| |
Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
Today is Thursday and tomorrow morning I will be leaving Jill and Les at about 5 a.m. to go to Stansted, on my way back home to Joan. Before I do I have been taking some pictures of this area of Kent, as this is the area we used to live in.
I have managed to do the few important things, that I came over to do and also managed to pick up a few things in the shops for us back home. I also managed to get a few phone calls from TRNC, from those who had not picked up on the fact that I was here. They soon ring off when I tell them I am in UK as it costs a lot for both of us.
After the long day on Saturday we all three had a relaxing morning and at around 10 o'clock Sunday morning, Les and I went down to The Smokery to get ourselves some breakfast kippers. This smokery has been passed down from father to son and is still one of the old traditional smokeries. Jim Moat who owns it is a well known character around these parts and he still does the finest kippers I have ever tasted. Later we went to the local pub and enjoyed a few real beers.
Monday, Jill and I went in to Ashford to do some bits and pieces of shopping. Amongst this was new mobile for me as I have never been completely happy with the Motorola Razor I bought a couple of years ago and they do get heavily used there in Cyprus.
Tuesday I checked on the registration for both of us, at the local doctors surgery because we have not been in to see them for some time. Hopefully we will not need them here but the back up value is for us a sort of peace of mind. Apart from which, we have both paid many years for the right to NHS treatment.
Wednesday I went in to Canterbury as I needed to do some business at the Barclays bank branch there, one of the reasons for coming over. In the evening our old friends, Ann & Peter came round and we all ordered a Eastern style takeaway form a local restaurant. Very tasty too, washed down with acouple of cans of real ale.
Today it is a lovely warm spring day and after waiting in for a TNT delivery for Les, having a sandwich with them during their lunch break, I then went down to the area around Dungeness to take some pics which I thought many of you would enjoy. On the way down to Dungeness I stopped off at the New Romney beach area first as the beach huts still stand out in their pale pastel shades.
From there, if you drive along the coast road you come across the small timber houses which are so typical of the area and you can still find some traditional timber fishing boats which were extensively used for many years. Further down the beach is the well used Dungeness lifeboat. There has been a lifebaot here since way back in the 1800's with the crews coming from local fishermen. The English Channel has so much traffic in this area and some very heavy winter seas, so they get frequent call outs.
Many of the families who live in this area have done so for a few generations and they maintain the traditions and the properties, such as this very fancy timber house with its shingle garden and the carved poem on the side wall. Many thousands of people must have stopped and admired and photographed this over the years. All along the shingle beach area you can see the rail tracks which used to be used for launching and the old net sheds. Here and there you come across a very leaky boat which clearly will never float again but makes for a very good picture opportunity.
As you go futher along towards the end of the peninsula area you come across the old and the new. The original lighthouse, which has now been replaced by a new automatic one, and behind that the two atomic power stations. The first of these, Dungeness A, is now being closed down, as in atomic terms it is old technology. Apparantly they are going to knock down all the surrounding buildings and then finally clad the fuel building in a thick concrete jacket.
One of the many tourist attractions in this area is the steam train. The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway runs all year round along the coastal area. It is even used by many school kids as the school bus, as there is a station in New Romney close to the local secondary school. Obviously it is a major tourist attraction in the summer months and is run by real enthusiasts of steam trains.
Finally on my way back I couldn't resist these three lovely properties, all beautifully kept and with their fresh fish notices outside. When we lived down here we used to frequent these often as you don't get much fresher than these fish.
Well this evening we three are going out on to the marsh to visit The Bell at Ivychurch. It has recently been taken over, but rumour has it that the food is simple but good. On top of that I don't want to be too late, as I have to be on the road by 5 a.m. See you back in the TRNC.
When I got back to TRNC I found an e-mail from Lewis, a regular contact who lives in the Canterbury area. As this area is so interesting I am copying his mail here.
Hello Frank,
Being a fan of Romney Marsh/Dungeness myself I thought you may be interested to know that the wooden house you described with the shingle garden belonged to Derek Jarman (google him), a UK film maker. The garden was "planted" with items found on the beach, some of the thick wooden stakes with metal tips were, I believe, sea defences against landing craft. If you look carefully at some of the older wooden buildings you will see that they are converted/extended railway wagons from WW1. To the north-east of the Dungeness railway station is an "art gallery", inside you can see that it was indeed a raiway carriage.
Regards, Lewis Gerolemou
He is right about the "art gallery". I actually went in there to be nosey, but it is very small and there were 10 other tourists all trying to get in at the same time.
Arrived back at Ercan only 15 minutes late on Friday evening. Met Joan at The Ravine bar for their cod and chips as by that time it was 8 p.m. and I was hungry. Why? Has anybody ever eaten on a CTA flight? We had just sat down when Del & Sandra, from LDs, turned up so they joined us, it's been along time since we all went out together as they are always so busy, so it was a nice change.
Saturday saw me up to get the papers and check up on what is new.
There is talk about Medview taking over the Amaranta project and complete the partly bult homes. Apparently Mr Safa, the owner of Medview has requested Gray Robb to prepare a balance of his accounts so that he can do a feasability study with a view to taking over. Lets hope that this scheme comes to some sort satisfactory solution. So many have lost their investments at this stage and government promises all seem to come to nothing. Maybe some of the high ranking people are too close to what went wrong to want things to come out in the open. One thing is sure, having seen some of the Medview properties the quality of work is higher than most on the island.
All of you with properties here who only rent them out beware. The government is promising to come down hard on the 10% tax rule. it would seem that a law was passed in 1982 and all rentals were subject to a monthly payment to the Inland Revenue. Inspectors are planning to look at advertisements, websites etc to establish who is receivibg icome and dodging the tax. They are threatening prosecution for tax dodgers.
A Greek Cypriot gambler in the Merit Casino was arrested for possessing 32,400 Euros in fake notes. He appeared in court on Thursday and asked if he could be allowed to go home for the Easter break......what a joker. He was remanded in custody.
Good news. Pegasus Airlines has plans to increase the number of schedule flights between Ercan and the UK. They started their flights last Wednesday, initially also on Thursdays and Sundays but will increase the frequency if the demand is there and plan flights to Manchester and Birmingham in 2008. Competition is great, lets see what happens to the prices now.
New legislation enforcing tight controls on estate agents has been approved by the TRNC parliament but there are pending court actions which could prevent this legisaltion being put in to practice. Senior lawyers here believe that the problems are caused by developers and inefficient land registry offices. Existing legislation is already in place to tackle the bad developers but has not been enacted on so what is the point of introducing more laws if they are not properly policed.
Sunday and a lovely sunny day. Especially ordered for Ann & Jeff who celebrated their ruby wedding, aided and abetted by many of their friends who gathered to help them celebrate. It was not the actual day but as they got married on Easter weekend 40 years ago it seemed appropriate. They had got the crew from The Pegasus bar to do the catering and as usual it was very good food enjoyed by all. We had done the same thing acouple of years ago and they do a mean doner on their portable machine with all the trimmings. The ladies had in fact done all the puds, as Turkish Cypriots do not know what a good pudding is. Big fattening trifles, Eaton mess with oodles of cream and merangue etc, lovely. Throughout the whole event there was a feint zzzzzzz from Ann's cat who didn't even wake for the cream. A great event and only cut short when it suddenly started to get very cold about 5 p.m.
A sort of standard week for us both, bit of business, some shopping and apart from the Thursday night at LDs, this week with ten of us crowding round the table causing havoc, nothing really to report on.
The weather is rapidly improving now, this despite the fact that Cyprus Today forecast rain for most of the week. They got that wrong, apart from last night when it came over all cloudy and dark. This did result in a fireball at sun going down time. Beautiful to see and we are luckily able to sit out on our terrace and watch these sunsets. The clouds you see, did in fact, give us the promised rain and that of course had to happen after our young cleaning lady, Fatima, had spent a large part of the day cleaning the windows.
This morning was vampire morning. Blood doner day; and Joan and I went down to the hospital quite early because we needed to go back over to Nicosia and change the phones I had bought. When we did all the work upstairs we left a telephone point in our old bedroom and forgot to have an extension put in our new room. Easy solution these days, get one of those DECT phones that have remote units that do not require a phone point. Great idea except when you end up with faulty phones you have to take them back. No problem, replaced with an apology and a smile, but a pain in the backside to have to do it. So its back to the 15 hour minimum battery charge time and then try again.
At least if Joan does some of the driving it lets me read the papers.
Sad case of the alleged rape of a 16 year old British girl in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Apparently she and her 17 year old friend who is visiting TRNC, where accosted outside Serkos supermarket at 2am. They were then driven out towards Guzelyert where the younger girl was said to have been raped. Two men have been arrested and remanded until Monday. I have to ask the questions, 16 years old, 2am in the morning. Am I just getting too old or is this the norm now.
A British man has been arrested in the Karpas area with a metal detector. It seems that you can only own and use them here after getting permission from the department of antiquities. Be warned if you are coming on holiday, don't bring one with you. This guy was found to have 1.75 YTL in his possession when arrested.
This one I find quite funny. Two people were stabbed and two arrested after scuffles involving priests and nuns at a South Cyprus convent. This event was reported as a night-time fracas and is reported as a power struggle between rival fractions. Strange things happen in the middle of the night.
Gary Robb claims to be optimistic about the proposed deal with the owner of Medview Homes to complete Amaranta Valley. He says that it will cost £9 million to complete and the site could be completed in 4 months. He is offering properties on the site to Mr Safa which he estimates are worth £4 - 5 million in return for a cash injection, with property owners only paying balances on their accounts on completion. Lets hope that talks and then action continues this saga is doing considerable damage to TRNC and property sales.
The golf and country club, out near Esentepe, was officially opened last week, so all you keen golfers who want a holiday out here, with some splendid golf, start booking.
This evening six of us are going back to Chopsticks, the Chinese restaurant in Kyrenia. This time we have pre-booked the Peking duck as a starter so that should be a good prelude to our own Chinese holiday due to start on June 1st.
Sunday, a day for some maintenance work around the house. First the new telephones which actually work this time, so now when the landline rings we will be able to hear it upstairs also.
This evening Sandy is coming round to join us for dinner. Her husband, John, is in a Nicosia hospital having had an artery removed and replaced with one of his viens. It is going to be some time before he runs the marathon but he is due home tomorrow and all went very well.
Seems as if you are having the better of it over in UK this week. We have had some very unseasonable rain, yesterday was very heavy and almost all day. Should not really complain because we desperately need it to see us through the summer.
This weather is keeping the pool temperatures down still. One or two of our friends have ventured in at only 20 degrees, but Joan and I have not yet been that brave. Guess if you come out from the UK you would find it warm, but we would like a couple more degrees yet. We are starting to see some of the early tourists, easily recognised, in the vest and sports shorts, when we get a warm day.
Have received a mail from one of our regular readers who tells me that there was another totally biased report on Channel 4 about buying houses abroad. It seems that once again the emphasis was on the political issue here in Cyprus trying to suggest that there is a very high risk in buying here. As Beran said in his mail, why does one of these programs not try to speak to the many hundreds of satisfied Brits living over here.
Think we took LDs by surprise this evening. All the resident Layabouts were present and an added four extra visitors from Iceland, so suddenly they had to contend with a table of fourteen, who all wanted to eat. As usual they did an excellent job and we all had a great laugh during the evening.
This morning I had to go in to Nicosia, so took the opportunity to go along to the Immigration Office and ask about finally getting our permanent residency instead of annual renewals. This is only possible after you have had 5 x temporary residency stamps in your passport.
I learnt that they need some of the usual things such as proof of income, copies of your title deeds, some passport photos a letter asking them nicely if they would grant you permanent residency and 1,000 YTL, which equates to £370.00, plus of course some extra costs for blood tests etc. The very nice lady in the office who looks after this side of business, said that she would hope to get ours through before the next renewal date, which is mid September, but if they did not succeed then we would have to have one more year on temporary. Should have started the ball rolling sooner I think.
This evening Joan and I had a very nice evening out with our Icelandic friends Steini & Sigga. We all went along to The Saffron as it is a bit of a favourite with them also.
My the weeks go around quickly these days, it's newspaper day again, with a major headline that says "Road chaos looms". It seems that in order to complete the connection to the new by-pass in the centre of Kyrenia, it is proposed to close whole sections for one month and divert traffic through Dogankoy, which is a very small village. This would be an absolute nightmare, so guess we have to wait to see what happens.
There is lots going on within CTA, according to the papers. It is suggested that the general manager may be on his way out and that there is a proposed cut in staff levels. This would seem to be all very well but maybe a decision to bring in somebody, with airline experience, would not be a bad idea. But then he or she would be controlled by politicians, with a vested interest, so would be unable to do the job properly. As a matter if interest I went on to the internet and made some enquiries as to August prices for a two week period. I got prices of around £560.00 for two of us and £687.00 from CTA, just a samll difference which is almost the cost of the hire car in UK, for the same period.
More about the Channel 4 program is reported in the newspaper. It seems that John and Pam McNicholl contacted Channel 4 as they were aware of their program, Selling Houses Abroad, and wanted to highlight their plight. These people are very rightly upset by the teatment they have recieved by a development company called Kyerson Homes. Kyerson homes are obviously blaming everyone else, such as electricity and water authorities and suggest that they could complete in about two months, this would only be TWO years late according to the original contracts. Clearly a very dodgy company who seem to have closed their offices in Kyrenia; and I can understand the desire by Mr & Mrs McNicholl to use Channel 4 to try to highlight their problem and hopefully to force a satisfactory result. Unfortunatley programs such as this, sieze on these issues and totally ignore the other side of the coin, which damages the industry and the image of TRNC, every time. Would it not be nice if these program makers could seek to redress this, or produce a more balanced program in future.
Something else in the paper which refers to CTA, but this time to the airport services at Ercan. A new has been formed to improve ground handling services and bring them up to International standard. Also the plan is to upgrade Gecitkale airport to handle cargo. Does this mean things are moving on......
Sad news about the ten-fold increase in drug related arrests here in TRNC, in recent years. Police say that they have seized a total of 3,300 ecstasy tablets in the last week which highlights a massive increase in drug use here. We all know where this ultimately leads to, increases in crime, related to the desperate need for money etc.
Lots of talking about the island situation this last week. The President of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly said that the isolation of Turkish Cypriots must be lifted and he voiced his dissapointment aat the Geeek Cypriots for their rejection of the Annan plan and any progress to a unification of the island. At the same time the Turkish deputy Prime Minister has confirmed Turkish support for the TRNC and said that the rest of the world knew who was responsible for the current situation. He called on the rest of the world to recognise the existance of two entities on the island. There is also a suggestion that the new United Nations Secretary might set up a new team to review the problem on the island. Now where is all this going.
The girls all went off to a Charity fashion show this afternoon. This was held at the new Mercure hotel. When they returned they said that the event was good but marred by things like 10YTL for a glass of very indifferent wine. Rumour has it that the hotel cost $50 million to build, so I suppose they think that they can recover some of the investment this way. Have I got news for them.
Because the girls had gone off, we all had a sort of boys own afternoon. Big pans of mashed potatoes (lots of butter whilst they were not looking) and beans with sausages done on the BBQ. I still had some bottles of English real ale, George brought round some John Smith's and then we had an abundance of local beer so a good afternoon was had by all. I did notice that despite the fact that we all say we must lose weight, when the low call puds were put on the table we all tucked in with gusto. We were also glad to see John back, hobbling on his crutch and still with the clips in his leg, but able to enjoy the gathering.
Back again to the subject of the Channel 4 program. I have had an e-mail from John & Pam McNichol, the couple who were invloved with the apartments in question and who have the argument with the rapidly disappearing builder. It seems that they too were fairly upset by the program content and it just goes to confirm our opinion that these program makers decide what would most stir up things, make good TV and try to avoid the truth and the real facts in any way possible. Below is the e-mail from John and Pam and can I encourage anybody who feels that this sort of reporting is to be forced back down the throats of the program makers, to send an e-mail to the program makers outlining their disgust:-
RICOCHET LTD
Pacific House
126 Dyke Road
Brighton BN1 3TE
mail@ricochet.co.uk
Dear Frank and Joan
As a long time reader of your site, and occasional correspondent, I noticed the recent piece in you diary about our situation and the Channel 4 programme.
We are in complete agreement with what you say and were very disappointed at the content of the programme.
We were interviewed for an hour or so at our home in Peterborough last year and interviewed for a further 5 hours in Kyrenia in November. From this the item was distilled to about 4 minutes which seemed to concentrate on the producer showing how clever he was.
We were very clear with him that the issue was not to do with North/South politics and we were wholly content that the deeds were fine.
The issue was all about the developer who has, and continues to, let us down time and time again. Further delays, excuses etc etc. They never ever contact us so over the period we have spent a small fortune in phone calls. It is most unfortunate that this was not represented accurately.
It was also very disappointing for us that the developer, who had confirmed he was willing to be interviewed by Channel 4, pulled out at the last minute.
Despite all this we very much like TRNC and are hanging on to the, perhaps forlorn, hope that our apartment will be finished and we can have a few breaks each year in TRNC.
While we were disappointed with the content of the programme it has brought publicity to our case so we are keeping fingers crossed that things will work out.
Best wishes
John and Pam
Some interesting stuff on e-mails this week. Firstly a query about the tax on properties. I assumed that the writer meant the 10% that they will take here, from any rental income. That was a misunderstanding on my part and just shows you how long it is since I was really bothered with UK taxation, except of course that which is taken off our pensions. It seems that the lovely Mr Brown is wanting to apply tax to your overseas properties, something I had not realised, but the writers argument and a very valid one I think, is how can he take tax on a property in a country which the UK refuses to recognise and will not allow even direct flights to? That is an interesting one and I will let you know the outcome when I hear.
Lots and lots of people have been e-mailing the Channel 4 program makers criticising their approach to property buying here and one from Lewis, a regular reader, who is of Greek Cypriot origin, thanking the program makers for their approach.
Big gathering at LDs tonight, George and Susan are in UK this week, but we still had a table of twelve, as we were joined by four from Iceland.
There was an article in the local paper today about more cheap flights to UK with Sun Express. Roger B tried them for June and got a price of £824.00. As Joan and I want to go in August for a very dear friends 60th, I thought OK I will book today. I tried CTA, despite my recent experiences and they came up with £595.00 but would not allow me to book as it was more than 90 days ahead, strange system. Sun Express gave me the special price of £682.00, now thats nice and cheap......So finally I booked with Pegasus for £530.00 and for an extra £10.00 each I was able to pick the long leg seats in advance.
This evening we went with Pat & Bryan to a new restaurant which opened in Lapta, the Veni Vici, a speciallity pasta house. The food was absolutely superb and if they maintain this standard they will probably do well. However we did find the prices a little on the top side especially when they tried to charge for some bread, which we decided to do without. 10YTL for a basket of mixed bread is a bit steep, especially when we buy bread for 0.50YTL a whole loaf and the service was incredibly slow. Lets hope that they settle down and get things all together as the food is definitely worth a visit.
Big work day today. We have had a problem with the new gas fire and it has been sooting up the chimney breast and surrounding paintwork etc. Courtesy of the supplying company, the painters have been in today to repaint the entire lounge. Two guys from early morning through to around 5 p.m. have done the entire room, ceiling and walls with two coats. A bit of a pain in the butt really having to strip the entire room and now of course the curtains also all need taking to the cleaners tomorrow. All they have to do now is sort the fire out before next winter.
PROPERTY TAX.
A big hike in property tax has been approved by parliament which is going to effect us all who own property here. The aim is to boost income for local authorities to improve services. There is a lot of detail but ultimately the cost to us all is what is important. Charges are on a sq metre basis plus added charges for swimming pools. The new costs will be approx 150YTL for a property of 150 sq mtrs built since 1985 and a 250 sq mtr property with pool will cost 312.50YTL, all these costs are per annum. Still a lot cheaper than in UK but an indication of rising costs here.
The new 70MW generating unit at the power station, was due to come in to service today after 10 months preparation time. The chief engineer of the authority said that in the next two months other improvements would be completed which should mean an end to power shortages.
The new bypass has ground to a halt again because of diputes over compulsory purchase of land and the looming traffic chaos which will ensue when they close off the approach to Kyrenia in order to connect the old with the new. So whats new? A little advance planning would not have gone amiss here, but nobody seems to know the meaning of the words.
Remember the £5.00 tickets to win a villa. Well 17 months further on, the winner is still waiting for his villa. He says he feels confident that he will get his villa but the companies involved, Victoria Homes and Victoria Construction have closed down. Mr Reg Heybetli, previously of Victoria Homes etc has now set up a new company called R & N Cyprus Homes. Mr Heybetli would not comment to the newspaper and will not answer his phone to the founder of the Homebuyers Pressure Group, who want to discuss unfinished properties. Draw your own conclusions.
The Land Registry now has details of 1.2 million properties on its computer data base. Lets hope that that enables things to get speeded up in the near future.
One thing that does seem to have been really improved is the residency proceedures. Joan and I went to see about our permanent residency and all our details were available on the computer, making life so much easier for the young lady assisting us with the proceedure. As everything is now in the one big new building it should also make applications initially much easier for you to do yourselves.
One last item before we get almost to the end of April. Today has got to have been one of the windiest days we have had for some time. Every month, at the time of the new moon, we get a couple of very windy days, but today was a real humdinger and just when the painters wated to keep the patio doors open so that they could get in and out. Despite this the weather is getting much warmer and as I write this our pool thermometer shows 22 degrees, maybe it is time to pluck up courage.
|
|
