April 11th: Our friends, who were out for
a fortnight, left for the UK yesterday afternoon. For the first
week of their stay, the weather was quite awful - rain, hail,
thunder etc, which was particularly miserable as we heard that
the UK had unexpected sunshine and warmth! Still, I think they
were able to relax somewhat, even though it wasn't beach weather.
We felt particularly sorry for holidaymakers in hotels who only
came for the week including Easter. I'm not sure what they would
do if they couldn't get out on the beach easily.
Since last Friday it's
been much better, so on Sunday afternoon we went to Kiti beach
for a couple of hours, and yesterday afternoon we went to McKenzy
beach for an hour just before they were due at the airport. Too
cold to do anything other than sit and read, but at least they
saw a bit of sun!
As they'd been here a couple of times before, there wasn't anything
they hadn't seen before - however Ian went go-karting with Richard
one evening, as there's a new go-kart rink, and they went to
the cinema one evening. Ian went for a few walks to the local
shops, and sat on the Larnaka sea-front beach, but his teenage
daughter was quite happy staying at our house, sleeping most
of the morning, and playing computer games in the afternoon.
The boys continued their busy round of music and other activities,
since Greek Orthodox Easter - the main one celebrated in Cyprus
- is not for another three weeks.
We're taking a couple more days' break to relax, and will get
back to the boys' home education coursework next Monday. There's
another performance of Daniel's play this Friday, at the Antidote
studio theatre where the group work, and then two or three
more around the island during April and May. Tim is looking forward
to getting back into a routine; Daniel on the other hand has
been doing various constructive things - such as writing computer
programs, and trying to create a Tolkienesque language - in between
his many activities, and would happily continue without coursework
forever.
The weather remains sunny
but with a chill in the air - really quite windy by early afternoon.
The temperature claims to be 20C in the shade, but I'm still
wearing a light sweatshirt over my tee-shirt in the house. Perhaps
we've adjusted better to the local temperatures, though; we do
notice tourists and visitors going around in tee-shirt and shorts,
while we're still in jeans and sweatshirts.
16th April: It's raining again - it must
have been the wettest Spring I can remember! We just had a busy
Sunday. The 8-12s section of Daniel's drama group were doing
their production on Sunday morning at 11am, and as two girls
from our church are in this group, we went along to see it. So
we had to go straight after church, although Richard managed
to get a chicken in the oven before we went and I'd par-boiled
potatoes before church!
It was a production of
'The Emperor's New Clothes' and was very well done, with bright
and cartoon-style costumes. We were amazed at how well the directors
have done as it's a big group (there must have been 18 or so
in the cast) and the whole thing ran smoothly with a lot of humour
and excellent casting. Most of the children were about 9-10,
but it was clear that two or three of them are already accomplished
actors.
This afternoon the boys
had a church music group practice at 3pm, since this evening
was 'Singspiration' - a medley of songs, poems, performances
and congregational songs, all chosen by members of the congregation.
They invited the other local churches, and the Anglicans even
closed their evening service so they could come. Some of the
Greek evangelical church were there too. The whole programme
was nearly 2 hours, and afterwards we had refreshments.. so while
the boys had been at their music practice, I'd been baking!
21st April: Yesterday the weather was dreadful
- drizzle all day long, and quite cold too for Cyprus in April.
Today has dawned bright and sunny, so it's a pity that the rest
of the family are somewhat under the weather with nasty colds.
Daniel is actually much better now, although he had to miss his
clarinet lesson and band practices for the past week, as it's
not possible to play with a blocked nose. Tim only started it
yesterday, and is at the coughing and sniffing stage today. Richard
started it yesterday too - so that only leaves me! I suppose
the unexpected cool, wet weather has been a good breeding ground
for germs, probably brought out by some of the British visitors
who were here for the Easter holidays. Various other people in
the church seem to have the same thing.
Richard's off to Lebanon
this Tuesday evening for a conference, getting back early Friday
morning, then he's going almost straight away to Paphos, where
Daniel's drama group is doing the next performance of 'Nuts'.
He's going to help with the video projector that they use between
scenes.
April 29th: We heard today that Daniel's
theatre group won their part of the National Theatre competition!!
The directors got the cast together for a celebration this evening
(including Richard as he'd made the video for them that was sent
off). It was only against about 9 other groups around the world
(theirs was the least popular play of those selected) but still
it's very exciting. Apparently one of the groups they beat was
the Cambridge University theatre group!
Anyway, it means Daniel
will be performing it on July 11th in the Cottesloe, at the National
Theatre in London! So... we may see if we can all go back to
the UK then. Daniel has to be in London by July 8th as the group
are going to watch all the other winning performances during
the week, but we'll try and extend the stay a bit, and see some
relatives. And to think we weren't planning to go back at all
this year!
Oh.. and the men finally
arrived when I was least expecting them to replace our old rusty
water tank with a brand new plastic one. Richard asked them to
have a look at the scaffolding holding up the solar panels, as
it was also rather rusty; they apparently decided the panels
weren't really working, and replaced them too, after consultation
with our landlady. So now we should have clean water from the
tank, more efficient solar heating, and no potential panels falling
down!
times since 16th May 2002