We ran a few shopping errands this morning. A call to Mr Pound for a new loo brush and holder. Nice black glossy ceramic one. Unfortunately £8 not £1. But….. Tick. Then Shoptimum in Catalkoy, where we picked up a new basket for bread. Ours has started to fall apart. They have a new section in the back now selling really stylish Spanish style kitchenalia – linens, baskets, wooden boards and planchas, ceramics. I restrained myself and we just bought the bread basket but there was a lot of lovely things. Oh, I lie!!! We also got a new liquid soap dispenser in there for the new cloakroom. We called into Pakdus and paid the balance on the bathroom equipment. It totalled £660 in all for the loo, basin, basin cabinet, large mirror, black tap and waste. Plus installing it all. Then of course we bought the tiles – £140, and the tiler did the work, so over £900 in total.
Got back over to our side of Girne and did quite a big food shop in Ileli. We also started to gather cash for the tiler/decorator which we will convert into sterling. There’s a limit on how much you can take out of the machines per day. He wants to be paid in sterling. It’s towards his ticket back to Lahore at the beginning of February to visit his family.
Habibi came and gardened for us this morning. He put a few things out “to the road” for us ie a big, old pool sand filter and parts. It had gone by the time we got back. He had also taken our old loo and sink and has plumbed them in at home. I love the recycling here. It gives me huge pleasure not to be throwing things away.
After a latish lunch, Bob resumed work on his shelving unit. He’s really going fast now that he has his method established.
Tonight we went to a special Whirling Dervish performance at Bellapais Abbey. It was a charity performance with proceeds going towards Tulips Cancer Charity. Bellapais Abbey is an incredibly romantic sight especially at night when it is illuminated. We got there at 8pm for the 830 show and it was very busy. Luckily I got in early and managed to get 2 seats in row 4 on an aisle so we had a good view. It wouldn’t have been so good at the back.
The performance started with 30 minutes of traditional Turkish music played on antique instruments, and readings from Sufi poetry and philosophy. They are a famously tolerant, mystical and welcoming sect of Islam dating back to the 800s AD and one of the poems of Rumi, an Iranian Sufi from the 13th Century goes :
Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving — it doesn’t matter,
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times,
Come, come again, come.
The music is quite mournful in tone but rhythmic and not unpleasant, quite lulling.
Then 3 dervishes came on and danced for 30 minutes. We were pleased to see that one of them was our favourite dancer from Nicosia. It was good to see him again, and we have not seen 3 whirling before which was exciting. I don’t know how they do it, but they had all trained from the age of about 10 years. A lot of money was raised for the charity – there were hundreds of people there.
