It can all get a bit trying after a while

The weather is getting better but everyone is on strike! Or at least, threatening to strike. Crane drivers at the ports, other port authority workers, petrol company workers at Cyprus airports, Petrol stations in general and British Airways. The good news: Cyprus Airways is confident that not a single flight will be affected even if there is a petrol strike at the airports. That is all very reassuring but what if…

Since December my landlord has been round on at least six occasions to fix my central heating and reassure me that it will definitely work this time! Sure. If I can’t get petrol to fill it up today it won’t matter if it is working or not. It was stressful enough trying to fill my car up with petrol last night when I didn’t even know about the looming petrol strike. The queuing etiquette really just doesn’t seem to feature on the radar in Cyprus. You can wait in line for ten minutes and then some complete moron just pushes in from another direction or decides to be clever and enter the garage via the exit! I wonder if a lot of drivers here just need their eyesight checked?

The worst possible scenario is that I will sit in the house with no heating or hot water, won’t be able to get out anywhere because I’ll have no petrol in the car. Then I won’t even be able to get on Facebook as the Internet will go down, as it has done 3 times this morning. No access to the outside world. What could be worse? A friend who lives in Nairobi is always complaining about this sort of thing happening (when her internet connection allows her to). There might be less gun crime but she wants to try living in Strovolos. Actually she did live in Strovolos for a few years and decided to move to Nairobi! It would be nice to know if that was a good decision but both our Internets would have to be working at the same time.

And the worst possible scenario of all: I can’t even drive to the airport to get off the island. And if I do get there, BA will be on strike and Cyprus Airways will have no petrol….A tad over-dramatic, I know but it is a major concern when you live on a small island. The only thing that keeps you sane and distracted is access to the outside world via the Internet and the knowledge that air travel is possible. Too much time spent sitting in traffic, trying to find a parking space in Alfa Mega, going to coffee mornings, listening to gossip about people you don’t know, and don’t care about, can get a bit trying after a while…..

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.