Cyprus and what it means to me

Its a funny place, ever so small and ever so precious. Parts have been horribly taken over by concrete jungles and indiscriminate building and people can be thoughtless ( parking on pavements ) and superficial ( great market for all the brands ) but the place I go to is a part of Cyprus that is the least adulterated by all this and what I might call a little corner of heaven on earth. It is the place where the bread man says dont buy the bread today - it is not fresh- disarming honesty- where the lady in the small grocery shop wakes up early in the morning to collect courgette flowers for my sister and I to stuff and refuses any payment.Where, when I went in to ask for a soothing cream for a friend badly sunburnt she went into her garden and cut off a couple of branches of aloe vera which was the best balm to burnt skin anyone could recommend. Where around a kitchen table meals of disarming simplicity are concocted with laughter and collaboration and then devoured with appreciative sounds all round.

This is where I choose to go in the summer when I return to see friends and family and to have lazy afternoons on the veranda as the sea breeze cools us or mad days wake boarding or snorkelling. Swims are never less than a couple of hours long and the joy of food after them is indescribable.

I always leave with a sense of loss and sadness but as I pack my bags with goodies that the family provides I know that it will be there for me the next year, a little changed but just as welcoming and that this is where my roots were dug and planted and however little they are watered they thrive through the balm of the family fold.