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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
 
The end of May and the start of June has come in with a bang, thunder and downpours. We have had lots and lots of very heavy rainfall over the last week. According to the press we have had 10 x the average rainfall for the whole of May in a matter of hours. The 30 year average in Kyrenia is reported as 10mm for May, the actual last week was 157mm. On the plus side I'm not going to have to water the garden for a little while yet.
By this evening it had stopped, at least for a few hours, so as Roger was performing at The Hut here in Lapta we went down for a couple of hours to sit around the bar and chat as well as giving Roger some moral support. The menu down there looks quite extensive so maybe we will have to give it a try one evening.
As Friday week looks like a night for the old DJ, (better check if it still fits) and for the ladies to dress up, Barbara decided that a new dress was needed, so the four of us went over to the south after lunch. The girls went off doing what girls will do, shopping; and Michael and I where left to browse the DIY shops at leisure but with a supermarket list apiece, which was reckoned to be just about within our capabilities. We had agreed a suitable meeting place, Mikes Bar, so the two of us had a pleasant half hour or so watching the world and the girls go by, before the ladies returned.
In the eveningeight of us went to The Tai restaurant here in Lapta. George's sister Pat and her husband are over on holiday at the moment and as George and Susan had never been to The Tai, it seemed like a good opportunity to rectify that fact. It seems that Pat is a regular reader, trying to check up her brother no doubt, so know she can see herself pictured and mentioned on what George refers to as Police 5. A lot of work has been done by Servaş, on The Tai premises over the winter, giving them an indoor restaurant as well as the outdoor terrace, great idea as it sometimes can get very windy up there on the terrace.
Going up there gave us the opportunity to see little Sophie again. Sophie was born on 16th April andshe and mum are doing just fine.
Earlier this week I had lunch with Mike Fields and his partner, who are having a house built in Esentepe. He said as an ardent reader of this site that we always seemed to be out eating, well when you get home Mike and read this then you will have absolute proof. Three times already this week and Saturday evening to come, who's a lucky boy then?
I spent most of today in Nicosia with two ladies from Simogen, a construction company with UK base as well as offices here. These ladies where buying garden furniture etc for two of the houses in Catalkoy which are to be holiday lets. We had a very successful trip and the ladies seemed satisfied with quality and price.
This evening Joan and I went out to eat again (that's the 3rd one Mike) this time with Tony and Kate Wilkinson, together with their two boys. Last week I installed their kitchen equipment ready for this their first holiday in their new villa. We all went to one of our favourite places The Padesha in Kyrenia. Tony and Kate had never been there before but we got the feeling that they will be back there. Mel the boss at the restaurant kindly offered a prize for Joan's tombola stall at the School Fete next weekend, dinner for two with a bottle of wine. I also agreed with Mel that as soon as he sends me some pics, I will put a link under the restaurants tab on this site.
Well the American delegation has been and gone, making direct flights in to and out of Ercan Airport, stating that such a flight was not illegal, thus rejecting the arguments repeatedly put forward by the Greek Cypriots. The leader of the delegation pledged to press the American administration on ending the "unacceptable" isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people and he was also extremely critical of the Greek Cypriots leadership and there current stance. The papers are full of that event and also of the visit of Sir Kieran Prendergast, the UN Undersecretary General. All of this is just prior to an official visit by the Turkish leader to the United States where he has meetings with Kofi Annan and the American president, maybe this is the start of a new initiative for Cyprus.
In addition to this there is a report from a Dutch MEP, Joost Lagendijk, who visited Cyprus last month and who is blaming Papadopolous in no uncertain terms for the current deadlock. Lagendijk even criticises the EU for giving the Greek Cypriots full EU membership. Mr Lagendijk accuses Mt Papadopolous of having no interest in resolving the Cyprus problem and called on the EU to end it's encouragement of Papadopolos's stance and to make good it's promise to remove the international embargo against the Turkish Cypriots. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that what we have been saying for the last 12 months. Has somebody seen the light? Interesting times right now.
Well actually today is 15th June but am having problems uploading the site so all this news will be a little late. Never mind, the wiz kids in UK are looking in to the problem and hope to give me a solution soon.Today was a sort out things around the house day until the evening. a little work in the garden was also needed because things are beginning to happen in this the growing season. we have got a pod ofbananas again, but this time we are just going to leave them hanging until they ripen. Also we have this wondrous cacti. It is not much bigger than my fist but keeps producing these lovely one day flowers, This time for a real change we got six flowers all at once, beautiful..David is over from Nairobi and feeling a little lonely up there in Karaman without Glen, so we invited him down for dinner. A pleasant evening and we were able to sit out on the terrace to eat, despite the fact that the wind got up a little
Late afternoon saw me at the Riverside Holiday Village taking photos of theSunny Lane Swim School. This is apparently an out of school activity and is run by a couple of the teachers and some parents. The idea of course being to teach the kids to swim as young as possible. Some of the little ones seem to have no fear of the water and with the aid of some floats aregetting on great. It would seem that the numbers attending are normally much greater than I saw, but it is exam time at the moment so some felt a sudden desire to study
Another evening with the Lapta Layabouts at The Hut. We all say that it is to give Roger some moral support when he is playing, but really it's just another excuse for a couple of beers.
Joan and I had a look at their food menu and where in fact prompted to come back on the 9th for an evening meal. Simple, cheap and very nice could recommend it.
The night of the British Residents Society, Summer Ball. There I was dressed up like a penguin just so that the ladies had an excuse to go all posh for once.
The event was held at The Merit Hotel and was well organised by local standards with a very nice buffet style meal. We where withthe usual crowd but in slightly more formal attire than normal. Michael requested that he be shown all spruced up so that his daughter could believe that he is capable of behaving himself, so here you arethe happy couple spending their kids inheritance and enjoying it. George could not resistthe opportunity for a cuddle, the lady on the right is mine and still can't get up to George's shoulder even in high heels.
The whole evening was organised as a fund raising event for the hospital here in Kyrenia, so there was an auction and people running around all evening persuading us to buy just one more book of raffle tickets. Guess we will hear just how much was finally raised but guess it probably was a considerable sum.
Amongst the many who attended I spotted our friends Steve & Hayat. As he is a regular reader of this site then he just had to get in on the act and get a picture to prove he was there. Still don't know the name of the guy on the right but no doubt I will get a phone call telling me.
In this weeks paper it has been announced that a local Turkish Cypriot is to sue the Greek Cypriot administration for building Larnaca airport on land that is his family's. He is apparently asking for £100 million Cyprus pounds compensation and the land to be returned. That should be an interesting case.
Apart from that interesting item there is still continuing articles asking "What have the EU ever done for us". Whatever happened to those promises to lift restrictions etc as a result of the "Yes" vote in the referendum of 13 months ago, guess we will still be reading these articles for a few more years yet.
Today was the day that theSunny Lane School Fete actually took place. The event had unfortunately been postponed as a result of the freak stormy weather we had at the end of May but despite that, the event organised by the PTA, was very well attended and raised lots of money for the benefit of the children at school. Joan and I ran the "Adult" tombola stall again this year and before I get any suggestive comments the name implied that there was lots of booze donated as prizes, which logically had to be awarded to parents only. Thebouncy castle was as always a good money raising stall and this year there was even a beer tent which pleased many a parent and I think kept them hanging around spending money for longer. One of the parents, Louise Holloway, even decided that lying around in a bath ofcold cooked spaghetti was worth it if it raised money.
After a hot and tiring day, Susan and George had very kindly invited us round for dinner. This was extremely welcome as we sure as hell didn't feel much like cooking. Thanks Susan.
The winter housing of the boat is now over. This afternoon the gang of 6 with trailer and a vehicle recovery truck tuned up to take it away. First we had tolift and carry the boat out through the arches and load it on the trailer. The trailer was then manhandled around the side of the house andhitched up to the truck before it finally disappeared up the road in the direction of the beach in Catalkoy. Most strange seeinga tow truck being used to tow a boat like this. Only in Cyprus would be the obvious saying.
Bit of a busy week during the early part as I had three kitchen installations with the Bosch guys and some air conditioners to go in to the Alagadi site of DH Developments. So Tuesday evening, Joan and I decided to give the rebuilt Allah Kerim restaurant in Alsancak a try. We had a couple of local style main dishes followed by coffee and I had had two bottles of beer whilst Joan kept to her soda water. It was very nicely presented and very good quality food at only £16 for the two of us. Definitely worth going back to.
David is still up in the house in Karaman on his own, so we invited him down for dinner again on Wednesday evening. His brother and sister-in-law arrive tomorrow, Thursday, so guess he will enjoy the company up there as he is clearly still struggling to come to terms with Glen's death.
George and Susan had tried The Green Valley restaurant in Alsancak, when George's sister was here on holiday and had been singing it's praises, so we all decided, together with Michael and Barbara to give it a go. George was right, very good quality and good value with the owner and his staff making sure that their guests where well looked after. I actually had a chicken curry, something I haven't had for a very long time and have to say it was extremely nice. Another one for the list of recommended places to eat.
Last evening, David invited Joan and I to join him and his brother and sister-in-law for dinner. As he had never been to Henson's restaurant before we suggested that as a suitable venue. Guess everybody enjoyed themselves and it was nice to meet more of David's family. Bob at Henson's was pleased to see us two and said that he was getting business as a result of all these mentions on the site. Great stuff, Bob, that's what it is all about. If it is good we are happy to say so and after all as many of you say, eating out is a big hobby of ours and that of many of our friends.
Just to keep up the habit of this week, we went out again this evening. Joan and I had actually said sometime yesterday that whatever happened we were staying in tonight and having dinner at home. Oops. Just as we where going out last night, Dr Kemal, the guy who was partially responsible for the scar on my stomach, called and said come down to The Green Coast Holiday Village at 8 o'clock Saturday night for dinner. His parents own the holiday village and also some other acquaintances of ours, David and Angie had also returned to the hotel for the summer season. David and Angie, run "The Big Tow" a very professional highly qualified water ski, ski boarding and knee boarding school. They have set up shop on the beach at Green Coast and hopefully they will have a good season. I will talk to them about putting a link on the site for those who may be interested. For Joan and I it was an interesting evening. We had not been down to Green Coast for a couple of years and we were very pleasantly surprised, the beach and surrounding area are superb, they have a lovely pool and terrace area for outdoor dining, the food we had last night was superb and all the little villas and studios have recently been upgraded so that they are extremely comfortable. I would certainly have no hesitation in suggesting that if you want to come over on holiday, you could do a hell of a lot worse that staying there. I will try to find out about any website and hang them on as a link.
News this week includes something which is designed to have us pulling our hair out for a little longer. The work on the long awaited Kyrenia bypass has been stopped due to some contractual cock up in Turkey. The bidding has to restart and will take three months at least so the new bypass will not be ready until 2007 at the earliest as building will take two years. Anybody who has suffered the traffic nightmare around Kyrenia during the last year will know what a blow this is.
President Talat has actually said something this week and there was me thinking he had gone to sleep since taking over from Denktas. In what appears to be a very rare presidential address to the TRNC parliament he said that the property issue could only be resolved as part of a settlement and not with individual court cases. I think we all knew that anyway. He also said that nobody believed that the Greek Cypriots could obtain any result by litigation. I think we knew that too. It was out of the question fro the EU to act upon property-related arrest warrants, as property issues where a civil offence not a criminal one. Something else we all knew. Mr Talat said he saw "no grounds for concern" but stressed the need for the Turkish Cypriot side to defend itself both politically and legally. Hurray that's new! Why is it that politicians the world over have this great ability to say what everyone has been saying for a long time and yet do nothing about it. Am I just an old cynic?
Whilst he was busy saying all this, the "secret" talks in Brussels, which everybody knew about, have ended in failure. Surprise, surprise the Greek Cypriot intervention succeeded in convincing the EU once again that there should be no promised financial aid from the EU and no trading agreement as this might allow the TRNC to be recognised. What about the EU declaration on April 26th 2004 that the isolation of the North should be lifted. Considering the size of the EU and the size of Southern Cyprus, the term tail wags dog springs to mind.
The police have now got six mobile radars and cameras installed in patrol cars, that should result in a few heavy fines for speeding. Apparently the first person caught was a taxi driver doing 125 kph in a 65 kph area. Cost him £18 and 20 points on his licence, with a 100 point total you lose your licence for 18 months, so not a heavy fine by our standards but could be effective here.
This evening, Joan and I went round to Dave & Liz's new house in Kyrenia. They just had a quick trip in and out of UK last week and Liz brought back some smoked salmon from M&S so that made a lovely starter to a delicious dinner. The good news is that they have had that ridiculous BBQ taken down, remember the one that was built around the wood pergola, and a nice stone and marble one built in the corner of the garden wall.
This evening we met Rene and Pat Doubleday and we all went out to The Serenada Court. They are having a house built in the Lapta area and wanted to pick our brains a little on living in TRNC. Colin and Jean where also at the restaurant having their last evening meal before returning to UK in the early hours of the morning. Colin & Jean have been round to see us to bring newspapers and have a beer or two and they also gave lots of support to the School Fete the other Sunday
This is the last week of school before they start the 10 week summer holiday so this evening was the school end of year show, commencing at 6 p.m.Before attending that we had to go to see the specialist in Nicosia with Joan's latest blood test results etc. It appears that they are getting this arthritis attack under control but blood sugar levels are still too high so she has to stay on a reduced dose of the steroids. Probably this means all through our holiday in Singapore and Australia, so poor Joan is going to have an alcohol free holiday and with all those Aussie wines to taste that is going to be difficult.The school show was brilliant as always but this time because it included presentation of certificates etc was very long. The kids didn't get away until almost 9.30 p.m. but as always they performed with total enthusiasm. The little ones from crèche gave us a couple of well rehearsed performances but my favourite was when they all came on withlong yellow noses and shiny wigs. Reception class also showed us what it would be like to be an astronaut. The older children put on a couple of littledrama shows for us based on things they have been learning and a very superior dance troupe gave a very polished performance towards the end of the show. As always the finale was the entire cast of the show and those of you who have been following these shows over the last couple of years will note how many more children are now attending this school. A definite success story over here
Roger-B is performing these days at The Mediterranean Breeze restaurant on Thursday evenings so we decided that we would go with Michael and Barbara to sample their fish and chip supper evening. I know this wasn't a big event but many of you think our social life is too damned good so we have to keep up the image.
Half way to Xmas said George and Susan and as Xmas day is Susan's birthday we decided to have a half way party. Who needs a blooming excuse anyway to sit outside on a balmy summer evening and have a laugh and a joke over some good food and drink, with friends. Susan prepared a large cold buffet, George put up some Xmas decorations and piped some Xmas Carols over the stereo and we all sat round near their pool for a very enjoyable evening. For those of you wondering about the dustbin, it contained ice and wine and beers, you have to keep the stuff cool and not have to walk miles to a fridge. Well done George and Susan another brilliant night and we even managed to get the police involved. Actually what happened was this. There are some apartments being built down the road from their house and at 9.30 on a Saturday night there where still bulk cement lorries driving up and down feeding one of those massive pump things. According to Sandy and John, who are BRS members and say they know the rules, the builders are not supposed to work with heavy machinery after 1 p.m. on Saturdays, so as this was very irritating, we parked a car, Joan's actually, diagonally across the road and then had an argument with the cement lorry drivers. One of our number whose Turkish is excellent then called the police who went down to the building site and had a quiet word. Result, peace reigned and George says that nobody turned up on Sunday either.
End of the week so just a quick look at the newspapers, but first an apology about the problems we have been having with the website server, hopefully it will all get cured a.s.a.p.
Interesting headline in Cyprus Today. The Greek Cypriot Interior Minister has stated publicly that the current spate of individual attempts to solve individual property issues will not solve the overall problem. The only way was through a comprehensive solution politically agreed. At last, maybe !!!!
Our President Mehmet Ali Talat is expressing pessimism about prospects for a Cyprus solution in the near future. But guess this still needs a little give from the Greek Cypriot side, particularly when you hear that a planned meeting from The Greek Cypriot Presidents party had to be cancelled because the Greek Cypriots demanded that the Turkish and TRNC flags where removed from the room before any meeting took place. As this is a regular meeting room and set out in standard diplomatic fashion, I guess you can once again read in to this the Greek Cypriot real desire to find a solution and cover all the issues politically. What a load of clap trap. politicians, who needs them and who the hell voted for them?
My birthday again, don't they come round more quickly the older you get. Joan said lets have a day out together by going over the border then we can also do some shopping in the hypermarket on the way back. Good idea I thought, we could go down to Governor's beach which is just off the main highway between Larnaca and Limassol, but then Dumbo here missed to junction on the motorway and we kept on going towards Larnaca. Just before the main town we came to a roundabout which said Aya Nappa to the left so we said "why not". We have never been there before so might be an interesting experience. We found a quiet beach with no jet skis etc buzzing around and all the paragliders where way off in the distance, there where sun beds to hire and a nice stretch of water to swim in, but I reckon my real 67th birthday present from the boss was all the bikini bottoms and not much else walking the beach. Do you think she is trying to get the old ticker working overtime. Have to say that this resort is not something that I would like to see over here in the north, just bar after bar with shows, karaoke etc etc and more souvenir shops than you can throw a stick at. Maybe 40 odd years ago it would have appealed but give me a little peace and seclusion. The first person who says I must be getting old can get a very nasty reply.....On our way home, after a quick nip in to the hypermarket, we came back over the border and went in to Nicosia old town and had a lovely meal in a Spanish/Italian restaurant near to the old mosque
Just to round off the week and the month I had to go out and buy a new mobile phone today. A sort of belated birthday present to myself. Why you may ask, its only last summer that he went swimming with a phone in his pocket and had to replace it then. Well this time I threw the thing off the balcony, accidentally, and when it landed it was in a number of little bits. So now I have bought a rather sophisticated thing that comes with an earpiece that looks like an upmarket hearing aid, but am hoping that that way I will also avoid the police stopping me, as they are getting a bit keen over here now. Even though the fine is only about £12.00 it also means 15 points on your licence and with a total of 100 it's bye bye licence
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