A special congratulations to my pals at the Roanoke County Public Library and the grand opening of the new South County Library. Wish I could have been there. Libraries are priceless, but a library with a coffee shop, doubly priceless! I look forward to seeing it next time we’re home.
Ru
Wednesday and Thursday stories January 4th and 5th 2012
It’s late Thursday afternoon and there will be an early dark today from the clouds and gloomy weather waiting to descend on us for the next week or so. Depending on the website I’ve looked at we won’t have good weather until a week from Sunday! Hopefully that’s wrong. I don’t mind getting caught in the rain on the way back from a walk, but to make myself leave our warm dry boat and start off into a chilly rain would take days of continuous rain. And then I’d go mad if I didn’t get off and go for a walk.
While I type Randal is down in the galley making an apple pie. He has already put our “bon filet” into the slow cooker so dinner should be pretty great! While he was gathering his supplies he discovered the Crisco seems to have gone missing. I know he’s convinced I threw it away when I tossed the 3 or 4 year old jars of spaghetti sauce. I do remember chucking the sauce, but not the Crisco though I can’t imagine what it would have been like having baked for 3 months on the boat while we were home. The temperature on the closed up boat with no AC in the desert heat of Cyprus would have been pretty high. But I truly don’t remember tossing it so who knows what happened. I never used it, though Randal did for most of his biscuit and pie experiments.
Wednesday Randal worked on our sea chest which had developed a leak. Last Friday we’d taken the motorbike to Famagusta and Randal had managed to find the Plexiglas and rubber gasket material he needed for the project. We found the industrial park area because it was where I’d taken those bakery photos of the computer cake. The huge bakery was next to the marine supply shop and across from the tool shop. I’d taken a photo of the front door so could Google the name and find enough information to link it to the word Sanyi (Industrial area in Turkish) and then find a major road and then find it on the map I’d gotten once upon a time at the Yenierenköy visitor center. We had been to the Sanyi about ten days earlier with Julia and Robin but aren’t familiar enough with Famagusta to find it easily ourselves. Now we know. The tool store didn’t have some tools that Randal needed but suggested a near-by glass shop for Plexiglas. That shop not only had no Plexiglas, the clerks told us no one in Famagusta sold it and we had to go to Nicosia for it. Across from the glass shop was an auto collision repair shop! Randal went in and instantly bonded with one of the men there who lead us down the street and around the corner to a sign shop which used Plexiglas. That shop was willing to sell a piece to Randal and also cut the large piece into the 2 smaller pieces Randal needed. Negotiating the price was interesting. It started at 20TL but then got bumped up to 30TL (American customer prices…) but it was exactly what Randal needed so it was fine. Randal also gave the auto collision shop guy a “finder’s fee.” Then we stopped at the bakery for lunch, the book store at Diniz Plaza for a Turkish Text book and North Cyprus flag. Our last stop was at the Lamar Supermarket we pass on the way home for Raisin Bran and Diet 7UP. Neither was available in Yenierenköy until a few days ago when the new Mo-PA opened across from the gas station. I was happy to see they sold both products, but we’ll still also continue to shop at some of the smaller markets in Yenierenkoy. But no more long rides to Lamar!
So Anyway…as Ellen DeGeneres would say, Randal was busy on Wednesday morning so I went off for a walk myself. We needed some yogurt, white cheese, and bread and I knew there was a small market in Sipahi that sold all of those things and it was just the right distance for a walk. The dirt trails are still muddy from recent rain and Wednesday is a hunting day (as is Sunday) so I didn’t want to walk in the fields. It was about an hour uphill walk to the market and 45 minutes to get back.
It was a lovely day between rainy days, so there was an early morning load of laundry hanging to dry before I left boat for my walk.
The small market in Sipahi
I asked for everything I needed in Turkish and got what I needed, so how great is that!
Now I’m making myself crazy trying to translate all of the words on the yogurt container. Translating the Beyaz Peynir (white cheese) was easy. It cost 13.50 TL which seems a lot, but the entertainment factor of the walk was worth it.
This brand new cement wall being built isn’t half as appealing to me as the old stone one across the road.
Wednesday night one of the cruisers, Riana, invited all of the ladies to her boat (her dad’s really) for a light dinner. All we had to bring were our own plates, forks, glass, or cup. Counting Riana, there were 8 of us, a few ladies having the traveling flu just now. I only thought to take photos at the end so have very few and none of the wonderful food that we were served, except the small amount of chocolate cheesecake that was still left.
Riana, on the left and Dotty on the right.
Riana is from Wales and with her hair down and her voice she reminds me of Mini Driver, the British actress who was in Good Will Hunting among other films.
A very contemplative Margaret, Charmin, and Tatty who promises to teach everyone how to knit.
Linn translating for Michellenne(Sp) who is not in the photo.
I’m sitting between Linn, an American who speaks some French and Michellene, who is French and understand only a little bit of English. Riana also speaks French from her years as a ski instructor. Funny enough I could understand most of Linn’s American French, about 2/3 of Riana’s Welsh French and only about ¼ of Michellene’s Parisian French! I was truly amazed at how much I could understand and completely embarrassed by how little I could actually speak after all those years of "studying" French.
Red, White or Rose!
Amazingly there were cheese cake leftovers.
We had cold meze and then shrimp and then chicken chunks in sauce and sausage balls and salad and beans…..and sweet potato fries, so everyone was really good and just had a small sliver of cheese cake. Riana had actually carried the potatoes back from Great Britain in her suitcase!
We sat around and ate and drank for several hours and it really was very fun because Riana was just such a great hostess who could have fun at her own party!
Thursday was our 6th Deks walk and we returned to the stone statues because Dina, Denise’s daughter had never been there. Everyone enjoyed the walk and the company.
The Neolithic statue always makes us ask questions none of us can answer…so my assignment is to do more research.
Hundreds of sheep, thousands of sheep, millions and billions and trillions of sheep!
Actually you have to go to New Zealand for that many sheep.
The loop walk took about an hour and a half and then it was time for lunch at Deks. Randal and I are now hooked on the wonderful bacon sandwiches Denise makes. Randal has his with scrambled eggs on it but I have mine just plain and pile the side salad on it. It comes on grilled, buttered “village bread” and it’s wonderful. Buttered bread with bacon, definitely not kosher, but wonderful!
