On The Island

 Sunday 1st June

Rosie and I went for a lovely long walk at quarter to 6. By the time we got back, it was hot! Rosie just lay down on the cool floor!

I forgot to say in yesterday’s entry, when I was at Gwen’s, her friend Elaine came round. The previous night Elaine and a gang of others went for a meal at Bizim Han. They sat down and looked at the menu and saw that their ‘pot’ dishes that used to be 8ytl, then went up to 12ytl are now 20ytl! A bottle of Cankaya was 30ytl. I was pleased to hear that they all got up and started to leave. The owner asked why they were going and so they told him his prices were a joke. They ate elsewhere. It is not as if you are even paying for the ambience there. Well, it’s the only vote most of us have here….to vote with our feet. Well done Elaine and co. When will they learn?

Rosie is happy to be back home and sleeps a lot of the day because of the heat.

I watched the Motogp in the afternoon….Rossi is back to his old form (or rather his bike is) after a disastrous last season. He is now leading by 12 points…Spain next weekend.

I spoke to Mal on Skype in the evening, it really was like two tin cans and a piece of string, that was when I could hear! We will not be using  eXtend  much longer!

Marine Turtles

August 25^th 2004

In order to celebrate my last pay packet we decided to visit the Marine Turtle Conservation Project based at Alagadi. The two were not related, they just occurred on the same day. Although I was originally trained as a Biology teacher, my biological knowledge is very limited. Teaching degrees in the 70�s tended to be light on subject content compared to specialist degrees. My interest in biology was mainly in the area of the environment, possibly because of that decade�s fashion for such matters, but I still now find nature fascinating. I�ve had very little time to develop this interest and was happy to visit the project�s headquarters along with a hundred others on that day.

A short introductory video told the story of the two marine turtle species that visit the North Cyprus coast; the green and the loggerhead turtles. Apparently there were only 300 green turtles left in the Mediterranean and half of these returned to breed along the North Cyprus coastline, the majority at Alagadi. Turtles return to their birthplace to lay up to 100 eggs at a time. They do not become fertile until they are 30 years old and live until they are about 80. Unfortunately only about 1 in 1000 of those survives for this return journey to lay their eggs. Hazards include predators and human intervention in the environment. A major example of this being the island�s economic need to expand, in order to cope with the influx of tourists and people like us who have homes here. A huge road building programme during 2003-4 has resulted in a great deal of damage to beaches which are the breeding grounds of the turtles. The turtles are programmed to return to these grounds and are unable to find alternatives if this environment has been made unfavourable for breeding.

We decided to sponsor a green turtle named Celia who regularly travels back and forth between Alagadi beach and Tripoli. We are able to track Celia�s journey from day-to-day by the use of the internet and a satellite tracking device attached to her. Doing this has made the marine turtle issue more real, as we check each day to see if Celia is still around and has not become prey to natural predators or human pollution. I dread the day when we receive a message that the satellite signal is no longer available.

At the project headquarters, a small hut in reality, we were shown buckets of turtles which had been excavated from nests the previous night. They were desperate to get going, there little legs thrashing in the air as a volunteer showed a loggerhead turtle to us. They seemed too small and vulnerable to embark on the 6000 km journey that Celia regularly took on her round trip between Tripoli and Alagadi beach.

Buckets of turtles were given to the younger members of the group to carry and I could see from their eyes that given a chance they would like to take one home and keep it in the batch. They proudly carried their turtles for half an hour to where they were to be released. At the release sight we were shown one of the project activities; excavating a nest from which turtles had earlier emerged and made there way down the beach into the rough waves. Volunteers dug away sand counting eggs which had previously held turtles and those which were infertile. The nest contained 32 eggs which had carried live turtles and 34 infertile ones and a live turtle! It was surprising to suddenly be presented with a wriggling turtle which had been previously covered with � meter of sand and to think that even before embarking on their incredible journey it would have to burrow its way through all that sand.

We were told that the proportion of male to female turtles in a nest depends on the temperature; the hotter it is the more female produced. With Cyprus� 30-40^oC temperatures this meant there were a lot more females on the beach. The males stay out at sea, never to return to land again.

The sole occupant of the nest we saw evacuated was added to one of the buckets as we joined the rest to view the release of the turtles. The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon and the beach began to be covered with wriggling turtles desperate to begin their journey. The success rate would be much higher with us spectators around as we would frighten of land and air based predators. There was nothing we could do about those waiting in for the turtles. It was remarkable the speed with which the turtles were off down the beach, these were no tortoises.

One of the dangers which turtles face are made-made tracks which they fail to climb out of. We watched as some turtles had problems even surmounting the holes made by our footsteps; climbing at nearly 90^o in some cases. As they touched the sea, massive waves grabbed them and swallowed them up. We looked on in despair wondering why we were watching this cruel spectacle, only to see the turtles bobbing to the surface a few meters away, paddling at unbelievable speeds out into the Mediterranean. Within a few second they were out of view. A few turtles lay motionless on the beach as if they were dead but when a volunteer picked them up to return them to their buckets they immediately started whirling their legs. Apparently these turtles would be released when the sun had set as they preferred to leave under the cover of darkness.

As we made our way back to the car we both said how glad we were that we had made the effort to see the turtle release. There is always a danger in retirement to feel that with so much time to do things that nothing gets done. We are always meaning to see the sites of this new country but have probably fallen into a pattern of feeling we are on holiday and that we should �enjoy� ourselves by sitting around the pool reading books. I am used to conserving my energy for my return to work, forgetting that I�m never returning to work unless I positively want to. Now is the time for me!

This is a story by River Daniel
The land of a thousand suns

While I was in Cyprus what I went on the plane to yesterday with my nanny and granddad I was having a brilliant time until things took a turn for the worst because this is how my story begins. On the 2007-07-17 at 12:00at night I woke up and was thirsty but as I was going to get the drink I kept hearing a strange tapping noise against the door gradually getting louder and louder and louder. It was booming through the whole house and possibly through the whole village but let alone it being like a booming voice through a microphone broadcasted through the most powerful radio transmitter aimed into my house directly at full volume everyone acted like nothing was happening and they were still sound asleep as if there was no sound at all. however there was and suddenly a pack of 10 people in long robes all with long messed up hair with giant staffs just smaller than my granddad.

Then suddenly as if they had a human magnet they drew me towards them as if they were kidnappers but suddenly the one in the back shouted “STOP” so loud that did manage to get through to someone besides me and luckily it was my most useful brother sol and as sol walked in he shouted “what is going on here “ and started to try to attack one of the people. Suddenly as sol went for a punch the people without warning disappeared and we thought that we were seeing things but then they appeared again and the person who shouted in the back came from behind everyone and said “I am the leader of the wizard group I can control all magic around the globe now come with me river and sol and wave the earth goodbye” then me and sol replied “WHAT YOU CANT JUST TAKE US AWAY FROM THE EARTH ITS INHUMANE”! As to come back at me the leader of the wizards said “you don’t have a choice for there is a greater evil than us if you don’t come and say goodbye to the earth.

That’s where we decided to come with those people who we thought were kidnappers but they seemed pretty alright now. As we were surging, spinning and turning around and round it made me think of the first time I went on a rollercoaster with my dad and how horrifying it was being on that rollercoaster for the first time in my life. As we were in that portal me and sol thought that all the people seemed alright except for one person who had red flaming eyes and a green face with what looked like scales on his face and the last thing was that the other wizards had dark blue robes and this one had coal black robes which made me feel like I was staring at death, but the lead wizard had a human face no scales and his robes were as bright blue as the sky and when I looked those robes I felt as if I had just went to heaven and became god.

“ When are we going to get to wherever you are taking us” sol my brother said the lead wizard replied” soon very soon” is all what the lead wizard replied with whenever we asked him but when we got there it was better than we ever imagined it was like all of my granddads bedtime stories what he told me put together into one paradise there was even the scientist prof Powell working on his latest invention the time machine.

But then I was in a room made of machinery with nothing but my brother and the pack of 10 wizards as I just figured and the lead wizard just said “ we have channelled your most exciting and relaxed times in your minds and made it into a luxurious land of brilliance but when you finish your limit of time you will feel as if you never want to come out” and then they decided to let me and sol into our fantasy land but it wasn’t exactly as we expected because in our minds granddad did cure the man with the werewolf disease but the man was there turning into the werewolf there was even things what I just made up like draco lords what are like dragons as big as a 10 year old boy and live stone gargoyles. After I got out of that fantasy world I didn’t ever want to go back in there but I would have to after this adventure, but I knew that I couldn’t stop to think with sol yet we had to keep up with those wizards while we could or else we will lose them and have to find our own way around this realm which will be a really big problem here but then sol couldn’t keep quiet and said “are we there yet “ and at the exact moment after sol said those 4 words the lead wizard grabbed him by the neck and sol suddenly blasted a laser out of his hands and made the lead wizard go flying into a pack of trees getting bruses all over him. Exactly after that moment the wizard shouted “WHAT SORCERY IS THIS” barging in I said “WE DON’T KNOW” and once I finished shouting I shot flames out of my wrist and I accidentally burnt down a tree with my bare hands, suddenly as to retaliate the lead wizard put us in indestructible bubbles of electricity that electrocuted us if we touched it so we didn’t want to get out of it in that reason anyway. When the wizard asked us how we learnt that spell and every time he asked we said we didn’t know we even could do that and after 5hours the wizard decided to let us free and at that moment we were attacked by things that escaped our fantasy world and of all the things what it could have been it had to be the draco lords and then the wizard gave me a red sword of flame and sol a blue sword of laser and then as we touched and held the swords it channelled our power into the swords creating some sort of ultimate power of destruction. Then with one slice of our swords we killed 4 draco lords each with one single slash of our swords and a draco lord stabbed its claws into sols back and flew off with the remaining 10 other draco lords and flew to the black fortress in the distance. So I ran to look at sols wound and as I took my hand off it and the wound disappeared and sol said “thank you for being a great brother to me” so I helped him up and we carried on until something very strange happened what I will not forget.

This is the story of Sol Daniel

16th July 2007

When we got to Cyprus it was 10pm and we quickly got into a minibus and arrived at the villa. We got changed into our swimming clothes and swam until midnight.

20th July 2007

Sol’s ideas for T-shirt logos

BAN SHAMPOO WE WANT THE REAL POO

DON’T MESS WITH DRAGONS ‘COS YOU ARE CRUNCHY AND YOU TASTE GOOD WITH KETCHUP

CHAOS, PANIC, DISORDER MY WORK IS DONE HERE

DON’T BOTHER ME I’M LIVING HAPPILY EVER AFTER

I DIDN’T USE TO FINISH SENTENCES BUT NOW I

I WANT PATIENCE…AND I WANT IT NOW!

This is the story of Torin Daniel

18th July 2007

Torin has put his bug barn together and filled it with bugs

Torin went for a walk with Nanny and he found some seeds. He found a carob and an olive and an almond and a pine cone.

He also met some of Rosie’s friends; Freddie and Brown Street Dog.

29th July
In my bug barn I had 8 ants and an earwig and a fly.

Shopping in the TRNC

Shopping when we first came to North Cyprus was a nerve-wracking experience.  There were no supermarkets so we went into the small markets with our bundle of paper money, confusing 100,000 notes with 10,000,000 notes, with no idea what peynir or ekmek were and struggle back to the hotel with all sorts of exotic products, some of which ended up straight in the bin.

Now there are supermarkets with UK foods, if you want to pay a premium for imported foods. The main supermarkets nearest to us are Tempo, Lemar and Astro.  Astro is the furthest away from us, almost in the big city of Girne.  We have found that even though Lemar products are possibly the cheapest, at the moment, and they have a slightly bigger range, our favourite supermarket is Tempo. This is mainly because the staff are friendly and helpful and they actually smile because they want to.

There is also a �freezer centre� called Bells where reasonably priced frozen food can be purchased. It is here that food cravings develop for things such as sausages, bacon and pork chops. It is quite easy to wander round this shop and end up taking bulging baskets of food to the till.

There are many smaller shops where surprisingly the prices are not much different from the main supermarkets. They have a very restricted range of products but have the main advantage of being open later that the 10pm closing hour of the supermarkets.  One in particular, Behi�ler, is still open at two in the morning! This is particularly useful when landing at Er�an airport at 12 am in the morning.

We are not too keen on the Turkish wine we have drunk so far but have found the Red Cricova, a sparkling wine, to be more than palatable. In fact we tend to buy every bottle available when we can, just in case it goes out of fashion. This may seem unlikely but the North Cyprus beer, Gold Fassel, seems to appear in brewing cycles and if a person is not careful he could end up being forced to drink the fizzy Turkish mainland Efes.

Obviously local produce is cheaper than imported and has the advantage of being fresher. It takes a lot of getting used to the growing season, especially in the case of oranges which appear locally twice a year and outside these times become either unavailable or expensive. At one of the local restaurants we like, Mirabelle�s, one of the waiters has an irritating habit of looking at us as if we are idiots when we order avocados and prawns and saying, �don�t you know they are out of season?�

We have noticed over the last three years that there are now far more foods for the British, including even Chinese ingredients! Our aim is to stick to the local produce as much as possible, after all it is fresh, which is more than can be said about our supermarket chilled food in the UK, and of course it is cheaper.