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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
Last night we all three decided to celebrate the end of October by having an evening BBQ. Arie remains amazed by the fact that it is still such lovely weather, we keep telling him that this is quite normal.
Today we all three decided to go to Lara beach, on the other side of Kyrenia. Much to our amazement we found that everything had been packed up and stored for the winter. I suppose that Joan and I should have realised that 1st November, was in the eyes of all locals, definitely the end of summer. We decided to try to see if Vogue beach was still open, on the way back and yes they still had sunloungers for us, an empty beach for us to enjoy and even staff to ensure we enjoyed lunch in the sun. A good day, finished my John Grisham novel and had an afternoon nap in the sun after lunch. What more could a man want. I guess the local staff must have thought, crazy English, swimming at this time of the year. This goes hand in hand with a story that I was told recently. Turkish Cypriots only swim during the water melon season. This means they wont take to the water before mid June and wont swim again after mid August. That is clearly why we see them walking around in their winter sweaters by September.
This evening the slightly depleted gang, due to other commitments and a stomach bug for some, met at the Rendezvous. This is fast becoming a favourite with us these days. The English half of the partnership that own the restaurant is a cat lover; and in and around the restaurant area she has a cat called Panda. This is a real softie that she in fact rescued, as it had been abandoned in the car park. he has become a real friend to anybody who will give him some attention, in fact we think that with very little effort he could become a Layabout.
Arie and Joan have spent some time today playing around with a possible revised website for Joan and her furniture. It will mean some initial work for her but then any modifications should be very much easier than at present.
The rest of the day was just a bit of shopping after a visit to the BRS at the Pegasus bar, then relaxing for us all and a nice easy dinner at home tonight.
The three of us took a walk over to the shopping street on the south side of Nicosia this morning. It was a bit of an overcast morning but still warm so it seemed to be a nice sort of thing to do with Arie. we got back just after lunch so that gave me a chance to read the local news.
Last Wednesday a Karaman resident, Peggy McAlpine took a tandum paraglide jump off the local mountains with The Highline Airtours experienced owner. Nothing remarkable in this you might say except Peggy was 100 years and 1 day old on the day she did the jump. A possible for the Guiness Book of Records. Brilliant stuff.
The police stepped in and closed a building site this week. A court order had been issued against Ozyalcin Construction Ltd to stop any further work on an uncompleted, three storey block of apartments, as the foundations work considered to be unsatisfactory. Ozyalcin Construction had ignored the order and carried on working so the police had to be called in to enforce it. Apparently the top soil under the apartments is 10 meters deep and the foundations totally inadequate. This is just the sort of shoddy, irresponsible workmanship that has to be stopped, just imagine the consequences of an earth tremor in the area. It is refreshing to note that finally the authorities are taking this sort of action, but there is still along way to go. Maybe this is one builder to avoid.....
There was a foot and mouth scare this week concerning a possible outbreak in the south. Impregnated mats were on the borders and people have to step out of their cars on to the mat and then drive over the chemical mixture. When we walked across this morning there was a mat on re-entry. It would now seem that the test results turned out negative so there was great relief all round.
The Oramses were again in the limelight, this time speaking at the HBPG meeting. There is another opportunity to sign the petition defending property rights in Northern Cyprus, by logging on to www.hbpg-trnc.net If you have a property here then it does make sense, as like it or not, the Orams case is now going the full course of the European courts and the result could effect us all here.
The hunting season has started again. Every Sunday from sun-up to sunset we can here the guns up in the mountain. So far, on the first day, only one hunter has been shot, but it is early days yet.
The Greek Cypriots are still getting on their high horse about the so called protocol agreement signed between Turkey and UK, last week. If you read this agreement it is no different than the agreement that already exists, it just reaffirms its existance. despite this the Greeks are threatening to charge rent for the Sovereign bases and are questioning their legality and continued existance. Maybe those who are making lots of noise about his should read the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, which they the Greek Cypriots also signed. The bases are British Sovereign territory which they have no jurisdiction over.
Anybody who has sent me e-mails this week and who is still awaiting an answer will realise that we are having problems. We can receive mail in, but can't get anything out. Our server in the UK is blocking mail because it suggests that there is spam coming down the line. No spam can be found and we both have good virus protection on our machines. Frantic effort are being made to unblock us so expect mail a.s.a.p.
We finished off the day with dinner at Pat & Bryan's. A lovely corned beef hash, traditionally English, but Arie says just like a well known Dutch dish. It was very nice Pat and what followed was "A low calorie pud". Oh boy, think of the waistline please.
Early start for a Sunday, because we wanted firstly to cook Arie the full English breakfast and then go off to the auction rooms as there was an auction starting at 10am. They had advertised some bamboo style furniture and we have long felt a desire to convert our under cover terrace to an outdoor seating area and felt that this might be suitable. However we were a little disappointed at what they had as it was not quite what we wanted.
End result of course was a little window shopping around the Kyrenia area to see if there was something in a window of interest. A few possibles but of course no prices visible, so guess we might be going back around tomorrow.
On the way back we stopped off at Kervansary for coffee as Arie had never sat on the terrace of the Kervan restaurant and seen the lovely view. Then back home to relax in the sun, or in my case do some website work.
This evening we gathered with a small crowd at Haci Ali's restaurant here in Lapta. The idea came from George as he wanted to treat Arie for some website work he has been doing for them, but it didn't take long for one or two more to say, good idea lets join you.
I just knew that we would be out looking at Ratan suites for that terrace, because the boss had the idea. Well we also knew that one of her suppliers had advertised a 25% discount as an end of summer incentive and luckily we actually found something we both liked there.
After that we spent sometime with Arie down town, as he needed to top up his return home presents for the kids etc. We also stopped off for a doner kebab in the village shop in Alsancak at lunch time. Shouldn't really be telling you this, as you will all want one, they are the best doner kebabs around.
Today it went really cloudy and dull and I really thought we were going to get that first rain, but it held off and after all the packing was completed, we three went off to the Ezic Premier Restaurant, as we had been telling Arie about it being now open, so decided that it was a good last evening place before we have to get up at 4.30 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Ugh, what an early start to get off to Larnaca, but there is really no choice as when we get visitors in from Holland that is the only way for them to fly in and out, unless they are willing to spend a night in Istanbul.
One thing that it did let Joan and I do after we had deposited Arie at the airport, was to visit Pampalini and a shop called A&A Homefires. We have to solve the problem of heating in our big lounge and a gas fire seems to be the answer, but one with a good output heat. We think we may have found something good but need to discuss this with our heating specialist here, so more on this later when we have finally decided.
Don't want to think about Liverpools 1 - 1 draw again, this is no way to win the championship. Do however want to mention another super Liverpool effort. I had received this e-mail some time ago but have not been able to put a permanent link on the site, so here is the link in the blog for all you ex-scousers and everybody else who wants to support Leukaemia Research.
Hi Frank - you may (or probably may not!) remember we had a brief web-chat concerning the tragedy at the Courtyard last year and you told me you used to live just down the road from us in Heswall.
Well what we didn't chat about was a project myself and two mates have been working on for the past two years. We are members of a cabaret folk group have been playing all over the UK for over 25 years and when Liverpool was designated European Capital of Culture for 2008 we decided to record a CD of all the old traditional Liverpool songs.
Well we've done it, produced the CD and our web site www.themerseywreckers.com is now live. We lost one of our members to Myeloid Leukaemia during the recording so we have decided to make very significant donations to Leukaemia Research from the proceeds. I was wondering if you could give us a plug on your site, calling all ex-pat scousers who may be interested in buying a slice of the old City.
The guy who sent this, Steve Lowe, also has an apartment here in Girne so will bring some CDs with him next visit and hopefully we will see him at one of the weekly ex-pat market places.
An invitation had been issued to ex-pats and others to attend the Turkish Peace Forces in Cyprus exercise, which was held today up near the St Herlarion Castle. There were a few hundred ex-pats and many locals who came to watch Commando exercises against terrorists, which included the odd big bang, making many jump out of their skins. There were exercises using helicopter borne assault troops simulating the clearing of occupied buildings etc. and this was followed by a simulated hijack on one of CTAs old planes. Maybe we will see this one on the Ercan/Stanstead route next week. The exercises were very entertaining and showed just how well trained these special forces really are. This was followed by a walk down a pathway specially prepared where we were shown how these troops can survive in remote areas, anyone for soup or I suppose anything else you want to cook up in your helmet. There were troops in makeshift sleeping places and even this one in a fox hole. He had apparently been there since quite early on in the day and it didn't look very comfortable, but he managed a smile for all. There were weapons to see and vehicles to inspect and we finally ended up in the lunch queue. There must have been 400 plus people there and they had been able to cook, chicken, rice and a sticky honey flavoured pud for us all, in a field kitchen. All in all a very enlightening and entertaining morning for us all.
The evening was spent again in LDs, with most of the regulars and also Anne and Jeff who have come back home from the UK. Jeff is looking good after the first two sessions of his chemo treatment, but he has put on quite a lot of weight. he is to go back again at the end of next week and then come back home for the Xmas period. We were also joined by Steini and Siga who will be heading back to Iceland at the weekend
This evening, Joan and I picked up Steini and Siga, brought them home to organise a hotel booking in London for two nights, on their way back home; and then we all four went out to the Rendzvous for dinner. The London visit is to allow Siga to spend some time in Oxford Street. Take care of that credit card, Steini!
FOR ALL OF YOU WHO ARE WAITING FOR E-MAIL RESPONSES. PLEASE BE PATIENT AS WE ARE HAVING HUGE PROBLEMS GETTING MAIL OUT. WE CAN RECEIVE BUT THERE SEEMS TO BE A SPAM BLOCK ON OUR SERVICE PROVIDERS ADDRESS WHICH IS CAUSING ALL SORTS OF PROBLEMS. THEY ARE PROMISING TO SORT A.S.A.P.
Very sad news in the paper this week. Dolphin one of the biggest removal companies to ship from UK to TRNC, lost one of their container ships on the trip over from the mainland to Famagusta. We have had some force 9 gales around the island and the vessel sank around midnight on Wednesday with the loss of the captain and his first mate. The ship was laden with containers, tractors, cars and machinery so I guess there are some ex-pats who have lost their household goods.
The government has been at it again. According to the paper, they have plundered 109 million YTL from the pension pot of civil servants. A member of an opposition party says he has documentary evidence and intends to make it public. This comes at the same time as the resignation of a presidential under-secretary who has given as some of his reasons for resigning as, that he believes that the government is trying to bankrupt the country and that he cannot cope with the level of corruption any more... that's refreshing from somebody so high up.
The South are at it again. Now they are handing out leaflets, as you cross the border from the South, suggesting that you risk arrest if you buy Greek owned property here in TRNC. The leaflets also repeat previous threats to arrest anyone found with documentation promoting the building or sale of property in the North, claiming that four-fifths of the land in the North belongs to Greek Cypriots. So once again the warning goes out. DON'T CARRY ANY DOCUMENTS WITH YOU. Don't give them the chance to raise the publicity level again. Remember this is all related to the up and coming Presidential elections in the South coming up in February.
A new hospital opened last Sunday in Gazi Magusa (Famagusta to you probably). This is a 120 bed hospital which will be fully functionial within the month, once equipment is moved from the old town centre hospital.
Another interesting article that appeared this week concerned Easy Jet and the possibility of direct flights to Cyprus, but don't hold your breath just yet.......
Until now, easyJet has avoided flights to south Cyprus, despite the Greek Cypriot origins of the airline's founder, Sir Stelios Hajiloannou. Late last year, the Greek Cyprus Tourism Organisation had been negotiating with easyJet and another low-cost carrier to bring more no-frills airlines to south Cyprus.
Low-cost carriers have been difficult to attract, due to the distance from the UK, as they usually operate within a three-hour time frame and Cyprus is some four and a half hours flying time from Britain.
A statement from easyJet said its acquisition of GB Airways was consistent with the airline's expansion strategy and strengthened its customer offering at Gatwick, the airline's biggest base. Following the acquisition for £103.5 million, easyJet will operate 24 per cent of Gatwick's slots and will fly approximately 8 million passengers across 62 routes from Gatwick.
GB Airways is primarily a London Gatwick based point-to-point airline operating to destinations across Southern Europe and North Africa under a franchise agreement with British Airways.
EasyJet said that by Winter 2008/09, GB Airways would be fully consolidated into the easyJet business model. Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of easyJet, said: "This is an acquisition which both strengthens our customer offering at London Gatwick, our biggest base with an attractive catchment area, and allows us to fully capitalise on the potential of the airport through a larger number of slots.
The deal will bring major benefits to both easyJet and GB Airways customers, delivering a wider choice of destinations at easyjet's great prices, and creating clear value for our shareholders."
© Copyright Cyprus Times 2007
This morning at 8 a.m. the tiler turned up to re-tile our upstairs terrace. After last years rebuilding work we discovered that we were getting water coming in through the ceiling of the new kitchen. Just damp patches along the edge of the ceiling, but worrying all the same. So today they cut off the stone balustrades, which are now going to have to be replaced with wrought iron and then completely re-tiled with ceramic tiles over the existing. When they had cut off the balustrades the problem came to light, broken tiles and no silicone to waterproof the damage made installing originally, typical of the sort of workmanship here. This work is now happening just in time as the bad weather started this last week with very heavy winds and some rain. In fact we had a text message from our internet supplier, that two of their masts had blown down cutting off the service and that they would not be replaced until it was safe to go up there again.
So because we had been awake so early, Joan and I decided that this was an ideal day to do some winter preparation. We had a mass clean out of the garden shed, put the sunlounger cushions away etc and then packed the swing seat in its winter jacket. Sort of theraputic work really. Apart from that it was far too windy to be out in the garden.
Lovely occasion today. Joan and I were invited to attend the Christening of Lucia Spensley at St Andrews here in Kyrenia. We have known Tom and Jill the grandparents, their son Ian and his wife Tasha for a few years now and felt really honoured to be invited to this occasion. Tasha is originally from Moldovia and her father was also here with his other daughter to join in the happy day and be photographed with all the grandparents after the ceremony.
After the service we all went across to the Pia Bella hotel for a lunctime snack and a drink. Luckily today was another sunny day, after all the strong gales we have been having, so we were able to sit out on the terrace and enjoy the day.
Joan and I sent off to Cairo with Pat & Bryan for a five day break. We went over to the South to have lunch and then park our car at the off airport parking. We all four would like to do the Nile cruise thing at sometime, but this was a short break to get experience of Egypt. We arrived quite late in the evening after being collected at the airport, just in time to unpack and have a G & T before bed.
The tour company we booked with had organised a trip today to see all the regular things such as camels, pyramids and of course the sphinx. We were very surprised to find that the pyramids were so very close to the city. You always get the impression when you see pictures that they are way out in the desert, not true. The whole area around the pyramids is swarming with touts trying to sell all sorts of tat but it was noticeable that there were large quantities of tourist police around trying to monitor things. many of them were on camels as it is recognised that these things can move very fast indeed.
We actually went in to one of the pyramids to see the central underground burial chamber, just a large room really which must have been full of all sorts of treasure when first opened. This chamber is very deep under the foundations and to get there we had to bend almost double and climb up and down a very steep staircase, not a good idea if you are in any way claustrophobic, or for that matter unfit.
The pyramids are in fact quite massive and it is very difficult to imagine the effort required to build them with thousands of solid stone blocks all those years ago.
From the pyramids we went via a perfume factory shop to the centre of Cairo to visit the Cairo museum. We were not allowed to take cameras in to the museum, which is a little unfortunate, but when you are in there and see the hundreds of tourists you can appreciate their reasoning behind the ban. Personally I was a little disappointed in the museum. There is an immense amount of history in this huge building, but to me it seemed to be just pushed in there, with no attempt to correctly display or logically present the history. Our tour guide was extremly knowlegeable and did her very best to guide us through the throngs and through a pocket Egyptian history.
After the museum we were let loose in the bazaar for a couple of hours. This was just like any bazaar in these sort of tourist places, hustle and bustle, big discussions about prices for things you don't really want to buy anyway, but a fun place. The four of us found an ouside bar which served good local beer and left the others to haggle.
In the evening we went to restaurant recommended by our guide and had a superb meal for very little money.
Saturday and our second full day here in Cairo. We had organised with our guide from yesterday, to have another trip, but this time to Memphis, (not to see Elvis) and Sakara.
Sakara is where the first pyramids were built and it is believed that the architect of these was responsible for the pyramids we saw yesterday, built for kings of Egypt. Here we were first shown around a well laid out museum which developed the history in a very fine way. Even to developing some bits of timber by depicting a model funeral boat which was supposedly used to transport the mumified remains up river to the burial grounds which Sakara had become.
The pyramids at Sakara were different in that they were a stepped pyramid made of mud bricks. Apparantly under this one is a maze of chambers, but now considered unsafe to venture in to, because of the sheer weight of bricks above the foundations. The whole area around, were there are many tombs yet to be uncovered was quite vast, with originally a wall built around just like a modern day cemetery. As usual the place swarmed with touts and all trying to get money off unsuspecting tourists. Joan of course fell foul of a man with a softy donkey, where I had to pay for the pleasure of allowing his "ass" to be on the picture.
From Sakara we then went to Memphis, the old capital of Egypt many, many years ago. Here there is another museum, this time the Ramseis museum, which contains a statue of Ramseis, lying prostrate but still showing its immense size, despite being cut off at the knees.
From Memphis we went back in towards town, a journey of over one hour, to visit Old Cairo and the church where baby Jesus was supposed to have been brought to and hidden in the crypt.
Another interesting day out and completed by a fine fish dinner in a restaurant once again reccomended by one of our guides.
Today is our last full day in Cairo and as we had booked a Nile cruise and dinner for the evening we decided that today was for us to explore with just the aid of a tourist map.
We did start our day with a taxi ride to the centre of town, where we could take stroll along the banks of the Nile, take a leisurely coffee out in the sunshine and then please the ladies by finding the shopping area. Surprise, surprise, neither spent any money, but we did find another place that did the most delicious fresh Danish pastries and these could not be resisted. We also found our way back to the bazaar, were Joan and I managed to negotiate a good price on a hubabuba (if that's how to spell it) pipe. This was at the request of one of our Icelandic friends who had asked us to get one for him.
The evening dinner cruise was very good and very well attended by both tourists and locals alike. The buffet food was exceptional and there was more than enough for all, at least there would have been, if the locals had not tried to re-create the pyramids on their plates and then leave half of it. There was some good entertainment laid on, in particular a whirling dervish dancer who was superb and there was also one specially for the boys.
Today we were leaving for the airport at 12 noon, so just a local stroll was all we had time for.
We have all enjoyed our visit immensely but have to say that Cairo is a filthy dirty place, full of millions of old cars driven by people who are even more crazy then than the locals here. We all agreed that we want to come back on route to a Nile cruise starting in the south, where we would only have to spend one night here on the way through. Sort of "been there, done that and got the T-shirt", but not a place to rush back to.
Since we got back things have just sort of returned to normal. The weather has cooled down considerably and in fact we had the guy from the specialist gas fire company over late afternoon to see if we can have a fire fitted without having a flue. It seems that because our false fireplace is quite large, we can have what is known as a powered flue with a 6.5 KW gas fire. Not cheap but we guess that this is the route to go for us. When we had the house conversion done last year we quite deliberately had the fireplace built without extending the chimney from above, as we were fitting a gas fire that supposedly would work without a chimney, using a sort of catalytic convertor principle, unfortunately this did not push out the advised heat level so had to be removed. There is a definite need for some heat for about four months of the year here and nowadays when villas are built you can have central heating installed, which many people do, or at least have the pipework installed so that it can be fitted later. We are trying to compensate for the fact that this was unavailable when we had our villa built and we don't fancy having pipes all over the place or around the outside walls.
A quick look at what is in fact sort of old news now as we were not around last Saturday, weekly newspaper day.
Lots of articles about shopping both here in the North and cross-border. There was a demonstration planned by the Chamber of Industry about the governments lack of action to to prevent TRNC residents crossing the border to shop. This is contrasted by a survey conducted by the newspaper which priced up a shopping basket of 31 items which came to a total of 169.08YTL for the South and 267.75YTL in the South an overall differance of 58% in your shopping costs. In addition you can save 16% on a litre of unleaded petrol. Maybe there is an obvious reason for going over there!
Whilst this is going on and supermarket owners and other shopkeepers are protesting madly about tax etc., which puts up the prices here they say, the government is planning to introduce a controversial new law about shop hours. All supermarkets will have to close on Sundays and will have to shut at 7pm weekdays and 4pm Saturday. Me-thinks this will effect profits, push down staff income etc, just when there are complaints about the cost of basic food items and generally increase the cost of living here. Do we have here another huge cock up heading this way, or some unthinking government official who can't see the wood for the trees.
Something else has come to light. On 10th November I reported on the sinking of Dolphin 1, the container ship. The newspaper I read and myself made the assumption that the name Dolphin and the company Doplhin Movers were linked, this appears not to be true. I am attaching an e-mail from the company that so successfully moved our goods out here 5 years ago and offer them an apology for the assumption.
Dear Frank,
I don't know whether you remember me but I was the one who came to your
house quite a few years ago to assess your household effects in the UK to be
shipped to North Cyprus. We have in the past received many enquiries which
generated thanks to your weblink. However, we have noticed the following
item of news:
''Very sad news in the paper this week. Dolphin one of the biggest removal
companies to ship from UK to TRNC, lost one of their container ships on the
trip over from the mainland to Famagusta. We have had some force 9 gales
around the island and the vessel sank around midnight on Wednesday with the
loss of the captain and his first mate. The ship was laden with containers,
tractors, cars and machinery so I guess there are some ex-pats who have lost
their household goods.''
We would like to bring to your kind attention that 'Dolphin 1' that sank on
7th of November 2007 has absolutely nothing to do with 'Dolphin Movers Ltd'.
We do not own that vessel. The same name is a pure coincidence. None of our
clients containers were on that vessel. We have also advertised in the local
papers to this effect.
We would appreciate if you could please remove this item from your website.
Regards
Adnan Shaikh
Dolphin Movers Limited
2 Haslemere Business Centre
Lincoln Way
Enfield, Middlesex
EN1 1TE
Speaking of cock-ups, I nearly made one today. Joan and I were to go to Dave & Liz for dinner, according to my diary. Fortunately I thought to check on the time only to have Dave say "No Frank, that's next week". So there we were having to go down to the Ravine bar for their good old cod & chips.
Stewart and Barbara have planned a trip to Istanbul on Monday next for four days. Knowing that we had been there a couple of times before they wanted to pick our brains about things to see and do. We invited them round for dinner so that we could talk about this lovely city and also show them some of our old pics on the computer. A very pleasant social evening as well as an opportunity for us to remiss about our trips.
Guess their trip means we are cat sitting Felix. He seems quite happy for Joan to be feeding him these days, not a bit like he was when they first got him and he was still semi-feral.
Bryan came round this morning and cut out and replaced a brick in our outside wall. When we did the conversion work we had to remove an air conditioning unit from the old dining room. This of course left a hole were the pipes had gone through and of course an opportunity for rain to get in. Bryan, being an experienced builder prior to his retirement, offered to do this job for me and as the brickwork is bit special on these villas, I was very grateful for his ability.
Bryan had also come down with a message that Pat was doing a Mexican chicken casserole for the evening, so with our contribution of a bottle of Medoc and the other half of the very sweet chocolate tort, that Barbara had brought to us last evening, we all had another enjoyable evening.
Before going to dinner lets first see "What The Papers Say".
We have had some rain during this last week but unfortunately not enough. The average rainfall in November should be 43.6mm but we have only had 20.8mm, a long way from sufficient to do any good in our reservoirs. The serious talk now is of desalination plants here in TRNC.
At last. One section of the new Girne by-pass is due to open within a month. The section will be between the GAU and the new Ezic Premier restaurant. There are still delays on connecting the by-pass to the main road from Nicosia because of the electric and water diverts needed, but at least there might finally be some relief on the roads.
A Day Of Action, organised by the Chamber of Industry occured on Tuesday with a convoy of lorries causing traffic chaos. This was a protest demonstration over the governement's handling of the economy. The chamber maintain that the public sector continues to grow but remain ineffective, whilst private industry is confronted with high fuel prices, expensive raw materials because of up-front taxation and red tape due lack of co-ordination between government departments. There is lots of ill feeling about this government in TRNC so can we expect an election soon, who knows.
There are still cases of foot and mouth in the South and some 2,000 animals have been slaughtered during the last two weeks. The vet services say that there is no active infection but tests are continuing at all farms and restrictive measures will remain in place for the next 6 months. When we cross the border there is a drive over mat in place and we have to step out of the car and stand on the mat ourselves. wise precautions.
On Tuesday evening, during boys night out at The Ravine Bar, a decision was made to give The Passport restaurant a try this Thursday for our weekly Layabouts event. The Passport used to be a well used restaurant with a good reputation, but it has been taken over and refurbished completely. They have made a very good job of the refurbishment, it looks really great.Thankfully the food is also very good and very reasonably priced, although the booze side is a bit pricey. Bryan and I both decided, for example, that we had not had pizza for a long time so this was our choice. They come in three sizes, medium, large and extra large. Now we are both big boys with a good appetite so plumped for the large. Big mistake, they were huge and we could not finish them and all this for 16YTL. We discovered that there was another table who had ordered an extra large between three people, with a salad, obviously more experienced in this restaurant, but this makes for a very cheap deal. One for the book of good restaurants.
On the way home we passed what looked like a very nasty accident with swarms of police around, what looked like a body in the ditch, but no vehicles around, very strange.
Joan and I went over to Paralimni, near Aya Nappa, in the South to collect our new gas fire. This we needed to do, because nobody here imports an LPG gas fire with which you can use a powered flue, so it had nothing to do with price. We fully expected to maybe have to pay some duty when crossing over again, but this time they said as it was for personal use that was OK. I'm convinced it is down to which customs officer just happens to be on duty. Lucky us this time. The installation is booked for 14th December so expect pics and a report on how warm we are going to be.
This evening we did actually go to Liz and David's for dinner as I had re-scheduled things in my diary. There were six of us including their near neighbours, Carol and Arnold; and Liz did a serious job of the cooking. After dinner David produced this game called "Balderdash" which I suppose you could class someplace between Trivial Pursuit and a load of Balderdash...... great fun David, once he had adjusted the rules to his liking and aided by the fact that I had the only pair of glasses, which needed to be passed around to read the questions and answers. Side splitting stuff David and a super evening.
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