Letters from Cyprus: The long summer school holiday begins

School has just finished this week, so the kids are looking forward to a 12 week break. Yes that's right, you heard correct......12 long weeks! Sarah is not sure whether to celebrate with the kids or cry! Suffice to say, there's been some detailed planning go into how to spend the summer. It's already been hot here, and we're told it will only get hotter. One of the interesting challenges for us is how we get the kids into the groove of having a siesta each day. The place virtually stops in the summer afternoons from around 2pm until 4 or 5pm. This makes for some interesting dynamics when our kids refuse to sleep and want to swim in the pool instead. One of the things we're learning is that Cypriots love their siesta, and are none too impressed when they are awoken by the noisy Australian kids living next door! So this is our current challenge, with the incentive for the kids that they can stay up until 11pm like the rest of Nicosia through the hot summer months. We'll see how things go on this front!

We've enjoyed welcoming Bob and Meaden (Sarah's parents) who arrived for a 3 week visit last weekend. It's lovely for the kids to have their grandparents around, and Bob and Meaden are quickly adapting to life in Nicosia (including the obligatory experience of getting lost on a recurrent basis while driving). They had an interesting introduction on their first day in Cyprus when they joined us for a kids birthday party on the Turkish side of Nicosia. Passports in hand, we crossed into the north and spent a few hours with a lovely Turkish Cypriot family for their daughter's 8th birthday (she is in Angus' class at school). Whilst in Cyprus, Bob and Meaden are planning to see a number of areas in the country, and last weekend we did a trip up to the Troodos Mountains, which are still cool and temperate at this time of year. Tomorrow we're heading for Agia Napa, where we'll hopefully take a boat trip and swim at some of the nearby beaches.

Otherwise all well with the Piper clan this week. Hope all is fine in your part of the world. A few more recent pics of life here below.