A Matter of Choice

When I was at school walking was the only option to get there and back,  it wasn't far and my Mum didn't drive so there was no debate about it.   My boys schools are both local,  one more so than the other but we have always driven so far.  Loukas is in walking distance but it would mean leaving earlier and as we leave at 7;30 anyway its quite precious time!  Also his little legs mean what would probably be a 10 minute walk gets much longer, and I'm also very lazy when it comes to walking anywhere!   Leo's really is close but as I drive Louka he just gets dropped off on the way past. It had been mentioned about Leo walking on his own at some point this year, to much debate from different people.  As I said, it's really not far (you can see the top of his school from our balcony)  but he does have at least one road to cross, and there is no pavement for some of the way. Many of his class mates walk without adults, and have been doing so in th...

There are many things that I imagined I would do (or not do) when I had children and in most cases it turns out that I was completely wrong - providing fresh home cooked meals every day, no junk food, limited tv and technology time, educational arts and crafts etc but one thing I was right about was the fact I would read to my children and try and encourage a love of books in them. As a child I absolutely loved visiting the local library, and spent many hours there choosing hundreds of books over the years. I remember the excitement of becoming old enough to get an adult card and suddenly being able to take out 9 books at a time.  I think they actually let me get one early as I used to go through the books so fast! When Leo was just a couple of months old I took him to a Baby Bounce and Rhyme time at the library, and although he was way to young to appreciate it I know it is something I would have continued, and I'm sure we would have been regular borrowers of children...

Since the launch of the FPN I am often invited via facebook to all kinds of different events,  by all sorts of people, which are often only written in Greek.  As much as I try to translate if I can't figure it out I won't share it (it could be anything!)  and I usually dismiss them until if and when it becomes apparent what they are.  Once such event was the ' ΝΑ ΑΝΟΙΞΕΙ Η ΛΕΩΦΟΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΠΙΣΤΡΟΦΗΣ'   It was only once I realised that many of my contacts had been invited and after reading an article in the Cyprus Mail that it got my interest and I realised it was an event to try and get the checkpoint in my village Deryneia opened.  With the peace talks between the Cypriots leaders having just restarted I excited to see another positive step being taken towards the future and I knew I had to be there.  I quickly put together an piece for the FPN website using information from the Cyprus Mail and the event pages on facebook to spread the word in Eng...

Although I have a huge interest in the division of Cyprus, and fate of Varosha, opening of the dividing line etc it's something that I have very rarely mentioned on my blog.  The reason being is that although I try and find out as much as I can, I am by no means an expert and I wish to avoid getting anything wrong. The subject is fraught with difficulty as you try and remember the correct way to mention it - its very confusing for someone who is essentially an outsider to remember that the difference between saying border / checkpoint,   whether you say the north of Cyprus, or North Cyprus,  the Republic of Cyprus or Southern Cyprus,  the Green Line / the dividing line / the border / the buffer zone / Atitila Line and the list goes on. This is of course because it is a very sensitive subject and so close to many peoples hearts, even though the troubles had been brewing for years it was only 1974 that the island was divided, a long time to be separated but in liv...

In my ongoing mission to find interesting (inexpensive) places to go I'm always really pleased to hear of a local child friendly event. Today   Garden Plus in Deryneia, a local garden centre was holding a Kids Fun Day so we went along to have a look. It was a free event designed to encourage a love of gardening for children, and all the children got to plant their own flower or herb to take home. My Mum, being the green fingered one of the two of us and a regular visitor of the garden centre got stuck straight in with Leo as he chose to plant a flower. He needed encouragement to get his hands in the earth but enjoyed 'making' a plant. He then helped his brother to do one too! There was a lovely shaded area with free drinks, biscuits and a yummy cake and a bouncy castle for the kids to play on.  Inside was a table set up with colouring pencils and paper, Leo and his friend drew rollercoasters (inspired by their trip to the funfair last night) and Louk...

Leo does love 'the park with the statue' and we often go there either on our own or with a group of us. a couple of weeks ago I left Louka with Aaron and took Leo on my own for an hour or so. He paid more attention than usual to the water pumping displays and I had to figure out how they all would have worked to explain them all to him - it's a shame they don't have some information boards next to them as that would have made it much easier. As usual we also collected pine cones for Nana, she asked him a while ago to see if he could find some for her, soon I think she won't be able to move for the amount he's been giving her!

Just over the road from us is a large park,  for Cyprus it is a very good park although I was quite surprised to see it described on one website  as a 'theme park'! It has a small playground, and what is described on the website as a 'Birds Exhibition'  - although it's more of a cage which is far too small for the birds inside. There are also several displays of traditional water pumping devices.  It's a shame that there is no information on them (not even in Greek) as they look quite interesting but I have no idea how most would work. ` There are many twisty paths and different little areas to explore and Leo loves running around there. Although the playground isn't huge there is a climbing thing with a slide which Leo declared was a fire station and them spent a long time asking me where there was 'truffle' (trouble) and who needed rescuing so he could 'whoosh' down the slide to the rescue.  We last went a couple of weeks ago, ...