So much has happened since the Daxi awards. I’ll pick up our story on the day we left Cyprus. If this was a movie right now, I’d be advising a trilogy in order to do it justice but I should warn you the first part of this blog is not light reading. Our final hours in Cyprus were full of sadness not just because we were going to miss our family and the island itself but because of a dog and an old lady.
The Dog was a Pitbull cross which we first met on Sunday when we returned from the awards. A strong brown brutish looking animal that Taz decided he was going to trot over and meet. It was all over in seconds, a bit like all those Tyson fights years ago. One guttural snarl and Taz cowered giving us a ‘help me’ look. Michelle pulled him away quickly and we gave no more thought to who actually owned the animal as so many dogs roam free here. 24 hours later and Michelle and I noticed he was still combing the neighbourhood and one hour before we were due to leave for the airport our concerns were multiplying. He was lying on the corner and had gone from being a feisty bully to a soppy sausage. We had no time, but I hurried down to a local shop which has pet food in bowls outside it and sells clothes to collect money for animals. They told me there were 2 options : If we could persuade the dog to come with us, there was a sanctuary in a village about 20 miles away but they usually hold around 60 hounds and were full at Christmas; or the other option was to phone the municipality and the dog pound would pick him up and if he wasn’t claimed in 14 days they would put him down!
I trudged back up the hill to our house and knew there was no hope for him. He needed help now. Michelle had already laid some biscuits out for him but we could not be sure he wouldn’t turn nasty if we tried to go near him and time had run out. Our last sight of him was as he lay in the middle of the road. Whoever dumped him has a lot to answer for but we are told this is typical on the island.
As we headed out through Paralimni to drop Taz at Mick and Dee’s house. we came across a traffic jam: a rare sight since we arrived. I could see some commotion and a body lying in the road with a number of people milling around it. I opened the car door and headed for the scene. The body was an old lady who, I assume, had walked into the road and had been hit by a car. There was a lady sitting astride her and I asked if anyone had called an ambulance. There was no answer but a few people had mobile phones in their hands so there was a good chance it was on its way. The lady that was attending her was fiddling with her clothing and then I saw blood gushing out of the old ladies head and her lower leg had a nasty red stain. I said that we should at least try to roll her over to one side thinking that the recovery position would help whilst we arrest her blood loss but the lady attending looked up at me and told me she was a doctor. I took one step back and then another as a car tooted me out of the way. I did not know how to help and there were others in attendance. I backed away as the doctor began CPR thinking that someone should be at least compressing the head wound. Half an hour later I was angry at myself for not doing more. Although the doctor was dealing with the traumatic scene I could have assisted more instead of backing away. As we made our way to the airport the last few hours were rolling around my head. The sun was setting in its usual place, at it’s usual time behind the wind farms in Larnaca but for the dog and the lady I couldn’t be certain it wasn’t their last and I felt sure I had not done enough for either.
We checked in at the desk and was soon advised that the gate was open and we should board. The flight with Fly Emirates was excellent with such treats as take off and landing Cam, but we had to circle DXB airport for half an hour before landing at around 2 am. A bus waited for us and I’m sure that the driver was an ex-wedding car chauffeur as he decided to give us an extended tour of the airport in his London bus cast off : I’m sure we went round twice.
Welcome to Dubai.
After picking up our suitcases we were driven to our hotel in a taxi along the six lane motorway by Lewis Hamilton, not a speed camera in sight, finally checking our watches as we settled into our room. It was 3.30 am and having been shown some excellent service by the hotel staff I looked forward to a nice long sleep, little did I know that Michelle would be up, tigger-like, at 08.00am only a few hours later.
More to come in Part 2 including many miles of walking!