Squash, pool, sun and pilota

The title pretty much sums up my weekend. If I had to start from Friday night though, I would also have to include the Friday night drinks at Maze and the bill for 30 Euros which was a mistake before getting us the right one for 198 Euros.

Saturday we spent the day at Laiki Sporting Club. We started with a 45 minute game of squash, me against Christophoros. It was the first time I played a competitive sport (pilota excluded) after my back surgery 14 months ago. It was a close game but at the end I lost. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, swimming and playing pilota. The sun made us too tired to go out at night, so we spent the rest of the night playing pilota and watching Dark Knight.

A very similar schedule was set up for Sunday. Laiki Sporting club, squash for about an hour (only this time I won), swim and pilota. Oh and some lunch in between. A lunch which we skipped because we were playing pilota and we went to the restaurant after the kitchen closed. After a few beggings, the manager decided to give us all he had left over and he brought us food for about 10 people. Calamari, souvla, chicken nuggets, potatoes, salad. In real people there were 4 of us, in food people there were 7 - Marios counted for 2.5, Chris for 2, me for 1.5 and Efi for 1.

We closed Sunday night with...guess what..Pilota at Marios house.

Another fun weekend is over. My buttocks are sore from playing squash but at least I burned a few calories of the drinks I had last week.

A.

The weekend

Good times come from spontaneous decisions. This could have been the conclusion of our weekend in Paphos. A late night Friday decision to spend the weekend in Paphos, an early morning trip and a full Saturday day.
Taking things from the beginning, the idea came up around 11pm on Friday night and thumbs went up instantly. Departure time was set for Saturday at 10am. On our way we booked the hotel rooms and we were ready to rock.
Upon arriving and checking in we went down to the pool where we spent most of the day. After 7 hours at the pool, a beer, some late lunch, a lot of volleyball, some pilota we went up to the rooms to relax and get ready for going out.
Fashion cafe was our first destination. A really nice cafe in terms of decoration, but lacked in quality of service and food. And I really could not understand their promotion of bringing Star Hellas to sit in the corner table as a way to attract customers. We were really the only ones who could see her.
Next destination was the club upstairs. If I am not mistaken I think it was called Cartel. It was on the third floor, it was open, there were fans and we were still sweating. Welcome to Cyprus. Sometimes, I wish I was a woman so I could wear the minimum amount of clothing that the girls in that club were wearing. The club was really good. Excellent music, really nice atmosphere, excellent service, it was one of the best clubs I have been to. The price we paid? 270 Euros for a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Smirnoff. That is about 1000% profit for the club...
I haven't stayed out until 3.30am since I can remember. Even though I was tired physically, the 5 Vodka Red Bulls kept me awake until 5am, reading magazines in bed.
Alarm was set for 10.30 in the morning, check-out and frappe by the pool, followed by lunch. Soon we were on the way back to Nicosia. Relaxing and pilota concluded a really nice weekend.

You know you are in Cyprus when...

Stolen from around the internet, I found the most interesting, true and funny ones. Enjoy. (in brackets my comments).

You know you are in Cyprus when:

• A mercedes is not a personal car, it's a Taxi (so true a few years back).
• Talking sounds just like arguing.
• Not smoking is considered 'weird' (another one of Cypriots bad habits)
• Everybody has an opinion about everything
• Not eating meat is unthinkable (UNTHINKABLE)
• You take a generator when camping (to supply your fridge, micro, TV!)
• Police park on the sidewalk to give you a ticket for parking on the sidewalk..
• The translation of 'thank you' is......... "thank you".
• The translation of 'sorry' is......."sorry
• Your next door neighbour cooks "souvla" all 52 Sundays of the year.
• You call everyone "koumbare"('best man') malaka (asshole)
• we are facing a drought problem but people insist on washing their cars and the road in front of their house (and if you tell them something be prepared to hear everything about your family)
• everybody thinks they are the best driver in the world..and everybody else is the worst.
• drunk people insist "I can drive..I am fine"
• people who drive $100,000 cars are not willing to give $2 to park their car in a parking lot, leave them on the sidewalk with the risk of being hit and go pay $8 for a frappe (coffee).
• people are not willing to walk. They have to park right outside of their destination (it does not matter if that means leaving the car in the middle of the street..as long as you put the parking lights on, you are OK).
• you see women talking on their cellphone having it on speakerphone while driving using their one hand, because speaking on the phone while driving is prohibited
• the no-smoking sign in cafes is just indicative. For the majority it means "who cares, I will smoke"
• if you are a beautiful foreing blonde girl you are automatically associated with girls working at cabarets
• grandmas and old ladies consider it weird and rude that you haven't eaten all your food..(that is the 8 different plates that can feed about 5 people).
• when people eat karpouzi (watermelon) with halloumi every night for dinner in the summer.

Disclaimer: This post is supposed to be funny, and many of the above instances are things that we have learned to live with. Cyprus has its many advantages too, like the good weather, the nice beaches, the (usually) hospitable and friendly people.

Welcome to Cyprus driving...

where...

• people usually drive in the middle of the street. Why do we need left and right lanes anyway?
• people park on the street. A two lane street becomes one..A one lane street means that you have to get in the opposite lane.
• people park on the sidewalk/ pavements. What? You thought that those are made for pedestrians? Not in Cyprus where anyone has the right to park their car on the sidewalk. Fortunately our government has a solution for that. They will put poles on the sidewalks to prevent cars from parking there..which will probably increase people parking ON the street but who the hell cares? One problem at a time.
• even though we say we drive on the left side of the road, it is not true..we drive in the middle most of the time
• drivers will keep the maximum half a foot distance from the car in front of them.
• if you are late for about 2 seconds when the light turns green you will probably hear about 200 horns, you will see a lot of middle fingers and probably hear something about your family.
• if you are driving with a speed of less than 20km/h MORE than the speed limit you will get the same reactions as above.
• Orange light means speed up so you can pass the traffic lights. Usually the first 2 seconds of red mean the same too.
• there are traffic lights almost every 100 meters.
• the concept of carpooling is so hard to understand.
• it is considered normal to speak on your phone, do your makeup, eat breakfast/lunch/dinner, drink coffee, smoke a cigarette WHILE driving, ALL at the same time.

A.

The first 24 hours

It has been about 24 hours now that I am back in Cyprus and about 48 since I left the U.S. The trip back to Cyprus was OK. I could complain for British Airways having only one employee at check-in which required me to wait for about 45 minutes to just receive my boarding passes. I could also complain about the personal TV screen on my seat which was the only one on the plane which was not working. I could also complain about the guy next to me who was on a mission trip to Kenya with his church and was asking me all these questions about the Greek Orthodox Church before telling him that he is asking the wrong guy. I could complain for the flight back to Cyprus and my surrounding with little kids crying. But I will not complain because I am sure that sometime, somebody’s else TV screen was not working, because sometime I am sure I was (or will be) the annoying guy next to somebody, because somebody I will be the one with the little kids on the plane.

So back to Cyprus. And you know you are back as soon as you get off the plane and there is a hot breeze hitting your face and body and you need to start taking off clothes immediately. Passport “control” was as always a joke that only lasts about 2 seconds..one for opening the passport and one for closing it and handing it back to you. My luggage was surprisingly one of the first to come in, and I was soon on my way home. Greeted by my grandmother who followed the same sequence of questions as always “How was your flight?”, “How is Molly?”, “Are you hungry, do you want something to eat?”.

Unpacking for the next few hours was more difficult than I thought. For a guy, I have a lot of clothes and not being able to fit them in 4 closets is quite ridiculous. I am going to have to give away some of them soon. Shower and visit to my brother who was still at the office working for catching up and stuff. Back home, worked a little bit with my mum and then off to my older brother to see him and his family. The nephews are much more talkative than I remember them. It was a pleasure seeing them try to show me whatever they had learned..all the animals in their books and counting in both English and Greek.

On the way home I get the usual call from my uncle to welcome me home. Other than the immediate family he is always the only one to regularly call me and welcome me on the first day I am back. I know that he is reading this now, and I know that if I tell my readers that he is the coolest uncle for someone who is only in his early 40’s will put a smile in his face.

Back home for dinner and then off to Marios and Efi for catching up with them. Their home is close to me and I never need invitation to get there which makes it like a second home for me. I usually just call and tell them that I am on the way. A lot of talk, and a Jack and coke later, I am home where I call Molly before going to sleep. I have beaten the usual jetlag this time, I believe by sleeping in until 10.30.

Wake up, shower and at the office..taking care of business, fixing resume and getting in touch with people. First 24 hours over. Even though now it is about 27 hours.

A.

This one goes out to the one I love..

A few days before my trip back to Cyprus and the feelings are bittersweet. For starters, I will not miss Bloomington. Spending 6 years of my life in this town are more than enough. I now feel old to be in this town. But it is always hard to leave things behind and go start a new life again. It is tiring and stressful but it is what needs to be done. The hardest part however is being away from Molly for the next two months.

I would think that by now we are used to being away from each other for long periods. After all this will be about the 7th time we are spending 2+ months apart. I am not even counting the 2-3 weeks every Christmas. We even spent a whole year apart. It just becomes harder and harder each time.

Molly is absolutely the sweetest person I know. I truly believe that she is the only person to which I can not say "No" to anything (well..asking for pizza excluded). She has been a warrior putting up with me in school for two years, with my ups and downs, with my late night meetings, with my weekends at school, with organizing our life around football.
She has been next to me during all my health problems and she has helped me get over them. She stands by me in any decision ready to support me. She is sweet, beautiful, amazing, loving, respectful, smart, has a great personality and it is more that I could ever ask for.
The next two months will be hard away from her. She knows that I will miss her, but she also knows that I will be thinking of her the whole time.

Baby mou, I know you are sitting next to me right now, but this is for the whole world to know. You are absolutely the best girlfriend in the world, thank you for showing me that, and I love you.
Let's start our new adventure and let the road takes us wherever it does. As long as I am with you it does not matter.

A.

Our first ever parenting

Molly and I went through our first ever "put the baby to sleep" routine. We had to babysit her sister's little boy for a few hours and had to make sure that he sleeps.
Despite the warnings and instructions, it all went pretty well..easier than I was thinking. I am going to safely assume though that it was just one of those lucky nights.
We both sat in the room with him and Molly started reading him stories. He didn't seem to get enough until Molly went to get some water and I continued reading. After my first story he didn't want any more. It probably had to do with my accent. He then laid down, covered himself and I turned off the lights. I stayed in the room for about 15 minutes and then I left. As soon as I closed the door behind me, he was up and turned on the light and he was standing in the crib. I went back in, turned off the light, sat there without saying anything and he went back straight to sleep. I stayed for 10 more minutes to make sure he was asleep and that was it.
First attempt: Successful.

A.