Today I have learnt some valuable things:
a) don't make plans to swim, just because you see "Pool" written on the map;
b) don't assume that the central part of the city is Pedestrian friendly;
c) don't ask potential landlady's if you can knock out a wall of their house. They get offended.
OK, lets keep this brief so I can get to bed. Its been an action packed day.
a) Swimming.
Being a bit exercize deprived, I thought I was on to a winner when I saw how great the outdoor heated olympic size swimming pool looked. I even took my swim-gear with me hoping to get wet after school drop off. Surely Anna can sit strapped into a pram for 10-15mins? I turn up and the doors are open but the large foyer is empty and the pool outside is covered. A gardener sees me and kindly ushers me to the boss' office. I ask him when I might be able to swim. He gives me a piece of paper and a pen, apologizing that he does not have a translation for me of pool opening hours. He needn't have worried, the pool's not open much for 'general swimming'. I can go 8.30-9.30am 4 days of the week (oh, and 9-10pm, if I can't sleep!). It seems that nobody feels like working much generally on a Wednesday (most shops close every wed arvo here) so the pool doesn't open at all. Just my luck that today is Wednesday so I'll be staying dry in land-locked Nicosia. What the heck is this guy doing at work today if he's not going to open his pool to the public? I've since found out that this pool is something akin to the island's Institute of Sport so I guess their athletes need to train. Go for Gold Cyprus!.... (sorry, I think my lack of swim today has made me a little cynical).
b) I think I'll take a walk.
Oh no, you won't. You'll dodge the cars, walk where you might have hoped for a footpath, trip over road works, stand alongside cars (like a bicycle would) and push the stroller across the road when you get a green light AND finally when you see one of the city's central parks just across the road there isn't a crossing to be found anywhere. Cars are dashing past so just wait for a gap and RUN. I'll never complain about paying my taxes and council rates in Sydney ever again. They provide me with safe places to walk and play. Thank you Lord for effective bureacracy. Amen.
c) House hunting faux pas.
As many of you know, we're in temporary accommodation which is adequate but not so child friendly. Our sea shipment arrives in 2 weeks and we'd love it's arrival to co-incide with the place we've chosen to rent. As everybody keeps warning us, the summers in Nicosia are stifling with temps sitting around 40 degrees or higher for long periods. (having lived in the hot Pilbara, Ross & I are curious to see whether all this Mediterranean grumbling is justified). Nevertheless, whether it's scorching or not, our kids are at a great age for a pool so that's our first criteria in the house hunt. Not only does this narrow the search down considerably, it puts the price up and steers us further away from the city centre where the school is.
To cut a long story short, (which is a shame - so I'll encourage Ross to write a house hunting blog. Our architect friends would love it!) we found 2 houses which satisfied our criteria of a pool and 4 bedrooms. One was OK but "no fun" and the other was big & old but the kids would have a ball in it. It had a huge staircase spiralling through the middle of the house, a giant living area that I wouldn't know where to start in trying to furnish, and a massive landing at the top of the 3rd floor of stairs which looked out onto the mountains of the Turkish occupied area. The pool was the best we've seen and the house was located only 100m from a nice park. Some of the downsides were "the cats" which the landlady was intensely embarrassed about because she couldn't work out how they were getting in. On our first visit to the house, we were viewing the bathroom and I looked into the bath to find a stray black cat looking up at me from under the shower curtain. "Oh" I said, a little startled, "you have a cat!". The landlady replied (rather indignantly) "no, I hate cats" and was then mortified to find there really was a cat in her bath. This immediately explained the cat poo smell around the entire house, especially in the kitchen sink - yuck. Speaking of the kitchen, this was my main complaint about the house and why we offered less than she was asking for. It was old and shabby and needed a lot of TLC. It was also not as 'open plan' as I would have liked (having been spoilt in Mona Vale) so, thinking I'd found the perfect solution, I asked if she'd ever thought about knocking the wall out that adjoins the living area. There was a quiet pause as she mentally checked that she had heard correctly, followed by another indignant "no". Whoops...come on Ross, lets just get out of here.
So...in hindsight...the house was GREAT and we wished that we'd offered more because somebody, just the very next day, was willing to pay what she wanted. The agent explained the situation to me as "Sarah, she thought you didn't like the house". Gee, where did she get that idea??? Bummer. I'll be more polite next time.
As the title of this blog so aptly puts it: LETS PUT IT DOWN TO EXPERIENCE.
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