Moving In

By Richlion

Wednesday January 13

I went to Starbucks to see about the how the sale of my flat went. The internet is was not working. So, I typed this diary you see. Later, Tatiana came in and I told her the news and I told her where we will rent. I showed her the building (you can see it from Starbucks). She says she has a flat to rent, too. She said that it costs 650 euros/month but it's in bad condition.

This is very interesting to know. It shows the good buy that we got.

A few minutes later, Chris came in and said hello to me. He told me about another flat that was for rent that he was going to show me, which in the same area. He said that he found out it was rented already for 700 euros. I told him about the problems with it and it has mould. He didn't know that.

I offered to pay him some money and he would not take it. I just wanted to show my appreciation and of the money and agony he saved us by telling us of the area we were going to rent. I said I'd buy him a drink the next time he comes in.

I had a thought this morning and that is, having this apartment makes is special because of its location. Since it's on the main street, in a nice building, it makes it perfect for having clients come to our flat for EFT. Since the flat has nice furniture and also because it's big in size would be good to bring clients there. I taught many students in my flat in Russia, so why not help people with EFT.

Yianis had told me that his 1-bedroom flat rents for 470 euros, and there is one guy that pays 600 euros. So, it puts what we have in perspective of how good a deal we have. His place, of course, is with the same neighbourhood, neighbors, poor furniture and the noise in the area.
In the evening Yiannis took us to the owner's house where we signed the Ageement and the payment of 6,600 euros was paid for one year.


Thursday January 14

At 9am Jayne and I went out to get a taxi to take us to the electric company. We were told that the electric is already on, but we got it in our name. We were also told that there is a claim against the owner as the seal was broken on the heater unit (in the building but one that is associated to this flat).

I called Maria to tell her about this. I had also told the electric compnay that rthey didn't get a notice about it. She said that a letter will be sent out. However, we were able to get the electric in our name and no deposit had to be paid as Jayne is an EU citizen and it was put in her name. If it was in my name I would have to pay the deposit.

I went to the office to see Yainnis and pay him for the rent for the extra few days we stayed there. The told me to wait until the electric bill comes in and I can pay everyting at once. Then he offered to take us to have the phone/internet put in. this is great of him!

When we were there, Jayne told the woman what we want and we were told that a deposit had to be paid. Yiannis said that this is against the law, as EU citizens don't have to pay. She said that there are no exceptions. He said that Cypriots don't have to pay and she confirmed it. He said to pay it but we can sue them. Well, I wouldn't have said that, as she didn't like to hear that, but we went ahead to pay it.

There is a 100 euro deposit as well as the installation fee. The total I had to pay was 150 euros. I got the service that is 2 MB/second and it would cost 43 euros month. This is their second highest speed. There is one higher and two lower. She said that it can be changed without charge, then just pay the rate for that speed. It will be three business days before it is installed.
I got a wireless modem to take home. This is the company's, but it is given out to the customers.
When we got back, we continued packing and cleaning the flat.

The other day, Jim had offered to use his car to move our things. So we took him up on his offer. (Actually it's his brother's car.)

We loaded up the car and took our things over to the new flat. Then Jayne stayed behind and I got the rest of the things in the flat.

It was really nice of Jim to do this. We had planned to rent a car, so this saved us money the second time today (with Yiannis taking us to Cytanet (local telephone/internet company), this saved us money from getting a taxi).

Later I went to Starbucks to go on the internet to see about the sale of my flat in Ecuador. I got an email saying that it was delayed because the Buyer had brought a second check for the balance and it was not certified but he wanted the deed, and my lawyer, Maria del Carmen said no because if the check was no good, she would have no recourse to get the money from him and the deed couldn't be reversed.

How sneaky many Ecuadorian are!

Jayne and I had dinner with champagne to celebrate out being here.


Friday January 15

I got up about 7.30am. I went to the balcony to see where the sun would be on our new flat. It was partly cloudy but I still enjoyed it. As I sat there, I thought about the two buildings in front of me. They probably rent for more and sell for more, but I thought how much better Jayne and I were in our flats. For those that are facing us, they don't have what we have. They don't have the sun, the sea and a balcony to enjoy the weather. We have all three (there's a space between the two buildings).

As I was leaving to go to the café to go on the internet, I found out that the outside door knob does not turn. The metal that goes in the whole is still there, which means that I would not be able to get inside even though the door is unlock. That means that if Jayne and I both leave we would not be able to get inside.

When I got to the café, I called the owner and told her all the problems that there are. I said that the door is the most important one. She said she would send someone out.

The repairman finally got here at 5.30pm. I showed him all the things that needs repaired. As he was leaving he said that he would be here about noon tomorrow.

Angela had called earlier to invite us to go to dinner with the group and to see Katerina who plans at a hotel that night. I told her about the door and if it's repaired we'll go with them.