Frank and Joan's news for July 2010 in Northern Cyprus

First day of our last month here in TRNC, except of course for future holidays. It has been a great time and there is much which we shall miss. We have had many e-mails thanking us for this blog over the years, so many in fact that we have decided the only sensible thing to do is to say THANK YOU, via the website, to all who have wished us well and to say that we are so pleased that so many find the scribbling useful.

We will continue to write a blog when we get to France and will keep the Cyprus link open for those who want to read back over the years, but guess that the site will now resort to it's original concept, keep our friends informed around Europe, without having to sit and write lots of letters, something which we are both bad at.

The Lapta Layabouts still gather on Thursdays, so this week we decided to try a new Lapta restaurant, The Palms. This is situated down on the coast next to Haci Ali hotel. The ambiance down there was terrific, right next to the water on a big terrace area, unfortunately they still need to get their act together, there is much too much competition out there so it has got to be really right to succeed. They had no menus or price lists so we had to take the waiters word for what was available. The food was good but at the end of the meal we all had to have a sweet course as we were still hungry, Joan and Pat had to go to the bar and ask them to actually put some gin in the G&Ts, so all in all we felt that the price of 42TL each was a bit over the top. We did tell the people involved and hope that they get it right in the future as the food quality was superb.

A very sad day. We took Tiggy to the vet this morning as we felt that all was not well. She confirmed what we suspected, the tumour had started to grow again and this time quite quickly. We decided that as she was not yet in any pain it was better to end it now, so I had the job of digging her grave when we got home. She had been cat with a super character and we would have loved to have taken her with us to France, but it was not to be.

This evening, Joan and I went to introduce Norman and Margaret to the Green Palace restaurant, as they had never been there before. We all enjoyed a super meal, with two bottles of wine, coffee and brandy to finish and all for 32TL each, which shows the level that needs to be achieved for a restaurant to be as busy as they always are.

At midday today, Joan and I, took Pat & Bryan to Larnaca airport. They are off for their annual round of visiting friends and relatives over there, so we will not see them again until they either come over to visit us or we come back to the island on holiday. Another sad day really as they have been good friends since coming over here, but luckily there is the inter net and Skype phones to maintain contact.

We deliberately went over early so that we could lunch at the beach area near the airport. This place was so incredibly crowded with cars and people and the restaurants were clearly making a killing today. We all had a superb, leisurely lunch at one of the speciality seafood restaurants there and got them safely to the airport for their check in.

Yesterday before taking Pat & Bryan to Larnaca airport for their trip to UK, I had a quick look at the Saturday newspaper.

Looks like trouble is brewing because this government has to make some very serious cuts in expenditure. The unions are naturally up in arms about this and are demanding their rights to jobs and income. They have been feather-bedded for so many years and guaranteed jobs and income because of the funding from Turkey. Now that Turkey is saying that it is not prepared to continue funding wages which are higher than the minimum in Turkey itself and no more 13th salaries and that an end must come to summer working hours, the government here is having to take strict measures, which logically have upset the work force in general.

The paper suggests a "summer of discontent" as taxes rise this week. There are extra costs on petrol, electricity, alcohol, imported cars and many other things. There are threatened increases on income tax and for the first time, pensioners will have to pay tax on income. Whilst this is going on, business leaders have welcomed the austerity measures introduced as being the right step forward. The Chamber of Commerce says hat it is time for the Turkish Cypriot people to face the truth. They say that CTA was the first example of what the existing system caused.

Guess that all this is going to make for some angry responses over the summer and we will have to wait and see if it brings the government down as they need support to make any changes stick.

"Now they are having the planes taken away" says the newspaper. Seems as if the government is not able, or not prepared to continue to pay the lease costs on the airplanes standing around, so they will probably be gong back to the manufacturers. Doesn't bode well for any future for CTA. Atlasjet are supposed to have signed up the deal but due to a lack of aircraft they are unable to maintain the CTA schedule. It seems a strange deal with Atlas as they fly different aircraft and therefore need a lot of retraining, whilst Pegasus use the same aircraft, also wanted to take over CTA, but were unable to close the deal. Don't know how true it is but I heard on the grapevine that the son of the Turkish President owns Atlasjet !!!!!!!

The unions are attacking with wildcat strikes in a bid to halt the government austerity measures. Anybody remember the summer of discontent in UK, well we are heading that way now. These strikes are taken as last minute decisions. The chairman of Cyprus Turkish Public Workers Union is proposing to announce all the taxes unpaid by business chiefs in TRNC, which he says accounts for lots of the budget deficit, now that will be interesting, if it can be proven.

The strikes at Ercan airport can be a pain, we know somebody who spent 24 hours in the company of Pegasus airlines. They left Istanbul for Ercan and apparently could not land as the whole airport was in darkness. They diverted to Antalya and had to sit it out there for 5 hours before coming back to Ercan when the airport reopened. Hope this is not shades of things to come, as Joan and I are booked on the 6.20 a.m. flight on 31st, but most important is our connection with Ryanair at Stansted.

Did get a good news e-mail from somebody today which is worth a cut and paste here:-

Hi,

We’ve own and villa and come out three times a year. We booked our CTA flights through Paradise and they have confirmed our booking has moved to Pegasus – same airport, but Sunday rather than Saturday later this month. We’re delighted with that arrangement but don’t know if everyone is being so lucky. Get the feeling that Paradise are really working hard to help people.

Peter and Fiona Rushton

Catalkoy

it is great to hear that somebody is trying to keep the flag flying. Clearly the difference between private enterprise business and a guaranteed cushy number in government.

Interesting final on Sunday, as somebody who has spent many years of his working life in Holland there are no prises for guessing where I will be on Sunday.

Packing, packing and more packing. They do say that moving house is the most stressful thing you can do. I suppose moving house and country makes it doubly so. Joan has been doing some sterling work with packing all the small items that need to be individually wrapped to protect and then put in outer boxes. There are boxes everywhere, the garage, the small sitting room and even the office. But what we now realise is that we have ordered some new stuff from some of Joan's old suppliers and this has yet to come, so maybe our original assessment of a 20 foot container might be too small. Raymond, our shipping guy, is coming around tomorrow at 11 a.m. so that he cam advise us.

Well we reckon that we are nearly at the end of the list and that is good as we need to send the whole off to the French clearing agents so that they can get an advance look. Sending personal effects can be more trouble than sending commercial goods. I suppose they think we might be trying to smuggle things in.

Some real light reief at the end of the day. Carole and Ian had invited us, together with Yvonne & Charles, around for dinner. A lovely relaxing evening and particularily so when in good company and realising that we now had three weeks to just clean up things and get ready for the next big adventure.

Whilst waiting for Raymond to come round I can find time to take a look at the newspaper.

Jennifer Lopez was supposed to be coming over, to officially open a new 5 star hotel in Catalkoy, but the Greek Cypriot propaganda machine has got to her and she has cancelled. This is the lot who are hell bent on making sure that there is never any resolution to the divided island, unless of course it is under their terms, the whole and nothing but the whole. The south have hidden behind the Cyprus Action Group of America, so that they can deny any involvement in getting the visit cancelled.

More bad news for the Amaranta Valley Development. This is the development fronted by Gary Robb when he was hiding here in Cyprus, but now serving time in England for drug offences in his old club, back in the 90s. Many ex-pats have put their life savings into property in what was to be a whole new village in the valley. Gary Robb absconded with the money after only partially developing the site. Now the government has put the whole development up for auction as there is no way they can afford to take over, so it now remains to be seen what the original investors can recover.

The CTA saga is not over. There is now a call for a probe in to the deal with Atlasjet. It is claimed that the deal remains shrouded in secrecy with few publc comments from government or the airline bosses. It is also calaimed that the bid put in by Pegasus Airlines was turned down without any scrutiny. Smells as usual over here.

Well today's the day. Holland versus Spain. My mate in UK reckons Spain will win, but I beg to differ, we will see.

After Raymonds visit yesterday and long before the football, Joan and I were out to lunch with Charles and Yvonne. Today was actually Charles's birthday and about 1 week ago Yvonne had proposed that we all four went out to lunch to celbrate that event and my birthday last month.

We went to the Korineum Golf Club for their buffet lunch. It really was a very large and tasty buffet but one has to ask what happens to all the left over food as there was only our table of four and another eight eating there. Very enjoyable, thank you Yvonne.

Dare we mention the football? My friend was right about the winner but not the score. I have to say that some of the fouls by both sides had to be seen to be believed and I think the ref had a very difficult job. It is no good the Dutch blaming the ref, they need to look at the video of the whole game and see where they lost it.

The first says that the government as agreed to set up a task force to address property problems in TRNC. This is likely to have come about because of continuous pressure from Marion Stokes and her Home Buyers Pressure Group. This group is to meet twice monthly to try to rsolve the issues surrounding property purchase here in the North. Consecutive governments over the years have been encouraged to try to solve the issues and have made many promises in this way. Let us just hope that this time the results are more positive, if they don't get it right then the construction industry here can probably say bye bye to a real future.

The second issue refers to a dispute between land owner and builder and villas bought mostly by expats. The whole was due to be auctioned a year ago and then again last October, but this was cancelled, but now a fresh auction is proposed but home owners are told, if you pay £5,000 each to get the infrastructure completed, then there will be no auction and the owners can finally get deeds on properties they have bought. All of this sort of thing does considerable damage to an industry that is already in trouble.

The CTA saga still brews. One tourism boss in Lefkosa is threatening legal action and is prepared to go right up to the European Courts if necessary. UK travel agents say that tourism is now almost at zero as many people have lost money and can see no chance of compensation and now thirteen deputies in the parliament have demanded an investigation into the CTA farce, as it is termed. The chairman of the CTA board has now revealed that there are moves afoot to put the company in to liquidation. All in all, this government got the whole very wrong and if wrong doing can be proved heads should roll. The icing on the cake, literallay, was a picture which really angered union leaders, of the President, Prime Minister and two Cabinet Ministers cutting the ceremonial cake at the opening of the new Turkish Airlines offices. Just how insensitive can one get.

The final story in the paper which interested us says "Website founder frank about TRNC problems as he heads for France" It says that we are heading for a new life because our dream has soured and in particular says that the rising cost of living has something to do with the decision. I don't think that I said that, as if so why would we move to a more expensive country? But most of the other parts were accurate in particular that I believe that the government has completely cocked up CTA and needs to urgently get the construction industry under control. But then readers know full well that I have been highly critical of them, but not to the extent that we as expats should seek to change the country or the people. We came here because they have a lifestyle that we envied and a climate that was superb and that is still the case, but it would be nice if they could just weed out the rogues. We shall really miss the TRNC and the people.

Busy, busy, busy and hot, hot, hot. This moving business is no fun. Now we have to go overland with our container, clear customs in UK, drive around the Dover roundabout and back into France. Why, because this is technically our second container, remember we sent some stuff in November, together with Stewart and Barbara and French customs think they should charge on this second container as they don't see stage moving as being the thing to do. So now we clear in to EU at Dover and then come back free of duty. Strange customs.

At the same time we have to do all the address change things etc and arrange to stop standing orders etc here. It is easy to forget to do some of these things and then have the problem doing it from a remote location.

In addition it has gone very hot and humid lately, so me being me and wanting to leave the place shipshape, is getting up at 5 a.m. and cutting hedges. Some would say stupid, but then this is how we would like to find the place.

Last night the gang went to Green Palace. I had the prawns in garlic, so stand well back. Lovely meal as always. Then tonight, because our friends, Mike and Ebru wanted a big steak, guess where we all went. That's right back to the Green Palace. My T-bone was to die for.

Joan and I met Paul Appleyard up at The Hut for a late lunch. Very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon with some nice food and a couple of beers to go with the good conversation. The Hut is quite a popular place in the summer months, where they serve simple basic food up until 4 .30 in the afternoon and then stay open only until 8 p.m. only.

Roger is coming round for dinner this evening. We had found a pork joint in the freezer so decided to experiment with the spit roast thingy on the BBQ. It worked very well actually and made a change from standing in the hot kitchen whilst the oven would have been on.

Still the CTA thing rumbles on. Now according to the newspaper there are 30 Turkish speaking organisations in UK, urging the government to act immediately to sort out the flights to TRNC to prevent further damage to the already fragile economy here. Meantime there is still a row between the unions and the government about who is responsible for the collapse. The prime minister said in a speech earlier this week. "The austerity measures must be brought in, the TRNC cannot stand on it's own feet unless these balances are established. It is the current mentality that has brought CTA to the position it is in"

New legislation has been passed this week which allows deeds for properties to be issued once contracts have been signed. This could mean the end to developers taking out mortgages or double selling. This law could pave the way for buyers to be able to get mortgages on incomplete properties, just as happens in other countries. This new law will provide wide ranging guarantees to property owners, but at the same time new legislation is still needed to regulate estate agents and conveyancing solicitors.

South Cyprus has now been put under EU supervision control for its budget deficit. The government on that side is facing similar problems to those in the TRNC, too many civil servants earning too high salaries. Nothing new in that!

Peace and Freedom Day as it is officially called here. We have traditionally gone out on a boat trip on this day with as many of the gang who were available and who don't mind choppy weather. We booked, as we always do, to go with Sharki and her boat. The captain and his wife always treat us to a great lunch and a good day out. We had arranged to go out at around 10 a.m. and stay out until after the air display.

As usual some opted to sit in the shade and others out in the sun, but whatever your preference it is a great day out with plenty of time for a swim or two and in between a lunch of prawns, crab claws, fish and chicken together with all the meze and salad bits. We did manage, of course, to wash it all down with beer or wine. After lunch there was fresh fruit and on the way back to Girne the captain came up with a couple of bottles of sparkling stuff for us to enjoy

Once we got back to Girne we moored up outside the Dome Hotel to wait for the Turkish Air Force flypast. Each year The Turkish All Stars come over and give us a tremendous show of their skillful formation flying. But this year, whilst we were waiting, four guys came over the horizon para surfing. We don't know if they were part of the official thing but their skill with the boards and chutes was a wonder to watch.

Dead on 6 p.m the flypast started with the usual show of close proximity flying. I know I have shown similar pics each year but you have to admire their skill. The water was very choppy so difficult to get pics this year and this was another close one in more ways than one. I had tried to get the pic of these two with the third aircraft flying just underneath, but they were too quick for me.

We finally made it home at around 8 p.m. and have to say that we were not late to bed. All that fresh air and swimming.

It would seem that CTA has handed all it's aircraft back to the leasing company. Other airlines are trying to fill the gap but the newspaper says that they are charging very high prices The paper says that CTA used to have 40 flights in and out of UK per week , during the peak holiday season, the replacing companies seem to be managing only 8 and 7 respectively, a considerable shortage of seats and at a very high price.

Turkey and TRNC have signed an agreement to build a pipeline under the sea to pump much needed water over to the island. The scheme will include a new dam in Turkey which will feed upwards of 75 million cubic meters of water to Getikoy dam here on the island. The whole is planned for completion in 2014. This scheme should bring to an end the shortage which is experienced annually here.

Finally, the Girne bypass has been officially opened. We have travelled on it a couple of times already and I have to say it makes a tremendous difference to the time it takes to get through to Girne and on to Lefkosa.

The Finance Minister is claiming that the TRNC economy is on the road to recovery and Turkey is giving visible support to the austerity measures recently introduced by the government. Turkey is of course the main financial prop to the TRNC, so it is not really surprising that they would support something designed to save them money.

Joan and I went over to Lefkosa at lunch time and took Mr Omac out for lunch at the new Niazis restaurant there called Deep Blue. It seems that they have finally arranged for our three piece suite to be over from Turkey by Monday afternoon. Cutting it fine but we have been promised.

This evening we all went to the re-arranged Harmony at The Hermitge event. All those who attended brought their own picnic's and sat out in the early evening, enjoying food and wine prior to the vision engineer and Werner the sound engineer putting on classical music events using DVDs on a big screen. By 8.15 it was nice and dark so the show could commence. We had music from Andre Rieu, Russel Watson, Andre Bocelli and Catherine Jenkins at the Llangollen festival. With the raffle prizes and sponsorship for Joan and Anne to do their tandem para-gliding on this coming Monday, the event raised some 600 TL for the Hermitage Project.

Lots of pics in the weekend edition of Cyprus Today, of the flypast on Peace and Freedom day, but then you have already seen my pics of that event, so no contest really!

The paper suggests that there has been a report produced, which indicates that Turkey, Greece and the island, would receive billions of dollars in EU aid, once a peace deal has been reached. Maybe, just maybe, that will be the carrot needed to resolve this long standing issue.

There is also heavy critiscism of the amount spent on health treatment here on the island. This is because it has been necessary to send people over to Turkey for treatment. Now local doctors are claiming that this is no longer necessary as there are high class hospitals here now with highly trained people. This report coincides with the opening of the new Near East University hospital. Me cynical, never.

Next week Saturday, we will be buying the newspaper at the airport on our way off the island. It will be a sad day for us both, but we think the right thing for us. Holidays are always possible and you can be sure we will be back for those.

At lunch time today we were, with others, at Sandy and John's for a meal and a couple of beers. I don't think we will be at home very much to eat, during the coming week and this event was a very enjoyable start.

This morning Joan and Anne had planned a paragliding trip and used the opportunity to raise money for the Hermitage Project. We called the centre at 9.45 to check weather conditions and were advised to be at the landing site by 10.30 a.m. Joan's paragliding flight was just fantastic she found, she was so over the moon with it and with her Aussie pilot who found thermals after thermal to keep them up there for almost 1 hour. Many of us were waiting for them coming in to land and both Joan and Anne could talk about nothing else all day.

In the evening we both drove over to Lefkosa to have dinner at Mehmet and Rose's apartment. Rose had cooked traditional Turkish and it was absolutely delicious. A very enjoyable evening was had.

Today is the last day for final packing prior to our container lorry arriving tomorrow morning. We have a minor panic on our hands as we had ordered a new three piece suite and it has been stuck in the docks at Mersin for the last two days, as the wind has been too strong for the ferries to cross over from Turkey. We have been promised that it will be here before the container arrives in the morning, so it is fingers crossed.

Well, I spent the morning with Mel, changing the electric over the registration at the local council etc. and Joan did a superb job keeping an eye on the container loading. Luckily a lady from customs came to the villa so she was able to peer into boxes as she wished and then the whole went off to Lefkosa. Our new three piece suite had arrived in Lefkosa customs but not to Lapta, so the driver agreed to go via Lefkosa and get it loaded there, touch and go, but it looks as if we got our new stuff.

This evening The Layabouts went to The Green Palace so I just had to record this supper for posterity, there were even more hungry Layabouts than usual, really there I suppose to see us off. Mnay Layabouts are away at the moment but Joan, Margaret & Sue seemed to have plenty to discuss. As usual a brilliant evening, if a little sad for us.

The big day. After a meal at Silver Rocks last night, Joan and I walked home and had a very short night. We got up at 3 a.m. for Charles and Yvonne to take us to the airport. We had booked on the 0625 flight to Istanbul and were to change there for the flight to Stansted. Unfortunately this first flight was cancelled and we later saw a man with his head under the bonnet, so guess there was slight technical hitch. However Pegasus airlines came up trumps and switched us on to the later flight which was direct and because we were very, very early and of course at the front of the queue, I got the long legged seats.

After arriving at Stansted on time we had plenty of time to get a meal in Wetherspoons and then catch the Ryanair flight to Bergerac. Stewart and Barbara met us there and took us to the farmhouse. We were shattered by now but found that they had been changing the wood-burner in the lounge, which involved a flu pipe which went though the chimney in our bedroom, so we had to clean our bedroom before making the bed. Guess who will be having words when I see the guy?

Anyway we are here and have time to settle in now. Tomorrow is 1st August 2010 and the start of a whole new episode in our lives.