The demise of Orphanides

Orphanides Supermarket – 11 May 2013

This is how the Limassol (New Port Road) store looked today. Only 1 checkout was open for both the upstairs and downstairs parts of the store…

A very sad sight to behold as a visit to Orphanides when we came on holiday was the “must do” part of our tour of the island.

The demise of Orphanides, a set on Flickr.

The news befell us in December 2012:

“ORPHANIDES supermarkets, in the red for over €200m, are to be placed in receivership, the company has announced.

The largest supermarket chain is indebted to banks to the tune of some €140m; additionally it owes suppliers €85m and €10m to other creditors.

The decision for corporate bankruptcy was announced yesterday by Andreas Andronikou, of UK auditing firm UHY Hacker Young.”
Read the full article produced in the Cyprus Mail.

I wonder what will replace it?

Traveling Abroad? EatWith Wants To Help You Break Bread With The Locals In Their Own Homes

Reblogged from TechCrunch:

• 

Nothing makes traveling to a new land more amazing than befriending a local or two. Meet the right person — someone outgoing, with knowledge of the locale — and it's like punching in a cheat code. You'll do better things, see better places, all while avoiding the generic tourist junk. But finding that person can be hard.

EatWith, a company presenting at Disrupt NY today, wants to make it easier.

Read more… 575 more words

So, what's EatWith all about? Here's what they have to say about it: “Most tourists won’t get a chance to meet the locals except maybe the Taxi driver, or the waiter in the restaurant,” says Guy. “but Eatwith aims to change this.” Guests get an experience far removed from the standard series of tourists traps, and the chance to make new, local friends in the process. Hosts, meanwhile, get to turn their kitchen into a micro-business and meet new people along the way. Now, check out the EatWith page.

The Hotel of Kings, Prodromos, Cyprus. What happened?

We’ve heard about it and seen photos but on Friday 3 May 2013 we finally made our way to the derelict Berengaria Hotel to take a look for ourselves.

What a sorry picture it all painted…. Here’s how it used to look:

Berengaria Hotel from the outside

An original postcard

We crossed through Troodos Square and took the road which winds down and behind the road which leads to the Cyprus Ski Club and the “golf balls” on top of Mount Olympus. So in effect, we were heading down the winding road towards Prodromos village.

Prodromos Village

Our vision of the Berengaria Hotel or Veregarria/Βερεγγαρια as we’ve also seen it written shows it perched high and imposing on the mountainside so we were confused for a while as we could see absolutely no sign of it – until, we hit the mini-roundabout by a small restaurant and there it was slightly elevated in front of us. Nowhere near as dramatic as we expected but still unmistakeably the Berengaria Hotel we recognised from photographs.

This is the reality:

Graffiti at the Berengaria Hotel

Inside the Berengaria Hotel

Inside the Berengaria Hotel

Upstairs at the Berengaria Hotel

Front of the Berengaria Hotel

Grand staircase at the Berengaria Hotel

Poolside at the Berengaria Hotel

Window to the world at the Berengaria Hotel

So, just what is the story behind the hotel and its’ past? I wish we knew! There are all kinds of tales that have come out of the woodwork from it belonging to a wealthy man whose son hung himself in front of guests at the hotel to the wealthy owner dying and leaving it to continue to be run by his 3 sons. Of course we all knew how that would turn out…. the 3 sons all disagreed and cursed by their father, all had a mysterious death. Either way, there are claims the building is haunted by either the dead son or the old man in grief of his beloved home being destroyed.

It was apparently so grand it was referred to as “The Hotel of Kings”. If only they knew…..

More photos of the Berengaria Hotel can be found on my Flickr account:

Berengaria Hotel photos on Flickr

Below is a short “then and now” photo video I found on YouTube (uploaded in 2011).

It’s 91 days since…..

my husband Clem had his last cigarette!

It was very difficult in the beginning – and not only for him. It was a nightmare for me too and he drove me quite mad on a number of occasions.

And I know to me it seems we’re now over the worst – but there are still times when he’s in the middle of doing something that he will suddenly have “a moment” when it hits him that at this specific time while doing a particular task, he should really be having a cigarette…

Apparently, it completely floors him for some considerable time.

But, gone are the times when we’re all woken up in the middle of the night because he has to get out of bed and have a smoke at the back door. What’s even better is there’s none of those really annoying little coughs he used to do while having each cigarette.

The best part of the stopping smoking for me?
When he brings me a glass of something cold after I’ve returned home from work at the end of the day – my glass doesn’t taste or smell of cigarettes where he’s handled it.

He says he’s found the Why Quit website to be of great help although many years later some of the members there still have withdrawal symptoms.

Remember though, at the end of the day stopping smoking has to all be down to the smoker and not the passive smoker who lives with them… If the smoker doesn’t want to quit well, it just isn’t going to happen. Nagging them into trying isn’t going to help.

WhyQuit – Nicotine Withdrawal Cycle

After more than 30 years of smoking let’s hope the last 3 months have been worth it and this direction will continue.

The drawback?
Hmmmm, he seems to have taken up with the nibbles but does say he can taste his food so much more and never knew carrots could taste so good!