Cyprus-Forum.com

[miltiades]

Miltiades, I don’t know which soapy has been running the longest… Coronation Street, Crossroads, or your life story on the CF?

Happy new year you miserable fart !!!!

Would you like me to post my arrival at Victoria station on October 30th 1961 ??
All you have to do is ask

[BirKibrisli]

Miltiades, I don’t know which soapy has been running the longest… Coronation Street, Crossroads, or your life story on the CF?

Happy new year you miserable fart !!!!

Would you like me to post my arrival at Victoria station on October 30th 1961 ??
All you have to do is ask

That would be very interesting,miltiades...I mean it...
Do you remember what you felt? thought? Ate???

[miltiades]

Miltiades, I don’t know which soapy has been running the longest… Coronation Street, Crossroads, or your life story on the CF?

Happy new year you miserable fart !!!!

Would you like me to post my arrival at Victoria station on October 30th 1961 ??
All you have to do is ask

That would be very interesting,miltiades...I mean it...
Do you remember what you felt? thought? Ate???

I know GR cant wait to read the first few lines.
Left from Limassol old port on October 25th 1961 , a boat took you to the ship anchored some distance away from the port. I was 15 at the time and the youngest travelling on his own , I thought I was a big boy naturally that's why the moment we boarded the ship I bought a pack of 200 Senior Service Plain , my dad smoked them and I used to nick one now and again , and I got hooked on this brand , smoked all the way to the UK .Most if not all Cypriots emigrating to the UK did so by ship and most journeys took you to Piraeus in Greece , but the Phocea , that was my ship , sailed all the way to Marseilles . Made friends with three young Cypriots all in their early to late twenties that my father had met on boarding and asked them to keep an eye on me . On arriving at Marseilles , boy did they show me a thing or two !!
GR , by now getting all excited as to what happened next....

[BirKibrisli]

Miltiades, I don’t know which soapy has been running the longest… Coronation Street, Crossroads, or your life story on the CF?

Happy new year you miserable fart !!!!

Would you like me to post my arrival at Victoria station on October 30th 1961 ??
All you have to do is ask

That would be very interesting,miltiades...I mean it...
Do you remember what you felt? thought? Ate???

I know GR cant wait to read the first few lines.
Left from Limassol old port on October 25th 1961 , a boat took you to the ship anchored some distance away from the port. I was 15 at the time and the youngest travelling on his own , I thought I was a big boy naturally that's why the moment we boarded the ship I bought a pack of 200 Senior Service Plain , my dad smoked them and I used to nick one now and again , and I got hooked on this brand , smoked all the way to the UK .Most if not all Cypriots emigrating to the UK did so by ship and most journeys took you to Piraeus in Greece , but the Phocea , that was my ship , sailed all the way to Marseilles . Made friends with three young Cypriots all in their early to late twenties that my father had met on boarding and asked them to keep an eye on me . On arriving at Marseilles , boy did they show me a thing or two !!
GR , by now getting all excited as to what happened next....

Not only GR, but I certainly want to know what "a thing or two" they showed you in Marseilles were...

If I am not misaken you spent some time in an Orphanage,miltiade...But now you are talking about your father...How does he fit into the picture?? Was he in England,and you were going to join him???

We have many parallels in our lives...I too went to Australia by boat,Australis,one of Chandris Lines' best known ships...After our life in the Nicosia enclave,it was sheer luxury...I too begun smoking seriously on that ship,I was 17 though,and they were Peter Stuyvesant...Tell us more,please...

[miltiades]

Miltiades, I don’t know which soapy has been running the longest… Coronation Street, Crossroads, or your life story on the CF?

Happy new year you miserable fart !!!!

Would you like me to post my arrival at Victoria station on October 30th 1961 ??
All you have to do is ask

That would be very interesting,miltiades...I mean it...
Do you remember what you felt? thought? Ate???

I know GR cant wait to read the first few lines.
Left from Limassol old port on October 25th 1961 , a boat took you to the ship anchored some distance away from the port. I was 15 at the time and the youngest travelling on his own , I thought I was a big boy naturally that's why the moment we boarded the ship I bought a pack of 200 Senior Service Plain , my dad smoked them and I used to nick one now and again , and I got hooked on this brand , smoked all the way to the UK .Most if not all Cypriots emigrating to the UK did so by ship and most journeys took you to Piraeus in Greece , but the Phocea , that was my ship , sailed all the way to Marseilles . Made friends with three young Cypriots all in their early to late twenties that my father had met on boarding and asked them to keep an eye on me . On arriving at Marseilles , boy did they show me a thing or two !!
GR , by now getting all excited as to what happened next....

Not only GR, but I certainly want to know what "a thing or two" they showed you in Marseilles were...

If I am not misaken you spent some time in an Orphanage,miltiade...But now you are talking about your father...How does he fit into the picture?? Was he in England,and you were going to join him???

We have many parallels in our lives...I too went to Australia by boat,Australis,one of Chandris Lines' best known ships...After our life in the Nicosia enclave,it was sheer luxury...I too begun smoking seriously on that ship,I was 17 though,and they were Peter Stuyvesant...Tell us more,please...

Following the September 10th 1953 earthquake which devastated my village , Stroumbi , my mother along with another 20 or so people were killed .
I was 7 years old at the time .My self two brothers and sister were taken to the Limassol Orphanage, Pediki Stegi as it was then called meaning Children's Home.My father though not injured in the earthquake suffered a massive hernia due to the shock of losing my mother ,he spent about three months in Hospital.
Stayed in the orphanage almost two years by which time the new village had been completed and our father took us back to Stroumbi where I stayed until age 11 then moved to Famagusta to stay with an uncle and later on moved to join my family who had by that time moved to Limassol.
My older brother left for the UK in 1960 and a year later I left for the UK to join him. He was 21 and I was 15 . Six months later we had saved enough money to bring my father , brother and sister to the UK , in 1962 .
Myself and my older brother are the only ones still in the UK , my father returned but died a few months later in 1996 , my sister died of cancer in 2006 , all buried in the new cemetery of Ayios Athanasios in Limassol where I recently brought my wife to be buried there .

Back to Marseilles now and the three youths I had travelled with.
On disembarking at Marseilles the four of us collected our luggage and headed for the train station near by that would take us first to Paris then on to Calais and from there by Ferry boat to Dover in the UK.
We had some time in our hands and couldn't help noticing that the main road from the port to the train station was lined not with beautiful vibrant trees but gorgeous French women who all stood at the entrance of their respective houses beckoning us to come in . Very hospitable these French women appeared to be to a green naive 15 year old Cypriot , the older guys when asked why are these beauties so friendly to us told me that the French women just simply adore young Cypriots !!
Encouraged by the guys I accepted an invitation from a pretty blond and gorgeous young lady and entered the house , my friends assuring me that they would wait for me , I thought I was going in for a coffee !!.
Came out almost immediately having realized that this gorgeous French bird wanted money !! I left Cyprus with #15.00 spent some on cigarettes and drinks on the Ship and had #12.00 left and I was not going to give it to this bird , virgin or no virgin !!
The three youths killed themselves laughing and enquiring as to my sexual progress , not as yet I said . On the way to Calais they kept taking the mick calling me o Gamias - the f..r , -

[BirKibrisli]

Did the lady tell you she was a virgin,miltiade?????
Perhaps she wanted more money because you were going to deflower a virgin.... Just asked my mother about Stroumbi....She said the man who built most of our houses in Istinjo was a GC from Stroumbi she knew as Hadji usta...Usta is the name we give to any master tradesman....I wonder if you know who this Hadji Usta was...???He had an apprentice apparently from Filousa,another GC village nearby...

I wonder what a 15 year old boy from a village of Paphos felt on such a journey??? Excitement? Fear and anxiety? anticipation of adventurous good times???

Also,the Republic had just come into existence when you left...Did your father have no confidence in the future of Cyprus,to have sent you to England at that age??? I am also interested in your first impressions of England,miltiade...Did you go to school at all? Or started work straight away???

[miltiades]

The virgin was I Bir !
My father struggled to send me to the Lanitio Gymnasio for 3 years , nothing was free in those years.
He never gave me his permission to go but I somehow got him to sign a piece of paper so that I could get a passport , he had no idea the application was for that purpose. When I bought my ticket he was furious but relented .
I was indeed very excited at going to the UK.
My ambition was to become a Doctor !!

[lioness 2]

I'm enjoying this carry on please............. Very interesting

[miltiades]

On the way to the Limassol Port the taxi driver who was taking me along with my accompanying family to the Old Port told me that he had spent 2 years in London , and gave me some advice . He said " watch those English girls , they are any one's for a cup of tea " !!!! So excitedly looking forward to offering the first English girl a cup of tea in exchange for the finer things of life I was , just brushed aside the episode in Marseilles and focused on the English girls the taxi driver spoke off. How bloody wrong he was !!!

[BirKibrisli]

On the way to the Limassol Port the taxi driver who was taking me along with my accompanying family to the Old Port told me that he had spent 2 years in London , and gave me some advice . He said " watch those English girls , they are any one's for a cup of tea " !!!! So excitedly looking forward to offering the first English girl a cup of tea in exchange for the finer things of life I was , just brushed aside the episode in Marseilles and focused on the English girls the taxi driver spoke off. How bloody wrong he was !!!

We are awaiting the next episode impatiently,miltiade....
The more detail the better....What did you do when you first got there? Where did you live?? What was ur first impressions??? What was the first advice your older brother gave you???Your first job???? Your first English kiss??? first real date????