a fairground life(cyprus adventure ch12)

Jan 1999 Larnaca cont.
My wife and “d”s wife decided that our kids needed to get some schooling. So they went to the British Army base a Dhekelia. There they met a teacher who ran the small school for the soldiers families. They were sympathetic, but couldn’t enrol our children, but a teacher could give private lessons from home. That’s what we did , my son and “d”s two sons went to private lessons for one hour 2-3 days a week at a cost of £10 each. They all came on leaps and bounds. There is a city in Cyprus called Famagusta. It is deserted now in no mans land between the Turkish occupied side of Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot side. The island is divided into two and there is a wall through the capital Nicosia. The Turks invaded the island in the 70s onto Famagusta beaches and people fled their homes. Families were separated and people where never seen again. Some Cypriots near the city have opened tourist spots with long range telescopes to view the city. I could see a white UN peace keepers patrol car when we looked through the scope. Rumour has it that shops , banks and homes are the way they were when the people left with all the contents still inside!!!.
A local business man came from Ayia Napa to visit the fair. He had a bungee tower and a big wheel at a small park in Ayai Napa. I think he came to check out the opposition. Anyway he told us he got the equipment from two Russian partners(Cyprus rely ’s heavily on Russian imports-steel , vehicles, prostitutes , tourists, electrics etc) when it was time to pay them he set them up. He arranged to meet them in a club. Then he hired a couple of heavies to pick a fight with them. This led to them being deported without payment of course. Then he asked us if we wanted to supply some equipment! Needless to say there was no interest. I don’t know if this local business man had anything to do with it,but a couple of days later Mr”a” came and told we all had to register for work permits.(Only heads of families) so all the men went to a Doctors surgery in the town of Lanarca for a chest x-ray and aids test at a cost of £100 cy. Then to a government building to register and pay £300 cy deposit against me getting into trouble and being deported! I got a small green booklet in return. The next day Mr”a” came and said that all the money we declared coming into the country had to be lodged into a bank account. Apparently you have two weeks grace on the cash then it has to be banked. The only person with a bank account in Cyprus was mr”a”. So of my father in law went with him to deposit the cash, along with everyone else’s. My father in law told mr”a” in no unclear words that if this money went astray there would be consequences! After that when I did my split with the tokens I worked it off against what I deposited. Only thing was at this rate of earnings it was going to take a while. The bin game looked good, but the bins couldn’t take the mechanical strain of the open close motion and began to brake up. We needed a fast , cheap alternative-in our apartment we had white pyrex dishes. We placed these on a cup and tried the disc on a plate game. We used ride tokens from our ride as a test and they seemed to bounce just right. Not too much to make it impossible, but not too little to make it easy. The next day I got some assorted plant pots and set the plates on them. That night they opened and the game seemed to be ok. We couldn’t give too many prizes away as we had to travel to Limassol to the only cash n carry who stocked soft toys. The prizes were of a good size and cheaper than the UK. This was probably due to them being copyright rip offs from Taiwan and having no CE quality mark. However they were well made and looked very good. The Cypriots never had any complaints about them and the toys ranged from 3inches tall to three feet tall! Eventually our stint at Lanarca was at an end. We pulled down the rides on Sunday night. At about 1am I finished and switched off the generator. As I walked across the road I could here loud laughing. Down at the local tavern all our women were sitting at tables on the pavement drinking. My wife had started on the local Keo Rum. My daughter was asleep in her pushchair, so I took her with me back to the room. I don’t know what time my wife came in, but the Keo Rum had really knocked her for six. The next day she couldn’t get her head off the pillow and was in a bad way. I thought I was going to have to pack the cases myself ,but luckily Mr”a” said we weren’t moving to Limassol that day, it would be the next. I don’t know who was more relieved -my wife or myself.