Year: 2005

All About Beer

Ok, guys, you gonna love this! I have totally accidentally found the first BEER SHOP in Cyprus! Not only that – it is in Limassol too! Is there still anyone out there who thinks that Limassol is not totally the best city in Cyprus? I guess not…

Anyway, the shop is totally cool. I am writing this post in hope that they will have enough business to stay alive for years to come. There is a great variety of beers in the shop. And I mean a really great variety. They have cans, bottles, and drafts from Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Holland, UK, India, and some other countries. I couldn’t count all the brands and kinds of beer that they have, but I am sure they offer well over 40 products.

Additionally, you can buy anything related to beer – glasses, pints, mugs, and tankarts. Nuts and other finger food. Accessories. Gift packages. I can’teven name everything they have.

While in the shop, you can ask for assistance from the two guys who work there (and look like they own the place). There is also a printed guide into different kinds of beer that they have. Business cards and printed bookmarklet can be taken out too.

The shop has opened about one and a half month ago, so they didn’t manage to create a website just yet. But they booked the domain already (at least it’s printed on the business cards) – www.AllAboutBeer.net.

Here is all the information from the business card (I don’t have a scanner):

All About Beer
Sissifou & Ammochostou Str.
3075 Limassol – Cyprus
Tel. 25732007
Fax. 25732008
e-mail: info (at) allaboutbeer.net
www.allaboutbeer.net

Finding the shop is very easy. It is next to Ermes Appolo (ex-Woolworth). If you will turn towards Ermes from the Makariou III Avenue and look to your left across the Ermes parking, you will see the All About Beer shop on the parallel street (perpendicular to Makariou III avenue, next to Ermes parking space). Give them a call if you get lost, but it is really easy to find.

Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to enjoy a bottle of Kwak…

Technorati tags installed

I’ve installed Bunny’s Technorati Tags plugin for WordPress. I wanted Technorati integration for a long time now and I even partially had it with multiple categories and appropriate tagging. But from now on all limits are gone. I can link to a lot more information on the web easily and I will get additional traffic to my blog. WooHoo!

Renewal of an ATM card

I’ve become very bad with password and PIN number recently. Those password management applications that I use are to blame for my memory failures, I think.

Anyway, I have forgot the PIN for my ATM card recently. I visit my bank branch and asked them to provide me with the new PIN. The lady there informed me that there is no way to reset the PIN and that they will have to issue a new ATM card for me. I was a bit surprised, but confirmed that they should proceed as my need for ATMs is rather often.

Less then a week later I have received my new ATM card and the new PIN. I have checked my account statement and saw that I was charged 5 CYP for the card renewal. OK, who cares. But what surprised me the most was that the new card was identical to the old one. Card number, expiry date and everything else were exactly the same. Now I wonder who designed this idiotic procedure? It is fifty gadzillion times easier to just change the four numbers of the PIN code, or even simply remind me what they were, than to reissue the plastic card, which is a totally other business with all paperwork travelling back and forward between branch (Limassol) and headquarters of the bank (Nicosia).

I am deeply puzzled…

Horny car

I live on a very quiet street. We don’t have any activities going on around here on the workdays. On weekends the street looks totally dead – no people, no cars, no noises, nothing. And today looked no different.

But around 3 o’clock in the afternoon I heard the sound of a car’s horn. It started and never stopped. At first I thought that it was some stupid guy calling his friends out of the house or a nervious boyfriend letting his better half know that his majesty arrived. But the horn went on and one and soon it was going on for much longer than any human could withstend.

There was a problem with some unattended car. Probably it was related to the heat that we have these days around here.

Olga closed all the windows and it was almost bareable. I waited for some Cypriot neighbors to call the police or do something equally responsible. Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t, but the sound was going on for about 40 minutes now.

Olga suggested that I do something about it. So I called the police (199). Some guy listened to my story and transferred me to the appropriate deparment. A very polite lady listened to the repeat of my story, asked me for some personal details (name, address, phone number, country of origin, etc) and wished to know the registration number of the problematic car. She explained that she will be able to locate the owner using their database and inform him about the problem. I went out, found the car and called her back with the number. She thanked me and hang up.

I went back home and started to wait for a unit of brave horny car fighters, but they never arrived. Actually, maybe they did, but that must have happened after the problem was resolved. How was it resolved? Well, some other people got annoyed by the sound of the car. Someone tried to break into the car but failed. Than someone else tried and also wasn’t persistant enough. And than there was this middle aged guy, who was just passing by. He stopped for a second, looked at the car, than smiled, came up to it and hit it a couple of times on the hood. TA-DAA! It shut up and the problem was gone. No damage, no hard feelings, no problem.

Olga and I than had a short discussion trying to imagine how the same situation could have been resolved be we in another country. In Russia, for example, I guess the car would have been totally disassembled by the “good neighboors” into bits and pieces. In the States, police, fire fighters, ambulance, and national guards would have probably arrived even before the horn would started. They’d put the “don’t cross” police lines everywere. Maybe started evacuating people from the nearby houses. Even the S.W.A.T. team might have been called in to check for the terrorist danger or something. As you can see, we had some fun…