MEDITERRANEAN MEANDERINGS
30TH JANUARY 2010

We have snow! Admittedly only in the Troodos, but snow nonetheless. It has been very cold here, although nothing like the temperatures the UK suffered over the last month. We are all busy complaining how it is impossible to heat properties with marble floors, forgetting that for at least 10 months of the year it is the marble floors that will make life bearable indoors. How fickle we humans are.

I have had a fairly busy week this week and as such I seem to have far less to write about – not sure how that paradox works, but it does.

I am still in mourning for Cadbury – Kraft being one of the companies I have boycotted for many years. Such a shame that a company founded on simple Quaker beliefs and who cared about their workers enough to build Bourneville have been bought out by a company that consistently falls in the ‘most irresponsible company in the world’ top 10. So, even if they manage to retain the Fair-trade Mark on Dairy Milks, I have eaten my last one. Kraft already own Milka and Toblerone, what do they want with more chocolate!! Still, rant over – for now anyway!

My weekend was entirely taken up with Buddhist activities. The local contingent came to my apartment on Saturday for a good old chant and on Sunday we went to Nicosia. As I have said before there aren’t many of us, although it seems to be growing all the time, but we come from all over the island, north and south (although no Cypriots as yet) and it is lovely to catch up with everyone. The people are so diverse and there is absolutely no other reason that any of us would ever meet except for our shared beliefs. I am sure I learn as much from the people themselves as I do from the discussions we partake in.

Monday saw me start some voluntary work at the local charity shop. This is for the charity ‘Helping Hands’ which contributes to all the animal shelters in the area. It also helps people with vet’s bills and is assisting in a project whereby animals are being shipped back to the UK. I explained my practical uselessness, but luckily their book section was in a right two and eight and so I set to work there. I had a wonderful four hours, alphabetising and categorising. Am going back this week to start individually pricing hard backs as they have some rather fine classics mixed up with the Dan Browns and are selling all of them at the same price!

It was Burn’s Night on Monday and I have never taken the blindest bit of notice of this back in the UK, but I ended up helping my friend Steve who was hosting a Burn’s Night dinner at his pub in Pernera. Again, he was well aware of my failings, but Jenny and I managed to wash up for three solid hours without me breaking a single thing – except my will to live! Unfortunately his dishwasher had packed up at the last minute. I avoided the haggis, but had a delicious bowl of homemade Scotch Broth. We managed to join the festivities for the live music and had a fun evening – although it has to be said that I was so pleased to be sitting down that I didn’t much care what was going on around me! I did have a good chat with the musician (the husband of the wonderful woman who had managed to feed everybody that evening) after the pub had closed and we were all sitting around chewing the fat. We found we had a very similar taste in music and, as he was slightly older than me, he was able to regale me with stories of seeing Pink Floyd, The Who and Led Zeppelin in the ‘70s in Glasgow. When we left to go home at 3am the thermometer in the car said 4°. A sight I did not think to see in Cyprus. The sky was completely clear and cloudless and I have never seen so many stars clustered together.

The next few days saw me recovering from all that activity, which was just as well, because it was too cold and wet to go out. It is so funny how you get used to things so quickly. If I was in the UK I wouldn’t bat an eye at this weather, but here I am waiting for the sun to come back before I make much more effort.

I did make it back up the hill to Paralimni later on in the week. One of the things I am really enjoying at the moment is being able to work out where I am and relate it to other places. This is making me realise that this is my home and not just a prolonged holiday. I took a different road to Paralimni and much to my chagrin I realised that it was slightly quicker and far less precarious than the route I normally take across the fields. How I wish I had known this in that torrential rain last week! But, what is nice is coming out of a side road and realising where I am and how it connects to the rest of the town. At various times I have ended up near a sign that pronounces that it’s ‘Middle Earth’. This is disconcerting in two ways: firstly, that it has no corresponding sign in Greek and secondly that it doesn’t seem to relate to any of the buildings around it and has no further information on it to tell you what it is all about. I suppose if I was Gandalf I wouldn’t need the extra information, so maybe it is to weed out mere mortals like me.

I am also recognising the Greek signs more and more. I still have to work out the majority of them phonetically, but there are words that I can read and identify now. It is all progress. I would love to find somewhere to learn Greek, but there is nowhere within walking distance unfortunately – but unsurprisingly.

I always feel so underdressed next to the Cypriot women. Cypriots do not walk anywhere and as a consequence only have to get from their car (or moped) to the door of wherever they are going – and they always park as close as they can. Therefore they are all always immaculately made-up and always have the most beautiful shoes on, while I am stomping around in my, by now, very well-worn trainers. I am not yet prepared to traverse fields of mud in high-heeled boots – I am dangerous enough as it is!

I was wandering across these fields yesterday on my way to the Orfanides supermarket and I kept hearing a voice echoing around the surrounding complexes. I didn’t understand what he was saying, but it definitely didn’t sound like a call to prayer! I came out at the other side and found a man driving round very slowly in his truck with a loud hailer, selling potatoes that he had picked in his fields. If I had needed potatoes I would have bought some, what a good idea.

On the ride into Agia Napa yesterday it was wonderful to see the rough seas. It was slightly disconcerting to see the white churches silhouetted against anything other than turquoise serenity, but the very incongruity of it made it beautiful. Their whiteness did not seem so pronounced against the grey sea and the white crests. As we came through Fig Tree Bay in Protaras you could see the waves crashing over the spit of land where all the sunloungers and straw parasols are situated – fabulous stuff. So, although I dislike the cold I am very pleased to be here at this time of year. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But I must say – it is so difficult to heat an apartment with marble floors!

So my luscious people take great care of yourselves and may the incongruities of life show you the beauty that is found in all diversity.