Kokkinelli and the EU
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: UK
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Late 70's, crew party following a 2 week jolly to Cyprus. Co-pilots wife getting very giggly and unsteady on her feet.
'Ummm ... you OK B****? Do you need to sit down?'
'I think I am OK ... but this Kikkinelli - it has a kokk like a horse!'
'Ummm ... you OK B****? Do you need to sit down?'
'I think I am OK ... but this Kikkinelli - it has a kokk like a horse!'
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Mandria, Cyprus
Age: 69
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Came back from hols from the land of blinding headaches and kokkers poisoning yesturday. I can reassure everyone that if you go to Salvanas you can still get the king of plonks in an unlabelled bottle, (even got it free)
Had a chat with the staff, who must have been there ever since it opened. They were glad to see that the old customers were still coming, (been going there for some 30 years), but they still cannot understand why we insist in drinking the stuff. Most of the personnel that I have chatted with on camp this year hate it
Anyone remember the Gramby crew stops with the flaming Filfar?
Had a chat with the staff, who must have been there ever since it opened. They were glad to see that the old customers were still coming, (been going there for some 30 years), but they still cannot understand why we insist in drinking the stuff. Most of the personnel that I have chatted with on camp this year hate it
Anyone remember the Gramby crew stops with the flaming Filfar?
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Livingston
Age: 67
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Whilst residing in the small hamlet of "Wooty-B" down the road from the "Huge Wiltshire Airbase" (HTV's description - not mine) I was confined to bed with a raging flu! Whilst slowly dying in my pit I got a call from my mate Shug who had arrived on a "Snap Inspection" following a 12 Sqn Bucc detachment to Cyprus. I sent for an ambulance to take me to Swindon Station to pick him up! Lo and behold, he was carrying 2 large white plastic containers!
Well, after spending most of the afternoon, evening and early part of the following morning drinking the contents of the 2 containers, I awoke the following afternoon totally cured - it was a miracle! I am a strong believer in the medicinal qualities of this elixir of life! (and the containers are good for home-brew)
Well, after spending most of the afternoon, evening and early part of the following morning drinking the contents of the 2 containers, I awoke the following afternoon totally cured - it was a miracle! I am a strong believer in the medicinal qualities of this elixir of life! (and the containers are good for home-brew)
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: 59°09N 002°38W (IATA: SOY, ICAO: EGER)
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Akrotiri and Kokkinelli
Akrotiri bad boy
I had 2.5 happy years at Akrotiri in 1965-67. There was uproar when Big Arif and Little Arif raised the price of a kebab to 500 mils. Even after going on one of the regular tours of the Keo Brewery (arranged through the Cpl's Club) we still drank draught Keo. And who remembers the Limassol Wine Festivals - your entrance fee included a free bottle and glass (both empty) which you took around to "taste" the free wine samples. Sadly I never, ever managed to return to base with either bottle or glass. Getting into Limassol meant either about 150 mils for the bus (shared with local Cypriots, goats, sheep etc) or 1500 mils for the taxi. I still remember a few of us wandering up a road in Limassol when a female rushed out of her house in her nightdress, screaming the place down because there was an intruder in her house. A local Cypriot police car happened to be passing so it stopped, jabbered away to the woman in Greek then jumped back in their car, presumably to pursue the intruder. Their car would not start so we all helped push the police car to give it a "bump start". No idea if they caught the intruder. Those were the days when the Cpl's Club hired a (Turkish) bus to go up to Kyrenia or Salamis on a Sunday trip; after negotiating the road blocks (Greek, UN and Turkish) there was always a stop at a taverna which just happened to be owned by a relative of the bus-driver - the bus never moved until everybody on board the bus had bought a drink at the taverna.
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney
http://www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
I had 2.5 happy years at Akrotiri in 1965-67. There was uproar when Big Arif and Little Arif raised the price of a kebab to 500 mils. Even after going on one of the regular tours of the Keo Brewery (arranged through the Cpl's Club) we still drank draught Keo. And who remembers the Limassol Wine Festivals - your entrance fee included a free bottle and glass (both empty) which you took around to "taste" the free wine samples. Sadly I never, ever managed to return to base with either bottle or glass. Getting into Limassol meant either about 150 mils for the bus (shared with local Cypriots, goats, sheep etc) or 1500 mils for the taxi. I still remember a few of us wandering up a road in Limassol when a female rushed out of her house in her nightdress, screaming the place down because there was an intruder in her house. A local Cypriot police car happened to be passing so it stopped, jabbered away to the woman in Greek then jumped back in their car, presumably to pursue the intruder. Their car would not start so we all helped push the police car to give it a "bump start". No idea if they caught the intruder. Those were the days when the Cpl's Club hired a (Turkish) bus to go up to Kyrenia or Salamis on a Sunday trip; after negotiating the road blocks (Greek, UN and Turkish) there was always a stop at a taverna which just happened to be owned by a relative of the bus-driver - the bus never moved until everybody on board the bus had bought a drink at the taverna.
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney
http://www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Mr B. I commend you for your work of art description of Kebab night and I hearby start the petition for you to be the next presenter on the 'Holiday Programme'!!
Incidentally, the last time I was in Cyprus I bumped into Barbara Windsor filming for said programme and after a little chat and FBC super charm she told me that 'You have made an ageing sex symbol very happy'.
Of course, her eyes are not painted on and she is not made of wood
Incidentally, the last time I was in Cyprus I bumped into Barbara Windsor filming for said programme and after a little chat and FBC super charm she told me that 'You have made an ageing sex symbol very happy'.
Of course, her eyes are not painted on and she is not made of wood
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Kokinelli was free with the kebab when I started doing APC's in the early 80's.
By the time I got to the top of the overseas list in the early 90's it was a free bottle between two, and 50c ea for any extras.
Last week in Sylvanas, I was driving, so I didn't have a kebab, just the brontasaurus chop 'n' chips. My bottle of kokkers cost £2.30! Sat there with my missus, she fondly recalled 'Climbing up on Sunshine Mountain' as the table legs sank into the dirt floor untill we were 6" off the deck.
After 20 plus years of regular visits, I can recite 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' in Greek, which usually gets a reward of some sort. Especially if your confuse your Donkey (Urunaki) with your Pig (Graiduraki)
More than ever, if you are in a big group, you should negotiate what extras you can get before you tuck in. Free Flamin Filfars at the very least.
In the supermarkets, a litre of Kokkers is 85c (£1.00) in a cardboard carton. You can still get Demi-Jons, but not in the NAAFI. Orphanides in Zakaki sell them.
By the time I got to the top of the overseas list in the early 90's it was a free bottle between two, and 50c ea for any extras.
Last week in Sylvanas, I was driving, so I didn't have a kebab, just the brontasaurus chop 'n' chips. My bottle of kokkers cost £2.30! Sat there with my missus, she fondly recalled 'Climbing up on Sunshine Mountain' as the table legs sank into the dirt floor untill we were 6" off the deck.
After 20 plus years of regular visits, I can recite 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' in Greek, which usually gets a reward of some sort. Especially if your confuse your Donkey (Urunaki) with your Pig (Graiduraki)
More than ever, if you are in a big group, you should negotiate what extras you can get before you tuck in. Free Flamin Filfars at the very least.
In the supermarkets, a litre of Kokkers is 85c (£1.00) in a cardboard carton. You can still get Demi-Jons, but not in the NAAFI. Orphanides in Zakaki sell them.
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: 59°09N 002°38W (IATA: SOY, ICAO: EGER)
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My first contact with the truth about the NAAFI was in Akrotiri in 1965 when the airmen's mess announced they could no longer provide unlimited fresh fruit because it was "too expensive". This was when you could buy several crates of grapefruit for about under a pound (Cypriot).
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
I ran the mess shop. NAAFI gave us about a 5% discount and we could not afford to lower our prices or pay for the girl to run the shop.
I went downtown to the Chamber of Commerce. When they picked themselves off the floor laughing, they sent me to 3 shops. One was the main importer for smellies. He supplied NAAFI and gave me a standard 25% discount and special lines discount at 33%. I stocked a bigger, cheaper, range than NAAFI.
Another was a general merchant. He practically gave the stuff away.
Finally a stationers. Postcards £10 per 1000. You could not take photographs as good.
I went downtown to the Chamber of Commerce. When they picked themselves off the floor laughing, they sent me to 3 shops. One was the main importer for smellies. He supplied NAAFI and gave me a standard 25% discount and special lines discount at 33%. I stocked a bigger, cheaper, range than NAAFI.
Another was a general merchant. He practically gave the stuff away.
Finally a stationers. Postcards £10 per 1000. You could not take photographs as good.
Join Date: Apr 2002
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ISK 70's - Mr Bailey, HM C&E ( lovely man, no longer with us) always allowed "one bottle of spirits and one bottle of fortified wine"
Trick was to buy a demi-jon of Keo brandy and swap the yellow label for a red one, ie. Kokinnelli (wine) and buy a bottle of Keo brandy from the NAAFI
He would charge us £2 for the demi-jon which had a return deposit of £1 - Bargain!
Excellent fuel for making punch, starting hose-pipe parties and burning pianos
As an aside, about 1975'ish, "Which" magazine conducted a survey on Cyprus wines
The report said they would 'not put Kokinelli on the garden' as most people interviewed said "After the Barbie we threw out the dregs and it killed off most of the flowers and the lawn"
Trick was to buy a demi-jon of Keo brandy and swap the yellow label for a red one, ie. Kokinnelli (wine) and buy a bottle of Keo brandy from the NAAFI
He would charge us £2 for the demi-jon which had a return deposit of £1 - Bargain!
Excellent fuel for making punch, starting hose-pipe parties and burning pianos
As an aside, about 1975'ish, "Which" magazine conducted a survey on Cyprus wines
The report said they would 'not put Kokinelli on the garden' as most people interviewed said "After the Barbie we threw out the dregs and it killed off most of the flowers and the lawn"
