Living in Cyprus - March 1998
10th March:
The weather remains very pleasant although everyone is worried about the lack of rain. It’s been a dry ‘winter’ (if one can call it winter) and the reservoirs are extremely low. There’s never any rain at all between May and September, apparently, so unless there are some fairly heavy downpours in the next couple of months they’ll need to import water and perhaps ration it even more by the Summer.
There is one de-salination plant but it can’t supply more than one town; another is being built but won’t be ready to go until the end of next year. At present we get mains water about three days per week, so we fill up water bottles with that for drinking. The mains also fills up the water tank, which is big enough to supply water for showers, toilet, washing up etc when the mains isn't on, but if they rationed it even more we could well run out.
We’ve been doing bits of gardening off and on - it’s a never-ending task really, the garden is huge, very over-grown, and has loads of rubbish all over it. Richard’s been pruning some of the trees roughly with a saw - they have dead branches in places and we’ve done some strimming (it’s so uneven no other method of cutting would work) and Richard’s sprayed a lot of weed-killer over some of the worst places. At the weekend we filled twelve black bin-liners with garden rubbish and it barely looked any difference by the time we’d finished!
The house is in a reasonable state inside, on the whole, although it all really needs repainting and there are a few spots where plaster is coming off the walls. The very worst places were the kitchen and bathroom ceilings but Richard dealt with those before we moved in. Outside there’s a lot of work necessary - several of the shutters have broken parts and they all need repainting too. The sun inflicts a lot of damage on houses and most people need to repaint their woodwork every year or so, apparently. Since it’s a rental place we’re not killing ourselves to get it done; the house may be replaced by a block of flats in a few years. But when Richard has some free time he does a bit of painting. He did re-paint the front of the house, the porch and door, as they were in very poor condition.
We managed to make an appointment to visit the clarinet teacher at the music school - apparently he's the town band leader, and quite an important person in the town. Richard took Daniel along with some of the music he played in the UK, since the guy said he wanted to hear what level he was at. So Daniel played his pieces, and then was asked to do a scale or two and given some sight-reading which he tackled but found tricky, and got a bit upset - until the teacher said he had 'passed the audition'! He only teaches students with some potential - I don't know how anyone ever starts on the clarinet in that case, since there don't seem to be any other teachers and there is no music taught in schools!
Anyway, Daniel is now having half-hour lessons weekly, which cost us the grand total of £7.50 per month! The music school is actually connected with the Municipal Town Band, and lessons are subsidised by the Municipality. When Daniel is big enough to wear band uniform, and advanced a little more in his music, he will join the Band and then his lessons will be free!
26th March:
There still hasn't been much rain - and of course
we never really expect any despite some grey days when common sense -
and our British background! - should tell us to take umbrellas or
kagoules. One cloudy Sunday afternoon we went for a walk with a friend
along Kiti beach, only to be caught by a sudden rainshower. It wasn't
particularly cold, but the beach parasols were still up from last
Summer, so we took shelter while we waited for the rain to pass. It
wasn't enough to do more than wet the ground, really.
Work
is hectic as ever; Richard was on a conference last week. He worked 60+
hours the week before to get the first draft of the video catalogue
finished, is working all hours this week to get the promotional video
finished, and is having meetings all next week in Cairo. He’s then
taking some time off before and after Easter - a friend is coming here
for a week over Easter with his daughter, then my parents are coming a
few days later. So we'll take some time off our home-schooling
then.
The boys and I are hoping to be back in the UK in July when Richard may be going to Jordan for an intensive Arabic course. The boys want to go back to their primary school in Birmingham for the end of term, which is the time Daniel would have been leaving anyway if we had stayed in Birmingham. He's hoping to go on the ‘leavers weekend away’ as well as joining in the final service, assembly and party. I just hope it won't be traumatic all over again! When they're in school I'll get the chance to go into town and browse the big bookshops for 'key stage 3' text-books and other things for next year.