MEDITERRANEAN MEANDERINGS
1ST MARCH 2010

First of all may I wish my Welsh readers a Happy St. David’s Day and my sister a Happy Roger Daltrey’s Birthday – although I obviously hope that all of you enjoy both these occasions!

This week in Cyprus we too have experienced the violent storms that have visited most of Europe. It is a paradox that the most terrifying things can also be the most beautiful, but then those of you who know me will also know that I think that darkness always contains beauty and that beauty is very rarely benign. It is amazing, however, that, although you could not miss the storm, it is so easy to forget that it happened as the sun is out immediately afterwards. We do not have to cope with another week (or sometimes months) of constant drizzle in the aftermath. The really good thing about the storms is that they have completely dispelled the dust cloud and my hills have been back in glorious Technicolor all week.

Last Monday dawned so splendid that after concluding my business in Paralimni I decided to catch the bus out to Nissi Beach which is the other side of Agia Napa. From here I walked back along the coast to catch the bus home in the town centre. As I said many weeks ago, about my walk the other direction towards Cape Grecko, it is a beautiful coastline to walk along. You wind round coves and along sandy beaches, which at this time of year are more or less empty – although it has to be said I was taken aback by the number of breasts that seemed to have suddenly decided to put themselves up for inspection. It was only February! I love sauntering along by the sea in the sunshine and I won’t be able to do it for many more weeks as it will soon be too hot for long walks. My eyes don’t know where to put themselves (apart from trying to avoid the breasts!) as there are so many things to look at: the pretty wild flowers; the lizards and beetles darting back and forth; the sea; the horizon; the rocks and rockpools. It is easy to get visually drunk on it all.

Whilst out with friends on Monday night we heard that a National Petrol Strike was to begin at midnight. No time limit had been put on this and as everyone has transport of some kind this was a bit of a worry – although not for me, it is not often I get to feel smug about being transportless! The Government had announced that they were going to put a maximum cap on petrol prices, and this was to be lower than the price currently being charged. The political standpoint is not of great interest to me, but what I do find interesting is how quickly human nature degenerates when people think that they might not be able to have everything they want. By Wednesday morning there were already reports of petrol caps being crow-barred off and fuel being drained. The strike only lasted for 3 days but the panic-mongerers had been out in full force telling everyone it was indefinite. How disastrous would it have been if we had to get the donkeys out of retirement? Personally I think we have missed a marvellous ecological opportunity.

I am going to tell you a story now that you probably won’t believe, it is so incredible. Last Sunday I was sitting on the sofa when a loud bang came from the direction of the bathroom. I wandered off to see what had happened and when I went to turn the bathroom light on I discovered I had no lights at all – although all the other electricity was still on. I sat down for a bit and pondered what I was going to do as it was Sunday and I wouldn’t be able to get hold of the Agency. I then ignored it for a bit as it didn’t seem particularly relevant, after all the lamps still worked. What came next was a brainwave. I hope you are all ready for this – I went and found the fusebox! I know! I didn’t even know that I knew about such things. All of the switches were up apart from one and I thought well what harm could it do if I just flicked it, so I did. I had lights again. The only thing that wasn’t working was the extractor fan, which must have been what had blown. I was too amazed at my practical prowess to do anything else for a few hours and went back to sitting down while I got over it. Apparently the excess moisture that we have here over the winter can make extractor fans fail quite regularly and the lovely Trevor from the agency is sending someone out to fix it for me.

On Saturday I was in a taxi with friends on the way to a Cyprus Cancer Trust Do in Paralimni – which by the way was a very pleasant evening – when it was pointed out to us that there were lights on in the old town of Famagusta. The Cypriot taxi driver remarked on how odd this was. Indeed it has been quite ‘odd’ altogether this week down here on the border. The UN seems to have upped their patrols and machine gun fire was heard midweek down on the beach. Whilst coming back from my walk with Scruffy on Wednesday we encountered the Cypriot Militia on the wasteground behind my complex (what a Freudian phrase that is!!) and she decided it would be friendly to go and sniff the rifles. The militia thought this was very amusing and took the Michael out of me royally – ‘Scruffy – leave the guns alone’ they mimicked as I wandered through their midst. They seemed such pleasant young men, what a shame they needed to be anywhere near rifles. The next day they were back, this time with mortars. So, I don’t know what’s going on there. If I ever find out, which is actually quite unlikely, I will let you know.

I am ashamed to say, dirty stop out that I am, that it was half past two when I got in on Saturday night. However, it turned out to be perfect timing. We had been lashed by wind and rain on and off for the previous few days (and I had to take the long way round when going anywhere as it was just not worth attempting to cross the wasteground what with the flooding and the slippery mud) but the storm that arrived overhead about 2.45 am was quite literally electrifying – indeed the power went off for a while. I snuggled down in bed, with the duvet pulled up around my chin and watched the storm play out over the Mediterranean for nearly an hour. The thunder rolled, then boomed, then cracked. The lightning covered the whole sky and seemed to last for seconds at a time, but in reality it was probably still only a couple of nanoseconds. The forked lightning that seemed to alternate with the sheet lightning was vast. It was many pronged and many coloured. Thankfully it stopped eventually so that I could sleep, as I had to get up early as we were going to a meeting in Nicosia.

I was picked up at 9.30 and we wended our way through the flooded roads to the capital, where, as always, we had a lovely gathering. One of my favourite things is being within a group of people chanting together. The harmonics and the energy are so uplifting, whether you believe or not. On the way home we inadvertently took a wrong turning and so ended up on the old road back to Larnaca, rather than the motorway. I was very pleased by this as I got to see some more of my lovely Cyprus. It had stopped raining by this point, and the sun was forcing its way through in all its strength and we took another diversion down to Macronissos Beach. This is a very pretty little beach and out of the way if you don’t know it’s there. We spent some time watching the waves crashing into a natural lagoon and just enjoyed being in Cyprus. We then carried on to one of the hotels that is open all year in Agia Napa and stopped for tea. I had a delicious Cypriot Strawberry cake. What a perfect way to end an afternoon, cake and spiritual guidance from some wise friends.

Indeed I seem to have spent a lot of time this week with various friends and I am aware how grateful I am to have met all of them. The diversity of their thoughts and lives is vast, and I probably wouldn’t find such a varied group of people in a similarly small area in the UK. I am very privileged to be here and they; the clientele I am slowly building; the peace of the time spent alone, which is so necessary to me; and the sea and the sunshine make my life extremely pleasant here. I am starting to live for the first time in my life outside the shadows, which the oppressive greyness of the UK exacerbated in my heart. It is a long journey back when you have faced the depths within but I am finally confident that I am at least at the bus stop, if not just embarking on the bus back to life.

I hope to see all of you gorgeous beings at the bus stops of my life and I will leave you with an Indian Proverb which I read the other day and greatly enjoyed: ‘Don’t be angry with God for creating the tiger, instead be grateful that he did not give him wings!’