Trev in Cyprus.

[trevnhil]

Yes I can understand a large amount to pay for a crew to go out and erect 3 poles and to put the wires (5) along the poles.

But the quoted charge for an application seems ridiculous. Surely they will have maps in the headquarters that will tell them exactly what they have out in the countryside and where it is.

Trev..

[accykeef]

A price for a crew, 3 poles and some sticky tape sounds ok.
So much for a man with a clipboard is expensive even if he camps out over night. I suppose they have you over a barrel though as electrickery quite essential.
What of the surrounding land, is that to be developed? If there is developer in the pipeline he may be willing to share some of the cost with you although the capacity of that Tx on the existing pole doesn't look all that great if there is going to be metrollops built. That wiring just looks downright dangerous but I am not well up on Cyprus regs, perhaps that is one of the better examples.

[trevnhil]

High again.
Well I went to see the Electric board this morning. I must hold my hand up and say that the large amount of money for an estimate was not mentioned, therefore I believe I was wrong in my assumption and that it is only for business customers.

I saw a lady at the desk and explained to her that I wanted to make a new application, for electricity to be supplied to a plot o land. I told her that we had permission to build on the plot and that the nearest electricity was about 3 poles away.
She gave me the application form and told me of a number of other items that were needed to go with it,
1.Area plan. 2. A copy of the Title deeds. 3. A copy of the Permit to Build. and of course the completed form. The bad news that I was given was that the timescale is measured in years So I have to apply as soon as possible, but even then it seems that there will be no electricity to our plot by the time that the building is complete.

Obviously this is a big worry to us, but at the moment we are going along as quick as we can.

One thing connected with this happened on Wednesday evening when we were having the big get together at our local Taverna. Near midnight when there were only a few people left, the tavern owner came to talk to us. So I told him that we were going to apply for permission for Electric to our plot. And I asked him what I could do if we met any obstacles. He told me to go and see him at his office and that he would make some phone calls................. Now I need to explain that his main job is a high officer (chief??) in the Paphos police force.

We can only keep on doing our best and if that fails, cry out for help.

Regards. Trev..

[accykeef]

Not what you know but who eh Trev.
High officers tend to be very influential in such places and you should do all you can to keep him on side.
Is this not something that the architects organise or is everything self service there?

[trevnhil]

As you say Kieth it does seem to be who you know. Our village Taverna is owned by him, but because of his other job it is really his wife's Taverna.

With regard to the architect organising the electricity..No not here. The meeting we had on Wednesday was with the architect but mainly with the Electrical Engineer. I asked him if it was his job to apply but he said no it was mine.
If we had been getting a developer to supply the land and the building, then it would have been his job. But of course we have our own land and as yet we do not have an estimate from any builder, as we are still at the specification stage.

Trev..

[accykeef]

I wish you the best of luck but all that messing is not for me I'm afraid.

I am quite impatient when people drag their feet over a simple job.
I am having a few problems with various ISP's at the moment. My ISP is fine but these are cheap ones in which clients have put their faith.

I try to keep my hair on but when it has taken over a month to reset a password which doesn't work and the stupid sarcastic oik at the ISP keeps telling me it is very simple and all I need to do is enter my username and password in the boxes and then reset it.
"but the password doesn't work!!!!!"

There are a number of similar problems which are driving me nuts. All this should be sorted out in the new year when I finally get my virtual server set up and I can take charge of my own destiny - unless the server provider fails to deliver his promise.

Is it me or is the percentage of thick people in the world, on the increase?

[trevnhil]

Hi Keith.

Re "Is it me or is the percentage of thick people in the world, on the increase? "

Yes I think it is on the increase, despite us being told that at the high end of the scale more and more people are passing their exams.

BUT at the other end of the scale there are more and more that neglecting their education at school and also they are not being educate in 'Family Life' I believe there are a lot more young people on various benefits now that don't even want to work.

It's a sad state of affairs.

Trev..

[trevnhil]

Back to our electricity supply. Over here there also seems to be the culture of little brown envelopes.

A lady told me last week that she recently bought a workshop to do pottery in and that she needed a 40 amp fuse to run the Kilns. She checked the Electricity before buying the place and is now in there and all is OK. Well, it was until a man came to the meter and looked at the fuse and the at his paperwork. "This should only be a 20 amp fuse he said"..... so he changed to 40 to a 20.
The lady then went to the offices to plead for a 40 amp fuse. OK she was told we will come and fit one. WHEN she asked, and at what cost.?

Ahhhhh well that depends. You can pay €500 and go on the end of the queue............. Or you can pay €700 and we will do it next week.

I think she paid the €700 so that she can carry on with her business.

Maybe I had better buy some brown envelopes for us.

Trev..

PS, I daren't even ask about the water supply yet.

[mpprh]

You don't have to go as far as Cyprus to find this sort of thing. Similar things happened to me in Belgium.

Property agents could reconnect electricity to a rented apt "within 36 hrs" for an additional £200, or "1 week" for £100. "Official" waiting time was quoted in months.

And a bottle of whisky helped my car registration papers to be moved to the top of the pile ! This was crucial because even used cars have no number plates until the papers are processed.

I've had similar things further East, too.

Peter

[trevnhil]

Hi Peter.
In my mind the initial response was to say that I am glad that it happens in other places as well as Cyprus. But I don't mean that in any nasty way.

To be truthful I would not mind paying a certain amount of extra money to get the job done in a reasonable amount of time.


We still have (at least) one other big problem to sort out, which I can't remember if I have mentioned. When the boundary of our plot was marked out it appears that the natural little hedge line on one side is NOT the edge of our plot.
Our plot goes onto what appears to be the next door plot of land. by about 3 mts. We have to meet on site, with the next plot owner and the land office next Tuesday. We hope that all will be OK, however our Surveyor who marked the Boundary cannot attend the meeting. This means that the land office officials and the next plot owner can chat away in their own language and we will not know what is being said.

I have asked on a Cyprus forum if there is anyone who speaks the language that can help us, but there has been no response yet.
However I have decided that if there are any Greek language documents to be signed then I will insist that we sign at the offices, after they have been checked by someone on our behalf.

It is too important to sign anything that I do not understand.

Regards. Trev..

[mpprh]

We were 50% OK in Belgium (wife is French) but had to trust the Flemish stuff. However, the Flemish generally spoke fluent English (and were happy to do so), so queries were easier to answer.

Peter

[trevnhil]

I have put an appeal out on a Paphos based Cyprus forum, for a Greek speaking person to attend the meeting with us. However I have had no volunteers yet.

If there is anything to sign then I will take the copy down to Paphos to someone we can trust, and let them have a look at it before we commit to anything.

Trev..

[trevnhil]

Just to be a little more light hearted, at least for those who are not afraid of insects....

Here are three photos of Cricket type fellow who lives on one of our palm trees.



He is about three inches long and he doesn't like water, as when I am watering the plants he jumps a couple of feet to the wall.

Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well it's still nice and sunny out here and having the doors and windows open is a 'must'. One snag to that of course is that the inside of the house soon becomes very dusty. You just learn to live with it.

Here is a picture of one of many lizards that are all around you when you live in Cyprus. They like to come out and bask in the sunshine. They also come inside the house, but you get used to them and they become merely a nuisance and are not something to be afraid of. Here is one that was on our garden wall yesterday. It is about 5 to 6 inches long which would be about the average size....





Tomorrow is the day when we go to a site meeting at our plot of land to try to sort out where our land seems to overlap the next door plot. I may add another picture of the overlap later as I will be paying a visit to Polemi later this morning.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well I have just got back from our plot of land and I have taken a few pictures. The one below is the road / track that passes the front of the plots.



You should be able to see the bamboo canes with plastic bags on them that I have just put in next to the small official metal rods.
As you can see the left hand one is where we believed one edge of our land was. However if you look at the right hand bamboo rod you will see that it is about 3 mts from the first one. This is where the land office say that they need to come and check our surveyors calculations to confirm where the boundary actually is.

On a Paphos Cyprus forum I asked a few days ago if there was any Greek speaking person who could spare an hour or so to be with us at the meeting. Unfortunately there has been no positive response and so we three English people will not be able to understand what is being said.

But there is one thing for sure. There is NO WAY that we are signing any document without taking it to someone we know in Paphos.

Regards. Trev..