Thursday 29 March 2018

Somewhere to sit Part 2 ...

A very worthwhile trip to Konia to see Mark and Yola, who were selling a couple of sofas. They turned out to be in excellent condition and just beautifully comfortable. One was a sofa bed, which it is unlikely we shall ever use but not a bad thing to have in case of emergency. The cherry on top was the fact that Mark runs a "Man and a Van" service and happily agreed to deliver the sofas for a whole €10,00. 

The next morning we received a phone call to tell us he was on his way. We needed to take our old and very tired sofas onto the drive, and achieved the first one without any real bother. Then, out of nowhere, a mini-disaster struck. Ann's back clicked and she was in a lot of pain. We abandoned the sofa and, fortunately, we had some diclofenac in the house. Siting gingerly, Ann took a couple of these wonder pills and tried to relax.

I managed to get the second sofa onto the drive and we were set for Mark and his van. On schedule he arrived and, between the two of us, moved the new sofas inside. They look fabulous in their new home and Daisy, Honey and Jaz all came to inspect them. The seal of approval was given and they settled down to sleep on "their" sofas.

We offered the old sofas to the village mukhtar, Spiros, and he will send someone round to have a look. They are in a pretty sorry condition, but - as he told us a few years ago - some people in the village have nothing. So we wait to see whether the sofas go to a new home or to the dump.

Tuesday of this week saw something of a surprise. It is the day my teacher's pension arrives in our Cypriot bank. On checking the account we found more money than expected and that was because my first ever State Pension had been paid in on the same day. I had calculated that it would be today and so the early payment was both unexpected and welcome.

I have arranged to buy a new iPad as my eight-year old iPad 2 has been struggling with some of the modern apps I have installed. That will be fantastic, and I am so looking forward to picking it up. I shall "factory reset" the iPad 2 and Ann will be able to make use of that for lots of stuff. Gosh a two iPad family. Whatever next?

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Somewhere to sit?

Our elderly leather sofas have really passed the point of no return, and so we have to replace them. They have served us well but their time has come. We head off this afternoon to look at a couple of sofas, being sold online, at what seems to be a good price. But, of course, the only test is to sit on them and so a trip to Konia is on the cards.

The dust that has been plaguing Cyprus for quite a few days is still with us. It has been affecting large parts of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and has turned areas quite orange in some countries. We are due some heavy rain on Thursday, which should clear the atmosphere. After that the weather is set fair, and we look forward to pottering around in shorts. The builders are still with us, but it cannot be long before they finish. After that, there will be a deal of cleaning and clearing up, and the decorators will have to call in for half a day or so.

Ann had the great news that her sister Sue, and her husband Davy, are returning to Cyprus in June, and staying in the same hotel five minutes down the road. We so enjoyed their last visit in November, and they must have done to return so quickly. Of course the weather will be much warmer then, and Davy will be able to bare his legs for the entire visit. I only hope Polis and Argaka are ready for this.

We haven't had the fire on for days now, which is great. Soon it will be time for the electric blanket to go back into the cupboard until November, and hopefully windows will be able to be opened at night. That is when Cyprus really comes alive. Already the sunny evenings are proving a draw, and a glass or two beside the pool is always a welcome idea. In fact I feel a barbecue coming on soon. Spring gets me like that.

Monday 19 March 2018

Is the end in sight?

Well here we are with the builders laying tiles (or ceramics as they call them). Is the end in sight? Certainly in the early days of this great work, when drilling and hammering were ever present, we certainly felt like ending it all. The walls are replastered and painted, and the tiles have been delivered - ready for the sprint down the finishing straight. Unfortunately, with temperatures rising by the day, and no rain on the horizon, it may be October or November before we see whether this has all worked.

As an insurance we are heading off to the hills to look at another property, which appears to be ideal on paper ... will the reality be as good? If it is, then we may be faced with a very difficult decision. Neither of us want to move, but neither of us is prepared to spend another winter with damp and mould on the walls. So, and another cliché, only time will tell. But readers of this blog will be the first to find out what our decision will be.

Whatever happens, we shall just be grateful to have the house to ourselves. Daisy, in trainee guard dog mode, has become very relaxed with the comings and goings. Honey, the senior pet, often retires to the roof to look down on the world with a great disdain. Jaz, her daughter, wanders around with a confused look on her face. She reminds me of Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey. Perhaps she was a dowager countess in an earlier life?

My cracked ribs are easier by the day, which makes life much simpler. I was able to start driving again at the end of last week, much to Ann's relief. It's been thirteen days since my fall, and the doctor thought it would be about twenty days for them to completely heal. So his forecast was pretty accurate. I stopped taking the various prescribed painkillers a few days ago, and followed Ann's advice to reduce the dosage over a few days.


Tuesday 13 March 2018

30,000 + Page Views

I never considered, when I started this blog about our life in Cyprus, that many people would stop by and read my musings. But they have and I must say I am pleasantly surprised. This blog is an outlet for my irritation with politics and politicians, and I hope an insight into what it means to go and live permanently in another country.

I still remember my finger hovering over the "Buy" button on the EasyJet website where we planned to buy two "one way" tickets to Cyprus. Only a few weeks later, with our apartment in Bexhill echoing after the removal men had finished and all our worldly goods were heading for the container to be shipped here, we sat and looked out over a cold, grey English Channel. Twenty-four hours later we were sitting in 28°C under the palm trees at Paphos Airport, completing the paperwork for our hire car. The adventure had begun.

And now, five and a half years later, we will soon be applying for "permanent residence" here (Form MEU3). Who would have thought it? We should have just been pottering about our daily lives if the huddled masses had not voted for Brexit. I still cannot quite believe it. Self-harm on an epic scale will be committed and the UK will be much the poorer for generations to come.

Will others be able to follow in our footsteps? Perhaps they will, but it will not be straightforward and it will be at the whim of those bloody politicians. We moved here simply, and it was our legal right to do so. Quo vadis?

Sunday 11 March 2018

Short trousers ... in March

Hard to believe that the weather is so perfect today that shorts are the order of the day. Even Ann removed a layer. A gentle breeze, warm sunshine and a blue sky - there are times I would be content with all of this, especially when the temperature in the shade is 35°C + in summer. But there again, the water in the pool needs to warm up somehow.

The pain I have been suffering as a result of my cracked ribs is a little more bearable today, and I am cutting down on the number of painkillers I am taking. We are off to the pub this afternoon to pick up our "Beware of the Dog" and "Shut the Gate" sign that Ann commissioned from Mike (the ever-so-talented barman at the Turtle Tavern), and I suppose it would be rude not to stay for a drink or two.

Apart from that, everything is on hold until I become more comfortably mobile. The doctor thought about twenty days, but I am hoping for a shorter time than that. The builders are still here and Daisy is relaxed enough not to bark a warning when they arrive. One of the guys has, without being asked, picked up garden rubbish we were collecting and disposed of it for us. He obviously felt sorry for the old boy hobbling around in pain. What a lovely gesture.


Friday 9 March 2018

Spare Ribs anyone?

I didn't realise that whatever you do physically it involves your ribs moving. With two cracked ribs, and the prescribed painkillers proving not particularly effective, almost anything I do can be a little painful. The thought of lurching through life for the next three weeks, until they heal, is not something that fills me with joy.

The builders are renewing their work on the plaster on the outside of the house, and it is almost continuous and very loud. After they finish, and the special paint is applied, followed by the magical chemical, then everything will need to be replastered, and then painted. At least the plastering and painting will be quiet. After that the inside paintwork, affected by the damp will need to be cleaned and then repainted with the anti-fungal paint. And then, and only then, will we have our home back.

Daisy, Honey and Jaz have been brilliant whilst all this has been hoping on - taking it in their stride (unlike the human occupants). They lie on sofas, roll their eyes and hibachi to sleep. It is a moment of immense pleasure when the builders drive off in the late afternoon.

But the cold weather has departed (only relatively cold if you are reading this in the UK), Spring is all around us and soon the clouds will disappear for six or seven months. No doubt I will be blogging about how hot we are. I note from the site stats that this blog is approaching 30,000 views. Amazing and I trust you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Thursday 8 March 2018

Don't fall over here ...

Everywhere in Cyprus is so hard, be it marble floors in the house, patios and terraces, or the rock-hard earth. So don't fall over as I did on Tuesday night. I was walking Daisy round the garden when I lost my footing and fell. And boy - did I land heavily?

Ann made valiant efforts to help me up but in the end we had to call an ambulance. A lot of people criticise the health services here but the ambulance crew were brilliant. Hospital and an X-ray, a pain-killing injection, various tests - the bottom line is that if my ribs are bruised, cracked or broken, the treatment is the same. We return to the hospital today for more X-rays and hopefully some stronger pain relief.

The builders and Savvas had a major row by telephone last night and we wait to see whether they return to do what they were contracted to do. If they do, it will be a noisy few days. If they don't, no doubt a third company will be engaged. I must admit we are heartily fed up with the noise and the disruption, so we hope that it will be all worth it in the end.

So the sun is shining, the sky is blue and winter seems to have retreated. The dust that has been very noticeable over Cyprus for a few days, and which has made breathing difficult at times, is apparently due to clear today. That will be a welcome relief. Happy Days ...

Saturday 3 March 2018

I love angle grinders ...

Well, finally, the new Bulgarian builders started work this morning. We were promised they wouldn't start before 08.30 (which they didn't) but they did arrive to offload materials at 06.45. Daisy, our trainee guard dog, was on the alert and we never did get back to sleep. The sound of angle grinders is reverberating around the house, the animals are not happy but I suppose we are content that the work has finally started. It will apparently take a fortnight to complete, and then the decorators will have to return to sort out the interior AGAIN.

We hope and pray that this will resolve the damp and mould issue for good. When I think of the thousands of euros that must have been spent (why engage a structural engineer and not follow his advice?) trying to do the job more cheaply. By the time this has finished, it will have cost three times as much. We are glad it is not our money.

At the moment we are busy planning so that Ann can fly to the north of Scotland to visit her sister - hopefully sooner rather than later. Becoming bogged down in details, we thought it would be better to engage a travel agent. I contacted a well-known travel agent in Paphos (one which had been highly recommended by friends and acquaintances) and a very detailed email arrived with Ann's travel options. My initial thoughts were "How much?" and my subsequent thoughts were identical.

As she does not know how long she will stay, a return ticket is out of the question. And so, I investigated the options. A single ticket from Paphos to Gatwick can be had for as little as £46. Another single ticket from Gatwick to Inverness costs a little more. Ann can stay with a friend near Gatwick, and her single flight to Inverness takes off at a friendly early afternoon time. The return journey will cost a little more (it always seems more expensive to fly to Cyprus) but can be arranged at a time to suit Ann. The options suggested by the travel agent were nudging £700. Hmm!

Spring seems to have sprung here, and it is mild and quite sunny. The poor old UK has been through a nightmare week, and the floods when all the snow melts will make matters even worse. It all manages to be quite minor when you compare it to the government's handling of the negotiations to leave the EU. The opposition has shot itself in the foot by doing an abrupt u-turn on the customs union in what I believe is a naked power grab for office (and to hell with the country just so long as the door to No 10 Downing Street can be wedged open).

The British High Commissioner has been travelling around the island urging British expats to apply for permanent residence after five years here. In our sixth year this was already on our list of things to do, and as soon as my new passport arrives it will be off again to Immigration to sort that out. In any event we don't plan to live anywhere else. I cannot imagine snow and ice, and Brexit. Brr!