Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bill]

You say Bad things about us English Cypriots but again you want to be like us... It aint happening!!!

[dinos]

I think Hazza has a good point there, I noticed you were either "useful" in Cyprus either by your social connections or by what you could do for someone. Often when you are introduced to someone it is " this is my Friend so and so" he/she has this position in what ever department.
Dangaman I had a BMW 3 series when we were there and everyone particularly blokes would say " does your husband know you have got the car" they never believed the car was mine weird. I think the point we are making is when your T.V. or what ever turns its toes up, great get a new one and the best you can afford , but ,going out and getting into debt just because Fred next door has a better telly than you is a mugs game.

If you can afford it that is fine, but owing money sucks.

Funny; I almost never tell anyone I meet what I do for a living. I only really let my wife and people I've known for 20 years minimum know that info. Personally, I'd rather be left alone than get into pretentious social circles. Makes life much easier to live. Besides; expensive cars make you a target for lawsuits here, in my opinion.

That said, Cheshire Cat, it sucks that you drew a loss in the past. If I can ask, what did you learn from it? Never mind the keeping up with the Joneses - that stupidity happens everywhere. I believe you mentioned most of your losses were in equities, right? You can always make the money back - but did you gain insight that would prevent the losses from happening again? Sorry if probing too much...I have certain rules I follow with regards to stocks and I wanted to see how your philosophy changed, if at all.

Cheers.

[Nikitas]

Italians and French love to judge you by your clothes. Must be their culture of fashion and stylishness I guess.

[Cheshire Cat]

Nikitas,
I have never spent any time in italy so I could not comment, however, I do live in France and the area I live in which is close to the Spanish border is a farming comunity no one can afford the designer labels here. People are more likely to buy their clothes from a supermarket than CoCo Chanel. Believe it, the basic wage is 8 euros per hour you can compare that to your basic wage. I feel that you are wanting to wind me up, you cannot know a country until you live there, not in the cities but with the REAL people. The working people.

Dinos, yes we lost a lot of money in Shares, we had to sell them at bad time, once shares are sold they are gone finished, but what really upset me was when we moved from Cyprus to France, for Months I was watching the exchange rates CY£ to the Euro and it was always roughly 2 Euros to £1CY, we gave the bank in Cyprus instructions to send the money, would you believe it that very day the £CY1 Droped against the Euros, as a result
80,000 euros was wiped off our money that we needed to start a new life. The day after the £CY recovered. funny that . At that time the banks told us that Cyprus controlled her own exchange rate she was not affiliated to the European rates. You try losing that much and smiling, not only did your country do this to us but, they also charged us £2,000cy for the priviledge of screwing us.
Bringing money into Cyprus is the worst thing we have ever done, we were told by a lawyer ( Cypriot) that Cyprus will never let you take money out of Cyprus, they will always find a way to stop you.
So, I know the reaction from you all already, I am a lying Brit, right ? The French are all Frogs, the Italians are all Pasta eating Wops, what else . When I am less upset I will be writing a statement on this forum, you can read it if you wish, you will probably call me a F****Ig liar, so what is new !!

[Cheshire Cat]

P.S. Dinos,
What did I learn, That just because someone smiles at you does not mean that they are your friend. Your value in Cyprus is limited to what you have in the bank, every government department wants copies of your bank statements. Why is this ?

It is well know that corruption is rife in Cyprus the whole world knows it. Incidentally if anyone would like to read a newspaper article about how we were treated by a so called "estate agent" and by your Police I will send it to your PC and you can ready for yourselves if you send via pm you privater email address I would be happy to supply it. It may shock you !!!

[Nikitas]

CC,

I lived in France, and have gone through the country several times (cant count how many) via various means of transport, including on foot across fairly large tracts (from the Spanish border to Limoges, Aix on through the Roussillon, the eastern part near Monaco.

My cousin, from a village near Morphou, did his PhD in the Sorbonne and stayed in France, with a flourishing business in Paris and I stayed with him several times. On my mother's side we have at least one marriage with a French person so I know them pretty well.

Do not mean to wind you up. Just reliving experiences.

I find the French very similar to mainland Greeks in the emphasis they give to being "comme il faut", whereas Cypriots are a little more yobbish and loud. But I did notice markedly different treatment when well dressed in France than when being somewhat shabby, and often got comments right to my face about it. Once I was not allowed into a building where I was the guest speaker because the doorman did not believe that someone dressed in jeans could be the speaker. My take is that it was not the jeans but the style that made the difference.

There is nothing wrong with this. Both France and Italy are well cared for countries with a great emphasis on visual beauty. It is only natural that the people take care of apperances, both of their surroundings and themeselves.

[Nikitas]

CC,

A propos the police thing. Do you recall the case (cannot recall the names) of the two English people, brother and sister, accused of shooting their father in France? They were remanded in custody for months, without trial, because the police believed that the local criminasl would have shot the father with a machine gun and not a pistol as happened in this case. Ergo, according to the French police the two children must be guilty. When they were finally released the papers noted that their case stumbled onto a "point banal" and lamented how two guilty people were let off scot free, all this without a trial.

Police forces are different till you get past the formalities, then they are all pretty much the same.

[Nikitas]

Just saw a reference to corruption in Cyprus by Cheshire Cat.

CC you presumably bought property in France. Do you recall the procedure at Mr le notaire's office?

Let me outline it for the people here. The price on the contract is X Euros. The contract stipulates that the price, in cash, or check or a bit of both, was paid in the presence of the notaire and at his office. The contract is signed and the money changes hands, at which point the notaire excuses himself so the buyer and seller can exchange the money, which invariably is more than stated in the contract. The taxation is calculated on the contract price, naturally.

Seeing this procedure coming from England it seemed odd. Having lived in Greece for 30 years I know where the Greeks copied it from. They always were French stricken.

[Cheshire Cat]

Yes. we have bought property in France, and we exchanged contracts in France at no time did we ever give money directly to the vendor, and the Notaire stayed in the room the entire time. Also present at the sale was the english speaking estate agent who translated the entire proceedings. The Deposit was handed to the Notaire when we agreed the price, she held on to this while searches were done on the property to make sure that it was legally the vendors to sell, this takes around 12-13 weeks , any irregularity which is seen by the notaire is reported to the buyer and because he/she has your deposit cheque you can back out of the deal and your cheque is returned to you.
Should everything be satisfactory, you can then proceed to the final act, again the cheque is given to the Notaire and NOT the vendor, We were strongly advised to go through the correct proceedure and this is the way it is done formally.
The circumstances you have described to me may have been done by direct agreement with the buyer/vendor but this is not the correct way. And definately NOT normal.

With your experience of the French being snobby and refusing to believe that you could possbly be a speaker well if there is a dress code there is a dress code, I have been to many meetings in the Hilton in Nicosia and I never saw anyone dressed in jeans.

I have not heard anything with regards to the Police thing perhaps it was before we came to France or perhaps I just missed it.

The Police in Episkopi village ( not the bases) we reported a case of severe harrassment to the Police many times .This was by a man who called himself an estate agent, with threats to my husband and my daughter, and ,the Police ignored our complaints. ( this is the Cyprus Mail article I have offered to send to anyone who would like to read it) It came to the crunch when two men who said they were from the Mafia turned up at our door and threated to beat my husband to a pulp if he did not pay them. I contacted the Cyprus mail they picked up the case . RIK1 also covered our awful ordeal and it went as far as your government . The police then begged us to drop the case against them and the rogue estate agent because so many people would lose their jobs.
If you want the article to read for yourself , I will email it to you, I would put it on this site but I do not know how to do it .Perhaps you would know and if you were to read it you could do that for me.

At then end of the Day, you do not believe me and I can do nothing about that. This thread started off talking about people spending money that they do not have, this happens in the U.K.and we have seen the results , it happens everywhere but that does not make it right.

Here in France, borrowing is strictly controlled, you have to have proof of income, plus your outgoings including the ages of your children, the banks take all of this into account and you are only allowed to borrow what you can afford to pay back without interfereing with your cost of living.

I find it odd that, Cypriots hate the British,but so many go to live there, hate the French in particular and other EU countries but wanted to get into the EU.

[webbo]

Why are the majority of people trying to keep up with the Jones's, and in the process falling more and more into debt? A lot of people think that material possessions will make them happy. Not the case

We only buy what we can afford and have generally saved up for first (the only thing we did not paid for outright was our house!!) and it is only sometimes top of the range products if we think it is worth it. We do not believe in buying designer clothes/shoes either as most of them are just way over priced junk!! Same for hairdressers etc. Why spend hundreds at one shop for one haircut when you can get hundreds of cuts for the same price at you local - and probably look just as good??!?!!?

We buy things that we need and like. Clothes and shoes have to fit, look good but more importantly be comfortable. I do not want to be like everyone else. I am an individual, not a sheep!!

We have instilled these values into our sons and they are not bothered about having designer clothes etc, which I hope they pass onto any children they may have too.

I always wanted a Mercedes until I came to live in Cyprus where they are such a status symbol and 10 a penny!! It was a Merc that went into the back of me way back in November. I would be surprised if it was not a write off as there was a lot of damage to it - mine, not a scratch!! Glad Webbo had the hindsight to buy a good quality 4x4 - he did so as he thought it would be safer to drive. Clever sod eh??

Suppose we should not knock the Cypriots as that is the way they and their ancestors have been raised. If they want to live on the never never, let them but I do wish they would not push it down your face all the time and look down their noses as if they are better than me. I do believe living for the day and in spending my money, but I do have a little - not a lot - for a rainy day!!

Bubbles x