On public transport in Cyprus

Often, when I talk to my friends abroad, I hear that we have it too good here, in Cyprus.  As one of the example, they say that everyone has a car.  And while I don’t disagree – the life in Cyprus is good indeed – I often find it hard to explain that a car here is more than just a convenience.  It’s a necessity.

I also understand why it is difficult to grasp the idea for those who’ve never been in Cyprus.  Many of them can’t imagine a city with no public transport at all.  Public transport is a norm pretty much everywhere you go.  But not in Cyprus.

Finally, I now have a link to send to those friends of mine, who find it difficult to believe me.  Cyprus Mail runs an article with some statistics.  These are Nicosia-based, but I don’t think Limassol or any other city on the island would be much different.

Nicosia also stood out with 84 per cent of respondents saying they never used public transport. Only a minority – four per cent – used public transport to commute in Nicosia with 91 per cent travelling by car or motorcycle. Just five per cent walked or cycled to work.

CySec logo copy-paste design

A friend of mine pointed at the almost lack of difference between the logos of United States Department of Health & Human Services and Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission.  Here are the screenshots from both web sites in case they will change them.

US Department of Health & Human Services

Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission

And here is the United States Department of Health & Human Services logo as a stand-alone image.  Just to make it easier to spot the similarities.

US DeptHHS logo

Lock Stock rock band is now online!

I am helping out my friends at Lock Stock rock band to get online.  They are performing hard rock music – Metallica, Sepultura, Nirvana, Limp Bizkit, and many others – all over Cyprus.  If you are a fan of hard rock and you are in Cyprus – chances are you’ve heard them before.

There is too much that we can do, but we have to start somewhere.  So, the first version of their official website is online – see it at Lock-Stock-Rock.com .   There are some band news, contact information, and a Google Calendar- powered schedule of the upcoming events.  Go check it out, subscribe, follow @lockstockrock on Twitter, and leave a comment.  Let us know what you think.  Let us know you were there.  Spread the word. And stay tuned.

We have a lot of plans and a lot of material to cover, so there will be some activity in the nearest future.

Road tax and MOT obsolete

The rumour has been going around for some time, but until now I haven’t heard anything credible.  OnThisIsland.com linked to an article Cyprus Mail about the new law regarding road tax and MOT paper disks – they are obsolete.  Furthermore, having them displayed can get you in trouble.  Not only they obscure a tiny useless part of your windscreen, but traffic police can issue a 50 EUR fine for you.

The article, dated April 8 2010, says:

Ioannis Nicolaides, Head of Technical Services at the Road Transport department said the law was passed in parliament three weeks ago and came into effect two weeks ago.

This means that quite some time has passed and traffic police can easily switch from warnings to actual fines.

I don’t have MOT displayed on my windscreen, but the road tax I will remove tomorrow morning.  And, also, being a “computer guy” this is just music to my ears:

The discs are now obsolete, as all registration data is computerised and ready to hand for road traffic police.

Petrol prices across Cyprus

Cyrpus Mail runs an article about some ‘name and shame’ list that the government is assembling for petrol stations across the country.  And interesting bit there is the paragraph that compares petrol prices:

In Larnaca petrol 95 costs €0998 while in Limassol it is €1.022. Petrol 98 costs €0.999 in Larnaca and €1.058 in Limassol. Diesel will set you back €0.893 in Larnaca and €0.969 in Paphos.

The cheapest petrol is in Larnaca.  Not that I am too surprised with this fact, but rather by how much difference there is – more than 5 cents per litre!