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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Couple of e-mail complaints about no news on the website. Sorry folks but the old connection problem reared its head again. Finally got so upset with absolutely no response from our service provider that I went down town and bought a 3G connection from Turkcell. Turkcell are one of the mobile phone providers here and this is a relatively new service from them here in TRNC. When we fitted the Sim card in, plugged in to one of the laptops, we were led easily through the set up procedure. Hey presto an internet connection with some reasonable speed. Have to say also that I bought this from one of the in town shops, Comaks Ltd, and their service was really good. I was not sure if our router would work in the house with this 3G thingy, so they sent their technician out to us late afternoon and he set it all up. You buy the 3G equipment for 114YTL and then pay 70YTL per month for 24 hour service connection.
Only four of us for the night out tonight, but enjoyable all the same as Stewart was back from UK so we were able to catch up on all his gen.
Thursday evening and the gang headed off to the newly opened Waterfront restaurant. This is in the Celebrity hotel here in Lapta and the place has been taken over by people who used to run The Farmhouse restaurant. They have quite an extensive menu and we had heard good reports. Pat and Joan decided that the pork spare ribs sounded really good and when they came they both went "can we get a little help here," they were absolutely huge. In fact all the food was very good and if they maintain this standard they should do very well.
Joan and I got home at precisely 10.30 to find that Yvonne and Charles, our soon to be new neighbours, had arrived already. They are here for one week to discuss some work they want doing on the villa before they come over permanently on January 15th. We offered to put them up for the week so that they could get the garden, villa and pool things rolling in advance.
It is Santa time again and all the annual Christmas Fairs are in full swing. This one we went to was in aid of Kyrenia Animal Rescue. The usual stalls of clothes, books etc and of course mulled wine and mince pies, were all available. Great fun for the kids with Santa giving out presents, wish I still believed!
Joan and I went down the high street after the fair to try to get a Pashmina for Richard to take home to his sister in UK. Trouble is she wants only the colour, aubergine, and that may appear to be a problem. We also went to see our jeweler friend down near the harbour so that Joan could get my Xmas present. I had very stupidly lost my wedding ring when we were on the boat in France. It fell overboard when I was washing the boat down one morning with very cold water, just slipped off my finger and disappeared in to the mud. Oops, how to get into trouble without really trying. Oh well I suppose our friend benefited by the business and I can feel less naked again.
Big news this week is a 20% cut in petrol prices. This means our petrol is now down to 76p per litre, but now the Members of the Petrol Station Owners Union are threatening to strike because they say the government did not consult with them and therefore missed an opportunity to increase the members profits. No comment.
Bad news about Amaranta valley. The buyers committee have finally accepted that the government is not going to pump any money in so the whole scheme is now out on it's own.
The State Planning organisation has released figures which say that inflation this year, to end November, is 16.9%. Many of the things which have caused this are the same as you experience in Europe, fuel costs which inflate electric prices etc and is one of the reasons whilst people go over the border to shop, as the supermarkets there are cheaper than those here. This of course does not help with inflation costs here but short of closing the borders again they are not really going to stop it happening.
News of Peggy McAlpine and her ride on the Harley. Apparently she managed a 35 km ride in a very sedate 40 minutes, escorted by other bikes as outriders. She raised a total of 5,000YTL for the SOS Children's Homes which is sure to be put to good use. Well done Peggy, at 101 years old that is quite an achievement.
News in from the Pumas Rugby club. I have received this e-mail:-
Hi Frank & Joan
The Pumas have just returned from a very cold Istanbul where we played our first fixture of the year against Kartaltepe.
Father Christmas is coming to see the Pumas
Youth Academy Christmas Party
13th December 2008
11.30 - 14.00
Black Olive café - Alsancak
Tickets 15ytl per child
includes Food & Drink
And a Present from Father Christmas
Tickets required on entry
Contact details: Jon 0533 837 6978 / Seb 0533 845 0569 / Vicky 0533 835 5133 or from Black Olive cafe
Everyone is welcome - Fun for the whole family
Pumas on the Radio & Television
Pumas will be on BRT radio and TV this Friday December 5. On the radio at 5pm tune in to 87.8FM or 105FM or listen online http:// www.brtk.cc/index.php/lang/en on Bayrak International.
On BRT2 TV at 5.30pm or tune in online
http:// www.brtk.cc/index.php/lang/en on BRT2 On Monday they will feature on Life with Brian on Ada radio, tune in on 93.8FM or 96.2FM or online at http:// www.adatv.tv/eng/default.asp
This was then followed by:-
Hi Frank & Joan
Pumas have just had confirmation that Bakirkoy are traveling to Cyprus to play a league match against us.
Venue: Alsancak Stadium on Saturday 13th December 2008. Kick off time will be confirmed over the next week but we are looking at approximately 3pm.
Unfortunately this news has come too late to be in 'Cyprus Today' this week so can everyone please pass on the details to friends & family so the pumas get as much support as we can.
So guess it's time to get on down and give them some support.
Yesterday lunch we took Charles and Yvonne to Oleander Restaurant for a taste of their traditional Sunday lunch or the alternative of Indian cuisine. We met up with Stewart and Barbara there also so it turned out to be a late finish. Enjoyed by all and I for sure enjoyed nodding off in front of the telly in the evening.
Today is the first day of the long Bayram holiday here, four days, so everywhere was very quite. We all four just had a relaxing day and ate at home.
Joan and I took Charles and Yvonne over to the South today. It gave them a chance to find their way around over there and us a chance to do some hypermarket shopping.
In the evening Charles and I joined the boys for a night out at Kate O'Rileys bar for a couple of beers. Guess Charles will become a firm member of the Tuesday night gang when he gets over here permanently.
A trip down to Girne market was called for this morning as somebody had e-mailed to say the lady there aubergine pashminas. Unfortunately we were not lucky today but she promised to try for next Wednesday, so lets hope that it is better luck next time. If not then Richard is going to be dissapointing his sister when he gets over to UK.
Charles and Yvonne are leaving us at 5.30 a.m. tomorrow so after a day of getting last things done for them, we all went down to Niazi's, near the Dome Hotel. It is quite some time since Joan and I have been there for a meal but it was, as usual, quite excellent and a nice change for us. I suppose we don't really go in to Girne town too often to eat as one of us has to always drive back. Risky these days with more of the boys in blue around.
Up early to say cheerio to our visitors and then back to bed again at 5.30 a.m. Eventually rose again at around 8 o'clock and after breakfast started to tackle the section of lantana hedge that has been neglected. Tough job, thank heavens for a strong hedge cutter. What else would you do in a Bayram holiday......
This evening the Lapta Layabouts went to the Acmenya Restaurant in Alsancak. It's a good job we went as there were no other customers. Reasonable meal at a reasonable price.
Mike Rodd is over at the moment at his villa in Catalkoy so he joined us also for the evening, we just made him an honary temporary member of the Layabouts.
Joan and I went down to the BRS mince pie and mulled wine gathering this morning, held in the church hall at St Andrews, then a little shopping on the way home and an early evening meal, because we were all of to the Chateau Lambousa this evening.
Chorous Lambousa, a group of expats who have gathered together to form a choral group and to entertain. This evenings show was a mixture of show songs and Xmas music. The scene is set in a public bar back in the fifties and a lot of effort has gone in to recreate fashion from this era, some of us even remember it all......
The pub is run by the local landlord who reckons to be Master of the House when Dolly his wife is not around. All of the show songs were well known and we as an audiance were encouraged to sing along occasionaly. There were some great performances by all these amateurs who obviously enjoyed their evening as much as the audiance did. Eventually we were told that Santa Claus is coming to town and when Santa did actually come on stage, he was waylaid by a lady with very expensive tastes singing "Santa Baby". A very funny perormance by the Angel of the Xmas tree to the tune "Nobody Loves a Fairy" had us all in stitches. A super show and obviously lots of effort had gone in to making it so.
Christmas Carol Service at St Andrews today. We went with Pat and Bryan and Anne Lloyd, getting there about 5.30 and only just in time to get seated. An idea that everybody should hold a lighted candle throughout the service caused a little concern amongst some of the congregation. There you have Bryan with candle waiting for somebody to produce a light. All went off OK and nobody got singed.
Afterward we all five went looking for something to eat. We had been told that the new Sabor was very good, but when we got there we discovered that they closed Sundays during the winter months. Next stop The Passport. Here Bryan and I wanted Carlsberg but were told they had run out, so we opted for the local Efes beer and then asked for three G&Ts for the ladies, being quite specific about them using local gin and not charging for imported. Then the waitress came back and said no Efes and no local gin, only expensive imported stuff, so we gave her back her menus and walked out. There is too much of this, lets milk the ex-pats, stuff going on here.
Final stop, at Anne's suggestion, was Pasta Mania, on the road up to Edremit. Excellent meal, local G&Ts and Carlsberg on tap. They shall get our custom again.
A request in today from some friends of ours. Please sign the petition on this link http:// www.ipetitions.com/petition/petitioncyprus/index.html It will only help to bring things to the attention of the current President.
So go on, sign up and help everybody with a property here, whether its dodgy or not.
Many of you who know me will also know that I have never been a fan of HSBC as bank over here. I have always understood them to be a sort of franchise operation, which they flatly deny of course, and they charge far too much for their services. Well today I have had proof that I was right. A friend came over from UK with a large value bank draft from his HSBC branch in UK. When he presented it here they told him it would cost £150.00 to clear and take four weeks. Now correct me if I am wrong, but a bank draft to me was a guarantee of money to the receiver and means that that money has been earmarked to cover the draft. Worse than that, the man had to go and try to explain to management here what a bank draft was.
If he had opened an account with the bank we used, written himself a cheque on his UK account, he could have had it in his account the same four weeks later and been charged nothing. Think I have just discovered what HSBC really stands for "He Shall Be Charged".
This evening, Joan and I went with Anne and Barbara to a relatively new restaurant in Alsancak, called Charcos. Very old village house which has be refurbished, small restaurant area with tables for four/five only so we could not go there with the gang so easily, but it was very good and definitely will be on our list of places to eat.
Lots in the newspaper this week about the property issue. This is not really surprising as the two presidents have announced that there next talking point is the property issue.
The paper claims that the EU have dealt a serious blow to the Orams case by getting a renowned legal figure in Europe to suggest that the Orams could lose their home here or have to pay compensation to the original Greek owner. Obviously if this decision is followed by the European Court of Human Rights, this would have a very serous effect on all of us who own property here.
At the same time a British Peer has claimed that people have only themselves to blame for not getting title deeds etc here in Cyprus and a colleague of his suggests that we Brits have left our brains in the left luggage at Stansted.
Now all of this comes at time when the Greek Cypriots are stirring the pot ready for talks. Nobody has ever mentioned all the land in the south owned by Turkish Cypriots and what compensation deals are to be made to them. This is clearly because, according to Greek Cypriots, history started in 1974, absolutely nothing happened prior to that. In the seven years we have been living here we have witnessed all this time and again and it always seems to coincide with some important discussion events. The whole cannot be solved on a piece by piece basis, it has to be politically resolved and that means that both sides require the will and the ability to compromise. This probably means that we will still be a divided island for the next 10 years or more as they have proven time and again that they cannot live together.
One of the worst things that ever happened here was allowing the South to join with EU without an island agreement being signed first.
Still lots of post is getting lost on it's way over here. There are suggestions, unproven of course, that there are Greek Cypriots working in the London sorting offices and blocking the mail. It would appear that official mail from banks etc is getting through but personal mail from families etc is getting lost frequently. Now a British Parliament pressure group is to investigate, it will be interesting to see if the mail improves.
The economic situation is worsening here also. The paper reports that there are an average of 20 homes and businesses per day being repossessed as a result of spiralling debt. Various bodies are asking for government handouts to ease the situation. Don't think that a begging bowl is the solution, maybe an understanding that you can't spend what you have not got would be an advantage.
Just when I was thinking of buying a Sat Nav system, ready for if ever we get to France the Greeks have got upset about the ones imported to the South. Why, because they use the Turkish names for towns and villages here in the North. Maybe the idea of a Sat Nav system is just a hint to Joan for my Christmas present, don't think it worked though. Probably just new slippers again.
In my last entry I mentioned that there was much fuss in the newspaper about property issues. This related to the Orams case, a member of the House of Lords making comments without clearly being aware of the whole issue, more about the Aga saga and many other issues. This clearly has come at just the right time for the Greek Cypriots as the two presidents are about to commence talks about the whole property issue. God forbid that I should ever think that their propaganda machine has been working again. Propaganda like this plays right in to their hands and helps them towards their goal of economically throttling the TRNC.
The point I was actually trying to make was that the issue of the Orams case was important to us all, but that the timing was convenient and the whole thing is really a political issue not a land piece by land piece issue. Secondly asking why is there never any mention of all the land and property owned by Turkish Cypriots in the South, but then as this country remains unrecognised by anybody outside of Turkey, who is going to recognise court decisions made here, in the same way.
Linda Orams kindly pointed out that as many read this site some of you would like to know the full detail so sent me the attached mail.
Dear Frank
I have just read your diary note concerning the EU and our case and would like to correct the details:
The "renowned legal figure" is in fact the Advocate General and it is her Opinion on our case that has just been announced. When our case was heard before the European Court of Justice (not the Court of Human Rights, that is a completely different court) on 18 September, there were 13 judges, the Advocate General and a Registrar. It is the job of the Advocate General to publish her opinion as a guideline to the other 13 judges who will then make their own decision. About 80% of the time the judges follow the opinion of the Advocate General. This is why her opinion is important.
However there is still a long way to go and we remain cautiously optimistic.
If anyone wishes to read a summary of the Advocate General's opinion for themselves please go to
http:// www.curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp08/aff/cp080098en.pdf
There has been so much misinformation passed around concerning our case that is is important that where possible it is accurate. As many people seem to read your news diary I would be grateful if you could add this information to your next entry.
Thank you and Happy Christmas
Regards
Linda Orams
Thank you for that Linda, but lets hope that common sense prevails and the issue is seen as political.
Christmas day and the sun is shining again. That might surprise you as you would expect it to happen all the time here in sunny Cyprus, but in fact we have just had three days of torrential rain. The rain is much needed, but unfortunately here it means flooded roads and building sites that are just one mess of muddy access roads, which of course means that all that mud gets dragged out on to all the other roads. They are busy putting storm drains in many places across the TRNC, but as yet they are not connected to anything, so we still get floods.
But today is nice and Joan and I are invited to join Andrew and Nicola Paterson and their family for Christmas lunch at the new Golf Club out Esentepe way. The restaurant there was fairly busy and we all had an excellent lunch and with Joan volunteering to drive home, I was able to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine and the brandy to follow.
After lunch Joan and I collected a bottle of champagne from our fridge, presents for Laura and Mathew, which had been left, by the little fat man in the red suit, under our tree and then joined them all for their second session of present time. Apparently they had first stated around 5 o'clock this morning, which must have been Santa's first visit. Great fun and this included a game of children's charades. Nicola gave us her version of I,m a little goldfish or was it a penguin, whatever it sure was better than Joan's attempt at winning an acting award. Would you believe that this was supposed to be a fire engine !!!
All round a super day and for Joan and I a great change to be around children on Christmas day and see the excitement that makes this so much a family thing.
Boxing day. Why do they call it that? Could it be because they say Christmas is a very trying period and many families find it traumatic and get a little punchy.
Joan and I had a nice quiet day together and the weather was so nice in the middle of the day that we went for a walk on the beach.
Barbara Smith has her son Robert over here with his partner Pippa and we had pre-booked at The Charnos restaurant in Alsancak. So with Anne Lloyd joining us we had a table for six. Fixed menu at a fixed price and very nice it was too, added to which every couple there received one of their paintings which are for sale in the restaurant normally. Joan and I got a picture of Van Goch style sunflowers painted on a piece of antique Cypriot door timber.
The weekend to recover from all the Xmas festivities. In fact yesterday was such a glorious day, that I was our early in just a T-shirt and jeans, hedge cutting. There is no accounting for the very changing weather here at the moment, three days of torrential rain and then a day when the temperature goes up to 27 degrees.
Today at midday we went down to Dave and Liz for an open house thingy that they had organised. Altogether there were about 14 of us there and as normal Liz excelled with her food. We got home around 5.30 and settled down to recover from all the eating and start to plan for our own New Years Eve bash.
New Years Eve and just as in earlier years, Joan and I hosted the party. Once again it has gone very cold in the afternoons and in the evenings so we stoked up the heating during the day and then got the gas fire going. So by the time our guests arrived it was all warm and snug.
We had bought a leg of pork from the local Pork Butcher who opened recently in Alsancak, this we cooked during the later part of the afternoon so that it could be served up with some chicken legs, sausages, roast spuds and various meze dishes. Seemed to go down very well, especially when followed by Joan's "lots of sherry" trifle, a chocolate log which Barbara and Stewart donated to the evening and the usual cheese, fruit salad etc.
We played some games earlier in the evening and this was the first occasion that Andrew, Nicola and their children Laura and Mathew had joined the gang. Isn't it amazing how one can get well and truly shown up by a 6 year old when it comes to some of the skill games. Later after dinner we introduced them to our traditional turtle racing. That's Andrew on the left playing against Pat and young Laura. The kids were determined to keep going until midnight but in fact they crashed out. Mathew quite early on and then Laura came back with second wind and made it into next year.
We all trooped outside at midnight, because there is normally one or two fireworks displays around. Guess the economic crisis and the freezing weather made everybody go easy this year. In fact we did not stray out more than a couple of minutes, far too cold.
Anyway that's it, another year gone by and who knows maybe next year Joan and I may be celebrating in France. Anyway, whatever will be, there is no desperate rush. In the meantime have a very Happy, Prosperous and Healthy 2009 out there all of you who read this blurb, see you in the new year.
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