21st July 2017

.......................this date will now be etched in history as our wedding day!  We managed to keep it fairly hush hush, there were a few folks in high places who needed to know, oh and our witnesses, who were not always so good at the secrecy part of the arrangements, but hey.  We always knew we wanted a quietish wedding day.  We really didn't want the whole wedding thing, flowers, dress, invites, official photos, bridesmaids, best man, speeches, it just wasn't for us.  It is ok knowing this though but the problems arise when you start to consider the reality of not inviting anyone to your wedding.  If it was atall realistic we would have had all 4 of the sproglets present, but considering one was on the other side of the world, another is working 6 month contracts and could be anywhere in the world for half a year then somewhere else for the rest of the year and the boys are both at University in Uk it made the whole idea of such a plan  quite complicated.............so we opted for the very small and quiet option.   Once the special licence was obtained and a new frock bought we pootled off to the SBA Court uttered our vows, exchanged rings, signed the documents and that was it, Bobs yer Uncle, job done!  We had a lovely little do at the Officers Mess, Bev and Tony (our witnesses) unknown to us had a arranged a lovely private meal and had wedding cake made.  In the evening there was an End of Term  Barbecue at the Mess which became a relaxed unofficial Wedding reception once our 'news' became public.

All in all it suited 'Us' !

We then flew to France and had a blissful if hectic couple of weeks, we spent much of our time in Kermin tackling the garden and weeds which was great, we both miss gardening!  Then we spent a few days in Normandy visiting Bayeux, The Beaches and Mont St Michel before heading back to Paris where our time was spent hopping on and off the Big Bus Paris taking in all the main attractions, pootling along the Seine and marching our way through the vastness of Versailles.  We crammed so much in to just a few days!  We both agreed that although we had a wonderful holiday we do prefer the scenery, pace of life and people of Brittany!

It isn't easy fitting us both and the Eiffel Tower in a selfie!

Oh my! Oh to other news, Andy has become fascinated with selfie taking! Not in his own selfies, but in watching others taking selfies.  They preen, pose with one bent knee, hand on hip whilst pouting and making sure every hair is in place.  The whole process of selfie taking seems to have notched up a few levels.  Our boat trip along the Seine was like a photgraphy studio, and oh how we giggled when adults try to include children in their oh so perfectly posed selfies.  Children under the age of 10 just haven't grasped the fact that a selfie should be immaculate, they sulk, refuse to smile, don't look at the camera and generally spend their time frustrating and annoying the adults.  We even saw one girl change not only her hairstyle for a variety of different selfies but she changed her entire outfit!!

Since returning to Cyprus we have been on a another boat trip around Cape Grecko and have yet again been watching (probably opened mouthed) at the art of selfie taking.  This time it involved a lot of hair styling whilst out at sea and battling the wind......................

On to other news, Andy is now, atleast temporarily, the Fiscal Officer until the newly appointed person arrives on Island.  So the upshot is that he is a busy bee until further notice!

Then to finish the holidays we spent a week in Athens with Jess (atleast for a couple of days) and the boys.  More of that next time though, I need to find more photos for that blog post.

Red red wine................goes to my head............................

Sometimes life gets in the way of a good blog!  That is certainly how it has been over the last three months.  We do live a good life on a meditteranean island, this is fact, however, we have to work and pay bills too and just sometimes these things have to become priority.  So a quick round up is necessary to keep the blog just about uptodate.

We did indeed pootle back to France, and our little very Breton notaire did complete the work we so handsomely paid him for in advance!  We all let out a collection Phewwwwwwww as we left his office!

Since then life as a Customs OIC stepped up a gear. Andy is still very short staffed awaiting for various agencies to complete paperwork and sort out the movement of three new UK officers, and his single remaining officer at Dhekelia had a horrific cycle accident, breaking 6 ribs, collarbone and pelvis!  Thankfully he is recovering well and the medical treatment here is second to none.

Suddenly, we were then catapulted into schmoosing season.  There is a period of about 6 weeks on the run up to Christmas, and again in May/June when the invites roll in to various functions we are expected to attend.  Don't get me wrong we do enjoy these do's, who wouldn't?  We get to visit the High Commissioners residence, watch military pomp and splendor and then there is the function of the year in the village next to us (I feel Mr Reed will do a much better job than me of retelling that particularly story so I'm leaving that one up to him).

We have squished in a little visit to Troodos again and another weekend at the coast, at some time during April we realised our time here will be over in the blink of an eye so in our quest to visit as much of Cyprus as possible we booked a few nights away in areas we haven't visited before.

Andy checking out how to make an enormous still!

Omodos village

 Koilani winery

We visited the wine making region in Troodos, some Cypriot wine can be wonderfully smooth, although there are others where you need to man up for the first glass then miraculously every other glass after that is delicious.

This trip really was quite rustic and authentic, we loved it, old boys playing back gammon in the local tavernas, everyone speaking Greek, no menus, you simply ate what they had to offer, and meals were followed by a Greeklish chat with the landlord and some of his special 'homebrew'.  The only exception Omodos which was a little more touristy with quaint craft shops, cobbled streets and cafes with menus!  We will be returning to Koilani, it will probably be one of those last minute kinda trips that are needed after a demanding week at work, a relaxing and rural getaway!

Beccy xxx

I Guess It's All Relative

I'm shamelessly pinching the opening sentence of Beccy's last post to use as the title for this post, for no reason other than it's true!
Blogging is one of those things people do when they have embarked on something new and exciting (or they are trying to sell you something) before they get bored and realise that what they are doing may not actually be either that new or that exciting - at least not to anybody else. And it's fair to say that's what happens with me, I have these rushes of blogging excitement early on, before I think "why would any other bugger be interested in any of this stuff? I'm writing it and I'm not!" or when I'm incensed by the stupidity of something - as per my Brexit rant, which seems like forever ago now.
Today's blog is for neither a rant nor to try to tell anybody all about by exciting life in Cyprus, I had a revelation whilst walking the dogs the other day - it actually doesn't matter whether I think it's exciting or whether anybody out there in the cloud thinks so either - it's worth writing stuff down anyway to help us remember!
So that's the deep and meaningful (?) stuff done with, normal service will now be resumed. Some people who are fortunate enough to be recipients of our ramblings will probably be astonished to learn the Divisional Commander James Guy has finally admitted defeat and realised that he isn't the Peter Pan of the police world and has finally called it a day. I went to his retirement party at one of the hotels on Larnaca strip just to make the sure the old bugger wasn't playing an early April Fools joke (it cost 60 euros for me and Beccy - whoever heard of a retirement do where you have to pay to get in!), but it was true, Jim resplendent in a kilt excited stage left. It was interesting to note that the Chief Constable's speech revolved almost entirely around how nice Jim had been to the Richmond Villagers (which for those of you who don't know - are nothing whatsoever to do with the police- except when they decide not to arrest them for breaking numerous laws) and nothing to do with any kind of police work at all!
What else has happened since the Brexit rant- quite a bit really, in no particular order here are some of the highlights.....
Whittle came and visited, we met up watched something that sort of passed as football (England's Euros campaign), went North and had a meal in a restaurant with no menus. That really was a first for me, the place looked lovely so in we went, got a table for four (because there were four of us) and asked for the menu. Blank looks followed, so thinking it was a language thing, speaking in my best English for foreigners I repeated very slowly and loudly "Can     we      have      a         m     e      n     u  pleeeeeease?", to which the bloke who had been called over by blank look guy said - "No menu - kebab". So being even more stereotypically British instead of saying "That's OK my good man, we'll try somewhere with a broader food base", we said "Oh alright kebabs for 4 please"
What followed was perhaps the biggest plate of meat I have ever seen in my life, they must have killed and cooked two entire goats and seven chickens which they then served with 14 different salads, grilled peppers, halloumi and chips - I thought it was great, the Whittle's who it's fair to say can be a little conservative in their food tastes were perhaps not quite as impressed - but what did I care I got to eat one and three quarter goats!
We did Romania & Bulgaria with the boys, France and Brussels by ourselves (I won't cover this in too much detail - as Beccy has already shared the photos of those adventures).
Laid to rest Cathy's mum up at Cape Greco - which was actually a much more solemn occasion than either me or Beccy thought it would be. So solemn in fact that on the way up to Cape Greco we decided that we couldn't just hurl her ashes of a cliff, so we went in Paralimni to get something suitable to mark the spot. So after a tour of Kokkinos supermarket we eventually emerged with some very tasteful plastic flowers and some cable ties. Whilst getting very peculiar looks from Eastern European tourist I secured the flowers to the back of a park bench looking out over the sea. Then I very carefully opened the container and shook Gladys' ashes out over the cliff. At exactly that moment a zephyr of wind caught the ashes and blew some of them back into my eyes. I swear I could hear Gladys laughing!

During the summer we'd been to Brittany, whilst there we'd seen a notaire (a French solicitor) and had discussed how the house could be gifted to me under French law by my mam and dad. It was relatively straight forward he said, I need these papers and then a few weeks to sort it out. So when we went back at New Year, we went armed with said papers and left them with his secretary along with a letter confirming what we'd spoken about in August and telling him we'd be back sometime in February to sign the transfer documents. On our return to Cyprus, we emailed confirming he had the documents and arranged an appointment in February half term - everything going well so far, we'd get the house in my name before Cruella DeVille presses the Article 50 button, we'd be registered in France before the French went barmy and voted in Le Pen as President it'd all work out fine......so we turn up, mam, dad and me for the signing, Beccy an interested spectator only to be greeted by M. Pelegrin with
"Hello - what can I do for you?" -
 I replied that we were there to sign the forms to transfer the house, to which he replies"ah so when do you want to do that?",
 Thinking he was joking I laughed nervously and said "Now would be good"
"C'est impossible, you need three weeks" and at that point he clearly remembered something and left the room. A few minutes later he returned with our file, he read it, then looked up and said something along the lines of "I'm really sorry, I haven't done the work - I just forgot please forgive me I'll do it now for free" actually he never said any of that, he did apologise, said he hadn't done it and that if he was us he'd collect all the papers and storm out of the office.
Obviously being British we said "Oh don't worry about it, these things happen, I'm sure you'll get around to it when you can. I think a cup of tea would be in order" most of that is true apart from the cup of tea bit. Dad fumed silently and gave him a few "Paddington bear hard stares" but I don't think M Pelegrin has read Paddington so it was a bit wasted. M. Pelegrin said he'd sort it out for next time we came and here's a bill for 2,600 euros to pay in advance before I do! I went back to the house and cut down a tree - chainsaws are great therapy. We go back in April 13 days after Cruella does her bit, but hopefully before the French vote in a loony.
It's fair to say I got a little bit down after this setback - it is a worry not knowing what's going to happen after March 29th, but there's nothing I can do about it - so I'm not going to worry about it anymore, what will be will be.
And after watching Comic Relief the other night I thought "do I really have too much to worry about?"
Which brings me neatly back to the beginning - it really is all relative.

A Winters Tale

Now I do realise it is all relative, but Winter seems to be a long one this year.  I am sat typing whilst there is a raging storm outside.  Temperatures have been low this winter, we have even had a few nights below freezing and now the weather has just warmed up a little and the storms have set in.   There are signs of spring though, flowers are starting to bloom and the lemon blossom outside the kitchen window is stunning, I will soon be chittering on about high temperatures I'm sure.

We have had a quiet few months since Christmas, work has been dominant with a few black tie 'do's' thrown in for good measure.  The main event though was a trip to Kermin.  We can now get flights direct from Larnaca to Paris so off we pootled for a week of rest in France.  Andy's idea of rest is to crank up the chainsaw, take down a couple of trees, move seasoned logs to the wood shed, chop and cut more logs and plant fruit trees.  The latter being easier said than done, the ground in Kermin is almost pure stone in places, digging with a spade is impossible - a trusty pickaxe is what is required! It is heavy work, but Andy finds it particularly theraputic.  I resorted to much weedkilling which I hate doing, but at the moment because we are there so infrequently it is the most sensible and effective way of keeping the nettles and brambles at bay.

We also partook of all those things which should be enjoyed while in Brittany, we slurped a few glasses of wine, munched on cheese snuggled in around the fire and visited the coast.

Beccy xx

Donna Nook

Rather a delayed post, I have had this sat in drafts since Christmas just waiting for me to finish uploading the piccies!  During our flying visit back to the UK we pootled off to Donna Nook Seal Sanctuary in Lincolnshire.  Why we have had to move two and a half thousand miles to Cyprus before we decide to visit this absolute gem of a place only 30 minutes drive from Barton I will never know, but hey, atleast we made the trip now.  It was a beautiful day although the North Sea winds were a tad bracing.  After oohing and arrhing at the pups and their mums we had to visit Skegness for the obligatory fish and chips and a steamy cup of tea.  A great day was had by all and if we are ever in Lincolnshire during November or December again we will definitely be returning to Donna Nook.

Cyherbia

Here are the photos from way back when ...................................I can't remember exactly, but it was September/October 2016.  These are the pics which sent me into a whirlwind of technophobia when nothing worked, we needed new leads or something and then another thing didn't work, all a bit on the technical side for me really.  All that is now a thing of the past and I can now release these few photos from my camera!

These were taken at Cyherbia, a herb garden/shop/tea room only a few kilometres from Oroklini.  We had been talking about visiting many many times but never quite manage to get there.  We had a lovely jaunt around the gardens which if I am really honest were well past their best, but then visitng in late summer probably wasn't the best idea!  There were a few determined yarrow flowers and the rosemary was beautiful, the many many olives were just about ready to harvest and the maze was impressive, we only got lost a couple of times before making it to the middle, but then getting back out again was a whole different ball game!!!!!!!

The bougainvillea was displaying itself beautifully, and there were many bees buzz buzzing around trying to find the last bits of pollen.

The fairies didn't come out to play today!

The coffee shop had beautiful cakes and tempting herbal teas and the shop had a wonderful range of oils, teas, gifts, skincare (all paraben and SLS free).  

We will visit Cyherbia again, if not before definitely in June for the lavender harvest.  They have demonstrations on essential oil extraction which I am really keen to learn about, and in general it is probably just a great place to pop to for a brew and a wander.

Beccy xx