Month: August 2011

Another hot and humid day. Mal and I thought we would go to the Wednesday market but got as far as Mr Pound and then decided it was too hot to bother with the market. Mal has been working on one of his websites and I know was keen to get back to it. So, we did the rest of the shopping and came home. Lurpak butter 200 gram is on offer at Lemar for 2.95tl and Clover (small tub) for 1.95tl but take note the Clover has a short date on it.

More time in the pool for me, after the ironing of course! I did a small amount of tidying the garden too.

Lena saw Mal when he was walking Rosie in the evening and she gave us a proporgator with rhubarb seeds. That seems interesting and so I’ll see if it grows.

Thought for the Day –  “When in doubt just take the next step and don’t look back.” ~ Paulo Coelho

Good news for today £1 = 2.945tl! Is it going to reach 3?!

That was the good news from the TRNC……the bad news from the UK….the awful scenes I have watched on the TV, the riots in London, Manchester, Birmingham etc.

It was the middle day of Rosie’s tablet days (three days on and three days off), so we drove into the mountains which she loves. Of course not a very long walk or she would be suffering but Mal even threw the ball gently for her a couple of times. That set her tail wagging.

Robin popped round and loaned us a book he had read which he recommended.

Hot and humid most of the day so a few jobs managed in the morning and then a lot of time in the pool in the afternoon. The only place to be!

 

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Thought for the Day – “Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea about their sufferings.” ~ Paulo Coelho

 

 

 

 

Lunchtime we went to Silver Rocks and met up with Ken Dunn and his wife Wendy. Ken writes very good articles for NCFP and it was the first chance we had to meet them. A lovely couple. Robin joined us as well as fellow contributor. We had lunch there and then a very relaxed afternoon having a drink or two and entertaining conversation.

Silver Rocks have a good snack menu for lunch but the portions are BIG!

 

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Thought for the Day – “Go further than you planned. Ask for the moon: you will be surprised how often you get it.” ~ Paulo Coehlo

 

 

 

 

Rosie and I went out early and then we had quite a lazy day.

I watched the Man U v Man City game in the afternoon. Well done Man U 3-2, right at the very end in extra time Nanni put in the vital goal.

We had a baby praying mantis on or table and there he sat for about three hours. They are so funny to watch, the way they wriggle their heads around. The plant is Arum Maculatum.

Mal cooked us a BBQ in the evening.

 

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Thought for the Day – “The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention” ~ Richard Moss

I went to the shops mainly to buy Cyprus Today see link. I began to leave and Rosie decided she wanted to come with me. I wasn’t going to take her in the car as my air con is opening all the windows, so I shut the gate behind me. Well, she barked and howled so much Mal had to shut her indoors. I think she thought I was leaving her again! She has been my ‘shadow’ since we have returned.

The best place this weather is in the pool because it has been quite humid.

In the evening Lena and Willy asked us to join them at the Black Olive ‘open mike’ night. It is 15tl which includes a choice of three dishes for you meal. I had the tandoori chicken  which was really good and so was the music.  It’s a nice place to be and very handy for us. Vicky always makes everyone feel very welcome.

Ingrid was thinking about doing a ‘turn’ but nerves got the better of her (plus the pressure from our table)!

 

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Thought for the Day –  “Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy” ~ Jaques Maritain

 

The problem with going on holiday is what you come back to! Mounds of washing and ironing and also all the cleaning up following rellies staying here and they left the same time as us.

Mal and I went shopping as well to get all the fresh fruit and vegetables. Cherries are still in the shops 11tl a kilo in Starling but I see (from the newspaper) they are selling them at the Wednesday market for 7tl. It sounded from the article that the fruit and vegetable sellers at the market are not doing at all well. Perhaps if they priced things instead of one price for locals  and one price for “us”, they would get more customers.

I heard from Rhys and I had to laugh as he has an order for his embroidery on 500 hats for the Fairport Cropredy Convention coming up shortly  see link . He remembers the days when I used to take him to listen to Fairport and I have all their “L.P.s”.  He said the website looked like a load of ageing hippies, well, they have been going for 40 years and I guess he would never have dreamt seeing them perform as a child, one day he would be doing hats for one of their conventions!

A shame Mal and I are not in the Uk or we may have joined them.

The picture is not very good as he sent it on his phone.

 

Thought for the Day – “Choose the mountains you want to climb” ~ Paulo Coelho

 

 

***Again apologies for the delay in updating the diary because of the lack of internet on our travels***

It really was good to be back home following all our travels.  We were up late as we didn’t go to bed until 2.00am!

We went and collected Rosie from Lena’s. She seems to have enjoyed the air con that they now have in the kennels (www.willenco.com)  Lena said her leg has been good so that is a bonus as we left her for so long.

A day of catching up with jobs and mounds of washing but at least here it dries in 5 minutes.

For anyone who lives in the TRNC and hasn’t been to Istanbul GO!! It is a lovely city with so much to see. There are so many places to stay but we prefer to stay in Sultanahmet with so much around there.

We stayed at Erboy Hotel in Sultanahmet (www.erboyhotel.com) and they have a great restaurant serving Ottoman food, very different from Turkish (3 course dinner with 2 drinks about 90tl). If you stay at the hotel they give you a 10% off card for any of their groups restaurants.  The shuttle is the cheapest way to get from Sabiha Gocken airport (10 euros). We booked the hotel through www.hotels4u.com, £105 for two nights and of course used topcashback which gave us more discount.  Pegasus  were the flights back from Istanbul at a cost of £23 one way.

If you want any more information then contact me and I will let you know anything more that you may want to know.

Also see link

Robin rang in the afternoon and we were so pleased to hear that he is OK following his car smash on the way to his house coming from the airport see link. There doesn’t seem much to choose between Istanbul drivers and drivers in the TRNC!

 

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Thought for the Day – “If everybody loves you, something is wrong. Find one enemy to keep you alert” ~ Paulo Coelho