One year and a bit in..

Good grief! I have really let things go here!  I have found that work is extremely demanding of one’s time here and that it is necessary to create time for oneself and the family, otherwise it’s all too easy to go a tour and do absolutely nothing!

So, by way of a recap on the past year then, we 'toughed out’ the winter; well OK, so it wasn’t cold by UK standards, but it did seem quite chilly to us! We survived that and then got into the summer routine of visiting beaches etc.

We had a good friend in the shape of Mr Lucien Simon the world renowned artist come and stay with us. Well, when I say ‘world renowned', I of course mean that we know him! He had a good time here I think and we certainly enjoyed having him.

Next, we had The departure of our dear friends the Walkers to contend with and that genuinely did hit quite hard at all areas of the family, we were very sad to see them leave indeed! We got through that stage and life went on.

The summer was a mixed bag; visiting friends at the other (for us nicer) side of the island, sight-seeing generally and during the hottest month, that of August we went to Slovakia to visit friends and relatives there. Elena and the children went first at the start of the month and I, gathering all the annual leave I could muster left mid August to join them there.

It was lovely to see people we had not seen for so long and meet new additions to the family that we had not yet seen, as well as to escape the full on heat of an August in Cyprus!

For the first time, we even managed to have a couple of days away in the Tatra mountain region and to catch up with our friends the Jones’ who had demobbed from the Army to settle there. Here Kyle and I got the opportunity to take to the air on tandem for the first time in Slovakia, thanks very much to Mark for that!

Of all the times we have been to Slovakia I am deeply disappointed that we have not really done much to explore the country as thoroughly as I would have liked. That is something that we are hoping to rectify this year, when we visit again!

The remainder of the year was taken up with touring here and there, we met up with another friend of mine from a previous employment, Richie and his lovely family. We stayed up in the Troodos area at a lovely guest house called Themis GH, and all visited Kykkos Monastery together. Elena, the kids and I went up to Kaledonia waterfalls, where Kyle and Lara enjoyed laying in the pools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In September we went to Limassol for a night to visit the Wine Festival, which it must be said does tend to be more of a kebab and food fest than anything else, but then that is not such a terrible thing!

I was working over Christmas and New Year I was working, but we managed to eke out some pleasant afternoons out etc with friends. On Christmas morning we went to Famagusta beach with fiends, where we had a little swim, threw a frisbee and drank a glass of Champagne, something I suppose we would not have been doing in the UK, so all is not so bad really.

Since then, we have pretty much been waiting for the weather to turn warm and looking forward to more days on the beach and exploring the island a little more. We will also probably try to arrange a trip to Istanbul, somewhere none of us have been to before, so watch this space for more on that.

I really do have to make sure it is not so long before I update these pages again, please bear with me and I will try to make it so.

Thanks for reading, I hope to find more to write about soon, until then, happy times all, whatever you do! 

 

Take two!

Well, it has been such a long time since I last posted here, in fact I had thought that I would be putting this particular blog to bed, since we left Cyprus in Apr 11. Well, I now have to announce to our friends and family who are not already aware (which won't be many of them I suspect) that we are back for another three year dose of sunshine, meze, Kokinelli and Brandy Sours.

We arrived back on the island on 26 Jan, but this time we will be experiencing the delights that the eastern end has to offer.  Having lived near Limassol last time around, this time we will be living near Vrysoulles in the east, not too far from Famagusta.

The flight was remarkably comfortable, there being relatively few passengers, meaning that we had plenty of room to stretch out, wander around etc.  Unfortunately, we did have to route via a stop off in Europe, which added a couple of hours onto the journey, but the extra comfort onboard a new aeroplane made it so much more bearable.

The kids flaked out on the flight, so that the trusty laptop DVD player wasn't even needed and we all arrived at the destination feeling considerably better than the norm.

Things were however about to take a turn for the worst, when it was announced that there had been some difficulty with our slightly earlier arrival than expected and that transport was not ready to convey us the 200m to the terminal building.

When we did finally manage to disembark, a fellow passenger remarked, "oh well, at least it means that our bags will be ready and waiting for us".  "You think so?" was my retort. Inside the terminal building, no bags in sight, the man walked past and muttered, "OK, so I was wrong"!

Another hour delay meant that we were finally on our long bus ride in the wee small hours, somewhat exhausted, but relieved to be on the final leg of our epic journey.

On our arrival at our destination, my very good friend and his wife were waiting, despite the late hour and we were helped in with our baggage etc and a cup of tea was savoured over a catch up. Finally we got to bed way past 1am.

A slight lay in the next day, followed by a bit of a guided tour of the local environs made for a chilled, relaxed way to fritter the day.  The next day being Monday we set about some administrative chores and so it all begins. Fortunately I am not expected in to work for a little while longer, so we will savour the time off, as I expect it will be quite hectic once I get going, only time will tell.

What follows are some photos from our first week back on the island and getting to know the east end, renowned for it's superior beaches etc.  There is something especially nice about a holiday resort out of season and this one is no exception, especially when the weather is unseasonably pleasant as it is here just now.

Both children are clearly settling to the idea of living on a small island and are enjoying the short distance to lovely beaches etc. Exactly how long we have got until this novelty wears off only time will tell.  As for us; it's good to be back and I for one am looking forward to another three years of better climate, nice food and drink and hopefully the opportunity to paraglide a little bit more.

Now that I have resurrected this blog I will endeavour to keep it a little more up to date than I had been doing before and will try to report notable events, excursions of interest etc.  That's about it for now, stay tuned for future updates!

Out of season

We took a little family stroll along Curium beach.  It’s kind of nice this time of year, but the weather can be a bit of a lottery.  In fact it was around 20°C, so I suppose it’s churlish of me to suggest it was cold, but with the brisk breeze blowing off the sea, it certainly felt chilly, my god, how soft we have become!

We walked along the front of Chris’ Blue Beach café, all shut up and deserted, but quite a number of locals and visitors were using it as a sort of boardwalk promenade and just setting up their deck chairs to take advantage of some rays, despite the chilly breeze.

We enjoyed our stroll, not withstanding having to keep doubling back to recapture Lara every time she decided to wander!  She loves exploring and especially enjoys steps, which since she is not really proficient on them yet, makes for a bit hard work.  She always wants to go first up, then down, then back up and often squeals when you lift her up to move on.

Kyle was happily running, climbing and shell hunting and even put in an appearance every now and again with us!  We only really made it as far as Chris’ before heading back to the Kourion café, where the car was parked.  We had originally only intended to stop there for a drink, but by now I was starting to get peckish and so we had a small bite to eat there, which was very nice indeed.

I had hoped that the wind might have died off a bit, so I could attempt a flight, but it was clearly quite strong, so we didn’t even stop for a second look, but just headed home.  In fact I did fly later on, but not from Curium, rather from Kensington, but that’s a story for a different blog!  I did however capture the following sunset photo looking straight down our street as I arrived home about 5ish:

Christmas 2010

On Christmas day we headed down to Curium, Elena running and the kids and I by car.  Our vague plan was to do some combination of running, flying and swimming, which we managed, just about.  I met up up with Paul there and Elena headed off with Kyle and Lara, back home to finish preparing Christmas dinner.  Paul and I had given up trying to extend our flights beyond the 10 minute point, due to the winds not being very strong, so we too headed for home and Christmas some sustenance.  A very lovely meal was enjoyed by all and Paul finally headed for his hotel early evening.  A lovely day and a very different one for us, as well as different to the one most people would be enjoying in the UK.

Boxing day, we had been invited to spend with Dudley and Lisa and family, so around 10.30 we set out east, bound for Ay Nik.  Duds had planned a barbecue and as well as us had invited friends ‘Gilesy’ and wife Lizzie with their two young daughters.  We all ate well and drank lots and enjoyed yet another pleasant day of festivities.

On 27th, we set out for Famagusta with the specific intention of visiting the ancient ruins at Salamis.

 

This was our first visit to these antiquities and very impressive they are too.  The area to walk around is much larger than some of the other sites we have visited and the ruins have largely been left unrestored.  The attitude to these sites in this country are quite different to in other parts of the world, there never seems to be much budget for restoration or any sort of embellishments and it’s almost as if they don’t believe in the concept.  There is a feel to the place, as if it belongs to everyone and there is no attempt to prevent children from getting right down to it and crawling all over the walls etc.

After an hour or two wandering around the site, we headed back to Famagusta and had a quick look in the museum there.  Dudley had been trying to get into this museum for some time, but had never quite made it due to some electrical problem or another.  Today it was open, so we managed to get in and look around.  Set in the ramparts of the ancient city, there are quite a few artefacts and objects, which a worth seeing, but not that exciting really.

Next we came outside again and climbed on the rampart wall and explored a bit.  The lack of any kind of a barrier at all make these sort of explorations quite scary, especially with five kids to keep an eye on, therefore after about half an hour, Dud and I decided that the stress levels were too high and we set off, back for their home across the border to Ay Nik. 

After a cup of tea for the road, we headed for home with two very tired, sleeping children in tow.  We arrived home about 7.30pm and ‘unloaded’ Lara into the house and to bed, while Kyle sat up a while longer with us and watched some TV.

A thoroughly lovely couple of days with good friends – thanks Dud and Lisa!  X

Weekend mornings

With only ten months left on this island these are the times I will miss most here.  Weekend mornings, with a coffee and breakfast, sitting on the patio.

The tree in my neighbour’s garden giving shade and the warmth of the day already building.  This winter/spring has been exceptionally wet and the garden is looking a mess at the moment, but it will soon start to burn off and all the weeds will die.  I am also looking forward to some of the bitey insects, such as the mosquitoes dying out too.  Our last summer in Cyprus, with a new family member will be a time to savour I think.  We should make the most of it!

Weather

The weather has been terrible now, off and on for several months.  This has been one of the wettest winters here for some time, completely different to last year, wetter yet not so cold.  As a result, the water levels in the reservoirs are much higher than this time last year, so hopefully we should not have to suffer the same drought conditions.  Driving in Limassol today, we encountered deeply flooded roads along the sea front, great fun for splashing through, but potentially tending toward becoming impassable in some places where the drains had backed up.  Kyle quite enjoyed the water lapping over the windscreen as we drove through it, but Elena was a little less happy with it.

This is without doubt the most rain I have seen for a year or more, though Elena tells me that it was this heavy for a week of sustained rain while I was away in Oman.Down by the old port there were some strange figures adorning the roundabout.  I have no idea what they were in celebration of, but I think another look is in order in better weather conditions, in order to capture some better pictures.

Cam’s busy day

We went to Curium and Elena took the kids to the ancients while I flew.  They had a lovely time, walking around the ruins and the amphitheatre, Kyle just about running everywhere and Cameron soaking it all up.   After that we all went down to the beach and had a long swim out to the buoys together, being very careful to all stay close together, Kyle with his armbands, Cam with the boogie board strapped to her wrist.  I think the only knackered ones were myself and Elena, trying to keep up!  We all had a lovely day and came home, were we all showered off the salt and sand and rounded the day off with a BBQ, which we almost managed to devour.  Very tired now, I must say!