I never realised before how important heads are to Alice in Wonderland. One of the characters is a Mad Hatter, and of course hatters make hats for heads. Then there’s the Red Queen, who has a big head – both metaphorically and, in this latest version, literally – and is forever threatening to cut people’s heads off. Alice thinks the whole thing is a dream, i.e. taking place inside her head. Above all, Lewis Carroll’s classic (and its companion-tome, Through the Looking Glass) is a major head trip, not just a missive from the mind of an eccentric genius with a zany sense of humour but a very cerebral book of puns, paradoxes and mind-games in general... Read on

Meet Paloma. She’s 11 years old. She likes to hide, much to the despair of her wealthy parents. She likes tea and dark, bitter chocolate. She’s blonde. She wears glasses. She’s making a film – a kind of video diary – and describes each member of her family with brutal honesty as she turns the camera on them. She’s very clever. When a dinner guest makes the mistake of saying that Go (the board game) was invented by the Japanese, she corrects him – it was actually the Chinese – and expounds on the advantages of Go over chess (in chess, you must destroy in order to win; in Go, what matters is construction) for good measure. She’s the most annoyingly precocious movie brat in many a moon... Read on

In times of fiscal belt tightening choosing where to part with your hard-earned cash in Limassol is becoming more like a game of Russian roulette. While tourist areas offer favourable odds of finding a candidate for Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, it’s reassuring to know that there are restaurants that still manage to provide comfort and good quality food at reasonable prices.
Italian restaurant Il Sapore does exactly that; justifying its flavoursome name with some old fashioned quid pro quo by consistently serving up dining experiences surpassing those of many of its rivals along Ayios Tychonas’ tourist strip... Read on

Robin Hood pub in Paphos is in the middle of the tourist strip of Ayios Antoniou street, better known as Bar Street.
One of the long established venues on the street, it opened its doors in May 1995 and it’s still a great place to visit for a fun night out.
The wooden interior and themed exterior make it popular with overseas visitors, but as the owner Costas Arsinas is a well-known Paphos face, it’s also a hang-out for locals and visitors from other towns.
The pub has a relaxed vibe and a well established clientele mean that this pub is able to stay open all year round when others in the street have to close for the winter season due to a lack of custom.
Drinks are well priced and served with plentiful bowls of complimentary popcorn... Read on

Easy to resent the implied moralistic edge in An Education, a tale of a conceited little madam – a smart, restless 16-year-old in early-60s London – who thinks she knows better than her elders, and pays the price. But the film doesn’t underline the lesson, doesn’t overplay the whole scales-falling-from-her-eyes bit, and features a cast who consistently aim to amuse as well as make a point. Best of all, it has Carey Mulligan as Jenny (our heroine), a performance that hits precisely the right note – naïve without being clueless, sweet and sympathetic yet too headstrong and cerebral to be totally likeable, let alone victimised... 1 comment

Here are some of the bold, daring – and probably true – things you’ll learn from Agora. That the ancient Christians (the setting is Alexandria in the 4th Century) were similar in many ways to modern-day Islamists. That they had a squad of enforcers, the Parabalani, who patrolled the streets looking for signs of disrespect and blasphemy, exactly like the Taliban’s hated religious police. That – again, like the Taliban’s infamous destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan – they destroyed cultures and learning that didn’t agree with their own, in this case the Library of Alexandria. That many of the people we now know as saints were actually violent thugs... Read on

The Hokkaido restaurant offers a variety of Japanese original recipes and sushi - but the main theme is the Tepanyaki table arrangements which have a friendly 'cook in front of you' service.
It can be great fun sitting at what looks like the bar from Cheers as the cooks perform a show while they prepare your dish, and the restaurant has been a big hit in Ayia Napa since it opened.
The chefs have a great sense of humour and can be seen throwing eggs in the air, making pancakes and chopping vegetables in what looks like a TV cooking show – great fun!
These are professional cooks, specialising in the art of sushi and the elegance of the Japanese cuisine... 1 comment

You may expect that an evening at a bar in an upscale five-star hotel could be a somewhat sombre occasion, and would therefore be exceedingly surprised at how entertaining a night out is at Nubar in the recently-renovated Amathus Beach Hotel, Limassol.
In terms of deco and ambience, Nubar is uniquely chic but inviting, reflecting the hotel’s five-star status. Following the recent renovation, the beachfront wall of the bar has been transformed into a wall of glass that affords uninterrupted views of the hotel’s lush gardens and beach... Read on

 
The Old Town restaurant is the sort of place any of us would like to be able to call our local: a small, pleasing restaurant serving quality food with its own solid but highly definable character. My only problem is it’s in Polis and though a mere 30 minutes from my home only the thought of Evangelos Socratous’ cooking winkled me out of the house into a cold, dark February evening to drive this ‘death wish’ road, it was however well worth the white knuckle journey... Read on

The Brickyard in Nicosia’s Engomi is a strange old place. With a general ambience that’s hard to put your finger on, the bar seems nonchalant about its non-descript atmosphere and this impression of casual indifference works to its advantage, giving the whole place a laid-back, ‘come wearing your tracksuit’ kind of vibe... Read on