Year: 2011

It was a really nice day with the sun shining although quite a chilly wind.

Mal and I went down to Lambousa market as we hadn’t been there for a long while. It’s amazing how many people you bump into down there. One of them was Margaretha and so we had a coffee and a catch up with her.

Cyprus Today see link. Perhaps someone can tell me what are they thinking of?? Expats can only work here for 4 consecutive years? What about the young families who work here? After 4 years are they supposed to just up sticks and  trot back to the UK?! Crazy!!

In the evening we watched the eclipse of the moon. We really had quite a good view, better than we had expected.

A better Man U game but Mal was not happy about Hammers result.

 

 

 

Thought for The Day -“There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life – happiness, freedom and peace of mind – are always attained by giving them to someone else.” ~ Peyton Conway March (c/o Kiva.org)

 

Mal and I took Rosie to the beach. We had a long walk and then heard a dog howling. I went to the end of the beach by the cliffs and found a pointer who was stuck on the rocks. He was so terrified and so I managed to get Rosie’s lead around his neck but he wouldn’t budge. I shouted across the beach to Mal and Rosie and they climbed up to where I was. With a few treats, Rosie’s encouragement and Mal’s strength, we managed to get him off the rocks. We took him back to the cliff tops and off he trotted. Dog rescue over.

If you are still  looking for somewhere to stay over the festive season see link. They have some very good value breaks.  If you want a free travel size tube of toothpaste see link. If you like Boots No 7, or want a less than half price Christmas present see link.

Another rainy day with some thunder and lightning too.

Lunchtime I met up with Sue, Tanya and Joan and we went to eat at Ikimiz see link. The others hadn’t been before but I think were suitably impressed, not only with the food but also with the amazing hospitality of Fatma and Latife. They make you feel so at home. The food was excellent as always. We asked for a selection of whatever they thought and we were not disappointed. REAL Turkish Cypriot food!! If you haven’t been yet, give it a try.

Some good news later from Torin (who has been made redundant), he has an interview next Thursday with an agency in London. Fingers crossed.

I also had an email from Robin. They had been staying in Turkey for a week and only when they were going to check in online did they discover that their Pegasus flight had been cancelled!! They hadn’t notified them at all. So they had to stay longer and didn’t arrive in Cyprus until this evening. On their arrival, their phone hadn’t been topped up and so couldn’t use it. Their car battery was flat and the pump wasn’t working on their central heating! I don’t think they are having a good week!

 

 

 

Thought for the Day – “The best way to know who we are is often to find out how others see us.” ~ Paulo Coelho

I’m not sure whether it was the rain pouring down or the dustmen that woke me up at 5.00am. I got up anyway and left Mal and Rosie sleeping!

When we were in the UK we bought some outside solar powered coloured lights. Theyare only supposed to last for 10 hours at a time but obviously we get more sun here. They were flashing last night and still working this morning. So, they were a good buy….until I discovered that we paid full price for them and now they are selling them at half price see link.

I walked Rosie in a very muddy ravine but she loved it.

Another one day only 50% off everything see link

A busy day with a lot of ONE day only offers for today see link

In the evening River rang on Skype. He is in the middle of exams and he wasn’t sure about the pancreas and insulin and also measurement of velocity. Grandad explained it all to him. Even I know all about it now! What did we do before Skype?! He has had his Sociology result already and had an A*, 98% but he was annoyed because he didn’t get the two extra marks!!!

 

Thought for the Day – “Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” ~Lord Chesterfield

Yesterday the weather forecast said rain for today but it seems now the forecast has changed and storms tomorrow instead! Our walk was in the sun!

My Deal for the Day (only on offer today!) see link. We have one of these to have the photos so that we can see them all the time. Another good one see link.

I do it every year…I seem to have it fixed in my head that my car tax runs out the end of December. No it doesn’t, it ran out the end of November. Oh dear. As soon as I realised this morning, Mal and I headed off to Girne with all our documentation to renew it. It’s not quite the same as in the UK as no one here displays their tax disc and even if you did the sun would fade it in 5 minutes.

In and out of the tax office in a very short time. The total we paid 56.57tl!! That’s £19.62 at today’s rate. A couple of kurus of that was the fine! As my sister said when I spoke to her, it wouldn’t even buy you a quarter of a tank of petrol in the UK!  There are some benefits of having an old car.  A bit of bargain hunting on the way back home and we bought Cyprus Today see link. Not a lot of news, more about the (I quote) “The senseless census as many uncounted.”  We did find Christmas puddings in Lemar see link. We bought an M and S one back from the UK!

The rain did arrive after all, about 3.00pm and it was quite heavy.

Oh dear, Manchester United are out of the Champions!

 

Thought for the Day –

Mal and I took Rosie out for a nice walk in the mountains and collected some more pine cones. We use quite a lot for the log burner.

More and more bargains seem to be coming in to me, so I spent quite some time putting them on my Bargain Hunters website. Mal had a lot of things to catch up with online. It’s a shame I have bought all the grand children’s Christmas presents. I am sure one of them would have loved this see link.

 

Thought for the Day – “Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.” ~ Sir James M Barrie

I wasn’t up so early this morning, back to normal dog walking time. I spoke to Mal on his journey to the airport and when he arrived at the airport. He seems to have done quite a bit of Christmas shopping at the airport!! (Dixons and Duty Free!)

The plane was delayed (Pegasus) but they made up the time and I was there to collect him at 9.00pm and he was coming out the door. For a change his was the first case off.

Home and Rosie had a good old sniff around Mal’s case just to make sure he had brought supplies for her, which of course he had.

Today’s bargain, a steam mop, great for cleaning the floor tiles, at a bargain price. Also it only weighs 1.8 kg, so I have ordered one to bring back in our luggage on our next visit to the UK! see link

 

Thought for the Day – “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.” ~ Evan Esar

CENSUS DAY!!!

Rosie and I were out and walking in the dark with a torch at 4.15. The “night sky” was lovely with all the stars. The only life around was a car driving back up to the village, obviously dashing home before the lock down at 5am! Iam  still trying to work out why we have to be in our houses from 5am when they are not starting the census until 8am!

I did have an early morning email from David who obviously was as mad as me, out walking Jekka before the curfew, in fact I half expected to bump into them. It did start me thinking would I be dog walking at that time in the UK. I think not! So, although we are locked in, it is still far safer here.

Typical, I just started getting some lunch and the census girl arrived! At least now I have been officially censused but still not allowed out until 6pm!

I couldn’t believe some of the questions, they seemed totally irrelevant. I did have my passport ready as others said they were looked at. Mine wasn’t. Accordiing to Cyprus 44 some people were not even visited and they had 8,000 people carrying out the census?! I took Rosie out as soon as the curfew ended and there were suddenly lots of cars coming down from the village, everyone being let out of their homes!

I did speak to Scarlet and Jack in the afternoon on the web cam. Jack kept asking where grandad was and I told him he wasn’t here, which didn’t impress. When Mal did arrive at Torin’s he was so pleased to see him in the flesh! Mal stayed the night at Torin’s before his flight back in the morning. Mal also collected the other Christmas presents that we didn’t have room for last time we came back.

I later spoke to the boys in Cardiff and Josie. They are all doing very well at school and Sol did very well for his talk on Turtles. He managed an even higher mark because it had to be something about the environment/endangered species that was personal to you and of course he had seen the turtles hatching…yeah!

 

Thought for the Day – “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” ~ Benjamin  Franklin