From Jetlag I Emerge...

It is with some trepidation that I, Sarah, begin participating in this blog.  I am not of the generation that finds it normal for the whole world to hear my daily news.  So...given that...this is not what my blogging will be about (and please hold me to account on this).  I hope that it will be more about 'noticing'.  What I 'noticed' that perhaps struck me for some reason that is worthy of a blog entry.  Mmmm...I hope I'm not setting myself up here!  Let me get on with it.

As the title says, I am only today starting to feel normal and on real Cyprus time.  Anna has a few hours to go in the wee hours of the morning but she'll get there.  Speaking of Anna, she is quite dealy loved and admired here (as are all children).  Nobody could tolerate her tired cry at the supermarket this afternoon and many local Cypriots made great efforts to soothe her.  Unfortunately Anna won't go to anybody that doesn't have a Piper surname at present so she's not made any friends so far.

Today was a real winner in terms of progress as we saw the kids off to school. 

Jessie came home reciting numbers and days in French, Angus boasted of 2 new friends (Reiss & Rushie) and Sam was right at home taking on the Giant's voice in the re-telling of Jack and the Beanstalk. All good news on that front with even a school party to look forward to next week.

As you can see in the background of this photo, there is a beautiful shady portico to sit under in the hot summer.  A far cry from that now with the temperature sitting around 8 degrees.  All the houses here seem especially designed for the heat.  Every square inch of floor is tiled, every room has an A/C and outdoor cooking and eating looks like the thing to do.  Roll along summer...

We are currently on the hunt for a more permanent place to rent.  We've seen 5 houses so far, with 2 different real estate agents to show us around.  A few things we've noted:

• why do they have so many bathrooms? It works out to almost 1 bathroom per bedroom!
• a backyard pool is hard to come by and the ones we've seen are very small and unfenced.
• no cabinet maker will starve here as every room is chockers with cupboards! So much so that I've seen cupboards tucked in behind doors and cupboards one needs a ladder to open.

Today we felt quite privileged to tour a beautiful big house with a massive garden full of olive trees, rosemary bushes, a decent sized pool and even a mini putt putt golf! Just a pity it's way out of town and way out of our price range.  We keep looking...

Just set myself up with a mobile phone today.  This will prevent the "mother with four children LOST" scenario happening again.  Yesterday, Ross needed to be on a call from home and since this tiled house is very noisy I thought I'd take the kids on our first expedition to the mall on the outskirts of town.  It started off as an everyday trip to the shops discovering the delights of IKEA (there's never one far from anywhere) and a purely Westernized glitzy shopping mall with a supermarket attendant having a very bad day. It finished off with me driving home in the dark trying to navigate a couple of massive round-a-bouts, taking several wrong turns, ending up in a village out of town, then finally asking a jewellry store attendant how the heck to get back to the city.  Thankfully not too many wise cracks from the back seat and a husband waiting at home who hadn't quite yet sent out the search party.  Yes, a mobile phone might have been handy.



And one last bit before I retire.  The Greek Alphabet above is my homework for the next week.  I am determined to be able to read the signs that are all around me.  And, once I can do that, I can start to look them up in my dictionary and translate them. Isn't learning a language hard enough without having to re-learn the alphabet?

Anyway, time to sign out.  Until next time...Kalinikhta (good night).