Dreams and nightmares ...

 What a strange and uncertain world we live in - even in the glorious isolation of a Cyprus summer. We still self-isolate, although we occasionally leave the bubble for a change of scenery. I belong to an expat online forum, where information and opinion is shared, and where the vast majority of members are sensible and thoughtful - with exceptions. Many of the members are retired and came to the island “to live the dream”, and quite a number are thoroughly frightened by the virus. It is the invisible nature of the beast which makes it so frightening.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 87 years ago, put his finger on the problem.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Never were words so apt in their wisdom.

We dream of a future where the virus is under control (through vaccines or treatment) but the nightmare continues with every article in the MSM. Conspiracy theorists arise and the volume of fake news, or even worse - where opinion is published as fact - confounds even the most thoughtful. It gets to the point when you literally do not know what is factual.

We are grateful to live here as I would hate living in the country I was born in, under a government I detest. So we hope that dreams become the reality and the nightmares are cast into the outer darkness.

Losing the internet ...

We have been offline since 23rd July and were finally reconnected yesterday. Cyta, our service provider - with whom we have been happy for years - did not cover themselves with glory on this occasion. An engineer arrived the next day and proclaimed that the “internet was not working”, and that the “Underground Team” would need to resolve the problem. They worked on Saturdays (this was Friday) but might not be able to attend until Monday. Monday came and went, but no internet.

This was when I had one of my many calls to 132, their technical helpline. Each day I was told something different but the outcome was always the same - no internet. Eventually I went down to the Cyta shop in Polis and spoke to the lovely Leonides, who tried to contact the “Underground Team”. They did not answer. He phoned someone else in Paphos and - lo and behold - the “Underground Team” telephoned him. They would come and sort out the problem on Friday (this was Thursday). On Friday some called and told me, apologetically, the “Underground Team” could not repair the problem but would return on Monday to replace the cable.

Eventually two guys arrived and opened up the box on the side of our house, pulled out a bit of cable and spliced in a new piece. It took them two minutes. Not for one second did they go underground ... he then showed me the damaged cable and told me it had been chewed by a mouse. We checked and all was working. Off they went with my thanks.

To add insult to injury we checked our bank account online to find out that Cyta had called the direct debit for the full amount, despite the fact that we had had no internet for twelve days. No doubt another conversation is called for.

We love living here but every now and again we despair about things like this. It also showed us how essential the internet is - no radio, no television, no music, no email, no online newspapers, and no “I’ll just check that recipe”.