Friday 8 January 2016

"There are more days than sausages."

So says our good friend Savvas, with a wicked grin on his face. This sentence often crops up in our conversation, and he always refuses to explain what it means. It crops up most often when we are discussing his recovery from his heart attack and his subsequent triple bypass. It is good to see his gradual recovery and the fact that he listened to my experience, and the fact I told him it took me a good ten months to fully recover (and I was twelve years younger than he is). Good health to us all in 2016.

Friends are gradually coming out of the woodwork, and returning to Cyprus, and making contact. There is a tendency, of which we are aware, to just shut ourselves away once winter sets in and to hibernate until the sun starts to shine again. But telephones and email and chance encounters don't allow us to fall into that trap.

The world seems to get closer to self-destruction every time we switch on the news. Strangely, items that were at the top of every broadcast, disappear and reappear seemingly at random. No doubt this is at the whim of the news editors but it can be discomforting. We are also suffering from compassion fatigue, brought about by the incessant barrage of adverts asking for money for unfortunate groups around the world. I can just about switch off from these pleas, with their vomit-inducing background music, but the moment one finishes ...

The economic news from the UK is dire, with George Osborne blaming everyone but himself for the impending crisis. I registered to vote in UK elections in the aftermath of the latest opinion polls on the referendum which will/may decide whether the UK stays in the EU. On a purely selfish basis, I shall vote for the UK to remain in the EU as I do not wish for anything to interfere with our right to live in Cyprus. And I also have a suspicion that the UK economy may nosedive if we were outside the EU, which would affect out standard of living here. I told you it was a purely selfish decision.

I couldn't help but laugh when I received an email from Bexhill Council, saying that I had been successfully entered into the voting register. BUT they were not allowed to send out voting papers until eleven days before the date of the election, and that this may mean that my vote might not be counted if it was delayed. What complete bollocks ... it seems that a proxy vote will be necessary in order that I can exercise my legal right to vote. The U.K. - the cradle of democracy - I don't think so.

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