We''re planning to entirely renovate both bathrooms at the beginning of May 2017 and have been spending some enjoyable time over the last two weeks visiting bathroom and tile shops and planning the work. 

Obviously, both bathrooms are obviously completely functional now, but they are decorated in a decor that is now 13 years old and we felt they definitely needed freshening up in a more modern, clean and bright style.  Anyway, we are really thrilled with what we've been able to source here on the island, and at prices that make B&Q look extortionate. A lot of top quality ceramic ware is produced in Turkey and that makes it cheap here. 

We have already taken delivery of the tiles so that they are available immediately at the start of May.  The floors will look like aged, golden oak but they are actually ceramic.  The walls are a very brilliant white tile with a contoured design in it.  Hopefully they will give the bathrooms a very bright look.  All the sanitary ware is white.  The sinks are mounted onto a golden oak unit that has an undersink cupboard, a large mirror fronting a cabinet and some shelves to the side.  The showers are full width of the bathrooms, walk-in style, with both a rain shower and a wand shower. 

​The shower in the family bathroom replaces a bath with a shower over it.  This was quite a difficult decision to make. Most of our guests prefer to shower and would rather have a luxurious, large shower unit.  But, some people like or need a bath.  So, in order to accommodate small children and older people we have chosen a Turkish style shower tray in there.  This incorporates a raised bench-end so that someone could sit and shower or a mum could sit and shower a small child in front of her sitting in the tray like a bath. Its a great idea and we've never seen one in the UK.   It stems from the Turkish custom of the hamam, where you sit and either shower or pour water over yourself from a large jug.  Rather a relaxing experience.

Anyway, can't wait to get the work started now but we have to......  Will post pics next May as it all begins.  Summer guests are going to be in for a treat!

Almost exactly a year ago, the amazing water pipeline between northern Cyprus and Turkey opened.  Since then the reservoir has been filling, the pipes have been rolling out (literally) across our part of the island, the politicians and councils have been arguing about who was in control of the water..... yes, well..... some things are the same the world over. 
It's been a bad year for water in Cyprus.  A very dry winter last year left the traditional cisterns and reservoirs very very low.   In the summer, our village ran out of water and we had to have tankers to the house for July and August, there just wasn't enough to run the house without it.  Then there was.... none....  This is unimaginable to someone coming from the UK or from northern Europe or the USA.  But, the southern and eastern Med. knows that water is the new oil, a precious, precious commodity to be cossetted, treasured and never wasted. 
When we arrived in September, the situation in our village was better but not by much.  We had water 3 days a week and the pressure was low.  Perhaps, I should clarify!  The house has constant water supplied from a massive (20 tonne) tank situated under the swimming pool.  This tank is attached to the main, and it is this "main supply" that was only on three days a week. House users don't even notice there is any difference between the supply here and the constant pipeline they are used to back in the UK. 
However, the short supply of water means that our garden tank and the swimming pool top up tank had to be supplied by tanker.  Mains water was too precious and in too short a supply to be used for plants or swimming!  It wasn't a question of paying for it - our water is all metered.  There just wasn't enough water on the island to make this a viable solution.  Until..... the new water arrived!!!!
Yes, a couple of weeks ago, the unmistakeable signs of a new supply were noted.  First, a gang of men arrived and stared at our water cistern (a large tank that supplies our four houses from the village supply).  They then announced that new pipework was about to be put in place that would deliver "unimaginable water flow and pressure"!!!!  This was a bit alarming.  Would this "unimaginable pressure" result in our rather pathetic looking plastic water main rupturing in numerous fountainous leaks????  Would our existing pipework be overwhelmed????  Our anxieties weren't exactly relieved when we saw the workmen deploying said new pipework a few days later.  they dragged huge rolls of it up the hill behind their vehicles, allowing the plastic rolls to gyrate and swirl like demented pythons in their wake.  Heaven help the hapless hiker coming down from the mountain at that point.... it could have resulted in a nasty one way trip down the ravine!!! 

However, we are now all connected up and it's wonderful!  The pressure is much higher, although hardly likely to rupture anything.  We have water on supply to the house 24 x 7 and that is unheard of.  Bob has reworked the pipework from the mains outlet so that once more we have mains delivery to our garden watering tank and to the swimming pool topup pool. We haven't had that in place since 2007!  The belief is that we will never need tankered water again! 

It's going to make a huge difference to the garden which will now be able to grow year round instead of going into a sort of heat hibernation through the summer months.  We will of course still urge our guests to be cautious with water and not waste it.  We ourselves use a washing bowl in the sink and use that water to water pot plants.  But.... cliche or not.... water is a miracle.... and we are very thankful that a miracle of engineering has brought it under the sea to our house.

Cypriot hospitality is legendary.  Whether in Cyprus or in London or in any of the many diaspora locations throughout the world where Cypriot communities have become established, restaurants are the number one occupation.  Unsurprisingly however, nowhere is Cypriot food better exemplified than in Cyprus itself.  On this island, there is a perfect storm collision of generous hospitality, sun-ripened fruit and vegetables, naturally grown meat, delicious wine and - best of all - low, low prices. 
​It goes without saying that you can eat any cuisine in Cyprus.  The cuisine of the heart though... the central offering that any decent Cypriot will want to offer you is the meze.  What is the meze?  The meze is a multi course feast of a meal.  A never ending banquet of tiny plates, each offering a delicious taste of island produce, sometimes served plain, on it's own, standing on its own deliciousness; sometimes mingled with other ingredients, herbs, spices.  Typically, a full meze will begin with around 13 cold meze plates, followed by 7 hot meze plates, then a main course, then a dessert, then coffee and a liqueur.  Typical cold meze plates will include: beetroot, salad, yoghurt, bulgar wheat salad, houmus, tzatziki, goats cheese, olives, breads, aubergine salad, tahini; hot meze plates will be: liver and onions, meat balls, lamb sausage, grilled halloumi cheese, potato pancakes.  Mains: lamb cutlets, shish kebab, chicken kebab, fish kebab.
​
​Around Villa Rockheart there are a number of excellent restaurants serving meze - or sometimes called "full kebab".  Here I list my favourites in all their different flavours of fabulous feistiness!  All of the restaurants below serve a la carte menus but meze is the "main" offering.

​Cenap:  A traditional restaurant in the centre of Alsancak village, about 10 minutes drive.  You can have the massive meze or the slightly less massive meze.  It's a huge feast.  Go hungry. The massive meze has about 50 dishes :)  You can eat inside or outside and there is generally musical entertainment.  Around 55 - 65 ytl per person

​Archway: A traditional restaurant in the village of Zehtinlik, about 15 minutes drive.  Huge restaurant where staff dress in traditional Cypriot costume.  Often musicians play.  Otherwise offerings very much like Cenap.  Superb outdoor setting on a summer's night with views down a ravine towards the sea.

​Villagio Templos: A lovely Turkish style house in Zehtinlik village.  Excellent ambience both indoors and outdoors.  The meze is built around a large joint of lamb: either leg, shoulder or crown roast.  You can choose large meze or slightly less large meze around this main.  The dishes here are a bit more unusual than in other restaurants.  The joint of lamb is massive.  Cost is around 50 ytl.  Highly recommended

​Charcos: A quirky restaurant in an old Turkish house and garden in Lapta (20 mins drive).  This is only barely a meze but it is a delicious offering.  You choose your main course from a large menu and this determines the cost of your meal.  Included in this price is a starter which is generally a generous bowl of thick lentil soup; you also get bread, garlic butter and olives; then your main comes served with a large salad and a huge bowl of fabulous "from scratch" chips.  The meal ends with a dessert, coffee and a liquer - all for the price of the main course.

​Tervetuloa: Lovely Cypriot restaurant more or less at the bottom of our hill, just off the main road where the Merit Hotel sign is.  You can eat in the garden or inside.  Like Charcos, the price of the meal depends on the main course chosen, generally around 40 ytl.  There is a wide range of choice from lamb cutlets to sea bass, meat cooked in a roof tile, chicken.  For the price of the main you get 13 cold meze dishes, 5 hot meze dishes, the main, a dessert, coffee and a liqueur.  Fantastic value and a very welcoming atmosphere.

Stonegrill:
​10 minutes drive away near Escape Beach. Like the previous restaurants, the price depends on your choice of main.  Steaks are a feature here and they are very very good.  The twist is that you cook them yourself on a hot stone on the table.  Various sauces accompany the main together with a large salad and chips.  Before the main you get around 10 cold meze and 5 hot meze dishes and there is also coffee and liqueur.  About 50 ytl.

​The Kyrenia Tavern: In the old Turkish Quarter of Kyrenia, this quirky but much beloved restaurant is an old house and garden, run by an aged Turkish Cypriot couple and their son who worked as a chef in London.  The meze is huge and imaginative.  You have to book in advance and the choice surrounds the main: lamb shank, chicken or vegetarian.  Most people oft for the lamb shank.  The meal also includes a choice of red, white or rose wine.  A very large number of cold meze plates is followed by a large number of hot meze tastes, then the main course, then a small dessert, a HUGE fruit display plate, coffee and liqueurs.  Price is around 55 ytl.  A very unique experience.

​Niazis:  Traditional Cypriot meze served around a choice of kebabs, served in a lively, buzzing atmosphere.  The restaurant is almost opposite the Dome hotel in Kyrenia.  Prices are around 45 ytl. 

Great sleep in our barn room.  Very comfortable bed.  Woke up to the sound of silence and the sea and the sun shining outside.  The hotel has wireless but at the moment that didn't extend to our barn.  So, up and off to breakfast and to pick up mails.  The lovely owners said we were welcome to stay on till 1pm so we decided to spend the morning at the hotel beach.  Its a lovely stretch of golden sand with crystal clear water and very gently shelving. 
​Breakfast was a Turkish affair with salad, cheeses, omelette, yoghurt with honey, toast with jams.  A good spread and included in the room rate of about £45 for 2 for the night.  Really amazing value. 
​Stayed on the beach till around 1230, just swimming and enjoying the water.  It was so warm.  Didn't want to leave really.  It would have taken very little to persuade us to stay for another night... However.. we went back and showered and checked out.  Will definitely be back.
​Headed off to Cantara Castle about half way back to the Villa.  It is one of the three great crusader era castles built atop the Besparmak mountains.  Believed to have been built in Byzantine times, it is first mentioned in connection with Richard the Lionheart in around 1191.  A mighty castle of over 100 rooms, it is reached up a very winding and steep road from the coast and is right at the point where the "arm" of the Karpaz begins.  The views from the summit are truly amazing.  You can see the sea on both sides of the peninsular looking northeast.  No wonder they built there, no one would take them by surprise.  
​We stopped for lunch at the Cantara restaurant in the village.  Just a snack salad really, but very welcome.  It was a lovely spot in a garden amongst the pine forests.  Once you get up in the mountains above the coastal plain, it is all pine woods.
​The ascent to the castle is up rock steps and quite steep but the views make the exercise worth it.  I thought it much more picturesque than St. Hilarion.   Although it was a bit hazy with the heat, we could make out Famagusta in one direction, the sea on both sides of the peninsula and Turkey across to the north.  Fantastic.
​Got home about 530, rather tired.  Had a rest and then out for dinner to our local stalwart, Tervetuloa.   A small meze, grill, dessert, coffee and brandy for £12.  Total bargain. 

Whenever we are in Cyprus we always have at least one trip up to the long arm of the island which stretches off to the north east: the Karpaz Peninsula.  With a new road built about 7 years ago, what was an arduous trip is now a pleasure. From the villa to the very far end is about 2 hours, making  day trip very possible.  We often just go for the day, but occasionally we stay overnight.  It is so very very unspoiled up here, that it is a great pleasure to stay in the utter peace of this natural paradise.
​There are lots of interesting sites to visit on the way and I cover them in previous trips, so look back.  This time we were with two friends who had also been several times so we varied our usual itinerary.  The weather is still gorgeously hot - 32C today and cloudless - there is also little wind at the moment.  Perfect Karpaz conditions.  We set off after breakfast enjoying the excellent coast road which gives brilliant views over the blue sea and golden beaches.  Our first stop was the Karpaz Gate Marina for coffee.  It's a fantastic marina, really top class with every facility.  It has taken a couple of years to build up but there seems to be a healthy number of both sailing and motor yachts moored up now. 
​From there we pressed on to our little hotel right at the gates of the national park and reserve high up in the Karpaz: The Blue Sea Hotel.  We have stayed here several times before.  It is a quirky little place on a tiny fishing harbour and family run.  The patriarch of the family is both the chef and a fisherman who catches the fresh fish on offer there.  Often swordfish.  He is extremely chatty and a genuine eccentric. "I Fisherman" he often proclaims whilst plying you with bottles of free brandy after dinner.  I once had to literally crawl upstairs along with a dear friend of mine who shall remain nameless, could we have been more Ab Fab if we'd tried.  Oh but we paid for it the next day...... 
​Anyway, in the year since our last visit they have finished renovating a massive stone barn that backs the harbour.  "Go and see rooms.  You choose" he said.  Wow!  What a surprise when we opened the door.  The rooms are massive.  Simply but quite tastefully furnished They have a king size and two twin beds in, so excellent for a family, fridge, sitting area and a wet room.  Still enough space left over to hold a small ball.  From the chairs outside a clever fisherman could cast directly into the harbour. Some of my friends would find this a very attractive option!    We dumped our bags and headed further into the reserve.
​Our first thought was lunch (naturally) and I had in mind a little place on a cove I'd spotted before.  However, zounds, when we pulled up, there were two huge coach parties sitting there.  Coach parties!!!!???? Unbelievable.  Needless to say they couldn't accommodate us.  We drove on and received a grumpy rebuff at another place before finding Golden Sands View, set above Golden Sands Beach, with utterly divine views down to it.  Beyond the restaurant was an optimistic sign marked "Beach".  Well... yes.... if you were either a mountaineer or a paraglider.  Anyway.... lunch was fab.  Stuart and I had the grilled calamari stuffed with halloumi cheese.  So tender and very flavoursome.  Bob had fried calamari, also very tender with no hint of the "rubber band2.  Fi had grilled halloumi.  It was all accompanied by a large local salad sprinkled with feta cheese and historically wonderful chips.  Yum.
​After that we rove down to the beach itself and pegged out on some beach beds there.  The sea is fantastic.  So clear, warm and blue.  Super calm.  It was really hot, perfect day.  Then a bit of a surprise.  A young boy came along and asked for money for the loungers.  That was a first!  Never happened before.  It was only £3 for two.  And they weren't broken which they often were in the past, so it was worth it.  There is no development of any type on the beaches.  In the dunes behind there are some very primitive eco huts but these seemed deserted.  Anyway, we had a fantastic afternoon on the beach, sunbathing and swimming.  It really is perfectly beautiful.
​Then back to our hotel, about 20 minutes away.  Saw some of the wild donkeys on the way and put down some aged greens we'd brought with us.  Had a lovely shower in the room and then moved across to the lounge of the main hotel for g&ts as the sun set.  All served by "I fisherman" himself.  He actually said it at one point and I stifled a grin.  Dinner at 8.  A small meze followed by freshly caught, grilled swordfish for 3 of us and mixed kebab for Fi.  The swordfish here is the best I've ever had.  Not at all dry.  Amazingly moist and juicy.  It must be the freshness.  Tonight it was just as amazing as ever. This is the only place I ever order swordfish because generally it is so dry.  Anyway, fully sated we turned in...

One of the nicest things to do when holidaying in northern Cyprus is to take a cruise on a traditional Turkish sailing yacht - a gullet.  The daytime cruises pootle around the coast, calling in at various bays for swimming and lunch is served on board.  We've done one of them a few times and they are great value.  Tonight we tried the sunset dinner cruise option and can report that this is fantastic too.
​We chose one of the smaller gulets (still large enough to carry 35 people) after chatting with the skipper who told us that for dinner cruises they take a maximum 10 and will sail with 5.  In the end we were 6: ourselves, our friends and another English couple.  We met at the dock in Kyrenia at 5pm and were sailing out of the lovely harbour by 530. 

​There was a little bit of chop on the sea as we headed east but nothing too much.  We enjoyed our first cocktail (free) anyway.  Our destination was a small cove to the east of Kyrenia and as we sailed gently along, the sun began to set behind us.  It was extraordinarily beautiful, coming down so golden against the westerly mountains.  Quite mesmerising to watch.  We anchored up in the cove and watched the full sunset over another drink while the crew prepared dinner.  We could have opted to swim..... but.... not.......

Dinner was an excellent choice of cold mezes, salad, chips, fresh fish and chicken.  It was good and there was plenty of it
​We thoroughly enjoyed it as the sun finally set and the stars came out.  The journey back was smoother and it was great to see the coastal area lit up at night.  A very different view.  Finally we sailed back into Kyrenia harbour at around 8pm.  That's a spectacular sight in itself with the castle illuminated and the harbour so picturesque with all the tavernas and candlelit tables. 
​The three hour cruise including dinner and a first cocktail was £20 each which we all thought was excellent value.  I'd certainly do it again.  Definitely give it a try.

fFood is paramount in Cyprus.  There are so many restaurants and, honestly, it's hard to find a bad one.  If they're bad, they go out of business.  Fast.  The food is driven by the quality of the produce here and the overall generosity of the cuisine.  Expect tables groaning with food.  Hosts that hug you in welcome as if you'd been frequenting their restaurant for years and an even warmer welcome for your children.  And you'll struggle to pay more than about £10 to £15 per head for a feast of food and a free brandy and coffee to round it all off. 
​Bearing that in mind, I have to say it is also a huge pleasure to dine at home in Villa Rockheart. We love to use the bbq, built with love by our dear friend, Dave.  He built it over a stay in February..... the coldest February in 50 years. The only February when a sprinkling of snow fell on our side of the mountain slopes.   It took grit and determination to stand out in the icy wind.  And then to add insult to injury, the weather remained hideous enough that they never got to use the bbq throughout their stay.  Luckily, they're returning very soon and it will get a real baptism then....
​We also have the wood burning oven too, the traditional Cypriot method of slow cooking everything from leg of lamb, kleftiko to bread.  We have also used it for pizza, made in literally seconds..... unbelievably delicious. 
​So...... so far we have sampled both restaurant and home cooking.  Last night we visited Villaggio Templos, a fantastic, traditional Cypriot restaurant, set in olive clad hills.  The have a full a la carte menu but the stars of the show are the two meze menus.  One at £12pp, the other at £14pp.  Both menus centre around a main course of either rack of lamb, shoulder of lamb or leg of lamb.  The lamb is preceded by bread, olives and dips, a number of cold small plates, a number of hot small plates and followed by dessert, coffee and local brandy.  We opted for the cheaper of the two mezes but it was still huge and we ended up taking home a doggy bag of roast leg of lamb.  The lamb was just so delicious.  Melt in the mouth tender, and super juicy. 
​Tonight we ate at the villa.  Bob bbq'd some enormous pork chops, purchased from The Pork Shop, a speciality butcher at the bottom of our hill.  They were the size of rib eye beef steaks: thick and huge.  We also cooked potato wedges drizzled in olive oil, garlic and fresh coriander and washed the lot down with Turkish red and white wine.  Dessert was scoops of local Mardos ice cream, from the parlour at the bottom of the hill.  So delicious.  I had cheesecake and chocolate scoops.  There are so many flavours. 
​So, take your pick.  We will eat at home many more times before the end of the holiday.  The bbq is just too ideal this time of year.    And we will no doubt eat out at many more local restaurants.  Eating well is not a problem here. Well.... only picking which restaurant to choose... that IS a problem!