Month: August 2012

Bargain – 20% off kids shoes & 10% off school uniforms  at Debenhams with code.

Good luck for today at the Olympics to Meliz , the first Turkish Cypriot to compete in the Olympic Games.

You may be interested to look for the Perseid meteor showers this weekend. I understand the best time is Sunday and with the clear skies in Cyprus and little light polution, the chances of seeing them are good.

I went out lunch time and met up with “the girls”. It was so nice to see them after all this time. We had our lunch at Kervan Terrace. There wasn’t much sea breeze down there but one of the waiters turned on a large fan next to our table. 15tl seemed a little excessive for a smallish salad but then perhaps I have got used to Uk and Istanbul dining out prices. There was a squiggle on the bill for the Turkish coffee but it looks as though we were charged 4tl!! Is it any wonder the Brit tourists are staying away? They really have no idea how to attract customers. I can remember when Turkish coffee at the end of the meal was “on the house”. In spite of the view being stunning from the restaurant, we will choose another venue our next lunch out. Anyway, good to see you Joan, Sue and Tanya.

In the evening Mal and I lay out on the sun beds in the dark watching the meteor showers….wow…amazing and better to come.

 

Thought for the Day – “ Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.”  ~ Sam Keen

Bargain – Waterproof Digital Camera and Remote Control Solar Car . Both of these bargains would be good to get someone to bring them over from the UK! I ordered some travel hair straighteners from Dealtastic when I was  in the UK. They were delivered within two days and are excellent and only £6.49!! Well, I have to try the companies out that I list!

I seem to have lost a day this week, spent all the previous day thinking it was Tuesday and today Wednesday! So, Cyprus Today reporting is a day late! As soon as I realised I went to Atakara to buy it. The front page headline was no surprise at all….. “Tourism dips as Brits stay away”.

Mal cut more of the bougainvillea, this really is too much heat to be doing all these jobs! He also discovered that we have ripe figs on one of our trees and so picked some of them..they are delicious.

Of course plenty of weeds survived while we were gone, especially the thistles!

 

Thought for the Day – “Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”  ~ Russel Baker

Bargain – 2 for 1 Starbucks Coffee printable voucher – that’s a good one!  Plus if you need extra crockery, you won’t find cheaper than this!

We woke up in the morning…..no internet again, they turned us off again! Mal phoned, same story. He explained again and they said they would check and call back, meanwhile connected us again! Three hours later, no phone call. This is such a shame as we have found Multimax very good until now. Mal gave up and emailed Kemal.

Well, 22 golds for Team GB already, how good is that?!

Credit where it is due, eventually we had a call from Multimax saying it was their error and they apologised and have given us 12 days extra free, I guess for the inconvenience. So, we don’t have to pay until 30th August. As I said they have been very good up until now and have made their error good. Thanks Multimax!

Mal cut the lantana hedge and I carried on cleaning out cupboards until we decided to jump in the pool.

Lena popped over with a “spare dog” looking for a home. I’m afraid Mal and I are still too raw from losing Rosie and have no intention of having another dog here, we feel it is too dangerous an environment. We will have to make do with the lizards and spiders! If anyone would like to rehome a little Cyprus Terrier ‘contact me’ and I willput you in touch with Lena.

BBQ in the evening!

 

 

Bargain – 72 hour sale for worldwide hotels and Mamas and Papas Baby Buggy

I may have forgotten to say, when we returned Mal having emailed Multimax to ask for our internet to be reconnected on 5th, it hadn’t been. We called them the following morning and they said we should have paid on 3rd. Why is everything so difficult here? We paid on 3rd May and gave them the date we would return. We were told then our payment date will change to 18th August. Now they are saying no but they would ring us back….no phone call back! The second day back they cut us off again, another phone call, same story. Mal asked them to check their records…yes, they would call us back…….. nothing!

We went to collect my car insurance in the morning, thanks Steve! We also visited David and Kenny as they have been kindly paying our water bill as the Beledeysi wouldn’t let us pay in advance. Then a big shop. We went to Ileli and I noticed a lot of prices have increased since we have been gone…chicken an increase of 2tl a kilo for one.  Of course all the fresh fruit and veg are cheap and so much tastier than in the UK, so we bought loads of fruit, water melon, cherries, figs, plums etc. All very sweet and delicious.

I am cleaning out all the kitchen cupboards as they all smell musty and of course washing everything and in between doing a bit of gardening. We thought we were coming back for a rest! We just get in the pool when we get too hot.

 

Bargain- The Works 10% off all orders – even without the 10% off they have some real bargains here!

More gardening and cleaning and then we went to Starling to get a small amount of shopping. We were very lucky to go the time we did as we bumped into Ingrid and Ed and new baby Pearl. She is an absolute angel. She was asleep so we couldn’t play with her! Ingrid was looking very well.

Mal had to tackle the bougainvillea on the drive as it was nearly reaching the ground!

Later we watched some of the Olympics.

 

Bargain – Cheap BA to Paris break and bargain North Cyprus Holiday.

Oh how we miss Rosie since we have been back.

We started on the gardening but with the heat did a little and then jumped in the pool and then a bit more! Lena rang in the afternoon to welcome us back. Of course I congratulated her on becoming a grandma to Pearl. Mother (Ingrid) and baby are doing well.

We watched the tennis final of the Olympics. Murray did look as if this time he was determined to get gold. A pity he didn’t in the mixed doubles as well.

Mal cooked a BBQ which was a nice end to the day.

When we were in Istanbul on the cruise,we saw workmen cleaning one of the mosques on the shore of the Bosphorous. I don’t think Health and Safety are the top priorities on their list.  Look no safety harness (or hard hat or anything else!) Scary! You can click on the pictures to see in more detail.

 

 

We were up early and went out for another wander around after breakfast. We sat in the park for a while as it was cool in there and some of the Fatih Municipality Tourism Delegates were there having a briefing. They are dotted all over Istanbul and if you want any tourist information they will do their best to help you.

We left our hotel in the afternoon and back to Atatürk Airport to catch another Atlas jet flight, this time back to Ercan. Chris met us at the airport and drove us back home stopping to get some supplies on the way in Ileli, where I bumped into the lady who used to run  “Back in Time” in Girne. I wish I had more time to chat to her as it seems her husband has left her. Chris was waiting in the car, so I couldn’t wait long.

Home and we looked at the overgrown garden and all the dirt and cobwebs in the house. Where does it all come from when the house was cleaned before I left?! Looks as though we have our work cut out for the next week or two. We both jumped in the pool and decided to think about it tomorrow!

The last photo is leaving Istanbul.