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.
Some random stuff for today.
These were shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2005-08-26.
I had yet another negative experience with FedEx today.
I need to sand a small package with 6 beer glasses to Moscow, Russia. I wanted them to be delivered fast and for delivery to be paid by the recepient. I wasn’t sure that FedEx could provide me with the service so I passed by their office a couple of days ago and asked if they could do it.
After I spent about 20 minutes explaining to the clerk what it was exactly that I wanted, she told me that there shouldn’t be any problem. The only thing she wasn’t sure was the taxes that Russian customs office would ask to pay. I said that those shouldn’t be much as the package itself is a gift and has a very low value of about 15 CYP.
I also asked if FedEx could provide me with any form of packaging as I wasn’t sure that I could pack the glass appropriately myself. FedEx doesn’t do packaging, which looked a bit stupid to me, but who am I to judge.
I found the proper packaing myself and came with the box today expecting it to be sent. There was a different clerk in the office this time. I explained again what I wanted. 10 minutes later she confirmed with the headquarters that fragile items in general and glass in particular are not accepted by FedEx.
I stood there for three minutes with the WTF expression on my face and then left. Shocked. Was it so difficult to tell it to me the first time? I mean, I made myself clear at all times that I am about to send some fragile items. What are they thinking over there? And why not take it? What is so different with fragile items? All you have to do to deliver them properly is to not throw them hard on the floor. Putting fragile packages on top of the baggage heap is not even as important.
I don’t know… This doesn’t feel right…
Today I felt like taking a few pictures of signs while walking from the sea…
Album location: /photos/2005/2005-08-17_POTD
I’ve been a bit slow with blogging these last few days. And you might have noticed problems connecting to my website. This is all due to the heat that we have here. It is very exhausting both for humans and machines. No wonder all Cyprus is taking vacations. It is impossible to be productive at all.
My machine also can’t take the high temperatures and shuts down every now and than (about 15 times a day). I am not along in this – many people complain of the same problem. I was thinking of putting more fans into the case, but than realized that it won’t help much, since it is very hot in the room itself (about +30 degrees Celsius).
All we have to do is wait. Another couple of weeks and things should be getting back to normal…
One of the things that was new to me when I came to Cyprus was the vacations in August that the whole island takes. Starting around the middle of August until the end of the month most shops are closed. Everyone is on vacations and noone is working except for tourist attractions – restaurants, bars, pubs, beach caffes, and the like.
I really like the unity of the population on the issue of vacations. The majority of people have three long vacations during the year – Christmas holidays, Easter week, and the end of August thing. Those who have to work during these days aren’t much of a use anyway. Nothing can stop people from resting and spending time with family. Lovely.
Album location: /photos/2005/2005-08-15_POTD