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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
 
March hares and all that, but no chance out here with all the hunting that goes on.
Busy day on the internet today. Together with Pat, Bryan, Anne and Jeff we have decided to go on a Nile Cruise. Spent quite a bit of the time getting the detail sorted out with Barbara at Nile Cruises 4U and our local airline ticket agency. It is looking good as apart from the cruise, because of flights out of the island not coinciding with cruise dates, we are forced to spend a few days in Luxor as well, what a big shame. Start date is 18th April so that will give me something to talk about on this site.
No lying in bed reading the weekend newspaper this morning. Anne is going back to UK, hopefully to collect and bring back Jeff in a couple of weeks, so it was up at 6 a.m., collect Anne at 7 o'clock and then after the airport run, back here for breakfast and a chance to do this update.
Big news of the week is an amnesty on stamp duty. The controversial stamp duty has been set at the flat rate of 0.5%, without the 1% penalty, until March 31st. After that date all buyers will be charged at 0.5% of the contract value, but the contract must be registered, with a certified translation in Turkish, within one month of the signing of the contract. If not paid by that date then the penalty will apply. So all of you with those old contracts that have not been registered should get it sorted out with your solicitor and or estate agents this month. You can get more detailed info from www.hbpg-trnc.net.
The British High Commissioner on the island, Mr Peter Millett, is trying to persuade the two presidents to open up the Ledra Street barricade in the centre of Nicosia and shake hands across this divide, as a signal of a real desire to resolve the islands division. Both sides have been preparing this area as a crossing point for some time but failed to reach a final agreement to open the gates. It could happen in days if the will is there.
A wave of protests is planned against the government decision over restricted shopping hours, to take effect from next week. If the rules are to be enforced then all supermarkets and other businesses, will be closed on Sundays from next week. Unless they are smaller than 50 sq mtrs or greater than 350 sq mtrs and have applied for a permit.
96 traffic accidents again this week with three deaths amongst this total. The first was 19 year old girl who lost control at a junction, then two guys who hit a pick-up truck late Thursday afternoon. At the first accident a 70 year old drove in to the police car that was being used to close the road whilst they investigated further. Beggars belief.
The sun has been shining for the last few days and even had me outside painting the wrought iron gates yesterday, but today the wind has got up a bit so guess we need to wrap up to go down to watch the rugby. No forecast of rain this coming week but we desperately need much more.
Well the rugby was really interesting in more ways than one. Instead of just the teams for this first game of the season, Sunny Lane School were also present and I understand played during the warm up period, before Joan and I got there. They also entertained us with some tag rugby during tha half time interval. It is good to see youngsters getting involved at this early age, just a great shame that English schools and the PC brigade, seem to have forgotten the value of sport in children's education.
The original game was supposed to be against Barkikoy, a team from Turkey who are in the same league, the Turkey Rugby Union League. Unfortunately they were unable to come over so the UN formed a team at short notice and gave us a good game to watch. There seemed to be a lot of scrum involvement in the first half and even then oops the ball got loose. The Pumas converted four penalty kicks in the first half and then after a half time talking to, both sides seemed to open up the game and could be seen heading for the line on numerous occasions. The final score was 21 - 14 to The Pumas, the result was celebrated by one supporter streaking, to the delight of many. Nearly missed that pic as had actually packed up the camera, so had a frantic moment getting it all fired up again.
More info on The Pumas can be found on www.cypruspumas.com where all the fixtures and results are posted.
Finally I spoke too soon about the weather. Yesterday, late afternoon a crowd of us went round to Barbara Smith's as she had prepared a large pan of beef stew and dumplings for us. When we came to go home around 8.30 it had been raining quite heavily, the wind got up during the night and we had much more heavy rain. Things change very quickly over here.
Last evening we collected Anne & Jeff from the airport. They have returned earlier than expected and Jeff needs to go back to UK again for an appointment on 8th April, he just waned to come home a.s.a.p. The good news is that his doctor has given the OK for him to come on the Egypt trip with us.
If anybody is looking for the streaker pic then I have removed it after a very nice phone call from the lady in question asking me to do so. Happy to oblige.
Once again the weather here has surprised us all, after all that rain and wind on Monday we now have temperatures in the shade of 25 degrees and wall to wall sunshine.
There is a strong rumour in the newspaper that the Dolphin ferry that sank, with peoples containers on board, was an ex Mersey ferry converted after being sold on a few times. They say it might have been The Royal Daffodil II and if this is so then I have been on it in its glory days as a Saturday night dance boat. That was in the 60s so guess it wasn't quite the boat it used to be. Most importantly of course, it was designed as a river boat and never a deep sea going vessel. Somebody should be hung drawn and quartered for that if it is true.
Still no firm news about a meeting of the two presidents, but a statement from Mr Christofias saying the North will have to cut its umbilical cord with Turkey before a solution can be reached. Sounds a bit like a warning shot across the bows to me, as he must know that this is currently financially impossible and it also probably refers to the removal of the Turkish army units, ummm. On the positive side he did say talks must start soon to rescue the island.
You know that over here we buy pirate DVD's, as there is nothing else available. Well there is a proposal to clamp down on this by introducing the law which says that films should not be available for 6 months after release. Obviously the cinemas are having a go here as they are losing out on business.
Guess we missed a big party. Customs found 8,000 bottles of alcohol in the boot of a car at the port last Saturday. That is one heck of a lot of booze in one car. hope he had strong springs.
There have been noticeably more police roadside checks over the last couple of weeks and clearly they are having an effect as the number of reported accidents is down slightly. We still await the new speed cameras although the carrying poles have been up for a few weeks now. this will be particularly relevant here on the coast road through Lapta, where lorries thunder through overtaking everything in sight. One day there is going to be a big bang and somebody is going to get hurt. Today I saw a man driving an older Mercedes, with his wife alongside him. three kids standing behind the seats and one toddler sitting on the drivers lap. What are they thinking about, or is there just an air gap between the ears.
Want a funny and who would have cats? For a few days now I have been sitting in the dining room working on the computer and hearing noises in and around the window. I kept getting up to look but found nothing, so assumed, as some birds had tried to nest at the back of the air conditioner unit, that this was the noise I could hear.
Earlier this afternoon I walked in to the lounge to see a little mouse run under the settee so opened the patio doors and the front door, assuming that it would run out to the fresh air. There is never a cat around when you want one.
Prior to going up to Pat & Bryan's, to have dinner with the Egypt trip gang, I was sitting answering a couple of e-mails when plop, the mouse fell out of the top of the curtains on to the floor, scuttled off in to the hall and behind a tall wall cupboard. Now you have Joan and I, all dressed up to go out, crawling around on the floor with the front door open trying to get the damned thing out. Our Tiggy just sat on the mat watching these antics and then wandered off to bury her nose in the biscuits. If you want to catch a mouse dad, be my guest....... Eventually we cornered it and succeeded in putting it back in the field opposite.
The thing must have been around the house for most of the week, probably brought in by one of our two cats, who then lost it and left it for us to find but in the meantime living the life of luxury with cat biscuits and water always available. Five star comfort for a mouse.
Oops, the boss has a birthday today and no I did not forget, but I did suddenly realise that her car tax was due at the beginning of the month and not at the end. still solved the birthday present problem......that could get me in trouble. Went shooting down to the tax office in Kyrenia at 8 o'clock and when I got there found a huge queue. 99% of the people were queuing to pay there stamp duty and get their land registered. Behind the counter dealing with this was one lone lady, whilst behind the counter for road tax there were two cashiers, with me as the only customer, standard thinking here me thinks.
Went down town with Joan to collect our flight tickets for Egypt and then had a leisurely day together before going out for dinner. The sun shone brightly all day, and lots of friends have been round with birthday cards, so she was a very happy lady.
Thursdays gathering of the Layabouts was this week back at the Tervetuloa on the road down to The Merit Hotel. This really is a good restaurant, slightly more expensive than our regular haunts but then you get everything in the price, meze, main meal, fruit, coffee and brandy and super quality. Joan and I both had the the pan fried cod and it was the best I have had on the island.
So far this week the weather has again taken a turn for the worst and in actual fact it poured own all night, not a problem really as we need it but, we are planning a birthday BBQ for Joan on Saturday so I have visions of me working the gas BBQ in the garage.
Would you believe it, Joan and I woke up to no wind and clear blue sky, just what we ordered for todays celebrations.
One of the first to arrive was Anne and her new car. She and Jeff had been over to our friends at Tasas Autos earlier in the week and selected this Mazda Demio in a lovely shade of pale lavender, metallic at that. Jeff is taking a fair amount of leg pulling about it, but once he gets his suit and handbag to match it will be OK. We have said he can pick us up on boys night out, but only when it is dark.
As the original plan for Joan's birthday celebration was for 20 people we had decided, tongue in cheek that a BBQ was the only solution as it would have been a fair old squash inside. An early lunchtime start was the only thing for it, so around 1 o'clock the early birds gather. Joan and I had bought two whole pork ribs, separated them in to individual ribs and marinated them in beer, soya sauce and crushed garlic, overnight. These went on the charcoal barbecue with the sausages and burgers being done on the easy gas one. Joan had done all the other preparation work in advance which was added to by Pat's rice salad and Barbara's cheese cake, so now it was down to yours truly to don the chefs hat. George and Andrew helped out by looking after the bar service so some of the guests could just sit around and enjoy the cooking smells, the beer, the wine and glorious sunshine. Altogether a very enjoyable afternoon and with everybody leaving by around 7.30 pm it left Joan and I time to clean up and enjoy a relaxing nightcap.
An early rise this morning as Pat and Bryan are picking us up to go to the Palm Sunday service at St Andrews. A lovely service and made even more enjoyable by the visit of Isabella in church. One of the local characters from the area has a restaurant nearby called Aphrodite. In the fields around the restaurant he has horses and donkeys and this little cutie was born two months ago. The donkey is of course a symbol of peace and features frequently in the bible, especially at this time of the year. The visit was a special delight for the children who attend Sunday school and I have to say that Isabella was very placid and well behaved.
What a frustrating day today. To help a customer of Joan's out, we had organised a nice new LCD television only to find that the supplier in Nicosia had sold the last one with next delivery due in 4 weeks. The customer arrives tomorrow, so I went to the local Girne Beko shop as they had a similar priced article. The only one in stock was on display so they had repacked it for me and I traveled all the way out to Buffavento village, which is up the mountain above Catalkoy. Oh dear no foot to stand the TV on, so a phone call to Beko got an apology and a no sorry our engineers are out the other side of town. So I went all the way back in and collected the stand and then all the way back out to Buffavento only to find that they had given me the wrong one.........Now I'm starting to get cross, but have no option but to go back again and get the right one. Total round trips amounted to some 75 miles so you can just guess what I said to the staff at the Beko shop about service and it took them all their time to say sorry. If you want some service can I suggest that you try someplace else.
To cheer things up we have Boys Night Out, this evening we gathered at out favourite watering hole, The Ravine Bar. This week Steini from Iceland was able to join us and we had somebody else to take the mickey out of for a change. I think he was pleasantly surprised that we always get treated to huge plates of chips as part of our evening and they do make excellent chips at The Ravine.
Another gathering of The Layabouts this evening, we had decided to try to go and destroy the village restaurant in Karsiyaka. We had warned them in advance so the owner got his daughter in to help as usual. It was quite busy in there so it just goes to show what a great place it is and proof positive, despite what Mr David Fisher thinks, that The Layabouts haven't destroyed his restaurant.
Joan and I took an early morning trip over to the South as after last weekends party we had depleted the freezer and the beer fridge somewhat. It really does seem a great shame to see so many people from the North shopping over there, but the prices and variety are always going to make it worth while until something happens here about duties and the taxes that inflate prices.
Speaking of something going to happen. The two Presidents, Talat from the North and the new Christofias from the South met yesterday and agreed to resume peace talk to reunite the island. The meeting was as we understand was conducted in a very positive and cordial atmosphere with the two men being committed to fully fledged negotiations with the hand of the UN secretary on the tiller. The first positive action was to agree the opening of the Lokmaci barricade right there in the middle of Nicosia, this to take place within the next two weeks and hopefully followed by other crossing points. They have agreed to meet formally again in 3 months, or in between times if needed, but in the meantime there are going to be working groups set up that will discuss the various issues that they will need to agree on. Clearly there is going to have to be a lot of give and take on both sides but hopefully this is the start of a breakthrough after all these years, lets hope that this initial positive start is maintained during negotiations.
Want to become a resident of TRNC. Well they have just made it even more difficult to obtain permanent residency here. From now you will need to have had six temporary residency permits in your passport and if when you apply for permanent, you have been out of the country for more than 90 days in any one of those years then you will not be eligible and will need to start again. Aren't we glad that we already have ours granted, but then if all the positive presidential things come to fruition, then we will be joining you all in the EU and it won't matter anyway. Question, who wants to join the EU ????????
Electricity. Have you got that meter yet, now that the meter ship has once again docked on the island? Well if not, you can have a meter installed for 180YTL providing that you have a Turkish Cypriot citizen as guarantor. Interesting that, as the press tell us that most Turkish Cypriots don't pay their bills anyway, so why would they guarantee to pay yours. There couldn't possibly be the possibility of a fee involved could there. There is an alternative. You can have your own meter if you pay 540YTL upfront. Do I get the feeling of discrimination here again. Up the ex-pats, or should that be right up the ex-pats.
Remember the controversial new shop opening hours regulations, which said that if you opened on Wednesday afternoon you can't open Sunday and more of the same. Well surprise, surprise, the government has once again backed down and we are almost back to the original position. Why oh why, does this government never learn, that it might just pay to consult before introducing random regulations on the whim of some civil servant.
Marion Stokes, the hardworking chief of the Homebuyers Pressure Group, has produced a guide for buyers to help you through the stamp duty and other taxation red tape. If you are a current buyer then can I suggest that a look at www.hbpg-trnc.net might be beneficial.
Three more people have died in a horror smash in Nicosia. This time it is three students in their early twenties, with a fourth being seriously injured. The time was 3.30am on Monday morning and the other car involved had a couple of twenty one year olds in it. I keep saying that better driver training and more stringent tests are needed here together with a serious campaign to highlight the danger of speed. I keep referring back to the dangers on the roads here as a sort of warning to anyone contemplating hiring here when on holiday. Always drive defensively as they are some of the worlds worst drivers.
A question posed in this weeks paper. When will the Girne bypass finally open? Answer, nobody knows. The work should have been completed by November 2007, but nobody is willing to make any commitments at this time about official opening dates. Despite the fact that it is not officially open people still use the bits that are passable, but I get the feeling that the insurance companies etc might not be too happy if somebody was involved in an accident on an unofficial road.
As this is the Easter period in particular, Joan and I went to church again this Sunday. As a prelude to the service for us all, as usual, the children from the Sunday School were present. They had been learning to blow eggs during the last few weeks, no doubt with a little help in many cases. The end result of these efforts is the egg tree at the entrance to the church and very colourful it is too.
After church we took Bryan and Pat home, had a drink with them and then came home to attack the garden again. Hedge trimming seems to be my task at the moment because unfortunately I seem to have left the lantana hedge too long and it has started to look very straggly.
I received an interesting e-mail yesterday telling me about an article in the Daily Mail which is promoting the newly planned developments of marinas, golf courses, holiday complexes etc., with advice on buying procedures and possible pitfalls. All of this was describing the goings on in the south of the island and was headed up with a glorious picture of Kyrenia harbour. How to get it wrong in one easy lesson.
This evening boys night out again but George was unfortunately absent. He has his daughter and grandson over here at the moment and young Bradley has developed a dose of chicken pox, covered all over in spots and calamine lotion, so George felt that it was better to stay away for awhile in case he has become a carrier.
Well we have lived here in this villa for more than five years now and today came home to find that the local council had installed street lights. We have, amongst other things, water shortages, electricity problems throughout the island and then we get three street lights fixed to the posts down our road. To crown it all they put yellow soft glow bulbs in two of them and a white one in the third. Only in TRNC....just when they are discussing turning off street lights in UK because of global warming issues.
This evening the Layabouts chosen restaurant was The Ravine bar. It is of course the regular watering hole for Boys Night Out and we get so well looked after we thought it only right that we should return the compliment and take the ladies there.
All good plans today have come to an end. I was going to finish off that hedge and do other gardening things, but shortly after midday we had heavy rain and I mean heavy, huge great spots accompanied by thunder.
It also looks as if this current spell is going to snooker Jeff's chances of his advance birthday party, for tomorrow afternoon. Provisionally he is going to try again for Tuesday afternoon, but the forecast in today's paper is not good for then either, we will have to wait and see.
The advantage for all you who wait for news is that I have been able to sit under the covered terrace area and read the paper for this week.
Biggest news item this week is about the Estate Agents law and the fact that 28 have been banned from trading. There is no list published of those that have been banned, so we are non the wiser and if you look on the TRNC prime Ministry Property Information website www.trncproperty.eu you will find that the list on there was last published on 29th January. About as much use a damp squid on bonfire night. There is still much concern that the new Estate Agents law does not cover many of the loopholes as for example it does not prevent unscrupulous overseas agents selling via websites and nothing to cover construction companies who have set up their own unlicensed sales agencies. Still very much a case of buyer beware, but the tighter registration laws which are being enforced are a good move in the right direction.
There is also a crackdown on unlicensed contractors and a number of projects have been closed down by local authorities as they were being carried out by companies not registered with the government or the Contractors Union. All these actions are desperately needed to stop rogue trading and to inject confidence back in to the market here.
North Cyprus Properties, one of the bigger builders has closed down because of cash flow problems. They are to complete developments on the existing sites but are selling off several hundred donums of land to fund this. Because sales have slowed right down, many others must also have cash flow problems so that makes now very much a buyers market.
The municipalities both North and South are busy shoring up old properties around the new crossing point in the middle of Nicosia and there is talk that it could be open by the end of next week. Many of the local business people are concerned that it is even more of an opportunity to spend money in the South, with them losing out again.
We are in for a very difficult summer. The worst drought for 60 years is the headline news. The government is proposing to introduce new measures to combat the problem. I will give even money on a higher tax on swimming pools. Bash the Brit opportunity again. Maybe they will stop the locals hosing down the streets as well. Extreme caution is needed now to prevent a huge disaster for food production etc.
There is another Pumas match next Saturday at the Alsancak stadium. This time the opponents from the Turkish Rugby League are Istanbul, Kadikoy team. Kick off is 2.30 p.m. so come along and cheer them on.
There are dust cloud health fears this week as strong winds have blown great clouds of dust in from Africa and this is aggravated by the above normal temperatures which we are experiencing. There is a pic in the newspaper trying to show the dust cloud, but I only need to look at my car to be convinced that they are absolutely right.
If anybody is wondering why I have not mentioned last Sunday's 3 -0 result against Man-U, it's because I haven't stopped crying yet. Looking forward to the Arsenal/Liverpool clashes that are to take place in April.
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