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Charity worker driven by a ‘beautiful purpose’
Helping the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed, one woman ends up combining the things she imagined she would be doing as a child. THEO PANAYIDES meets a charity case worker now consumed with the...
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Craft distillery to launch island’s first gin
“You’ve got to tell your story,” says Aris Aristidou, co-founder (with his wife Marianna) of Aristides Distilling. That was his philosophy when he worked in the US, trying to get big chains to stock...
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Psychiatrist talks mental health in a time of pandemic
In scary times it is important to actively take your mind off the news and coronavirus. THEO PANAYIDES meets a psychiatrist who says the pandemic is making vivid what was previously obscured and not...
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Former Special Branch cop on protecting the famous
Level-headed and even-tempered, a former special branch officer who has seen it all from the Brixton riots to IRA bombings is now charmed by the somewhat disorganised life of Cyprus, finds THEO...
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Art, anxiety and the stay-at-home lifestyle
Staying at home is not a massive change for a tattoo artist who leads an ordered and disciplined life. THEO PANAYIDES meets a woman who is candid and amused, locked down on the outskirts of Nicosia On...
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Bestselling author on the path to being a ‘happy workaholic’
After waiting 20 years for overnight success, one successful Cypriot author tells THEO PANAYIDES that the tidy narrative of his life now grew from a constant sense of unease as a child There are two...
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Writer and MS sufferer goes from praxis to poetry
THEO PANAYIDES meets a poet who used his diagnosis of MS to fight for and change his life, who now says that coronavirus is a chance for us to start a new way forward Savvas Varnavides is taking...
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Peyia expat combines local politics and spiritual matters
Backed into politics after spending her middle age in Peyia, THEO PANAYIDES meets a town councillor who ended up in Cyprus after travelling the world and believes there is more to us than our physical...
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Aspiring pop star keeps chasing the dream (with videos)
In a rising pop starlet, THEO PANAYIDES meets a millennial caught up in the whirl of her generation trying to monetise her passion, a journey that has seen her signed by large labels and shoot a video...
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Coronavirus: First day of post-lockdown in Nicosia (Video)
On the day when restrictions were finally lifted in Cyprus, after two months of strict lockdown, we asked a random selection of people on the streets of Nicosia about their lockdown experience. The...
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Epitome of post-war generation just getting on with it
From chaperoning the Sultan of Brunei’s daughters in swinging Knightsbridge to selling candles for Pasykaf on the streets of Konia – THEO PANAYIDES meets an outgoing woman with an independent streak...
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Instagram account highlights the words of Cyprus
By Theo Panayides Language separates us from the beasts – but also, alas, from each other. God came up with the Tower of Babel, but humans perfected the art of linguistic division and sub-division all...
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Author and chef is drawn to the life of the mind
Writing novels and cooking food provide one Nicosia resident with time to dream, time to think. THEO PANAYIDES meets a man in a state of low-key wellbeing with his own way of doing things I admit it...
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Epidemiologist handling the biggest crisis of his life
In one of the leading members of the government’s advisory team on coronavirus, THEO PANAYIDES meets a congenial scientist well known around the world for his work on hepatitis, who has spent the last...
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Cypriots across the divide (video)
With the checkpoints between the two sides of Cyprus having been closed, due to coronavirus, since mid-March – even though other measures have been relaxed, and even the airports have opened – a group...
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YouTube ‘Mother-in-law’ has a head full of stories
At the top of a steep mountain street, THEO PANAYIDES finds an unlikely star of the lockdown, a woman who brings to life a Cypriot stereotype born from a life of writing “I don’t know how many of you...
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Is this coffee cup racist?
With brands coming under pressure over racial stereotyping, we asked a selection of people in Nicosia about the venerable logo of the Laikon Coffee Company (Laiko Kafekopteio), which dates from 1948...
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How to be an independent filmmaker
Success in an industry now pretty much reduced to producing moving pictures for people to watch on their phones involved taking on a bit of everything, THEO PANAYIDES is told I’ve known Minos Papas...
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Do migrants feel safe in old Nicosia? (video)
After two murder cases in one month in old Nicosia – both involving non-Cypriots – we asked a selection of people on the streets if they feel safe in the old town. The post Do migrants feel safe in...
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Former businessman with a love of discussing ideas
From being a soldier in the invasion to a fishing business in Australia to a think tank with no set agenda, THEO PANAYIDES meets a man who has put his faith in dialogue Dinos Toumazos has a scar on his...
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