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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Has anybody seen the exchange rate lately. Of course you have. Today we are getting 2.12YTL for every £1.00. Not many weeks ago we were getting 2.50 YTL, that is a drop of 18% in only a few weeks.
I know that there is a world credit squeeze, but here in TRNC just about everything is imported and paid for in dollars or in euros. as a result I have been today asked by the kitchen suplliers to increase all prices by 12%, they are prepared to absorb some loss in the hope that things turn round, but for any new customers, sorry but the new prices apply.
If we have been discussing things over the last couple of weeks then the prices current still apply. Anybody new, sorry but I have to make sure my suppliers don't lose money.
Bit of a change in the weather this week. The humidity has dropped and the temperature has gone down a couple of degrees, we are even managing to sleep without the fan on at night. It also means that the pool temperature has dropped, what a shame it was only 29 degrees this evening.
The gang went out this evening, this time to Rosy's Place, which is on the main Lapta / Karsiyaka road and it even has its own beach area. good food at very reasonable prices, but does get very busy at the weekends when the locals come out to play.
Spoke too soon about the weather, today at midday it was 96 degrees in the shade under our gazebo and the dreaded humidity is back on the high side again. Dripping wet just sitting around reading the paper. It's a hard life......
There is a fresh bid to woo foreign investors here to TRNC. The North Cyprus Investment and Development Agency is holding International Roadshows in London, then in Germany and Israel in an attempt to lure investors to the North.
The rental stamp duty law is now being enforced. This law requires tenants to pay stamp duty on their rental agreements. There is a feeling that this move is designed to ensure that the government is aware of all rental agreements and is therefore getting it share of tax due. It is being enforced when residents go to renew their residency permits and questions are then asked about place of residency. If they don't have property deeds or sale contract then there must be a rental agreement in place. As there are many properties where the rent is being paid cash, or in UK etc then this is designed to catch people out.
There is also a residency income crackdown. One 62 year old pensioner, who only has her £395.00 monthly old age pension, has been refused renewal of her residency as it is considered insufficient to live off here and there is of course no state welfare system for ex-pats.
The much vaunted Internet system which was to be launched by the government has been delayed by at least one year. Now why am I not surprised?
You have heard me often talk about The British Residents Society. Well sadly the recently appointed chairman, Eleanor Coles died of a heart attack last weekend and was buried in Girne, British Cemetery on Thursday. Like us Eleanor and her husband have been here permanently for the last six years and she will be sadly missed.
CTA have been in the news again. This time they diverted to Heathrow for perfectly valid reasons and then left passengers sitting on the tarmac for more than two hours, telling them nothing. Finally when they did get off they had to pay their own costs to get back to Stansted. This was followed by a seven hour delay on a CTA flight from Birmingham. This was caused by thunderstorms at Heathrow, which was again a justifiable reason for delay. The problem is not the delay but according to passengers, local and foreigners alike, the scandalous attitude of CTA in not keeping people informed and the totally inadequate catering facilities available, during this time, for passengers including young children. they have never learnt anything about customer relations in all the years we have lived here.
The two presidents did meet for a symbolic get together on the start of the peace process. This was only symbolic and the real work is supposed to start next Thursday when they are going to discuss governance and rule of the island, in the event of reunification. There are still huge differences and a long way to go.
Last night we went out with Pat and Bryan to the Silver Rocks restaurant. This was formerly Shirley Valentines when we first came over here, but has changed hands a couple of times since then. Really is a good place to go and a lovely setting for even just a drink in the evening. Food quality is good and prices too. You will find it on the coast road, going west out of Lapta.
Got up really early this morning, like at 6 a.m., to have another go at the lantana hedge cutting. This really is excellent hedging but high maintenance as it continues to grow profusely, even in times of drought. That of course means you are trying to cut it when the weather is at it's hottest.
By 9 o'clock we had had enough so it was lets be sensible, in the pool, in the shower and then bacon and egg butties for brunch, delicious. Still means that I have some more hedge still uncut, but it's getting there. the rest of the day was given over to R & R, with me going off to watch the Belgian Grand Prix on the big screen at The Celebrity, good excuse for a couple of draught beers.
The weather remains hot and sticky. We keep getting low cloud coming over the mountains but hoping for rain is a sort of forlorn hope, the low cloud base just keeps everything very humid and of course the electric bills high with the air conditioning running.
Of late, our white cat Smudge, has decided that during the day after breakfast that is, she just needs to be a cool cat, the time for any self respecting cat to be out is during the night.
Another birthday party. This time the Birthday boy is Bryan. He and Pat gathered numerous friends around for a bit of a bash, so we all made short work of the buffet, the sherry trifle and a fair amount of Bryan's beer and wine. Good time had by all as usual.
Joan and I were invited to the opening of the newly rebuilt Omac Cin Plaza. Omac has been a friend of both of us for a few years now and recently has been having his furnishing store completely re-designed to reflect the more modern times we are in now. It looks absolutely superb now and really shows off the furnishings to good effect.
The official opening speech and ribbon cutting was done by the Prime Minister. Just shows you what political connections by long standing Nicosia families can do for you.
A bit difficult for us as everything was of course in Turkish and we believe we were the only English on the invite list. We did manage to get the gist of things, have a couple of free fruit juices with some nibbles and then came back over our side of the mountain to grab some dinner. Very nice to have been invited.
Saturday night was the night of the St Andrews Church dinner and dance. This year held at The Oleander restaurant. A great choice of venue as we could pick from traditional European or Indian style food. Joan chose pate followed by a fish main course, whilst I really enjoyed some onion barjis and the chicken tikka, very lovely it was too.
The whole evening was a great success, quality food and a really good background singer in Dave, who apparently is there every Saturday evening. Must make a note of that as his presence will probably get me a couple more Indian meals, whilst the girls dance.
Sandy organised the event this year and a great idea it was to use this restaurant. You have my permission to organise it again next year Sandy.
Today is actually Tuesday the 16th and it is 5.30 a.m., guess who woke early and decided to get the weekly news in the website before we leave for our holiday tomorrow.
Last week we mentioned lawyers fees for simple things like conveyancing. Well now one of the leading lawyers is suggesting that you shop around for the best deal. I would have thought that a scale of fees would have been in every bodies interest, but then this is Cyprus.
Today the 16th, is the day that the European Court of Justice hands out its decision on the Orams case. A decision which of vital importance to many of us who have bought over here. As soon as I hear something I will post it, but then I suppose it will appear on many blogs across the island.
The serious talks between the north and south have started, but the UN has issued a statement that says there will be no quick fix, so the press is quite light in its news.
There was a call for all the night clubs to be closed here in the north, but today it is reported that these clubs paid 3.1 billion YTL in tax last year. Is there anybody out there who thinks that closure will take place.
A "Respect for speed" initiative has been launched island-wide and this is reported on the same page as the weekly statistics of accidents and a report of another 24 year old dying from a high speed accident in Famagusta. It is going to take a little time yet for the message to get across.
The opposition party in government has declared that TRNC is amongst the most expensive countries in the world in which to live. They claim economic chaos and the current government incapable of resolving the issue. A prelude to forthcoming elections me thinks!
Early start. Bryan collected us at 5 a.m. to go to Ercan, we are off to UK for the week followed by France.
Usual flight with Pegasus, on time leaving and on time landing at Stansted. Good job we remembered that you don't get food on these flights anymore, so this guy was making butties at 4.30.
Les collected us at Stansted and I had the pleasure of my first English pint this evening. It was an early night, as the two hour time difference makes us oldies tire early.
Another early one today. This was one of the main reasons for coming over here. Joan and Les packed the bike last night ready for the early start to go to Holland. The plan is to have a breakfast on the boat so they got geared up and ready to do the first bit as far as Dover and the ferry. We will just sit and wait for the phone call that they have arrived safely.
p.s. Sorry about the flash back on the picture, didn't realise that the flourescent jackets would bounce back that much.
We got a call about 3.30 p.m. that they had arrived safely in Holland at the home of Arie. Joan said that they only got lost once.
This evening, Jill and I endured the taunts of everybody about oldies in to wife swapping! We went to see Jenny on her 70th, at the party held in Dymchurch. She had asked for this date as the Elvis impersonator, Scott, was available for this evening, to entertain everybody. Have to admit that he has a very good voice and I suppose only choose Elvis as all the backing stuff is readily available. He worked the tables well and clearly Mary & Brenda on our table were enjoying the attention. Jenny was able to dance the evening away with many of her friends and everybody had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Yesterday evening, Joan and Les had gone round to visit our old neighbours and long standing friends in Nieuwkoop, Holland, Co and Henny, who are in fact Arie's parents. Henny and Joan have been friends since 1976 but of course don't see as much of each other as they would like these days.
They tell us that they left Arie's home at around 9.30 to go to the the Kawasaki gathering in bright sunshine. The stories are of a very successful weekend and this included a ride around areas of Holland to join up with an annual bikers meet in a place called Woerden. Les and Joan seem to be enjoying the sun together and showing off his bike to the many admirers. During the trip over from Calais they actually met up with Keith who is a specialised Kawasaki mechanic, so of course Les and Keith needed to be together on this pic.
Apparently the UK contingent gathered at the hotel some of them were using, for dinner in the evening and it seems that Les and Joan managed to get lost on the way back to Arie's place so only got back by about midnight. Didn't seem to matter as a good time had been had by all.
Whilst they were enjoying themselves in Holland, Jill and I went out onto the Romney Marshes to a pub called The Bell at Ivychurch. We had a super dinner there. The place came recommended and have to say justifiably so.
Sort of a lazy day for Jill and I. We were not expecting the others back until early evening, the sun was shining and it was lovely and warm outside, so the order of the day was English Sunday newspapers and mugs of coffee out on the terrace. Later on at around 3.30, we wandered round to the local pub and enjoyed a couple of drinks with friends there. Joan called about 5 p.m. to say they were just setting sail from Calais, so there was plenty of time to go back and finish off the dinner preparation before they got home and regaled us with all their enthusiastic stories of the weekend.
The pair of them were absolutely bubbling over with the events and clearly still on a high from the whole experience. It was great that they were so lucky with a sunny weekend, which helped to make the thing so successful.
Well it is good to be back in UK. Today just for a change it is pouring down with rain. The so called Indian summer lasted just four days, lets hope that we don't get too much of this when we get to France on Wednesday.
Today we left New Romney around 10.30, for Stanstead and then Poitiers in France. We eventually arrived at our French Gite about 9 in the evening having stopped at a supermarket en-route to get essentials.
We were welcomed by Lisa Elsey, with who we had booked this accommodation and I have to say that it is superb. If you want to stay in the Charente area of France then you could do a lot worse than conntacting Lisa on elsey.lisa@neuf.fr for a really good place to stay. Apart from the visible bits on my picture, there is a huge swimming pool in the rear garden area and plenty of play things for the kids.
The actual date today is 12th October. We have been back for 24 hours and I am trying to catch up, midst the joy of the odd power cut.
No rush, we are on holiday, so after a lazy breakfast in the sun we explored some of the local places.
First place was Jonzac. A town steeped in history and with some lovely old buildings and some little alleyways to explore. This place has all the traditional French things such as weekly farmers markets and places to sit out in the sun to eat and drink.
From Jonzac we went further westwards to Royan . This is a seaside resort and harbour area on the Atlantic coast. Clearly there were some lovely marina areas for us to sit and enjoy. We are still lucky with the weather as the car thermometer is registering around 20 degrees. Let’s just hope this keeps up for our time on the boat next week.
This morning we drove further to the north of the Charente Maritime region to take a look around the medieval towns of Partheney and Secondigny. Quite deliberate really as we went to look at an old barn, that a friend is considering renovating. Let’s wish him the best of luck!
Today we said goodbye to our hosts at the super gite in Vibrac and drove to Jarnac to collect our boat for the next five days. After getting all our gear on board and doing a little essential shopping for food and wine, we set off northwards to stay overnight in the town of Cognac, famous for you know what. From our mooring we could see across the river the distilleries of Hennessey, Martell and Ottard, all of which offer guided tours with some free samplings. Very fortunately they were closed in the evening and we plan to leave early in the morning.
The weather so far has been quite glorious so we were able to walk across the river and in to the town to find a restaurant. We had forgotten that the French eat early so by the time we went walking at 7.30 things were shutting down. We did find a Chinese/ Taiwanese restaurant open and actually had a super meal for a very reasonable price.
Back on the boat, only needed a nightcap and about 5 minutes reading to ensure a really good nights sleep.
So much for the early start idea, we didn’t wake up until 8.30 a.m., which is very unusual for us, we must be really relaxed. The sun was shining again so after getting all the condensation off the outside of the boat and having a breakfast of croissants coffee and fruit juice; lets go traditional; shared in Joan’s case with a couple of swans, we set off back towards our starting point as we wanted to go upstream towards Angouleme.
The Charente is a very beautiful river with many lovely buildings along the banks. Also there are very many locks on the upstream route, protecting the villages from flood etc, but you do have to moor up and do all the hard work yourself.
On our way back through Jarnac, we had to make way for the kid’s canoe races. Lots of shouting, cheering and clearly lots of fun for all. Then about another 3 kilometres upstream, we moored up for the night near an old bridge and watched the sun setting and reflections in the water. What an excuse for an aperitif, before cooking those juicy steaks we had bought.
Once again when we crawled under the duvet, we did not need any rocking and it is so quiet and peaceful that we slept right through until 8 o’clock again, wonderful.
Further up stream we came to the town of Chateauneuf du Charente where we went in search of a supermarket. Having followed the signs for a Super U hypermarket we found ourselves walking about 3 kilometres out of town. Having successfully completed our shopping we decided on an alternative route back to the river and then discovered another supermarket about 600 yards from the boat. You can’t help bad luck and a lack of signposts, but the walk did us good.
Further upstream we encountered more locks, but sometimes you are lucky and get to share the work with others. Years ago these locks all used to be manned, when the river was used to transport brandy, salt etc by barge, but now many of the old lock keepers cottages have been sold off in to private ownership.
This evening we moored up outside a pub. In fact it is a riverside restaurant that has been run by an English couple for the last 14 years. We remembered stopping here about 8/9 years ago when we were last on this river, however the previous owner has retired and the food quality has gone down from that which we remembered, but it was still acceptable and left us just to crawl into bed again after another day in the fresh air.
We left the boat moored outside the pub, which is now closed for a couple of days anyway and walked up the hill, to the village of St Simeux, where the views down to the river were absolutely stunning.
On returning to the boat we started to make our way back downstream, as we have to have to be back at the hire place at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning and there are 11 locks to negotiate between here and there.
Often when you are moored up to open and close the locks you can see the weirs that run alongside and need to take care with the current that these create, when mooring up.
This evening we moored up at Saint Simon, at town that used to be famous for barge building in the more prosperous river days. There is still a museum depicting those days.
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