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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
First some Tiggy news. We took her back down to the vet yesterday for an antibiotic injection, which she needs every two weeks, and this was to be followed by her third session of chemo today. Apparently the injection upset her a little so the chemo is to be delayed until Monday morning, so we don't now pick her up again until Tuesday. Good news is that she is definitely putting on weight so all the food she is eating is doing her good.
The Saturday newspaper has a big article as a result of an interview with Mr Talat, the President of TRNC. The most important statement in this interview is that he definitely says that the state will not desert expat homebuyers. Mr Talat referred of course to the Orams case and says that the opposition lawyer even admits that the land issue cannot be resolved in this way. Mr Talat admits that the property issue is the biggest stumbling block to be faced in the peace talks but that they have proposed to set a series of criteria with the Property Board to make the final decision.
Mr Talat also conceded that the subject of governance would be a major issue, one which they had so far failed to reach an agreement between the two presidents. I think that this problem needs to be resolved before the territorial issues, as if the presidents cant agree on how to run this united island that they are proposing, then there is little point in discussing property.
The Greek Cypriots are angry at a property deal. The European Court of Human Rights has endorsed a deal between the TRNC's Immovable Property Commission and a Greek Cypriot with property in Karsiyaka. The Property Commission deal involved returning part of the property in Karsiyaka and paying £1.5 million in compensation. The Greek Cypriot government is angry because it implies recognition of the TRNC authorities. Should be the way to go in future maybe and many more Greek Cypriots will be encouraged to go to the Immovable Property Commission.
The State is unable to pay the wages of the Public Sector workers. The Finance Minister says that public sector workers will have to make sacrifices to get government spending back on track. Not a big surprise.
The court case decision for direct flights has gone against CTA in UK court. Not surprising really as we had always thought that until the island overall situation is resolved the British courts would not alter things.
The government recently passed a bill to allow a Inspection Council to be set up to investigate corruption here in TRNC. This was to be ratified by the President but he has passed this to the Constitutional Court for an opinion. The courts are in recess until September and then they will take their time thinking about it. Interesting delaying tactics.
Temperatures for the next week are still forecast as 37 -40 degrees with high humidity. It really is quite difficult in the middle of the day and the only thing to do is to relax. We are still sleeping with a big fan at the end of the bed to blow cool air at us and combine this with open windows and fly screens. We personally find sleeping with all windows closed and the air con on quite unbearable.
Well we picked her up this morning and as usual Tiggy went first to the food bowl. She seems great and none the worse for her ordeal and four days at the vets. Smudge seemed pleased to see her back, but then decided to ignore her for the rest of the day.
Joan and I have spent quite a bit of time in the last few days packing things that we want in France in November. I know we have not sold here yet, but if we are going to have to be swallows between the two countries, we need some basic things over there and don't want to start buying again until we have a decision on a sale here furnished or unfurnished. Great fun in this heat.
An interesting story for you today which shows to some extent the attitude and work ethic of the locals.
I needed to go to my regular computer shop to update our 3G internet connection. It was quiet in the shop so I stayed and chatted with the young guy who owns it. In the course of conversation he said that his wife was English and came from Ashford, Kent, not exactly a million miles from where we used to live. I asked how long he had lived in UK, the answer was less than 1 year. When I asked why he said, "because you have to work too hard in UK, better to earn less and live the lifestyle here in TRNC" and he quoted as an example his father, who had been a policeman for 20 years and retired on full salary pension, at the age of 45. Anybody want to calculate what all these pensions cost and then work out why there is a huge deficit here.
Joan and I had commented on something similar on Tuesday afternoon. Before going to the airport in the early evening, we had decided to go down to Rosie's Bar, for a swim in the sea and follow this with something to eat. It was only 3 o'clock and we noticed that about half the local council workforce were all down there. Summer working hours are 8.00 a.m. until 1 p.m., that is 5 hours a day over 5 working days, but still on full salary. Nice if you can get it.
This evening the depleted version of Lapta Layabouts, the rest are in UK, went to Pasta Mania on the Edremit road. My choice of Fettuccine with a Marinara sauce was absolutely delicious.
This evening we had been invited to the North Cove Opening Party. This is a new estate agency opening up and the two guys who are running it, Peter Harrell and Peter Faulkner, we have known for some time. Both of them in fact worked at Unwin's Estate Agents for a number of years so are experienced in the business. They are well aware of the risk involved right now, in opening this business, but believe that they need 1 year to establish themselves. We wish them luck.
Interesting e-mail from Anne this morning with pics attached. She has new neighbours, who in common with most of us have a pool. Well at 5 p.m. yesterday Goosie Gander made a splash landing and is still there. If he is still there around Christmas time then I can think of something.
We think he may be a Canada Goose who has got separated from those flying over to migrate, but if any Goose expert out there knows better then please let us know.
Strike Threat: "Life will come to a halt" say the unions. Ercan airport came to a halt for a time last Wednesday and medical staff will only treat emergencies. Much more is threatened. Why? Because the government has threatened their precious easy life of no work lots of pay and lots of overtime payments. The unions can see pressure coming down from Turkey to bail out this country and can see the easy life disappearing. Don't know when the stupid idiots will ever realise that they can't continue this way and survive. The next question of course is, we know the union major leader is no Arthur Scargill, but is the new prime minister a Maggie. Do we have the strength here to fight this situation and quickly. Meantime folks we can always do the unthinkable and fly out of Larnaca.
Tour operators and hoteliers are threatening to pursue the Greek Cypriot Government in the EU Court of Human Rights. Why because they have threatened Italian tour operators for bringing in Italian holiday makers via Larnaca airport. These are of course our friendly neighbours who want peace on the island between the two sides.
The tender has been offered to a Turkish mainland firm to complete the Girne bypass. No firm date, but they suggest that it will not take long. Andrew and I got the first idea that something may be happening when we tried to come back that way on Thursday. Everybody has been using a stretch of the road for some time now, maybe illegally, but now they have erected steel barriers across the entrances of the road to prevent its use.
Committee members of the BRS attended meetings with government ministers this week to discuss the issue of immigration and buying permits. They came away from the meetings far more hopeful than before, so maybe things will slowly get better. I have said before that I have a good feeling about this new government, but they of course have a huge financial problem to resolve at the same time.
Carnage on the roads is another headline. More speed related accidents every week and head on crashes. I don't think they print the same stories in the Turkish language newspapers or maybe the drivers can't read. Yesterday, Joan and I were going towards Girne in a slow moving traffic queue, because one van was towing another broken down van, so a little patience was required. As we approached a blind left hand bend, two vehicles from the very back of the line came rushing past at high speed, two cars in front of me somebody else pulled out without looking in his mirror and with his mobile phone jammed between his shoulder and his ear, we almost had our own carnage on the road. I said words to the effect of "silly fools" whilst braking very hard and pulling in to the left. They just can't see the problem at all.
I have been asked to pop this on the website. Apparently ticket space is limited so guess you need to book up quick like......
Folks,
I hope you are all having a great summer.
I wanted to make you aware of a show that will be on at the Mountain View Hotel on the 19th and 26th September which promises to be a great night of entertainment for all ages and musical tastes. The show is being put on in conjunction with the 112 charity.
The show will have a Space/Alien theme and will feature a wide range of songs from the last 4 decades.
There will be 4 performers on stage throughout the show and this guarantees to be a night of music and lights. I am pleased to say that I will be one of the 4 performers on stage so hope you can make the show.
The doors open at 7pm and showtime is approximately 9pm.
For ticket reservations please contact me on 0533 833 0841 or email me on my email address above.
Please look at the following link for a promo for the show.
http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8ty0OMC49k
I look forward to seeing you soon,
Best Regards,
Anthony McCartney.
Tiggy news, for those who ask. She has had her fourth session of chemotherapy with four more to go. She just comes home and heads straight for the food bowl as if nothing has happened. Joan and I keep waiting for hair loss, sickness and all those sort of things that happen to a human, but none of it is happening and she is putting weight back on, so news is all good at this time.
Oh yes the goose story. It hung around for three days on the lady's pool and showed no signs of wanting to leave. Two of them eventually persuaded it, with the aid of a couple of brooms, but it only waddled off to another villa were nobody lives permanently, so now we have to wait and see.
Last night the current Layabouts, who are still on the island, went to Silver Rocks, which is on the side of the sea, between Lapta and Karsiyaka. Nice food, nice company and a lovely setting with the sea laping over the rocks below.
The midweek Cyprus Today reports the strikers as saying "The government must back down" This is all shades of Maggie and Artur Scargill days. OK to try to protect your income, but not to demand much, much more off an already bankrupt country. Interesting to see if this government have enough strength or will they back down in the cabinet meeting.
You know I said we had been to the opening of North Cove Estate Agency, well some disturbing news has now come out in Cyprus Today. It appears that somebody has vandalised one of the partners cars at his home during the night. They set alight to it outside their house and very close to a gas storage tank and more importantly this was close to the children's bedroom. If the car had ignited the gas tank and this had exploded then the consequences would have been very serious indeed. After this vandals have smashed the new windows in the offices by throwing large bricks through them. Difficult to believe that anybody could be so jealous or vindictive to do this.
Lapta has had serious water supply problems for some weeks now and have been supplying us with free tanker deliveries until this situation is resolved. Hopefully the new well they are drilling will resolve things quickly. Meantime some ex-pats in Lapta have called the paper and demanded that a state of emergency be declared in Lapta and recommended that the government or Turkey take over the supply to resolve the issue. Get real, whoever you are, you will just go down as another complaining Brit. Feel sure that the next time you ask the council for some special service you are going to get real support!
Sunday morning and Tiggy jumped on me at 5.30 to demand an early breakfast, she just eats all day at the moment, but have to say that she was sick twice yesterday, but a call to the vet assured us that it was probably the very strong anti-biotic injection from Friday that caused this reaction.
Because I am now wide awake I got up and did some hedge cutting before the sun got up to its usual fierce level. Its surprising how much you can get done before 8.30 a.m. when life becomes too hot.
The Prime Minister has responded to the strikers, after last Wednesdays cabinet meeting by saying that if you don't accept what the government needs to do to recover the country's economy then I will get others in to do your work. Now even CTA are getting in on the act, including the pilots, how stupid is that when this company is already totally bankrupt. Ah well there is always Larnaca airport, shame but if needs must.
So the government did not climb down and the PM is saying that things like receiving overtime payments equal to the monthly salary, has to stop now. He quoted the situation of doctors in the health service, doubling their income with overtime. Joan had a conversation with a local this week and she said that in her opinion, government workers went in for their 4 hours per day summer working, did nothing until it was almost time to go home and then started working on overtime pay. This lady was quite adamant that this sort of attitude had to be changed. Guess that it is not only the weather that is going to get hot around here.
Lawyers are now having a go at expat buyers and saying that those with problems should not be blaming the lawyers. They are getting incensed that forums etc are clearly putting some of the blame for mortgages on land, builders fiddling the system and not adhering to contracts etc on them. I suppose that many who have problems would say "If the cap fits". It is however important to realise that there are rules here which many have ignored, such as make sure that the land is clear of any encumbrances, get your permit to buy before proceeding with contract signatures, particularly when buying off plan. Remember that often here, the lawyer is acting for you and the builder at the same time, make sure that does not happen.
A leading union man and an economist here, claims he has proof that the previous coalition government, spent 50 million TL over budget during their last month in power. Guess they knew they were on their way out and just wanted to leave a bigger problem for the new boys.
Start of the Premiership this weekend, maybe I will go and see Liverpool's first game this evening, unless it comes up on our satellite channels. So glad that I am not an Everton supporter today.
We have had a couple of viewings on the villa this week but so far no come back on them. No I lie, I actually met one of the viewers this week in the supermarket and he said, "absolutely loved it but not for us as we have 4 kids ranging from 10 to 21 years". Oh well, next time maybe.
Yesterday Tiggy was due another dose of chemo, guess what, she went AWOL. It is just as if she knows exactly which day she is due to go and then legs it around 7 a.m. She eventually came in about 11 o'clock because she was hungry and then we bundled her in the basket. All's well that ends well as she was ready around 5 p.m. and we collected her again, but boy was she hungry when she came home.
It is two weeks before she is due number six in the treatment schedule and Joan and I will be in Dubai, so Richard will have to catch her and drop her off. I wish him luck.
For "boys night out" this evening we went to Scruples here in Lapta. A lovely bar in the grounds of a large villa. Nice atmosphere and friendly people.
The main midweek headlines are:-
GENERAL STRIKE WARNING. WE CAN BRING THE COUNTRY TO STANDSTILL AT ANY TIME, THREATENS UNION BOSS.
Looks like we are at war between the new government that has to sort it out and the other lot who I class as the "we have had it easy for many years and don't want change" lot. One of the worst strikes is in the health sector. Doctors and Nurses are holding the country's sick to ransom and demanding that the government play fair. That has to be a joke. Three of the unions have however recognised the serious economic problem and are willing to negotiate.
Supermarkets here have finally gone "Green" by using bio bags. Some are even looking at the possibility of charging for bags as they do in Europe and having re-usable bags. At last, but it will not stop people just throwing their rubbish out along the roads. More education needed.
As the Orams decision looms nearer the advice here to all home owners is "Do not accept any documents in Greek". There is of course a chance that the Greek side will try to escalate the number of cases to keep everyone on their toes whilst they are trying to negotiate their version of "Peace on the Island". So we all need to be aware.
The Scruples bar were having an Hawaiian evening so we decided that it might be someplace different to go for a night out. Richard, Joan and I met Stewart and Barbara there and the evening included lots of rum punch, good food and an altogether good evening. Stewart tried the Hawaian greetings for us in his borrowed grass skirt but I can't be absolutely sure that it suited him.
On Thursday evening, when we were at Number 14 with Tracey and Mike, we saw and heard a helicopter going backwards and forwards over the mountain. In the weekend paper the headline reads "Flames Beaten Back". We could see that the helicopter was carrying a water bucket and guessed on a fire in the mountains. It appears that almost 500 donums of forest was destroyed and the helicopter was called in from Turkey to avert a repeat of the 1995 fire when 160 sq kilometers of forest and olive roves were destroyed. No cause of the fire has yet been identified.
There is a fresh threat of a general strike to bring the country to a complete standstill. The Prime Ministers Ministerial team had tried to put together some potential deals which the Prime Minister himself rejected, saying they did not have the authority to bargain with unions. He is also heavily critical over the unions approach to overtime and repeated the need for austerity measures to rescue the TRNC budget from collapse. Seems like he as the big boss is prepared to stand up and be counted, it sure is time somebody did as the stupidity of not working but getting paid for attending only has got to stop if they are to survive.
A passenger on CTA has taken the airline to the small claims court in UK. Why? Because they failed to inform him that there would no longer be a connection between his flight in to Asian side airport in Istanbul and the CTA flight to TRNC. He was only claiming for bus fares between the two airports, some inconvenience money and his court fees. He was awarded £80.00 and felt that it was only a principle thing as he wanted to show just how rubbishy CTA really are at passenger information.
There is a problem of too few students in the universities here and too many vacant places. The students, who used to come over from Turkey in large numbers, claim that the fees have escalated and the cost of living has gone up too much.
At last we seem to have our water supply back here in Lapta. There has been much criticism of the cations being taken by our mayor to supply water by tankers during the crisis. But some of the ideas, mainly by Brits, such as lets declare a state of emergency, border on the ridiculous. The local authorities can only do what the law allows them to do, but I have to say that when you see locals washing down their terraces regardless and needlessly, can have the effect of winding one up a little.
There will be many ladies very disappointed because GHD (Gez) has had to close down his hairdressing business.It seems that he was trying to operate using forged City and Guilds papers. Great shame really because he was building up a huge clientele, but I suppose there are minimum requirements here to open a salon which have to be adhered to and forged papers is not part of that deal. You will be missed Gez.
Final closer for today. We have had a Russian guy looking round our villa and he has gone away all enthusiastic to speak to his father. Keep all those fingers crossed please.
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