PISSOURI CONTACT 83

Last Updated on Saturday, 03 July 2010 16:59

Written by Daintre Hart

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC IN THE VILLAGE SQUARE

This is a real problem, and out of control. The Police need to impose some fines to discourage the unlawful and unnecessary use of the Square. It is infuriating residents and tourists alike, and wrecking the ambience that the Village has worked so hard to achieve here. This from Patricia and John:

“Thanks for all the Contact insight into young Haris who has reopened the Vraka. Just love the Irish lilt to the O'Vrakas ... he might well have opened an Irish Bar, but thank goodness he didn't!

We ate there this last week lunchtime. Food immaculate, service friendly and everything that they could get right, they did ... BUT. Well there always is one, isn't there? The Square is meant to be a pedestrian area. With our starters and dips we had a 4-wheel beach buggy and Andreas-the-post's car revving up; with the mains came the smelly delivery to the outlet parallel to the church - could have been done from the street above; and with dessert came the angry wasps of two teenage Vespa terrorists with the most horrible exhaust fumes: probably neither of them going anywhere useful esp. without crash helmets!

The restaurants in the square are struggling to survive: if the motorised 'traffic' continues it will drive tourists away, for sure. Can't see Haris making a success of that venture if he has that sort of noise/smell harassment. Surely something can be done? When you see Petros next, can you ask him? I'm sure everyone knows who has a 4=wheel beach buggy, plus the Vespa wasps?

Thanks
Patricia and John”.

Quite!

WE HAVE DELIVERY!

One of the regular topics of conversation on the Pissouri walks is couriers, and how to get items delivered safely without using the notorious postal system. Every congratulation to Markos who has this week, after long negotiations, become the Pissouri agent for the island/Greece courier ACS and also for the international DHL. This should transform our ability to send and receive items safely. The service starts on Monday. Markos says the important thing to remember is to make sure the delivery is marked “Pissouri”!

THIS WEEK’S MAIL

No, not just this one letter! But this lovely letter proves what we keep telling you: Pissouri Contact is read in the furthest corners of the world, though we don’t claim the readership that the Bali Discovery (see below) has:

From the Bailey’s Blog: sailing the Bali Blue between St Lucia & Bequia
in the Caribbean earier this year.
Or, some people really know how to have fun!

“Daintre -

Thanks so much for the effort you put into the Pissouri newsletter. It is keeping us in touch with the village while we sail round the world and helping us to return after 2 years away yet still feeling connected to what is going on.

Amazingly, in Moorea in the Marqueses, we shared a taxi with a young couple on honeymoon. They had married the previous week in - St Andrew's Church, Pissouri!!

We also have a house in Bali, Indonesia and I subscribe to a weekly newsletter about Bali. I attach it below. It has some advantages for me;

• it summarises the articles and I can follow up on those of interest
• it is a small file and so a quick download

However the downside is that I need to be online to get the detailed article from the website! Often difficult in these remote parts of the world...

You may be interested in their approach though.

Thanks again,

Carol & Pete Bailey”
S/Y Bali Blue, www.baliblue.co.uk

The Bali newsletter they refer to is certainly beautifully done. But with an area roughly equivalent to the area of the Republic of Cyprus they have approximately three or four times the population. The Bali newsletter (clearly part of a business venture) is therefore very professional and seems to be island-wide, unlike our wee effort here in Pissouri. It has certainly given us ideas, but with the lack of any “staff” (apart from HI) there is not much likelihood of our being to match it. A fascinating read though, enough to give anyone itchy feet. And, as always, fascinating to know what other Pissourians get up to!

The way Contact is set out, with clear headings, is intended to help you skip items you are not interested in. And you can use “Search” on the website to find past articles, so we all have constant access to the Pissouri Contact archive. Readers love the photographs so it is hard to make the files smaller. To help refer to our advertisers, who may not be in the Directory on the website, we will now added a complete list in the Supplement each week.
The newsletter is pasted in the Supplement to make you drool too.....

POLICE MATTERS

The Village seems to have been rather tetchy this week, possibly because of the rising temperatures, resulting in a busy week for the Police.    First of all there was a major illegal party at Melanda to deal with last weekend; then dogs killing a lamb, the theft of a wallet from a tourist villa down at the Bay and people squabbling to the extent that the Police have had to intervene.

Regarding the party, it seems a shame that when people take themselves off to a remote area to enjoy themselves they should be reported to the Police.... who had to respond to a single complaint.

Surely in these circumstances it would make sense to make it easier for people to get a licence, so that the Police can keep an eye on parties like this with the minimum of interference, but making sure that essential health and safety requirements are met and cleaning up is done properly after the event.   How much more sensible it would be to encourage people to enjoy themselves than to run riot in town after football matches.

Finally, Cyprus Night in the Square saw the unwelcome re-emergence of territorial squabbles, which cannot have made for a relaxing evening.

AY. MAVRIKIOS – THEFT

The maintenance of the chapels that dot the countryside has always been a labour of love for the people who use them. It can only be imagined how distressing it must have been to discover that the paints and equipment left in Ayios Mavrikios this week by Spyros had been stolen overnight. The chapels, of course, are mostly left unlocked so that people can use them. If you know anything about this please pass the information on to the Police.

PISSOURI CONTACT

Other people have mentioned this problem:

“May I just mention that for some time now I have been getting two,
sometimes three copies of the same Newsletter!! They are good, but
one is enough thanks. My computer gets clogged”.

If you are suffering from the same problem let me know please. Sometimes it is because someone has registered more than once (we have just removed 2 of one family's 3 addresses!), but sometimes it seems to be simply – again – the vagaries of the world-wide web (or, indeed , your own computer set up) about which we can do nothing.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Don’t forget we have a list on the website in the Health Services tab of health practitioners you have tried yourselves and recommend highly. Please send in any recommendations and they will be added to the list. Further recommendations are in the Contact List on the Health Services tab.

Wild scabious last week

WATER

Following the mention of the diabolical state of the non-pot water supply in Contact 81, we received the following letter from a reader who I guess understands that water supply is a major global issue, not simply a Cyprus one:

“I would like to note that according to the legislation swimming pool owners are forbidden from filling them from the tap. Their permits strictly say that they have to fill the pools from alternative sources. There are special water-carrying trucks that deliver water for pools all over Cyprus......”

“Apart from the political problem, the water I believe is Cyprus's biggest problem. I understand people wanting to have a beautiful pool, I hope to have one when I build my home, but sometimes to have something nice AND environmental you need to put your hands deep down the pocket. I have a friend with a pool: he installed an overflow cleaning system so he changes the water of the pool every 2 years or more. Also, he installed an automated cover that minimizes the evaporation to almost zero. He uncovers the pool when he needs to. It's expensive and not pretty if you fancy sitting all day by the pool. But he made his choice and he is happy about it”.

As well as the capers (last week) the thyme (θρουμπί)
has also been spectacular this year.

Thyme is a dry climate plant and thrives in a dry climate.

DESERTIFICATION

I am not the only one to have expressed serious worries about the desertification risk to Pissouri. All the authoritative scientific forecasts – which refer specifically to our area - are that this is going to get worse, not better. It is long overdue time that our Village Council looked around and realised we have a serious problem right here where we live and took some long-overdue action to deal with the problem. Desertification is on our doorstep at Aphrodite’s Rock. Our village leaders need to take action now, not when it is too late to do anything about it.

I have pasted excerpts from the Patrick Dewhurst’s article “No escaping scorching heat” in the Cyprus Mail on the 18th June in the Supplement. Anyone who wants to read the full article will find it on-line.

We already have a desert on our doorstep. Unless action is taken, this is likely to envelop the whole area. The Council could start by taking serious steps to stop the savage uncontrolled destruction of trees in the area, and institute a programme of replanting whole areas with indigenous forest. The mindless bulldozing of native scrub areas, which have their own ecology, also needs to be strictly controlled. The full article suggests other ways of tackling the problem.

TAXIS

I hardly dare raise this subject again, but Bryan Abraham has sent this in for anyone who might have missed it in the Grapevine, who have kindly allowed us to reproduce it here:

“Thought your readers might find this article regarding Taxi costs interesting, it appeared in the Grapevine last spring:-

Verbatim no ownership of facts or opinions is claimed.

The Paphos Taxi Drivers Association is encouraging passengers who suspect they have been overcharged by members to report incidents to the Police. “ I know that some drivers charge passengers too much – sometimes even double what they should” President of the Association Giorgios Kokkinos told the Grapevine.

Kokkinos took over the representation of the taxi drivers two months ago, taking on what he describes as a “great deal of problems.” “there is a set fare of euro 30 for the airport to central Paphos run. To Yeroskipou it is about euro 25. From the airport to Coral Bay is euro 40, going up to euro 50 if the passenger needs to go to the Ayios Giorgios Sea Caves. To Polis it is euro 40 with a bit more added on if someone needs to go beyond the town. Prices are displayed on the door of each taxi.” explains Kokkinos. “I know all about cases of overcharging. The problem is that passengers often forget to take the number plate of the offending driver or a business card with a name. They have to remember to do this otherwise we can't do anything and neither can the police.”

Another violation is when cabbies do not use their meters. “By law a driver must switch on their meter as soon as the passenger enters the car” Kokkinos says. “it is absolutely illegal to drive a cab without using the meter. Again, if passengers want to complain about these cases they need to get the relevant vehicle or driver ID.”

The Cyprus Tourist Organisation (CTO) provides details about taxi tariffs putting daytime charges (6.01-20.30 hrs) at 73 cents per Km and night charges (20.31-6.00) at 85 cents per Km. This is addition to an “initial charge” of euro 42 for the daytime and euro 4.36 for the night. This corresponds with the Paphos Taxi Drivers Association figure for the fare to Paphos but not to Yeroskipou which comes out a lower cost than Kokkinos quote. However, Polis and Coral bay total up to be more expensive under the official CTO tariffs. Furthermore, local drivers don't differentiate between daytime and nighttime charges using a blanket fee over 24 hours.

The CTO told the Grapevine that the tariffs which are set by the Road Transport Department, are meant to be followed with no leeway for deviation

END

Not definitive I agree but useful nevertheless.
Regards, Bryan”.

In fact, in response to Mick Hugill’s suggestion earlier in the year, we wrote to the Cyprus Tourist Office with his suggestion that the standard fares should be posted in the Village (a suggestion that was pretty roundly laughed at) but have had no reply. We will try again!!

SNIPPETS

BLUE FLAG

In case you have not seen the notification, Pissouri Beach has been granted the prestigious Blue Flag award again this year. The site is on the Links page.

GRAFFITI

The Village Office have made an excellent job of removing the extensive graffiti on the new concrete wall below the new Cultural Centre. What a shame their manpower and resources have to be deployed like this.

PUSSY CAT JOY

Pussy cat “Tita Wilkins” who was looking for a temporary foster home has been offered several, much to the great delight of Dave and Anita. Many thanks to everyone for taking such an interest.

ON THE BEACH

Residents were incandescent at the sight of two horses trotting along past the Agamemnon to Black Rocks, and then galloping back along the beach through the tourists, several of whom got up and left. Should they report it to the Village Office? No: they should have telephoned the Police immediately. A gentle canter on the beach while it is quiet early in the morning or late in the evening, disturbing no-one and enjoying the moment, is one thing, but crass behaviour like this will wreck access for all riders.

AND, TO COMPLETE TODAY’S GRUMP: PAPANTONIOU – DISABLED PARKING SPACE

I know I’m not the only one who is infuriated by the stream of perfectly able-bodied anti-social louts who use this space for the disabled as their own priority parking at Papantoniou. Perhaps the supermarket would like to tackle these obnoxious people?

UK SHOPPING

Thanks to Len for saving some of us from the hard work!:

“Hello Daintre and Tony

hope your both well i believe you asked for names of clothes fashion stores + stores etc who deliver to Cyprus just googled and came up with --- www.shopping2cyprus.com and there looked to be more on google page .............

regards

Len”

THE WEATHER

Desertification aside, apart from one week the summer so far has been pleasantly balmy, and still cool in the evenings. Even better, the mozzies don’t seem to have been much in evidence.

YOGA AND PILATES

With our regular teachers away for the summer, we have been lucky enough to find excellent replacements for these classes (one of whom is Victoria, who many of us already know as a superb teacher). But the classes will only take place if we have enough people who will commit to the monthly cost of €28.

I NEED TO KNOW IMMEDIATELY PLEASE if you want these classes – at this price it makes sense even for people who are over here for part of the time to commit to the monthly cost in order to ensure the classes continue. Email me at pissouricontact@cytanet.com.cy or phone me on 99 350819.

In Supplement 83:

Free Pensions Seminar, 3rd July
Sharen Taylor Mosaics
PANACHE, in the Bay sale - 20% off many items.
Dog Notice from the Village Office
Walks Programme – updated
Desertification article from the Cyprus Mail - excerpts
Cyprus Night
Lania
Cyprus Symphony Orchestra
Bali Newsletter
Festival of Ancient Greek Drama: Theatre Performance, Paphos Odeon, 28th June
Econews – from the Environment Commissioner (in Greek)
Updated village events programme (Greek and English)

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