it's been a while...

For those of you who don't already know, things didn't work out with the new job. On my second day, I was told that the company was being sold, and that they would have to let me go. Which was very disappointing, as I was already starting to quite like it there. Ah well...

The following day, I was chatting with one of my friends in the UK, and he said, "Why don't you come back for a few days?" and I thought, "Well, why the hell not?", so I found a cheap flight, and did exactly that.

I had a really good time, although it was a bit weird not having a "base", and living out of a suitcase; it didn't really feel like home any more. But it was great catching up with everyone (well, not quite everyone - sorry to those folks I didn't get chance to see, but I'll be there again in August).

And I found an even cheaper flight back (£19.99 plus taxes!) with easyjet - it was from Gatwick, which wasn't exactly convenient, but even with the coach fare there, I paid less than £65, which was almost £200 cheaper than some of the flights I'd seen from Birmingham or East Midlands.

And now I'm back in Cyprus again, in the middle of a heatwave (high 30s!).

My bougainvillea has gone crazy!


The other thing I arrived back to was BILLS! Now, that might not sound like a good thing, but my electricity bill was €3.85 (about £3) for 2 months, and my water bill was €14.64 (about £11.50) for 3 months, so actually they were quite a nice surprise. They'll go up over the summer - as it gets warmer, I'll need to run the washing machine more often, and I'll have to use the aircon a bit - but even so, still ridiculously cheap!

(Not sure if I've posted about this before, but the water situation here is fairly desperate. Many of the dams are down to below 10% full, and most people I know have had water rationing - in some villages the mains water is only on three times a week, for 12 hours at a time. Although in Peyia we've not had any cuts yet, as our water comes from boreholes rather than a dam, I do try to be careful - once the water I've used for washing up has cooled down, I tip it on the plants in the garden, and I don't flush the loo every time!)

Obviously I'm now back to square one with the job hunting, so I've emailed a few places I had interviews at before, and applied for a couple of things that I saw in the paper. Now I know that I've overestimated some of my living costs, I can be a bit more flexible with salaries, as I can afford to live on quite a lot less that I'd originally budgeted.

Also, as I doubt I'll find another job straight away (and I can't spend every waking hour looking!), I've decided to take a bit of time to enjoy myself, and do some of the things I haven't had chance to do yet.

I spent most of today with my friend Gaynor, at her parents' house, swimming in their pool, sitting in the sunshine, reading a book, and basically just chilling out. I've managed to get a little bit sunburnt (probably because it's the first chance I've had to sit in the sun for any length of time since I've been here), so I'm a tad sore (not quite "lobster" but fairly pink) - it was still a lovely way to spend the day, though.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up for a drink with someone I've been chatting with on one of the forums I'm on, which should be nice.

I want to go out and do some exploring - something I've been wanting to do since I arrived - so I'm going to have a look at my travel guides, see what looks interesting, get in the car and GO!

So, anyway, apologies for the recent lack of posting, but I'm back now! Things have been a little wobbly, but I'm determined not to let it get me down. As one of my friends here said, "It's just Cyprus making sure that you're serious".