Growing up and going on vacation with my family, I remember the most important thing my dad used to pack was food! He didn’t care if he only had 1 pair of shorts, or only 1 shirt, so long as he had an array of Cypriot produce packed into his hand luggage he was OK. Even if we were coming...

In a week of news surrounding the terrible riots in the UK, I wish to write about the complete opposite of rioting – sleeping! The Cypriots like to sleep. I had never in my life, before moving here, experienced a siesta. I’d heard that the Spaniards did it, but until I moved here I didn’t understand...

Eating is Cyprus’ biggest sport. You have the heavy weight, the middle weight and the featherweight in this sport. We eat at every given opportunity. I remember Christmas growing up was amazing – not because of the presents but because of the food! We’d eat the traditional English...

I  share the sad news with you that on Friday – the day of the Royal Wedding, I had to have a wisdom tooth removed. So while all my friends were joining in the Royal merriment with any excuse to have a drink or four, I was in the dentist’s chair with his hand half way down my throat yanking...

Do you know what the problem is with the mosquitoes over here? They have a BAD attitude. The mosquitoes back in the UK were much tamer than they are here. The UK mozzies almost had a laid back attitude, as if they’d spent a bit too long in a beer garden and were a little pissed! They’d come...

It appears to me, that on every road, in every village, there is an opportunity to gamble. What is the fascination with gambling in this country? If its not the online casinos its bingo and if its not the bingo halls its the scratch cards and if its not the scratch cards its the betting shops –...

How is it that you can park your car on a quiet residential street, on a section of road that isn’t causing any obstruction, isn’t on a corner and is not on any form of yellow line and there are no signs telling you not to park, that you STILL receive a parking fine? Not just any parking...

Cypriots don’t like winter. We hate the cold weather, the rain and the wind. We were born to be brown, to bask in the golden sunshine that belsses the Cypriot shorelines. As soon as we even get a sniff that winter is here, the heaters come out, the jumpers and scarfs get thrown on and the Ugg...

Being an expat I have experienced Christmas and New Year the Cypriot Way three years in a row now. The first Christmas I spent here was in 2008. It consisted of my dad’s family squashed round a table with mountains of food overflowing on the table. Most of it meat. Lamb souvla, chicken souvla,...

Cypriot people have difficulty keeping the time. I first discovered this when I was a little girl – my mum and dad would constantly argue about what time to leave the house to arrive at an event we had been invited to. My dad would hold the invitation in his hand, wave it frantically about in...

Since the smoking ban, my local bank is not the same. I missed the teller drinking a frappe with one hand, his mobile phone under his ear and a burning fag in the other hand asking me to come over so he could ‘serve’ me! I smiled every time wishing this scene could happen in Barclays Bank. But banking...

A lady promoting tourism in Cyprus at Larnaca airport, told my mum on her way back to the UK that public transport in Cyprus is now fantastic! It’s efficient and cheap. I am fortunate enough to have a car and don’t need to use the public transport here but I’ve always seen it as very...