Spring, world cups, travel and the Anglican church

It is Sunday again. Spring is very long. For those of you who don't know, spring is a real season that falls (no ironic pun intended) between winter and summer. It is not just the two weeks in late August where we all get colds because of the change in seasons. It is drawn out and slow. Some days are cold, even though its sunny, like one of those bright sunny Pretoria midwinter days. Hey, but look, we could have been in England, or in the American Mid-west. Connie (Bob's wife) writes from Iowa that its getting warmer there. They have days as warm as 60. That is 60 Farenheit! So, enjoy your gradual autumn and mild, short winter.

(Comic interlude: Bob and I decided that 'Bob' is the ideal name for someone suffering from Dyslexia.)

I find it interesting that people here, as they do in South Africa, also say that the seasons were different this year. Winter was short and dry (usually longer, and wetter), spring is long and wetter than usual etc. I believe that people generally have no idea what 'usual' means when it comes to weather. Since I can remember, and this is starting to add up to asignificant amout of years, people have been saying: "This year the weather is different. Ask me, I know!" Jeanne-Marie points out that we get this way of thinking from the Romans. Aparently they saw every year as their last. If we could live in the final year of life on earth as we know it (Captain) we surely are important people! In Cyprus there are a lot of ex-Romans roaming about. People have assured us, since we came here that we will be able to swim in the "next two weeks", but to quote Vitalstatistix, "the next two weeks never come!"

We have Internet at home now. This is a good thing becausse Jeanne-Marie feels less isolated. It is also good for receiving work from SA. I occasionnally listen to Super 14 rugby on RSG and I can follow, what's left of the disasterous cricket world-cup on the Internet. (You wait four years for the bloody world-cup and then they murder good people, India and Pakistan leave early, there's now Carribean spirit in the Carribean, the West Indies is still a far cry from whoever they were in aprevious life. The only things constant ass the Morning Star are that Australia is sooo good and the SA team, despite its bravado, still embarrasses us with record after record achieved against us. For those of you familiar with Woody Allen's short story, Viva Vargas, you will certainly recognise a lot of Graham Smith's psycchosis in the main character of that story. For those of you not familiar with Woody Allen's short story, Viva Vargas, where were you? Go out and get it! Now! )

The downside is that the experience of travel in the Global Village will probably never be as exciting as it was 30 years ago. When one travels, one looks for what is familiar and what is different. The familiar serves as a reference point to prevent one from irritating little psychoses while the thrill lies in the unknown or that which is different. I must say. that there seems to be slightly more that is similar than that which is different. I always think back to when my parents went overseas for the first timme in 1975 or 6, we didn't have TV. What they knew about the places they visited they got from books or other people's accounts. Imagine how strong the experience of the unfamiliaar was! I must say that going overseas with two kids, the familiar surely helps in making one'ss life easier. Imagine we could not get Bovril or throw-away nappies. I suppose we have a choice in terms of how much of the familiar we want to allow in. I don't really have to follow the world-cup or the Super 14, read News24.co.za, read emails from home etc etc, but I believe there is enough strangeness here to balance out the need for the known.

One of the ways to build in the unknown is to visit strange and unknown lands. As far as strange goes, I believe that Cappadocia in Turkey rates quite high on the list. We are planning to go there for a long weekend in April. I try not to read up too much on it before we go, but of course you are free to punch it into Wikipedia and see what comes up. I just know that Liezl Cuyler-Nicol describes it as one of the highlightss of her young life. So, watch this space for a forthcoming report on Cappadocia! We also plan to venture into Northern Europe in the summer vacation. We want to go visit Wolfgang and co as well as Andreas in Germany (maybe bump into Michelle there), see if we can make it to Paris to show Dan the Notre Damme and if Jeanne-Marie's part-time work really takes off from now till then, see if we can't cross the channel and visit Janine in York and maybe Nichola and Giri in Canterbury. But there is so much to do. Egypt is just a hanetreetjie weg. Then there is Italy and Moscouw, the Balkans etc - touch choices, many of which will be taken for us by time and money constraints.

Our camera is fixed (see previous post on the fall of (a) man) and we hope to post fresh pictures soon. Problem is, we now have to get used to carrying it with us again.

Last Sunday we were invited to a lunch with some of thee colleagues at work. This was great. For the first time I felt that I lived here. Great people, great food and I even played some guitar. Not very successful because I've forgotten most of the chords and words for simple songs. I hope to pick it up again while here. We also had Simonsvlei Merlot. Great to have SA wine - here the familiar wwas reaaly wwelcome. Caroline iss half turkish Cypriot who grew up in Bermuda. Her parents have a real stylish medditerranean villa on the slopess of the Kirenya mountain. Great to sit on the expansive stoep with good wine, good food and a view of the ink-blue Med.

The kids also loved it. They seem to be very happyhere and for the most part they behave like angels. Danny has taken to drawing in a big way and he writes his own name. Isabella gets up early in the morning to practice her dancing. Danny has also started to play soccer and he loves it. He says he is particularly good in goal. Issy thinks she is boy and we don't know howw to break it to her that she isn't. If she were a boy, she would have been a drag queen, because she likes to apply the make-up in thick layers.

Last night we invited Tunc and his wife Esra for supper. He is the guy at the University that wants Jeanne-Marie to come work for him. Unfortunately the addministrative processes are snailing along in an undisclosed direction. Esra is the PA for the President. By the way, the President's wife is the pathologist who took my blood sample for my work permit. She is alsso doing an M in gender studiea on which I may do some teaching. This is a small place. We learned yet again very interesting faccts and perspectives on the Cyprus problem. If you want me to wwrite more about it, let me know. Sometimes I feel I'm the only person in the world interested in this sort of thing.

Today we attempted going to the Anglican church in Girne. It did not work for us. The building is small and overcrowded. Daniel and Issy were understandably bored. It is not a child-friendly environment. The congregation looks a little like an ex-pat British club, (I suppose some may see the Church of the province exacly as that), they looked suspicciously at us and the youngest person there was about twice my age. Given that I have never really taken to the Anglican liturgy (as a protestant chuch founded on adultry), the morning was doomed to fail. Nevertheless, I think we should try again some other time, when there might be less people. In the mean time it seems to me that Easter for the Viljoens will be a small family affair. Friday is not a public holiday and I'll be interestedd to see if anything will be different here. I know Danny does not have soccer in the afternoon because of Good Friday, but that might be the extendd of the recognition for the day.

So, from all of us to all of you, happy Easter, and keep those questions about sunny Cyprus and responses to my blog coming, thick and fast!