Torgauh, our overseer of the garden project, was now back from his holiday. Things began to pick up, albeit slowly at first, but workmen began to appear each day.


The frame for the climbing plants was completed but not the gate and a load of good red soil was delivered and distributed around the garden.




I had a surprise phone call from a member of RAMASES. Barbara Graham and Mark were holidaying in Northern Cyprus and she called to see whether we could meet up. We agreed to go to their hotel the following evening.

Next day the gardening guys moved much of the earth that had been extracted from the well and piled against the dividing wall. They spread this over the areas of the garden that are to be gravelled. It now meant that the pipe from the well could be laid and connected to the incoming mains supply and on to the house system. It also meant that we could connect it to next door's water supply too. Mr Divine oversaw this part of the operation and he managed to botch this up also! Jeff had previously measured the distance from the well to the optimum point in the dividing wall where the pipe should go through to supply "the girls" with their water. However, Mr Divine chose his own point where the pipe should go through and of course the length of pipe was too short!!!!! Back up to the shop in Lapta to get another piece of pipe to cope with the change of plan. Eventually all systems were connected, the water flowed freely and everyone was happy.

We went to meet Barbara and Mark at a superbly located holiday complex overlooking Girne called The Onur Holiday Village. The views were staggering (sorry, forgot to take a picture) and the evening breeze delicious. It was lovely to catch up on their news and have a look around somewhere we had not been to before.
Afterwards we went to the Kervan Terrace for a drink as we watched the sun set. We didn't fancy eating there so we moved on to the 5 Mile restaurant, remembering what Joan had told us about how nice the setting was there.

The location was very pretty, on a headland overlooking a bay and a full moon shone over the water. The restaurant area was built on decking, the tables carefully placed around the area so as not to be too close to one's neighbour and here and there were sofas to relax on for either pre-dinner or after dinner drinks. We could have used a torch to help us read the menu under the very dim lights but that aside we had a really delicious meal, made even more pleasurable as we were entertained by a young lady who sang bluesy jazz numbers accompanied by a very good pianist.

Afterwards we headed for the Stumble Inn to meet up with our crowd of mates.


The following week was the big clean up after the summer invasion of visitors. Albeit hard work, it was very satisfying restoring the place to how it suits the two of us. Of course, attacking all the rooms in this really thorough way meant that ...... RED DUDLEY WAS FOUND!!!










On Wednesday, Jeff and I girded our loins and set off for Lefkosa to complete the final part of our Temporary Residency application.
We found the building after a few enquiries and I was appalled at the abysmal state it was in. It was so neglected, scruffy, disheveled and totally inadequate. I have never seen anything more third world than this was and it was a Government establishment. We received excellent service however, but I have now began to realise that anything involving Foreign Nationals takes place on the 3rd floor of whatever building and the lift doesn't usually work! Anyway the formalities didn't take very long and now we are officially here. We have a little pink book and we are legitimate residents until we have to reapply next year.

While we were in Lefkosa we thought we would check up on our "Permission" to buy application. We applied, through our solicitor, in October 2003 as did all our neighbours, they have all received their Permissions but nothing had been granted to us to date. Having found the appropriate office (on the 3rd floor) a very helpful young lady went to find our file. It seems they are still awaiting a report from the military, so can grant no "Permission" yet. We did learn that our solicitor had sat on the application until April 2004 before he submitted it, which hadn't helped at all!

On the way home we went via Horseshoe Bay for lunch. A very simple restaurant in a stunning location. A gentle breeze, blue seas and a warm sun. What more could you ask for. Back home that afternoon we both chilled out. I actually laid on one of our sun loungers and read a magazine.

That evening we went to The Chiswick Quiz Night with Sandie and Steph, had a great time but did very badly in terms of quiz points.

Thursday we took Sandie and Steph down to the Sunset Beach Club to give them a taste of what was on offer there. We had a lovely lunch and but half way through the afternoon, just as we were settling down for a snooze, they decided to play some disco music, so we left.

We still have no shade out back!. Time and again Jeff has tried to contact the metal worker who said he would build a frame for us, to no avail. On Thursday I saw Veli (the pool man) arriving to talk to "the girls" about shade at the back of their house. This was like a red rag to a bull to me after waiting all this time. Jeff was nagged into getting Veli to come and speak to us to about what he could offer and the answer was YES PLEASE, DO IT! WHEN CAN YOU START!! Hopefully work will commence in 10 days.

Our little team of workers in the garden were doing a fine job in this heat but progress was rather slow. Torgauh had told us on Wednesday evening that come Friday his men would come and would not stop! Well he was true to his word, extra men arrived and they worked like demons, digging trenches and sinking tiles to make edgings between the soil and gravelled areas.

Later that morning Jeff and I went to meet two ladies who are the only SSAFA caseworkers in NC. We'd arranged to meet at a small beach cafe on the beach below our house. They were delightful ladies; Jean, who had been coming and going for nearly 30 years but has been a permenant resident for many years now and Sue who had done about 8 years. Their workload is quite extensive and they have a real variety of cases to deal with from Turkish Cypriots who served in the Cyprus Regiment during WW2 to recent dischargees who have come out here on a shoe string and are finding the life difficult to afford.

They welcomed me with open arms based on my past experience, but I felt I had to emphasise that in terms of Northern Cyprus I was very much the greenhorn! Anyway we arranged to meet again once I returned from UK and I would certainly like to get involved with the work here.

After our meeting Jeff and I lingered at the bar and perchance Sandie and Steph arrived, so we had yet another lovely lunch together before leaving them to enjoy the beach and we went home.

Back home, while overseeing what was going on, Jeff noticed a couple of cars showing interest in the land immediately across the road from us. One vehicle contained a young man who Jeff had met before, he had been interested in buying the land. It seems he has now done so and was planning to build a number of bungalows and houses on it. The second car contained prospective buyers - a charming Turkish Cypriot couple who had lived in London since '74 and were now retiring and wanting to come back to the island. It seemed the developer was marketing the "off plan" properties amongst the London Turkish Cypriot community. This could mean we have some interesting neighbours in a couple of years instead of looking at the awful half started foundations opposite us.











As the garden begins to take shape we are beginning to think of what we might plant where. I have been consulting my copy of The Mediterranean Gardener and have produced a Wish List of what would look nice and getting a few more ideas. One idea is to create a typical Cypriot arch between what will be the orchard and the rest of the garden. Jeff liked the idea and the next thing was to have a discussion with Torgauh as to whether this will be possible. Extra cost of course, but Yes, he would do it.

Friday evening we went to the Saffron Restaurant in Lapta with Barbara and Michael and had a superb meal. We joined the rest of the gang later at the Stumble Inn.

Next day Torgauh brought a builder to quote for the arch, bit of serious negotiation here, but the outshot was "yes, the work could go ahead". More soil was delivered and his men beavered on. Slowly, slowly it is coming to shape.
Later in the day a load of rocks were delivered in readiness for the building of my Cypriot stone arch.



Very early on Sunday morning, 7am, we awoke to the sounds of stones being broken. There was a team of 3 men chipping away at the rocks that had been delivered the previous evening. Once they had a suffient number of managable size pieces the building of the arch began. They worked hard at it all day and by 4pm we had a beautiful Cypriot stone arch.








At lunchtime Mike and Victoria Regan came to visit us (he was one of the ABF Controllers when I worked there). It was lovely to see them, they were on a brief visit to their house in Karaoglanoglu. We went to our local fish restaurant for lunch in order to get away from the dust here. Sirin Yali is located in a little cove so we are always sure of a sea breeze there. We all had superbly cooked fish and salad, washed down with the obligatory couple of bottles of cool white wine.

That evening Sandie and Steph came around to share their Ecuador and Galapagos pictures with us. We set them up on the computer and made the study into a little theatre with drinks and nibbles to keep us going. We had a great evening.

On Monday Torgauh's men came to fit the gate and finish off the metal frames with some pretty arches and the edging for the flower beds progressed extremely well.

It is now Tuesday and I should be packing in readiness for my next trip to UK later this afternoon. I shall be getting involved with the ABF's Music on Fire event down at Sandhurst this coming weekend. Before I go, our neighbours invited me onto their roof terrace to have an aerial view of the handywork that has been taking place in our garden.

Rod and Stella's input just made the last few days for the boys even more special. Overall, they had become used to the heat and the different way of life. I think Ross sums it up for all of us in this photograph of a totally chilled-out way of life.






The saga of the well goes on.

Mr Divine (the water diviner who was overseeing the whole operation) is not to be known for his effiency, each visit seemed to generate numerous gliches. Jeff had begun to mistrust Mr Divine's costings and insisted on purchasing all the various accessories (pipes, connectors, grommits) himself. So now we are into a situation where Mr Divine would say what he needed, Jeff would go off to our local Yapi market (mini B & Q), purchase said items only to discover later that maybe the diameter was wrong or the angle was wrong. I cannot begin to count the number of times Jeff went back and forth to the hardware shop to exchange things. Mr Divine never brings any tools with him either! So it's "maybe we could supply him with this.... this and this!"

Despite everything, the pipe work was eventually connected to the well, albeit we still couldn't connect it to the house water system because a great pile of earth, that had been extracted in the production of the well, was piled up against the wall where the pipe needed to be located. So Jeff wandered around from time to time with this hose over his shoulder, firstly filling the neighbour's water tank and then our's.

Torgauh, our garden contractor was about to go on holiday, but he had his team of men geared up to construct a metal pergola to support climbing plants over a pathway along the side of our garden and to build a small retaining wall where the garden dropped a level, plus fit a gate where the front wall had been knocked down to allow the drilling machine to come in. Two men came for a couple of afternoons and built the retaining wall, two more men came to do the metal work, 7 pairs of posts had to be erected joined by horizontal bars. During the week they only managed to erect 4 of them!


We had some bad news from UK just before the Kelseys left. I heard from my cousin Kath that Aunty Betty had suffered a severe stroke. She'd been found lying in her garden and once in hospital it was some while before she began showing any signs of consciousness. Apparently it is important during these early days that she has plenty of rest but it must be very hard for my cousins to see this lively active lady lying in her bed incapable of anything.

The Kelsey's had their last day at the Beach Club, a brilliant time for everyone. Great weather, good swimming, great diving (little Ross threw himself into the sea from a jetty about 8ft high! I think he surprised himself as well as us).
That evening we took Debi and Andrew to Kyrenia Harbour for a meal at Cherinis, from where there are the most fantastic views over the harbour.


The final day came and it was a difficult time for all of us. We had known for a number of days that Tom's "Red Dudley" was missing, but he was cool about it and was content in the knowledge that he was hiding in Gran's house so that he would be waiting for Tom when he comes back to Cyprus. We couldn't find him anywhere.

There was no room in the car for me to go to the airport, so Rod, Stella and I opted to go to the Beach Club for lunch to get out of the way. It was very hard to leave them all in the house knowing they wouldn't be there when I got back. It has been a joy having them all here, and thanks to Andrew, I have also got some jobs completed.

Jeff took this lovely photograph of them all, smartly spruced up in preparation for their journey.









That evening we took Rod and Stella to The Ambiance Restaurant. This was a bit of a gamble as we hadn't booked and although they found us a table it's location was not as pleasant as when we'd been previously with Debi and Andy. That said, the food was splendid but should we go again at a weekend, we will book.

On Sunday Rod and Stella explored the harbour area and we met up with them after church and took them for a ride across the mountain range from St Hilarion to Karsiyaka.


It was beautiful up among the pines, catching the cooler breezes. We can never tire of seeing these beautiful views.

We did the "tourist thing" and took photographs by the tank that left the road during the 1974 Intervention and has now become a memorial to the lives lost in the area.






A hairy drive down the mountainside brought us to a little restaurant (Korzan) up in the hills, where all you can see are pine trees in every direction. They only have a few tables and it is always peaceful there.



After some kup and shish kebabs and a cool bottle of white wine, we returned to the coast and home for a little snooze in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.


On Monday we took a drive along the coast to the east. There is a lot of building going on along the coastal trip, particularly in the vicinity of the new Golf Club - the opening is yet to be announced, infact all efforts to get information on it get nowhere. We stopped at the Eagle's Nest for a drink and then on and up over the mountain pass near Kantara before driving through the central plain to Bogaz, north of Famagusta. We had a lovely lunch at a fish restaurant on the beach and would you believe there were 4 deckchairs on the beach just inviting us to take a short nap before moving on.



We visited Famagusta and had a wander around the cathedral/mosque area and were pleased to see that the old covered market was being restored. A quick visit to the beach to see the "No Mans Land" before making our way back to Karsiyaka. A very enjoyable day and something we hadn't done for a while.

There was no further progress to report on the garden when we got back!

On Tuesday we decided to get ourselves sorted out reasonably early and go down to the harbour and see if we could get on a boat trip. We made a bee-line for the boat Saarki that we had used before and its captain - Ecevit, saw us and invited us on board. This turned out to be most fortunate, he only had 4 tourists and 2 of his friends booked on so we made up quite a good little party. He was very excited about some special fishing lines he'd just obtained because there were shoals of mackerel not far off shore. As we left the harbour the boat sailed west and the fishing lines were let out. No success however on this leg of our journey.
We moored at first near the Green Coast Holiday resort and the sea was like warm tea. We did a bit of snorkling but there were not many fish to see. Ecevit and Ahmed produced another lovely lunch with chicken, fried fish and salad. Our fellow passengers were very convivial and later in the afternoon we sailed to another bay and moored just off the Camelot Beach. The water had stayed calm which made the swimming (or bobbing about) most enjoyable. On the way back to harbour the fishing lines were put out again and bingo! Several mackerels at a time were being caught on the multi-barbed lines and I think there were over a dozen fish brought on board.





Definitely another great day on the boat.

Ecevit wanted me to bring some of the mackerel home, but we were going to call on our friends Renee and Brian on the way home, so carrying fresh fish in the car was not to be recommended!

That evening, as it was Rod and Stella's last night with us, we went to eat at one of the restaurants in Girne Harbour. We chose one we had not been to before, Kase Bose. It had a roof terrace which allowed us some breeze as well as good views. The menu was a mix of traditional Cypriot food and Italian, and we all opted for the Italian and there were no complaints, the food was delicious, not cheap but we knew we would be paying for the location so we were not surprised.



It was a warm balmy evening, with good company and wonderful food. I hope these elements were a good conclusion to their all too short holiday.






The Horner's flight was from Larnaca in the late afternoon. We left home at lunchtime, stopping at a little cafe in the village of Getikoy, just 10 minutes away where we knew they would get a great lunch. We have been calling at this cafe over the years and in the last 2 years the truck drivers have found it too. Good, cheap pitta, shish and salad is served with all the attention of a top restaurant. It cost us 9 YTL each - approx £3 and this included a beer too!

We had an uneventful journey over the border and once we had dropped Rod and Stella at the airport we decided to have a ride into Larnaca. The Larnaca we remembered was very hard to find in all the development but we eventually found the old Turkish part and had a ride along the front. A much busier world than in the north. We returned home via one of the big supermarkets in the south and began to get used to the quiet in a house where there is now only Jeff and me.

After the initial flurry of activity in creating the well it has been a case of two steps forward and one step back to get it up and running.

For reasons best known to himself, Mr Water Diviner chose to lower the pump into the well as dusk was falling. The pump looked like a very designer chic guided missile and weighed a ton. This very expensive bit of kit was going to demand Jeff's serious attention, fully supported by Andrew.


However, on the following day Mr Divine checked the amount of water being pumped and was not happy. There should have been much more water coming out and he couldn't fathom out why not.


Meanwhile, our local friends had organised a boat trip for the day, out of Girne (Kyrenia) harbour, a few swims, nice lunch and good company was to be the order of the day. We use the same boat for our trips - Saarki, skipper by Ecevit,who makes us all very welcome each time we use him. We like it because he can only take a small number of people and we can usually fill his complement.
Josh, Tom, Andrew, Jeff and I went aboard that day (poor mummy had to stay home with the tiny ones, Ross and Joe - and wouldn't you know, just as we were leaving the power went off at home!!).

The boys (big and small) had a brillian time, diving into the sea from the boat as we anchored in a cove and swimming in the luke-warm sea. Captain Ecevit even promoted Tom to Skipper and both boys became pirates for the day.



We had a really great time and can only promise mummy that she will go on the next boat trip and I will babysit for her.

The Kelseys spent a fair bit of time down at the Sunset Beach Club where there was plenty for the kids to do, both on land and in the water. We would go and meet them for lunch and have a lazy time before bringing them back home for a snooze.

On 30th August Jeff and I drove to Larnaca to pick up Rod and Stella. It was great to see them, but particularly Stella who had been so influential in helping me with my choice of furniture, curtains etc and now was an opportunity for her to see the completed package. I think she liked what she saw. They fitted in well with the kids and we adults have always got on well together.

The following day it was Tom's Birthday. We had a cake, kindly provided, albeit unknowinglingly by our friends Michelle and Jim (they had left it as a contribution to a party we had a few days before), candles, balloons, fizzy drinks and all sorts of multi e-numbered foods.






So, back to the well.


It was discovered that when the pump was lowered down the shaft it had become lodged on the side of the well, just above the water level, causing the minimal amount of water to be available. Solution - pump has to come out and be re-lowered.

Sounds easy but the pipe that is connected to the pump, albeit its made in rubber, is not very flexible and takes a lot of man-handling. So Mr Divine got his team of strong, virile young men to come and lend some muscle power.

Great entertainment for Debi, Stella and I!!

Once again they waited until dusk was falling but I assume they all had "Day" jobs.
Ho, heave, ho, was the order of the day as this superb pump was lifted sufficiently to lower it again in a perpendicular fashion.




Once it had been re-seated and the electrics connected, they test-drove it by watering the road, washing cars and generally having showers. So there would seem to be plenty of water.






On one of their last trips to the Sunset Beach Club, Andrew persuaded Debi to have a go on one of the jet skis. He had previously taken Josh out, but I think he really wanted to do the equivalent of "burn rubber" and Debi was game.