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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
 
Cold and wet week leading up to our trip to UK today and we did not buy a newspaper so am not able to report on "What the papers say"
The journey over here was uneventful but getting up at 4 a.m. and then sitting on the plane for 6.5 hours is never a joke. Anyway we made it to Stansted at just after midday and Les was there to collect us and drive us down to New Romney in time to walk around to The Cinque Port Arms for some real ale. Oh boy is that nice.
Joan and I did our unpacking, yes folks, I did help a little and then we spent time with Jill and Les catching up on events in our old home town. After a lovely dinner the two of us just crashed out about 8.30 and we don't remember anything until Monday morning.
My name is on the insurance for Les's car as he just walks to his shop in the High Street, so I was able to take the ladies out. Guess what, we went shopping.
Before the shopping trip I had an apointment at the doctors for a sort of annual MOT. Well the BP is higher then it should be so now we have to come back after our visit to France and the Dordogne area. Lifes a bitch really, that means a few extra days of real ale........
Today was a trip over to Ashford, mainly because Joan had heard that Principles was going for broke, so she thought there might be some cheap stuff going. The Priciples store in Ashford is inside of Debenhams and when we got there the whole section was cordoned off with tape, just like a police crime scene. So no joy there then but the girls did manage to find things to buy despite that set back. Not really a big surprise there then,
Because we only had a sort of half day shopping yesterday I had to take the girls out to The Outlet Centre, which is on the outskirts of Ashford. There really is no peace for the wicked and constant reminders of the cost of excess baggage don't seem to wear her down. Still tomorrow is her birthday so can't complain really.
It is quite noticable that there is less money around as this huge shopping centre car park was almost empty and the stores were not really busy at all. Must be very depressing for the people working there.
Just the two of us, borrowed Les's car and went off to Canterbury. Joan wanted to see if any of her old cronies at the university were around still, but when we got over there it was obvious that there had been so much rebuilding going on that it would have been very difficult to find our way around. Good thing really as now that probably puts to bed that part of her life.
The trip across did give us the chance to try out the Sat-Nav thing we had bought. This is in preparation for our trip to France next week, but it seemed like a good idea for Joan to use it to navigate on a journey that she knew very well. Clever things these systems, we deliberately went via different route on the way back and the thing reprogrammed itself and picked up the new route automatically. I guess it may save us getting lost a few times next week.
This evening the four of us went on to the Marsh area, to a pub called The Bell, at Ivychurch. This place has a good reputation for its food and lived up to that reputation, so Joan enjoyed her birthday evening out. Because one of us had to drive, after dinner we brought the car home and walked around to THe Prince Inn to complete the evening, as there are always people around there that we know from the old days.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. It's cold here, amazing how quickly we forget the English winters and Les is suggesting that he and I go out on his bike this afternoon, I'll think about that one.
Yesterday Joan and I realised that when we get to France on Sunday evening there wil be no shops open so we our now having to plan to sneak in dinner in our suitcases. Luckily there is a Sainsbury store in New Romney so with the aid of some prepacked salad and prepacked new potatoes, some sirloin to take in a plastic box with a cool thing in it and with wine bought in Stansted, we should eat well when we arrive. Lets just hope that lot doesn't get picked up on x-ray.
Yesterday Joan and I went round to see Anne and Peter our old friends from St Mary's on the Marsh, but they were not around and it even looked as if the house was well closed up, so maybe away on holiday, something they do frequently now that they are retired. Never mind we will try again when we get back from France.
Prior to that we nipped back to Ashford as Joan had triffled about a skirt and top in the sales and of course changed her mind again, so off we had to go to buy it.
Good news from France. Roger and Jenny, who moved from Cyprus to Dordogne have e-mailed to say the weather is fabulous. We are planning to contact them and have lunch so we can pick their brains about life there. Looking forward to that opportunity. Richard has also sent us a text to say he has organised a viewing on our place for later in the month, so fingers crossed on that. We have had a few viewings lately so things seem to be improving now that the winter is over.
Big game today, Liverpool v Man U that should be interesting!
OK, I know it is actually 26th March, but Joan and I have been in France for the last ten days and learnt something to our cost. We booked a very nice gite with listed amoongst its luxury facilities, Internet connection. Maybe I should have checked it out with the owner, but it was not available and so we had a complete black out for the time, apart that is from some very expensive mobile phone calls on our TRNC mobile. Anyway back to the present.
Well I made the trip yesterday as a pillion passenger on the back of Les’s bike. We were out about three hours going around to Maidstone and then back through Dover, Folkestone, coffee break at the harbour and then back to New Romney. Enjoyable but am not convinced that motor bikes are the best form of transport. Guess I am a four wheel comfort man.
Today we all four headed off to Stansted, stopped off at a café on the way for the full English breakfast, then Les and Jill dropped us outside the departure area for our flight to Bergerac. It’s fun watching people travelling Ryanair as they only find out at the last minute that if the carry on bags don’t fit in the testers they have to pay extra. Obviously a good money spinner and the staff don’t miss any.
We arrived at Bergerac at 4 pm collected our hire car and programmed the Sat Nav for Fongrave, the village where our gite is. We are very pleased we invested in this thing as there is no way we would have found it without, unless Joan developed some real expertise in map reading. They really are something else and quite a clever piece of kit.
The gite is nice and comfy and feel sure that we will be OK here. Oh yes and we got the steak and salad through without a hitch and having bought a couple of wines at Stansted had a super dinner.
We had breakfast out on the terrace of the gite and this looks out over the garden to the main house area. This was of course after I had driven to the next village to get fresh butter croissants, glorious. The sun is shinning and even at 9 a.m. the temperature is beginning to rise, looks like a nice day.
We spent some time this morning walking around this small village and down to the River Lot. Here you can walk along the river path and then eventually take a circular route back in to the village. This is very rural and very definitely farming country, quite lovely in fact.
Later on we drove to Villeneuve, stopping at a couple of small villages on the way. The other reason for going there was that there is a big Auchan supermarket and we could stock up on the essentials for the next few days. We found that they had large prawns on offer and came to the conclusion that peeled, cooked in garlic butter and eaten with fresh French bread would make an excellent dinner, washed down with some local white stuff of course. Yummy!
This morning saw us going off to Eymet (don’t pronounce the T). A lovely village again and one were we eventually were able to partake of the typical French 3 course lunch during the long lunch break periods that they have over here. But the real reason for coming to this area was because we had found another barn on the internet and made arrangements with the English owner, Peter, to view it. Looking at it in detail we think that it is a massive 18 month job to convert in to a home and also he has only just had an offer at the asking price from am English couple.
From there we drove over to Duras, a small town that we had visited last year and spoke with the estate agents there that we had met last time. They have some interesting stuff and we will keep in touch. Too soon to make any commitments as we have still not sold and that is an essential.
Back to the gite, sit out on the terrace for a couple of drinks, whilst it is still warm. Guess what, Joan found the friendly cats that belong to the owners. It wasn’t long before one was on her lap in the sun.
Today we drove some way north of our gite area, still in the Dordogne, but at the very northern end. We had been in contact with an agent up there who reckoned to have some property that might interest us and some good rentals. We are beginning to get a feel for renting as we are conscious of the fact that with only the two of left in the world we might as well spend our money and let somebody else worry about property maintenance. Obvious that there are snags to this idea but if we could find the right property the idea appeals.
Our lady in Riberac did show us a stunning farmhouse in a very rural setting at the end of a hamlet. The price was good but a lot of work was needed to bring it up to standard. Must admit it set us up for some serious thinking and a long evening discussion, but in the end we decided that it would take a year to get right whilst we lived in it and that was a bit stupid at our age. Shame really because it was lovely and in a stunning position.
On the way back I had hit the home button on the Sat Nav thing. About 30 minutes into the drive we realised that we were going the wrong way, closer examination showed that the home was still programmed as New Romney, Kent. We could have been driving for some time to come…….oops.
Found it. This absolutely lovely farmhouse is available from the end of this summer and we can get a 6 year rental contract. Just what we have been looking for.
The farmhouse is not part of an operating farm anymore but has been restored together with the barn next door, where the owners live. The grounds have a salt water pool and views to the village. From the pool you can see the distance to the main buildings and from the pool terrace you can see the nearest neighbours. The farmhouse is sitting on 5.5 acres of grounds and with some close friendly neighbours. The donkeys belong to the owners and the little one was only born three weeks ago. Apparently dad is due for a visit to the vet shortly.
The farmhouse is on three floors with a nice big lounge area and some really lovely third floor roof beams. There are four bedrooms, two on each upper floor and two bathrooms. We think that this is our complete solution, just waiting for the contract to appear on e-mail.
Before we left Cyprus we had received e-mails from Roger and Jenny, who have an apartment in Dogankoy and also a house here in the Dordogne area. We had agreed to contact them when we were over here and so today drove to meet up with them.
They live in a very small village some 2.5 hours drive to the east of us and much higher up the mountains. The situation is quite beautiful and very peaceful and from all we hear they are very happy here. They have actually started to make use of their land and to become as self sufficient as possible. They have created a large vegetable garden and last week bought six little hens from the market, 5 ladies and one guy. These are definitely free range hens and apart from the eventual eggs I feel sure some will end up in the pot, if Roger has the courage to wring their necks that is.
We had a very lovely day there and a wonderful lunch and promised to keep in contact and let them know what we finally agree on.
Today we went to the nearest main town, Villeneuve sur Lot. Saturday is market day so we wandered round there first and then went to do some supermarket shopping to carry us over the next few days. Everything closes here on Sundays and most things also Monday morning so we needed to make sure we had ourselves covered until we are ready to leave here on Tuesday.
One thing we do notice, everything is more expensive here than either UK or Cyprus so we will need to be more careful about our day to day shopping.
We spent a lazy afternoon sitting around the pool area discussing at length the property we had seen two days ago. We are of the opinion that it is right for us and we have definitely decided that rental is also right, so tomorrow we will call the guy and arrange to go back for a final look and have a discussion with him about terms etc.
On the market we had bought some chunky white fish, which I think was called Rubon, must check that in the French/English dictionary, some dauphinoise potatoes and salad, this was delicious.
About one hour drive away, in a village called Issegeras, there is a Sunday tourist market, so after breakfast we headed off there. Lovely old village and the market was just all around the streets. We spent a very happy hour wandering around and then bought ourselves a ready cooked chicken, which when we got home again served us well for a real French lunch. Just serve it up with salad, fresh bread and wine out in the sunshine. What more could a man want?
Another lazy afternoon in the sun with good books and a few more drinks, wonderful.
Even the resident cat,Max, we discovered, was having a lazy afternoon on our bed. Seems he sneaked in when we were not looking.
Tomorrow we travel back to UK to stay with Les and Jill again, as I have to go back to the quack on Friday.
We had arranged to go back to the farmhouse and agreed with Gerry that we could take the place from November 1st, so come on Estate Agents, sell our place. There have been two visits during our absence, so hopefully something may come from them, who knows.
We took lots more pics and also some measurements for curtains etc so that we can do some advance preparation. Now that we have made the decision we are really looking forward to this move and guess we have some six months to brush up on the French as well.
We made it back last night courtesy of Ryanair and Budget Car Hire at Stansted. Because we were getting back quite late Joan and I stopped off at The Bell in Ivychurch, just in time to get a food order in, then when we got back to New Romney we of course had to stay up late and tell all.
This evening we all four went off to The Plough Inn, here in New Romney, were they have a carvery meal every Wednesday evening. Very nice too.
Couple of wet days in UK and today I attended the surgery for my second check up. This was one of the reasons for coming over here and unfortunately the nurse wants to see me again she says. Oops, that is a problem as we are on our way back on Sunday.
It would appear that my blood pressure is way too high she says, so we need to monitor that. Solution was to go to Boots and buy a monitoring machine so that we can keep an eye on it. Guess I need to diet and reduce the salt level to see if things work that way. Can't really be coming over to UK on a regular basis just to have blood pressure monitored, so it is time to put the thinking cap on.
This identifies a problem folks. If you remain registered with a UK doctor and something like this occurs then they expect you to be able to visit the surgery on demand.
Today we said cheerio to our super friends, Jill and Les, who have put up with us twice during this trip. Guess they may be getting their own back when we get to France, we will be so much nearer. They have discovered that a long weekend return to Bergerac costs only £20.00 with Ryanair from Stansted.
We had the usual long journey back home and unfortunately, because we had needed to change our booking, I had lost the long leg seats by the emergency exit so was not very comfortable. Anyway we made it back on time and Pat and Bryan were waiting for us at Ercan. Glad to be home again and settled in our own bed.
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