Smuggling in Cyprus
Published on 26 February 2007 at 04:35 pm
Filed in Expat Life In Nicosia Cyprus
Cyprus is a funny old place – did you know that some people don’t even know that the island is divided whilst others believe it’s divided because Turkish soldiers took the random decision to invade for no good reason whatsoever 32 years ago? Others know that something went on in terms of British soldiers being killed and ethnic cleansing, but some people you speak to believe the island is divided because of a simple property dispute - or could it now be all about the oil or is that the Orams?
The fact of the matter is that the events leading up to the division of the island before I was born (just) matter very little nowadays to the majority of Cypriots actually inhabiting the island because the whole situation is rapidly turning into a farce - or even a comedy of errors if you like - with tit for tat silliness playing itself out on the green line daily fuelled by politicians from both sides. So much so that smuggling in Cyprus is now rife with those coming from the south side sneaking back across with a packet of cheap fags and a tank of cheap petrol and those of us from the north sneaking back with a tin of Hammerite paint and a carton of fresh milk!
Since I ‘retired’ or downsized – call it what you will – but since I gave up working 60 hour weeks for evil banks and corporates I have never actually been so busy and wonder just how I ever had time for a full time job – mind you, I suppose in them dark days of yore I didn’t have a thirteen year old bundle of blonde ambition topped off with hormone hell nor a dog of such vast immenseness that the upholstery has gone in my brand new sofa (yes, he sits on it – YOU try telling him ‘down’) and who needs three marathon walks a day…aye, that must be what it is.
Be prepared for a rant and a rave for I need to let off a considerable amount of steam and if I’m not allowed to do it in the form of writing about power cuts and invisible builders in North Cyprus – i.e., the truth about them – then I am likely to become a knife wielding maniac down at kibtec on Monday morning.
Many tour operators and rental villa owners promote Cyprus as an island for all seasons, sunny for between 320 and 365 days of the year and they are actually spot on – it is sunny almost everyday even if not all day – even in the winter. But what this winter sunshine cannot mask at this time of the year is that at night it is freezing and that on days when it rains it is miserable and the damp and mud get into every facet of your very being and depress you.
Ah well, it’s that time of year again when it rains and it doesn’t just drizzle or spit it chucks it down in buckets from the heavens and the whole of North Cyprus turns into mud island – every single car becomes a brown heap, every single road turns into a muddy lane and houses all over the island leak.
Hey, I’m Tyler the lovely step-daughter that Rhiannon has been writing about!
I went with Tyler to the Unwin’s Sunny Lane School today to get her uniform and sign myself up for being sent to the headmaster (Mr. Leyland sir)…all very nerve wracking (for me you understand, for Miss Tyler Williamson, confident lady that she is, it was a breeze)!
Oh Em Geeeeee (oh my God in other words) how excited am I? Very – quite simply very. And why? Well, Ikea is coming to Cyprus. As I recall I was hunting round the internet for some news about the development of the retail market in Bulgaria (yawn, stretch) for an article I was writing and I came across something about Ikea planning a store in Sofia.
I suppose seeing as we were already four (what with Cheese and Milfred) that the working title for this entry should be ‘and then we were five’ but that might confuse too many people?
Wanted – Cheap Flight from Northern Cyprus – Quick. And the reason why? My rescue puppy Milfred Wensleydale Williamson…
