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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
Joan and I decided, after hearing about the experiences others have had, to chance our arm and go South, despite the supposed clamp down by customs. One of the main reasons was that we had discovered some ceramic electric wall mounted radiators over there. We had bought one for the new bathroom and found it successful, so decided that it would be good to have two of them, operating, on timers, in our big bedroom. The blurb that came with them suggests that they cost the equivalant of a 40w bulb to run and as our winter electric bill is quite heavy, due to the fact that we use mainly air conditioners as heating, it will be interesting to see what effect that has over a period of time. Also as they are only a 10mm thick ceramic plate, that you mount on the wall and then paint to match the walls, they are quite unobtrusive.
Having gone over, we also took pot luck and got a pork joint and some bacon and low and behold they did not even look in our car on the way back.
It's Thursday, so guess what? Yep, that's right LD's for dinner. They had actually put on a special, braised beef with all the trimmings. Delicious and to hell with the diet.
Big surprise tonight. We had all six come back to our place, for coffee and the second half of Silent Witness on BBC Prime, when Joan and I received a call from the UK. Back in the late 70's and early 80's when I worked in Holland for ICL Dataskil, one of my many colleagues was a guy called Bob Lim. Joan and I often spent time with him and his wife Gitta when we were in UK and in the usual way continued to exchange Xmas cards, despite the fact that our careers had gone in different directions. Well they had found our website, spent hours reading it and decided to make contact, as they had planned to come to Cyprus in May. Looks like we will persuade them to visit the North and catch up on some back years. I'll look forward to that.
Some three months ago a new Chinese restaurant opened up in Kyrenia called Chopsticks. We had heard good reports, so decided that we should gang up and treat them to a Layabouts gathering. Now that Gill and Roger are back, that made a total of sixteen of us and this place is not very big.
The upstairs is a sort of gallery, where they manage to put four tables of four, so just enough for a a chinese night out. The food was really very good and the choice is yours, knife and fork or the more traditional chopsticks. Definitely worth another visit and we should be able to keep our haand in with the sticks before our trip to China in June.
If you want to find this place, then head towards the Post Office and Courts, turn right just before the Post Office, take first left and you will see it ahead of you, on the corner. But book in advance as it is not very big.
There was an absolutely horrendous smash on the mountain road coming over from 5 finger mountain. A lorry carrying steel reinforcing rods lost his brakes and sandwiched a stretch Mercedes taxi with seven passengers between it and a large sand truck. All seven were killed and that included the five year old son of the taxi driver. The driver of the truck whose brakes failed tried to run away from the scene and now of course questions are being asked about heavy goods vehicle safety checks and also the fact that there is no weighbridge here to check loads.
The farce that is speeding cameras here is now becoming quite ridiculous. Remember I said a couple of weeks ago that somebody was stopped from leaving the country because of an unpaid speeding fine, well now it is being suggested, that all drivers should check with the police every month to see if they have any speeding fines against their name. They suggest that this also applies to tourists who may be stopped while trying to go home. This has got to be the biggest load of nonsense I have ever heard of, but I guess that we need to check, to avoid the fines mounting up and the points on our licences.
A group of "experts" have claimed that there are no legal obstacles within international law to prevent direct flights operating from TRNC. This is obviously a prelude to the arguments going to be put forward by the legal team that is to challenge the British Governments recent decision. At the same time as this is going on, two bidders have announced their intention in buying CTA if the carrier is privatised. One of those carriers is Pegasus Airlines, so at least there might be some expertise in running an airline instead of the "jobs for the boys" syndrom that is now.
The saga that is the Extend Broadband company has now esculated. Last week they said that 700 customers were affected and now they admit that total was only the number who had managed to contact them by phone, the total without internet was now 1,500. I suppose that the supposed 40 technicians are still running around trying to fix things, but one friend, who curently uses their service, thinks that the technicians have run round in circles and finally disappeared up their own............cos he still ain't on-line.
Oh dear, did anybody watch the Man U v Liverpool game yesterday. If ever a team was robbed, by a lucky last minute goal, then we were. How sad and after we simply outplayed, outclassed and out ran the Man U lot, life can be very unfair.
I joined George, Stewart and Bryan on "Boys Night Out" this evening. Joan had gone off to a girl's gathering around a crochet hook or something. We finished up in The Celebrity and watched Liverpool triumph over Barcelona, a sort of compensation for Saturday afternoon.
This evening, our Icelandic friends, Steini and Siga came round for dinner. Originally we were planning to go to the Haci Ali restaurant, but then I decided to buy some fish, mushrooms and prawns to make a fishermans bake. I bought some frozen cod from the freezer centre and of course had completely forgotten that Steini has been in the fish wholesale business for many years. He declared my creation to be absolutely tremendous and requested the receipe, but then said, of course this is not cod...... How the hell would I know, it said cod on the label. Didn't matter, as we all enjoyed a very pleasent evening, in fact it went on until 1 a.m. and three bottles of wine over G & T's.
A trip to the south again today, this time with Pat and Bryan. We four together with John & Jewel Pearce are all going to China in June and we needed to see how much effort was needed to get our visas sorted out. It would seem that the proceedure is quite easy, providing we have the right documentation nad some passport size photos with us. By paying a little extra we can have a same day service, an essential for us, as we need to get back across the border to home.
Because we had gone over we decided to make a bit of a day of it around the Nicosia shops. That was a great help to me as it is Joan's birthday on Sunday so I didn't have to struggle with the "what to buy her" question.
We also found a Chinese restaurant in the middle of town, so in view of the original reason for going across, decided that this was the best place for lunch. Very nice it was too.
The Lokmaci barricade has been demolished by the South. This barricade has divided North and South Nicosia for the last 40 years and it is now hoped that the crossing here will be opened in the centre of Nicosia as the 6th crossing p[oint between the two sides. The turkish Cypriot side moed the footbridge in the area some time ago and have been trying to get tis crossing opened for some time. Maybe now it is going to happen. A positive step between the two sides.
An amnesty has been declared for foreigners who have overstayed their welcome. They are being allowed to leave by paying a reduced rate fine and then be free to return to start residency proceedings. This has to be done by 5th April and I just wonder if this is a sort of warning shot across the bows for those who decide that they don't want to bother with the hassle. Interesting development and no advance warning that this was to happen.
The authorities have declared the driver to blame for the seven deaths last week. The vehicle was overloaded and the driver was going too fast according to witnesses, using his brakes instead of low gears to descend the hill. Logically the brakes overheated and became ineffective.
Hey, we got a warning in the paper of a power cut today between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. It actually happened also, at 5.58 a.m. the power went off and stayed off until 4.p.m. Slightly longer than planned but at least with a warning. That's a first.
The power cut was on a really convenient day, Joan's birthday. Just when she had planned to make sure the gang was all well fed and watered of course. Fourteen managed to get round for a lunch in the sun and with the aid of the generator we were able to prepare the warm bits of the food. It was a pity that Roger and Gill were feeling a bit under the weather with heavy colds, but the rest of us managed to stay out in the sun until quite late as it really was glorious weather for March. A very enjoyable day again and we seem to have many of these in our life over here.
Took Steini and Siga, our Icelandic friends, over to Nicosia today. They have a number of apartments belonging to friends that need sorting out, so we spent some time looking at furniture etc that might be suitable.
Spent some of the day waiting for the phone call from the door and window man who is supposed to be fitting our new PVC front door and panel tomorrow and who promised to call today with a time. Why was I not surprised when I did not recieve a call. After 5 years you would think I was used to this sort of thing......
Most of the week has been somewhat normal, we have even eaten at home all week, until tonight of course as it is LD's night. We had agreed to pick up Steini & Siga to let them enjoy the home cooking that we get there. Sandra had done us proud this evening with a really tasty steak and kidney pie, this was real melt in your mouth stuff and enjoyed by us all.
I say that the week has been normal, but in fact we have had some of that much needed rain, some quite heavy stuff in fact and then early this afternoon we had this a two minute hailstorm where everything went white in no time at all. It rally was quite spectacular, the hailstones very very large and the bounce off the pool water was something lovely to see. The strange thing about these freak weather conditions we occasionally get here is that around 1 mile away they get nothing. I was talking to George this evening about it and he saaid they had heard the thunder but seen no rain or hailstones, wierd.
URGENT. URGENT. URGENT.
FINALLY THE RPOBLEM OF THE "FREE" CTA TICKET HAS BEEN RESOLVED. I QUOTE THE WORDS OF THE COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR.
"AS A ONE OFF ACT OF KINDNESS BY THE MANAGEMENT OF CTA WE WILL OFFER ONE FREE TICKET, ERCAN-LONDON-ERCAN, (EXCLUDING TAXES AND CHARGES) TO BE USED BY 31ST MARCH 2007."
THIS MEANS THAT ANYBODY HERE IN TRNC WHO WANTS TO GO BACK NOW SHOULD CONTACT EITHER ME OR THE BRS TO OFFER A SUM OF MONEY FOR THIS TICKET, WHICH WILL OF COURSE BE MUCH CHEAPER THAN PAYING THE FULL FARE.
MY MOBILE IS 0533 868 8579.
No doubt you have all read the item about the CTA ticket, well the good news is that we know now that it has been bought by Robert Lewis, who called me this afternoon. Great result and thanks to all who tried to advertise the fact quickly, the BRS, The Internet Club, who did a round robin e-mail to all members and those whom we told and who rang around friends to try to get a result.
Two big headlines in today's newspaper. The first says, "CTA is not bankrupt". Surely not as a result of us forcing them to give the free ticket after all!!!!! It would seem that there is a denial that the struggling airline is not up for sale and not bankrupt. The carrier is however reported to have made losses of 30 million Euros this year and two bidders have publicly announced their interest, should the airline be privatised. I have heard recently that the airline boasts a staff level of 1,350 personnel and a minimum wage, for the lowest level of staff, of $1,000 per month with heavy union involvement. Clearly a receipe for disaster and maybe privatisation is an answer, with strong experienced management.
The second headline is about a major tragedy for a teenage girl in one of the local pubs, The Turks Head. Apparantly the pub used to pour alcohol on the bar and light it, as part of a spectacular finale to the Friday evening Elvis night. This time it went badly wrong and Emily Greenwood's face and clothes were covered in burning alcohol. One layer of skin has been burnt off her face and two layers off her right arm. She has a long period of recovery ahead and needs some expensive treatment, whilst the pub is denying any responsibilty and has no insurance to cover such eventualities. Today is in fact now Sunday 18th and I have just been sent an e-mail that tells of a benefit concert at Woody's Bar to raise funds, on the evening of 17th. There is a website link:-
http://cyprus44.com:80/forums/show-message.asp?messageID=117
To late for the concert but there is some opportunity there to provide some financial help by sending donations to a bank account, so even if we have missed the benefit concert we can still help. Too late for Emily, but maybe a lesson for the authorities to enforce public liability insurance on bars, restaurants, discos etc.
The item above does highlight a problem for those of us here, who have to recognise that there is no medical insurance as yet, the new scheme is unlikely to be introduced before 2008 and therefore we have to have sufficient funds to pay our own medical costs. The local government has underwritten British expats hospital bills to the tune of £37,000 but has now specifically said it will pay no more. It is essential that we can have access to sufficient funds to cover our own costs and this can be helped by getting involved in one of the discount schemes that BRS have set up. Remember that once you have residence here you have no right to NHS treatment in UK and anyway it costs an arm and a leg to travel back for treatment. If you are coming to live here it is worth contacting and joining BRS to get more detail of what the schemes involve, memebrship only costs £10 per year.
Finally for today I have recieived the following e-mail for all you travel buffs from UK. I know it is maybe a plug for a UK company but at least it gives you some sensible prices.
We are pleased to advise you that Pegasus Flights have now started reservations for flights to North Cyprus.
Starting 28th March flights operate on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and timings are:
Depart Stansted 13.00 arrive Ercan 20.55
Depart Ercan 08.00 arrive Stansted 12.05
Flights stop at Istanbul (Sabiha Gokcen) en route but passenger for Ercan remain on aircraft.
The price is £265 return including taxes.
Full details can be found on our website page http:// www.transit-travel.com/kyrenia/pegasus_flights_north_cyprus.htm
If you wish to make a booking please call 01689 829911
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Another airline, SunExpress, has applied for Government approval to operate flights from Stansted to Ercan (via Izmir). When this is obtained (probably during April) they will operate flights from Stansted on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Full details, as known at the moment, can be found at:
http:// www.transit-travel.com/kyrenia/sunexpress_flights_north_cyprus.htm
So, to get to North Cyprus your choice is CTA, Pegasus, SunExpress, Turkish Airlines (change at Istanbul), or non stop flights to Larnaca (scheduled or charter) and all bookable at Transit Management Ltd.
It was time for a meeting with the rest of the china gang and this was in Alsancak, where John & Jewel did us proud with a roast lamb Sunday lunch.
We are getting to the final stages of organising the trip on 1st June for the six of us. The package in China has been booked, where we join an American group for the tours and the Yangtse river cruise, all organised over a period of 16 days. We are all really looking forward to it. The final items to be sorted are insurance and visas which we can get from the South at the China Embassy.
The plan is to take the laptop and the camera, so lets hope we can get internet connections over there.
Good news in today. Arie our friend from Holland has passed his final test and now has his motorbike licence. Take it easy Arie and enjoy.
As I write this, the guys have come to fit our new aluminium front door. They are only 5 weeks and three days late and turned up today at 4 p.m. after a little prompting. Pic tomorrow if all goes well.
I can hardly believe what I heard today. CTA will not allow Robert Lewis to buy the ticket from BRS, they say the only bum allowed on the seat is mine. This has to be another master stroke in public relations. It has been explained to them numerous times that the idea was to compensate BRS for the underwriting forced on them by CTA inadequacies. It is a long time since I have heard such stupidity but I suppose we must expect it from them by now.
There was another newspaper article prompted by an idea from the same Commercial Director, all passengers landing at Larnaca should be charged £50.00 at the border crossing and this money should be passed to CTA. Now there is a level of intellegence that takes some beating. Apart from the problem of policing such a thing, can you imagine the damage to tourism created by asking family of 4 to pay an extra £200.00 at the border.
Another beauty related by a friend of ours, David Brown. He was travelling back from Manchester last Saturday and was surprised to find 48 golfers on the flight going on an all inclusive golfing holiday for 6 days. Going to our all new Esentepe golf course, no of course not. CTA were flying them to Anatalya. On the same flight people were saying that friends had wanted to come to TRNC on holiday with them, but were unable to get seats so they went to Tenerife instead. CTA you are supposed to be our main link for much needed tourism, why then do you fly people to Turkey for their holidays and leave no seats available for people who want to come here.
If any of you think I have a bee in my bonnet about CTA right now, you may well be right.
Well the new front door at last. We have to admit it was worth waiting for even if it was just a few weeks late. Apparantly the reason was that it had to come from Turkey and all because we were a little bit choosey and didn't want one of the plastic ones made here, with the very brightly coloured glass panels. They do like their bright colours over here.
Before we go to bed and lose that hour, because it's summer time here as well, lets have a look at the weekly papers.
If you recall, the government had promised to clear the backlog of permission to purchase applications, some dating back four years. The Interior Ministry pledged to clear a backlog of 2,000 by June. Well in the last six weeks they managed just 153 permissions. Not much chance then of meeting their target. Remember of course that, by law, you are not supposed to purchase a property until this permission has been granted and if it should be rejected then you can never obtain deeds to the property, making things a bit risky.
Another five people hurt in car smash on the same stretch of road where seven people died a few weeks ago and elswhere a young man died in a smash were the car rolled three times on a road near Ercan airport. Sad, but almost a weekly occurence here.
A smuggling ring, involving CTA staff and airport staff, has been smashed, after illegally transporting £500,000 worth of tobacco goods to London over the last two months. That's an awful lot of tobacco products to a country that is trying to stop smoking in most places.
A new law is to be introduced requiring Estate Agents to be registered with the government and they will have to hand over a bond which could be forfeited in the event of misconduct. The chairman of the Estate Agents union predicts that the number of agents could fall from the current 400 to 500 down to less than 60. Apparantly one of the new laws will require every contract issued to be recorded with the land registry this to prevent any re-mortgaging without the buyers written authority. If they are going to enforce some of these new laws then they are going to have to speed up many of the red tape proceedures.
Now the Russians are getting involved. The speaker in the upper house of the Russian Parliament has said that the isolation imposed on the TRNC was not acceptable in the 21st century. He said that the Turkish Cypriot people should enjoy the same political, economic and social rights as the their Greek Cypriot neighbours. Interesting that suddenly more and more people are saying these things and putting pressure on the Greek Cypriots to resolve the situation together with the UN.
Sunday, a day of rest and comfort for us all. Tiggy just has to enter into the spirit of the day and she really enjoys her snuggle bed especially when the sun shines though the patio doors.
This evening we had Brian & Pat round for dinner as I had promised to make a chicken and mushroom pie for them. Must remember to keep my mouth shut about my cooking abilities in future. At least it enabled us to agree on the holiday insurance for China.
Back on the 4th I told about the people who have been finding out that they have speeding tickets from long ago. Well today it was my turn. I was pulled up in to a layby and then the police keyed my registration in to a laptop and it showed up a record of a speeding offence. I was then told to go immediately to the local police and there I find that I was driving at 80 kph in a 65 area on 22nd September 2006.
Cost 86 YTL and some points on my licence, but I thought it appropriate that I should pay up right away or else I might not be allowed on to the flight on Saturday morning. I think I will take the payment receipt with me in case I have to prove that I have paid, because you can bet your bottom dollar that the police will not have got round to updating their records by then.
Just to close the month off I boarded the "Free" flight to UK this morning. For some reason this flight went via Gaziantep, which is in the east of Turkey close to the border with Syria. There we were supposed to be on the ground for the usual one hour. Two and three quarter hours later we took off!
During the extra time four people were wandering up and down the plane, after new passengers had boarded, with clip boards and computer print outs asking people again and again for their names and tickets, but they were only asking those who had just got on. It would seem that somebody had forgtten their school mathematics and had not been able to count passengers. Finally they did a full check of everybody with a passport and ticket inspection before letting us take off. Of what a great big cock up. CTA strikes again....
One noticeable thing about my free ticket was the fact that when I collected it they pinned a photocopy of my passport to the ticket saying only this bum on the seat. I get a window seat in row 27 and the other two seats, between me and the aisle, were left empty. Maybe I have got something that I didn't know about but at least I had lots of room to spread out and snooze my way to Stansted.
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