A Matter of Choice

Since I started my blog I have written a post for boys on their birthdays, it was getting harder to do as they got older and last year I decided to stop at 10 years - conveniently of course as Leo turned 10, but it was a nice round number and also a good time to print them all off and give them to him now he was old enough to appreciate them all.  So this year I've saved myself a job but I can't have a birthday go by without a birthday collage... And a little flashback to his first birthday... For the last few years we have had Leo's party on a different day to his birthday because the last week of May is 'crazy week'.  Due to half term in the UK it's usually the busiest week of the year here in Cyprus for weddings, of course this year is a little different as we still have no tourists but luckily we are out of lockdown and so we can still have a party for him.   Our parties are always very small so we fit within the rules too! Every year I end up retelling the ...

Like most of the world Cyprus has been in lock down since March.  It all happened quite suddenly here, first the schools closed on 12th March, and these were quickly followed by bars and restaurants closing on 15th March and airports and borders closed with exceptions for repatriations who had to go straight into government quarantine for 14 days.  I was really surprised at the speed it all came about, it seemed like one minute people were sharing info on facebook with a list of European countries that were free of the coronavirus of which Cyprus was one, and then the next everything was closing around us.  Towards the end of the week of March 15th,  there had been cafes and bars voluntarily closing,  I was watching the comments and the general mood on facebook as it started to change.  Some were being praised for shutting up and many were being judged and also slated for continuing to open,  it was even said that bars were trying to 'profit from a pa...

I last published a blog post on here at the end of March.  The Cyprus lockdown had begun but had not yet reached the strictest measures.  What a strange time the last couple of months have turned out to be, a time that none of us could have predicted or even imagined just a short while ago.  Like many others I was full of plans, ways to keep busy, and making lists of educational online activities, home schooling plans and fun family activities to do. Exercise plans, jobs around the house and work.  I was going to blog!  (I always say that, but I do still miss the ol' blogging days)  I've not done everything, but I've not done nothing either. While it hasn't all been wall to wall productive time, I'm doing pretty well I think, I'm sure others out there are 'doing better' but I'm even more sure there are many doing worse..... and by worse I don't mean doing less productive things, but fighting with some sort of guilt that they are not 'doing en...

Be careful what you wish for...you might just get it I don't know when I first heard that expression but it was a long time ago and I remember thinking how ridiculous it was,  surely if you wished for something it would be good to get it right? I also don't know how many times since then I've realised just how true it is. This morning I woke up at 6am.  The curtains were open as they usually are on weekdays to make it easier for me to get up for school. I'd left them open for the last two weeks despite the shutdown just so it was waking me up naturally around 7 ish.   Not as early as a usual school day as my alarm is usually set for 6:30am, but not as late as I'd normally get up on a weekend these days. The clocks went forward yesterday, but I forgot how much lighter it would be in the morning so when I woke at 6am it felt later.  I lay there for a while trying to get back to sleep, I tried for about 5 minutes and but restless.   I debated w...

Well, that escalated quickly didn't it? Only a couple of weeks ago the word seemed like a different place,  then schools closed,  followed by restaurants, cafes and pubs,   then 'non-essential' shops and now  we have to text for permission to leave the house (or complete a form when the text message service is not working.) It's a crazy situation and totally surreal. We are doing fine,  feeling grateful for many things knowing that so many people are struggling in so many different ways.   We can't go out to the beach, and we can't meet our friends but it's a small problem compared to many, we can power through. At the start I thought slightly enviously of the people who could lay around watching endless TV, and spending their days exactly as they wished, while we tried to work from home, cook dinners and entertain and educate two over excited kids. Then I realised that they are actually a great distraction, although drive us crazy, th...

When I was going through old folders of photos to make my decade slideshow I came across a set of photos that Aaron took back in 2014.  I'd just started the Famagusta Parents Network as it was called back then and had been interview by the Cyprus Mail, and to accompany the interview I had to send them a photo.  I decided to use the boys as a cute distraction and asked Aaron to get a pic of the three of us.  Here it is... Looks lovely doesn't it, blue skies, gorgeous boys, happily family by the sea.  Just sit down, take a quick photo and then carry on with a carefree family outing.  If you think that you are spending too much time on social media! At the time I used the photo for the article, and I posted it to facebook.   While I've never deliberatley tried to portray a perfect online image by any means, I don't post the bad stuff - who wants to read that anyway, and who wants to look at 100s of photos of the same thing....

I'm sharing a photo for no apparent reason other than it was taken exactly one week ago when everything was normal on our little island. Some people were worrying about the spread of coronavirus.    I wasn't really one of them.  Don't judge me,  I'm so over debating it,  if you were worried then, or you are now, that's fine, just do it quietly. Over the last few days I did start to worry a little,  not about contracting the virus but at the panic that was starting to set in here in Cyprus and across Europe and the imapct it would have on the economy and tourism etc.   I know 'health is more important than money'     - if I had a euro for everytime I read that this week I wouldn't need to worry about money! Anyway,  it's out of my hands of course,   what will be will be,   maybe Cyprus is right, maybe the UK is right,  no-one really knows. Cyprus along with many other European countries is ...

Cyprus has three main waterparks, Waterworld Themed waterpark, Ayia Napa, Fasouri Watermaina, Limassol and Paphos Aphrodite Waterpark.  We live on the east coast about 15 minutes drive from Ayia Napa so Waterworld has always been our park of choice but I'd fancied visiting one of the others for a while now and we decided last year to try it.  My boys are currently 10 and 7 years old and our annual trip to Waterworld is one of the highlights of the year.  It's not cheap for a family costing easily over €100 for entrance tickets, food and drink throughout the day but it's our special treat and you can often make savings by looking out for discount vouchers towards the end of season.  We were lucky enough to also get discount vouchers for Fasouri last year so visited both.   We had a fantastic day at both waterparks and we spent a lot of time comparing the two. Waterworld Themed Waterpark, Ayia Napa.  By far the boys favourite...

As we start another decade I can't help but wallow in a bit of nostalgia.  I love a flashback as you may know so have been enjoying a trip down memory lane. They don't seem to make decades like they used to though,  it doesn't seem possible that it's been 10 years since 2010,  where did it go? How is it that when I hear 2003 I still automatically think people are talking about 10 years ago? Is that going to finally change now? For Christmas this year Aaron joined the boys and became the owner of a Kindle, he's been very anti Kindle preferring (justifiably) to read a proper book, but it got me thinking about tech gone by. In the 80s I used to watch 'Tomorrows World' with my Dad and I was excited about all the new and amazing things that would appear.    Do you remember how cool CD's were going to be!? Dad used to rent our TV and video player so we often changed them as the years went by. It meant that we didn't have old models going spare t...

Happy new Year! 2019 was a good year for us, and I hope 2020 will be even better. Of course at this time of year you can't help but look back over the year that has passed,  and with this year being a brand new decade ( By the way, it absolutely is a brand new decade, just in case you had any doubt.   I can't even begin to describe how cross I got reading a load of comments on facebook from people arguing that there was another year to go.  I assume these people have forgotten the well known decades of the 80's and 90's just to name a couple. Anyway because of the shiny new decade many people are sharing the #10yearChallenge photos.  I am loving them all,  it's fascinating me to see how things have changed in the last 10 years. The first change of decade I remember was the start of the 90's, as I was 12 in 1989.  It seemed like a huge thing to be happening and I couldn't imagine what I would be doing at the end of the decade, apart from part...

Everyone has a Christmas traditions story to tell and I love hearing how they differ between families and yet are still all so similar,  always full of memories. Santa or Father Christmas?  Growing up he was only ever Father Christmas to me but somewhere over the years he became Santa!  I don't know if it's anything to do with the fact we live in Cyprus- what do people say in the UK these days?   I don't know if it was me that started saying Santa to the boys or if I got it from them, but they never say Father Christmas.   The children at school would either say Agios Vasilis or Santa so they were quite confused the first time someone asked them about Father Christmas. Christmas Eve Traditions What did you do on Christmas Eve?   Were you a church family going to Christingle or Midnight Mass,   or did you stay home and drive your Mum crazy as you were so impatient for the big day? We sometimes went to the Christingle service ...

Earlier this year we visited the Cyprus Historic and Classic Motor Museum in Limassol. It's been on my 'to-do list' for several years now and I'm glad we finally got there! The museum originally opened 2014, and moved to larger premises in 2015. Today it covers an area of 3000sq meters and more than 150 exhibits covering more than 130 years of motoring history. Each of the vehicles had an information board, in both Greek and English although of course the boys were not patient enough to stop and read these without prompting.  However they enjoyed listening too Aaron tell them about the cars, especially when the stories were personal. He was amazed to see three makes of cars that his Mum had owned,  the Talbot (Matra) Rancho, Range Rover and Fiat 500.   This brought the cars to life for the boys as he told them about days out he'd had as a child in cars like these. My absolute highlight was the red double decker bus for several reasons, ...

I recently found Game of Life in my local thrift shop and was so excited I brought it straight away to go home and play with the boys and relive the childhood memories.   We had a fun time playing despite the fact it was much more complicated than I remembered and probably a bit too old for Louka. After discovering that a friend of mine also loved the game as a child we decided we should have a Game of Life evening.   So a few days later accompanied by pizza and a couple of GOL newbies we set it up and played.   There was lots of joking about how it was a little misleading and our lives have not been quite so easy,  some debate over the compulsory marriage and house buying squares and lots of laughter. It got me thinking about the other games I played as a child. There were so many,  I think my present from my grandparents each Christmas was a board game, and over the years I acquired a massive selection. My parents spent ages playing d...

We celebrated Louka's 7th birthday in our usual way this year with a pool party.  It's an obvious choice for a birthday in Cyprus at the end of August. He was so excited in the lead up to the day,  it always seems to him that his birthdays take a long time to come round,  being that he is only 7 of course, and the fact it's later in the year than Leo's.  This year, as the youngest of the group is now 6 it was much better knowing that they can all swim very well.   Still quite stressful keeping an eye on 6 crazy loud kids (plus a crazy adult!)  with a load of inflatables in the pool but between 5 adults in and out the pool too it was easily doable.  We made water balloons for the first time which was a huge success,   they were surprisingly hard to break too. I'd always thought they broke so easily and took a long time to fill but that was before I'd discovered the packs with the attachment to go on a hose pipe! ...