October's Events

While I had been away in UK our garden had finally been born. The membranes had been laid, soil and gravel had been spread and the plants were arranged around the garden.





"Bill and Ben", the main workers, had become friends of the family!




When I walked through the gate it was to discover this lovely transformed scene.







Also while I had been away - Steph's parents and sister had arrived for a two week holiday. Prior to collecting them from the airport, Jeff had been to Peter and Avril's house for a farewell drink with Avril's twin sister, Joan and her husband who had been over from Canada for a month. When Jeff arrived back from the airport it was to discover a bit of a commotion taking place around the bungalows. During the time he'd been away, Avril had begun to feel unwell and her husband decided she should be taken to the hospital in Girne. In no time at all they decided to transfer her by ambulance to the main hospital in Lefkosa (Nicosia) and she was in intensive care, having suffered a severe stroke. Sadly, she died at 4am the next morning. Her funeral was held at the British Cemetery, Girne on Wednesday afternoon where we joined a few members of her family who had flown in from UK that morning, along with a goodly number of her local friends. It does concentrate the mind and make one realise how we should "seize the moment".

It was hard to watch Peter over the following days coming to terms with his loss. Four/five weeks on and he is bearing up very well, but I am sure he has some difficult moments.

Although the sun was still shining, the temperature had cooled somewhat. We still continued to swim in our pool each day and enjoy our new garden. Friday we met up with our usual friends for a couple of drinks at The Stumble Inn.

On my first Sunday evening back home we were invited next door to join Sandie and Steph and Steph's family for a lovely Roast Lamb Dinner under the stars. We finished the evening off by playing a new card game to us - UNO. It caused great hilarity as we tried to offload our cards while lumbering someone else! It will be on my shopping list when I next go to UK.

The following day I had a meeting with some of my girl friends to plan what food we were going to take to an Army Benevolent Fund picnic we were going to later in the week. No doubt, like all such occasions we've been to in the past, there will be too much food! As the evening drew in black clouds started to gather - oh, no!

Tuesday night we went for our first visit to a small restaurant called LD's. Frank and Joan, Susan and George plus some of our other friends have used it many times and it turned out to be a great place for an inexpensive mid-week meal out. They laid up a long table outside for us all to sit around, I think there were about 15 of us altogether and we had a great evening.

On Wednesday Peter invited Avril's friends to join him in remembering her life with a celebratory Gin and Tonic. About 20 of us gathered on what she used to refer to as her "Gin and Tonic patio". The occasion was to be videoed for Peter's family and he had written a soliloquy about her life. He found it too difficult to read himself and asked Jeff if he would read it for him. It was a tough task as the sentiments brought a lump to all our throats. We all raised our glasses of G and T and everyone remarked that whenever they think of Avril it will bring happy memories to our minds.

The day finished with our usual Wednesday night visit to the Chiswick for their Quiz Night. Still no great success there!

Thursday 12 October

This was the day of the Army Benevolent Fund Band Concert which was held in the grounds of the British Consulate's Residence. I'd been asked to put a table of 10 together, with hindsight I'm sure I could have filled two tables. I ended up putting names of friends in a hat and getting Barbara and Michael to draw out 10. So I ended up with Frank and Joan, Barbara and Michael, Pat and Brian, Gill and Roger and Jeff and I. We loaded up in 2 cars at 11.30 and set off for Lefkosa. It was a beautiful day and we soon found the Residence. Having parked up and loaded ourselves with our picnics I finally got to meet John Chawner, who I had been liaising with and he directed us to our picnic table.
There was a great crowd of people there and they would have had some difficulty getting many more tables into the garden.








The table was soon groaning with food and we had been asked to try and think of a theme, so we had taken the easy option of a Teddy Bears' Picnic. We had a collection of teddy bears with us and decorated the table with teddy bear paper, however the group next to us had chosen the theme of a Day at the Sea Side, with bucket and spades, saucy postcards, sticks of rock, hankies tied with knots on their heads - a really good effort.
The winning table had the theme of the REME, there couldn't have been any connection with it being the REME Band who were playing. (I'm just a cynic).




As suspected, we had brought far too much food but we did our best and just when we had reached combustion point, the dark clouds that had been gathering over us off-loaded their raindrops onto us. The rain only lasted for about 10 minutes, but sufficient water came down for the band to seek shelter and for us to cover the food and take shelter under the trees for a few minutes. (I thought this only happened to UK events!)

Once the sun returned it was possible to see the steam rising from the audience as the band recommenced their programme!

I met Dick Pearson, the ex Welfare Secretary of the Royal Artillery Benevolent Fund and great friend of George Correa. I had known him in London and he very kindly insisted on introducing me to all the great and the good of the ABF in Cyprus including the High Commissioner himself. I met Geoff Fryatt, the Chairman and Frank Windle, the Secretary and received a great welcome and encouragement to join them at future events.

Despite being full of food we couldn't let the picnic close without bringing out a surprise cake for Roger and Gill - it was their 43rd wedding anniversary, so it was appropriate we should mark the occasion.

A few days after the event I received the following email from John Chawner telling of the days success.

Hello Folks,
Just to thank you all for your support at the recent concert.
£2,500 Cyp was raised including a record £800 Cyp on the raffle, a figure never reached before at an Army Benevolent fund function in Cyprus. How generous. Many thanks.
Hope to see you all again next year at Shakespeare Ave.
Best wishes and many thanks.
John .

The remainder of that week became very wet and miserable and we felt very sorry for Steph's relatives who were trying to enjoy the last few days of their holiday. We saw some terrific cloud formations over our mountain.


On Friday the storm caused sufficient problems for the power to go off at 6.15 pm and it stayed off until early next morning. We got out the candles and the emergency lights and made the best of it while watching a really impressive Electric Storm. It was quite staggering to watch the storm over mainland Turkey, there was absolutely no noise from the thunder and no rain here but constant lightning flashes.