A Matter of Choice

We are about to spend our 5th Christmas in Cyprus, and I love it!    Many people go back to the UK for Christmas or would like to, and while I do admit it is different here I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  (Of course, it is different having my parents here, I'm sure if I had a big family in England I'd be hopping on a plane if I could!) I can't really remember the first sign of Christmas in the UK,  only that it was probably too early. I LOVE Christmas, but I love it in December (or maybe towards the end of November, but ssshhh don't tell anyone).  Having worked in retail for many years in the UK it does dilute the excitement a little. Aaron and I have slightly different views on Christmas - he is adamant that Christmas is a DAY, whereas I argue that Christmas is a 'season'  -  well it says so in the song!   I actually prefer the build up to Christmas now more so than the day itself - decorating, going to Christmas events, seeing Santa,...

This month we will have lived in Cyprus 5 years, it's not that long in the scheme of things but it feels like a lifetime ago now that I was living in England and would have once dismissed the whole idea of moving here as just a ridiculous dream. I've been blogging only slightly longer than the time I've lived here, having started the blog with the idea of recording the move. Back in the early days I posted short posts and I've often regretted not elaborating on how it all came about.  I'd only written 2 posts before we actually left the UK and then was left without internet for 3 months while CYTA attempted to locate our apartment on the map. I'd never been to Cyprus before we thought about moving here, and I suppose that makes it a slightly strange thing to do. I touched on how it all came about in my very first blog post but I didn't consider myself a 'blogger' then and I don't feel like I really captured the story, so I thought I'd pl...

As exciting as the first rain after the summer is, I'm still not a huge fan despite the long hot summers I've experienced over the last few years.  Many of my friends here love the winter and relish the novelty of snuggling up with pyjamas and watching tv,  but I'd still rather take the long summer balcony evenings given the choice! I do love my duvet though, and I do get very excited over sausage and mash for dinner - Aaron refuses to eat anything like that over the summer so winter does have some plus points! Unlike living in the UK, there is a distinct difference between summer and winter - never in England did I pack my winter wardrobe away completely for the summer months and change my whole lifestyle as the nights drew in. I find over the summer I get lazy with what I wear - it seems so much easier then!  Get up, pick some shorts and a top, or a dress, flip flops - sorted! In winter, leggings, jeans, skirt or what?   Does it still fit?   Which sh...

People have asked me why I blog and it's a question I still struggle to answer, I like to create a record of things we've been up to, but of course I could have started a scrapbook or even just not hit publish and shared it with everyone. Maybe it  because I like to think that maybe I can make a difference, that is the reason I have run the ' Discovering Cyprus' , ' Birth in Cyprus and ' All Greek to me ' sections on this blog, and why I love running the FPN - I hope it can do some good for the area and help people along the way. I spend a huge amount of time online, between the two blogs, and the other places I write for,  as well as the other things I seem to get myself into to - being on the social team at Slimming World, setting up facebook pages, arranging coffee mornings and fun days, and nearly all of it is of no financial benefit to me  - considering we need to eat and stuff it's sometimes a wonder why I do it all.    But I do, and I love ...

I am a huge fan of Christmas, I always have been but since having kids I love it even more.  I've always said that Christmas is a 'Season' not just one day - well it says so in the song 'Tis the Season to be jolly'!  and most of the enjoyment for me comes from the run up to the actual day. Christmas in Cyprus is a lot more low key than in England, and that combined with the usual blue skies and sunshine means that I like to work a bit harder to create the 'Christmas magic' Last year the boys and I thoroughly enjoyed December, starting with the ‘Advent box’ – containing the advent calendar’s, Christmas themed books and colouring pages, and continuing with many different activities, such as decorating the tree and going to the various events in the area, and of course writing a letter to Santa together.    I remember the excitement as a child of going to see Santa and the thought that he would be soon delivering presents to all the good boys a...

After the success of last years Halloween event at Cyherbia Maze and Herb Gardens I was really excited about this year's offering.... yes I know it's for the kids really but I'm just a big kid at heart! Keeping it fresh, and offering something different for this year the theme was 'Halloween in Wonderland'. Inviting everyone to 'jump down the rabbit hole' and explore the 'Magic Maze' the 'Haunted Herb Garden' and discover many more suprises along the way. The Queen ordered her Royal Guards, the Aces to keep watch in the maze.  Our task was to find them, answer their question and collect a card from each of them. Leo and his friend love the maze and Louka ran around happily behind them, not having the pushchair for the first time was a huge bonus for us as pushing it around on the gravel is hard work, especially when you keep going the wrong way! As well as the Aces, the maze was hiding some spooky suprises too... Scattered ...

Growing up I always hoped I would have two children, I was an only child and I often envied my friends with siblings.   I never really understood the bond between them, and how they often seemed to absolutely hate each other yet obviously still love them. Aaron is one of three children, and many years ago told me that he'd like to also have three - quite understandably he's now reconsidered this and agrees with me that two is just fine! I'm sure that had I only had one child, that in some way I'd have always wanted another one, and would have felt sad as so many of my friends went on to have a second.  Now at least I know, (and just in case for some strange reason I forget, am writing it down)  that I don't want another, they don't get easier the more you have, and anyway, I don't like odd numbers and being outnumbered by kids is probably just asking for trouble! There was a point when Leo was about 2 when I thought there was no way I could do i...

Once upon a time I dreamed that I might have my own swimming pool, it seemed like the ultimate luxury and something I'd only have if I won the lottery. Whenever I went on holiday the pool was where you would find me, well, there or the bar! Five years here and still the novelty has yet to wear off of having our own (communal for the apartment complex) pool. It was top of my wish list when looking for our apartment after all those years of dreaming of being able to swim whenever I wished. It's the place we visited most this summer, the only way to cool down briefly in the middle of summer, and so convenient being just downstairs. At the start of every year Leo would take a while to get back his confidence but with each year that passes it takes a lot less time.  Back in May, when I was being a big girlie wuss and refusing to get in the pool because it was cold,  I insisted he wore his armbands when I wasn't in with him, it quickly changed to him being allowed to take ...

Many years ago I sat with Cyprus guidebook excitedly flicking through the pages dreaming of all the places I would visit when it became our new home, no need to pick the best few things to fit into a 2 week holiday, I was anticipating going everywhere and doing everything. Of course, when we first signed our 'UK' lives away and made the decision to move we were yet to have children - footloose and fancy free with no consideration to driving distances, nap times, pushchairs or little toddling legs on uneven ground or whining children. Five years on and I still feel I am yet to see the 'real' Cyprus, or even the 'real Cyprus' as portrayed in the guide books,  the museums, archaeological sites and traditional villages. With absolutely no intention to do so, most of our friends seem to be fellow British expats and on the still rare occasions we go out we end up in 'expat pubs' as that's where our friends are which doesn't really help in...

Who'd have thought it, that the rain would ever cause such excitement.  I've always hated the rain, traditionally the sure fire way to ruin a day for me in the UK  but once you approach the end of the summer and almost 6 months without a drop of the wet stuff and your outlook tends to change! There has been rain recently in Larnaca and surrounding villages but it had been yet to reach us. Today as the first few drops fell I remarked to Aaron that it would probably come to nothing as the first one usually does..... Leo who once said 'I don't like raining, we gonna need umbrellas'  (to be precise 3 years ago this week, thanks to the wonder of 'Timehop')   went a little bit crazy and ran around dancing and singing, oh and doing 'Power Ranger' moves - like you do. I was amused to see look over the balcony and see my Dad standing in the rain, with the garden hose aimed at the gazebo roof, after laughing at him though I did decide to get...

Books and reading have always been a big part of my life, some of my earliest memories are sitting on my Mum's lap reading books together. As a pre-schooler I would insist on Mum reading the same books to me again and again, much like my boys to do me (and her!) now.  Often after I had dragged her out of bed at sunrise and run her ragged all day she would be struggling to stay awake once snuggled up reading books to me, her eyes would droop and I'd complain that she was reading my well loved stories wrong! My Dad is also an avid reader too, and our house was always full of books. I also loved our frequent library trips which continued until I could drive when I would go by myself after work. I can picture the library as well as I can my childhood bedroom and I have fond memories of how we would split up as soon as we entered and find each other later on at the desk with an armful of books each.  There was one book Mum and I regularly read, I can't remember the name...

Five years ago, sat at my laptop in my parents conservatory surrounded by boxes and with a 4 month old Leo sleeping by my side I started a blog.  I'm not sure why I suddenly decided to do it, it was not something I'd previously thought of doing and I didn't stop to think about it in anyway, I found 'Blogger' signed up paused briefly to come up with a blog name - 'Why the hell not?'  (start a blog?, Move to Cyprus?  one of those two!) and started typing. I had a quick look at the layout and colour options, clicking a couple and I think going with a light brown colour for some reason, no images, no social media, nothing except my first little post - 'Do you want to move to Cyprus?'   I wrote seven posts that first week, to no-one in particular as I hadn't told anyone or shared it anywhere. Looking back the posts seem so short especially when you consider I was talking about such a big thing in my life - our imminent move to a new country ...

Several years ago after seeing a lovely idea by Lauren at Real Housewife of Suffolk County, I made a 'Leo loves' post and since then I've not missed doing an update post each year. Here is Loukas now he has just turned two years old...

People always say that you never get something for nothing but Tiny Acorns recently proved otherwise with their first Childrens’ FREE activity day.   Sam, the creator of Tiny Acorns Creavtivity Centre wanted to provide the children with something completely different to do that all the parents could get involved in without worrying about the cost, twelve weeks school holidays is a long time and it can get very expensive trying to occupy the kids as they get bored and restless towards the end of the holidays. The aim was to offer the children the experience to try something new, and in the process generate some awareness of the creative businesses that we have in the local area. Many companies were involved in providing activities for the day, along with the craft table, junk modelling and drawing stations set up by Tiny Acorns.  There was tile painting with the staff from ‘I Parea Mikron Filon' nursery    with donations from The Pottery Place, fa...

Like many people, a trip to the dentist is not on my list of fun things to do and something I have always put off until really necessary. Over the years I have had a lot of work done and as an adult its not only been an unpleasant experience but also an expensive one! When I moved to  to Cyprus I was even less enthused about it, leaving the subsided NHS behind, figuring out a new system and probably paying more for the privilege  and then I eventually did battle with the general hospital for an appointment after losing half a tooth whilst pregnant. I've used the general hospital since being here for everything from the kids injections, general doctors appointments and giving birth, going private has never been an option when the kids injections are free, and the everything else was just €2 (now €3 for general doctors and €6 to see a specialist).   The treatment itself was ok but the fact you cannot make a appointment is a nightmare and saw me sitting on a hard plast...

It's almost mid September and you can feel the change in seasons approaching, the skies are still blue, the sun is still hot and temperature are still high during the day, but the schools have gone back and the tourists numbers slowly start to decrease, there is more of a breeze in the air and the white fluffy clouds start to reappear in the sky. The swimming pools start to cool, and the wind gives you goose bumps when you get out, the sea no longer feels like stepping in a too warm bath.  The nights are drawing in but it no longer makes me sad like it did many years ago, it makes me look forward to a Cyprus autumn with its slightly cooler days and the chance to wear clothes long discarded to the back of the wardrobe. It's a chance to walk again, to go to the park and to not worry about the intensity of the sun and to always be on the lookout for a bit of shade. It's the chance to enjoy the beautiful September skies..... Linking to The Gallery - this week...

Although I still love my little blog, my new 'baby' the Famagusta Parents Network is the thing that just can't help but spend more time on at the moment - it's like the younger baby that accidentally takes more attention while you throw the older one a biscuit and put the tv on. I have all good intentions to write here and then I sit at the laptop and the words don't come so easily. I saw this post by Karin at Cafe Bebe and thought it would be a good place to start. Inspired by Bug Bird Bee, 'Right Here, Right Now'  is a monthly insight to where you are, what you're thinking and what's going on in your life. Currently I am : Balancing, managing two blogs and a magazine column, entertaining the boys whilst encouraging to entertain themselves and play together, dealing with the heat and humidity which has been hard going over the last couple of weeks and trying to come up with interesting things to do, dinners to eat and inexpensive places to go...

I've lost count how many times I've recommended the Reading Eggs website to people since discovering it 2 years ago but just in case you're not one of those people, I'm going to do it again! Reading Eggs, I thought would be a great assets in helping Leo not only develop a love of books but also to read English seeing as he won't be learning English at school for a year or two yet.  At the age of three he loved to play on my laptop, usually on the Thomas the Tank engine website but I introduced him to Reading Eggs using a free trial offer.    He loved it and over a long period of time merrily worked his way up to lesson 120, pretty much abandoning poor old Thomas and sticking to this instead! Now it amazes me to hear him reading, books, adverts, you name it he's giving it a very good shot and usually figures it out.  He still loves Reading Eggs as there is so much to do on the site, and it doesn't feel like learning - the only problem being was having...

Happy Birthday Louka mou, Today you are two years old!  I'm not sure if you really understand what your birthday means but I know every time it's been mentioned you say 'party?'  which is closely followed by 'cake?'so  I can assure you we will indeed be having a party today and there will definitely be cake. You are a real little character now, with an ever increasing vocabulary. We can understand lots of what you say now, and Leo is even better at working out what you'd like than we are. Speaking of 'your Leo' we are all pleased you have finally started calling him by the right name.  It's been a mystery to us all why you've insisted on calling him 'Mordy' for so long. As entertaining as it was it drove Leo crazy and left us all wondering why you refused to even try and say 'Leo' when you attempt to say pretty much anything else! You are just on the verge of putting all your words together to make sentences now and...