Penny wise...pound foolish

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newcastle
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Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by newcastle »

I think I've been here too long....time for another trip to blighty.

Got into car this morning for quick trip to shop.Lazy? Possibly...but its 1Km and, even at 9am. it's 30 degrees.

Bought couple of items for 65LE..receiving a 20LE, 10LE and 5E note in change from the 100LE note I'd taken with me. Back to villa.

Exits & locks car, unlocks and relocks gate to pathway. Unlocks villa door and dumps stuff in kitchen before unloading pockets onto coffee table (habit of mine)

Shock horror!!!! 20LE note missing!! :cry:

Scours kitchen. Scours pool area. Back to front gate...unlock. Unlock car. Relief!! There is 20LE on car floor. :D

Locks car, locks gate...back to villa .

Suddenly dawns on me that I've done all that...not to mention the stress...for less than a pound coin which, had I dropped in the streets of London, I wouldn't have given a second's thought to. :urm:


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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by carrie »

I know but 20 pounds le sounds a lot more than 1 GB pound. :lol: I am meeting a friend from the UK later who hasn't visited for a year I am waiting to see what her reaction to the price increases are.
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Who2 »

I'd be more interested to see her face when she gets more than double on the exchange rate, moan moan... 8)
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Dusak »

They say smoking kills newcastle. While waiting for the local bus one day I decided to light up as there was no sign of any, me not bothering to look both ways. I'm sure all smokers have done this one time or another, light the cig but it gets trapped between the fingers as you draw your hand away from your mouth. This is what happened to me, but the cig fell out and rolled into the road, straight into the path of the bus I had not seen. The side mirror clipped the top of my head. For a twenty? The locals that were also waiting would have stampeded in their chase to get to it first, with me squashed under foot probably. :lol: But I do think that you come over as a bit of a tight :mo wad. :D
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by carrie »

Not moaning Who and I'm sure she wont be either just shocked at the price increases not for herself or me but for the ordinary Egyptians who must be suffering.
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Major Thom »

What is the greatest, the doubling of devaluation of the LE, or the rises in prices. have the prices effected locals or is it just Europeans?
I know when we left 92 grade petrol had just reached 2LE, Meat had doubled in price as with pet food. We support our Tala Monastery Cats Charity here and we can purchase 25 kilo bags of cat food for half the price of a 10k bag in Luxor. Have rents gone up at all or are the landlords behind with this idea? We had heard Electric and Water have almost doubled in price.
Looking at it from the outside I guess maybe inflation must have doubled. So instead of needing 50 quid a week to live on you now need 100 quid. (English of course) So it must still be a savings from living in the UK. For us it is a bit more expensive, rent 350 Euros a month and you need around 300 Euros a week to live on so your income needs to be around 2000 Euros a month to have a good time. But the benefits far outweigh everything else, excellent medical care, good quality products that are guaranteed and last, nice fresh air, clean rivers and beaches, none of which contain dead or rotting carcasses of animals. Plenty of work for those that have not retired and easily obtained work permits. If you want a car though you pay through the nose similar to Egypt, we now have two my wife wanted a bit of independence and not have to rely on me all the time. But all the cars here are rust free and many have very very small mileages. My neighbour has a Pajero, its like a jeep type of thing, absolutely immaculate, 1995 and all its history including the 32500 KM on the clock. Sometimes we miss Egypt's prices but on the whole when we weigh things up, our happiness comes first and to be honest we were just no longer happy in Luxor, we ended up not wanting to go out side the walls of our villa, all we would do is sit inside reading or watching TV, on a Thursday we would get a taxi and dash around Luxor do our shopping and get back home again, in the last year we only went out socially 4 or 5 times, I suppose you would say we were bored out of our brains, we even had thicker glass put in the windows to shut out the noise, and the hum drum beat and off key musicians and singers that had no idea of what reverb meant, we would buy thick cloth bags with zips on to shop with so the locals could not see the food we had purchased, we become paranoid. I even had eyelets put in my wallet and two chains attached so they would have to knock me out and use bolt croppers to get to what cash I had on me, our biggest fear being the same of most EU residents, that of ending up in an Egyptian Hospital!!! we would have needled ourselves rather than let them touch us. We never regret dropping the price of our villa by 50%, OK, the work we had done to it we lost quite a bit, however the pleasure we have had over the past 7 months far outweighs any losses. Yes Penny Wise Pound Foolish does apply to us, we both look back and admit this, we should never have spent so much on ourselves and neighbours, we should never have given away what we did with our blessings thinking it would help others, (you do this once and its expected all the time) We should never have bought the villa in the first place, we should have rented, purchasing prolonged our stay. So now you all know how much we miss the place, WE DON'T!!!!! But on saying that we love to read about all the stuff that's happening there, and all the S--- your having to go through just to live there, we could and would not do it again. Suppose you could say we learned our lesson, like many others have that may not be in the same position like ourselves. It's them people we feel sorry for, invested heavy in business's but got kicked in the face and are now struggling to survive. The worse part is some will admit to it but a lot fear to admitting it.
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by newcastle »

It must have been truly irksome for you MT..

All those bare foot urchins pestering you for a few pence. Keeping you awake at night with their attempts to have some fun in such a bleak environment.

Is there nothing you miss about Egypt?

Not even your dog?
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Yildez »

Groundhog Day?? On and on and on and on! Give me strength :sd
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Gopha75 »

I think we all got the memo the first time...
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Major Thom »

Yes we still miss our dog Newc. everything else is now just a past memory. A lot of people still do not read posts, I have said on here more than once the first few years in Luxor was a great experience and worth the time we spent there the last 4 years we were just prisoners in our home, bored out of our brains, nothing to do, no where we wanted to go to, but at least I got to know Jeremy Kyle, who the Loose Women were, the World of Judge Rinder and many other daytime programs to take away the boredom. Really it was just a case of when we could get away, we DO consider ourselves to be extremely fortunate, but we realise that the huge loss of money to us was well worth it.

When people talk about what Egypt is like now with poverty, no jobs etc who do you blame? To me it was the very people that ousted Mubarak that have caused the problems, Yes! the citizens have brought this on themselves, so for that reason surely these Urchins etc will have someone to blame in the future, their fore fathers. Sorry Newc. I have to tell it as it is and from my own point of view, I know it offends many of you LL's but I would be untruthful to bulls--t people by saying that the place was wonderful, its far from wonderful. Judging by what I heard yesterday about the prices now you had may as well be back in Europe, and if they keep going up at the alarming rate they are the tensions there will be huge. What about the shortages in the food chain, the doubling and trebling of electric and water bills, (Accept for Locals, it seems like the Europeans and white men are now sponsoring the utility bills, there are huge differences) Fuel costs that effect everyone, it does not matter if you do not have a vehicle you have to pay transport costs to Luxor. These rises surely must be due to the repayment of huge loans after the revolution that have to be paid back. In this case its no good thinking like and Egyptian and saying "We are Egyptians we don't have to pay anything back" that's the norm!! If you think this way all you will do is end up in more trouble and also start loosing aid from the hated Western World, a double wammy. Now the US has reported Egypt is buying arms from N.Korea I can see them loosing all aid from the US. I just hope in 15 to 20 years time we can all look at Luxor and see some form of improvement, but I doubt it very much it has become a very distant memory for holiday makers and that was where the bread and butter came from. I some respects I hope I am proved wrong. The strangest thing is I still like to see what is going on or hearing what is going on, I don't know if it's morbid curiosity, bloody mindedness or just the thrill of watching the place deteriorate in front of me. They always say that education lifts and revitalises Countries, this may be the reason why it keeps on going down the education system is very poor.
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by newcastle »

.....we were just prisoners in our home, bored out of our brains....
I would conclude from the veritable deluge of print emanating from your computer recently...you're still bored :a50:

You'd be better waiting for those dark, drizzly evenings in a Cyprus winter...although I expect the odd, tired, has-been tribute acts will still wend their way over to keep you enthralled.
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Major Thom »

No not bored at all the speed I type can do what I have to do in 10 mins. Regarding giving people strength, do not feel the person stating they needs strength especially living where they do, and they also have all the moral support from the Luxor crowd too. It 5.35am I have been up since 4.00am showered and just waiting for my wife to get ready to start our daily 3 mile walk to Emba and back.
I have to admit though I do like a laugh before starting the daily good life, that's why you see my posts early in the morning and not in the evening. In the evening we are too busy out either dancing or enjoying a good meal at the many Taverna's.
Did you know over 5 million ex pats live on the island, most of them get on well together helping each other, organising events and including the local people, yesterday while relaxing in the evening with a JD and Coca Cola we encountered a rare sight one we have not seen for years, 9 aircraft in 2 hours coming into land a Paphos Airport, incredible. In July and August there were over 5M tourists visited the island. We gather the aircraft companies still want to fly here, we gather people from overseas see Cyprus as being safe. Maybe that is why over 250,000 ex pats live in Paphos alone contributing to the economy, providing many jobs supporting many business's. Very few places can boast that, and one place I can think of has seen its ex pat community fall from over 4000 to a couple of hundred in 5 years, and probably will fall again over the next five years. It just proves where one place has good ideas and goes for the tourist industry another place can shout about it, lie about it do nothing about it and still expect to do well.
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by HEPZIBAH »

Major Thom wrote:
Did you know over 5 million ex pats live on the island, most of them get on well together helping each other, organising events and including the local people, yesterday while relaxing in the evening with a JD and Coca Cola we encountered a rare sight one we have not seen for years, 9 aircraft in 2 hours coming into land a Paphos Airport, incredible. In July and August there were over 5M tourists visited the island. We gather the aircraft companies still want to fly here, we gather people from overseas see Cyprus as being safe. Maybe that is why over 250,000 ex pats live in Paphos alone contributing to the economy, providing many jobs supporting many business's. Very few places can boast that, and one place I can think of has seen its ex pat community fall from over 4000 to a couple of hundred in 5 years, and probably will fall again over the next five years. It just proves where one place has good ideas and goes for the tourist industry another place can shout about it, lie about it do nothing about it and still expect to do well.
Are your figures correct? It seems an odd coincidence to me that 'over 5 million' is the number for both expats and tourists alike.

'[expats]...organising events and including the local people,...'

How jolly decent of the expat community to include the local people! They must feel so grateful for this consideration. :|

Personally, I have no intentions to live abroad, but if I had I hope that I would be looking to get involved with events set up by local people and embracing what they offered rather than the other way round. I just never understand why people want to go and live in a foreign country and then not want to accept the very 'foreignness' of it, instead wanting to turn it into a replica of 'home'. But then I guess Cyprus is not really that 'foreign' to the British.

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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by Dusak »

Major Thom wrote:No not bored at all the speed I type can do what I have to do in 10 mins. Regarding giving people strength, do not feel the person stating they needs strength especially living where they do, and they also have all the moral support from the Luxor crowd too. It 5.35am I have been up since 4.00am showered and just waiting for my wife to get ready to start our daily 3 mile walk to Emba and back.
I have to admit though I do like a laugh before starting the daily good life, that's why you see my posts early in the morning and not in the evening. In the evening we are too busy out either dancing or enjoying a good meal at the many Taverna's.
Did you know over 5 million ex pats live on the island, most of them get on well together helping each other, organising events and including the local people, yesterday while relaxing in the evening with a JD and Coca Cola we encountered a rare sight one we have not seen for years, 9 aircraft in 2 hours coming into land a Paphos Airport, incredible. In July and August there were over 5M tourists visited the island. We gather the aircraft companies still want to fly here, we gather people from overseas see Cyprus as being safe. Maybe that is why over 250,000 ex pats live in Paphos alone contributing to the economy, providing many jobs supporting many business's. Very few places can boast that, and one place I can think of has seen its ex pat community fall from over 4000 to a couple of hundred in 5 years, and probably will fall again over the next five years. It just proves where one place has good ideas and goes for the tourist industry another place can shout about it, lie about it do nothing about it and still expect to do well.
Apparently not. These are the OFFICIAL expat numbers for Cyprus for 2017.

Cyprus Population 2017
1,189,303

Cyprus has an estimated population of 1.16 million in 2015, up from the 2011 census census of 839,000 and the 2011 estimate of 1.11 million.

Of the 1.16 million people in Cyprus, about 300,000 live in the north, although it's believed this number has climbed to 500,000, half of whom are Turkish settlers or Cypriot-born children of settlers. There is only one city in Cyprus with a population over 100,000. Limassol has a population of 101,000, with a metro area population of 185,000. Nicosia, the capital, is divided into the North (pop 61,000) and the South (pop 55,000).



Cyprus inhabitants are known as Cypriots. In 2001, the population was comprised of 77% Greek Cypriots, 18% Turkish and 5% other, with about 10,500 people of Russian origin in the nation. The Republic of [Cyprus is also home to about 110,000 foreign permanent residents and between 10,000 and 30,000 undocumented illegal immigrants.]
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Re: Penny wise...pound foolish

Post by newcastle »

MT's figures are completely cuckoo..

According to 2015 figures there were, in total, about 170,000 non-citizens living on the island.

Of these, Brits numbered 24,000.

http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/12/20/cypru ... across-eu/
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