My World

What an adventurous morning! I got up at 5:47 am as per usual, had breakfast, went walking for 74 minutes, got back home and had espressos with Alkis w hile my wonderful cleaning lady Mrs Giorgoula was doing the housework.  I had my car washed at Splish Splash while enjoying my free Cyprus or Greek or Turkish coffee - it's the same anyway. OK end of digression!Then I went to the supermarket, did my shopping and then started driving happily back home. I was so taken with Neil Diamond's songs - a double CD my friend Faith had offered me that I forgot to turn left and drove straight ahead to the Cineplex area.  Believe it or not, I got lost in Larnaca where I've been living for the last 30 years. I don't have a GPS in the car, so I turned on my mobile GPS. How sad! My mobile phone had just run out of battery! I was so frustrated that I lost all sense of orientation.Fortunately enough, I found my way back home quite by chance!

I sometimes take for granted the beauty of the town I've been living in for the last 30 years. When Alkis and I first moved to Larnaca back in November 1984, I could hardly call it home.. We both missed our hometowns - Nicosia and Serres.  Living in Larnaca wasn't easy for either of us, but very soon we both fell in love with the beautiful city of Zenon to such an extent that we no longer miss our hometowns as much as we did when we first came to live here. Having spent my childhood and adolescence in capital city Nicosia and five years in Geneva, Switzerland, as a student, I really felt miserable when Alkis and I had to move to Larnaca  because of Alkis’ work back in 1984.  Back then, Larnaca was a small, quiet town where nothing happened!  There was only one cinema, where we used to go at the weekend, a couple of shops and a few tavernas. I used to hate Larnaca and would often travel to hometown Nicosia  to see my family, shop or simply go out  on ...

Sundays have a pleasant, relaxing routine for me. There's nothing that has to be done since most of the chores for the week such as marking tests or homework, laundry or house cleaning have all been completed on Friday or Saturday. This makes Sunday feel like the ultimate relaxation day because all of the tasks that hang over my head during the rest of the week have been done. Home Home While I believe in God, I don't go to church, so there is never any rush to start the day on Sunday. However, being an early riser by nature, I'm usually up and about by 6:00 a.m. People often look at me as if I were crazy when I tell them that I enjoy getting up early on Sunday mornings to go walking. I walk along the seafront at Piale Pacha six days a week and cover 5 km in an hour. This keeps me fit and it's such an invigorating activity. Piale Pacha - Larnaca Alkis and I often take a short trip to the nearby countryside and have lunch out. If we are home we have a pretty s...

Biologically, there is only one quality that distinguishes us from animals: the ability to laugh ! In a universe which appears to be utterly devoid of humour , I personally enjoy this supreme luxury. And it is a luxury, for unlike any other bodily process, laughter does not seem to serve a biologically useful purpose. In a divided world, laughter is a unifying force... It can be anything from a refined tinkle to an earthquaking roar, but the effect is always the same . If happiness is one of the great goals of life, then it is laughter that provides the key.   When I was younger, I found many TV shows funny. Laurel and Hardy , for instance ,  made me chortle when I was 10. The physical actions, the verbal communication, their costumes and hilarious jokes throughout the show made me laugh my head off. As I grew older, I didn't find Laurel and Hardy funny any more. Sitcom comedy and Mr Bean would have me in stitches! I loved the expressions of his face and the fact that M...

As I was walking along the seafront this morning enjoying the early morning breeze, I couldn't tell where the blue seas ended and the blue skies began. I could only feel the rhythm of the foamy waves and the morning sun scattering diamonds across the water.   In my teens, I thought I was very unlucky! In Nicosia, I couldn't see the sea nor could I go for a walk along the beach just after school. I had to wait for the school holidays to spend a few days by the seaside. Later, as a student in Switzerland and despite the breathless beauty of lakes and mountains and forests, I always missed the sun shimmering on a calm, blue sea , pebbles startling the sea water into ringlets, the silvery sheen of the moon on the water , sleepy lagoons, the wave's trough, lazy, dozy days on a golden beach or miles upon miles of endless sea and sky. This morning I could smell the fishy aroma saturated in the air and felt the sweet surge and retreat of the sea . Slushy sand fil...

When I first visited Chios in August 2013, I fell in love with its intoxicating fragrances. It is the island of orchards and orange groves, of mastic and jasmine. Mastic and jasmine are in the air as you walk along the pebbled courtyards of this noble island with its gorgeous stone mansions. The tree that makes the flora of Chios unique is the mastic tree and its sap. The tree is very much like a shrub, with spreading branches and an ashy trunk. It's either light or dark green depending on how old it is. The natural resin, the mastic, oozes from these trees. The cultivation and processing of mastic is still done today in the old, traditional way. This requires many working hands, time and effort, something which makes the genuine Chios mastic unique. The jobs involve the tapping of the trunk and then the collection of the mastic. This takes all summer and has many stages. First, the ground is cleared and smoothed under each tree. The trunks are cleaned, scraped and...

Insight every fat girl There's a thin girl trying to get out Sweet and sad and slinky That nobody even knows about (Fran Lanesman) Interlaken, Switzerland - July 1978 In my early twenties, as a student in Switzerland, I was really fat. I could have been even fatter but I walked a lot and went horseriding 3 times a week. I didn't know how to cook, so I indulged in junk food such as burgers and pizza, sweets, chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks - not to mention raclette or cheese fondue ! Within a year, I had forgotten all about my mum's healthy cooking based on the Mediterranean Diet . Consuming so many fatty and unhealthy foods for a long time took its toll and I had to have my gallbladder removed at the age of 25. my favourite sweets Since then, I've decided to adopt a healthier eating pattern. At the beginning, healthy eating made me feel depressed and unhappy. It was as if I were permanently on diet. I also gave up fizzy drinks - cola in parti...

I always tend to think positive even when I feel hopeless. I never see my glass half-empty - it's always half-full. In my life, I've been through thick and thin, yet I've always thought these difficulties were a blessing in disguise. My father used to tell me that a pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities while an optimist is one who makes opportunities out of his difficulties. So I've learned to make opportunities out of my difficulties and construct instead of destroying. Beyond the darkest of nights, there's always the promise of the dawn, the greeting of the rising sun. And as Maria says in The Sound of Music , when God closes a door somewhere opens a window. Every cloud has a silver lining. Can you see that silver lining? While I was surfing the Internet last weekend, I came across a site which caught my eye. You might like to have a look as well. THE OPTIMIST CREED Promise Yourself - To be so strong that nothing can disturb your...

I had a wonderfully carefree childhood and a relatively easy adolescence despite the fact that I experienced war at the age of sixteen. Thinking positive has helped me to mature a lot and realise that what matters most in life is counting my blessings instead of crying over spilt milk. There's no point in thinking negatively or trying to change an irreversible situation. There are so many benefits in thinking positive including health benefits. For instance, you walk tall, your voice is loud and clear and your whole attitude shows the way you feel. What's more, you emanate a blithe, cheerful and light-hearted  air, you anticipate happiness, health and success instead of brooding over problems or situations that cannot be undone. I've always looked on the bright side of life. This doesn't mean that I keep my head in the sand and ignore hard times. I just think the best is going to happen, not the worst.  Life, however, isn't always a bed of roses. The worst may o...

One of my least favourite occupations is shopping at the supermarket. However much I enjoy shopping for books, clothes, cosmetics and accessories, going to the supermarket is a chore I share with Alkis. What I do is  text him or email him the shopping list  which is extremely convenient for me. But Alkis is usually hungry at that time, so he gives in to temptations and fills the shopping basket with items that do not appear on my shopping list - such as peperoni which I hate, mushrooms which I also hate, cashew nuts and crisps - an unhealthy temptation which I prefer not to store in my kitchen cupboards or freshly baked bagels which I'd rather not have in my bread bin - a huge temptation considering I'm a bread lover. And he never forgets any of the items on the shopping list! Once or twice a month, the shopping-at-the-supermarket chore is my responsibility. I never write shopping lists when I go to the supermarket. I'd rather not waste time texting or emailing myself....

Long ago, I used to have a lot of penfriends from all around the world. I'd receive 70-80 letters weekly and answered them all. But since I connected to the Internet in 2000, emailing has been a much faster way to keep in touch with friends and family or make new friends. So penfriends became epals and very often I'd get a reply within minutes. I recall having exchanged 30 emails in one day with an epal from the UK. Email is also cheap since it allows you to send long documents immediately and with hardly any cost. However, snail mail is much more personal and private. There is a unique charm in the handwriting, the paper, the envelope, the stamps. A letter is something you can touch, file away and keep as a souvenir. It is also something you can smell! I still remember that beautiful, perfumed fancy letter paper I once used.  The ride to the letter box or the post office used to be a pleasure. And then I'd counted the days till I got a reply. What's more, unlike ...

In Cyprus, we tend to celebrate name days more than birthdays.  According to the Greek Orthodox Church, a child should be named after a christian saint. Although in recent years, the Church no longer refuses to christen a child by the name the parents have chosen, most Greek Cypriots would name their children after a grandmother or a grandfather who's already got a christian orthodox name. Very often, not naming a child after a grandparent may lead to serious misunderstandings and arguments between parents and grandparents. As a result of this ritual, name days are very important here. A couple of months ago, as I was   surfing on the Net,     I suddenly remembered my mother's name day on the 25th. I had not even got a present for her! In a panic, I called Alkis and begged him to send some flowers to mum despite the fact that I knew he was jammed with work. He was preparing a meeting at that time, but he said he'd ask his secretary to arrange that. I ...