Month: August 2009

What a surprise, we woke up to find all our websites coming up ‘service unavailable’. Currently the ISP is sorting out the problem and Hans Doeleman is helping track down the culprit. No it is not the government but it seems to be a twisted individual. 9,000 hits in a few hours…very suspicious.

On to CTA and our overcharging on tickets we purchased online….not a word from CTA. We had no option but to contact our credit card company and put the amount in dispute.

In the evening we went to Silver Rocks (a good restaurant is worth revisiting.) On our arrival we met Gary, his brother and family down there.   Christa and Robin arrived shortly afterwards to join us for dinner.   I have failed to mention that for the last three days I have been unable to buy carrots. Rosie has one every evening and is now really disappointed as I can’t get any. There are none in the shops! We even called into Atakara on our way home from Silver Rocks…….havuç yok!

Another congratulations to my niece Wendy (and Mark of course), who gave birth to twins tonight, Jude 7 pounds 7 ounces and Layla 5 pounds 13 ounces.  Mum and babies doing well. No photos as yet, only one visitor per bed allowed in their hospital because of the swine flu!

Mal launched his North Cyprus Free Press online newspaper. If you took any notice of the comments on Cyprus 44, one in particular you could believe on a sunny Sunday some have had a sense of humour bypass. Comments as this were far outweighed by the positive emails.

In the afternoon we watched the Spurs v Hammers game. I am sure Mal was not expecting Hammers to win but he lives in hope….they lost 2-1. As I have said before Spurs are really looking good under ‘Arry.  We spoke to all the grandchildren in the evening and they are all making the most of the rest of their summer holiday.

Congratulations to Philip (Bev’s son) and Rhonda on the birth of Joshua Philip (7 pounds 14 ounces), he was born yesterday.

I went shopping first thing, more computer paper and I also called into Mr Pound and then on to Lemar who have more stock of 20kg bags of Cotago dried dog food for 39tl. Next stop Starling and the next bargain of the day 1.5kg bags of Ariel washing powder, half price at 5.95tl. I have also discovered that if you buy a litre bottle of 7 Up it is roughly 2.20tl but if you buy the 1 and a half litre bottle it is 2.65tl!

I bought Cyprus Today. Mal sent them a letter during the week, they phoned him and converted it into an article. It is quite amazing just how many misquotes they can write into just one short article.

Front page of Cyprus Today is a threatened national strike, strikes are already causing chaos at Ercan airport with delayed flights, one in particular (CTA!) which should have left this morning and is now looking as though the stranded passengers will be leaving tomorrow morning. They really do work hard at boosting the number of tourists coming to the TRNC (NOT!)  We all know CTA have limited planes and so this will have such a knock on effect!

On the subject of CTA, nothing from them about the reimbursement of the extra money they deducted from my visa.  Looking as though I will put it in contention with my visa card!

Mal has been compiling ‘North Cyprus Free Press’ online with the launch tomorrow – www.3cyprus.com . His original letter to Cyprus Today can be seen on this website. He has also had an interesting email concerning Gez, which is also on the new website under ‘debate’. His articles are a little tongue in cheek.   We watched the Man U game, not a good first half but the second half led to Man U beating Wigan 5-0, with Rooney getting his 100th and 101st goals for Man U. That’s more like it!

Today is the first day of Ramadan.  It was another hot day and we were up even earlier to take Rosie out. We saw David also dog walking and he told us that at last the house next to him has been sold…to more Russians.

In the evening we had a BBQ and a Friday night jug of Pimms. Mal makes a good Pimms and as well as all the other ingredients adds frozen raspberries. Delicious. I believe it is as cheap here as carting it back from UK Duty Free, it is 30tl for a litre bottle.

Mal and I have purchased tickets online for CTA flights next July for the four eldest grandchildren to come out. Two of them are now classed as adults (12 and 13), so for Mal to bring them over, 3 adults and 2 children. Easy to book, entering their ages. BUT on checking our visa statement, the tickets have been listed individually and are all priced as adult tickets. So, we rang CTA in London and spoke to “Erol”. He told us it was obviously our fault for not entering ‘master’. Given that the options on booking are Dr, Mr, Mrs or Miss, sorry his argument does not hold water and anyway we put in the ages. He started to suggest that we could book another ticket and…..no way, this is their mistake not ours. He finally said he knew nothing about computers and would get someone to call us back. That was 9.30 in the morning. Need I say no one called? We then sent emails to every CTA email address we could find. One replied in the afternoon and requested my credit card details via email without even saying we may get a refund!! No way, I replied. On an insecure email?   I did send a screen print of the relevant part of my statement and my email was ‘read’ but no reply. As has been reported by many before me….you have no Customer Service CTA!

Phew it was a hot one! Temperatures were 37 degrees in the shade but it was lovely as the humidity was only 20%. I wouldn’t like to estimate the temperature in the sun, it was hot. We did manage to get a few things done in the morning, Mal cutting back overgrown bushes and then in the swimming pool for a while in the afternoon.

In the evening we were invited to Lyn’s 50th Birthday party at Silver Rocks. We had a really good time and it was a pleasure to meet Lyn’s mum for the first time. I am sure everyone enjoyed themselves and so thank you very much Lyn and Stu. I must also say Silver Rocks did them proud and the staff are so friendly.

I went to Illeli to get some shopping and have to say they have the most pleasant people working there and the girl on the till even packed all my shopping for me.

I bought the Midweek Cyprus Today and front page was an article about Gez. Read more…

Mal was a little incensed, to say the least, by all this and wrote a letter to Cyprus Today. A few hours after he emailed it they phoned him to confirm the information he had given them and told him the letter would be published on Saturday

In the evening us girlies went to Pizza night, a nice strawberry based cocktail.   Later Mal and I watched the Man U v Burnley game, not surprisingly by the way they were playing Man U lost 1-0. I honestly can’t say they deserved to win. Spurs won again, I think I would rather have watched that match had it been on.

Ingrid came over in the afternoon and we discussed how we go about starting a new charity. As with most things over here, it will be a challenge! Early days.

Mal and I played cards in the evening.