably doesn't even know where Cyprus is, let alone anything about the true situation here. More road deaths, this seems to be a weekly issue in the press.
Most important was a two page spread around an interview with Mr Ozkan Murat, the Interior Minister.
Firstly the bad news. He dismissed as a "misunderstanding" a report by Tak news agency two weeks ago that the KDV rate for Foreign Buyers would be reduced to 5 %. He confirmed that all contracts signed before January 1st would be at the old 5% rate but that all new contracts after that date would be at the new 15% rate. He did however say that the government was considering a variable rate according to property values. All this is still very confusing because lawyers over here are saying that the government is now wide open to legal action against it, as this is discriminatory and outside the current KDV regulations.
But most important of all for all of us who live here and who are buying for the future. The government gives this pledge to foreign property owners. Relax, no harm will come to any of you, we, the government are the guarantee of that. That was a definitive statement that I think we are all very pleased to hear after all the negative stuff that has been bandied about.
The Minister underlined the importance of the construction industry to the TRNC economy and admitted to the shortcomings in the bureaucratic functioning of the state. He said plans where in place to speed up the procedures for granting building permits and permissions for foreigners to buy property. He also spoke about control of the construction industry and protection of the environment, brave words, lets just hope.
He also committed the government to the recruitment of 500 more police and technological improvements for them in the fight against crime. Shades of UK and more static speed cameras, I hope that I am just being cynical.
Big surprise today for Joan and I. We had invited Richard and Paul around for Sunday lunch, and to our great surprise, a friend of ours from UK, Alan, who Joan has known for too many years, just turned up in a hire car from the South. It appears that he had been trying to call us to warn us that he was in the South on holiday, but in true tradition the South had completely blocked all calls to the North of the island. He also had been told that it was not possible to travel to the North and if he tried he would have his car searched and the border guards would make it extremely difficult for him even if they did let him through. What a load of c**p they talk on that side. Unfortunately when Alan stayed with us for a week, about 18 months ago, the border was not open, so he was not aware of the real truth of the situation. Anyway, no harm done, he joined us for dinner, so we marked the occasion witha group picture and Richard even managed to get Joan's teddy bear into the group.
Received another e-mail today about flights from Newcastle. Apparently they are not going ahead, sorry folks if you thought this was an easy ride. Duff gen and I only try to pass it on
George and Susan arrived back from UK last night and so are coming round for dinner tonight, saves them from cooking first night back + of course their luggage contained a large Melton Mowbray pork pie and some Richmond Irish Pork sausages from Tesco.My turn to do the cooking, so selected a large lamb stew. Now there is a reason for that and a story attached to the fact that we have a freezer full of lamb, which I forgot to tell you about last week.Last Thursday I got a phone call from Richard, asking if we had plenty of freezer space as one of the farmers he had been dealing with for building land, had offered him a whole lamb, ready butchered I hasten to add. Well that evening they turned up with a car load of lamb and the idea was that we would split it 50/50. So much meat! Then Richard's bright idea was for us to keep all the big joints so that we could cook for 4 or more, which means that our freezer is now jammed to capacity. Guess this is going to keep us going for some time into the summer and we might get a few extra visits from Richard and Paul.Anyway the lamb stew went down well and it's nice to see G & S back home again
Last night, Friday was quiet for us as Joan had decided to have an early night so I was allowed to go out for a couple of beers on my own, but with the rest of the gang. Think Joan was tired because she had spent all last week typing exam papers for the secondary school pupils. I think she said there were 14 subjects in all and some in English, some Turkish and some French, which required a little concentration.
This evening we went with Roger and Jill to the Bezim Han restaurant, which is almost opposite The Ship Inn, on the way in to Kyrenia. We chose this because we all knew it previously as Yenihans restaurant, which was reported on frequently during our early days here, some of you may recall me going off hunting with the then owner of Yenihans. Well it changed hands and was closed for quite some time whilst they did a major refit, so we where curious. Well they have made a lovely job of the refit, some beautiful decorative wood ceilings and windows, which the new owner told us proudly where replicas of those found in the Harem at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, now I would just have to take his word for that. Anyway the good news is that the food is also very good too, reasonably priced also, so worth a visit.
Gardening and more gardening, that's all she has had me doing this weekend. We made the mistake of letting our lantana hedge grow without too much control or cutting back and now it is a huge job of cutting it back to a sensible height and thickness and hoping that it will recover as the season progresses. It looks a bit brown and all twigs at the moment but here's hoping.
Did get a chance to look at the papers before we went out last night and there is not a lot in this week of general interest that could effect anyone looking to come over here.
There was one article where a government minister is supposed to have been highly critical of the TRNC public services, but then I think we all knew it was very much a "jobs for the boys" system with very little consideration regarding expertise and ability. The minister was particularly critical of the health service but also made it clear that his opinion covered all sides of the public sector.
The state has gone to court to protect the Karpaz beaches. That's good news, as it seems to be that they are quite clear that no permits will be given for buildings in this area. They aim to protect the natural and historic wealth of this area.
There is a new London based pressure group trying to encourage the world to recognise the TRNC and end the almost 4 decades of isolation. They have a website www.embargoed.org" target="_blank">www.embargoed.com">www.embargoed.org and on there is an on-line charter which they want signatories to so that it can be passed on to Tony Blair and the Foreign Affairs Committee in UK. So log and sign if you feel you should add to their efforts.
There was the annual meeting of The British Residents Society sometime during the week. As you might guess not attended by us. Apparently the meeting was addressed by the outgoing British High Commissioner who gave the following piece of advice to the BRS, "stay clear of politics". I think that they should all remember why they came to this place in the first instance and not actively try to change it in to a little England, leave it alone, enjoy your little club jolly if you want to play the Englishman abroad, help the Cancer Charity, set up a Blood Donors Group, maintain links with the British High Commission and advise people if they want advice on the do's and don'ts about buying and residing here, but for the rest, stay out of it and don't try to change it. I stress, personal opinion and maybe why we are not members.
Well that's my soapbox for the week, now lets wait for the criticism.
This evening we had Liz and David Brown round for dinner, they have been residing in the Sempati hotel for the last four weeks waiting for their house to be completed, so we felt that the traditional Sunday roast might be a welcome change. Apparently the good news is that they now have electric and their builder promises them that they can move in by next weekend.
As its now mid week and so far all I have done is organised a couple of kitchen white goods installations and taken one potential customer over to Nicosia, it's time to start cleaning up the club sailing boat, ready for it's launching next month, before Chris starts calling me and asking how I'm getting on with it. Serves me right for volunteering.This evening Joan and I joined Richard, Paul, George and Susan at one of our favourite restaurants, The Padisah in Kyrenia. As usual the restaurant was quite busy so it is always wise to book. Take a look atthe picture and you will see that George has managed to hide behind me, as he says he is always exposed on our website and if you really look carefully you can see he is hanging on to his beer very tightly, maybe he thinks I'll nick it. You can joke about a night out but this restaurant has got to be one of the best, but maybe we should keep quiet about it in case you all start going.George drooped me off at The Pine Bay on their way home, so that I could watch the second leg of the Liverpool / Juventas match. Liverpool just hung on to the lead from the first leg, which means now a semi final against Chelsea, now that should be interesting
As Joan was running out of such things as Greek style super stained yoghurt we decided on an after school nip across the border, together with Michael and Barbara. We also called in to see what is happening on the generator front, but they have not yet arrived in the shop and Ibrahim promised to ring a soon as possible. Stewart got his, which was the last in the shop, a couple of weeks ago and has since had it installed. Looks brilliant, but sods law applies, we haven't had a power cut since then.When we got back we made a mutual decision. or at least the ladies (senior management) made a decision, to give a new for us, restaurant a try, as we had heard good vibes. The Silver Grill. It is on the main road between Lapta and Karsiyaka, so you can't miss it. Well it is run by an older couple and everything was very freshly cooked and the place spotlessly clean. Two of us had a home made chicken soup and the other two garlic mushrooms, this was followed by three chicken kievs and lamb kebab for me, the whole washed down by a bottle of local red, four beers and coffee and brandy, brilliant for 90 million in last years money, or £36.00 in your money. Highly recommended.I have had an e-mail in from Christine Soper, who is one of the organisers of the Charity Property Raffle. It would seem that there are 16,500 tickets out there somewhere, in UK, USA, Saudi Arabia etc but to-date she is only aware of 1,000 being sold. Thispress release is an update on the present situation, so come on folks where are you going to win a villa for only £5 and even if you don't it is in a tremendous cause. Lets hope that in the next three months they sell lots of tickets, apparently the maximum number is 19,999 if they sell them all. Now that has got to be much better odds than you get in many places and certainly much, much better odds than you ever got on the UK lottery even for three numbers and a tenner
Two things of interest today. Firstly, for those of you who ask what is the cost of living like out here. I went up to the council offices to pay my immovable properties tax, that's annual rates to you lot. Now you are allowed to pay this in two separate payments if you so wish, but as the total cost for 2005 on our house was 71 million (£28.40) I decided to pay it all at once. Don't you just wish !!!!Once again the Lapta Layabouts put together a team to play Family Fortunes at Carol's restaurant. This time we allowed a.n.other team to win the huge prize but had a great night out.
 
Sunday lunch. This time at Michael and Barbara's together with Roger and Jill. Barbara bought a piece of beef when we went over to the south on Thursday and some fresh rhubarb, so decided to do lunch for us. Beef and Yorkshire puds and rhubarb and apple crumble to follow, delicious.
Before going there, took a quick look at this weeks newspaper. Sorry folks lacks any sort of news or excitement this week. President Denktas had his last day in office on Friday, after 29 years as the president of TRNC. Today is election day so no doubt we will find out who his replacement is tomorrow morning.
A surprising twist on the burglary front this week, we don't get many of them here, but this one was committed by a 61 year old English resident, Ronald Meighen. He says he was drunk when he committed two separate burglaries, very much regrets what he has done and wants to remain on the island. What did he steal, household items such as ironing board, TV, carpet, satellite dish, fan, armchair, drunk my foot, I say deport the stupid man, we don't need his sort on the island.
 A big decision has been made by us over the weekend. We have decided to sell our house, the detail can be found on"house sale". NO, NO, NO, before the rumours start; we are NOT leaving the island. What we have always said is that sooner or later, as we got older, we would need to move to something on ground level. Unfortunately we realised, when I had that recent operation and was unable to lift or carry for a few weeks and Joan's arthritic knees made it hard work taking everything up the stairs, that the time had come sooner than we thought. We have had discussions with the guys at Australian Construction, who built this villa originally and they have some plots about 1 mile away, so we can retain our membership in the Lapta Layabouts club and get them to build the replacement for us, because the quality of their work is second to non, on this part of the island. So if anybody wants to buy and wants to move over here within a reasonable period of time, them now is the opportunity to buy a superb villa with ample family space and in a very quiet area. Contact us by e-mail,frankandjoan@superonline.com for more information, but please realise that the basic starting price today, with no pool, no extra building work under the stilts is £125,000, so don't expect a cheap holiday home, this villa is for serious living out here
Quick note about the pressure group mentioned on April 10th, the web address is www.embargoed.org" target="_blank">www.embargoed.org">www.embargoed.org instead of .com. Grateful to Richard Goodchild who found this out and sent me an e-mail
People keep asking us about the weather here at the moment, well it is around 22/24 degrees most days now and Joan and I are eating breakfast outside most mornings at around 7.30 a.m. usually visited by some of ourgood neighbours.Being among the last of the big spenders around here, we invited Richard and Paul out to dinner this evening. Last time we went over to the south Orphanides hypermarket had chickens on offer at 90 pence/kilo and strawberries at almost give away prices. See, our generosity knows no bounds and the boys brought a bottle of wine, which probably cost more than the dinner.
Joan and I were round at Hans & Trix Doelman's, our Dutch friends, for dinner this evening. Seems a long time ago that we all four got a chance to catch up together, there always seems to be so much going on that it is difficult to maintain those important contacts. They where of course at the 65th party, but then so where 48 other people, so you don't get quite the same chance. Since we last saw them they have acquired another dog as a mate for their Doberman, Spot. This is a lovely natured brown mongrel, a local stray found wandering around the area, who is already the boss over the Doberman.
Joan and I spent most of the day cleaning things. Joan the inside of the house and me all the outside terraces and cars etc, etc. We had one of those heavy rain sessions earlier in the week that has all that brown sand in the clouds, so everything was covered in a fine layer of the stuff. Yuk, brown sand everywhere, but there you go that's life and it keeps us out of mischief.
The other good news is that we received our new wrought iron chairs today, they where only 5 days later than the promised date, by Cyprus standards that's brilliant. We wanted them for the breakfast terrace and we have to admit they look really nice at only £27.50 each, plus of course the cushions which cost a further £14.00 per set.
Tony Wilkinson, house in Arapkoy, has been over here for a four day visit to pressurise his builder in to completing. So he called us and suggested Henson's restaurant. Now we always enjoy Bob & Maggie's food, so picked him up at the hotel for a nice and early dinner as he had a 1 a.m. pick up from the hotel to catch the early flight. Best laid plans and all that and we all enjoyed the evening so much it was 11 p.m. when he got back to The Mountain View. Oh well guess he can get 5/6 hours sleep on the plane.
We had just arrived at the restaurant when in walked Fiona, on her own over here at this time, so she joined our table and that led to the telling of a very funny story. George picked up Fiona from Larnaca the other day and after clearing passport control, placed the passports on the dash and Fiona took hers to put in her safe at home. Today George had another airport run across the border with some people who had a plane to catch. When he got to the TRNC police passport control, where he is well known, the policeman smiled, did a double take and referred to Mrs George, yes you guessed it, he had Fiona's passport. As he had one of those Visa slips that we use to cross, the policemen stamped it smiled and suggested he took a chance. On the Greek side George just waved three passports and said British and got a wave through. So far so good, now only the return journey for George on his own. Again on the Greek side he just held up all his papers, including Fiona's passport and got waved through again. On the TRNC side it was quite busy so George just stuffed his visa paper on the counter, said thank you very much and legged it back to his car quickly to shouts of passport please from the little box. So with a little cheek you can get away with anything, even a sex change on the border. Nice one George.
 Joan and I organised a little sandpaper and cleaning party today. We realised that the boat, which belongs to the sailing club and has wintered under our house, needed the promised cleaning, before the start of the new season. It has only been here since September and we look at it every day but have not got round to doing it up. Well today was that day, Richard, Paul, George and Susan joined us in a mass session, the biggest problem being that somebody in the past had painted it with household paint which was coming off in patches, so the only solution was sandpaper and elbow grease. At the end of the day it looked very much better than before, just have to get some polish now to seal the fibreglass again and finish teak oiling the woodwork.The reward for the gang was lamb kleftiko style, which we all enjoyed al-fresco around 7 p.m. Thanks gang, saved me lots of work and I should be able to finish it off next weekend.Well it looks like the South Cyprus propaganda war has won another point. Remember I told some weeks ago that a company based here and in London, called Simogen, had succeeded in arranging a visit by Huddersfield Town F.C. during which time they where to play a friendly match against a Turkish Cypriot team. Well it's now all off The Cyprus Football Association have succeeded in convincing FIFA that they are the governing body of football on the island and informed them that they would not sanction the game. How petty, since when was a friendly football match used as a political football, just to score points. The attitude of the residents in the south gets more pathetic every day, when will they ever realise that they are never going to gain overall control of the entire island and stupid actions like this only makes people more angry and more resolved to keep the buggers out, who said sport has no boundaries
As this week is half term holiday time for Joan we had a day out in the sun. First we went to drop a couple of unwanted things off at the auction house in Ozankoy and then on to Esentepe to have coffee with Tijan, the crèche teacher at school. With the new road going out to the east of Kyrenia it is not such a long journey but I would not like to be doing every day to come to school. It has sort of shades of the old style commuting and I had happily forgotten about that.After coffee we came back towards Kyrenia and stopped off at Lara beach. The same man, Mehmet, is running this beach again for the summer season and he was busy trying to paint and reinstate the beach area after the winter.The whole beach was almost deserted so we were able to sit in the sun and read for a couple of hours and then Mehmet did us omelette and chips for lunch, I suppose that "relaxing" is a good word to describe it.This evening we went with George, Susan and Fiona to The Beyti Kebab restaurant in Kyrenia. This restaurant was refurbished and re-opened about 9 months ago and we have been there a few times now. It can be found in the area of Kyrenia known as Tin Pan Alley. The easiest way to find it is to go down the High Street, pass the HSBC bank and take a left at the crossroads, keep on walking right to the end of that street and The Beyti is on the left. The food is typical Turkish and brilliant value for money. The five of us had a standard meze starter, which comes as part of your meal, a main course of own choice, fresh fruit, coffee, one bottle of wine and 6 beers for £38.00 total
This evening is the first leg of the champions league semi-final, Chelsea v L'pool, an absolute must for me and well worth watching, but first I had to go to the meeting of the group "Embargoed" in the Jasmine Court hotel. This volunteer group, comprised of Turkish Cypriot professionals, has been set up to counter the propaganda efforts efforts by the Greek Cypriot government. They are opening offices in both Kyrenia and London and the focus is on public relations promotion of the TRNC and lobbying to counter the negative propaganda being promoted in the UK and Europe. The main emphasis of their attack will be on trade embargoes and the direct flights ban, citing them as human rights issues. They are also planning to work closely with EUPRO (the European Property Association), because EUPRO already have the legal expertise that may be required now that there have been further development in the property wars.For more information about Embargoed, take a look at their website:- www.embargoed.org" target="_blank">www.embargoed.org">www.embargoed.org and give all the support both financial and verbal as you can, always remembering that you have or may want have a property over here and the current situation effects you also.Next week I have arranged to contact the man heading up this voluntary group over here, so will put more detail on the site after that meeting
Today we took Dave and Liz over to the south, just to show them where things are and to do some shopping for meat etc before their first visitors arrive next week. when we got back to Dave and Liz's, I was shown their recent addition, by the builder, to this house, a BBQ on the roof terrace. Now is it me or does the builders son's proud boast about being a degree designer not ring true, because apart from the fact that this is on the roof terrace, a long way from any kitchen area it has been built around the pergola which is already on the terrace. This has got to bethe worst BBQ I have ever seen.
There is only one thing for it. Lets have a competition, first prize being a bottle of reasonably good red, for any picture sent in that proves that this one is not the ultimate nightmare and just crass stupidity. I suppose at least you wouldn't have to buy charcoal, just burn your own pergola.
This must be because it is half term time for Joan, because here we are out for dinner again, this time together with Michael and Barbara toJill and Rogers place just across the fields.
Today I had to go in to Nicosia to deal with few bits and pieces around the kitchen white goods business, so Joan and Barbara went round to see Sarah at the Tai Restaurant here in Lapta. Twelve days ago Sarah had a little girl, Sophie, so Joan had been in to Next, when we went over to the other side, to get some things to jointly take, as a little gift of congratulation.
Here we go again, out to dinner. This time with George and Susan, round to Fiona's house at the bottom of the Ilgaz road. It would appear that we were the first dinner guests that she had had in the house since they took possession last year, but then again they only use it as holiday home so have less opportunity then us. Nice one Fiona, but that is it. Joan and I are definitely eating in all weekend and maybe spending the day Sunday finishing some of the work on the boat.
|
|
