Year: 2010

A day spent with Mal doing a tourism website and me cleaning the house. How on earth does so much dust get into the house when we are not here?

There was an interesting article in Cyprus Star announcing the opening this week of a Cyprus Nature Library. It has been opened by North Cyprus Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature (Kuşkor). Hopefully that will improve on my knowledge gleened from my DK Mediterranean Wild Flower book!

The centre is in Girne so we must go and visit.

Current opening times for the centre are Monday mornings from 9-12 and Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from 2-5. Alternatively you can contact the library on 0090 392 815 5462 or cyprusnaturelibrary@kuskor.org to arrange visits outside these hours. As an added bonus nearly all the books and resources are available online at www.kuskor.org  The good news is the website is in English and Turkish.

Well done Kuşkor a great addition for us ‘nature lovers’ on the island.

Not wishing to be a damp squid but the hunting season starts again on Sunday October 31st, the same day as the clocks go back an hour.

I guess our body clocks were out of sync with Cyprus time. Rosie pushed her nose into me and when I looked at the clock it was 1/4 to 8! Very late for us. She was obviously waiting for her long run in the mountains. Up and out and after all the negative rubbish that has been going on here in our absence and  me not really looking forward to coming back, the mountain walk changed all that. Talking about rubbish, see the picture of rubbish having been tipped down the side of the beautiful mountains. Disgraceful.

Hopefully the snakes have all slithered away now and Rosie was free, even doing her mountain goat bit diving off the side of mountains.

Later we went to pay our water bill and get some shopping. I have to say that having not been in Atakara for a long time and now being tempted in by their Buyuk Gurek loaves of bread, their attitude seems to have totally changed, smiles all the way and we even joked with the staff. As long as I get a smile and the correct change I will carry on using them. I also discovered they have quite a lot of offers on at the moment. Milk at 1.85 and apple juice at 1.70. 12 kitchen towel rolls at 11.75 and a lot of the fresh meat on their meat counter is on offer. To name but a few. It is our nearest supermarket, so long may it last. They even have broccoli back in…we love broccoli!

We then went to Őz Ekinciler yapi market to buy some more hammerite and also teak oil for the sun beds. The grey haired guy in there is so nice and helpful and again all smiles. Mal calls him our personal shopper as he always comes to the rescue the minute you start to look for something. Mal had a laugh with them as he is so clumsy and walked into a display and on turning round discovered it was an advert for paint with an open pot and the paint running out. They said they would charge him for it and couldn’t stop laughing.  How refreshing to have two pleasant shops to go in. I have to say the council offices were a different story, glum faces there.

Back home and lots to do after being away. Mal started with washing the car as it was thick with dust.

It is now dark by 6.15 pm. The grim thought is that next week it will be 5.15 pm.

The first thing we did was go and collect Rosie from the kennels. Of course once home she went mad and chased all over the place. I gave her a pigs ear which she promptly went and buried in the garden. She then tipped her outside water bowl over and rolled in it all. She does this every time she comes back home, a little bit of rebellion there! I think she was glad to be back and then followed us round all day in case we left her again. Having said that she gets very well looked after at Lena’s kennels. see link

Although warm it was a cloudy day with a constant threat of rain but we only had about two drops. Very black skies though. The evening sky was a really nice red sky.

Most of the day washing, ironing and clearing up and then we watched Man U in the evening. They won 1-0.

Building has now started to the left of us in front, perhaps they are going to finish the shells of houses that have been left so long. It has got to be an improvement on the half built ghost estate as it was left. What can I say, more dust, more noise but hopefully the end result will be worth it.

We woke up at Torin’s ready for our last packing! It was lovely to see all the family and all the grandchildren but the bits in between were too hectic, not much of a holiday added to which the madness that has been going on in North Cyprus concerning Mal’s newspaper. It seems there was a mention in Cyprus Today that Mal was not available for comment, oh yes he was as all emails went to his phone which was always on (which didn’t make for a very pleasant ‘holiday’). He just didn’t have any comment for CT. For anyone who hasn’t a clue what I am talking about see link.

Sad farewells and we drove to Stansted. Our Pegasus flight was on time and we landed in Ercan to warmth.I have to say that both Mal and I are impressed with Pegasus ‘safety’ film. Children are doing it and the little girl speaking has a lisp. Very impressive, at least it made all the Brits pay attention and I have to say we watched it both ways. Well done Pegasus!!

We stopped at Illeli on the way home to get a few bits of shopping, fresh figs at 4tl a kilo…that’s more like it, better than 55p each in the UK.

We woke up to a very cold caravan! All the heaters on and it warmed up in no time. We packed everything up again, cleaned the caravan and headed for Torin’s.  On the way we returned the two sat nav chargers that we bought before we discovered the car fitting was at fault. Both shops were very understanding and refunded the money. We shouldn’t get too used to that kind of customer service!

Scarlet and Jack were so sweet and walking round holding hands but we were told we haven’t seen the other side when they are fighting over something. Torin had only just arrived back from Russia the previous evening and said he was still feeling cold.

In the evening Torin said he would treat us to a Thai meal. He took us into Hitchin to ‘Sirichai’, if you are ever in the area, give it a try the food is delicious. I recommend the Yum Nai (Beef salad) to start. I followed mine with Gang Ped (roasted duck curry). Mal and I then had the pumpkin and Thai custard. The flavours of all the food were fantastic and we couldn’t fault a thing. Thank you Torin it was lovely. see link for restaurant

We had a discussion on the position of Cambodia etc in relation to Thailand, which meant both ‘the lads’ had their phones out looking it up on the internet!

We had breakfast and then we went for a walk along Boulters Lock and watched all the boats. Another lovely morning and so far we have had no rain all the time we have been in the UK.

Marion has retired and started knitting as an ‘out worker’ . Well, she was in the Mail on Sunday! She is the one sitting at the right hand end see link. Fame at last!

Marion cooked us a lovely Sunday roast and then in the evening we drove back to the caravan.

Back to Lou and Rhys’s house in the morning. Tariq plays football for Canton Rangers and had a match against the team at the top of their league, so we all went long to watch. He was so hoping they would win as we were there. They were 3-0 down and he was looking so unhappy. BUT the game finished with Canton winning 8-4 and Tariq scoring a hat trick!  As usual I am biaised but he played so well. We are very proud of you Tariq.

At last we were able to unload some of the Christmas presents we had bought.

In the afternoon we went to High Wycombe to spend the night with my sister. She cooked us a lovely meal in the evening.