Press Release 30/07-05/08/2012

This weekly press release is part of an effort to inform our citizens and the public in general about the activities of our Municipality.

Cultural Events

For more information call the Larnaca Municipality Cultural Department on 24657745 or 24629333

Construction work

The Department of Construction of the Municipality of Larnaca informs the public that between 30/07-05/08/2012, the following construction work will be in progress:

Works related to the extension of the car park at Mckenzie area.
Pavement construction on Tefkrou Anthia street.
Works related to the car park at the Port Authority.
Pavement repairs in Mesologiou street.
Premix works on Stavrovouniou, Ar. Valaoritou and Mehmet Ali streets.
Works related to the International Volleyball Championship.

Administration
Larnaca Municipality Administration informs the public that the following contests are in progress:

Contest. No. 26/2012
Service Provision:

Consultant, responsible for the creation of social street projects for the ATA program or the synergy of the administration authorities and MKO for the development of social street projects. 
Submission deadline: 31/07/2012 at 12 noon.

Contest. No. 27/2012
Supply of a new forklift 4x4
Submission deadline: 10/08/2012

Contest No. 28/2012
Supply of a lawnmower for mowing on the road separators and junctions.
Submission deadline: 10/08/2012

Finance Department
The Larnaca Municipality Finance Department informs the public that the Municipal Property Tax payment notifications for the year 2012 have been sent. Payments can be made at any Bank, Coop Bank or online via JCC.

As far as the Refuse Collection Tax, Corporate Tax and Business Premises Tax are concerned, the payment deadline has already passed and legal proceedings have begun.

The public should settle their payments to Larnaca Municipality on time and within the given deadlines to avoid added legal and court costs.

Sewerage and Sewage Disposal Works Department
The Department of Sewerage and Sewage Disposal of the Municipality of Larnaca informs the public that between 30/07-04/08/2012, the following construction work will be in progress:

·                     Gr. Digeni Avenue from the 1^st Apriliou street to Melathrou Evgirias street.

·                     Part of the streets: Kikladon, Tirnavou, Kalimnou (from the one way street opposite SPE Konteas to Katerinis street), Ksenofontos street to Faneromeni, Biktoros Ioannidi, Verenikis as well as two nameless roads behind the ESSO petrol station in Faneromeni.

·                     Faneromeni Avenue (from Othonos street to the traffic lights of Artemidos Avenue).

·                     Leonidou (From Thessalias to Faneromeni Avenue)

·                     Lasithiou

·                     Spetson

·                     Kefalinias and Karaiskaki

·                     Patron Germanon

·                     Apostolou Markou, Apostolou Louka and Loizou Filippou

·                     Skoufa

·                     Neokli Kiriazi

·                     Rodinou street

Visit the website: www.larnaka.com
 
Energy Team and Environmental Management Department: www.larnaka202020.eu
 
Contact: 24816559, 24816581/email: perivallon@larnaca.com
 
 

Translation kindly provided by

Eri Constantinou

 www.greek4kids.eu 

Make Healthy Eating & school lunch boxes fun

When: 5th September 2012
Where: American Academy Junior School ( New Building)
Time: 8.00pm – 9.30pm

Packing lunch boxes is a daily task of many parents, carers, spouses and partners. It can be quite daunting and tedious.  More often than not we settle for the old sandwich, crisps, or a piece of fruit, when it could be so much more than that! Join the LPN workshop and learn how to introduce new foods and add other foods in a simple and efficient manner. Learn how to make the most of your lunch box space, make it fun for your child and a creative outlet for yourself.  Use fun shapes, mini containers, include colour, variety, fun food picks! Add cut fruits without the worry of discoloration. Learn what to do year round and apply it to all family members.  Pack your own lunch, your spouse's lunch and save in the process.

Use the techniques learned in this workshop for family meals and snacks; to reduce fussiness and make it fun and interesting when introducing new foods.

Vanja Savva is the creator of the concept Emma’s Lunch mother of two adorable girls who used to work on Wall Street found her passion while documenting the activities she did with her daughter take a look at her Blog Emmas Lunch

LPN Mum Angela Ashby will be joining us to tell us about her Childrens Yoga programme (starting in October) her current classes & fitness for parents.

This is a Sponsored event and is free of charge.

For further Information about this workshop or Larnaca Parents Network

Email: info@larnacaparentsnetworks.com
Web: www.larnacaparentsnetwork.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/283131048424565/?bookmark_t=group

Facebook tips for LPNeures - Introducing the Facebook Business page format.

Dear Larnaca parents,
Welcome to our first article as official bloggers for LPN on using Facebook as a promotional tool for your business. We hope you'll find these fortnightly articles useful.

Whether you are on Facebook or not, this topic is really hot! 

Social media is officially used in any marketing strategy nowadays with Facebook being the fastest growing social network in Cyprus over the past year. Not only school children are on it, the fastest growing section of the population who are users are adults above 35 years old.

Parents use Facebook during their coffee breaks or at night time, after the children are asleep and they finally get to enjoy some 'me' time. They will browse their Facebook News Feed very quickly and they will enjoy some posts more than others. For those with friends and family abroad, the photo albums from far away will be the highlights, or that party they went to last week. Not always the Facebook friends have such highlights to share though, so most don't share anything or they share quotes or videos. During the last six months there has been an increase in the number of friends who share 'pages' of businesses or who invite you to become a member of a Facebook 'group'. The groups have been designed for a small number of people with a common interest as certain features become unavailable after the group reaches a certain number of members. Facebook recommends creating a group when you are targeting a small population. You can click on the following link for more details if you have a Facebook account. https://www.facebook.

com/help/?faq=155275634539412 

We believe the best Facebook resource for promoting your business is the Page format and we will explain why: You invite Facebook users to 'like' your page and they decide to become 'fans' themselves if they are truly interested. A Page can have indefinite number of followers, there are no restrictions on how many people can join. The Page is created and administered by people who own the business or who are appointed by the business owners, it can be linked to other social media such as g+, Linkedin, twitter and Pinterest or to an existing Blog or Website.

If your business doesn't have an internet presence then a Facebook page is the place to start: Facebook is free and will always be, it is very user friendly and it has more than 600 million ACTIVE users! This offers you a unique audience in the Cyprus context. If you don't get out there your competitor will so use the slower Summer days to set up a personal account with very basic information as a first step. You only need an email address, a name that sounds real and you can use to promote your business, so preferably your OWN and a telephone number that will remain private as long as you make sure that 'only you' can see it. You can set it up as private as you wish but you need an account to access any page or group on Facebook. 

Then you need to 'Create a Page' from your account or find someone to do it for you. If you get stuck at this point but you have a personal Facebook account, click on https://www.facebook.com/

GeekOroklini for a lot of tips and information on this topic.

You must think of:

1. A Profile picture that will be shared around the web. Size is 180 x 180 pixels and eventually reduced even further on thumbnail version, so make it simple and clear, such as using only the initials. For example, Sharon could use LPN on a profile picture for a page linked to this site (currently there is a group for LPN not a page)
2. A Cover photo that will be seen only by visitors to your Page's timeline and should be large, colourful and musn't contain URLs, phone numbers or promotions. A clear message that reflects the spirit of your business would suffice. LPN could have the coloured handprints that we are already familiar with and the full name: Larnaca Parents Network with or without a short motto like: A page with something for every parent in the Larnaca region, Cyprus. 
3. Other pages related to yours or that could be of interest to your 'fans' (followers) such as contributors to the page, health pages or community pages. These can be displayed on your timeline and it's a great way of collaborating with associates.
4. Would you like to display posts by others or not? Comments can be made even by people who are not fans since all the content in a Page is PUBLIC but they can only 'post' if you allow it on the page.
5. Are you going to administer the page yourself or are you going to hire someone to do it for you? You will need to post at least twice a day and check the page at least 4 times a day to deal with any engagement from your fans. Negative comments have to be dealt with a.s.a.p. and not just deleted as soon as they appear. Normally most comments are positive.

This is the backbone of setting up a page on Facebook to promote your business. It is very visual and it is perfect for mumpreneurs or dadpreneurs who create beautiful products or services: football training, fun lessons, baking, decorations, crafts, health, environment, you name it and if you can portray it with photos or graphics, then a Facebook page is the way to go. 

Apart from the photos, you can write and share 'Notes' with larger content that the normal 'Status update' and these must always be accompanied by a visual aid as it guarantees double the engagement than a post or a note without a visual would get.

You can also create Events, highlight posts, pin an important or informative post to the top of your page for up to a week (then you can repin it to the top or you can replace it with another post at any time you want - even before the week is over).

The idea behind the Page is to interact with customers or potential customers and build trust using a tool that wasn't available in the past. When fans write positive comments about your product or when people can just see what you do and 'like' it without having to buy it, then you get a whole new concept of 'window shopping' that will eventually lead to people having you in mind when they finally decide to buy or contact you for the deal.

It takes time and it requires patience. We believe that the financial uncertainty in Europe in general at the moment favours inbound marketing through social media and we wanted to share our knowledge on the use of Facebook business pages with you. 

Thank you for reading and more specific tips on what, when and how to post will follow.

Veronica Athanasiou

99 66 32 86

orokliniconcierge@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/GeekOroklin

Celebrate the Olympics at ELC

Why not pop down to the Early Learning Centre with your little athletes and enjoy the start of the London Olympics 2012.

Where: All Early Learning Centre Stores

Days: Thursday and Friday afternoon and Saturday Morning

Dates: 2nd, 3rd, 4th August 2012

Celebrating the Summer Olympics in London.

Early Learning Centre toy stores are organising a fun, sports-oriented 3-day event from Thursday August 2 until Saturday August 4. On Thursday and Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning children are invited to join the activities in all ELC stores: games, team play, recreation, arts & crafts and many more activities, that are all absolutely free.

It will be an afternoon with your little ones that you wont forget and maybe just maybe your little athletes will take home the gold medal.

Enjoy!

LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS

With the London 2012 Olympics opening this weekend, why not have your own Opening Ceremony Party and impress your guests with these easy to make cupcakes :) (Opening ceremony begins 9pm GMT on Friday 27th July)

OLYMPIC CUPCAKES

Ingredients

150g caster sugar

150g butter

130g self-raising flour

20g cornflour

3 medium eggs

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the buttercream

100g butter, room temperature

250g icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp milk

For the decoration

390g white fondant icing

Ice Blue, Red and egg yellow paste food colourings

Rainbow Dust Gold paint (purplecakes.co.uk)

Equipment you'll need

Deep muffin tin

12 paper muffin cases (Union Jack cases from cakecraftworld.co.uk)

Small writing piping nozzle or toothpick 

1cm, 1.5cm and 2cm tear drop cutters or you can cut the shapes by hand

Alphabet embossers or edible pen

Two paint brushes, one very fine for the embossed letters and one medium for painting the torch

Method

To make the cakes: Preheat your oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3. Place 12 cases in your muffin tin.

Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla extract until light and fluffy (about 5 mins). Combine the flour and cornflour.

Add 1 egg, one-third of the flour mix and a splash of milk and beat until just combined. Repeat until all the ingredients are added.

Divide the batter between the 12 cases and bake for 20-25 mins.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins before moving to a wire rack to cool.

To make the buttercream: Add butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl, then beat for about 5 mins with an electric whisk until smooth. 

Gradually whisk in the milk if you need to loosen the mixture.

To decorate: Colour 300g of fondant blue and roll out to 5mm thick. Cut 12 circles large enough to fit the top of the cakes (Victoria used a 6.5cm cutter), emboss 'London 2012' on each circle as you cut it. It's best to emboss immediately as the fondant will crack if you leave it too long.

Roll 70g of white fondant to 3mm thick and using a sharp knife cut 12 cone shapes for the torches using the circle cutter to cut the top where the flames are and the edge by the cake case.

Using the writing nozzle (or toothpick) emboss little circles onto the torch and stick it to the blue circles (toppers) with a brush of water. Using the gold paint, paint the torches and the embossed lettering.

To make the flames: Colour 10g fondant red and 10g yellow and lightly knead the two together so you get a nice 'flame like' pattern. Roll out to 3mm thick and cut out flame shapes using 1cm, 1.5cm and 2cm teardrop cutters or shape by hand. Arrange the 'flames' on top of the torches starting with the outside in, sticking with a brush of water, the smallest flames first, and the largest in the centre.

Spread a little buttercream over each cupcake and place a topper on each one.

Makes: 12

Prep time: 1 hr 5 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hr 35 mins

Enjoy!

Marilyn x