trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jun 7, 2009 20:19:36 GMT
Well Everyone. I am off to the airport in less than an hour. The news is that the plane is nearly 2 hours late. But of course you are advised to check in as normal, ie 2 hours before time. This seems to mean that I could be waiting at the airport for about 4 hours. And then a 5 hour flight and then the drive to Carnforth. I think when I get to my destination, a sleep will be in order. But I will be well recovered by Thursday PM. If anyone thinks they see me, around and about in the area, with a camera bag on my belt............Risk it...... Ask if I am Trev from Cyprus. I may let you buy me a coffee. See you soon. Trev..
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mpprh
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Post by mpprh on Jun 8, 2009 17:27:25 GMT
I've not posted for a while. Here, too, summer is providing temperatures around 30C most days. June can be hot, and mid June had a few days at 43C in the 2003 heatwave. It is normally that hot for about a week in July. 43C with no wind is unbearable, unless you have a pool. This house is built with good insulation, and the indoor temperature is 15 - 20C cooler than outdoors on the hottest days. As a point of nostalgia - I remember the 1963 big freeze in Morecambe - I had a paper round and snow laid on the ground for 3months. Having spent 7 winters in Sweden, and visited Alice Springs and Death Valley in summer, I later relealized that temperature extremes are all relative ! Peter
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Post by WillowTheWhisp on Jun 9, 2009 17:26:09 GMT
I think we've had our annual couple of days of summer Trev.
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jun 23, 2009 16:32:54 GMT
I think we've had our annual couple of days of summer Trev. Well you must have been given a few extra because on my visit there were some good days................................ Well as you will all know now I am back in Cyprus. As I have just said I had some good weather but on the second week I had a number of days when it was pretty poor with one day in particular providing 'pouring down rain'. When I arrived I expected to feel cold, maybe cold enough for a pullover. But I managed quite well in shirt sleeves. I managed to visit my former workplace a total of 4 times. On one of the visits I was treated to 'Lunch with the girls ' at the pub in Heysham village main street. And we were able to sit outside in the sunshine. I also managed to make a couple of visits to friends on board the Ben- my-Chree at Heysham. Also I was able to accompany one of the girls from work to Blackpool airport, and also to Fleetwood. All in the aid of work I hasten to add. During the middle weekend I made a visit to my Daughter and her husband who live in Glasgow. Whilst I was in the Morecambe area I made good use of my time. As you will perhaps have seen I visited the new Hover house, and the cafe on the end of the Stone Jetty. I took over 300 pictures on my trip and a lot of them were of the various places that I have lived in the district. Others were of general areas of Morecambe, and I took some which may surface as quiz pictures eventually. Three main things stick in my mind. 1. How cheap thing are in the supermarkets. As Willow has said in another thread I found shirts for sale in 'George' (Asda) at a cost of 3 for £8-00. Jeans were only £3-00 a pair. Shoes for £15-00 and £10-00. Also Pants and socks at almost give-away prices. Item number 2 that amazed me was the price of meals out and food in Supermarkets. Almost everyone is doing special offers. You can buy a sandwich and a bottle of water for a pound at Asda, and there are many similar deals in many supermarkets. The third item that has only got worse in my absence is the traffic. Oh my goodness.......... what length of time do you need now to get to Lancaster for 9-00 am. Crazy, just crazy. By the middle of the second week I was just hanging on, waiting for my return flight to my home in Cyprus. My flight to the UK was a night flight and there was a 2 hour delay. I was to say the least a little jaded, but some sleep soon put things right. My return flight from Manchester was delayed over 3 hours. I left Morecambe at 12 noon and flew at 7-00pm. However I am back in the groove now that I am used to. Except that now it is too hot here. Today in the Hills / mountains it was 32c in the shade. No doubt I will get use to it, and to using fans to keep cool. I will share some of the pictures that I took at a later time. But for now I will just say that I enjoyed my visit, and the 'meet up', and maybe I can do it all again sometime. Best wishes. Trev..
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Post by WillowTheWhisp on Jun 24, 2009 9:39:24 GMT
The cheapest meals out and the ones that make me wonder how on earth they manage to do it are the 'Pub and Carvery' chain where they do roast dinners with all the veg you can eat for £3.50 per person!
Keef mentioned sweatshop labour in another thread and I was just thinking of those poor servers in the P&C with all the heat from the overhead thingies to keep the food warm. They always look totally worn out by the heat.
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jun 24, 2009 10:51:48 GMT
Yes it seems to be that there is always someone with a better deal. Re the 'sweatshop' labour or children working for a pittance in foreign countries, it certainly is a problem.
I assume that most would agree that the cheap foreign labour should be paid more. However if they are paid a much better wage then whatever they produce would go up. Maybe this would then stop it being a 'saleable' item. If this happened then the children on poor wages would be out of work with no pay at all. Certainly it is not an easy problem to solve.
Regards. Trev..
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jul 18, 2009 15:56:03 GMT
Hi Everybody. Well I thought it past time that I added to my 'Cyprus Thread' I have had plenty of time to reflect upon my UK visit(4 weeks) and I still believe that the price of food and clothes in the shops there is definitely cheaper than in Cyprus. Eating out is probably just the same. Some places quite dear and some places doing great deals. We decided today about 10-30 just to have a drive out, to do nothing in particular. When we got down to Paphos on the coast it was very hot and humid. Bear in mind that the inhabitants here try to keep out of the Summer sunshine, especially from about 12 noon till 4-00 pm. We went to our favourite supermarket and when we came out I asked Hil if she wanted to walk a few hundred yards to the prom for a cold drink. So that's what we did, and it was very enjoyable outside in the shade with a cold beer. The prices were a little strange though not really dear. A pint for me, €1-50...... A half pint for Hil, €1-20. We then decided to drive about 10 miles to a village near the airport. I had heard that there was a good fish and chip shop there. We had fish and chips twice and 2 fanta's (I was driving) and the bill was €18-50. This is about UK£ 15-00, so not cheap. But it was very nice. We are still waiting to hear about our plot of land.... When it was pegged out one edge of it overlapped the next plot by about 2and a half metres. So we are waiting to hear what the land office want to do about that. Although the next door land owner does not seem too bothered. The other thing that we are waiting for is the results of our application to build on our plot of land. The architect said she would make enquiries, but we still have no news. I will add a few pictures now. Some may be on the forum in another place, but never mind. Parking in Paphos... No one cares. !!! Terrapins in a Vegetable market's water feature... A nice little cove on the coast, and a long term wreck that no one wants. The Bar / cafe where we had a drink today, The menu which may NOT be readable. The village 'Mandria' near the airport. The fish & chip shop, and the 'platefull ' And our cat after he had eaten the little bit of fish that I brought him. I hope that you enjoy them. Regards. Trev..
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Post by WillowTheWhisp on Jul 18, 2009 18:08:06 GMT
Are thoe plates of fish and chips as big as they look?
Having never been to Cyprus I'm always surprised by the amount of English writing there is on the signs in your photos Trev.
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jul 18, 2009 19:17:10 GMT
Yes the fish were very big indeed. And the chips were obviously not thawed out frozen ones.
Again it was another place that did special offers.
Cod and chips, mushy peas, bread and butter and tea or coffee.... €9-95. That's about UK£ 8-50.
Trev..
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jul 19, 2009 9:54:59 GMT
Are thoe plates of fish and chips as big as they look? Having never been to Cyprus I'm always surprised by the amount of English writing there is on the signs in your photos Trev. Yes that is very true Willow, most of the signs are in English. I suppose that it is because the places that we frequent most are in the Tourist area. The places where the signage is wholly or predominantly Cypriot would be the government offices, such as Taxes, land, and planning. These are the places that you see few English people. Although we are getting to know our way around the land offices quite well now. There are still many people in the areas shops that hardly speak any English at all. If you can't make yourself understood they will usually take you to someone who can speak English. Cheers. Trev.
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jul 19, 2009 10:10:17 GMT
Here is a picture or Plan really, that I should perhaps have posted a while back. This is the final plan that is in for approval at the moment. However the first approval is to get permission to actually build on our land. An here is an (indistinct) picture of the plan situated on the plot of land that we have. I only add this to give an idea of the size of the land in relation to the Bungalow. I feel the need to explain a few things. Apparently in Cyprus they are not keen on you having what in England would be classed as a 'Granny flat' although in our case it would be a 'Grandad flat', for Hilary's Dad. So although the lines on the plan are correct, the descriptions of the rooms may not be....... ie.... the Family sitting room, is actually Dads LoungeThe Utility room, is actually Dads Kitchen.The Office will also be a Sewing room and maybe even a 4th Bedroom.The very bottom, centre and right on the plan is the patio area. Regards. Trev..
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Jul 22, 2009 8:41:38 GMT
Wow!! It is hot here now. Too hot really. And yet here I am sat at my laptop in the lounge, where it is 33c. Yesterday I set the outside thermometer (in the shade) to Farenheight. and it just failed to reach the 100f. But it did get to 99.6 f I am going to put a few more pictures on, just because I want to. But these pictures were taken last June. and they were taken in the TURKISH OCCUPIED HALF of Nicosia. It is a bit more 'Olde worlde' as you will see.......... Cheers. Trev..
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Post by WillowTheWhisp on Jul 22, 2009 22:02:16 GMT
When I was looking at the plans I thought it seemed very odd and confusing until I read the explanation about the 'granddad flat' - then it made perfect sense.
Those pictures of the Turkish parts do look very Turkish, in fact remind me of parts of North Africa.
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trevnhil
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Post by trevnhil on Aug 6, 2009 15:59:50 GMT
Hi All. Well I thought that I would jut add a little bit more to my 'Diary'. We have been in this rented house now since last October. Near the end of last year we paid our 'Dues' to the council for rates etc etc. But since then we have had no further bills for 2009. So today I called in at the council offices ( a couple of rooms ) in the village. I saw the Mucktar ( Mayor) and explained that I wanted to know what I owed in total for 2009 for our 4 bed detached including the water we consume. So here is the bill as he read it out to me, and when we pay we will get a receipt. WATER.. €21 FOR 3 MONTHS, ie ..... € 84-00 A YEAR. COUNCIL TAX........................................ € 60-00 A YEAR. REFUSE COLLECTION twice weekly € 80-00 A YEAR. THE TOTAL FOR THE YEAR.............. € 224-00I have converted this to £UK 194 - 00 Total for the yearSo although no one likes paying bills, it is not that much really. ;D As usual, I have to add a picture if possible... Our cat whilst I am on the laptop...... Cheers. Trev..
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Post by musky on Aug 6, 2009 20:26:07 GMT
Hi Trev. Can you get your Mucktar to do the Council Tax Bill for Morecambe please.
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