Chypre douze points

My friend from Durham, Stu, and I went on a week's holiday to Cyprus at the start of October. It seemed like a good idea to extend the summer that we didn't have by an extra week and get some autumn sunshine. This idea seemed even better when the fact that Stu's parents had recently purchased a villa in Pegeia, near Paphos, and so we wouldn't have any accommodation costs. The only costs would be the air fares and the food and drink we would consume, so we made sure that the air fare part of that was as cheap as possible by flying at ridiculous times. But more of that later...

The plan for the week we made in advance consisted of three main parts: seeing classical ruins; sitting in the sunshine; eating and drinking. And looking back on the trip, we did quite well on all three counts.

The classical sightseeing took in the mosaics and theatre of ancient Paphos, and the rather impressive agora and temples in Kourion, especially the temple of Apollo Hylates. Then we did some sightseeing of a more modern sort - we went to Nicosia, or is it actually called Lefkosia? We saw the Green Line separating the two halves of the world's only divided capital city (so it said on the sign next to it). The Green Line was less of a wall, and more of a pile of sandbags with some barbed wire on them. And we also saw the Tombs of the Kings, and saw the very important sight of a local crazy golf course.

Then we got our share of sun, sitting on the beach at Coral Bay, or relaxing in the pool near our villa.

Drinks - we had one or two pints of Keo during our week. Keo is the Cypriot local lager, and it's actually not bad. Very tasty.

Food, yes, we had some of that too. On our first night we went for traditional Cypriot mezedes, which basically means you get some of everything on the menu - the Greek salad came out, accompanied by tzatziki, humous, taramosalata, some couscous, some chips(?), some pitta bread etc. Then the meat started to arrive - the spicy sausage, the meatballs, the pork chops, the lamb chops, the beef stew. We were rather full, and could barely finish our dessert. On one night we went for an Indian, which was extremely good, and wasn't only there for the ex-pats, oh no. Stu and I however spent our time there laughing at the British retired gentlemen at the next table. They came over to us later and told us that they used to be in the RAF at Abingdon, as they'd overheard us talking about the town. The best thing they'd done during the course of the evening was to get the chef out so that they could congratulate him on his fine culinary performance. On another night, we barbequed some burgers on a proper non-Australian charcoal-style barbie.

So all in all it was a good week, until we got to Paphos airport just as England vs France in the Rugby World Cup semi-final was starting. The facilities in the airport didn't allow for two hundred Brits to watch the game live. This meant that three-quarters of the people waiting by the gate were texting someone at home to find out the score. Matt very kindly gave me occasional updates. And somehow apparently it emerged that we won!

The flight was due to leave at 0030 Cypriot time, but was delayed a bit, then it was a four hour flight. Eventually I got to bed at 0530, and Stu got into his bed at 0600 apparently. Was it worth the cheap fare? Actually, I don't think there were too many other options.

Hopefully, I'll get the chance to visit the villa again some day, as it was a cracking and cheap trip!

Wedding time

Not long after Mum's birthday boat trip, I had another family event - my cousin's wedding. It was the first time I'd seen him for over ten years. There had been some, erm, unpleasantness and, erm, arguments.

Everything went fine as it turned out. We met another of our cousins on the train there, he was now married and his wife was 8 months pregnant. Then they were met at the station by our aunt, so we grabbed a lift. Which was rather handy.

The venue was a lovely country house in Stonehouse in Gloucestershire. The church was a small and pleasant building. And the vicar was a comedian, which always helps. A baby cried out just after he'd asked if anyone knew any reason why the two of them should not be married, and he responded with, "Yes, you at the back!" And then spent the next half-hour taking down the baby's reasons...

There was plenty of alcohol to go round, and I saw a number of my relatives I hadn't seen for a very long time. They'd all turned out to be almost normal...!