On The Island

I think  Spring is here at last, good weather in the mid twenties promised all week. In the morning we went into the ravine with Rosie. She loved running through the stream. It looked as though the Beledeysi have been down there clearing the path with a digger. It also looked as though where they stopped they burst a water pipe as water was gushing out of it. We will need that in the summer!

It was so nice when we got back that we had our breakfast in the sun on the terrace.  We then started clearing the rockery and putting more mebrane and gravel down. There are some fragile succulents out there, so I had to help Mal (or he may have stepped on them!) He can be  a bit clumsy.

Lou rang later and put all the kids on the webcam, Josie is growing and Ollie was so funny.

We then watched Man U win and oh dear Chelsea LOST!!! In the middle of the two matches we had our first BBQ for a long while.

I have put the picture on to show how tiny the orchids are, so easily missed. This one is next to Mal’s finger.

Another beautiful day, so we took Rosie to the mountains. It really is a lovely time of year here in Cyprus with all the wild flowers at their best.  The garden is starting to look colourful as well, if you ignore the chewed leaves courtesy of the snails. We did leave beer down for them while we were away. I think they all enjoyed it and carried on chewing.

We watched the Hammers game in the afternoon which caused a very long face for Mal. Arsenal won!

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We took Rosie to the beach and she loved having a swim. The way down to the sands was a bit rough because some of the walkway had collapsed obviously during the winds and floods. We found thousands (literally) of the tiny blue flowers amongst the grass above the beach.  Back home and I gave Rosie a much needed shower after her favourite occupation of rolling in the seaweed.

We stopped at Starling on the way back to get a few bits of shopping. 16.07 tl the total and I gave her 20tl. I thought she may let me off the 7 kurus (as they normally expect the customer to go short) but no, she gave me a handful of small change leaving ME 8 kurus short…….NO!!  I told her I wanted my correct change. A week in Turkey and we always received our exact change…WHY can’t they do it here? I know it is not much but it mounts up when the shops gain every time. I won’t let them get away with it. My “getting the correct change” campaign continues.

It was a beautiful day so we had our meals outside, in between with me doing a marathon wash after being away for a week.

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Our last morning at the Royal Wings. Breakfast and then we packed and our transport came to take us to the airport. The plane actually left 5 minutes early. Jill collected us from Ercan and we were surprised that there had been rain and a storm and hail stones in some areas. I looked at Google weather in the evening 11 degrees in Girne and 16 degrees in Margate!!

Mal and I went and collected Rosie who as usual went crazy running around when she got home.

We did make a start on the unpacking but didn’t get very far!

We had breakfast and then decided to take a walk to the shops. Apart from the exercise it is good for our Turkish as people here are far more inclined to speak Turkish to you than they are in Cyprus.  In one of the shops we were looking for butterflies to put under the terrace and couldn’t find them anywhere but we already have 2 from Antalya. Here we were given fruit tea and I  think we could have stayed there all day, they were particularly nice. Faruk gave us his email and said he would like to find a nice English girl and was dissapointed that we only had sons. Any offers? He is good looking, good at English and nearly finished his accountacy exams!! He is with Mal in the photo with the other two girls….one of whom wanted Mal as her ‘sugar daddy’!! Teachers command a lot of respect in Turkey (NOT so in England!) I think she was after his money..if only she knew!!

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Mal’s birthday!! He opened his presents and cards and also rang people to thank them. He said he wanted a lazy day, a bit like the last 5 days then! We did go for a walk. Rhys and Lou gave him some embroidered T shirts for his newspaper!! (Rhys’s business!) The sun was very warm but there was a really high wind, in fact we had heard it howling most of the night. It was fine sitting outside if you could barricade yourself in a corner out of the wind!

Following our after lunch coffee, we were in the lift with a German lady when the lift stopped mid floors…a power cut we thought. It is funny because Mal and I had already commented on the make of the lift…..”Schindler’s Lift”!! This is not the first time we have been stuck in a lift, in fact the last time it was 40 minutes in Dover, the hottest day of the summer. Thankfully just a couple of minutes and the lift jerked and started up again.  The other lady was just starting to panic and I have to say I wasn’t that amused.

More food and drink, entertainment in the piano bar followed by ‘Showtime’. Coincidently a lot of the animation team worked at Kervansaray when we were there in October. They must have thought the  same about that hotel as we did…never to return! Mal did not like the armchairs in the lounge at this hotel, as you can see in the picture. I told him  as he is a year older, I guess he now needs a straight back old man’s chair!

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We had every intention of going into Antalya and then the sun came out! So, we stayed by the pool and also played cards. Gukmen, one of the animation team seemed to like being with us. We had a mutual agreement that he taught us Turkish and we taught him English. He tries so hard and obviously the animation team have to mix with the guests but the only language he speaks is Turkish, so he struggles.

Another day by the pool, a walk, table tennis, food and more food and in the bar in the evening for cocktails.

It was Italian night in the restaurant and very good food it was too!

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