The Christmas Gift that Kept on Giving......me a headache

Hello Dear Readers,

Here I am in sunny warm Cyprus!  I had intended this to be a blog intensive trip, full of photos of the fun stuff Chris and I were doing this time since he promised that we wouldn't do chores or see lots of relatives.  Well, he partially kept his promise in that I spent almost the first full week in bed (starting on Christmas Day) with a nasty, knock down cold courtesy of Chris.  According to his family, the cause of my cold was the change in weather in Cyprus, as it had just turned "cold" (14 C/ 60 F) when we got there. I pointed out that it was actually warmer than in England, which then changed the story to, "the drastic change in temperatures is what caused my illness."  I pointed out that Chris had the same bad cold a week before, but that didn't seem to make any difference, and people mused that traveling such a long distance in an airplane the day before probably also contributed to the cold.  So either it was the fact that it was cold in Cyprus, or much warmer than the UK, or traveling great distances, but not living with a sneezey coughing Chris that caused my illness.  Only by wrapping up warm and sweating it out could I recover, oh, or I could take antibiotics.  Sigh.  I think it was more tiring trying to explain basic biology principles than actually being sick.  I'm still stuffy and coughing, and seem to have pulled a small muscle in my chest with all the hacking, but I'm trying to cram in a few fun things now that I am vertical before we fly out tomorrow!

Before I got too ill, we were able to visit our friends Stavros and Margarita who have two little boys.  I love to make things for them, last year I did the sock monkeys and this year it was a dragon and a lamb.  For some reason Andreas was afraid of the lamb at first, but he took to it eventually with his usual good humour.  Somehow he seems to have skipped the terrible twos.  Here is his baby brother with the dragon I made him, lots of good sticky out parts for him to put in his mouth, which is exactly what I intended, along with some safety eyes that he can really get his teeth into.

Christmas day was a very quiet affair, as only myself, Chris, his mother and aunt and uncle were home (and I was in bed the whole day), but being Greek Orthodox Christmas isn't really celebrated, it's New Years (at midnight) that St. Basil comes and delivers gifts to children.  Chris's cousin and her boyfriend were here for New Years, and somehow we got into a discussion about traditional clothes.  Chris's aunt happened to have an old dance costume of one of her girls, which I immediatly put on and paraded about hte house in.  It's very comfortable I have to say, on a par with what I wore when I worked in Colonial Williamsburg.

 Further proof that I was born in the wrong era, I think, I make these outfits look so good!

New Years day we had the traditional lunch at his Aunt's house.  His sister's family was two ill to drive the 1.5 hours to come see us, so it was just the 7 of us.

L to R is Chris, his mother Nikki, Aunt Anna, Uncle Stephanos, Cousin Valando and her boyfriend Dolis.  I've been able to make good use of my Greek lessons this trip, though the fast paced, slang Cypriot dialect still gets the best of me most times.   Fortunately I've been able to use the time I wasn't comatose to finish up a sweater order that I got before I left. 

Yesterday we drove to the Capitol to see Chris's sister and her family.  His mother spent the whole day before cooking and buying food because she seems to think that the largest and capitol city in the island is a desert, devoid of food and, apparently, quality eggs.  It was a bit of a bust though as Odie is deep in his terrible twos stage, every item in the house is his, and you can't touch it or you get a whack with a plastic wrench.  When given a book as a gift from his great Aunt, he proceeded to tear the whole thing apart while his father watched and sighed "Oh dear, tsk tsk." Hmmm, someone really needed a nap, or perhaps everyone.  Not really endearing him to me yet, but I remember my brother was a little brat as a kid, so I'm hoping in 10-15 years he'll be fine.......

Today is our last full day, and it's sunny and warm.  I'm finishing up a job application (it's a never ending process in these austere times) and Chris is doing his annual servicing of his cousin's computer.  Afterwards we'll take a stroll on the new path by the sea and pick up a few groceries that we can't find in the UK.  Tomorrow it's back home to England, and snug in my own bed again!  I hope that Patrick has fufilled his promise to repaint the kitchen, we'll see....

Hope all my dear readers had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I think I've slept enough this week to last me through the rest of my contract at the Museum, and feel refreshed and ready to tackle the new years resolutions I've made.

Cheers.

Cyprus!

Hello Dear Readers,

Well I won't say I'm on holiday, but certainly I'm in Cyprus. Why not on Holiday? Because we have been so incredibly busy we've just been falling into bed exausted every night and dragging ourselves up again early the next day with the roosters! We got in late Sunday and had a big Easter dinner with the family. (Used the iPad on the plane, FANTSTIC! Love that device!).

Monday was get up early, see Chris's friend Stavros who's wife just had a second baby.

Those kids are the ones I knit the sock monkies for, though there is no word in Greek for Sock Monkey apparently.....
Later we went to see his friend Valandis and give him all the tech we brought back from him from the UK. Tuesday was visiting with his Aunt and Uncle from Phaphos and then Later his Aunt and Uncle from Limasol (neighboring city) and then seeing some other friends in the evening. Wedsnesday Chris spent the morning formatting his cousins computers, and I visited with some family of his cousins, then the afternoon we went to the dentist, who is also his cousin. Being our 10 year anniversary that day we decided to have a quiet dinner together at a cafe right on the sea at the port.

Thursday we spent the whole day from 8 am to 9 pm touring the occupied part, which was really special and deserves it's own post. After we got back we spent a few hours with chri's good friend George. Friday I was recovering from the lingering cold I've had for a few weeks that exploded full blown when I got here, while Chris went wiht his aunt and uncle again to see some land in Vouni. I also managed to get myself a new retainer (had the last one at least 12 years!) and we saw his Godmother who loved the slippers I knit for her.

We saw George again and had some amazing souvlaki and then went to a cafe where there was live music. George was showing off his versatile hat.

Phew! Now it's Saturday morning, and we still have to see his friend Costas and his sister's family before we fly out at Midnight on Monday. Can't wait to get back home and relax!!

Last post about Cyprus

Hello Dear Readers,

Made it back from Cyprus last week safe and sound, but from the time the plane hit the ground I was off running, back to work, back to the gym, back to Kew on Sat's and teaching knitting on Sun so I've been too busy to post properly. Chris and I moved rooms over the holiday and now we are in the spacious upstairs room that used to belong to my brother (he's moved his huge stash of clothes, books, video games etc into the largest room, he needs it!). The upshot is that Chris has space for his desk and computer and I have a horizontal space for my sewing machine and crafting. Yay! It's the perfect amount of space for us, photos to follow. It also means we have lots more room for visitors, including a pull out futon in Patrick's room (Hint Hint HINT!).Here are some of the last images I took in Cyprus. The Epiphany is a really big deal there, and the Archbishop of all Cyprus comes to Paphos (he's from there anyway) and throws the celabratory cross into the sea, which crazy young men dive in after. I have no idea what this is supposed to symbolize, but it's a rip roaring good time with a band, marching naval ensigns, cotton candy and popcorn sellers, the works.
In the afternoon Chris and I took one last drive in the mountains. We saw donkeys and goats, and this amazing waterspout over the sea at sunset. It's a little hard to see because the sunset lighting was poor, but towards the left of center is a dark bit of cloud that extended all the way to the sea. Pretty neat sight!

All in all it was an ok trip, but all the family obligations we had, not to mention staying with my mother in law for two weeks, meant I was REALLY glad to come back to my own house and my own space.

We may be going back at Easter time, we'll have to see. For right now I'm enjoying finishing off my blue laceweight sweater, making a prodded rug for Patrick's new bathroom, and knitting up some sock monkeys for some friends of ours who are expecting their second child in April. Never at a loss for somethin to do.

Cheers!

More Holiday Fun

Hello Dear Readers,

Another whirlwind week in progress here at our holiday house in sunny Cyprus. After recovering from New Years, Chris and I took a fantastic hike on a trail in the north-west peninsula known as the Akamas region. There is a sort of nature preserve there with four hiking trails. We took a 7.5 km one that started out going pretty much straight up a hill, what would in Texas probably be classed as a mountain. It did afford us spectacular views of the bay of Lachi which this photo hardly does justice to (yay for dipping into my 2011 photos now, love that fresh feeling of a new year!).
It got pretty warm hiking and I was down to just a tank top - I know Chris will not like the plunge back into the London cold next week! We saw some pretty good flora, including lots of cyclamins which are my favorite.

We also saw this strange new bush with unusual berries.......(the picture isn't great so I'll tell you they are shells from shotguns)
We heard quite a few gunshots while we were out, and even ran into a jeepload of hunters. I was repeating "don't shoot don't shoot" as we were hiking but as I don't know how to say it in Greek it probably didn't make a difference one way or another..... When we got to the top there was a large stone structure and some ruins, it looked like an old church or monestary, with a few remnants of paintings on walls still visable. I took some of the stones that had fallen off the ruined walls and put them back on - every little helps as they say in England.

Another day we went to the little botanic gardens that is set up here, but to be honest it was pretty dissapointing, mislabeled plants and very small gardens. We were also the only people there, I think they were preparing for some big event because the tavern was set up with chairs draped in white fabrices, but no one seemed to pay us much attention anyway.

One of my favorite things to do in the world is to finish things, specifically craft projects. Chris's mom has had these needlepoint projects in her closet certainly as long as I've been coming to Cyprus, and most of them were started when Chris's sister was 5 or 6.

This time I decided to really get cracking on finishing some. We took a trip to the local habadashary to see if they had some of the same yarn, the woman said whoah those are really old, we don't carry that knid of thread anymore but you can try a shop called Evros. We went there and took a look and lo and behold he still had most of the colors I needed! I asked about the white for the background and he said evyerthhign I have is there because the factory stopped making that kind of yarn a long time ago. I may very well be the last person that buys that kind of tapeestry thread off of him.
As of the writing of this blog I'm just about done with the one with the girl in the white background....... no idea really what I will do with them but they were just calling out to me to be finished and liberated from their bag in the back of the closet. If you see anything you like feel free to call dibs! I can make it up into a pillow, or it can be framed, turned into a bag.... you name it.

Finally on Tuesdsay we caught some of the solar eclipse that was visable here. I tried to take a photo of it but it didn't turn out at all. Here is chris checking it out behind the safety of some polarised glass he has just for that purpose.
I never saw a proper solar eclipse before, even a partial one like this. It was pretty special.

Tomorrow is the Epiphany, the last day of Christamas and an important day here in the holiday calander. We are going to try to get up early enough to watch them throw a cross into the sea an see a bunch of grown men swim after it to try to catch it..... not sure what that achieves but it'll be a good cultural experience anyway. After that we are driving to the capital to see Chris's sister and her family, in the quiet of their own home instead of the craziness of the holiday.

Home again home again on the 9th....looking forward to it. I like being here on vacation and learning lots of Greek, but there really is no place like home!

Greetings from Cyprus!

Hello Dear Readers,

Chris and I made it to Cyprus on Monday with no difficulties, it was amazing to come here for the first time without being totally jet lagged! And flying into the Paphos airport (15 min drive from Chris's house) instead of Larnaca (2 hours drive). The weather has been really great, sunny and warm, a nice change from London and I get to give my summer clothes an airing, which is good since I'm tired of the winter ones now! So far we've spent our days visiting friends which means drinking a lot of tea and coffee and eating.
I did get a chance to take a walk around the village and see all the changes in the past 4 years since I last came. Here I am with Chris's aunt and his cousin Christiana. They are the two that are helping me the most with learning Greek. Today we worked on colors!
I get a lot of oportunities to pratice as well as listen when we go to big family gatherings like this one at his cousin's house. This was after we ate when about half the people had left or were in the other room! Of course after about an hour of loud Greek chatter I need a little break, so I always have my knitting handy for tuning out and unwinding. I brought my blue lace sweater and I think I'll probalby finish the sleeves by the end of the trip, especially as we'll have more big get togethers around New Years.
I have been trying to take photos for the blog, but we are just so busy! And it's hard to wrangle people in to photographs (here are Chris and I with his other cousin Valando, Christiana's sister. They live next door to Chris so they are more like sisters than cousins). I also have been taking many family photos to put in the digital photo frame Chris brought his mother last time he was here. He hadn't loaded it with pictures so I've put on a bunch I had on this computer but am trying to get some more current ones on. Tomorrow his sister should be here with his nephew and I'm sure I'll be snapping lots of photos of that. New Years, not Christmas, is the gift giving day here, and it's also the big dinner and celebration. It's nice because it's like I get two Christmases this year!

Blue Skies, Blue knitting

Hello Dear Readers,

Just finished two projects, hot off the needles. One is a toy for Odie I's christening (Chris's cousin's son) and the other is a sweater for Odie II's 1st birthday (my nephew). Yes, both cousins had kids within a few months of each other and both called them Odysseaus.

Here is the elephant, based on the Susan B. Anderson pattern Elephante:



I photographed him with some basil, so as to feel like he's in his natural habitat. He can't forget his old home, being and elephant you know. Maybe he's a Thai elephant, and that's some Thai basil?
He's a bit heavy for a stuffed animal since I cut up one of Chris's holey undershirts to stuff him with (clean, not dirty!) but he's eco friendly! Donated yarn! Repurposed t-shirt! Perhaps I should call him EcoElephante. Odie's probably just going to suck on him anyway, but that's the fondest hope of any toy maker I think, that their creation will be loved to death. At least I hope so. I think I need to invest in some cool animal eyes since I seem to be doing a lot of toys lately.

Here is the sweater for the birthday boy:
I think it turned out pretty well, I tried to size it for between 18 and 24 months, and he'll be a year in May, so he should get some use out of it. I have three tags that say "made with love" or something to that effect that I would like to sew in there, but I'm worried that tags will irritate his skin. Perhaps I can put it in the center back, like they do at Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister. I have just one delicious ball left, I THINK I'll work on a little hat with a brim (here they call a brim a "peak", it took me a while to figure that one out, as a hat with a peak to me immediately brings to mind a dunces cap.....). Oh, and here is a picture of the little rug-rat, from his Christening:
That's his godfather, not his dad, holding him. Look at that HAIR! And the nose is even bigger :-).
Ok, I hear the laundry is done, time to get back to being a housewife.