Catching up at last

A wedding … one transatlantic crossing by sea … one house purchase … one mad and deluded vendor … 20 weeks of builders onsite … one legal battle with Cypriot bureaucracy … one lawyer’s  suggestion to sue the Government in the European Courts … one sneaky workaround to get round said bureaucracy … two minor operations … one set of demolished external stairs … lots of fruit trees … several hammered thumbs whilst building a kitchen … an awful lot of paint, and filler, and sanding, and non-square walls … some visitors … some temporary electrics … a few rats … some fresher air and cooler evenings

So, we’re back after a break of almost 15 months.  The intention had always been to keep the blog going but circumstances have kept us rather busy of late.  Of course, there’s nothing quite like being accosted, in the toilets of a hotel during a wedding reception, by a total stranger saying …

“I know who you are, I used to read your blog!“

… to bring on the guilt of letting things slip.

We have now moved, to a property which we first saw and made an offer on in Spring ‘08.  It took until December for us to get vacant possession and then until July ‘09 before it was fit to inhabit.  Considering the previous (see deluded, above) owner said it needed nothing more than a little light replastering and a coat of paint that may give an indication of some of the challenges that have kept us busy over the last year or so ago.

Technically the blog should be renamed …

‘VillageUpInTheHillsAbout30MinsDriveFromLarnaca-Tales‘

… but that seems rather wordy so, for the time being we’ll stick with AradippouTales even though we’ve left Aradippou behind us.

Welcome back :-)

Daybreak over Larnaca bay

 

One of the upsides of getting up at an ungodly hour to pick up visitors from the airport is the chance to watch the sun rise over the island.

Yesterday morning we were out of bed at 3am to meet the early flight of our last visitors of the summer. Having picked up people and bags we headed to the nearest Zorbas, the fantastic local 24 hour bakery, to collect breakfast. With bags of pastries, biscuits and fruit juice in hand we headed up into Avdellero while it was still dark.

The church of Agia Marina, high above the village, has superb views over to the coast and across Larnaca bay. It is near to here that we saw the bee-eaters and saw eagles and long-legged buzzards soar.

As the sun slowly rose and night faded away, the two photographers took a series of photos while the blogger perched on a ledge outside the church, admired the view and captured the moment.

 

 

Looking East

 

 

 

Sunrise, seen through the church

 

Sunrise over the bay

 

 

 

 

Seating within the outer perimeter of the church

Legal, at last!

After two years, two months and one day the car finally has legal, legitimate Cypriot number plates.

Those of you with long memories may recall that we bought a new, VAT-free, car in England a month before we left. The VAT-free status was permitted as we intended to remove the car from the country within two months. The payback was that we would, ultimately, need to pay VAT in Cyprus once the car was registered.

Meanwhile the car was a corner-stone of Op Keo, our ‘leaving England’ plan. Our intention was to spend three weeks driving to Cyprus and stopping at all of the places in Europe that we’d always wanted to see. We did just that and had an absolutely wonderful time – well, apart from the night that we accidentally booked into a German Sanatorium.

Anyway, once we arrived in Cyprus our carefully crafted plan for importing the car fell apart. Arriving on hot and sunny Friday afternoon our case was considered to be too complex and the car was impounded, The following Monday we were allowed to remove it from Limassol and place it in a bonded warehouse in Larnaca to begin the official import process.

To assist we employed a local agent with the intention that she, rather than us, would travel to Nicosia on a periodic basis to progress our claim. Over the course of the last two years she has liaised with officials, produced copies of documents and apparently argued our case.

In truth we have to wonder if she has been a help or a hindrance. Yes, her language skills and knowledge of the process have been helpful, but in reality her ability to follow-up on any actions have been sadly lacking. Today, when we finally took delivery of the new number plates we discovered that she applied for them in late May and has been driving around with them in her car since then.

Nevertheless, the process is now done. The car is legal, she has shiny new plates and (all being well) we need never deal with the importation department in Nicosia ever again. In the final analysis we probably didn’t save a huge amount of money. The VAT we paid was at 15% rather than at 17.5% but we paid some registration fees and a (very small) amount of money to the agent. But, buying in England gave us a wonderful new car to allow us to drive here and fulfill that dream.

On that note, just one anecdote to give a flavour of the way things work here.

After the car had been moved to the bonded warehouse in Larnaca we were required to attend the local customs office to complete paperwork and, hopefully, give us temporary rights to drive the car. One of the office assistants at the bonded warehouse was tasked with accompanying us to the customs office to oversee the process. It occurred to her that once she had dealt with us she had another case, in another direction, to deal with and that it would therefore make sense to take two cars. Apart from her car the only other available vehicle was our impounded car.

“Ahhh, you should follow me in your car. But make sure you don’t park near to the office windows as we don’t want the import officer to see the car. After all, it is supposed to be in the warehouse still! ”

Life may be simpler now that the car is legal :-)

Catching Up

I know, I know. We sort of disappeared off the face of the world for a while. Sorry ’bout that and all!

Summer has truly arrived, in fact we’re in the middle of a heatwave according to the government, not unlike last year. This year’s heat is made more challenging by the continuing lack of water. Rationing has now been in place for several months and impacts our lives much more that we anticipated. More of that later perhaps.

In other news we’ve just waved goodbye to our second set of visitors this summer. Both sets had good hot weather, possibly hotter than they might have wanted, and managed to get out and about to see the sites as well as fitting in a fair few beach days. With both we headed to Nicosia and crossed through to the north via the newly opened Ledra Street crossing.

We also managed a couple of weeks off the island sailing across the Atlantic … again. We had such a good time last year that we gave in and booked the same trip once more. As last year the crossing was fantastic, the boat was wonderful and the company was excellent. And, with a crew of 200 or so and only 81 passengers we were spoiled rotten. Long may that continue ;-)

While we were away we managed to pick up a number of bits and pieces that either aren’t available here or are simply too overpriced to justify buying them. Top of the list was a tiny computer for traveling and for use out of the house. Right now, while the temperatures are in the mid 30s and the air isn’t moving it is bliss to be able to update the blog from the comfort of the shaded patio rather than a hot study.

And, in amongst everything else, we’re trying to buy a house. Just a small place, a little way up in the hills where it might be a little cooler. There are a few glitches with the sale (including the small matter of the house being four times the size that the Land Registry think it should be) so no more of that until there’s something definite to report!

Pay and Display …

… in an olive grove? Sometimes things here make no sense ;-)

Just to be clear, the nearest village is about 5 miles away!

Breakfast and Supper

We recently had one of the now and again spells of unpleasant weather coming to us from North Africa. From time to time the wind picks up a load of sand particles. This can lead to a fall of incredibly dirty rain, or as recently a very unpleasant haze. Last weekend we had several days where the familiar horizon simply disappeared, and the sun was either totally lost or just a splodge of brighter yellow in an otherwise grey/orange sky.

However, the murky sky led to one very odd event. Over the last few weeks the non-resident swallows have been coming back to the island from their winter quarters further south. Some remain and breed, others pause for a refuel and then head further north.

About half an hour before sunset we were outside looking at the hazy sky, looking for a break in the murk.

We paused to watch the swallows doing a wonderful demonstration of their abilities in feeding on the local flying insects – we like swallows!! Suddenly we noticed an intruder. One of the local bats was competing with the swallows. We regularly see bats over the summer when we tend to eat outside after dark – there are a fair number that silently swoosh up and down around us. We like the bats too of course – especially with their massive appetite for eating mosquitoes.

It was fascinating to watch two entirely different flying styles – the swallows a very graceful ballet, the bat looking more like an aerial breakdancer – twitching and doing endless 90 degree turns. It was a real treat to see the bat in daylight at all – normally we only see them little as dusk falls.

Meanwhile the murky skies have gone, and we are back to more of the normal blue.

Ripping vinyl

Before we moved out here we spent time decluttering and thinning our possessions. There’s nothing quite like the thought of paying hundreds of pounds to ship things a few thousand miles to focus the mind!

One of the things we decided to ship was our combined vinyl collection. Most of our music collection is on CD and we’re slowly but steadily moving to digitising things and storing the entire collection on one of the macs. However, the vinyl presented a problem … long ago we threw away our last remaining record deck when we got a new stereo system. Rather than make any difficult decisions about the old vinyl collection we simply gathered it together, put it in a box and ignored it. And when it came to packing time we pointed the packers at the box, told them it was fragile and left them to it.

Now, almost two years later, we have a solution. Someone has lent us a record player and it is hooked up to one of the macs. A tweak or two with a handy piece of recording software and we finally have a way of hearing music that’s been stashed away for at least five years.

The house (and possibly the garden and maybe even the street) has been rocking to a wider range of music to usual.

What must the locals of Aradippou make of us? And is the village really ready for early Rolling Stones (so early it’s in mono!) a hefty helping of the Levellers and a smattering of Howard Jones?

They haven’t asked us to leave yet …

Ledra Street crossing re-opens

Is this finally progress? Has the new guard broken the deadlock?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7327866.stm

Greek and Turkish Cypriots have reopened a major crossing in the divided Cypriot capital of Nicosia. Ledra Street, which had come to symbolise the partition of the island, was declared open by local officials. It was split in 1964, during an outbreak of violence between the ethnic Greek and Turkish communities.

Cyprus goes Communist

Well, the results are in and it seems that the Communist candidate, Demetris Christofias, is the new president.

Although the final result was close run there had been speculation this would happen. This morning the Guardian ran a piece entitled “Cyprus gets ready for a communist ‘takeover’“.

Here as the result becomes widely known the noise level is increasing; fireworks are being set off, car horns are blaring and it seems all the under 25 males in the village have taken to their motorbikes and scooters and are circling the village. Whether this is in celebration or commiseration isn’t clear!

So, will this change the island? Some of the headlines in previous days have sounded nervous at the idea of of the island becoming the first EU country to be led by a Communist president. However, some senior government figures have suggested that they will be happy to continue serving, which ever candidate won.

Another Cyprus blogger, Sue of This is Cyprus, summed the situation up rather well saying …

“Will life change if Cyprus gains either a Communist or a right-wing President? I doubt it. Most people here seem to be keen on Communism as a principle, capitalism as a practice, and Greek Orthodoxy as a tradition. Oddly enough, these three rather different ideologies seem to live reasonably comfortably alongside each other. But then, this IS Cyprus!”

Of course, only time will tell!

The builders are back …

In case we hadn’t realised they made enough noise when they arrived at 7am to wake the entire street.

Mainly these are builders who have full-time jobs elsewhere and do work on other houses on the weekend to bring in a little extra money. As a result we see them for a couple of days and then they disappear for a week or a month before coming back to do a little more work. The house opposite has been part-built since we arrived in August 2006. It looks like it might finally be finished this summer.

Today it looks like they are sanding the rough finish of the external walls in preparation for them being painted. On a previous visit they arranged for a JCB to come along and remove the excess reinforced steel bars (known locally as re-bar).

Even here we’re not convinced that this is an accepted technique!