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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
 
Here we go again with the start of another new year, how fast the time goes. It doesn't seem more than five minutes since I was wishing you all "A HAPPY NEW YEAR" last time around. Well this time it is for 2007 and here is hoping that you all have a very happy and healthy year.
We started the New Year in traditional Layabouts style. John and Sandy had decided to host a lunchtime drink and nibbles for friends and this is being followed this evening by dinner at Hachi Ali's restaurant. There is a special reason for this. It's Pat's birthday today so that has to be celebrated in true Layabouts style.
Back to normal really, after the end of the long Bayram holiday, sorting out some installations and collecting some payments from clients, but it has gone quite cold these last few days so its nice to be tucked up warm by our gas fire.
We did have some fun today, an 18 hour power cut and this on the day just after the boys from The Internet Club had been down here trying to sort out why we have had problems connecting. In the end they replaced our router and that seems to have sorted out our problems, I will say this for them, they are always here to help customers nad nothing is too great an effort.
It seems as if our 18 hour cut was nothing compared with the cuts over the Christmas period, which we managed to miss of course. We are told that they were cut off most of Christmas day and almost all of Boxing Day, must have been horrendous. We went to LD's yesterday evening and Del and Sandra and the girls told us that they went out and got a Chinese takeaway, then found that they had no way to warm it up again.
It has also been pouring with rain all day today so we decided that a DVD, bottle of plonk and our own warm room were favourite for the evening.
Spent most of the day doing some of the jobs I had brought back from UK, such as fitting new wall lights in our bedroom and sorting out the power point in the bathroom so that we can recharge the toothbrushes etc.
This evening I went down to the football with Michael to watch Liverpool go down 3.1 to Arsenal, sad but currently there is a huge hole in defence that they seem unable to plug. For much of the game, Liverpool had possession but are not able to capitalise on this, still have got to keep supporting them.
Tucked up in bed this morning with a coffee and this weeks newspaper, the first of the new year.
Big leading article about the Xmas power cuts and the fact that the cause seems to be failure in overhead power lines which are in urgent need of replacement. It appears that the new power lines should have been in place by June 2006 but due to arguments, soon to be settled in court, about the placing of new pylons, these have been delayed. One day the infrastructure might catch up, that will be nice.
There are still rumblings about opening another crossing to the South. This time right in the middle of Nicosia, linking the two shopping streets between the North and the South. But despite the promises by the Prime Minister it appears that there are still too many obstacles in the way.
There was a gunfight, not at the OK Coral, but in a Lapta Casino. This was over the Xmas period and has caused mass deportations back to Turkey and the complete closure of two of the Casinos. It does beg the question as to how some known mafia members from the mainland could have possibly been awarded casino operating licences here.
Four Turkish Cypriots have appealed to the Eurpoean Court of Human Rights for the return of 15 hectares of land with 15 vinyards, shops and a distillery, along with compensation for financial losses since 1974. If the court rules in their favour it could lead to a 7 million compensation order against the Greek Cypriot administration.
Once again there seems to be many complaints about how CTA handled the situation in UK around Xmas with the fog at airports and many cancelled flights. It appears that a total of 800 CTA passengers had their flights cancelled and many were left waiting at Stansted with absolutely no communication from CTA about their eventual fate and nobody answering the London office phone. Will they never learn anything about customer relations. Whilst on this subject, we have still not had our "FREE" ticket situation resolved, although since returning I am reliably informed that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. Having said all that about CTA it seems there is high praise for Ankara Travel here on the island, who worked long and hard to keep their passengers informed and indeed get many off to UK for Xmas. Well done Ankara, maybe next time you want a ticket, in either direction, you should consider an e-mail to ankaratravel@superonline.com
What utter bliss. When we completed our building works we invested in a new super king size bed for ourselves, but still had the duvet from the old king size job. Guess who got the cold bum every night? Yesterday we finally went over to M & S Home Store in the South, as Joan had tried without success to get a feather duvet here, they had 2 x 2.4 meter goose and duck feather job which hangs down the sides and keeps this old guys backside nice and warm. Brilliant.
Wednesday evening we had also been to Ercan and picked up George and Susan from their UK trip, so this evening almost all The Layabouts were present at The Stumble Inn. Just Pat & Bryan missing with bad colds.
It has gone extremly cold again over here in the evenings and the temperatures indoors are lower than those outside often. This is because the houses are designed to keep out the summer heat, so when we do get a bit of winter sun it doesn't really penetrate. The forecast for the coming week gives us midday temperatures of up to 17 degrees, but down to 1 degree at night.
Despite the application for direct flights and the petition being signed by many it still seems to be some way off before any agreement is reached. There is however some good news about flights in to Ercan from Pegasus Airlines and I received the following e-mail from Steve and Pauline who seem to be in contact with transit travel,
Pegasus Airlines
We have been advised that this airline are still planning to operate a service from UK/Ercan commencing 1st April. As a result of the consultation process they went through with high volume agencies/operators they are making minor changes to their originally planned programme which has delayed their launch announcement. The exact programme should be known by next Wednesday, if not sooner. Our web page:-
http:// www.transit-travel.com/kyrenia/pegasus_flights_north_cyprus.htm
will be kept up to date with the latest information
A major set back for the direct flights application. It appears that in a House of Lords debate, Lord Triesman, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the FCO, told the house that there were legal obstacles to the CTA bid, unless the Greek Cypriot government recognised Ercan as an international airport. Now we can all see that happening, can't we.
Cyprus Paradise holiday company has succumbed and is now offering flights in to Larnaca with coach travel to the North. They say this is due to a fall off of tourism as a result of the high costs of flights in to Ercan and the need to stop in Turkey, making the flight unduly long. Interesting that Pegasus seem to be offering flights at only £230 during the summer. A more streamlined airline, with a much smaller payroll, nah couldn't possibly be that, could it?
A British father of two has been deported back to England when he arrived back here after a Xmas holiday in UK. It seems he had been here for 9 months previously, having invested in a business here, but had not secured a work permit or temporary residency. He claims there were mitigating circumstances as to why he had not got either permit. Strange, as I know many people who have succeded in getting temporary permits to reside in about 3/4 weeks, two months at the most. Maybe there is an important message here. Come over, enjoy the life, but obey the rules, don't imagine you are immune.
No Comment. A man was arrested at Girne harbour and accused of trying to smuggle 335 Viagra tablets in to the TRNC.
The first of the new power generating units was transferred to the Teknecik plant this week on a 128 wheel low loader. There was a sort of chaos on the roads as this thing travelled very slowly from Famagusta docks. There are three more of these units to come and hopefully the power problems on this part of the island will be a thing of the past.
That's it for today, as Joan and I are going out to dinner with Andrew Cowley, to Haci Ali's again. The problem we have is that The Saffron has closed until March.
Forgot to mention the arrival of the new suite.It came late Friday afternoon and is really giving the finishing touch to our villa revamp. Joan, of course, sourced it from one of her suppliers and the quality is absolutely super.
What a superb day, the temperature went up to 21 degrees during the early afternoon and Joan and I spent most of the day in the garden. It gave us a chance to start clearing up some of the leaf fall etc.
Today is George's birthday so Susan prepared a super dinner for us all and we had a very enjoyable evening helping George to start a new year leading up to his 60th birthday in 2008.
Coming in this morning I spotted this brave little sunflower growing in amongst the weeds in the field opposite our front gate and just had to take a picture to show you.
An interesting article has appeared in the Cyprus Times. If you can sort out the English that is being used, I think it says to me, people, or should I say politicians, are talking about us and our islolation from the rest of the world.
SIGNALS for 'European Union's first serious step for removing the isolations on the Turkish Cypriots came from Marc Pierini, head of EU Commission's Delegation for Turkey.
In a speech in Barcelona at the seventh EU-Turkey Seminar organized by European Institute of the Mediterranean(IEMED) and Istanbul Policy Centre from Turkish Sabanci University, Pierini said he expected direct trade regulation for Turkish Cyprus to be launched on the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council on Jan. 22.
The news came after a serious setback on the efforts of lifting the isolations when British Minister Goeff Hoon announced that the turkish Cypriot application for direct flights had been rejected due to legal reasons.
Pierini also said that despite the stalling of eight chapters in Turkey's EU bid process, the important thing was that the negotiations were still on track.
Regarding the so-called Armenian genocide, Pierini said that it was an issue pending for solution but not at all to be brought up as an obstacle in Turkey's membership marathon. Commissioner also said that Turkey needed to work on its image in the process of negotiations for the membership.
In the meantime reports say that Germany has started working on the lifting of the isolations on North Cyprus as soon as it took over the leadership of European Union.
Head of the EU Commission's Task Force for Turkish Cyprus, Andrew Rasbash, came to the Island on Friday in order to supervise the implementation of Economic Aid Regulation adopted by the union. After having met with Turkish and Greek sides Rasbash will hold a press conference on Monday, Jan. 15.
EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, said that the commissioners will start to work on a Direct Trade Regulation admissible both for Turkish Cypriots and European Union.
As for the issue of hand over of Maras (Varosa), the region currently under UN control, to Greek Cyprus, Rehn said that it was under the jurisdiction of United Nations.
© Copyright Cyprus Times 2006
Its Thursday night so guess what? LD's of course. We went with George, Susan, Brian and Pat and it was strange to see George and I cutting down on the usual mounds of food, strict diets this year, must lose a few pounds and I was only allowed two beers. Still a great night was had as usual.
Joan spent most of today updating her website with new products and revised prices, it's a lot of work as the broadband speeds here are not as fast as UK so you have to sit and wait often.
This evening we were very happy to be invited to go to our friends Atay and Akila in Nicosia. They had invited us to their house, which is very close to the British High Commission, for dinner. Akila cooked a real Turkish meal for us which was absolutely fantastic. we finished with something neither of us had ever had before, Quash, cooked in the oven with just a sprinkling of sugar and a little water. They came out looking like pears baked in red wine and were very juicy and tasty. A really good evening and a nice change to be out with local friends.
Yesterday it absolutely poured down all day long so we were very glad to have planned a day and an evening in. Dinner for two and a bottle of nice red, this to celebrate Liverpool's win over Chelsea, now all we need is for Arsenal to beat Man.U tonight just to keep the points steady and ensure that we have a good chance in Europe again next season. Yipee, Arsenal did it in the last 30 seconds of the game. Good game, good game as Brucie would say.
The papers say that there is a possibilty of a direct trade decision as early as next Monday. This would be a very serious step for the EU to take and is a possible step in the direction of the promises made by the EU in April 2004. Lets just hope it happens and that the Greek Cypriots are finally unable to stop the EU from adhering to their promises and manipulating of things to suit themselves.
Dry Winter bodes bad times ahead.
There are great fears of a summer water crisis in North Cyprus unless we get lots of rain between now and the end of March. The total reservoir capacity in the North is 16.5 million cubic metres and we are currently down to 5 million only. Normally the heaviest rainfall is between January and the beginning of March but so far we have had very little. Fingers crossed.
Does anybody remember the introduction of "Tax Free Shopping" here in TRNC. Well many of us thought that it was a fairly usless idea as there is not really anything to buy here that you would want to get tax back on. Since the scheme started in July there have only been 144 transactions. Now, from all but two offices, the staff have been withdrawn.
Big article in the paper about inflation here. The cost of living has risen dramatically over the last year by 19.2%, this in comparison with a figure of 2.7% in 2005. Some of the big changes are:- Food and non-alcoholic beverages, up 19.7%. Housing, water, electricity, gas etc, up 29.4%. Transportation up 26.0%. Restaurants & Hotels, up 15.0%. Against this the minimum wage has risen from 780 YTL to 800 YTL per month.
At lunch time today, Joan and I went to Liz & David's out in Karsiyaka. They have spent a lot of time over in the UK during the last six months, sorting out family things, so we had not seen them for some time but hopefully now we will be able to get together more often. Thanks for the Sunday roast Liz, really great.
Last night, Joan and I were invited out to dinner by customers, Brian and Sue Hargreaves. They are currently staying at The Ship as there has been a delay in completing their property, not unusual over here. In their case a bit of a problem, as Brian is away a great deal, works usually in Siberia with one of the oil companies, so Joan is going to have to work closely with Sue in the near future.
We suggested The Grapevine restaurant, situated on the road down towards The Coloney Hotel. This because it has been taken over by the guy who used to run The Padisha, which was an old favourite of ours. well this also comes highly recommended now, as we had a superb meal and a very enjoyable evening.
Not much different happened earlier this week, since the last diary note, so this is the first entry of interest.
In 2006, Joan and I joined the British Residents Society and they have this annual tradition of offering lunch to new memebers every year. We went with the usual crowd to The Pia Bella hotel for a very good buffet lunch. the main reason that we decided to go was because they had announced a new deal for a form of medical insurance for ex-pats.
During the last 12 months a brand new, up to date, private hospital facility has opened in Nicosia, Cyprus Life Hospital. Apart from a 24 hour accident and emergency department they are equiped with 2 operating theatres, radiology departments, laboratories, 20 well equiped patient bedrooms and specialist doctors running an extensive outpatients unit. They have set up a finacial agreement with BRS members only that offers discounts on their usual charges according to the membership payments that you are prepared to pay. These range from 10% discounts on all charges for a Regular membership costing £50.00 per person year, to 50% discount for Gold membership which costs £600 annually. There are discounts for multiple family membership. As it will probably be 2008 before we ex-pats are included in the proposed NHI type scheme here, this sort of cover weighs up well against the almost £3,000 per person Joan and I would have to pay a BUPA type company. Food for thought.
There were also representatives from the Intisatbank present at the lunch. They have recently set up an entirely English speaking branch in Kyrenia and I think I might be going to talk to them shortly. Apart from the usual current accounts and high rate deposits they offer full on-line banking, smart cards which offer point accumaulation to be exchanged for flight tickets and insurance policies with no claim discounts.
When George & Susan came back from UK they discovered an excess of cheese of all types so decided that the only solution to this predicament was to have The Layabouts round for a cheese and wine party. Any old excuse thats us.
The forecast is that the weather is about to change for us. We have had some very warm weather for this time of the year and as I have said before a huge shortage of rain.
Some time ago I bought some transparent sealant for the two terraces that now form roofs over the new kitchen and part of the lounge and because of the forecast decided that might be my last chance to clean and seal these areas, so it was up early and get breakfast out of the way, then get some work done. I had just finished both of the terraces by early afternoon and the stuff was almost dry when it started to rain. Just in time I think.
Whilst doing this I was able to watch 5 guys trying to repair a water truck. This has been a three day struggle and right outside Barbara and Michael's villa, making it very difficult for them to get out. Sometime early on Friday morning this truck was backing up to turn round and all of a sudden it ceased to go anywhere. We think that the propshaft broke which is fairly disastrous. Since then there has been one or two guys crawling about underneath trying to repair it, with the standard Cypriot hammer, with of course at least three more guys watching and giving advice. Finally late in the afternoon today, it seemed to be fixed and headed back to the nearest water well.
The weekly newspaper clearly was short of news as the front page spread and most of page three was all about the new Ezic Chicken premier restaurant that they are building alongside the new bypass.
Down the bottom of page three, was an article of lesser importance! A proposed steep rise in property tax, currently before parliament. I thought that it was only the UK cabinet that sneaked these things in whilst your back was turned. The proposals are for a hike of around 6 times the current cost per meter of land covered by your property, with an even bigger hike on pools. This on top of the lovely UK airport tax introduced by Gordon Brown, which further increases the cost of getting to and from here.
Headline news, on page 9, "Generator running by April". it is stated that the new power station, hailed as the answer to TRNC power cuts, will be open and running by April. Don't hold your breath folks but it will be nice if it happens. I was having a little problem earlier in the week getting something electrical to work, so put a meter across the power supply, low and behold 206 volts. No wonder we sometimes get bulbs that glow brown.
The director of the City Planning office has finally admitted, "Construction boom: We can't cope". Many of us could have told them that some time ago, but if many of them actually did a days work they would be able to cope better.
Last week, on an evening when Joan and I were unable to be present, George and Susan were invited round to Pat and Bryan's for traditional cornbeef hash. Me jealous, not one bit of it, but I did have a couple of little moans about him getting my portion. Pat made amends tonight and we really enjoyed the meal, but as luck would have it, George got to come around for another helping, you can't keep a good dieting man away from wholesome food......
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