Category: Cyprus

I live in Cyprus for many years now. It is a beautiful little island in Mediterranean Sea. It features warm weather for most of the year, sea, very kind and hospital people, plenty of jobs in IT industry, good food and plenty of alcohol, stable currency, and more. It’s really a nice place to live if you can handle small towns and villages. It’s also a great place to raise the kids.

Not much happens here. It is a quiet and simple place. Yet, when something happens or when I write about it, I post it to Cyprus category.

Pictures from Lemesia 2005 Boxing

Lemesia 2005 : Boxing

I was lucky enough to get to Lemesia 2005 Boxing championship in time. And not only that – I also had a pass into a VIP area and all around the stadium, thanks to a certain someone.

Not that it helped me much in my photography quest though. While I could enjoy the fights from a really close range, photographing those still was a challange. The biggest issue was, as usual with this type of events – light. There was simply not enough of it. Few lamps made it possible to watch the matches, but making pictures of fast moving subjects could have been possible only with a good flash unit, which I don’t have. Yet.

The second obstacle was – ropes. There were four thick ropes going around the ring. While that was something you could filter out with your mind, taking those out of the pictures weren’t possible. In fact, the close I went to the ring, the bigger problem those ropes were. Finally, I moved away and up into the audience to be slightly above those ropes. For that I used my 75-300 IS USM lens, which is not as fast as the 50mm/1.8. ISO 1600 added lots of grain and on-camera flash unit resulted in a lot of red eyes.

But I did my best. I shot plenty of images and later had a lot to choose from. Enjoy!

Now, the boxing. As it was the first day of the competition, there were some good fights and there were some bad ones. Few fights were very boring with opponents investigating each other for three or four rounds without any actions. Other fights were exciting because of all the action. Few knockdowns, a couple of broken noses, few dislocated thumbs – the usual mix.

Overall I had a lot of fun watching the fights, talking with a few people I knew, and photographing this whole thing. If you didn’t go – you missed a lot. Especially considering that the entrance was free for everyone.

Album location: /photos/2005/2005-10-14_Lemesia_Boxing

Cyprus Scout beta announce

I have been thinking a lot about my blog and ways to improve it. I was talking with some of you guys. And some of you were talking to me. I’ve got a few ideas in the process and I am going to try one of the big ones now.

While the site started mainly for myself (and it still is), it becomes more and more difficult to ignore the rest of you. And when I think about the rest of you, I get really confused as to what brings you back every time to read my blog. Some of you come here for the personal stuff. Some of you seek technical help. Some of you respect my opinion on the movies. Some of you are parents. Some of you like photography. Some of you are looking for more information about Cyprus. Some of you just like the way I write. That last one is probably the smallest group though which doesn’t even include me. Anyway, all these looks like a lot of sides to a single site. So, I decided to try a little separation.

There is plenty of choice. What should I move away? There are plenty of photoblogs on the web. Yet another one will just get lost among them. Movie review blogs are numerous aswell. As are technical blogs. As are parenting. As are personal. But there is a definite lack of Cyprus blogs. So I decided to try it out.

Cyprus Scout is a blog about Cyprus. There won’t be any politics. There won’t be any real estates. There won’t be any crap that half a million spammers are trying to promote. There will events coverage. There will be discussions about culture, history, and traditions. There might even be some humor.

I am also planning to expand it beyond personal. At the moment I am the only writer, photographer, and editor in chief for that site. But I will get more people to contribute. I even already know a few who will. It’s just that they don’t. Yet.

Anyway, the site is currently in beta. It needs a lot of work. And it undergoes a lot. It can break or misbehave. But I wanted to let you all know that it is there and that you can start using it. Register, comment, suggest, submit drafts, correct. In a week or so when the dust will settle, I will make an announcement for the wider audience – Cyprus forums, other blogs, and a couple of portals. Until them – report bugs and help me out.

Daily del.icio.us bookmarks

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2005-10-10

P-card from Hellenic bank and Flickr Pro

Vladimir told me about this new cool offering from Hellenic Bank – P-card, so I went to the bank today to see if I can get it.

Basically, P-card is a regular debit card. It is not connected to any of your accounts though, which is a nice thing if you want to use it on the web. The amount debited can be anywhere from 15 CYP and 500 CYP. If you run out of money, you can debit more. The P-card is for electronic use only, which is good enough if you ask me – web, ATMs both local and abroad, and shopping point of sale systems – are all good.

Applying for the card is extremely easy. Any clerk of any branch can issue the card in about 10 minutes. All you have to do is present and ID card or passport and debit either cash or from your account. The good thing is that you can even use P-card to give someone else money, like a gift for example.

I decided to start with a 50 CYP card, debitted from my account. I have received a package that contained the card itself, PIN, the copy of terms and conditions, and a bonus CYTA So-Easy 5 CYP card. Not bad.

I have also tried if the card worked on the web and didn’t have any problems. I have purchased myself a two year Flickr Pro account. By the way, I have a couple of ideas on how I am going to use it extensively in a very near future.

Resume: if you need a quick, simple, and secure way to buy stuff on the web or via other electronic means, get yourself a P-card from Hellenic bank. That’s a really good option.

Lemesia 2005

There are plenty of posters around the town notifying that Lemesia 2005 is approaching. Lemesia 2005 is supposed to be one of the biggest sporting events of the year. It is organized by the Municipality of Limassol and is sponsored by a number of commercial entities.

I would really like to attend this event this year. Especially since I missed it entirely last time. But I have the same problem – the lack of information. Last year the Municipality of Limassol at least had something at their website. This year there is nothing.

If you have any information about the event – dates, locations, prices, contact phone numbers – please let me know. And I’ll share pictures in return.