9th July 2012

 Hey ho Hey ho its off to work I go .........

Everyone arrived safely back on Friday night.  Myself from Madrid and Lillian from Pervolia.  A first experience of the London City Airport, which would have been fine had it not been for the long queues at UK Border Control.  Interesting that in both Cyprus and Madrid my passport is hardly looked at yet here in Uk there is scanning, looking, comparing photo image with reality.


Its good to be back, although the weather urgh.  Rain and cold and on Saturday night we put the heating on as I was freezing!

Anyway during our last few days in Pervolia Lillian thought we should join the stone decorating tradition by preparing a decorated stone to celebrate one year of our home.  Whilst I agreed readily that it sounded a good idea I promptly disappeared away from Cyprus leaving Lillian to walk the beach (must be collected personally ..... a rule) and paint.  So here they are ....... shades of Julia setting expectation high when surely it will be my turn next year.

Thursday 5th July 2012

A shame to write the final blog from a hotel room in Madrid and not our lovely home and the sunshine of our garden, the pool and the beach.
The last two days, Monday and Tuesday flew by although we did get time to walk to the beach, swim, garden and even one night session of bowls and as lillian said in her blog on m behalf plenty of work preparation. No time to write.

Wednesday was an early start with a 0345 depart from home to the airport and then flight to Madrid via Athens. From there tomorrow its back to London and a five week stay in the UK except for a week to New York and Chicago. Love the travel but it will be good to be back with the family and of course we have 'Olympic tickets'!

Lillian leaves Pervolia also tomorrow, Friday and its back to sunshine on 12th August. So until then ...... thanks for reading.

Sunday 1st July 2012

Well, for the first time in this blog’s history,  I have been designated “deputy editor” for the day, as Chris has got do much work to do before he heads off to Madrid on Wednesday  that he can’t take a break to write!

So it’s Lillian reporting on life in Pervolia.

Chris hasn’t updated you so far on the latest acquisitions at our house- so I’m very glad to be able to!  Before he had gone to Doha, we’d had a company called Ikos come and quote for an awning for the patio and some curtains and Roman blinds for the lounge.  The awning went up while he was away, and the curtains were just being finished as he returned.  

I think it all looks lovely, and has really added the finishing touches to our house.  It also means that those visitors who aren’t sun-worshippers like ourselves, can sit on the patio in the shade with th sea breeze helping to cool them! It has certainly been pretty hot the last week or so....up in the 90’s most days now, and very humid, so few clothes, or pure cotton if you have to wear something is the thing!

I have to say I really enjoy just sitting in the lounge, gazing out, or relaxing on the patio admiring our garden.  When people ask us what we do all day, it’s really quite simple, walk, swim, cycle, garden, relax, eat and drink!  But for today there was no biking but we did make a trip to the beach fro yet another two bags of stones.  Only one more strip to fill!

Saturday 30th June 2012

View of course from the clubhouse

Pervolia and Cottage Golf Society Golf Day held at Elias Golf Club, designed by Nick Faldo at Paphos.  The boys from the pub (Cottage) plus one lady - Lillian day out.

A 0730 meet at the Cottage before a 90 minute drive to Paphos and the newly opened golf course and very good it was too.  A challenging course in true Faldo design.  He is well known for the difficulty of the Faldo Course at the Emirates in Dubai and this was no different.  With no play since our golf trip to Turkey expectations were not high of a great round and so it was meant to be.  With no points scored on the first four holes a late recovery was all I could expect.  A mixture of good shoots, unlucky shots and more than one rubbish shot and the usual poor putting left me very much mid-field from the 23 players, whereas steady Lillian, who was it would appear mostly straight on the narrow fairways finished with a very creditable score and ended with the winning score of those who entered the sweepstake.  Well done Lillian. The beers were on you!  Thanks.  A whisper said she would have been the winner overall but as we are not monthly ‘payers’ into the golf society funds she was not allowed to take the star prize!

The company was very good for the day with a mixture of old and young, golfers and not such good golfers.  A well organised event with one guy riding around on a buggy cart keeping everyone supplied with drinks and snacks.  The drinks were much very much appreciated on what was a hot day.  Oh that there was such a course near this end of the island and it would have been there 5 days a week rather than working!

Back to the Cottage pub for prize givings and a snack and a couple of hours of drinking and chatting.  It was one of the numbers 40th birthday and he did not know a special event had been arranged for him at the pub.  We stayed for a bit but home to watch Wimbledon and a relax for us oldies who cant keep up the pace.

Friday 29th June 2012

Night view from bedroom window

Return from hot, sunny but hazy Doha, Qatar.  Hot means what it says with the daily temperature high being around 120F with overnight lows of 93F.

Flights away from Larnaca were fine with a new experience of Olympic Airways to Athens and from there Qatar Airways to Doha.  These routes were taken to avoid arriving in Doha at 0230 in the morning which is the Emirates route via Dubai. I have flown with Qatar Airways a number of times and without a doubt their tag line that they are a 5* airline is so true.  Staff always smiling and accommodating.  The flight from Athens to Doha though virtually flies back over Cyprus.  Interestingly the flight to Doha was full although only myself and 5 others were disembarking in Doha and the rest of the travelers transferring to other flights.  Doha is starting to become an international hub like Dubai.

Main bedroom

Bathroom

This trip meant a stay at the Kempinski Hotel on West Bay.  On arrival I was told that I had been ungraded to a two bedroom suite.  Ridiculous in size for a couple of nights but brought back memories of our stay here in Doha or a year.  Lillian and I lived in a similar apartment.

The purpose of my visit was to accompany a corporate guest who needed to see our schools and have some discussions about plans for future developments.  Qatar is such a growing place there is plenty of room for growth in the education business.  Without good schools international people will not come to do the work the country so needs to continue its plans for global recognition. A visit to Al Khor meant the 50 minute drive I had taken just a week ago across the desert.  My guest was immediately struggling with the heat and having only arrived at 0630 in the morning was struggling to keep awake for the drive back.

Lounge

So two days of school visits and meetings, one 6 hours with architects on our new school project.  The last night was spent in Souk Wafiq so that the visitor could get a feel of the arabic world.  We wandered the small streets, all selling similar wares and made some small purchases of arabic sweets and cashew nuts!  An arabic meze in the square watching the world go by, inhalling the sweet smelling sisha smoke from the next table was a very pleasant last hour.

Reverse trip was no problem although Doha airport was a made house in terms of checking in.  It was the first day of the school summer holidays and you could see so many expat families with the ‘I’m out of here smile’ on their faces.  Away from the heat of the summer although watching the immigration queues many were not returning as they held visa cancellation papers in their hands.  Such is the transient place that is Doha.