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!

Cyprus-London and back again

I went to pick Cam up from UK for her first visit with us here.  Above is a picture of her at the terminal at Luton on the dreary, rainy, 27th.  Four and a bit hours later and things were a tad bit different.  Apart from getting the chair that doesn’t recline, the journey was way better than the one out from Larnaca 24 hours previously.  I am sure I won’t be flying with Monarch again any time soon, unless there are no other choices.  On landing in Paphos, it was a balmy 30 something degrees of typical Cypriot stickiness.  That evening about 6pm we were all in the warm Mediterranean happy, but in my case knackered!

Alice

Last night (12th) was the Alice Cooper concert in Limassol – what a cracker!  Mano procured the tickets and doors opened at 1900.  We arrived about 1930 and found a beer and a place at front centre.  Alice is famous for his ‘shock rock’ shows, full of humour horror, executions, fake blood and all sorts of theatricals and tonight was no exception.  They played all the classics, like School’s out, Poison, Halo, No more Mr. nice guy and many more.  Mano and I were deep in the ‘mosh pit’, with all the great sweaty unwashed and needless to say we were very sweaty too by the end of it all, but it was brilliant from start to finish.  My favourite part would have to be when Alice drives a stake through the heart of a mock baby vampire and is then placed in a straight jacket and frogmarched up the scaffold to be hung.  the baby’s mother, played by Cooper’s real life daughter Callico Cooper, throws the lever to open the trap door and drop him!  I’d definitely go see AC perform again given half a chance!  here are a couple of pictures from the event: 

Photos by Mano

Below are some photos by Mike G.K.  You can see more of his work by following this link.  Thanks to Mike for kind permission!