Month: March 2011

We went to Lena and Willy’s in the afternoon for coffee. It was nice to catch up with them and Ingrid.

It was good weather during the day but turned colder in the evening, so we had the log burner on.

Thought for the Day –  “Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.” ~ Jennifer Yane

We went out in the morning and paid our water bill. This month it also included rubbish collection and street lighting. We think that may have been overdue as we were fined a few kurus but as you don’t get bills, it is a little difficult to keep track of when you should pay what. We paid all the bill anyway and hope we are up to date now. Mal went in and paid and said the lady before him was asked for considerably more  than her bill but couldn’t understand why. ??!

We also did a bit of shopping and into Mr Pound. As usual, we went in for two things and came out with 15. Well, they do have a lot of gardening  things upstairs!!

More gardening in the afternoon. Mal cleared more at the front, whilst Rosie watched on from above!

[slideshow]

Thought for the Day – “Do what you can with what you have where you are” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

I think you call it intermittent rain, I put my washing out, half an hour later it rained. It seemed as soon as I took it in the sun came out. I did it three times and then gave up.

In between showers we did a bit more in the garden. I sorted out my lemon grass as it has gone a bit wild. I will have to cook a few Thai curries to use some of it.

I gave Rosie a good shower and brush to get rid of her dead ticks and cleaned all her bedding and the rugs.

In the evening we went out with Christa and Robin. We decided to go for a nice meal as it was their last night before returning to Germany. Robin’s suggestion was to go to the Grand Center Boutique Hotel which they had discovered in Girne. (www.grandcenterhotel.com) We arrived having booked a table to find that the chef was ill so we couldn’t eat there. They were very apologetic.

No problem, so we left and thought of somewhere else to go. Robin suggested Niazi’s Lagoon Restaurant as he said they served an excellent fish meze for 30tl. We walked along to the Lagoon.  We sat at our table, were given menus and discovered that the fish meze is now 42tl but it still sounded good value for money as you could choose your main fish course from the main menu. I wanted the turbot and Mal was thinking about having the Dover Sole.  Christa only wanted the stuffed pepper to start and then sword fish kebabs. Robin, Mal and I chose the full fish meze. We ordered, our drinks, they arrived later and then after half an hour we were still sitting there, not even a bread roll in sight!

A group of men then came in and sat at the next table. Their meals appeared before ours and we were still waiting. In a nutshell it was an awful evening. The service was diabolical,  Robin asked after so long “please can we have some food?”  I think the four of us were invisible. Eventually cold mezes arrived….no salad, 7 pieces of small toast for 4 of us. The final insult was a small plate of ‘something’ fish for the main! How do we divide the two small red fish into three? I think they were expecting a miracle.  We hadn’t even been asked what our choice was for the main.  We said what we had wanted and were told Turbot and Dover sole were off the menu…..but they hadn’t asked anyway. A waiter came and asked if our meal was OK. I replied “no” to which he replied “thank you” and walked away.

Next a waitress with the same question. By this time I was getting rather angry and told her all our complaints, including that we seemed invisible to all the staff where as other tables were not. She was the first person to apologise and said the owner would come up and see us. We waited and waited…of course he didn’t. We asked for the bill (FULL PRICE) and on our way out I saw the waitress and told her their customer service was awful and why hadn’t the owner had the decency to speak to very unsatisfied customers. All I got was the ‘Cyprus shrug’ and she walked away from me. The chipped plate in the picture was the main course to be divided by three plus two tiny pieces of swordfish each.

Needless to say we will never go back. They don’t want our custom, just our money. I was brought up in a catering background and I could never imagine my parents ever treating their customers in such an appalling manner.

It seems we are not the only ones. This is from Trip Advisor:
“service! what service? – I love kyrenia and find the people very friendly and welcoming……that is until i went to the Lagoon fish restaurant. Unless you are a turkish cypriot, then service is non existent. No eye contact, smiles or friendly gestures and didnt even ask us if we enjoyed the food. Food tasted bland and presentation poor. We even had to ask the waiter to clear our dishes away, as he was too busy smiling and attending to other diners i.e. turkish cypriots. I have never felt so unwelcome, unwanted and ignored in a restaurant before…and this is one place I wont be going back to!”

Quite honestly I would rather eat at Fast Food in Alsancak, excellent service, excellent food and a fraction of the price and they value your custom.

Shame on you Lagoon.

[slideshow]

Thought for the day – “Food is an important part of a blanced diet” ~ Fran Lebowitz

A lovely sunny day and so we made the most of it and spent the day out in the garden. The weeds have been having a field day in our absence.  At least we have started catching up with them now.

Our new weeping mulberry is budding, in fact it is more advanced than the one we bought a couple of years ago.

Rosie has ticks…yuk. Yesterday I put tick treatment on her and a couple I discovered on her I covered with Vaseline, that sorts them out. Before we went away there were none around, there are now!

[slideshow]

Thought for the Day – “A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of” ~ Ogden Nash

Perhaps we should have gone to bed earlier. Our alarm went off at 1/4 to 3 in the morning. We went to reception and our transfer transport was already there waiting. I think they came early after forgetting to collect us when we arrived! So, we were at the airport three hours before our flight was due to leave. All that hanging around at the airport for a 40 minute flight! We had coffees while we were waiting.

Chris was at Ercan waiting to take us home (thank you Chris). He also let us stop at Ileli so Mal could buy Cyprus Today see link

Home and we unpacked and then collected Rosie. Lena did have a spare dog there and said would we like another as well as Rosie! As lovely as the dog was, we just brought Rosie home. As usual she went mad as soon as she was back. I gave her a pigs ear which she promptly went and buried in the garden. I was hoping she would as she has to lose weight.

Then the rain started. We were hoping the good weather was going to continue. We certainly can’t complain about the weather we had in Antalya.

Petrol has gone up again while we have been away but it is still cheaper than Turkey.

Later we watched Chelsea beat Man City.

There certainly was some low cloud during the day.

[slideshow]

Thought for the Day – “Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influences of each”. ~ Henry David Thoreau

 

Our last day! It was sunny and warm again, so we went by the pool. A day of doing very little except reading. I have read three books since I have been here!

It seemed to be  change over day and a lot more English people arrived.

We had an earliesh dinner and then went to the Sherwood pub, where there was a very good guitarist playing. Eventually we had to go back to the room and pack.

[slideshow]

Thought for the Day – “Determine to live life with flair and laughter” ~ Maya Angelou

 

It rained! It wasn’t heavy but enough to keep everyone off the beach and away from around the pool. There was still plenty to do indoors and we went in the indoor pool for a swim. It was not so bad in the afternoon and so we went for a walk and saw a new hotel that is opening next month. We will have to keep our eyes open for that one. It’s called the Royal Holiday Palace.

We went and watched the ‘Showtime’ in the evening.

[slideshow]

Thought for the Day – “Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi