The Arrival........Day #4

Monday.

Start of a new week, and it is going to be a busy one I feel.

I was getting ready to head out, and I got a call on my Cyprus mobile, it was Cyta Engineer, he was looking for the villa to get the number off the phone connection box, he asked me to come outside and stand in the street so he could find me! He took a note of number he wanted and left just as quickly.

Banking

Starting off the day with a trip to the bank. Need to open a local account. Armed with a handful of paperwork, I headed into town. I was originally going to go to a branch out of town, but on the way there, for whatever reason went through my mind, I decided no, I wanted one in town. I think I had visions of it being more busy, being a smaller branch or being less equipped or I don't know what.

I remember where I had seen branches for the one I wanted, so headed off in that direction, and found it. Parked round the corner and headed in. There were the main teller desks and then there was another single desk, and she turned out to be the one who dealt with the account openings.

Sitting down, we went through everything, signed a million bits of paper, took photocopies of my bits of paper and passports and Qatar RP etc. And that was it, the account was open, she gave me an ID and a seal security envelope with a code to register for the digital banking and said I would receive my debit card in a week, so just come back to collect it.

Internet

While I was in the bank, I got a text message from Cyta, saying that the internet account was ready and to come and collect the modem. I headed back into the Mall, and picked it up from the shop.

Heading home, I went in and opened the box and spotted that the cable was your normal DSL RJ11, and there was no DSL filter in the box and all the sockets in the villa were standard BT. Checking the instructions, the box contents should have included a filter.

I had a choice of either going all the way back into Paphos, and into the mall and up to the shop etc. or take my chances and going to the computer shop in Kissonegra, and see if the had one. That was the option I took. Less hassle. Sure enough, they had one and it was only €5. Great.

Back to the villa, plugged it in, BINGO! we have internet........left it to stabilise for a few minutes and ran a speed test. Only getting 16MB. still better than nothing. No 50MB for me then. After having 100MB in Qatar, and 76MB in UK, and reduced now to this.....may have to invest in a WISP account later when the family arrive.

Later that afternoon Cyta phoned me and said they cannot achieve the 50MB I requested, but could offer me the 16MB contract, or I could cancel......easy choice at this stage!

Driving back from the computer shop, this cloud formation was building behind our hill. I was hoping for a thunderstorm, but alas, it never came to anything.

Shipping Update

Got the email from Qatar shippers with details for the Origin Charges. Fortunately I still have the bank accounts in Qatar, so managed to do a local bank transfer within the same bank, so it was over and done with quickly.

Also got an email from the local shippers, requesting my presence on Tuesday at the Limassol port to do the customs clearance for the container. Yah, progress!

Car

I requested a car insurance quote via a website, and they got back to me the same day with the price. I needed to get hold of my No Claims Discount, from my previous insurance in the UK. I logged into the website, but expired motor policy not listed, and nowhere to download the proof of NCD. I didn't fancy phoning the UK, and with no email contact details, I took to Twitter. I Direct Messaged them and they came straight back to me. I gave them all the info I had, Reg Numbers, current House policy number, confirmed payment methods and confirmed I wanted this emailing to me. and in no time at all, I had the NCD letter. Forwarded this to the Cyprus insurance company I was using, and then they phoned me to take payment for the policy and job done. I had car insurance ready going active at noon the next day. Received all the documents in the email, and forwarded the certificate to the Car Dealer and confirmed when they were open the next day.

A busy little Monday, but progress is good! Things are moving along nicely.