We have spent the week cleaning and unpacking, organising gates for the house (no, they don't come as part of the deal), shopping for wardrobes, loungers and sun umbrellas and getting to know the neighbours. We have also found some very quaffable wine at a modest cost too - about £1 a litre.

We have also caught up with the two men from Manchester who we met on the Italy/Turkey ferry. They had hoped to catch the N Cyprus ferry the same day we had landed at Cesme. Unfortunately they were 20 minutes too late for the ticket office, despite the fact that the boat didn't sail for a further 4 hours. It meant that their wives arrived in Cyprus before they did as they flew in from Manchester the following day. The guys had the same runaround as we did on arriving in Girne, infact Brian had to go around part of the system twice as he had a motorscooter in the back of his car! He has a very nice house, back more towards the foot of the mountains than we are, but the extra height gives him some very nice views.

We spent over 2 hours in the HSBC bank, Girne this morning in order to open a local bank account. Everything takes so long because despite being computerised the systems they operate are bureaucratic.

Good news from the Kelseys today. Baby Joe is making good progress and is out of his incubator and Debi is able to start feeding him. The other boys may well be having their new brother at home before too long.