Month: June 2010

Off down to the beach again first thing in the morning. Only us down there. The sea was a lot rougher and Rosie got a soaking when the waves crashed in, even before she started swimming. I bought Cyprus Today on the way back. A troubled day yesterday with promises of news of CTA and none forthcoming, CTA staff marching in protest and trying to prevent other airlines from leaving Ercan. Passengers sitting at ariports. What a mess. All CTA seem to talk about is the 36 years they have been flying…well, they are not now!

Later reports say that a deal has been done with Atlas Jet.

From http://www.trncpio.org/trncpio/en/index.asp?sayfa=haberdetay&newsid=353

“CYPRUS TURKISH AIRLINES PARTNER ATLAS – JET

The General Assembly decided to take Atlas-jet as partner after long discussions related to find a partner to the CTA which is having financial difficulties.

Council of Ministers which convened under the presidency of Prime Minister Irsen Kucuk approved the decision of CTA’s General Assembly and announced that a five years partnership contract shall be signed with 50-50 rights with Atlas Jet.

Kucuk stated that they gave great importance to protect the employees anf to keep the continuation of the national airline CTA and added that according to the partnership agreement which shall be signed today maximum number of personnel around 450 shall be employed, the power of administration shall belong to Atlas-jet with a proportion of 3 to 2, the rights shall be shared by 50-50, and the name of CTA shall continue, and the CTA can be regained after 5 years.

Prime Minister Kucuk stated that CTA has sold nearly 100 thousand tickets and 73 thousand passengers should be carried to Cyprus until 28 July and added that the partnership agreement should be signed urgently this morning in order not to damage tourism in the country.

Kucuk also stressed that the flight rights of CTA shall continue and the flights to Turkey and UK shall continue.”

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BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

I have just read on Cyprus 44 that Cyprus Turkish Airlines have gone bust. It seems flights have been cancelled and people stranded at Ercan and Stansted airports.  “A company trading whilst insolvent” is one of the quotes from the board. I understand there is a meeting planned for this morning. Well, I have a CTA ticket booked to go back to the UK for Lou and Rhys’s wedding and also all our tickets are with CTA to bring the boys out for 4 weeks in the summer. I wait to hear more. Well, we supported the country’s airline!!

A lot of rumours during the day but nothing concrete. It seems we have to wait for 48 hours to hear what is going on.  Not that I would have known anyway as the internet went down just as I was going to watch Wimbledon and was down for the rest of the night.

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It was a little cooler. I caught up with a lot of jobs. In spite of doing everything that the garden centre told me to do with our little almond tree, it is dead. I was so disappointed.

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Rosie is getting so hot this weather that I decided to take her to the beach. We were up so early that there was only the two of us and a couple of fishermen down there. It was so peaceful, we watched the sun come up, or rather I did while Rosie swam. The sea was so calm and clear too, in the end we stayed down there for two hours.

In the evening I had phone calls with Mal first and then  Rhys and all the gang. I can’t say Mal had a brilliant Father’s Day but he liked his cards and presents. We are soon to be going to Lou and Rhys’s wedding. River, the eldest, is going to be the Best Man and Mal is helping him a little bit with his speech. I know he will be perfect on the day,bless him. Everyone is getting very excited now.

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Rosie and I were up and out at 5.00am. We went into the ravine and the stream has now disappeared, just a tiny waterfall trickling but the rest has dried up.

I then went to Ileli to get my shopping and bumped into Bev and Gary, I think we all have the same idea, get everything done before the real heat hits. I bought Cyprus Today and according to them North Cyprus is under a “Basra hot front” coming from Arabia. This article was accompanied by a photo of a restaurant worker frying an egg on the road which took 5 minutes to cook! I think that just about sums up the “news” in today’s issue. Lots of talk but no decisions about either the ‘mortgage’ problem bringing devastation to home owners nor a solution to CTA’s debt problems.

I couldn’t find any cherries in Ileli, so popped into Starling. I also bought a pack of toilet rolls, marked on the shelf at 11.90tl. They went through the till at 17.50. I explained that the price on the shelf was 11.90, did she care, of course not, so I told her to knock them off my bill. I paid for the couple of items I had bought only to get 50 kurus short in my change. Again I queried it. Cyprus shrug and ” no change” and she looked away. I gave her 2 x 25 kurus coins and told her to give me 1tl. She did so but very begrudgingly. I will NOT be using Starling again, even if I have to go without my cherries. Using them is too much like hard work especially on a day with Basra temperatures.  How come Ileli don’t short change and always have change in their tills? AND the staff are very helpful and seem to appreciate your custom, which is more than can be said about Starling, I hasten to add …..in my experience.

Rosie and I were up and out at 5.30am and it was surprising how many other people were up. I guess they are all making the most of the slightly cooler weather in the morning.  The sunrise again was soooo beautiful!

Bev and Gary came round and then I went in the pool.

In the evening I watched the England game against Algeria. I think the least said about that the better. Who were the outstanding players?…….not ONE of them. 0-0.

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Hot, hot, hot again! It reached 35 degrees under the terrace in the shade and it was a lot hotter out of the shade! I cleaned the pool in the morning and then spent a lot of the afternoon in the pool, best place to be.  I took the brush in with me and cleaned the tiles while I was in there!

I heard from Mal and he had the heater on in the morning!

We are  soon to be going to Lou and Rhys’s wedding and so I decided to ring my old hairdresser in Ramsgate to see if he will do my hair the day before the wedding. He asked me if I had seen him on the news but of course I hadn’t out here. It seems he put posters up of his wife and Thanet council have told him to take them down as they thought she was showing too much cleavage! I would have thought they had better things to do. Still, as Marcello said, the publicity has done him a lot of good!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/10255798.stm