From the Home of Xenon of Kition - 27th March 2007

One of the similarities that I notice from living in Cyprus, Sweden and to my limited knowledge also the USA is the number of unsolicited bits of junk advertising that drop through my letter box. They are usually for local supermarkets and electrical stores listing their latest bargain offers. These flyers are actually quite useful and are eagerly awaited by the locals. Over here they are not content to merely slip them into your letter box but you will also be assailed at each set of traffic lights by people pushing them through any available open window in the car.

One recent letter box delivery that did catch my eye was for “Mind, Body and Spirit Exhibition”. It came with a glossy magazine that described the exhibition and the various presenters. These were the usual motley collection of psychics, palmreaders, regression therapists, tuning fork healers, rebirther trainers etc. I have seen similar exhibitions advertised back in the UK and it always amazes me that they need such an extensive advertising campaign. Surely if the psychics were any good then all of that would be unnecessary and people would just turn up. Maybe I am too sceptical.

A selection of flyers including my favourite.

I continued to read the glossy magazine that ‘celebrates the 11th in the current series of events promoting holistic health and self-development’. Again I am surprised they needed to have so many, surely one would have been enough or maybe two to pick up the stragglers like myself.


To my amazement there staring from the glossy pages was a face I recognised. A lady of a certain age who has stayed in the village several times. She had a long and impressive resume and longer list of letters after her name. She was described as being able to offer ‘Private Tarot Readings, Psychic Awakening Courses, Palmistry, Crystal, Reiki & Angel Readings’ and many more besides.

She is well known around the village for an encounter that she experienced with the spirits in Otto’s coffee shop that caused her to fall from her bar stool banging her head on a table. Still under the influence of these powerful spirits she proceeded to talk in a foul and abusive tongue to the locals before staggering out of the door. She was last seen the next day leaving the village with a black eye that had resisted her extensive healing powers.

My own experiences with the local spirits were equally painful and now I stick to the beer.


I like to think that Xenon (also known as Xeno of Citium) would be smiling.

Lost and Found - 24th March 2007

I thought I should add this as a footnote to the previous entry about the Coptic gales.

In the unlikely event that a representative of the Egyptian government reads this and they want to know where their desert has gone it is in the front of my house on top of my car. I would be very grateful if someone could pop around and pick it up and wash the car before they leave. Thanks.

El Shams - El Kebira - 23th March 2007

It is the time of the Big Sun gale. I remain sceptical about the Coptic Gales and their basis in scientific fact but I have to acknowledge that today we are in the middle of a gale. It has been simmering for the last 48 hours and the temperature and the wind from a southwest direction has been steadily increasing. These warm winds that sweep in from Africa (for there have been several) are certainly strange for someone from the northern parts of Europe. In that part of the world any wind is normally guaranteed to freeze the marrow of your bones.

The Halal Sultan Tekke Mosque - 23 March 2007

I was dropping off a friend at Larnaca airport about a 2 hour drive away so I decided to have another look at the mosque and the salt water lagoons that are just 2 minutes from the airport. It was definitely worth the trouble. The salt water lagoons were crowded with pink flamingoes and other water birds. I was lucky to have my binoculars with me but unfortunately the wild birds were out of range for the camera.

The mosque itself was a bit less mobile so I managed to get a couple of pictures.

The Halal Sultan Tekke Mosque, Larnaca

Although I caught the image it cost me dearly. I was savaged by a several mosquitos that, to judge by the size of the bite marks, must have been the size of small dogs.

You meet the most interesting and friendly of people in these places. Here I met a man from Chechnya who had been asked to visit the mosque by his teacher as part of a pilgrimage. He was dressed in a full traditional costume called a beshmet and a small pointed hat. A character straight from Arabian Nights. He was only too willing to practice his English and give me a personal tour of the mosque.

An unexpected sight - 21 March 2007

I suppose the geography of Cyprus should have given me a clue. An island in the Mediterranean Sea to the west of Israel so that some would believe it located in the heart of Europe probably close to Rome or those nice Swiss with their cuckoo clocks. The western EU countries see it to the east of Turkey in the depths of the Middle East. Somewhere near Syria. Probably a suburb of Beirut.
It was still a surprise to come across a full scale and savage battle right on my doorstep. Two armies opposing each other and fighting over an apparently barren and stony wasteland. Long supply routes hampering both sides with a constant flow of messages back to their HQs and a stream of reinforcements sent to the frontline. The battlefield itself was littered with corpses. Soldiers engaged in single combat and all prepared for the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons. Each soldier with inhuman strength desperate to overcome their opponent as though they knew that the loser would be dragged back behind enemy lines for a fate that does not bear thinking about.
For hours the battle continued, a war of attrition limited only by the number of bodies each side could throw at the enemy. The next day neither side had prevailed and the landscape they had battled for was as bleak and barren as ever with no sign that either had ever been there.
The only sign of life were the highly coloured butterflies that warmed themselves on the grey rocks.

A visitor to Tremithousa - 14th March 2007

My son Matthew has threatened to come and stay in Cyprus for several weeks!! Well I know how he likes to watch movies and, as I have just finished a book by John Irving, I thought I would recommend a film for him to watch and absorb.

I am not sure he will find this one at the video library.