Just before we pull the crackers and don our paper hats, we find the Christmas spirit is alive an well in North Cyprus.

Dear Sis,
Well here we are, almost Christmas and we have been here one year… how time flies.  It’s been a strange love affair with North Cyprus.  Overcoming the bureaucracy or not as the case may be; enjoying new friends, new food and new surroundings but most of all, enjoying a laid back lifestyle you can only imagine as you freeze in the snows of a British winter.

It’s still really early days yet but we have all settled remarkably well and look forward to year two… providing we get our new residency at the end of this month!

That was a fun thing to have to do, get our second year residency stamp. We had to get new forms from the Muhtar (TL50) with TL5 government stamps attached to each one, a new letter from the Notary (TL40) saying we will be responsible for James and provide photocopies of our passport picture page, the first year residency stamp page, our bank account balance, our Contract of Sale for the house, our Ins and Outs form and our original little pink book that came with the residency stamp.  All this had to be done for each person, taken to the police station where another form was filled in by the police and each of us and hopefully now all the documents are in Nicosia and we can collect the first week in January, when we pay TL170 each plus TL6.60 in government stamps. Not a cheap start to 2010 but it has to be done.

Everywhere is green at the moment because of all the rain we have had and when we get sunny days you could almost be forgiven for thinking spring had arrived early.  The bulbs my friend gave me are already coming up and I think they will be in bloom by mid January.

The other day I was making a curry and Rob asked if we had any onion bhajis.   As if!  I thought for a moment and remembered I had a packet of onion bhaji mix in the cupboard so rooted it out, looked at the instructions and started to chop the onions.  As an afterthought,  I looked at the “best before date” and believe it or not it said “end Jul 93”.  Honestly, I have been carrying it around for years so I thought it was time to use it up so in it went and very nice bhajis they were too.  It is, after all, just a guideline date.

We have some amusing road signs here and one I have meant to tell you about for ages is the one that shows the speed limit for various vehicles on various roads.  One sign shows a speed for cars, for lorries and the final in the trio is for cars carrying explosives – which by the way is generally 65kph.  Not quite sure why cars would be carrying explosives but hey, this is Cyprus my friend so you never know.

The cats and kittens have finally deserted us thank goodness.  I still see them occasionally around the estate but they are no longer in residence outside our door.  I think this had something to do with Rob’s novel way of moving them on.  He found that a split bamboo pole, when swung around was a noise they really did not like so they decamped.  It was amusing to see Rob running around the garden, swishing this bamboo pole for all he was worth; he looked like a banshee on speed.

My friend and I recently went to the KAR Christmas Fayre where I won three raffle prizes.  Sadly nothing exciting just two cans of soft drink, a calendar and a Chinese looking thing with a bulb that promptly went in the bin as it came with no way of using the bulb.  Still, it was all for a good cause and I did manage to pick up 10 lovely brass Christmas decorations for TL8.

Sorry this is a short letter but I really must start making some sausage rolls.  Yes, I have to make them now as I cannot find those packets that contain 50 frozen cocktail sausages that I used to just put in the oven and claim the praise. I am becoming quite the domestic goddess and I would not be surprised if I have a cook book published soon.

Right time to go but remember when life gets you down – just put on your big girl panties and deal with ?it.
Your itinerant sister

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