9th June 2010

I went to pay bills and do some shopping in the morning. I paid the electricity bill at the bank. My change should have been 20 tl 20 kurus. You guessed it, I was only handed 20tl, so I asked for the 20 kurus and she went to her till and got me 20 kurus and handed it to me! I truly can not imagine a bank in the UK short changing anyone, no matter how small. How much do they make in a day if they do this to every customer?

Someone is now digging huge trenches down the side of the road towards Incesu, as if we don’t have enough going on and enough dust.

In the evening I was invited to Lena and Willy’s as it was the 10th anniversary of the day they arrived in Cyprus. Lena made a very tasty, something Swedish which I have forgotten the name, it looks like a huge cake but is savoury and is cut like a sandwich. Delicious.  There were a lot more people there but my camera battery ran out!

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7th June 2010

It was a day of very high winds and so cleaning the floors in the morning was a totally pointless exercise. By the evening they were covered with dust, flower heads and goodness knows what else. I spent most of the day in the garden clearing up and trying to block out the sound of the crankey digger although I have to say we had a days respite on Sunday and it was bliss.  I spoke to Mal and it seems the highlight of his day was taking the rubbish to the bins as he plods on with the work. He does have a good friendship going with the man from DHL, who delivers and collects all his parcels!

I had downloaded Soccer Aid from Sunday night, so watched that in the evening. Sadly the ‘Rest of the World’ won, beating England on penalties, I hope that is not a sign of things to come. Having said that the real England team did beat the Platinum Stars 3-0.

I was moved watching Soccer aid by the clips of the children that Unicef help and so had to go to the ITV website and make a donation. Sometimes we forget just how lucky we are.

I found this stick mantis outside, a bit different from the many praying mantis that we have in our garden.

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6th June 2010

The official England World Cup (Football)  song has been released early. Dizzee Rascal and James Corden. Could it be another 1966 even with all the injuries?

The auction in the morning went ahead see:

http://www.northcyprusfreepress.com/2010/06/06/this-is-what-happened-at-akfinans-bank-north-cyprus-auction/

Rauf Denktas arriving at Akfinans Bank’s Kulaksiz 5 Auction

Our thoughts are with Pauline and the other “homeowners” from Kulaksiz 5. What happens next? Keep an eye on Mal’s northcyprus free press as Pauline keeps him updated with each development.

5th June 2010

Firstly a mention to Super Gary, hope everything goes well today, Mal and I are thinking of you.

I had cherries and mulberries for breakfast…yummy. Cherries are in the shops now and the mulberries are from our weeping mulberry tree. It’s a shame I bought the tree for Mal but he is never here when it fruits, so I just have to eat them.

I went to Lambousa in the morning and then popped roiund to Gwen’s as she left something in my car. Back home and the digger was going dust was flying everywhere, I could even feel it in my hair. I am now shutting the windows because of the row and the dust.

Cyprus Today had a lot about Kulaksiz 5 – the houses that are being auctioned tomorrow morning. My heart goes out to these people and the rogues who have left them in this position.

It was so windy and dust clouds were blowing everywhere. One of the pictures shows the dust clouds, the others, the days progress at the hacking away.

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4th June 2010

I have to say that I was relieved that I was meeting up with Gwen and I could get away from the noise and the dust of the digger below us. I have been keeping the windows shut and the pool is filthy. I picked Gwen up and first we went to the KAR office. They have had a lot of new things in, so we went to have a look. I came away with a new pair of shoes and three evening bags! All the money goes to a good cause, for the animals at the centre. (www.kyreniaanimalrescue.org)

From there we went on to Cafe Dukkan and had a very relaxing lunch, sat outside and spent most of the afternoon there. Gwen insisted on treating me to lunch as part of my birthday present. Thank you Gwen. By the time I arrived home, the work had stopped.

The photos are Gwen and the excavation to date!

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3rd June 2010

Rosie and I went into the ravine in the morning. The stream is still running down there although not as fast but enough for Rosie to jump in and out and get really muddy…dog heaven!

Later I went to show the map to our new neighbour who is building up to our land. Ali Semi also came over and showed me the plans. They assured me that the GPS tapu is accurate, which incidently has not been carried out yet.  Now, maybe I would believe that had the three GPS tapus that Mustafa, the neighbour behind us, had all came out the same….they didn’t.  I have little faith in any of the tapus here as we have had so many and not one has been the same as the previous one. Our neighbour and Ali Semi assured me that “everything would be alright and not to worry”. I have now stopped worrying because when I spoke to Mal he said if they cut away any of our land in his absence then they will just put it back when he returns. Ali Semi also apologised for the constant building noise, I have to say I appreciated that, he is a nice man.

At least I had arranged to visit Bev and Gary so managed to get away from the caterpillar digger noise for the morning anyway.  Bev had made me a lovely card for a forthcoming wedding, clever lady. My swimming pool cleaner hose had split and I discovered I couldn’t just cut that piece off and rejoin it as the ends were sealed. I asked Gary where the best place was to buy another and Super Gary appeared with an end that was not sealed and I can just screw the hose into, bless him!

A classic article in Mal’s NCFP….

www.northcyprusfreepress.com

I wonder where I am then?