Agios Nicholas church, 2012

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to stop by the Agios Nicholas church.  The church was destroyed a few years ago when it went completely under water of the nearby lake.  This year Cyprus saw plenty of rain, but so far the water levels haven’t reached that far yet.  There is still snow in the Troodos mountains, but I don’t think that melting those will be enough to drown the church again.

Have a look at my Flickr set for previous pictures of this church.

Apple

Apple

Looking at this ugly apple, I remembered a joke someone told me recently about the three famous apples in the history of humanity – the one Eve gave to Adam, the one that fell on Isaac Newton, and the one on the logo of the Apple Computers Inc.  Actually, I don’t even remember the joke. I just remember the apples.

Thinking about them, they all must have been quite ugly.  After all, Eve had to promise to Adam that he will get laid if he bytes the fruit.  The other one that fell on the head of a genius must have been ugly by definition.  It also made Isaac think a lot.  If it was a nice looking apple, he would have just eaten it without much thought.  And the last apple sparked the creativity of Steve Jobs.  He must have seen an ugly apple and thought of it as a creative challenge.   A lot of people can take something ugly and make it better.  But how can you take something ugly and make it even uglier?  Steve Jobs took a byte of it. Simple, easy, yet genius as well.

The apple I have in front of me is ugly.  I’m blogging this for historical reasons.  After all there is a small chance that this apple will become the fourth famous apple in the history of the world…

And if that wasn’t enough, I had one more revelation.  If you look at this image in a certain way – with your side vision, and you’ll cover the top part of it – then this apple looks a lot like watermelon.  So there you go.  My ugly apple story ends here.

Cyprus vs. Somalia : children vs. adults

Comparison between Cyprus and Somalia, children and adults is nothing more but a coincidence in my news stream.  Consider the two articles that appeared not next to each other, but near enough for me to group them here.

First, in incident in Cyprus, as reported by the Cyprus Mail.

AN ANNUAL festival in Anogyra village held to celebrate the honey and sesame sweet, pastelli, ended on a sour note on Saturday after three people were slightly injured in a fight over balloons.

Chairs and bottles were thrown in the fight between two families that resulted in four arrests and three people getting slightly injured.

Second, a little competition in Somalia, as reported by the Guardian.

An Islamist-backed radio station in Somalia has awarded assault rifles and hand grenades to the winners of a children’s Qur’an recital competition.

Andalus radio, which is run by al-Shabaab militia, said on Monday that the first prize was an AK-47 and £450. The runner-up received an AK-47 and £320, while the child who came third received two F1 hand grenades and £250. The three children also received religious books.

There goes my hope for the World Peace.

World largest statue planned for Cyprus

Cyprus Mail reports:

WHAT MIGHT be the world’s tallest statue is being planned at a Russian backed development off the coast of Limassol.The 135 metre statue of an angel named The Kind Angel of the World is being planned at Monagrouli, about 20km from Limassol.The development is being planned by a Russian foundation, the International Club philanthropists and Patrons of Europe and will include a conference centre for 1,300 delegates, a ‘presidential’ convention centre for 300 delegates, a theatre and banqueting hall. It will also include a number of cafés and restaurants.

Just to put this thing into perspective:

The statue itself will rise 135 meters from the ground, and visitors will be taken up via lifts. Inside, or atop, the head of the Kind Angel a restaurant/café will offer spectacular views.Currently the world’s tallest statue is the Spring Temple Buddha in China, which is 128m high. New York’s Statue of Liberty is 93m high.

This sounds like an ambitious project which, when completed, will provided a much needed boost to Cyprus tourism.