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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
We have to report a very nice evening out yesterday. When Joan and I went to the BRS summer get together, we won as a raffle prize, dinner for two at Jashans restaurant. Now many of you will know that this restaurant has featured on our site for the last 5 years and all though they have moved to a different venue, the quality and quantity of the Indian food has remained very good.
Well recently they also opened up a new restaurant called The Oleander Restaurant. This one used to be known as Planters and more recently as The Kukri and can be found on the road out of Kyrenia in the Lapta direction. The best sort of food here I would imagine will still be the Indian dishes and that's what we had. It was absolutely delicious and that's not because the food side was free this time. Highly recommended and the staff attentive. For this time of the year there is the bar, situated in a corner of the garden area with a choice of bar stools or big comfortable chairs around low tables. The whole to be tried by many we hope and if you don't want to eat, they are happy for you to just enjoy the bar.
Thursday is LDs night, but the whole LD family and staff are lounging around in a hotel in Antalya, Turkey. So we had to pick another venue for a Thursday night out. I know it is not essential to be going out every Thursday, but this next week we will be even thinner on the ground as Joan, myself and Anne will be on next Thursdays flight to UK. This leaves only Stewart and Barbara in our road to feed the cats for us and Roger and Gill, who came back recently.
Picked another of our favourite places, Haci Ali's on the Lapta seafront. This place is becoming more popular now that it is summer outdoor eating. The terrace area is really lovely with some superb views across their pool and out in to the Med. Food quality is excellent and the prices very competative, so what more could we want.
Having spent a day over in Nicosia again in all that heat and humidity it was lovely to sit with a cool sea breeze.
Oh yes, whilst I was in Nicosia today I was told that the new general manager of CTA is, or was in fact a dentist. Now that tells a lot about his ability to run a multi million euro loss making company. Some things here are still a real joke, but at least he should be able to pull out the deadwood staff one by one.
This evening, Joan and I went over to Mike and Tracey Rodds in Catalkoy. They are staying in their villa over there and had invited us to a BBQ evening together with their friends and neighbours, Ricky and Joanne. Mike did a sterling job with the gas BBQ and afridge full of cold beer and wine, so there we were at the Rodds enjoying good food and conversation on a warm evening.
They are also heading off back to UK soon, so we will have to return the compliment in October when they next come over.
Big headline in The Cyprus Today. Scorching 51 degrees, thats what it felt like in Nicosia with the very high humidity. The whole world seems to be in a turmoil with the weather. Over there in UK you are all drowning in rainfall and we have never experienced humidity levels like this. Guess what the forecast for next week is more of the same. I guess Joan and I are looking forward to some cool weather from Wednesday onwards, hopefully without the torrential rain you have been having.
Another well thought out government scheme has just been introduced. Compulsory emission tests on vehicles over one year old. BUT THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE THE EVIL BLACK SMOKING COMMERCIAL VEHICLES. These tests have to be conducted every year, which is interesting as MOT tests here last for three years. Add to this the fact that there are only seven testing centres and non of them in Kyrenia area and the law allows fines of up to 8,500 YTL (£3,250). Does this smell of another government scheme to try to fleece the ex-pats.
The British Police are still waiting for foul food fugitive to be extradited. The TRNC police are denying ever having received the request to return Roberts to the UK and the Derbshire Police say they have renewed their original 2003 request, through official channels.
The cost of bread has risen this week from 25p for a 300 gram loaf to 30p, 20%, that's a lot over here. The justification is the higher price of wheat.
Economy is at a standstill business groups have warned. The biggest threats are in the Tourism Sector and the Building & Construction Industry, but this of course will have an add on effect on associated business.
At the same time thousands of municipality workers have been given job security and pension guarantees under a new law which came in to effect on July 16th. When you read the paragraph above, you have to wonder how the government can be sure of paying for all of this particularily as the scheme includes all government workers, which I am led to believe is about 70% of the working population.
Anybody want to buy a 1968 Morris Traveller which appears to have been a very lucky car. Apparantly the car was bought by a Dr John Guthrie here in Nicosia and the original invoice and logbook are still with the vehicle. In 1974, he and his family fled from their Bellapais home down to the harbour and just left the car with the keys in the ignition. When he and his wife returned 3 months later they found the car in their garage with the keys still in the ignition. It's current owner bought it in 1995 and it was parked in Bellapais during the great fire of the same year. Everything around the car was burnt to a cinder, but the car itself was virtually unscathed under a protective sheet. The present owner says it could do with a respray but everything else is perfect, with just 43,000 miles on the clock from new. I suppose what the man needs is a "Moggie" lover.
Today was the day for the flight to UK. This time with Pegasus Airlines. An early start was needed as we picked Anne up at 5 a.m. then went off to Ercan. We had already been able to pre-book our seats when we did the initial internet booking which meant long leg room for me by the emergency exits. The flight left Ercan exactly 1 minute late and the flight to Istanbul was very reasonable, but as the tickets are so much cheaper than CTA we would have to buy our own snacks on this first leg, if we wanted anything. The turn round time in Istanbul was less than 1 hour and the flight to Stanstead meant that we got there 15 minutes early. On this leg of the journey a very acceptable meal was served, the staff helpful and smiling, so all in all we were very pleased and if the return flight is as good we will be using them in future for all our UK flights.
On arrival we went to pick up our hire car from 1 Car 1 and encountered some fun. My Barclaycard was refused, which as the account balance was at zero was a little confusing. We paid with our bank debit card and on later investigation with Barclaycard discovered that they had put a block on as protection, as the card had not been used for some time. I suppose we should be grateful, as they were trying to be protective of our account, but it sure is embarrassing when there are four other people waiting at the counter to be served.
We then drove via Chatham to take Anne over to Jeff and after a chat with him and a coffee we came over to New Romney to stay with Les & Jill. All in all a long day, but nice to see our very good friends again.
After a longer than normal lie in, to recover from the long day yesterday, I took Joan and Jill, who of course is now retired so has all the time in the world to join us, over to Ashford. There is a factory outlet shopping centre there so Joan was very happy to be browsing amongst the bargains. She was actually quite kind to the credit card, but at least was able to prove that the account had now been released.
Last night some of Jill's family arrived in preparation for tonight,s big event so the only solution was down to the "chippy" for supper all round.
This morning it was all hands to the pump as preparations commence for this evening. A marque set up at the bottom of the garden for the bar and buffet food, with seating room around for those that want it.
This evening we had one very fine a reason to party so let the party commence. The first guests arrived around 6.30 p.m. and the number increased as the evening proceeded. Jill welcomes her guests and eventually gave up trying to open all her presents as they appeared, she decided to save the pleasure until later, or even until the morning. Sarah and Barry, some friends of Les and Jill, had decided that their present to her would be the buffet for us all. The food was absolutely tremendous, fresh poached salmon, prawns, a huge variety of meats all backed up with rice, pasta dishes and salads. After the initial start we then had a super spread of sweets. After a call to conduct the proper ceremony Jill cuts the cake. This obviously caused some comments from the gathering as Jill was heard to say who said that ?, very dangerous when the knife is that big.
We were very lucky with the weather so the party went on in to the night and a great time was really had by us all and especially Jill who had a very special night to remember.
A bit of a late start today but a major job of cleaning up and returning tables and chairs etc. lent by neighbours and friends. Jill's son, daughter and their families were heading back up north today so it was the full English breakfast for 10 this morning, well it was just still morning, when we got round to it.
Around 3 p.m. some of us then went off to the local pub, the excuse was that we had borrowed a table from there and it needed to be taken back. Would you believe that we have been here since Wednesday and this is my first trip to a local pub.
Now that all the festivities are over, Joan and I have spent a day in Canterbury, doing just a little shopping !!!!!!! ouch.
This evening we finally got Les to take us out on his new toy, a six cylinder, 1300 cc Kawasaki motorbike. This bike is in fact a sort of collectors piece as it is already 20 years old, but has only done just over 20,000 miles since new. First we get Joan about to enjoy her ride and she came back saying that that was magic. Then it was my turn and have to agree quite an experience. I have never been such a motorbike enthusiast but have to admit that this as a big engine touring bike is quite something. I can well appreciate Les's delight at being able to get back on a bike like this again, once a fan, always a fan I suppose.
We drove up from Kent on 15th and it took us about 6 hours. There was an overturned lorry at the junction of the M11 and numerous other roadworks on the way up. We did stop for about 30 minutes to give us a break, particularily as I was too mean to include two drivers on the hire car insurance, which meant yours truly doing the lot.
It was great to see Bill & Margaret again and to get a look at their lovely new house in Harrogate, which is their chosen retirement home. They did however get their own back on us, just like when they came to us last October, they had the builders in. We relaxed for the evening over dinner and caught up on the news.
Thursday morning was a little overcast and Bill wanted to sort a few things out with the builder, so Margaret, Joan and myself walked in to Harrogate town centre. It only takes about 20 minutes so makes their choice of location really great, as if you don't want lots of shopping, then you get exercise to go with your trip. Margaret left Joan and I to browse around and we met up for coffee later. We were very impressed with our first vist to Harrogate, it has a lovely feel about it. Bill came in to pick us up, but then I guess he knew that Joan couldn't resist the shops.
In the evening we all went out to a town centre seafood restaurant, which is apparently quite popular with the locals. Despite the extensive menu we all four stuck with the fresh haddock and chips, medium size for the girls and large for the boys. I have to say that it has got be some of the most lovely fish and chips I have ever eaten.
Today, Friday, started off as a nice dry day so the decision was made to go out on to the moors. This was being done especially for us as it was our first real visit to Yorkshire. But things change and on the way the heavens decided to open up and the rain bounced. we found somewhere to park in Galveston (I think that's where it was) and an old world tearoom to enjoy coffee and homemade fruit cake served with local cheese. It wasn't just a tearoom but also a sweet shop where they shelves full of jars of sweets, served up in paper bags and I am old enough to remember that as the only way to buy sweets with your pocket money. Joan just had to have a bag of dolly mixtures. Ouside of this shop we found this lovely statue of Mrs Rabbit, but we had to look up in one of Margaret's grand-childrens books to confirm that it really was Mrs Rabbit. By this time the rain had eased off, so we went up on Ilkley Moor to take a look. We had told Bill and Margaret about the evening on the Yangtze cruise, when John had attempted to teach the Americans his version of "On Ilkley Moor Bart'at", so just couldn't resist these pictures to send to him when we get back.
It didn't look too clever this morning, sort of overcast and promising of rain, but didn't stop this little fellow coming along to say where's my breakfast. Bill and Margaret curse them, because they spend lots of time scampering around and digging holes in the lawn, but they are nice to see when you are sitting down to breakfast in the mornings.
As it looked a bit doubtful we all decided that this would be the day when we should take the chance of visiting York. There is a very good park & ride scheme which we took advantage of and the bus in to town passes The Railway Museum. Guess what, Bill and I hopped off there and spent acouple of very pleasant hours. You have never seen a steam engine until you have seen some of the wonderful, restored engines in these exhibition halls. One was all kitted out to pull the Royal Train back in Victorian time, but nobody is quite sure if it actually pulled the real thing. There were some examples of the Royal Trains over the years, fitted out to the luxury standard you would expect. But whatever you say, big is beautiful and many of the real steam engines where a wonderful sight. One that it was very difficult to get near to was The Mallard, at 126 MPH the fastest steam train ever.
After a sandwich and a coffee, not British Rail standard either, Bill and I walked in to the city to meet up with the girls, who were wandering around the shops of course. My first view of York Minster was impressive and as we ahd about 20 minutes before our rendevous time, I took the opportunity to nip inside and inside was just as impressive, so much so that I decided that Joan and I should come back and spend some more time here to view at leisure. After we met the girls, we all waited for the rain to stop again and then wandered down some of the lovely old streets. We found one street called The Shambles with lots of small shops doing quite good trade by the looks of it, then we found a shop which specialised in original receipe Cornish pasties. As this was a take away shop we did the only sensible thing, bought four and stood under a tree and enjoyed.
Oh boy, is it raining today. As it was Sunday, Bill, Margaret and Joan went off to church, leaving me to try to pick up on one of the wireless internet connections from the area. But no such luck, signal too weak or the only one that had a decent signal had password protection. Never mind you will all have to wait until we get home.
As it was such a lovely day we decided that the only sensible thing was, Sunday papers and then a good pub lunch. That's exactly what we had and very enjoyable too.
Joan and I went off for a day in York all by ourselves. This allowed Bill and Margaret to get on with some of their own personal things and us some extra time to visit some things we missed on Saturday.
First we went to York Minster again because Joan had not been inside at all. We found the choir area known as the Quire and also a military chapel. This was in fact dedicated to a Yorkshire Regiment, but I don't think that our friend Jeff would mind that, so we sat and thought about him for some time and the nasty treatment he is having to have for his cancer. We spent further time looking around the rest of the Minster and saw a dragon high up in the roof area. Apparently it is some sort of manually operated crane, for lifting the very heavy lid offf the font below. The font has long been moved so there has not been naybody up on the roof leaning on the extended end of the dragon for many years.
From the Minster we went around some of the tourist shops that are everywhere and then found oursleves down by the Cornish Pasty shop at lunch time. We stood in the street eating one of those and watching a very good street entertainer before finding a lovely old pub called The Three Tuns that had 4 guest ales on at a very good price, pitty I was driving!
Back to Harrogate for around 5 p.m. and an evening in with Bill and Margaret.
Last day in the UK for this trip. Bill proposed a trip out to the Wensleydale cheese factory to watch cheese making and of course to buy a few samples to take back with us. The factory is situated in the village of Hawes, so we just had to take a walk down Hawes High Street to see the market stalls and to take lunch in a local pub. The village was quite busy with tourists and locals alike and it is made up of beautiful stone cottages and little waterfalls running down the stream. We walked all around the village and spent time in a museum and Tourist Info Centre. You can say what you like but these Yorkshire villages with the stone cottages are just lovely and having taken a lot of pics, I decided that I love this one, but maybe in the winter when the stream is a raging torrent I would think differently. Outside one cottage there were two sheep dogs at each end of the wall and this one was quite clearly saying I've got my eye on you, there was no way I was going much nearer. We walked back towards the centre of the village and the car park and then we saw the ultimate , probably used by the owners of my mate after he's had your leg off.
For our last evening we went in to Harrogate to a small French restaurant and have to say that we had some lovely food at a very good price. A lovely way to finish off our too short stay in Yorkshire. Bill and Margaret don't know it yet but they have not seen the last of us, but please a little better weather.
Up very early this morning so that we could leave at 6.30 a.m. This because the weather was still bad and we were not sure how long it was going to take to drive down to Stanstead. As it happens we had a reasnable journey and we got the hire car back at 9.30 a.m., an hour or more ahead of planning, better safe than sorry.
The weather at Stanstead was atrocious and the arriving Pegasus flight was almost 30 minutes late. They did however turn the whole round in under the hour and we took off only 25 minutes late. Once again the flight was almost full, the staff were very friendly, the ground time in Istanbul was down to 30 minutes only, so we arrived at Ercan 15 minutes ahead of schedule. This I said before was our first flight with them but I have nothing but praise and for sure will be using them again. Only one error, we booked seats with leg room at an extra cost and these were not shown at Stanstead. Because we were early we still got good alternatives and when I sent them an e-mail the money was back on our credit card within 24 hours.
George and Susan pcked us up at Ercan and in our usual way, we did all the unpacking first and then sat outside for half an hour with a nightcap.
Started to pick up on all the mail that was sitting in our in box and after eliminating 684 items of rubbish we were ale to get a look at some of the sensible ones.
One that struck me as being very sensible for all us owners out here is attached as follows:-
Please email this on to the bbc as they are trying to put a program together to attack the agents and developers in the TRNC the email address to send it to
is: Andrew.head@bbc.co.uk
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Dear Sirs,
I understand that the BBC is currently engaged in making a programme regarding Northern Cyprus and the question marks regarding the purchase of property there.
I would urge you to offer a balanced view of the situation in Cyprus.
Usually it is the Greek Cypriot view of events which is offered and little attention is paid to putting the events surrounding the arrival of Turkish troops into any sort of context. The Greek Cypriot death squads of the sixties and early seventies which terrorised the Turkish Cypriot community in an effort to 'ethnically cleanse' the island in advance of 'Enosis' rarely get a mention though it was they, not the Turkish intervention, which caused the United Nations to first become involved. The situation of the partition which now exists has its roots in the violence years before the Turkish government (as one of the guarantor powers of the constitution of Cyprus after independence) intervened following the coup in 1974.
Please bear in mind that both Turkish and Greek Cypriots left their former properties to seek the safety of 'their' side of the green line and a process of safe passage was actually brokered by the UN. Whilst there has clearly been development of former Greek lands in the north by Turkish Cypriots, so has there been development of former Turkish land in the south.
Obviously Larnaca airport and Limmassol hospital are the most well known examples but Paphos was the largest Turkish community before partition and there has been enormous residential construction in the area. The old Turkish village names you can find on pre-independence maps seem no longer to exist. One must wonder about the sites of these former Turkish Cypriot communities.
I am not taking a particular standpoint but I do insist that the situation in Cyprus is a story with two sides and that more often than not, only the Greek Cypriot perspective is aired these days. I feel strongly enough and my knowledge and experience of both sides of the island is sufficient that I do request that you attempt to produce a balanced programme
Kind Regards,"
The point being made is very valid and as usual there will probably be a totally Greek sided view of the reason for the island being as it is. When you listen to any program that has ever been shown you would think that life started here in 1974. I have already sent my version of this e-mail to Mr Andrew Head, so why not follow suit and try to get some truth at last.
We are having some real problems with out internet at the moment so please bear with us and come along this evening and enjoy our evening at LDs. It's good to be back home.
I know that it is actually one week later than this date, but this week it has been almost impossible to upload the pics on to the site. I have tried very early and very late as well as in between time and the average download time has been around 20 minutes per pic. You could have siesta whilst waiting. They have promised a new base station mast this coming week, so lets hope that it is the answer.
So a quick look at the one week old newspapers for anything of real interest, then we can almost start a new month.
Mr Peter Roberts, the guy who was flogging bad chickens etc to schools and old peoples homes, has been escorted all the way to Stanstead and arrested on the aircraft steps as he arrived. Guess this time they have got him. I wonder if there are any more of similar ilk hiding here that maybe are starting to get a little twitchy. That would be nice, clean the joint up a bit.
According to the press, hundreds of cars are failing the emmissions tests, mostly diesel they say but as my road tax is due in September I will have to test this out soon. It seems now that there has been a change and the tests are to include commercial vehicles, which can only be good news.
Alan Aldridge, the Chairamn of the BRS has resigned because of ill health. He has been back in England for the last 5 weeks and looks like being there for some time. We wish him well and a speedy return to the TRNC.
Some idiot has been out dropping poisoned meat on the road up to Malatya. Three dogs have died as a result, including Sandy, a dog belonging to out friend Steve Dickenson. There is absolutely no control on the sale of poisons here and I guess that some child will have to die before the government sees sense and regulates the sale and usage.
The Sunday building ban was introduced on August 12th and it wold seem that so far it is being observed. Now that will be nice, no big lorries etc trundling down the roads for at least one day per week.
Guess where Joan spent the afternoon? On her floating lilo thingy, accompanied by Joan's friend. Clearly she is glad to be home and able to top up the tan.
One in the eye for the Greek Cypriots. The Famagusta Municipality Folk Dance group represented Northern Cyprus at an International Folk Dance Festival held in Poland. The so called "Greek Cypriot Mayor Delegate" of Famagusta, wrote to the committee saying that the group should not be accepted by the Festival. The answer he got was, cultural events like this should not be interfered with by comments like this; and to finally rub salt in the wound, the dance group won two of the most important prizes of the competition and an invitation to attend four festivals in Spain.
All this is quite interesting now as the first talks between Mr Talat and Mr Papadopoulus are to take place on Wednesday 5th September. All the talk here is of a divided island and permanent division of the two sides. The Greek side keep trying all this nonsense such as that above and stopping football teams and cultural exchanges of any kind. They seem intent on trying to suffocate us into some form of submission but are unwilling to talk sensibly in the presence of EU or UN officials about solving the problems of the island.
Today is our 27th Wedding anniversary so a day out on our own has been planned. We had decided to go over to the South and visit Governers Beach. For those of you who don't know it this beach area is half way between Larnaca and Limassol and is a popular tourist spot. there are a number of retaurants in the area and some also offer accomodation if you want an overnight stay. The restaurants all are up on the cliff above the little beaches and it is a lovely spot to spend the day swiiming, reading, sleeping and eating in the Tavernas.
A great day out and a pleasant way to spend your anniversary.
Yesterday was another TRNC holiday with military parades etc. The holiday is really only for government workers, banks etc so I went over to see some of our suppliers in Nicosia. I had forgotten about the road closure for the parades, so ended up having to drive miles around to get to the other side of the town, good job I know my way around now.
I feel sorry for any tourist trying to get to the airport, as the main road in that direction is baracaded off all morning with no diversion signs.
Once I got back to Lapta we then formed a convoy with George, Stewart, Joan and Bryan all going to get these new emission tests done on our cars. The usual chaos at the garage that is licensed to do the tests, everybody just mingling around with no proper queue system. Great fun trying to persuade the locals that they are actually at the back of the queue and do not have special rights to the front. Good news was that we all passed, especially good for me as my tax expires tonight so have to get it Monday morning.
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