Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bill]

Welcome to the forum Des ~ nice memories ~ just a shame Cyprus will never be the same again .

Bill

[denizaksulu]

Welcome to the forum Des ~ nice memories ~ just a shame Cyprus will never be the same again .

Bill

Especially the music groups with their drainpipe suits and quiff.

[GorillaGal]

Des,Tess is also a Taig who engages in the idolatrous worship of the pointed hatted Nazi gorilla in Rome (a.k.a. the Pope of Rome) as well.

I'm a Prod of both Scots & Norse descent,but I am from a fiercely pro-English background anyway.

Aidan.

oh aidan, you should learn more about gorillas. then you would know what a high compliment you are giving when you call someone that. they are peaceful, loving, intelligent and beautiful great apes, of which humans are one of (great apes)

[Oracle]

Lastly we lived on the Turkish side just behind the Ledra Palace ......

.... Our last home in Nicosia was just over on the Turkish side near the river.

.....On the Turkish side it hadn't really changed at all. I wandered .

A more acceptable term for what I think you mean, is to call it the "Turkish Occupied Side" ....

I'll let you off for now 'cos you are new

....As kids we were well aware of the tensions at the time...1960-63....

Can you expand on this please?

What tensions where you aware of as a teenager? .....(in what was supposed to have been the most lovey-dovey part of our history, which a few TCs are demanding we go back to).

[denizaksulu]

Lastly we lived on the Turkish side just behind the Ledra Palace ......

.... Our last home in Nicosia was just over on the Turkish side near the river.

.....On the Turkish side it hadn't really changed at all. I wandered .

A more acceptable term for what I think you mean, is to call it the "Turkish Occupied Side" ....

I'll let you off for now 'cos you are new

....As kids we were well aware of the tensions at the time...1960-63....

Can you expand on this please?

What tensions where you aware of as a teenager? .....(in what was supposed to have been the most lovey-dovey part of our history, which a few TCs are demanding we go back to).

He is talking of the years 1963 or thereabouts and not after 1974. PLEASE NOTE!!

[purdey]

I was there also in 60-76 and as a kid you were aware something was going on but 9 times out of ten you were protected from any trouble by your parents.Lovey dovey is a little sarcastic...

[denizaksulu]

Thanks guys, yes, I do want to come back to Cyprus in the near future. The last time I was there, 8 years ago, I only stayed a week but it was great to go back and see all the places where I used to live. I spoke to a lady in Kavala Street and asked about our old landlady. Sadly she had just died a few weeks before. I asked about a crippled guy who used to sell peanuts and cokes under a tree on the corner nearly 40 years ago.She was amazed that I knew him! He too had died only recently but had remained selling Cokes and nuts under that same tree all those years.

The old open air cinema had gone. We used to climb a tree opposite and watch the movies for free if we didn't have the dough to buy a ticket.

I wandered down to Paphos gate to have a look at the Catholic church where we used to go to mass every Sunday. It was still there! Of course it was but it was still exciting to go inside once again after all those years. Then I had a look at the Venetian walls of the city. They must have taken some building. What history Cyprus has. There were UN soldiers patrolling around that particular area. I walked down Ledra Street to the wall and looked over from the viewing point. I've read stories that there are brand new cars in dusty old showrooms in no mans land down that way, by the green line. They have been there since the sixties untouched in all those years. Maybe that is just an urban myth!
That old familiar smell of lamb kebabs grilling over charcoal wafted on the air. I always remember my first kebabs. They were unheard of in England in those days and the ones we get in London taste nothing like the authentic Cyprus ones. I walked on past the barbers shop where we were regulars. The barber told me all those years ago that he had a brother in London, a very rich brother apparently! Nearly every Cypriot we knew had a connection to London.

On my later visit to Cyprus I was based in a hotel in Limassol. They have built a strip of bars and discos etc way out along the seafront there to cater for the holidaymakers. It was awful. A place to be avoided. I took a bus out of Limassol to a fabulous beach in a bay. It was overlooked by the ruins of a Roman town. Fascinating and what a view those Romans had. They picked the best places to build their towns! Does anyone know the name of that place? About five miles outside Limassol.

Another memory....we once waited all morning outside the Ledra Palace to catch a glimpse of the American vice-President Lyndon Johnson arriving. We watched as his motorcade swept into the hotel forecourt. We were most impressed by the big American car that had a roof tucked into the back. A convertible.
There were a lot of Americans in Cyprus at the time. Navy people who were forbidden to wear uniform. My older sister used to go out with one of them. I think they were all in communications. All very hush hush. I used to go out ot the American club out on the airport road to use the bowling alley, 2 lanes and eat real American hot dogs. Uri Geller describes the club in his autobiography. He went to school in Cyprus. The American school, I think.
My school was alongside the RAF base at the airport. St Georges. I wonder if it is still a school? It was divide up into differnt houses named after monasteries on the island. I was in either Kykko or Bellapaise.

I remember the day Kennedy was shot. I was told by some kids at the youth club on a Friday night. We were all shocked. The next day my mother said all the American housewives down at the shops were crying.

Is it my imagination or do I remember flamingos in salt lakes near Larnaca?

Yes, I must go back again soon and hire a car and travel all over.

OH, before I forget, It was good to see one of those old style Cyprus buses in Limasoll. When I lived in Cyprus they were all the buses you saw. Now they are rare. And the old men in the villages with the knee high leather boots and those black sort of baggy pantaloons. Traditional Cyprus dress. All the old men wore them in those days. I wonder if they still do?

Des, I was there also when Lyndon B Johnson came to Nicosia. I was in a band playing the 'spangles' tune. The flamingos were in Limasol, I am sure.

[Oracle]

Lastly we lived on the Turkish side just behind the Ledra Palace ......

.... Our last home in Nicosia was just over on the Turkish side near the river.

.....On the Turkish side it hadn't really changed at all. I wandered .

A more acceptable term for what I think you mean, is to call it the "Turkish Occupied Side" ....

I'll let you off for now 'cos you are new

....As kids we were well aware of the tensions at the time...1960-63....

Can you expand on this please?

What tensions where you aware of as a teenager? .....(in what was supposed to have been the most lovey-dovey part of our history, which a few TCs are demanding we go back to).

He is talking of the years 1963 or thereabouts and not after 1974. PLEASE NOTE!!

Deniz .... for a minute there, you made me think you might know this Des

To aid your confusion Deniz, I have enlarged, and highlighted in red the precise years your "friend" was describing.

[denizaksulu]

Lastly we lived on the Turkish side just behind the Ledra Palace ......

.... Our last home in Nicosia was just over on the Turkish side near the river.

.....On the Turkish side it hadn't really changed at all. I wandered .

A more acceptable term for what I think you mean, is to call it the "Turkish Occupied Side" ....

I'll let you off for now 'cos you are new

....As kids we were well aware of the tensions at the time...1960-63....

Can you expand on this please?

What tensions where you aware of as a teenager? .....(in what was supposed to have been the most lovey-dovey part of our history, which a few TCs are demanding we go back to).

He is talking of the years 1963 or thereabouts and not after 1974. PLEASE NOTE!!

Deniz .... for a minute there, you made me think you might know this Des

To aid your confusion Deniz, I have enlarged, and highlighted in red the precise years your "friend" was describing.

Well, thank you my dear. You have risen from the ashes. I almost missed you. How are you by the way. Cyprus is treating you well I hope.

[purdey]

Well I never I must of been sleeping.Is it Phoenix,the wordsmith of renown.
Why the change in handle and soft shoe approach,to be fair that underlying cut throat approach is still there...
By the way the handle suits your arrogance.