Holiday to Northern Cyprus
22 June 2006
A few weeks ago Chris and I went on holiday to the Turkish Republic of  Northern Cyrpus. His parents own a gorgeous, 3-bed villa complete with private pool. The villa is situated on the north west coast in a very peaceful and somewhat remote area near Kayalar. As Northern Cyprus isn't recognised as a state by Britain the journey there is a bit arduous as all flights must first land in mainland Turkey, where the plane sits on the tarmac for an hour, refuels, then flies across to the island.

Beautiful rugged scenery
I'd never been to Cyprus before, let alone Northern Cyrpus so wasn't sure what to expect. With regards to tourism, Northern Cyprus is very undeveloped. There are no sprawling, concrete resorts nor strips of bars and nightclubs, in fact I didn't even see anything resembling a promenade while I was there. The landscape is quite impressive and ranges from miles of untouched sandy beaches in the north easterly "pan handle", to hairy-scary, dirt tracks winding their way through the Besparmak mountain range. The land is littered with abandoned, ruined buildings dating from centuries ago to as recently as the seventies when the Turks invaded the North. Car hire is reasonably priced, at about £150 per week, and essential as public transport is pretty much non-existent.

Delicious local Food
We ate out most nights and had some fantastic meals. I was surprised to discover that they're quite big on chips. But being made from Cyprus potatoes and fried in olive oil, they were the most delicious chips I'd ever tasted. The food not only tasted great but was very cheap. As you'd expect, the local cuisine is based on mezze and kebabs. One evening we went to a local restaurant and had the biggest meal of our lives. It's quite common to find yourself in a restaurant where you're served with whatever they're cooking that evening. We were gob smacked when we received our starter of 34 plates of hot and cold mezze. This mammoth starter was followed by a chicken and lamb kebab, fruit and coffee. We also had a bottle of wine with the meal and the bill still only came to about £14 each. An equivalent meal in London would have cost us at least £60 each.

If you fancy a week of quiet relaxation, yummy food and lots of good scenery then I'd certainly recommend a trip to Northern Cyprus.

Burns or bleeds anyone?
02 May 2006
I am now a fully qualified First Aider. I volunteered myself at work and spent all of last week at the St John Ambulance training centre in Croydon doing a "first aid at work" course. There were 24 people on the course and it was very enjoyable. I'd done first aid at school but that was obviously a long time ago. After a week of rolling around on the floor, tying up strangers I'm now a dab hand with a triangular bandage. And if you're ever in need of a bit of CPR then I'm your man. The Fire Wardens at my work are furnished with bright yellow tabards but unfortunately the position of First Aider doesn't come with a uniform.

Seller Pulls Out
01 Apr 2006
I had some very bad news this week regarding my flat purchase. With about a week to go until we exchanged contracts, the seller decided to pull out. He cited the fact that he was feeling a bit stressed out by it all as the reason for abandoning the sale. I'm completely gutted. Not only have I lost out on a great flat in a great location, but more importantly I've also lost over £1000. What a complete waste of time and money. Before I can start looking for somewhere else I have to save up the money that I've just lost. And once I do start looking for another place, there's nothing I can do to stop this happening to me again. What sort of legal system do we have in this country?

Show Me The Money
04 Mar 2006
I had some very good news the other day – the Valuation on my new flat went well and my mortgage has been approved. Woohoo. I was slightly concerned that I wasn't going to get the mortgage but now that it's going ahead I feel the sale is a lot more certain than it was before. Now it's time to get the solicitor on the case and start forking out some serious cash.

As I'm now buying my own place, a whole new world has opened up to me – a world of soft furnishings and DIY. There are many DIY jobs that will need to be done in the new place but the problem is that I don't have a clue about DIY. My brother's very good good at that kinda stuff as was my late Dad but I never really took much notice. I left home when I was 18 and up until that point I hadn't had any interest in DIY. If only I'd known then that 15 years later I'd want to re-tile a bathroom and block up a serving hatch, I might have paid a lot more attention. But I must say, I'm quite excited about getting myself some tools and learing some blokey skills.

I might not be very good with a hammer and chisel but when it comes to the soft furnishings and colour schemes, well that's where my gay gene certainly kicks in. I've found a few online tools that help you choose colour schemes for different rooms and have been having a great time with them. I've been doing a lot of window shopping for furniture and all the other paraphenalia and I've even ordered myself some interior design software. Oh my God, how gay am I?

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Enjoy!