Playing the waiting game pays off

I love Cyprus because while the UK is covered in snow, you can sunbathe here for about 360 days a year, if you like that sort of thing. And when you get bored with that you can always drink overpriced coffee, attempt to solve the Cyprus problem or get a job…

For us women of a certain age with children at school, a dog, a misspent career and time on our hands, there is always the option of shopping, reading novels, Facebook and Twitter to while away the hours between school drop off, pick up and walking the dog. Twenty minutes in the IKEA car park the other day put a damper on the shopping option. Counting the number of cars that had managed to usurp two spaces instead of one (no prizes for guessing: it was more than 10 and less than 20) was enough excitement for one morning. According to my daughter who did learn to drive here (really badly), they never actually teach you to park – well that is her excuse anyway. The point is I gave up trying to find a space and drove to my local bookshop instead, where the parking situation is slightly less stressful.

I foolishly made the mistake of being tempted to spice up my life with a ‘Richard & Judy Book Club’ recommendation about a psycho-murderer killing young girls in a warm and sunny small town community. Why did I do this when I already have half a dozen books sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read? But that is beside the point. The mistake was not the choice of book, which may sound a bit depressing if you think about the parallels in terms of the setting but actually seems a good read. The mistake was giving in to the urge to spend money when, yet again, I knew I was being ripped off. I spent nearly €15 when I could have ordered it from play.com for about €6! The problem is that I would have had to wait.

What is the lesson for the day? Patience is a virtue: if I had waited yet another twenty minutes for a car parking space in IKEA, I might never have spent the money in the book shop. I may not even have spent any money in IKEA either because in theory I could have spent the whole morning cruising the car park and never have been quick enough to nip in and find a space or three……Back to the book: A Quiet Belief in Angels by R. J Ellory.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.