Maggie & Mal's Adventures in North Cyprus, the UK and Beyond
A crazy day weatherwise again. Sun, then rain, sun then more rain, which meant nothing much was achieved outside. I went to get a bit of shopping in between showers. There was a lovely rainbow. It looked as if the pot of gold was next to the Russian house!
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Thought for the Day – “Rainbows, born of the shower and coloured by the sun” – Jean Charles Prince
Down to the beach in the morning with Rosie and then of course a shower for her when we arrived back. Mal cleared more of the front to make way for the fruit trees. Just as I expected Sergei, who has the house below our garden came to talk to him. He obviously didn’t believe me when I told him exactly where our border was. Mal reaffirmed exactly what I had told him. He obviously didn’t believe a mere female. Having said that, work on his grounds seems to have come to a standstill.
I spent a lot of the day weeding until I ached.
We later watched the Hammers game. What a team they looked and won 3-1 against Liverpool. Mal was very pleased!
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Thought for the Day – “Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like, never washed a dog” – Franklin P Jones
All the weather forecasts said ‘chance of rain’, so Mal made a very quick decision it wasn’t a painting day (doesn’t take much!) I will get under the terrace finished one day. We took Rosie down into the ravine for her walk and we now have a stream down there, not yet a river but of course Rosie went in the water that there was.
We then went to Chateau Lambousa to the market. There didn’t seem many cars there, I guess others thought it would rain.
We bought some more hanging painted tiles. There was also a man there making bracelets, well done Steve!
It occured to us that we hadn’t booked our return flight from the UK for the summer. I think we have at last given up on North Cyprus Airlines ever getting a plane in the sky. I looked on Pegasus website and I couldn’t believe the prices they are asking £300 PLUS for one, one way flight! Crazy! We looked on other websites and discovered we could get Easyjet to Istanbul for £70 each and then a “promotion” Pegasus flight from Istanbul to Ercan for £23. So, a good excuse to spend a couple more days in Istanbul on the way back. We have also booked the hotel. For anyone in the TRNC who hasn’t been to Istanbul……..GO! It is a lovely city. Goods you buy there are far cheaper than in the TRNC, there are excellent places to eat (cheaper than the TRNC).
Later we watched Man U beat Wigan 4-0.
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Thought for the Day -“Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed. ” – Wayne Dyer
A bright sunny day so we were up and out early with Rosie. It didn’t last, Mal was just about to do more painting, black clouds and more rain. I can’t believe how the weather changes when it really looked as though it was going to be a sunny day. At times the rain was torrential. It even started seeping under the front door.
Our thoughts and very best wishes go to Jeff who fell from a ladder and has damaged his back and heel. Of course Joan, you are in our thoughts too. Hopefully a speedy recovery Jeff.
We haven’t seen Bev and Gary for a long time (visits to the UK) and so we met them for lunch at Fast Food Cafe. As we walked in one of my ‘readers’ said “second time this week”…….yes Brian you are certainly keeping up! Well, the time zipped by as we had a lot to catch up on. Ali is now a proud dad of a beautiful little girl and showed us the pictures on his phone…congratulations.
On the way home we stopped at the new garden centre which is next to Acmenya. While Mal was away I went in there to buy an almond tree (for Mal’s Valentine present!) . At that stage I hadn’t realised it was open. Yes, it is. It is a very big garden centre and we went in search of more fruit trees. They have a vast selection and very helpful and knowledgable staff. A lot of the trees are 15tl. We only went in for a couple and ended up buying, two peaches (one for each season), an apricot, an Anna apple, a tangerine, a very juicy orange, a cherry which we were assured was good for growing here, a plum and another I have forgotten now. They also have very large weeping mulberries which I love. We bought this as they are selling them for 30tl, much cheaper than the small one I bought a couple of years ago from another garden centre! They also have bags of manure for 5tl. We asked for 4 bags and they said they would dleiver all these for us. Within an hour, all the trees and manure had been delivered. The only problem was the manure did not come in bags but was loose. Mal will now have to get a move on digging and planting before Rosie decides to roll in it all!!
I highly recommend this new garden centre as the prices are very good and as I said very helpful staff.
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Thought for the Day -“A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. ” – Saint Basil
Out for a walk first thing, Bobby came with us again! Mal spent the day painting the front porch and also under the terrace. I started on the mammoth weeding job. All this rain and the weeds are everywhere. It seems like a never ending job.
Jet setting Torin is in Poland this week. I am sure he would much rather be at home.
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Thought for the Day – “He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We went off to Girne market. Very strange weather, it bucketed down with rain while we were there but when we arrived home it hadn’t rained at all. We also stopped at Marshalls to buy some more exterior paint and membrane for the garden and we they gave us discount! Lemar are still doing their trays of large eggs for 5.20tl (30 eggs), so we bought another tray, we do seem to use a lot. I even managed to find some creme de cassis for 15tl, which isn’t that much more expensive than we used to pay when we brought it back from France. We bought the creme de cassis in Astro. It had a huge security tag on it. One girl packed our shopping another put it through the cash register. It wasn’t until we arrived home and unpacked the shopping, you guessed it, the security tag was still on it! Well, nothing bleaped at the supermarket exit and we had the receipt for it, if it had. Of course then Mal had to prize the security tag off it.
Of course we did another visit to Mr Pound. As we were paying for our many items at the till, Mal noticed a card behind the counter of 30 assorted batteries, the tiny round ones that you use in small clocks, watches etc. I have a tiny clock with one such battery and I hadn’t been able to find for a few years. For 4tl we took a gamble. I can’t believe it, I put one in the clock and it works. There are 4 sizes on the one card….absolute bargain. As I say 30 batteries in total.
We stopped at Fast Food Cafe for lunch. Their chicken skewer wraps are delicious, Mal had the lamb and said it was equally good. Chicken 8tl and lamb 9tl and we were also offered coffee ‘on the house’. Along with the wraps they bring a plate of pickles and chillies and two other dishes with garlic sauce and chilli sauce. It’s a great place to go and they are so friendly in there.
We didn’t miss the rain completely, the storm started about half past three, just as I was going to do some gardening.
The lira hit 2.61 to the pound.
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Thought for the Day – “It isn’t your mistakes that make you a failure. It’s not learning from them.” – K Wetwiska
David and Kenny came over and had lunch with us. About 5 minutes before they arrived Mal was putting more bottles of beer in the fridge and managed to drop one on to the tiled floor, consequently when they arrived the place smelt like a brewery. Mal also managed to get glass in his finger.
We had a good afternoon with them. They are good company. While they were here we showed them our DVD from 2002. They couldn’t believe how it was and how things had changed. In those days there was just our land, the old houses in Malatya one way and just a few village houses in Incesu. We even said on the DVD that to our right no one can build because it is ‘government land’. In those days we didn’t know how many ‘untruths’ they told us!
After they left I was doing the washing up. Mal brought a new knife sharpener back from the UK and sharpened all our knives. Well, I forgot there was one in the bottom of the washing up bowl and managed to slice my finger. They really are so sharp now. A good thing we have a well stocked first aid box.