Year: 2010

It was a lovely morning so we took Rosie out into the mountains a bit later than usual.  Fabulous!

David came over later and stayed for coffee and collected some of my baby yuccas which I have loads of. We sat watching the diggers a bit further on from David’s house perhaps after two years the part built properties will at last be completed. It has looked such a mess for all this time, so we are pleased they are now going to complete them.

We did take a picture from the mountains so you can see what a mess it looks at the moment.

Having said that I am wondering who is going to buy them as there seem to be a lot of people heading back to the UK. It doesn’t surprise me when there is so much negativity here and so many folks suffering with property problems and quite frankly no one seems to care.

We spoke to the boys in the evening, all well. Rhys has been doing the logo for Audley Harrisons boxing shorts for next weekends fight (even though he wants David Haye to win!) I don’t think he told his promoters that. As he says business is business.

Thought for the Day – “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better” – Albert Einstein

Today was Ollie’s birthday and also Gary’s. Ollie was 4 and Gary was a bit older.

We spoke to Ollie in the morning who was very excited, even though he told us he was 8! They were going to have fireworks in the evening.

Pauline came round to see us in the morning, a very courageous lady.

In the evening we went to Al Shaheen with Bev and Gary (whose birthday it was). We had a lovely evening and as always they are such good company, we thoroughly enjoyed it. The food was very good too. We had loads of poppadoms.

Thought for the Day – “Good friends are like stars – you don’t always see them but you know they are always there”

We had our breakfast in the sun. Something in my mouth crunched. I discovered it was half of my tooth that had been root filled some time ago. Oh no, I hate dentists. The last one we went to (who was the one who did my root filling), we went there about 6 months ago, both of us for a clean and check up. He told both Mal and I they didn’t need cleaning but told Mal he had 5 wobbly teeth and should have them out. Mal insists he is keeping them until they fall out and then will decide what to do next. This dentist was good when I had my abscess but Mal won’t go back to him. I think I may delay the decision of where to go next and hope the other half of tooth remains in tact until the decision is made.

Green Garden Garden Centre have a sale on plants…50% off, so we went to have a look. We did buy a couple of plants. Shopping on the way back and then Mal had an appointment to have his hair cut, so I dropped him off in Alsancak. He goes to a girl there rather than the barbers as he is not one for “barber short” hair, in fact he doesn’t trust them. I noticed her shiney red brand new car outside. Of course the hair cuts are paying for it……she charged Mal 20 tl, about the third price hike but this now makes it cheaper for him to get his hair cut in the UK. He won’t be going to her again! There are a lot of people here outpricing themselves now.

Then on to Perova garden centre who also have 50% off selected plants. We did buy another basil and a large bag of compost…another price hike, that is now 65tl, considerably more than the last one we bought.

It is all a bit doom and gloom in Cyprus Today see link

Thought for the Day – “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect” – Margaret Mitchell (author of Gone with the Wind)

I was feeling better again today! Up and out with Rosie into the ravine and later started more Hammeriting of the railings until I couldn’t stand the smell any longer. It is going to take me ages but bit by bit.

Mal started on his long list of jobs too. Oh yes, it is a looooong list!

I heard from Torin and he has jetted off to Denmark for work. He doesn’t do badly for someone who hates flying but he said he really misses the twins.

More from Pauline on Kulaksiz 5 see link. When will this farce ever end??……oh dear perhaps I shouldn’t have used that word, Harry Redknapp did and now he is in trouble. (For those not interested in football, it is concerning the farce of the Nani goal on Saturday!)

Pauline has sent in a very good article to NCFP. I think that she has voiced the opinion of many of us, I hope you will read it see link

It was a lovely clear sunny day, so clear that we could see the mountains of Turkey across the Med. There was a very pink sky in the evening.

A “down” day with the “bug” and I ended up going back to bed.

The internet (Extend) was bad all day, on, off, on, off. Very frustrating.

Thought for the Day – “You do not reform a world by ignoring it” – George Bush

I hope everyone remembered to put their clocks back last night!

It was the first day of the hunting season but unusually we were out before the guns started but to be on the safe side it was a trip to the beach. The fishermen were down there and also a couple of brave souls swimming.

The hunters were out in force but keeping their distance until later in the afternoon, then the shots were so close (tooo close!) In fact I think they were next to Lena’s house. When will they ever learn the rules? Mal also watched a kestrel flying and made sure they didn’t take a pop at that or Mal would have run after them. They didn’t. The kestrels nest very near to us and we love watching them.

The hunting will continue every Sunday until 26th December, with a total of 10 days set aside, including 18th November which is the third day of Kurban Bayram, The Feast of Sacrifice. A hunter will be able to bag no more than one hare, five partridges or black francolins and eight wood pigeons in a day. The total number of game animals that can be shot has been determined as 30. As it said in Cyprus Today “If all hunters reached this limit, that would mean that 600,000 game animals will be shot in the 10 days, bringing the potential number of prizes to 6 million”. Let’s hope  they are not good shots.

In the afternoon we sat out in the sun and played cards, nice to sit in the sun on the last day of October! The overnight temperature is dropping overnight and so the sheet has today been replaced by the summer duvet.

Thought for the Day – “There is nothing in which birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before” – Robert Wilson Lynd

It was still spitting with rain when Mal and I got up, so decided to take Rosie straight out.  A bad move, as we were walking the rain became heavier and heavier until the three of us were soaked. Then after about half an hour being home the rain stopped and the sun came out for the rest of the day. At least the repair to the log burner wall following last years floods, seems to have held up against the rain.

We bought Cyprus Today see link.  I was very sad to see the lack of attendance for the Breast Cancer charity brunch. Maybe they need a few ex pats to help them out, if only ex pats were allowed to be on committees now……we are not on new committees. What a waste when I know quite a few people who would help them out. We have done it all before with excellent results!

I also read Mal’s report of Conor O’Dwyer in the South. Excellent publicity both sides of the border then! see link

We did some of the gardening, can’t wait until the oranges are ready. I cut off loads of ‘babies’ from plants, which will be redistributed.

Later we watched the football, a sad result again for Hammers, if only they could have lasted out another 5 minutes. Next the Man U v Spurs game. What a farce Nani’s goal was when he had obviously hand balled. It makes a bit of a mockery of football.

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Thought for the Day – “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” – Martin Luther King