At the age of forty I decided it was time for a change in my life,so after nearly fifteen years of working in the car industry I needed something completely different.  That difference came when I took a holiday to a beautiful  country called Cyprus.  I had been to Cyprus on numerous occasions and had always been impressed with the weather and welcome you get from the local population.  With my numerous visits I had made some very good friends who had introduced me to many of the local delights from food to entertainment.  On one of these boozy nights out we went to a charming village bar which was owned by an elderly British couple who it turned out were looking to retire.  After talking to them for an hour or so I asked how much they wanted for the bar it seemed far to much for me and immediately lost interest.

The next day I spent recovering on the beach,but could not get this bar out of my mind. All kinds of thoughts were going through my mind on how to raise the sum required.  If I sold my house and with all my savings I found I would have enough to purchase the bar and live for at least a year without the need of an income.  When I got home my house was immediately put on the market and much to my surprise a buyer was found within days for a lot more than I had thought.  The sale went through without a hitch so i booked a flight to Cyprus and went back to the bar.  The couple were still there having had no luck in selling after two days of negotiations we came to a satisfactory agreement.  Now the fun started I had to go back to The United Kingdom hand in my notice at work and settle all my affairs, arrange bank transfers to pay for the bar and say my goodbyes to friends and family.

Within eight weeks I was the proud owner of my own bar,which in hindsight was kind of dum as I had only ever been on the front of a bar never behind it.  Just how difficult could it be,oh quite difficult the work involved for even a small bar surprised the life out of me.  As the bar was open from early morning to two am seven days a week I needed at least eight members of staff to keep it running.  Though we were always pretty busy wages,rent,utility bills all cut in to the profit margins.  Then I got a letter from the Cyprus tourist board that due to the size of my bar it was a requirement that i had a minimum of five parking spaces.  If I did not have private land I could use then I would have to purchase from the tourist board at three thousand pounds a piece the required parking spaces.  Due to the location of my bar there was no parking on the front in fact the only parking available was nearly a quarter of a mile away.