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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
 
What a game and what a result for those of us who are firm Liverpool supporters. A tremendous game to watch and really I suppose you have to say that, after extra time and all that effort by both teams, it is a great shame that one side has to go out to a penalty shootout. Guess that I will have to put May 23rd in my diary and nothing will disturb that.
Firstly a history lesson for you.
In 1976 I moved my job from NCR to ICL (Dataskill), where I remained until ICL was sold out to the Fujitsu Corporation. During this time I was based first in their Reading H.O. and then later in Amsterdam, working for the European division as the Marketing Manager. One colleague at that time was a guy called Bob Lim, who was the International Marketing Manager. Since those days we have maintained contact in the usual way, Christmas cards!
Recently we received a phone call from him as he had considered coming to Cyprus and when researching had stumbled across our website. The end result of all this was a trip to Larnaca to collect him and his wife Gitta and to book them in to The Merit Hotel near here.
This evening we had an opportunity for the four of us to play catch up in The Saffron restaurant. The last time we all met was in 1986 so there was a lot of catching up to do.
Gitta & Bob wanted to meet some of the people they had read about on the site, so what better opportunity than the regular Thursday trip to LDs. This week there were so many of us that we had to split up onto two tables.
Both Roger and George have come back from UK minus their partners, so they were on their own. Jeff has his brother and wife here on holiday, Fiona is over on her own at the moment, so they together with the rest of The Layabouts made up table number 1. Table number 2 was made up of Joan and myself with the Foreign contingent. From Iceland we still have Sol, Steinni and Sigga. Sol is the mother from Thury, one of the ladies who has recently gone back to Iceland; and our good friends, Steinni and Sigga, are due to leave us on Sunday.
After dinner we gathered around one table, as with Steinni here it is always joke time. All in all, another good evening together and we think Bob & Gitta enjoyed their first experience of a Lapta Layabouts evening out.
Water curbs are now with us. We have been warned frequently over the last months but now there are threats of fines etc. One of the toughest regimes is currently in force in Lapta where residents face a warning, followed by a 500 YTL fine for breaching the regulations. What are the regulations, no car washing, no watering of the gardens, no filling the swimming pool from what is classed as domestic water supply. So with that we have tied up the ballcock on our pool balance tank and are going to have to keep a careful watch on the level and then order a tanker in.
Remember the CTA challenge to the UK government to agree to direct flights, turned down on grounds related to the fact that Ercan is not an International airport, and their reading of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviaition. Well now a legal challenge has been launched to overturn this refusal. Only time will tell if this is allowed in the British High Court and the possible eventual outcome.
The Orams are back in court on June 18th. This time to counter the Court of Appeal hearing, launched by the Greek Cypriot who calims that the land is his.
A giant shark, nearly four meters long, was caught by three fishermen a mile offshore from Kayalar. This thing weighed 800 kilo and is supposed to be the biggest caught in TRNC waters. Have not seen this on any restaurant menus yet.....
Joan and I decided that a Sunday BBQ was the order of the day. This was an opportunity to invite Bob & Gitta round to our house and the menu meant that he was going to stop moaning about not having had Lamb Sis at any time since he had been here. The four of us went to The Acmenya restaurant last night and it was on the menu there, but I said, don't you dare now that I have bought all the meat etc.
The water in the pool is now up to 24 degrees according, to our plastic duck thermometer, so the girls went in and they said it was warm. Should I believe them or not.
Because both George and Roger are doing their "Home Alone" bit at the moment, we added them together with Pat and Bryan to the table. All eight of us had a great afternoon of drink, food, and laughter and the time went by so quickly that it was dark and coffee time before we knew it. If you look carefully you will see that George and Bob are very much the same, neither can talk without using their hands.
As Monday was the last full day for Bob & Gitta we introduced them to the Haci Ali restaurant tonight. They said that they had spent the day driving out to Esentepe to take a look at the golf course and then down to the old harbour to sit and watch the world go by.
As Gitta is a big photo fanatic with her own website, it will be interesting to see what she has made of all this. So watch out for a website link in the near future. Be warned Gitta, anything detrimental to young Frank on there and you don't get published....
A very sad day yesterday, Michael one of the founder members of The Lapta Layabouts, passed away yesterday evening at 10.30 p.m.
Michael has been a firm friend of ours since we came over in 2002 and has frequently been seen on this website. He was a regular supporter and shared a few beers with me, at most of the Liverpool games. He and his wife Barbara, have lived next door but one to Joan and I since we came over here and he has been a superb neighbour.
Michael has been struggling with heart problems over the last few months but his passing was still a shock to all of us. It is hoped and expected that the funeral will be here in Lapta next Monday and I will confirm this. His son and daughter will hopefully be arriving tomorrow to give Barbara their support, but should Barbara make the decision to remain here in Cyprus then she can be assured of the continuing friendship from us alll here.
A day and time has now been agreed for Michael's funeral. It is to be Monday next at 3 p.m. in the Upper Lapta Cemetery.
I hope that the weather improves considerably before then. Yesterday, on the way to Larnaca, to collect Robert and Karen, it hosed it down. All last night the thunder and lightening did it's best to keep us awake and today it has been almost torrential since early morning. At least the new hose pipe ban is not a problem for us at the moment.
Prompted by an e-mail from somebody asking about the land around Mare Monte Beach, Joan and I remembered the story of The Mare Monte Hotel and decided to drive down and take a look again.
Before we came over here to TRNC a large holiday complex was built, with chalets on the beach and numerous other facilities such as restaurants, beach bar, tennis courts, disco all you would need for the complete holiday and all of this around a large beach area. Now the only guests are the local goats, who at least keep the vegitation trimmed. Things are beginning to look a little in need of TLC with broken windows etc and abandoned furniture. Somebody spent a considerable sum on the whole complex and also the abandoned helicopters. We have been told that one of the main reasons for walking away from this was because the military refused a licence to operate the helicopters, which were to have ferried guests to the Karpas area, as well as to and from the airport. Very sad, I shall endeavour to find out more.
We are coming up to the time when Michael will be buried here in Lapta cemetery. It has been a real learning curve this time as it is necessary to do almost everything yourself, no such thing as a funeral director who just takes over from you. Barbara is very grateful to the Mayor, Mr Fuat Namsoy, here in Lapta, who dedicated part of the cemetery to ex-pats who live in this village and agreed that Michael could be buried here, just as he wanted. The Council prepare the grave etc but we had to find a cabinet maker to make a coffin, as the Muslims do not use them. This involved searching the internet for designs and giving him sizes as there is no access to the body. Jeff and Sandy, who are the committee of St Andrew's church, were able to arrange for the Chaplin to conduct a service around the grave on Monday afternoon, so everything is now coming together. A lesson to us all really, we move overseas and things are not quite what we are used to, but I believe that tomorrow, Michael will get a really good send off from his many friends and that is what is important for him and his family.
Now a quick look at what is in the papers.
Forty new speed cameras are to be introduced on the roads to quell the death toll. It has been announced that the death toll on our roads is five times higher than in European countries. Clearly some of this is down to speed, but a better education during the driving school period would be an immense help also.
A former judge believes that TRNC can win the direct flights challenge. He has put together a detailed legal argument which he has submitted to the legal team in UK and many UK members of parliament. let us wait and see again, this is important for future tourism and the cost of flights.
There are fears of more building chaos with coastal, mountain and forest land being built on after changes were made to planning rules without proper consultation. A demand has been made for the resignation of the Interior Minister and his Under-secretary after they made changes to the planning rules by consulting people in the construction industry, who may just have a vested interest.....and ignoring environmentalists, city planning and other officials who are supposed to be involved in these matters. Dare I say that a quick look at some bank balances might just give us a clue, but then this is only a newspaper report!
The Homebuyers Pressure Group, which was founded to highlight all the problems being experienced by many buyers here who have ended up dealing with unscrupulous builders, lawyers and developers has put forward a list of complaints and now, in view of the total lack of nay sound response from Government, has decided to commence a formal protest. Starting 7.30 a.m. on Monday 21st they are to stage 10 hour demonstrations outside the parliament building. The HBPG maintain that the economy of the country is being damaged by a number of individuals in the construction industry and that no action is taken to prevent this, so now they are taking matters direct to the parliament.
A sad day for many of us. We all gathered at the new Lapta cemetery to say, Farewell Michael.
As I have said before things are a little less formal here; and there are no funeral directors or convoys of black cars available. For this reason, Robert, decided to take his mother in Michael's pride and joy and he would surely have been very proud to see his beloved MG there.
On a much lighter note and we all believe that Michael would have enjoyed this. I said earlier that the local authority had done much of the organising and they always undertake the task of collecting the body from the morgue. In this instance they firstly collected the coffin from the cabinet makers, took this to the morgue all in plenty of time, only to find that there was nobody available at the hospital to assist. The consequence of all this was that Michael kept us all waiting for about 40 minutes, he would have found this very funny, being late for his own funeral.
I have had many e-mails this week asking me to publish a picture of Madelaine McCann and to encourage everybody to send e-mails to all and sundry to make sure that the whole world knows of this family's plight. It is very importaant that this little girls picture is spread around the world as somebody must spot her soon and identify the evil people responsible.
The 1st of June is approaching rapidly and that is the date we leave for China. Today we all six went over to the Chinese Embassy in the South to get visas in our passports as you can't get in without them. We were able to pay a little extra to get a one day service as of course we need our passports to get back across the border to home. Total cost equated to 31.00 CYP per person which is around £38.00.
Because we needed to wait around we all took the opportunity to do some shopping and then found a Grill House, for lunch. What a super meal we all had and we certainly will remember this one for future reference. Please don't ask for directions, we found by chance and will have to search again for ourselves, next time we want a good lunch.
Joan and I had to go down to Kyrenia today so took advantage of the nice day to go down to the new harbour. The 18th Eastern Mediterranean Yacht Rally reached Kyrenia today. The whole harbour was full of cruise yachts as a total of 67 yachts have taken part this year. All together they make a colourful sight. and yachtsmen and women from all over the world converge on Turkey and Kyrenia every year. The first cruise flotilla in 1990 comprised of 17 boats only, so this is becoming a popular event.
Last week I wrote that the Homebuyers Pressure Group was planning to demonstrate outside the parliament building, starting tomorrow. Well this week they have been advised that they risk arrest as being non-citizens they are not entitled to protest in this manner. They are determined to proceed despite this threat. The original demonstration was planned for last December but they called it off on the promise of talks with Prime Minister Ferdi Soyer. So far no meaningful talks have taken place and they are not to be fobbed off again. Interesting, as if British protesters are arrested then an infringement of human rights will surely create TV news and headlines which will expose the corrupt state of the TRNC's construction industry to a worldwide audience and this must seriously damage the government here.
Speaking of the construction industry, the new bypass, due to open this month has now been delayed until September at the earliest. The reasons:- a total lack of any coordination between TRNC government departments. No plans have been agreed to relocate water, electricity and telephone networks out of the path of the bypass. This at a time when the whole bypass was due for completion. The polite term "party in a brewery" springs to mind.
More MEPs are backing the end to isolation of the TRNC. One from Germany and another from Belgium have spoken out in support of the Turkish Cypriot struggle for international recognition and the need to lift embargoes. They both made it clear that they belieeve that the efforts to inprove the TRNC's situation is marred by having the Greek Cypriots as a member of the EU.
Anybody see the game last night? Silly question really. All we need is for Liverpool to win on Wednesday and it will be one piece of silverware each for the season. Rest assured that I will be down by the big screen in The Celebrity Hotel, I shall miss Michael's aside comments though.
An interesting development in the fields behind our villa this morning. At about 10 a.m. a JCB turned up and our first thought was, oh hell, they have finally started to do some building behind us, that will spoil the view. I suppose that is a real NIMBY attitude, but it is bound to happen sooner or later. Anyway it turned out to be the UN Missing Persons Committee people looking for bodies from the pre 1974 period. There are supposedly hundreds of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots missing and they have been looking in numerous places all over the North, one can assume that they have some specific ideas as to where to look or they have been guided to certain spots by older residents. Lapta was apparently predominately Greek in those days but there were also many Turkish Cypriots living here also. Obviously they are not going to say if anything has been found but one spot seemed to be of special interest to them so guess we will have to wait for any further news.
They are still digging and sifting the soil in the field behind us. We can only assume that they have found nothing so far but the digging continues. We understand that they scrape off layers at a time and then sift the soil bit by bit. We will just have to wait and watch. I suppose if they do find any human remains then the field is going to be closed off for some time.
According to todays news that wonderful CTA is in for a bit of a shake-up. The chairman of the board is to step down and there is speculation about the general managers position. What has come to light is the fact that his appointment was political, the airline has lost 30 million euros in three months under his leadership and that he was previously an elementary school teacher. Now what sort of idiot appoints somebody with zero aviation experience to run the country's flagship airline. Sort of symbolic of many things here.
The demonstrations by the Homebuyers Pressure Group, who were threatened with arrest if they went ahead with their plans, have been called off when the Prime Minister promised to set up an official Property Complaints office to help foreign property buyers take action against rogue lawyers, developers, builders and estate agents. Let us hope that this time he actually comes up trumps and sticks to his promise and that the office is effectively staffed and has teeth to enable it to identify and take appropriate action. Time will tell and no doubt we will be hearing lots more on this subject.
Trouble at the Turkish port of Mersin has meant that 400 containers destined for TRNC have been held up for more than 15 days. If anybody is expecting their furniture to arrive, then you can bank on a few more days delay.
More census information has been released. Remember the census taken about 18 months ago? Well apparently they say that the results show that the number of properties has doubled since 1975. Hands up anybody who thinks they needed a census to see that. The census also revealed that almost 8,500 in the TRNC can't read or write, this equates to around 3.6% of the population. No Comment!
Last year Joan and I joined The Sunset Club and they have recently re-opened for the summer season now that the weather is warming up. This evening they had sent us a text message about a Jazz evening with Dave Mandell, who plays trombone and sings. Six of us planned to go and enjoy this and then Bryan cried off at the last minute with a bad throat and the sniffles. The remaining five really enjoyed the meze, BBQ meat and the entertainment. A thoroughly good evening, hopefully to be repeated.
Spent the morning running 100 meters of pipe from Barbara's well up the water gully in the field behind, so that we can use her well to fill our pool balance tank. This has of course been made necessary because of the ban on using domestic water to top up the pool. Some time ago it had become obvious that we were going to experience problems and I had agreed with Michael that we should do this, now Barbara has agreed that this should still go ahead. The deal being that we look after her garden watering each week, a fair exchange for solving our problem. The alternative would have been to get tanker deliveries on a regular basis.
Pat and Bryan have finally managed to get real electric connected to their villa so they decided that an "Electric" party was appropriate this afternoon. The usual Layabouts were in attendance and Pat had put on a super spread for us to enjoy. Unfortunately Joan has taken to her bed this afternoon, she woke up this morning with a sore throat and gradually felt worse as the day progressed. Essential that she gets better quickly as we leave for China this week.
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