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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
It has now gone really cold so the fires are working overtime. Joan has been busy setting up an apartment for a client and came home absolutely frozen this evening as the builders people are in and out and the doors wide open. Now we know why the locals wear five layers of clothing and the men still use long johns.
I had to go over to Nicosia this afternoon to deal with some of the month end bits at our suppliers and it absolutely hosed it down over there. Strange we can sometimes get sunshine on our side of the mountain and downpours on the other side.
Last evening, of course, eight of The Layabouts made our weekly trip to LDs, they would miss the banter and especially the George jokes if we didn't go over there.
Oh boy, what a wet day. It has hosed it down all day long backed up with a driving wind, really pleasant weather and I had to go out in it to meet a builder in Bellapais. On the way over there I had to drive thrpugh a stretch of road which can only be described as a lake about 2 foot deep. In true traditional style the locals were hitting it at speed and then wondering why their cars died on the other side.
We discovered that we have a leak in the new lounge ceiling, coming through the upstairs terrace tiles, so that is going to need curing a.s.a.p. Probably this was there before the work was done, but because the whole area was open it would not have been noticed. Also the driving wind is making us think about having a UPVC front door fitted, as it blows a gale underneath and today we had to use a towel to mop up the rain.
I was glad to get back home and discover that our cats had gone for the warmth and comfort option but then Joan told me that I had to go up and help her hang some pictures in the apartment she has been furnishing, brrrr.
We had been talking to George and Susan earlier and we all four decided that comfort food was what was needed today, to hell with the diets. On the way down town, is The Ravine bar and they do a mean cod and chips with mushy peas, now that really is comfort food. so we all four enjoyed that, washed down with G&T's to give the pretence of slimming and were able to watch the second half of the rugby with England putting in a stunning performance. An enjoyable evening and a nice warm house to get back to.
Quick look at the weekend papers.
A visitor was stopped from leaving the TRNC because of an unpaid speeding fine. Apparently this London based Turkish Cypriot, had received a speeding fine in January 2006, but had not been aware of it. He had been in and out of TRNC 15 times over the last 12 months and on Friday 26th January was barred from leaving. He paid the fine on the following Monday but was again barred from leaving on Wednesday because the police computers did not show the payment being made. Result a very angry journalist, writing about police incompetance and being teated like a common criminal.
Some news from the census done last April. British expats amount to a total of one percent of the population. I wonder if they ever counted the Brits who went off back to UK or over to the South for a long weekend, in case anybody spotted the lack of residency permits.
Signs are to be put up and flashing warning lights, by the pedestrian crossings in Girne. However the head of the Society for the Prevention of Accidents admitted that even though the crossings existed, pedestrians often did not use them - and even if they did, TRNC drivers were not in the habit of stopping for them. Very true. Today when I stopped at one of these crossings, the driver behind blew his horn angrily at me for daring to stop and let a mother and child cross, oh boy........
According to a census by a government body there has been a major shift in public opinion. 65% of Turkish Cypriots now want a two state island, whilst only 20% want a federal solution to the Cyprus issue. Many of us here say that this is the only way that the issue will ever be resolved.
An interesting exercise for me today. I was asked yesterday to take a look at the kitchen requirements for a new Pasta restaurant that is to open early April, here in Lapta. I have to say that the first impressions of the building to be used are very impressive and somehow I have to use my Lefkosa contacts, to put together and install, a complete stainless steel kitchen by the end of the month. That should be really interesting, so watch this space for developments and some photos as things progress.
Looks like a nice weekend so may be able to get some of those jobs done but you can never tell as one minute it is nice and sunny and the next over comes the black stuff.
I decided to make a start on giving our old bamboo sun loungers a facelift. I had bought some spray varnish in the south, can't get it here, as this is the lazy mans way of restoring the old chairs. Two or three hours with the old sandpaper, some deft spray work and they look like new. At least they will do when I get some more spray varnish, one can was not enough. They look so good that Joan is talking about taking the covers down to the guy on the market to have them recovered. Roll on the nice weather then I can use them for there intended purpose, afternoon snoozes.
Apart from that, a quiet day together with a nice fish meal washed down of course with a bottle of white and feet up in front of the tele.
Lazy morning in bed with the papers and a mug of coffee. We are normally early risers so this 9 o'clock stuff is s change for us. My turn to do the bacon & egg breakfast, but then somehow or other it nearly always seems to be my turn.
Big moan about the massive increase in car tax and postal charges. 20% on car tax and 25% on postage. That means that it is going to cost almost £40.00 to tax my car this next time. Not a lot you say but to the locals with their very low incomes it is too much. This government seems to have made a habit of increasing every tax in sight, way beyond the level of income increases. Maybe they have been talking to Gordon Brown, with his tax them until they squeek attitude.
Joy for home buyers. The Homebuyers Pressure Group claim a "breakthrough" with the government in improving the lot of foreign buyers here. A new steamlined process to clear the backlog of 2,000 permissions to purchase by June and a commitment that the process will only take 3 to 4 months to complete afterwards. Now call me an old cynic if you like, but were have I heard all that before. One of these days maybe all these promises will mean something. If they do stick to their promise then that will be a great relief to all of you who have waited for a couple of years now.
There were reports and pictures of the widespreadfloods which occured last weekend. Torrential rain caused areas of Nicosia and Famagusta. There is much work going on to lay storm drains everywhere but this is going to take time and money and of course there has been little or no maintenance work done on previously laid drains so these have silted up. If you happen to be out and about in your car when these huge downpours occur, you are very soon driving through mini lakes.
This evening, Joan and I went to Haci Ali's restaurant for dinner here in Lapta. We enjoy this place and the food quality is good at a very reasonable price. It is a great surprise that more people are not using the place, although the waiters tell us that weekend lunchtimes are quite busy.
More heavy rain today and much more forecast for this week. This recent rain has revealed a little trouble with damp for us. The two tiled terraces are now forming flat roofs over the kitchen, at one side and part of the lounge, at the other. These terraces are covered in tiles over bitumen, but the tiles are those manmade concrete ones, with stone chippings and may have become porous over time. If the underneath layer of bitumen was not properly done originally then this could be the source of our problems. We called in the builder who has done the recent work for us and he had one of his men chip away some of the concrete facing. You can see on the picture that the concrete under is very wet so water has been coming through for quite some time. Don't know what the ultimate solution will be, either tile over the top of the existing, after things have been sealed properly, or take up the existing and re-do properly. Whatever the solution we have to have the stone ballustrades taken up and reset. More expense.
Yesterday morning we had a huge thunder storm and today it started off nice and sunny but oh boy did it change. Right now it is as black as the ace of spades and hosing it down.
This morning I met up with the installation engineers to go to a house in Karsiyaka and put in the air conditioning. The site was one great mud pool, would have made a family of hippos very happy indeed, so the boys decided that the risk of getting stuck was too great so we had to abandon the job. There are people living on this site and they are virtually stranded. The UK idea of putting in the roads etc first would be a godsend over here in the rainy season, but then again in 4 or 5 weeks the ground will be hard again and we will be moaning about the dust. The pity is that the customer, who is living there with her older mother has not got the advantage of the heat these units would give her, but there is not much we can do to help.
Rain,rain go away, except of course we really need it to fill the reservoirs. But it really is a great pain when the streets are flooding and driving is horrendous.
This evening we met up with Vic and Yvonne at Haci Ali's restaurant. They had mailed us that they wanted to talk about life over here as they were trying to make decisions about coming to live over here permanently. But is it not a small world. They told us that the villa agency had switched them to an alternate villa at the last minute, due to an electric problem at the original booking. When they told us were this new one was we realised that they were in our friend David's villa, up in Karaman.
An enjoyable evening with the usual good food at Haci Ali's, but I do wish they would learn to serve the vegetables hot.
This morning Joan was busy as we had swopped our cleaner day with George & Susan, they wanted to go off south and visit friends for a few days. That meant that I dropped in to The Pegasus on my own to deal with the annual renewal of our BRS membership and to tell the chairman, Mike Maternaghan, that I had given up in trying to resolve the issue of the non-free ticket from CTA. Despite numerous phone calls to the man who was supposed to sort it, we are still £200.00 down and BRS had agreed to under right it.
Oh yes, this morning I had received an early call from our Icelandic friends, Steini & Sigga. They had arrived around 5 a.m. this morning and their suitcases are still in Heathrow, with the keys to their apartment in the suitcase. They had managed to get in to their son's ground floor apartment to sleep a little while, but it was freezing cold so they had gone to bed in their clothes. It is a good job that I have a spare key for their place.
At least it has been dry since yesterday midday, so the builder was able to come and put a special chemical coating on our terraces and it is hoped that this will seal them because the alternative is a complete re-tile job. That means all the ballustrades have to be removed etc, a big job, so here is hoping that the chemical, supplied by Cyprus Pools, works OK.
In the news today is an article that says that CTA, our much loved airline, have scrapped their service to Glasgow and Belfast. The reason given is falling bookings. Aparantly this comes on the back of the Tourism Minister announcing that a concerted effort would be made to encourage tourists from the mainland to come to the island because there had been a fall in demand from the region, particularly from England. Couldn't be possibly linked to the price of tickets and the standard of service!
The Southern courts have done it again. This time they have arrested and imprisoned an Israelian arhitect who arrived in Larnaca with documents relating to land which they say belongs to a Greek Cypriot. Of course they would completely ignore any possibility that this might be exchange land as in their minds the only land on the island is Greek Cypriot. I cannot say it often enough. Don't give them the opprtunity by carrying documents with you. This guy was arrested coming in to Larnaca, which points clearly to some sort of tip off.
There is a big storm brewing over the plan to hoist some huge flags on 36m high poles on the top of 5 finger mountain. Why is it necessary to poke another finger in the direction of the South, they are already wound up enough about the situation.
Nothing changes here in relation to driving standards. A total of 53 road accidents were reported during the last 7 days, with 17 people being injured in these accidents.
PROMISES,PROMISES,PROMISES.
We all know how many times that EU, UK and other Politicians have made promises to lift the isolation of the TRNC so this latest article in Cyprus Times is viewed with a certain amount of "here we go again" attitude.
MAN leaders and top international players have repeated their promises to lift the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots in the last few days. Jack Straw, Angela Merkel and OIC Secretary General bombarded the Turkish Cypriots with promises all in the same 48 hours. However these promises do not excite the people of the TRNC as they did a couple of years back.
The Leader of the British House of Commons Jack Straw has said that the British government will continue its efforts towards helping to end the international isolation on the Turkish Cypriot people.
He said that the biggest disappointment he experienced during his term as Foreign Secretary was the rejection of the Annan Plan by the Greek Cypriot Side.
In a speech to the British Parliament, Mr Straw said his country shares the disappointment of the Turkish Cypriot People over the failure to lift its international isolations in spite of its approval of a UN peace plan during the 2004 referenda.
Reminding that the European Union had taken decisions to end the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people soon after the referenda in Cyprus, he said it wasn't possible to lift the isolation on North Cyprus but stated that the British Government will continue its efforts towards achieving this goal.
One of these days, just maybe..........
Today we had our Turkish Cypriot friends, Mehmet, Rose (called that because it is not possible to pronounce her Turkish name) and their two boys, over for a traditional English Sunday lunch. The youngest is just four years old and the standard bundle of energy. When you are that age life is a big laugh, especially getting your feet wet on the edge of a very cold pool, first with your shoes on and then more sensibly with your shoes off. We had done a traditional roast pork lunch, because Mehmet said he wanted to try roast pork, Rose was a little unsure but then tried it and enjoyed it very much. As back up we had cooked a chicken, so that was ideal for the boys. A fun afternoon especially as the sun chose to shine and we were able to sit outside for drinks and after dinner coffee.
Further news about the disappearing CTA ticket. we had mentioned the situation, quite deliberately, to a friend, who is sub-editor of Cyprus Today and low and behold we were interviewed by one of their journalists for an article in next Saturdays edition. The journalist said that after he had written the article he spoke to CTA management, who now say they knew nothing about the issue and would look in to it immediately. Most definitely a case "watch this space" and the not too pretty picture in next weeks newspaper.
This evening we met up with Mike & Tracey Rodd and their two children at Turks Head Bar. This was especially arranged by Joan beecause Mia's favourite singer was there this evening Elvis. Danny Fisher, who is well known around the area as an Elvis impersonator is to be found here every Friday evening. Mia thinks he is just wonderful and has seen him during other visits over here and when asked to do a duo with him had no hesitation in getting up to sing. By this time the original quiet evening in the bar was over and the place was heaving. The police turned up around 1 a.m. but nobody seemed to bother after Savas, the bar owner, had had a word with them. A super evening all round.
We had received a text message on our mobile, that the owner of the Sunset Club had taken on a new venture which was to open this evening. Way up the mountain above Lapta village is The Old Mill. This is a sort of pub, come restaurant with some accommodation built in a very old stone building which from the name, one assumes to have been an old mill. The setting is absolutely stunning, providing you have a good head for heights and it is going to be a wonderful place to try for evening meals in the summer, when the roof terrace is fully open.
We were not able to stay too long at The Old Mill because we had arranged to go out with the whole gang, almost, to a Pantomine put on by KADS, the Kyrenia Amateur Dramatic Society. Aladdin and the lamp has never been so funny. They had us all in stitches with a very well written script and some excellent performances. The cast included a duck called "Quack Quack, not a big surprise that really, who had us all laughing fit too burst and causing some good response witticisms from the audience. I must admit that when Aladdin asked how are we going to get to Egypt, I was tempted to say fly CTA. Tremendous fun, must do it again next year.
We have a definite NO from the UK government on direct flights to TRNC. The Department of Transport has turned down the application because the Greek Cypriot government refused to recognise Ercan as an international airport. Now why does that not surprise us too much and why does the British government refuse to recognise it's responsibilities in the history of this dispute between North and South. Now the TRNC President has ordered a top legal ream to challenge the British government decision.
Oops, the TRNC authorities have clamped down on importation from the South of the island by suggesting that customs officials at the border should check every vehicle for prohibited meat and dairy products. What they are actually doing is enforcing the Green Line Regulations, as they say that there is too much one way traffic and strictly speaking there has always been a 135 euro limit, per person, on imports across the border. Customs officials at the major border crossing say searching every vehicle would cause chaos at the checkpoint so they have now agreed to check at least five vehicles during the day. I guess that means that it is best to cross during the very busy periods to avoid delays and vehicle searches.
Well there we are, pictured on page three, glad this isn't The Sun. What free air ticket, says the headline. Interestingly the Commercial Director says this is the first he has heard about this matter and he will be looking in to it. Strange that, he obviously does not recall my telephone conversation with him back in early December. He does however say that they always honour their commitments so hopefully the £200.00 will be coming back to the BRS, who have honoured their agreement and refunded the extra cost to us.
Oh am I ever so glad, that I told the internet provider, known as Extend, that I wanted my money back last year and went along with The Internet Club. 700 of their customers have been without an internet connection since Tuesday last and with 40 technicians working round the clock to correct the problem, they say that they will have everybody up and running again by the end of the weekend. Now I find that very strange as I don't believe that there are 40 internet technitians in TRNC. But such are the vagaries of statements here and no doubt they could always deny that was what they said. So there you go folks, a tip from me, go with the best.
We are still getting very warm weather again, for this time of the year and despite the forecast for this week being cloudy with showers, I guess that the water shortage this summer is definitely a thing that we must reckon with. There are warnings in the press for locals who continue to water everything in sight with copious quantities of water. I suppose its a bit like their attitude to litter etc, they don't have a clue.
Just a quick final note for this month. Gill & Roger came back to TRNC in the early hours of Sunday morning, having flown on the red eye flight. They have been over to their base in the UK for over three months seeing the children, grandchildren etc and have now returned to rejoin The Layabouts. George and Susan went to visit them during their Xmas UK break and said that they would make them a welcome back Sunday evening meal to which we were also invited. Good to see them back again.
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