MEDITERRANEAN MEANDERINGS
16TH JULY 2010

Well it has begun – the ‘Mile Oak Malaise’ has kicked in. It is now less than two weeks until I go back to the UK and my belly has become a knot of nerves and my eyes well-up at anything. It is pathetic behaviour and sad to say completely sub-conscious. It had been going on for about 3 days before I realised what it was. I love my family very much and they are fabulous, I have no issue with seeing them and indeed I am looking forward to spending some time with them, but I do wish I never had to go back to the claustrophobia of Mile Oak. I never think of it as going home, only ever as going back. This ridiculous behaviour began at about the beginning of July and I have had to stop myself from listening to radio plays because the slightest thing can set me off. ‘This Happy Breed’ – Noel Coward’s inter-war propaganda play – was on the radio the other day and, although it is brilliant as all Mr. Coward’s stuff indubitably is, I probably disagree with nearly all the sentiments expressed within it and yet I found myself blubbing like a baby.

I then got myself extremely cross as I thought that one of the things that would alleviate being back in the Mile Oak darkness would be to catch some live theatre/gigs/comedy. After all there is no point living that near to Brighton and being only an hour away from London if you don’t take advantage of it. I had forgotten that August was silly season and the best offering I could find was ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ at the Theatre Royal which I decided to forego. Obviously I perused Robert Plant’s website and he wasn’t touring. A friend had recommended a comedian called Steve Hughes and, after having nearly wet myself laughing when I found him on t’interweb, I thought I would check his website out, but the nearest he was playing was Cardiff. So, I did what any self-respecting Buddhist would do and I chanted. I chanted for anything to look forward to and to lighten the days. Within two days I got an email alert from the Robert Plant website, which I had signed onto on the very slim chance that something would turn up. He was going to be touring in October, well this was no good to me, but he was also going to be playing a one-off gig to promote his new album on 2nd September in London – as Harry Biscuit would so aptly say: ‘Harrumble’! So, after dancing around my flat for about half an hour, I rearranged my flights to accommodate this. It was going to be a few days after I was due to be leaving, but as the world’s biggest Robert Plant fan I wasn’t about to miss this opportunity. Anyway, as my Aunty Rose would say, to cut a long story short I was immensely pleased with this and thought no more about it. On Wednesday evening I was sitting minding my own business when I got an email from the Komedia in Brighton to say that Steve Hughes is now playing 4 nights there in August! Well, I won’t type here the exclamation I used, but needless to say it was expressive. So, thank you universe. I now just have to work out why chanting for a man who does the shopping, comes in and cooks me dinner, entertains me for a few hours and then promptly leaves when I have had enough, has not worked yet. Do you think perhaps I am asking too much?

As a fan of live music I was really pleased last Tuesday as The Barleymow had a guy called Vida (Richie) playing. He has a fabulous gravelly voice and plays guitar. He even managed some bars of Metallica for me when I requested some. He is the best live artist I have seen in Cyprus. He writes his own music and indeed has had a No. 1 in Australia. Also, and this is important for me, he is not a cabaret act. I think he is playing in and around Kapparis/Protaras/Agia Napa over the summer, so go out and see him. Although being only 34, he is a bit young to go in my collection of long-haired, gravelly-voiced, dirty old men, especially as his hair is incredibly short. Still, they have to start somewhere.

On Monday we had a power cut in the evening. It only lasted for about half an hour, but it really highlighted to me just how much we rely on electricity. I was fine because I always have candles and I just lit some and read a book. However, my washing machine was on at the time and obviously that cut out; the fridge went off; the water cooler; the computer (and hence my music); I didn’t have it on but a lot of people would have had their air conditioning going; and of course the electric light. What will we do when the resources have run out? The cheers that went up when the power came back on after just half an hour without it made me realise that many people would just not have known what to do without all the external stimuli made possible by electricity. No wonder people used to have such big families. I know that once a year there is an event publicized around the world where people are asked to switch off their electricity for the evening and save some resources – usually to coincide with the Spring Equinox and the clocks going forward. Unfortunately it is not that widely publicized and when I mentioned it to some people at the time they had no idea what I was talking about – still I am very used to that! It would do people good to have enforced power cuts once a year. Maybe we would then start to appreciate what we have and do something to start saving resources, because at the moment so many people just don’t care.

I know that you will be immensely pleased to hear that the bus service is getting even better. We have new timetables already. I hate to think what the poor woman in the Tourist Information Office said about that! On Monday my money was due to go in the bank, so I walked there to get some money out to pay some bills. It is a round walk of an hour and so you can imagine my chagrin when the money wasn’t in there (this is Cyprus, this isn’t the first time this has happened and I very much doubt it will be the last, they put it through when they feel like it and I don’t actually have a problem with that.) So on Tuesday, only having €3 in my purse, I thought I better make the effort again. I got as far as the Amore and sitting there waiting to go was a bus to Protaras. Now for just €2 you can get on and off as many buses as you want all day – how fabulous is that! So, I thought sod it, I will go to a different branch. Off I pootled to Protaras, where I got off and within 5 minutes a bus turned up for Agia Napa. The Hellenic Bank is directly opposite the bus stop in Napa and so I got off, walked ten yards, got my money out (harrumble again!) and went back to the bus stop as I have no wish to spend more time than is necessary in Napa at the moment. In certainly no more than ten minutes a bus turned up that was going to Paralimni and I got on this as it meant I could go and pay my bills in town – wait for it – on the same day as I got my money out - I know, how exciting is that? In Paralimni I paid my bills, had a lovely bacon sandwich with brown sauce (not very Cypriot I know, but I really fancied one and I hadn’t had one in about six months) and then strolled back to the Square where I got on a bus that dropped me off outside my complex. I was utterly amazed. I managed to get all that done in about three hours, as well as having a lovely ride out in the sunshine, without becoming so exhausted that I had to spend the next day collapsed on the sofa.

Yesterday I went to meet Sue in Larnaca. Until last week I would have had to leave at 4.30pm as that was the time of the last bus back to Orfanides. Last night I got on the bus at 9.20, which is fabulous in itself, but not just that I also got to see the ships lit up in the port. (This is something that I love and that reminds me of my grandparent’s place in Gurnard, Isle of Wight. At night we would sit with the curtains open watching the shipping chug past on their way to Southampton Water, all lit up and beautiful as the lights reflected on the waves and the wash.) Not only was this a more sensible time to leave, but the bus brought me all the way home to the Amore. So I was indoors by about 10.50.

This isn’t meant to be turning into a Buddhist sales programme, but I was chatting to some friends who didn’t drive and who had lived here 6 years. They commented on this and asked how it was that Cyprus didn’t even start discussing a proper bus service until I got here? I told them that the poor Government didn’t stand a chance when I had been chanting every single day for some sort of transport to get me around the island and that that is where they had obviously been going wrong! Bless them, they just politely agreed. All jokes aside I don’t know or care why it has finally happened I am just incredibly grateful that it has. It remains to be seen how limited the buses will be from November, but any is better than none.

Yesterday morning I was woken with a shock. The sirens were blasting out across the bay. It is a sign of just how complacent we are that I just turned over and closed my eyes again. I thought well if the end is here I am going while I am asleep; I am far too comfortable to get up and panic. It turns out it was to commemorate the coup against Archbishop Makarios. The sound of the sirens really does make you think. On Tuesday it will be the anniversary of the day in 1974 when all those people were shot and killed by the planes that swooped on the completely unsuspecting sunbathers. I can see the area where this took place from my balcony. How terrifying must it have been to suddenly hear that horrible noise to which everyone reacts viscerally; then to look up and see swarms of planes heading directly for you with guns blazing. To have to run through the streets with your children, abandoning your homes, your shops, your farms, your pets, everything you ever worked to possess. I cannot even begin to comprehend the terror that this must have caused. I am not taking any sides politically but all war is wrong. All that killing of innocents just over who should own a piece of land – if there is anything in the world that is wrong, surely that is it. For Goodness sake, all the people who died (on both sides) are worth more than any hectare of land and certainly more than any politician or Government who decides to send people to kill and die whilst sitting safely miles away. It is a very sobering thought that if I had been standing on this spot where I am now 36 years ago, I would be watching people dying all around me in pain and terror and possibly be only seconds away from death myself. The sirens are due to go off at 5.20am on Tuesday morning and I will take that opportunity to send out my love to all, and I mean all, the people who have been killed and who have lost loved ones just because it was strategically convenient for this island to be divided and because those in power wanted their particular way of life to be seen as right and justified. The ordinary people had lived side by side for centuries, now their minds have been poisoned and this beautiful island is full of blood. Hopefully with the separation of nearly four decades peace and reconciliation can start to win through, if not in the present generation then in the one that is now growing up. I thought at this point that I would probably use a quote from Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, or Daisaku Ikeda, but I think that the way they lived their lives is example enough, so I am going to use one from Jimi Hendrix: ‘When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.’ What more can you add to that?