Trev in Cyprus.

[trevnhil]

Hi again Peter. Yes we use Filmon for about 90% of our TV viewing. The other 10% is broken up into iPlayers watching catchup programmes and watching sky sports channels and other sports via the internet.

We also use Filmon for recording programmes that are on late at night to us. Also you can record programmes on Filmon that you have just missed... Up to about 5 hours back.

I have been doing all sorts of tests today and it would appear that the only problem is with the ITV player, although I have not tried 5 OD yet.

So we will probably live with this as we can watch many back ITV programmes on the STV player

We are just glad to be able to watch so many UK channels whilst still living in Cyprus. And of course we are pleased that all this is for free.

Trev..

[mpprh]

Oct 7, 2013 17:12:50 GMT trevnhil said:

And of course we are pleased that all this is for free.

Trev..

Tightarse

[trevnhil]

Oct 7, 2013 20:06:21 GMT mpprh said:

Oct 7, 2013 17:12:50 GMT trevnhil said:

And of course we are pleased that all this is for free.

Trev..

Tightarse

No.... I'm just careful with my money. I have a paid for VPN ;D

[trevnhil]

Well last Sunday started off as a usual. Awoke around 6-30. Made a cup of tea and took the tea and laptop to bed.
Got up about 8 am, and made toast for breakfast.
After breakfast I used the laptop, and watched the F1 Grand Prix.

It had only just finished when we had a loss of power at the bungalow. Some power was on, but some areas had non. This was bad news as it meant that it was likely that we had lost 2 of the 3 phases of our supply.
I went outside to check on the meter, and yes only one phase was working. I reported this to the electric board who said they would send someone out.

But wait a minute..... was that smoke I could smell, and crackling I could hear. YES IT WAS.!!!

The field across the track from us was on fire, and burning quite well. I phone the emergency number and got no reply. I phoned a Cypriot friend in the village and asked him to report the fire.

I had already alerted Hilary who had reeled out the hose pipe from our nearest external tap and was squirting what little water we have up here, onto the edges of the flames.
She was doing this for about 15 minutes before the little fire truck came, and went into the field and tackled the bigger areas.
They had to go away for a refill of the container, but after about an hour and a half it was all out. It was still smouldering where the roots had been on fire, but the firemen said it would be OK and left.

The police came to see if we knew how it had started, and a neighbour came early on to make sure that the alarm had been raised.

We have always thought that we are as prepared as we can be for a fire, and we are. We have provided for coupling the hose to the pressurised house supply, which gives us 2,000 lts of water.
BUT we hadn't bargained for a fire at the same time as no electricity. :roll:

Here are some of the pictures that I got time to take...










As you can see it got as near as we would like it to get to the Bungalow, probably about 30mts in a straight line.
We will continue to be vigilant and hope we have electricity next time.

Cheers. Trev..

[accykeef]

The fire brigade here tend to use beaters rather than water as they are more effective on grass fires. Those forest fires, whipped up by strong winds must be terrifying, especially if you in the direct path.

Apart from the fire risk, you do appear to live in a peaceful part of the world.

[trevnhil]

It is normally very peaceful here especially as the track to our bungalow is a cul de sac.
BUT we do have less than peaceful times.......

Two weeks ago today we had a brush fire within 30mts of our house. Combined efforts of ourselves and the fire truck restricted it to a few hundred mts of fields burnt.
Last week we helped yet again as another bigger brush fire broke out near us. This time there were hundreds of square mts burnt, but again as far as I know no damage to people or property.

Today I saw a fire beginning across the valley from us and phoned in to report it. They said they would send a truck which indeed they did. I think the truck must have radioed for a fire engine which arrived a little later.
With the breeze fanning the flames, the fire 'took hold' in a few places. Unfortunately this time the efforts of the fire brigade were not enough to save one property. I don't think it was a home but more likely a small holding, although it did have solar panels and a hot water boiler.

Here are some pictures that I took from our home.














Be prepared seems to be a good motto here, and we personally are as prepared as we can be here.

[accykeef]

It surprises me how fire spreads through that vegetation as it doesn't appear to be very dense.
You look at bricks and mortar as well as a tiled roof and think that your only risk of fire is from the inside but your pictures throw that theory out of the water.
I assume the property was burnt out before the fire department could get access to it.

[trevnhil]

Although the building had Solar panels and a hot water tank I think and hope that it was not someone's home. I looked on Google Earth and there seems to be no well worn path or drive to the building.
Also looking this morning through the binoculars the building seems to ne clad with corrugated material, probably metal.

When I first phoned the fires in they said they would send a car. By this I think they meant a 4x4 pick up truck. These have a water tank on the back, a generator to power the pump and two pressure hoses on reels.

To be honest this was not sufficient and they they did send a fire engine, but by then the fires (multiple) had spread a long way. The stubble here is very short and does not make much flames, but when they reach the hedges and trees they blaze well.
Unfortunately this time it got to a building and the interior contents went up in flames.

We do still keep checking all around out home to see that there are no fires near us. As I said before we have very little water pressure to our home but we have pressurised domestic water and we will connect to that....... but although there seem to be fires every day now, hopefully we will not need to do this.

Cheers. Trev..

Sunrise a couple of days ago..

[accykeef]

Lovely sunrise.
No chance of that here today although it is a lot calmer than the forecast predicted.
My commute to work was as uneventful as always.

[trevnhil]

Although I do not know exactly how the Morecambe area has feared with the storms it would not be bad compared with the London and Southern areas. We are just watching the pictures and reports on TV now.
I have looked at the view from Douglas IOM and the sea seems relatively calm now.

[accykeef]

It is a bit windy and raining but nothing like the storm we were expecting. It was meant to be centred on the South but was to move North.
I see a few of the smaller Calmac ferries have been cancelled due to swell but the bigger ones are not affected, yet.

[trevnhil]

The IOM fast craft was cancelled to Liverpool. But as far as I know the Ben my Chree is sailing today to Heysham.

Nice and sunny here again and 14c outside in the shade. No rain forecast in the next 7 days.. I am still having to spend 1 hr watering the garden each evening.

We have had only one thunderstorm with a deluge of rain since the 14th of may. Rain would be a blessing for the gardens and the fire fighters.

Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well after all these months (20) we had a phone call to say that our Final Completion certificate was ready to collect.

I went down to the Paphos District offices, paid my money, and we now have the Certificate in our home.

It's not much to look at but it means that now we can have the Bungalow added onto the Title Deeds of the land.

Trev..

[accykeef]

Congratulations

[trevnhil]

Well it has been some while since I wrote on here. To carry on from the last message we have now started what we hope is the last bureaucratic item to get the correct deeds for our property.

We got the deeds to the land when we bought it. We have had a bungalow built on it, and we have a completion certificate to show that the property is built correctly.

Last week I took the land deeds and all the many papers to the land registry and applied for the property to be added to the land deeds. it is actually a different deed that is issued?
This is all likely to take around 12 months, and during the process a team will come and measure the bungalow in relation to the land boundaries to see that it is the right size and in the right position.
If as I suspect no one has been in a couple of months I will call into the offices to see what is happening

The other big thing in our lives is ..... an Earthquake. Yes we had one last night and it was quite frightening. It lasted about 10 seconds and there was a lot of noise and a LOT of shaking.
We checked this morning and we can find no damage or cracks anywhere.
The quake was just over 7 miles from us and was 4.4 on the Richter Scale. The source was about 20 km deep apparently. We can do without many more of those.

Trev..