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.

Weren't we lucky with the weather! Monday morning we awoke to grey skies and as I walked across to the Kaboush I was lucky enough to see a heron diving for fish on one of the lakes. The pods that had protected the Royal Box and the Orchestra were being dismantled - the whole area was beginning to look a little sad.
Breakfast at the Kaboush was eaten under an up and down sort of atmosphere. Relief and sadness mixed together. Half way through the morning I was able to get a lift to the station and was soon up in London - a drizzly miserable day.

I'd hoped to have lunch with my friend Rowena from the Burma Star Association, but she had a lunch appointment - on a Monday for God's sake! Anyway we nattered on the phone for a while and then I found a reasonable place to eat and whiled away some time before I was due to catch a coach from Victoria. An uneventful journey got me into Hanley on time, Frank picked me up and I was soon in the land of "creature comforts" and total relaxation after the past few days. It was so good to see Frank and Maureen and I totally chilled out for a few days there.
However, I needed to see Aunty Betty and with great trepidation the next day I arrived at Bucknall hospital. Yes, it was a shock, and Yes, she has great obstacles to overcome, but Aunty Betty is still with us albeit in a very frail and submissive condition. She cannot move her right arm and leg and control of her mouth is obviously difficult. We had lots of conversations that went nowhere because she couldn't remember the words. We had lots of silly nonsense conversations too, but she did know me and knew we should have been doing something together, however fleetingly. One part of my mind is willing her recovery and the other part is trying to come to terms with her inabilities.
After seeing her I left the hospital and climbed Ash Bank in the autumn sunshine. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk but oh my goodness, once I had the Ash Bank Hotel in my sights all I could think of was a refreshing lager, it had been some walk. So I rang Maureen and we all arranged to meet there before going back to their home.
Great night with them as always.
Jenny arrived the next day and together we explored the delights of Hanley - not much! No desires from either of us to return. After lunch we went and found Aunty Betty again. She had had her hair done and I thought she sounded more coherent. Leaving was very difficult not knowing how soon I would be back or how much she could recall of my visit.
After such a roller coaster of emotions I was very anxious to get back to Kent as a step on the way to getting home. However, little boys soon bring you back down to earth and I had a lovely afternoon with them having a "Take-away" in the Savacentre.

The following day was very much one of total indulgence. I'd booked a Cathioderme Facial and massague for myself with the odd bit of waxing thrown in - oh it was so good. I also visited the Oad Street Craft Centre and bought some wind chimes for our gareden prior to having a most superb lunch. Would have been better if I'd shared it with someone but hey I had a Fish Salad Platter to die for. Mackerel, Prawns, Crab, Smoked Salmon, Fresh Salmon, Salad, Brown Bread, Mayo, Caramelised Onion et al - it was wonderful.

That evening it was 'The girls night out' and we all met up at the Ship and Traders on the Island. The place was very noisey but we had such a great time. It was only a great time because we are such mates because there was such an interchange of news between us all but my God Roni's had the most impact because she had to tell us she had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Staggering news, but because of the way she delivered it we were able to react in a positive way. My God she must be so scared, I hope we can help her. She is such a gutsy person but she will still need our help.




Had a wonderful weekend with the Kelseys and managed to catch up with my friend Mary at Goar Farm for Sunday lunch but hey I wanted to go home. Very early on Tuesday morning (5.30am) Andy and I set of for Heathrow for my flight back. I was worried about my excess baggage which actually went through no trouble at all - however the security procedure involved taking off shoes and jewellery before being declared "clean".
It was so good to see Jeff once I had collected all my baggage at Larnaca and within an hour and a half we were home once more.
Now it is time to catch up with life here in NC.

After much effort I have managed to publish some of the photographs that were taken by Paul Cummings (much superior to mine). I hope they will give you a flavour of what a wonderful evenings entertainment it truly was.

 
 
  

 
 
 
  

Two weeks have passed and there has been much activity from the Lloyds both in NC and UK. While waiting for my flight in Larnaca airport, I met up with a colleague from the ABF. Barrie had not enjoyed a successful holiday in NC because the villa he had rented in Ozankoy had been surrounded by ongoing building work, which made relaxing around the pool rather difficult. I had some sympathy for him and his wife but if he had let me check it out before he came over I could have warned him what it was going to be like.

There was some delay while we waited our turn in the stack at Heathrow, but visibility was good so I enjoyed excellent views over the Thames as we came in to land.

I walked to school with the boys next morning, Tom did look grown up in his uniform. Both he and Josh cycle with their friends and little Ross cannot wait to be big enough to join them on a bike. Happily, Joe is thriving now and was approaching 13lbs that week. (Debi: please send pictures for Dad.)
Debi let me use her car that day and I was able to have my hair done and do a bit of shopping in preparation for my trip the next day to Sandhurst.

Meanwhile, back in Karsiyaka, Jeff continued to supervise the garden workers.

The good top soil was distributed
onto the new flower beds.











On Wednesday evening, Jeff went along to the Quiz night at the Chiswick. He joined Rene and Brian, Sandra and Paul which immediately meant they were deducted 5 points as there should only be 4 people in a team! Despite that they managed to win a roll-over prize of 50 YTL each which covered the cost of the evening nicely.



On Thursday I travelled to Sandhurst by train, arriving about 1pm. The lawns infront of the college buildings had the stands ready for the orchestra and choir and the Royal Box was waiting for its VIP occupants.


The Music on Fire office was in the cricket pavillion, known locally as The Kaboush. The 2 girls from Central Office had set up an office in an upstairs room, next-door to the techies who were masterminding the lighting, sound, pyrotechnics etc. Downstairs was where we were fed and watered. I was quickly invited to help with some typing jobs, there was much that had to be done before the Friday show but we struggled against computers that kept crashing and printers that wouldn't print. Barrie was doing his utmost to keep the show going but we really struggled. That first day I worked through until 1am, albeit stopping for some supper served from the hotplates downstairs.

They don’t provide too many creature comforts for the young cadets at Sandhurst. My accommodation was pretty basic to say the least, up on the 3rd floor and my room had just a bed, table, chair, wardrobe and sink. To find the loos took some doing – 50 yds down a corridor through 2 fire doors and the showers were even further on! It wasn’t good to be too desperate to address nature’s call. Then the next surprise was that it was a 15 minute walk from the accommodation to the Kaboush before I could get a hot drink!

Friday morning dawned pretty wet, so it was a case of digging out the brolly and heading over for breakfast when it had eased off a bit. There was a self-service arrangement of hot plates with bacon, sausage, fried and scrambled eggs, plenty of bread and tea and coffee, so we didn’t starve. As soon as I’d eaten around 8.30am it was back to the typing – Philippa and Ruth having been at it since about 5.30am! During the course of the morning one or two people began to arrive from Central Office and it was nice to see old faces again. The rain continued all day until about 4pm when it stopped and the sun came out, but of course the ground was very wet.

We spent the afternoon having various briefings and sorting out our respective tents. I worked in partnership with John Ross, he commanding his troops in the East tent and I in the West. We were responsible for organising the cadets with the sale of programmes and raffle tickets. The raffle prize each evening was a year's supply of hampers (4 - 1 for each season), from Fortnum & Mason. I had the new ABF Director Welfare, Paul Cummings in my team. I had met him before I retired but he didn't take over until the end of May, so it was a nice experience for me to work with him. We got on well. We also had a nice Australian girl in our team, she is currently working as a Temp at the ABF.

Although the gates officially opened at 4pm, people didn't begin to arrive till around 5.30pm. The grass was still very wet but the majority had brought chairs to sit on. We had between 5,000 and 6,000 people there on the first night including the Duke and Duchess of Wessex. The parts of the show I saw were very exciting. The evening followed the theme of War and Peace, using fireworks, music and laser projected scenes onto the college facade, starting with Creation, then came the story of Noah, Romans, Barbarians, the discovery of gunpowder and the Napoleonic war.


After the interval the scenes travelled through the Crimea up to modern times with the dropping of the atomic bomb. The Red Devils Parachute Team did a very spectacular night drop into the arena and then the show took on a macarbre turn illustrating modern warfare, hell and Armageddon. Finally the atmosphere was raised again with the theme of hope and the traditional rendition of Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory.



Back in Karsiyaka Jeff continued to oversee the garden project

and later that evening joined our friends for a beer at the Stumble Inn. On Saturday morning he went to Guzelyurt market to enjoy a trip out on a nice day. There are dozens of stalls selling everything from knickers to knives to nectarines.


This guy thinks he's a fruit tree!








In UK, Saturday was a beautiful day too, clear blue skies and warm sunshine. It was a morning to do the fine tuning as this evening was to be the "biggy". Although there were to be no Royalty attending that night there were to be a lot of celebrities, including such people as Dame Judy Dench, Kate Aide, Honor Blackman and Robert Hardy who had all contributed towards the commentaries that accompanied the scenes projected onto the college facade. In the event around 11,000 people attended on the Saturday night and there was a fantastic atmosphere. They started arriving quite quickly as soon as the gates were opened at 4pm and elaborate picnics appeared all over the lawns. It was obvious that this was a crowd out to enjoy themselves. During the evening Patti Boulaye gave a brilliant rendition of Amazing Grace along with other solos and Mylene Class also contributed to the evening's entertainment.



Sunday was another nice day and I had arranged to take time off over lunch and meet my grandsons. Ian & Sharon drove up from Winterslow and Debi and Andy drove down from Kent. We all met up at an Animal Centre and the boys had an opportunity to run off some energy. We had to keep on eye on Ross however, he was rather too enthusiastic when it came to stroking the animals - the goat nearly lost his beard!


We then found a nice pub in Sandhurst and had lunch together in the garden. It was especially nice as it was Sharon's 40th birthday so I was particularly lucky to be able to share that too.

Meanwhile Jeff took himself out for a meal. He went to a restaurant we have used often, The Silver Grill, but it had been out of action for a while as its previous owner, Ali had decided to sell and retire. We have been waiting for it to re-open and now it has albeit under a new name, My Place. It is now run by a young Scandinavian lady. Jeff's report was that it was very good.

I got back to my duties in the tent in time to organise the evening's programme sellers. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were among the VIP that night and while I was watching some of the comings and goings I spotted Robert Powell arriving. We were a slick team now and the audience numbers were down to 6,000 again, albeit a jolly crowd. We were all able to see more of the show and take lots of pictures. Paul had managed to take quite a number of pics on Saturday night, he had a very smart camera and tripod and he kindly downloaded some of his photographs onto a CD for me to have. After the show it was big clear-up time and while I was doing this I got a message to say Mike Regan had been hoping to say hello. I went along to the Royal Box and managed to catch up with him and Victoria, who told me they had invited Jeff around to their house for a drink before they came back to UK.
When all the work was done I went back to the Kaboush and joined a small group finishing off a hectic 3 days with a celebratory drink. Sir Evelyn and Lady Ceilia came and joined us but we didn't linger too long as everyone was exhausted - we did drink to Music on Fire 2008 though!