MEDITERRANEAN MEANDERINGS
23RD DECEMBER 2009
I hope this does not sound too cruel to those of you who are currently snowbound, but I am writing this sitting on the beach at the bottom of my road. The skies are brilliant blue and cloudless and the Sun God is definitely king. The sea rolls gently away to meet the silhouette of North Cyprus and further up the beach there is a couple sunbathing – although it won’t surprise you that I am in jeans and a jumper (albeit a thin one). It is very difficult to believe that it is only two days before Christmas, so I think I just won’t believe it – there is no point in working hard when the weather is this lovely!
I am here with my first guest, who arrived to stay with me yesterday. Her name is Scruffy and she is a five year old Cyprus Poodle (with a bit of terrier thrown in). Her family have gone back to the UK for two weeks. Poor old Scruffy was going to kennels, but I couldn’t stand the thought of it, so she came to me instead. This does mean no bus rides for me for two weeks, as you are not allowed to take dogs on the buses here, but I am sure we will have other adventures instead.
It is a real eye-opener having a dog here. It is really not safe to let them off their leads as, firstly, there are so many stray, hungry dogs and secondly, you have to watch what they are sniffing and picking up all of the time due to the poison that is put down everywhere for the stray cats and dogs.
It is taking me ages to write this as she wants attention at least every sentence – I mean, what could possibly hold more fascination for me than she herself does? Fair point, really.
I also now realise why so many detective stories have the ‘dog walker’ discovering the body, as the first thing Scruffy sniffed out on our way to the shops this morning was a dead cat – which was nice!
I have now had to give up writing this on the beach, as Scruffy was far too excited by the wild cats down there, so we are now back on the balcony. I can see that this may well take me some time!
Walking Scruffy is a very good excuse to walk down streets I would otherwise have no excuse to wander down and I am discovering more about Kapparis each time. Yesterday afternoon we ended up in the Russian enclave of the village. There is a big Russian contingent in Cyprus. It was a much more alive feeling place than the British part. People were in the streets talking and laughing; children were playing and loud music came from the apartments. I have also met the local boy racers in the back streets. No hip hop coming from their car stereos, but what would be known derisively as ‘belly dance music’ back in the UK. This actually sounds pretty menacing whizzing past you at 90mph. Maybe the ‘youf’ of Britain are missing out on something.
Scruffy has also been joining in my chanting. She can be asleep, but as soon as I open my Butsudan she is off! Good thing I am more or less the only occupant of my complex at the moment! I thought maybe, seeing her interest, if I could train her to chant I could get Esther Rantzen and the That’s Life team out of retirement. On second thoughts...
Anyway she is very affectionate and very good company, if a lot more high maintenance than my lovely Parkin.
Apparently yesterday morning we had an earthquake that measured 4.7 on the Richter Scale. Predictably I missed it. It had its centre at Polis and was felt mainly at Paphos and Larnaca (the latter of which is only 40 minutes away by car from here), but I didn’t feel a thing. Luckily no damage was caused and no one was hurt. Earthquakes are quite regular here so I am told so watch this space.
As I said earlier the weather is beautiful here at the moment, but last week we had a mini tornado and the storms the weekend before washed away Konnos beach near Cape Grecko. What chaos I have brought in my wake. Still, I love a bit of excitement, it’s just a shame that the people at the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen didn’t take more notice of the actual changes going on while they were talking – but that would be a whole other blog!
So – and I can hear the sighs of relief from here – only a short one this week, as Scruffy keeps sitting on the keyboard and I have lost the will to fight. I am sure you all have better things to do this week than read my nonsense anyway.
I hope that you all have an amazing, fun and fabulous Christmas and, as always, my love stretches out across Europe to every one of you.
23RD DECEMBER 2009
I hope this does not sound too cruel to those of you who are currently snowbound, but I am writing this sitting on the beach at the bottom of my road. The skies are brilliant blue and cloudless and the Sun God is definitely king. The sea rolls gently away to meet the silhouette of North Cyprus and further up the beach there is a couple sunbathing – although it won’t surprise you that I am in jeans and a jumper (albeit a thin one). It is very difficult to believe that it is only two days before Christmas, so I think I just won’t believe it – there is no point in working hard when the weather is this lovely!
I am here with my first guest, who arrived to stay with me yesterday. Her name is Scruffy and she is a five year old Cyprus Poodle (with a bit of terrier thrown in). Her family have gone back to the UK for two weeks. Poor old Scruffy was going to kennels, but I couldn’t stand the thought of it, so she came to me instead. This does mean no bus rides for me for two weeks, as you are not allowed to take dogs on the buses here, but I am sure we will have other adventures instead.
It is a real eye-opener having a dog here. It is really not safe to let them off their leads as, firstly, there are so many stray, hungry dogs and secondly, you have to watch what they are sniffing and picking up all of the time due to the poison that is put down everywhere for the stray cats and dogs.
It is taking me ages to write this as she wants attention at least every sentence – I mean, what could possibly hold more fascination for me than she herself does? Fair point, really.
I also now realise why so many detective stories have the ‘dog walker’ discovering the body, as the first thing Scruffy sniffed out on our way to the shops this morning was a dead cat – which was nice!
I have now had to give up writing this on the beach, as Scruffy was far too excited by the wild cats down there, so we are now back on the balcony. I can see that this may well take me some time!
Walking Scruffy is a very good excuse to walk down streets I would otherwise have no excuse to wander down and I am discovering more about Kapparis each time. Yesterday afternoon we ended up in the Russian enclave of the village. There is a big Russian contingent in Cyprus. It was a much more alive feeling place than the British part. People were in the streets talking and laughing; children were playing and loud music came from the apartments. I have also met the local boy racers in the back streets. No hip hop coming from their car stereos, but what would be known derisively as ‘belly dance music’ back in the UK. This actually sounds pretty menacing whizzing past you at 90mph. Maybe the ‘youf’ of Britain are missing out on something.
Scruffy has also been joining in my chanting. She can be asleep, but as soon as I open my Butsudan she is off! Good thing I am more or less the only occupant of my complex at the moment! I thought maybe, seeing her interest, if I could train her to chant I could get Esther Rantzen and the That’s Life team out of retirement. On second thoughts...
Anyway she is very affectionate and very good company, if a lot more high maintenance than my lovely Parkin.
Apparently yesterday morning we had an earthquake that measured 4.7 on the Richter Scale. Predictably I missed it. It had its centre at Polis and was felt mainly at Paphos and Larnaca (the latter of which is only 40 minutes away by car from here), but I didn’t feel a thing. Luckily no damage was caused and no one was hurt. Earthquakes are quite regular here so I am told so watch this space.
As I said earlier the weather is beautiful here at the moment, but last week we had a mini tornado and the storms the weekend before washed away Konnos beach near Cape Grecko. What chaos I have brought in my wake. Still, I love a bit of excitement, it’s just a shame that the people at the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen didn’t take more notice of the actual changes going on while they were talking – but that would be a whole other blog!
So – and I can hear the sighs of relief from here – only a short one this week, as Scruffy keeps sitting on the keyboard and I have lost the will to fight. I am sure you all have better things to do this week than read my nonsense anyway.
I hope that you all have an amazing, fun and fabulous Christmas and, as always, my love stretches out across Europe to every one of you.
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