Living in Cyprus - December 1998
29th December
It's been a hectic and somewhat stressful week... on Christmas Eve we thought we’d lost Cleo (the cat). We had arranged to go carol singing with the inter-church Christmas choir at two of the hotels; Daniel had to go because he was playing his clarinet. We were supposed to meet at the church car park at 5pm, so from about 3.30pm we started to call Cleo but she didn’t appear! We went all round the house banging the plate and calling, then it started to rain. Our neighbour over the road said that she was probably sheltering somewhere out of the rain and would return later. In the end we decided we’d just have to go out anyway, as we could hardly let a cat run our lives. It wasn’t particularly cold, just wet.
We got to the car park where we were supposed to meet after everyone had left, but remembered which hotel they were starting at and got there just in time - just as well because the other person playing clarinet didn’t have any of the right music, and the keyboard at this hotel wasn’t working so the singing relied on the ‘wind band’ - two clarinets and one oboe. When we got home about 8.30pm Cleo was sitting on the doorstep, rather bedraggled but very pleased to see us, As we came in, I realised that although I was carrying Daniel’s backpack with clarinet, music etc I was no longer carrying my handbag. So, leaving Daniel here with Cleo and a towel, we went back to the last hotel - where, thankfully, someone had handed it in to reception.
On Christmas Day we were going to lunch with a colleague of Richard’s, along with a girl who's working here for a few months. Our friend was having her turkey cooked at the baker’s, something a lot of people do if the turkey is too big for their oven. She had stuffed it with a chestnut stuffing the night before. We had arranged to collect it from the baker - then after church she rang us to say she was feeling really ill, but still wanted us to go over. We collected the turkey (which was beautifully done and delicious, incidentally) and found our friend looking white and very ill - but she insisted we should stay and eat while she sat in the next room as she couldn’t hold anything down. She wasn’t infectious, just reacting to a very stressed week.
We didn’t stay very long after lunch, obviously. We brought the other guest back here and taught her to play mah-jong. The mains water was on, so I did three loads of laundry - and the day finished with a major flood in the kitchen as the washing machine sprung a leak! It took Richard and me over an hour to mop it all up, the only consolation being that the kitchen floor was sparkling clean by the end. I was glad it happened on the third load rather than the first. We thought it would mean we’d have to buy a new part, but in fact the washing machine had gone slightly off balance while spinning and somehow thrown the filter thing at the bottom slightly out, so water had poured out of that. It seems to be all right now.
Daniel's major present was an airbrush (a beginners’ version)
and we bought some paints, air canisters etc with some of his Christmas
money for him too. He confused a friend at church, who thought he said
his present was a HAIRbrush!
Unfortunately the air canisters don’t seem to last very long, so tomorrow we’re going to go to Nicosia together to have a look at compressors, which are recommended for anyone using an airbrush more than occasionally. Daniel just about has enough Christmas and birthday money combined to buy one, but Richard may help him as he would like to use it too. A video came with the airbrush showing a vast number of special effects that can be achieved, and Daniel’s first attempt was most impressive.
>We got Tim a computer game he wanted, in which he can design a
‘Theme Park’ like a mini version of Disneyland. We’ve all tried it out
(!) and none of us have got very far with it yet, but he seems to enjoy
it.
We also got him a case for his guitar so he can carry it more easily. It’s only about ten minutes’ walk to his teacher's house for the lessons, quite pleasant really through some of the backstreets of Larnaka, but carrying the guitar was rather awkward without a case, and he had been saying for a long time that he wanted one. He also asked for a desk lamp, but so many were available that I said I thought he’d rather choose it for himself, which indeed he did - and chose one I would never have thought of, with a metallic blue base.
On Boxing Day we had the Christmas party for Richard's colleagues here from 4pm onwards; in the morning there was a free showing of the animated movie ‘Prince of Egypt’ for all local church members at our local cinema. So we all went to that - it was excellent, basically about the life of Moses. The party went very well; there were 29 people here in all but it didn’t seem crowded. We put lots of chairs around the edge of our central ‘atrium’ room so everyone could sit there. Someone organised games, then we had a potluck meal, then an American style ‘gift exchange’ and finally some carol singing.
On Sunday morning after the main church service there was a joint communion service with the Greek Evangelical Church, as happens every 4th Sunday of the month, followed by another potluck meal. It's nice to have so much going on as it would be easy to feel homesick around Christmas-time. It's hard to believe we've been here for over a year now!