Sanders Blog

5th July, 2015

A long day and a long night. We were in Greece all of the time – well virtually. Lots of Greek friends were in touch – I even got a tweet from Skiathan Man! We followed every twist and turn even from our running machine at the Health Club. The one thing you can say about the Greeks is that they don’t lack courage. I still believed they would nudge ‘Yes’ right up to the point when a huge majority for ‘No’ was announced. Just shows how much I know. Now they have to live with the consequences.

6th July, 2015

We danced all night in Syndagma Square via CNN and BBC News, sharing the display of defiance with the revellers but silently offering thanks to Plutus. A 60% – 40% result will offer a dire future to our older friends and may well decimate Greeks wealth and property values but Greece has oscillated between far Right and Far Left, Generals and Communists, over a long history. It is unlikely to stop now. It is the chance of the Left to support the Poor and to tax the Wealth creators to pay for it. Oh hell!

Ironically, it is exactly one year ago today that a Greek gave us oodles of his cash for our house on Sifnos and we certainly wouldn’t have got that now. Even if we had, the terrible exchange rate would have severely reduced it and we wouldn’t have been able to get it out of the country. It may even have been sequestered by a desperate, left wing government. The British Government are issuing emergency advice to British travellers and to ex-pats who receive their pensions through Greek banks. British tourists are rejecting Greece largely but those go are advised to take lots of cash and all required medicines.

7th July, 2015

We have been through and stayed in Calais, France so many times since the 1980s and we have charted the rise of the ‘illegal immigrant’ problem as they swarm the roads, fields and parks in desperate attempts to board vehicles bound for Britain .

We have spent a great deal of time in Patras, Greece over the past fifteen years and watched the port become over run by ‘illegal migrants’ desperate to get on ferries to Italy.

Yesterday, we were utterly amazed to find the ‘illegal migrant’ problem had arrived in leafy Surrey. As we drove through West Byfleet, dodging the Mercedes, BMWs and Porches, we both drew the same conclusion at seeing a group of young men sitting on the grass verge and seconds later, we flagged a police Jeep down and he shot off to pick them up. Illegal immigrants in West Byfleet? They’ll be allowing citizens to chew gum next!

In the mean time, a meeting of all European Heads of State has been called for Sunday to co-ordinate the humanitarian aid the Greek people will need in the event of an exit from the European Union and the Euro and the collapse of their banks. The infrastructure is already collapsing. More and more enterprises in the private sector, from all fields and around the country, are telling staff not to come in to work, cutting their hours or even placing them on forced leave. Tourism professionals in northern Greece and on the Aegean islands have been forced to start accept transactions with international holidaymakers in their own national currencies. The cash economy emerging after the closure of Greece’s banks is beginning to paralyze the country’s vital olive oil industry as farmers demand cash for supplies that distributors are unable to pay.

Amusingly, the new Greek Finance Minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, who was expected to formally produce new proposals, arrived with three or four lines hand written on a sheet of hotel notepaper. The Council has demanded firm proposals by Thursday which will be agreed or rejected on Sunday. At that point a decision will be made one way or the other. 

8th July, 2015

A warm but windy day of sunshine and showers. I’m ashamed to say that this is the third consecutive day without a trip to the gym. I have been feeling a little under the weather although that is no excuse. Circumstances have also conspired against us as well. I will definitely do an hour and a half tomorrow.

Watched the Budget speech and analysis today. Public Sector workers are having their pay rises pegged to 1% per annum for the next four years. As a Public Sector worker for nearly 40 years, I predict a riot! People who retire from the Public Sector, like teachers, have their Pensions protected from the exigencies of inflation but tend to be left behind by the general growth in wages of the colleagues they have left in work. We have been retired for just over six years in which time pay has been frozen. We have gained considerably compared with our still working ex-colleagues. In that respect, there has never been a better time to be retired although investment income has been negligible. It looks as if we will more than hold our own for the next four years as well. Thank goodness we’re not Greek!

9th July, 2015

The world is an unstable place as those in Greece and Tunisia will acknowledge. Today, the Greeks are expected to submit their survival proposals to the EU. At the same time, the British Government is ordering the evacuation of British tourists in Tunisia. Lucky Brits enjoy sun, strawberries, champagne, Wimbledon and Test cricket. The contrast couldn’t be greater. We have some similarities. Kathimerini reports today:

Coast guard officers intercepted more than 1,650 undocumented immigrants off various islands in the Aegean within 48 hours.

and the BBC was announcing illegal immigrants running across the M25 in Surrey this morning. However the scale of the problem bears no comparison. The Greek economy is close to being destroyed. It is reported today by Reuters that some Greek banks have been so damaged by the chaotic situation that they may have to be closed and merged with stronger rivals. The big four — National Bank of Greece, Eurobank, Piraeus and Alpha Bank — might be reduced to two. The Greek economy is in ruins. We put hundreds of thousands of Euros through the NBG and Piraeus Bank.

My blood runs cold when I think of what could have gone wrong.

10th July, 2015

Wonderful day of sunshine and Test cricket. England set Australia a total of 412 runs to win with two days remaining. Can’t help thinking a bit more persistence and a few hours batting tomorrow could have raised that to an unassailable 500 but it should be enough. Greece are going to capitulate and agree terms that 61% of the referendum vote rejected 5 days ago:

• VAT or Sales Tax will rise to 23%.
• Tax reductions/exemptions for the islands will go.
• Measures to ensure tax on earnings is paid will be introduced.
• Preferential tax treatment of farmers in the income tax code will go.
• Introduce reform of the income tax code for farmers and the self- employed.
• Subsidies for excise on diesel oil for farmers will be abolished.
• Heating oil subsidies will be halved.
• The hated solidarity surcharge on earnings will be raised.
• Property tax rates will be adjusted upwards.
• Increase the rate of the tonnage tax and phase out special tax treatments of the shipping industry
• Reduce the expenditure ceiling for military spending by €100 million in 2015 and by €200 million in 2016.
• Raise the corporate tax rate from 26% to 28%.

Pension Reform

• Create strong disincentives to early retirement, including the adjustment of early retirement penalties
• Lift the retirement age to 67 years.
• Integrate into ETEA all supplementary pension funds and ensure they are only financed by own contributions.
• Increase the health contributions for pensioners from 4% to 6%.
• Broaden and modernise the contribution and pension base for all self-employed, including by switching from notional to actual income.

In addition, there is much on privatisation of major, state industries including the power industry and on the breaking of professional monopolies and freeing up of the labour market. Few advanced, post-industrial countries would find much to object to in these changes but one has to wonder what the referendum meant when all of most of this was roundly rejected.

11th July, 2015

What a lovely day – warm (26C/79F) and sunny and delightfully free of any pressing engagements. We did an hour at the gym but the rest of the day was given over to the Test Match. England really looked like a team and they humiliated Australia. Only rightly. Coincidentally, it looks like that is exactly what Europe is about to do to Greece. Today is the anniversary of our leaving Sifnos. I thought I would be sad but, with everything that has happened, I am just relieved. I just imagine how we would be feeling now in the current climate if we hadn’t sold.

28th June, 2015

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

William Butler Yeats: The Second Coming

For years we thought the Greeks were waving to welcome us but now, as I have been suggesting for some time and the world has come to realise, they are not waving but drowning.

It looks as if capital controls will be presaged by an ad hoc Bank Holiday on Monday. Very difficult times are ahead. This year’s earnings from tourism will be severely dented and next year’s may be even worse if the country can’t afford imports we’ve all come to rely on.

This evening, it is confirmed. Not just a Bank Holiday Monday but a Bank Holiday week and a half. The Banks in Greece are set to be closed until a week on Tuesday.

Very limited – €60.00/£40.00 withdrawals will be allowed from ATMs. You won’t see much spending going on.

29th June, 2015

A hot and sultry day. We were out early at the supermarket and then out again exercising to coincide with people having a second viewing of our apartment. It couldn’t have been a better day for it. The gardens looked wonderful and the rooms were flooded with sunlight. It is south facing and that is definitely a selling point. We hope to hear the outcome before the Greeks hear their outcome.

30th June, 2015

The last day of June reached 30C/86F in Surrey. It is forecast to reach 34C/93F tomorrow.We went strawberry and raspberry picking and then gorged on them when we got home.

Our estate agent phoned to say that the ‘second viewers’ of our property from yesterday were going to phone him to make an offer by mid-morning and a new viewer was coming all the way from Wales to see it in the afternoon.

As I write at 8.00 pm UK Time, the outside temperature is a sticky 27C/81F while I watch live reports from a very wet Athens. Just over a week ago, I wrote about the Greeks propensity for a deus ex machine ending and it looks tonight as if that is exactly what is going to happen. The European negotiating groups will meet at midnight tonight to consider newly submitted proposals by the Tsipras government which will be much more painful but acceptable to Europe. With one bound they were free… or not in this case.

1st July, 2015

Must be going gaga. Welcome July.

Sleeping on top of the bedsheet was the order of the night a la grecque. Temperatures didn’t fall below 22C/70F. At 9.00 am, we reached 27C/81F and, as I write at 10.30 am, we have reached 32C/90F. We are forecast to hit 35-36C/96-97F this afternoon and the media is just as bad as we have been used to in Greece each Summer. Just in case you missed it or don’t understand, hot temperatures mean you should drink more water and stay in the shade. I think I’ve got it.

Done an hour and a half at the Health Club and Pauline is now roasting Salmon with pesto crust, mushrooms, shallots and fennel. At 10.30 pm, the temperature here is 27C/81F and BBC News has announced that today has been the hottest July day ever recorded.

2nd July, 2015

Hot and humid day but not as uncomfortable as yesterday. We even had five minutes of rain this morning just as the gardener was about to start mowing the lawns. Fortunately, he was soon able to resume his work and leave pleasing stripes on the grass.

When we returned from the Health Club, soaked in sweat, tired and hungry, I collected the mail. One letter stood out with a postal frank of Burton Upon Trent. It was from a solicitor. He had handled the administration of my Mother’s estate when she died in 2008. It had included a parcel of Barclays shares that Mum had bought with the proceeds of the sale of Sanders & Sons on the death of my father in the mid-60s. Bank shares are in the doldrums compared with when Mum held them but I was shocked by my emotional response to the solicitor’s letter.

The legal firm were a partnership which I had never heard of but I was surprised to find that it had subsumed an earlier firm called Goodger Auden. This was a long established firm which dad had used. His solicitor was Colonel Auden throughout the time that I was conscious of such things. Colonel Auden was related to the poet, WH Auden, who went to school in my home village of Repton.

I found the cyclical relationship so moving that the cheque became irrelevant.

3rd July, 2015

Another seriously warm day. At 5.00 pm we were recording 27C/81F and rather humid. We did a quick shop and then decided to miss our exercise in favour of some garlic stuffed Halkidiki olives and a bottle of iced Pinot Grigiot which we consumed outside on the patio where we eventually grilled rump steak to eat with delicious Greek salad.

Talking about Greeks – which we weren’t – the nation are renowned for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They are doing it in spades this time. Their one hope of income for the winter is through tourism. What do they do? Destroy tourism. Spanish bookings are up more than 100% and discretionary bookings in Greece are massively down. All European governments are warning their citizens of the dangers of holidaying in Greece. If you only have a couple of weeks each summer, why would you risk it in a country where they may run out of food supplies, fuel for taxis and ferries and the ATMS are likely to run dry? Why not find your sun in Spain or Turkey? Lefteris Lazarou, a popular TV chef who was the country’s first to be given a Michelin star, told To Vima radio that tourists would be left furious and starving if capital controls continued.

Tourists are cancelling 50,000 bookings a day amid food shortage fears. Holiday bookings are down by 50,000 a day since the government’s announcement of a referendum and the introduction of capital controls, the Greek tourist association said yesterday. One in five bookings at Greek hotels is made at the last minute and sensitive to changes in sentiment, leaving the industry braced for a catastrophic downturn at the height of the season. Bookings on ferries to the Greek islands have fallen by 60 per cent in the past week, Andreas Andreadis, head of the Association of Hellenic Tourist Enterprises, said. Domestic tourism has been wiped out nearly to zero, Mr Andreadis added, as Greeks cancelled travel plans to stay at home or with relatives.

4th July, 2015

Lovely day that reached 27C/81F but without the humidity of previous days. We had a viewing booked for mid day so we went to the Health Club for an hour’s work. As we drove home, the estate agent phoned to say the clients had not been able to make that time and would like to come at 3.00 pm.. We quickly showered and went out so the viewing could take place. We were going to cook but decided to go to Waitrose and buy cold food for our meal after the viewing. We bought dressed crab, and two types of prawns.

We ate it with green salad which was wonderful with a bottle of ice cold Pinot Grigiot.

21st June, 2015

The longest day of the year – the Summer Solstice. It has been a bright, warm (rather oppressive) day quite typical of summer in Surrey. We both did an hour’s exercise in the gym after reading the Sunday papers.

Pauline slow cooked chicken in lemon, garlic and white wine and served it with roasted, peppers, fennel, asparagus and shallot. We are expecting another viewing tomorrow evening so the house has to be tidied. At 8.00 pm, Sainsburys are delivering ‘for free’ with an additional £8.00 discount all the heavy things we didn’t want to lug ourselves – Packs of sparkling water, giant bottles washing detergent, bleach, etc.. It’s good of them, isn’t it?

As the Greek crisis edges ever nearer to the precipice, The Sunday Times reports:

One of the many bloggers I monitor daily reports:

I hope a decision will be made so people can start thinking about tomorrow. Here on Skopelos I know firsthand that people have cancelled their holiday, others only want to pay for services with a card to keep the cash. People have taken their money out of the banks but there is still money in the atm’s.

And yet, one has the feeling that the Greeks, deus ex machine, will pull it off. Either way, it’s going to be a nightmare for years to come. As we move almost to the anniversary of our selling the house on Sifnos, we cannot stop reflecting on our great good fortune at escaping this sorry place.

22nd June, 2015

It rained over night and there is some light rain lingering this morning. I’m tired because I woke at 4.00 am and it was so light outside, I couldn’t get back to sleep until I put the radio on and the Shipping Forecast did the trick.

We’ve got a fifth viewing of our property this evening and are going out to exercise at mid day. Tomorrow is forecast to be hot and sunny and we are off to the South coast to look at some new properties.

Although the news from the Greek front is rather more optimistic this morning, this is the headline on the front of the Daily Express and the clever cartoon in The Times:

23rd June, 2015

We’ve got another property viewing at mid day so Pauline & I are going to the Health Club and leaving the tour to the Estate Agents. The morning has started mild but overcast. It is forecast to get better as the day and week goes on.

It looks like Europe will do its regular thing of kicking the can down the road in the hope that something will turn up. It will mean years more pain for the Greeks in the form of much bigger tax increases on much lower earnings. I checked prices on a Sifnos hotel this morning – not that I would stay there. It is old and the road noise outside is horrendous but three nights at the start of September are selling at Hotel Kamari on Booking.com for £76.00 including ‘free wi-fi’. In my view, it’s still not worth £25.00 per night but there can’t be much profit for the owners in that! At the same time, the proposed settlement with Europe includes:

VAT on food service up to 23 %

• abolishing the special status granted to Aegean islands (with a 30 % discount on VAT rates).
• an extraordinary levy of 12 % on 2014 business  profits, in two installments, one this year and one in 2016.
• a hike in corporate tax from 26 to 29 %, concerning the nearly 15,000 companies with pre-tax earnings of at least €100,000 per year.
• an increase in the solidarity levy for households earning at least €30,000 per year.
• the luxury tax increases from 10 to 13 % on things like swimming pools and big cars.
• against all hopes, the single property tax (ENFIA) will remain intact, while farmers will see significant tax hikes in their costs.

24th June, 2015

A lovely summer’s day – warm and sunny. We were out early on our way to St Peter’s Hospital in Woking. Pauline is having a CT scan. As we park and enter the delightfully new hospital corridors we are met by five separate members of staff from desk staff, porters in lifts, orderlies and nurses all who spontaneously welcomed us and offered to take us to our destination. We couldn’t have been better treated if we were in private medicine. Pauline’s appointment was for 9.30 am but she was seen earlier. I stayed in the waiting room with ‘free wi-fi’ reading my paper. There were only two others there. I got talking to an ‘oldish’ lady who seemed to be accompanying her husband who was also having a scan. He struggled to walk to the scanning room. I asked her, rudely, how old she was.

She said, I’m 96. He’s my son. I used to run a café in Kingston until 6 years ago.

She was fantastic for her age. In fact, she was fantastic for my age! She lifted my spirits completely. We have been to too many hospitals and to see too many doctors in the past five years. It’s got to stop. Having said that, I have to go for my INR test tomorrow and to see the ophthalmologist in Ashford Hospital on Friday.

While we were in the Hospital, I received a call on my mobile from the estate agent selling our property. The viewer yesterday expressed a desire to buy our home and wants to bring his wife for a second viewing. This is a positive development and comes just short of the anniversary of selling our Greek home. The auguries are good. They are not good for the Greek people though as Kathimerini reports:

25th June, 2015

A wonderful, wonderful day. Hot and sunny – 25C/77F – with blue skies and white, fleecy clouds. We were up at 6.00 am and outside the Woking-Walk in Medical Centre by an early 6.45 am for an official INR test. That done, we set off for the south coast.

Angmering was our first stop. It took about an hour to get there. The developers’ office had a temporary notice pinned up saying they would not be open until 2.00 pm which was annoying but gave us the chance to visit various amenities we wanted to check out. Angmering Medical Centre with its attached Pharmacy was very reassuring

and then the Virgin Active Health Club at nearby Rustington was very pleasing. Lots of equipment and not too busy. The David Lloyd Health Club on the outskirts of Worthing looks good too.

We found the Sainsbury’s Superstore at Rustington, the Waitrose and the Asda stores. We found a handy Dentist surgery. By the time we hjad done all that, it was time to go back to the site office of the house builders. We were back at our home before rush hour traffic.

26th June, 2015

A Landmark day! Hot and humid, our temperature peaked at 28C/82F. We did a shop at Sainsbury’s which totalled £105.00 but cost us nothing again. We had £5.00 cash-back and payed the rest in vouchers. At 1.00 pm, we left for Ashford Hospital for my Diabetic Retinopathy checkup. The Opthalmologist explained that I needed no further checks because my diabetes had been irradicated. He said I could have a yearly check if I wanted it. I booked one for June 2016.

As we drove home, our Estate Agent phone to say he now had two couples who wantrd to buy our property. One couple is desperately trying to raise more money to meet the asking price while the second couple is having a second viewing on Monday. I predict that we will be out of this property by Christmas even if we are not in a new one by then.

27th June, 2015

Hot and humid day – 25C/77F. We are forecast to be in the 30Cs/Upper 80Fs by Tuesday.For the third day running, we have not been to the gym. I will have to do an hour and a half tomorrow. Our meal was griddled Chicken cooked outside and eaten with Greek Salad. It’s ironic really but lovely.

Greece is falling apart! It is not surprising but the Europeans didn’t expect them to be so tough. Whatever happens, Greece will be in decline for many years to come. Stavros & Sarah have gone from dreams of millionaire status to relative poverty in just five years.  Their kids will have to leave Greece if they want a future. The future of all our island friends is far more precarious today than it was in the early years when we first bought land there.

14th June, 2015

Almost mid-June and the morning is warm with light, fine rain. The gardens are desperate for it. Greeks would pay for it – if they had any money! The news from Hellas just gets worse. Adult unemployment is up to 26.6% and youth unemployment has reached 60%. Despite optimistic voices, Kathimerini screams rather tautologically:

Rental rooms’ occupancy rates down up to 50 percent

Hotels like these on Sifnos cannot know if they will be still under the Euro before the end of the season. Can they provide consistent service in a turbulent economy? Why take the risk? Kathimerini’s next headline tells us:

Arrivals by ferry from Italy posted 14 pct drop in Jan-Apr

and we are part of that statistic this year although we have only delayed until the end of August but it is a sign of the times. If you add to that the immigrant problems that are swamping Greek islands, maybe Turkey would be a safer bet.

15th June, 2015

A warm (20C/68F) and rather humid day. Pauline had to go to the local surgery for tests. Her appointment  was at 9.23 am. I love that specificity! We were home by 10.01 am. At 11.30 am we went to do an hour’s workout at the Health Club and, unfortunately, missed a call from our estate agents who wanted to conduct an instant viewing. The will rearrange later in the week. In spite of the fact that I bought enough wine to last me nearly six months when we were in France, I have decided to abstain for at least a couple of months or until we leave for Greece. Our meals will now be accompanied by sparkling water for the next few weeks. The discipline will do me good and save a lot of calories off my daily total. So much of our cooking is al fresco griddling that the cheap, try-out model griddle we first bought is being discarded. We’ve now ordered a commercial quality machine from Lancashire.

It is incredibly cheap at £138.00/€191.00 and, hopefully, will go with us to our new house. In addition, Pauline has found a replacement for the table lamp shade broken recently.

It will only cost Foxtons about £50.00/€70.00. They should be grateful!

16th June, 2015

Warm (22C/70F) but hazy, humid day. Everything we’ve been doing is too exciting to mention – well, we cleaned the patio and watered the newly planted bushes. You see, I knew you wouldn’t be able to contain yourselves. An hour at the Health Club and another half a stone in perspiration has left me light headed in this humidity. Roast cod, roasted fennel and garlic mushrooms for our meal today – with sparkling water! Nice to see Barty Simpson back on line this morning.

17th June, 2015

Muggy morning. Our neighbour, General Vicky is coming round for coffee. She intends to put her property on the market this summer to take advantage of rapidly rising prices and we are having a strategy meeting to co-ordinate our marketing. It is also Prime minister’s Questions in the House so I will have to be at the Health Club earlier in order to watch it while I exercise. The British Government is offering advice to tourists to Greece today. Under a headline of

Treasury Braced for Turmoil as Fears of Greek Exit Soar

the message develops

There are fears that a Greek default could mean restrictions placed on money entering and leaving Greece, having ramifications for the financial services industries and causing problems for British tourists.

British tourists in Greece this summer will initially have to rely on their tour operators. However, the Foreign Office will be in touch with travel agents, providing advice to citizens on what to do about money, and may help if tourists become stranded.

It goes on:

What about civil unrest? There is the possibility that travellers may be held up by strikes or protests. You will not be compensated by an airline for any resulting delays or cancellations because such unrest is considered to be an “extraordinary circumstance” so make sure you take out travel insurance before you leave and ideally as soon as you book. …….

…….the Greek authorities could introduce administrative controls on people’s access to their money. Deposit withdrawal limits could be introduced, along with restrictions on the amount of money that can be transferred outside the country.

It is certainly not a happy place to be. It may seem life as normal on small Greek islands but only if one ignores the bigger picture which will certainly impact on them as the centre breaks down.

18th June, 2015

Warm day – 22C/70F – and just the day to go strawberry picking. We went to a local farm and filled two large punnets in just over 10 mins..

They looked lovley, tasted wonderful and it was only after we got home that we found we could have bought them more cheaply in Asda, They were charging us extra for the experience of picking them for ourselves. Back at home we received a phone call to tell us of two viewings on our property on Saturday. We then got ready for lunch with a group of Pauline’s relatives at the Maybury Inn. The food was lovely. Pauline and I had Calamari starter and Sea Bass fillets for main course. Really enjoyable.

I had to be at the Doctor’s Surgery by 4.30 pm to talk to him about my fainting/collapsing experiences lately. He told me that it was not only a feature of older age but my blood pressure tablets were no longer appropriate since I have lost so much weight. He removed half of my Doxazosin dosage. I now take very few drugs at all. I will remain on a Statin and Warfarin for life but the others will soon be gone.

19th June, 2015

A warm and muggy day which felt a little sticky and uncomfortable. We received a phone call first thing to say there are two sets of buyers wanting to view our property on Saturday and a South African couple – cash buyers – who want to come on Monday. We went out to Sainsburys to do our weekly shop and then on to the Health Club for an hour and a half’s activity. We finished with a Jacuzzi and a Sauna. A chatty man in the sauna opened a conversation and, when I asked him what he did, he told me he owned Ponte Vecchio a fairly local Italian restaurant in West Byfleet. When I pressed him, he told me he wasn’t Italian himself but Iranian. We came home and ate a lovely, cold meal of Greek salad, crab, prawns and langoustine tails. The front page of The Times today is echoed across all the

British newspapers and tv/radio news

People are being told that travel to Greece carries dangers. Tourists should not rely on credit cards. Credit controls may quickly lead to lack of fuel for transport particularly if they need to get to or leave an island. Kathimerini says:

Athens International Airport is extending an incentive scheme aimed at encouraging airlines to use the country’s main terminal during the winter into the summer, in an effort to achieve sustainable growth.

Christine Lagarde made clear that she saw the Greek Government as made up of juveniles. She said she needed to talk to adults. Having said that, we know that the history of Tsipras is as a negotiator who, in student politics, sought to do deals. Monday is going to be interesting! I certainly wouldn’t be so sanguine if we hadn’t sold last summer.

20th June, 2015

A day of patchy, light rain and cloud. Certainly the lawns could do with some water. As I write at 7.00 pm, the skies have opened and heavy rain is falling. We had to vacate the property for two viewings this morning. I accompanied Pauline to M&S and Tesco for a couple of hours. We didn’t go to the Health Club today and my body said, Thank you. It’s still bruised and aching from my passing out and fall in the car park recently.

All the newspapers carry some form of Greek Travel Alert. The Daily Express is typical.

  7th June, 2015

Sometimes life is really ironic. We are booked to go through the Eurotunnel tomorrow morning. Suddenly, last night Pauline was feeling unwell with post operative pain and discomfort. We were up at 1.00 am, drinking cups of tea and discussing whether to call out a doctor. We chose not to on balance and she is decidedly better this morning but I set off for the Health Club alone while Pauline completed the packing. I did a strong hour’s workout, walked out into the sunshine in the car park and promptly collapsed – falling headlong on to the tarmac. I suspect I was rather dehydrated although it was a bit disconcerting.

If that wasn’t enough, the BBC is reporting:

Two unexploded World War II mines discovered near the port of Calais have led to the cancellation of a number of cross-Channel ferries. The bombs, which are more than 70 years old, are of British origin and were found on the beach near the port. One, thought to be booby-trapped, cannot be moved. The operation to defuse the bombs will be carried out by divers from the French Navy. Roads into Calais have been closed and drivers are being diverted to Dunkirk.

We will see what happens. Maybe Calais won’t exist by the time we get there!

However, if all goes ahead, there will be a hiatus in the Blog for a few days.

8th June, 2015

A leisurely start this morning as we set off for Ashford and the Tunnel. It is warm and bright. Our train was delayed by an hour because of an ‘earlier incident’ but we were soon on and off and driving down to our hotel in Cocquelles.

We’d booked a suite for the week so that we could drive out to places of interest.

9th June, 2015

Our trip out today is to Lens. It has a thriving open market on a Tuesday. Unfortunately, after an unusually large, buffet breakfast and an hour recovering with out digital newspapers, we didn’t set off for the 60 mile drive until about 10.30 am. We arrived at just after 11.30 am to find the market traders just packing up after a hard morning sitting on stools, drinking strong coffee and smoking Gauloise.

They take me back to my smoking days in the ’70s & ’80s. It is thirty years since a cigarette touched my lips. I still have the cigarette box which had been my father’s, the cigarettes and the nearly new lighter I had when I finally gave up on November 14th, 1985.

We had intended to go on to the Lens Louvre but a fit of apathy overcame us and we did a ‘drive-by’.

10th June, 2015

Our second buffet breakfast in as many days and we are beginning to regret ordering them. Today we are going to Boulogne. We have been many times before but it is an enjoyable trip out – only 40 mins. from Cocquelles. The weather was hot and humid and rather tiring. We parked on the quay near the Fish Market. It was full of the most wonderful produce. I had my eye on a huge turbot (more accurately, he had his eye on me.) and there were crabs the size of dinner plates, langoustines and lobsters to die for.

The whole thing was very frustrating because we weren’t in a position to buy any because we had nowhere to store it over our stay. We did have a fridge in our suite but not suitable for a lorry load of fresh fish!

We mooched around the open market which is on Wednesday in Boulogne but it looked more a tourist trap than a proper market. Pauline popped in to a few clothes and shoe shops without finding anything she really liked. Ironically, we then went in to Carrefour to buy some food for a snack meal and Pauline found the summer shoes she had liked last year in lots of different colours and bought five pairs.

Last year she bought two pairs for Elerania and sent them to Sifnos because she had admired them.

We went back to the hotel and enjoyed the grounds which were being tidied up by a huge army of gardeners.

It really is an enjoyable and comfortable place to stay. We have been using it for thirty years or so when it was originally a Copthorne Millenium hotel.

11th June, 2015

We got up for breakfast (again!) to the sound of torrential rain. It was very hot and humid. By the time we set off for Le Touquet – Paris Plage, the sun was out and the skies were blue. During the day, the temperature reached a sticky 28C/83F. We walked the sea shore and then the wonderful open market.

I was so moved by the beauty of the sea front that I snatched up my iPad to take a photo. This is it:

Realising that I hadn’t quite caught the core magic of the place, I took a second:

The problem with iPad screens in bright sunlight is that they are useless. By the time I got a grip, Pauline was using her phone:

After a long walk at the sea front, we explored the centuries old market full of enticing goods I’m not allowed to eat:

12th June, 2015

Throughout the week, I had been buying bottles of red Bordeaux to ‘try’ prior to buying ‘in bulk’. A couple of my absolute favourites were bought in Auchan – A St Chinian and a Buzet. You’ll notice that I was pretty Buzet by the time I photographed the second one – so buzet that I forgot the third one which is a Minervois.

Today we went out and bought fifteen cases of the stuff along with a freezer-full of duck, pork, beef steaks, rabbit joints plus olive oil, mustard and fresh fish including cod loins, whole salmon, crab and langoustine. Should keep us going over the weekend!

We drove back to the Tunnel with the car laden down. A lovely journey home apart from the M25 had a 2 mile hold-up because of an accident. After unloading the car, everything had to be put away neatly because estate agents are conducting a viewing of our apartment tomorrow.

13th June, 2015

We had to get back yesterday because Pauline has a hospital appointment with a consultant at Ashford hospital this morning. We had to be there for 10.30 am as we drove through Runneymede where they were gearing up for Magna Carta celebrations for its 800th anniversary. The hospital at Ashford is new, shining and almost fully automated.

You check-in by machine, sit in front of screens which flash up when you are to be seen and where. Only then do you meet a human. In Pauline’s case, she has to have endoscopy which won’t be pleasant but will reassure her ultimately. We hope!

As we drove home, the estate agent called to say the viewer of our property had tried to open the lounge windows and had knocked a table lamp over smashing its shade.

Pauline was very upset. She bought this lamp in the early 1970s and had brought it with us to every property we have lived in. It featured in our wedding photo cutting the cake. It is probably worth very little financially but a huge amount emotionally. We are trying to source a replacement for Foxtons to buy for us. I have a feeling that it will be very expensive.

31st May, 2015

Farewell to May, 2015. Tomorrow sees the start of June or as Greeks know it,  Δευτέρα Πεντηκοστής, which will be a national holiday. Let’s hope they have something to celebrate. Maybe the tourist arrival will pick up! I wonder if the Sifnos meeting to coordinate the protest against VAT rises had any effect. Our friends there didn’t seem confident. The Greek Government are constantly telling the world that agreement with their creditors is close, has been reached will be signed tomorrow but it is almost entirely for Greek consumption. It is intended to dampen capital flight from the banks. Senior eurozone officials insist that both sides are still far apart in agreeing on the fundamentals of a cash-for-reform deal and say, The showdown is fast approaching and nothing can be ruled out. Very soon we may see staged capital controls.

Sundays are lovely – fresh coffee, newspapers, an hour at the Health Club and an hour or two of Test Cricket from Yorkshire. Who could ask for more?

1st June, 2015

Flaming June started with flaming rain and it was cool. It’s not a problem. We have a busy week and we are forecast to hit 29C/84F by the weekend. Had to go round to see Phyllis today to sort her email account out. Like us, she has switched away from BT as a broadband provider and is now having to pay £1.60 per month for the privilege of keeping her email address.

We meet the agent selling our apartment on Wednesday and have a lot of homework to do prior to signing the contract. We have to provide Freehold/Leasehold evidence, information about Ground Rent and Service Charge, Boundary maps, square footage and then identity checks for anti-money laundering purposes. This is all for selling not buying. We should be used to it. It is our fifth property sale. It is still demanding and stressful.

2nd June, 2015

Pleasant day but doesn’t really feel like the second day of Summer. Took Pauline for her hospital check-up. She is certainly looking and feeling much better but she is still bruised ten weeks after surgery. Watched a bit of the final day of Test Cricket from a reportedly bitterly cold Leeds. It was never likely to end well and it didn’t. Ironically, it was this day in 1975 that I was watching a cricket match on an old,  black & white television. It was high up in Derbyshire – Buxton – and between Derbyshire and Lancashire. The first two days were extremely warm – almost record highs – but this day forty years ago saw the weather change as blizzards of snow swept across the ground and my old television had a great deal more white than black.

Pauline joined me in an hour’s exercise at the Health Club. We have been considering our shares in Barclays Bank which were once priced up near £8.00/€11.00 in 2007, had fallen to £0.50/€0.67 and are currently at £2.70/€3.70. I can see no mileage in them for a long time to come and have taken the decision to sell them.

3rd June, 2015

Warm and sunny day that reached 21C/69F by afternoon. Because the property is going on the market in the next few days, Pauline stayed at home to make sure that everything was spotless and de-cluttered. I went to the Health Club and did a mega, two hour work out in the gym and the pool. I came home in time for a meeting with the estate agent we have appointed to sell the property. At this meeting, we tied up all the details and signed the contract. Tomorrow is expected to be a lovely, sunny and hot day around here so the estate agency have arranged for professional photographers to photograph the property inside and out, measure up and prepare a floor plan.

Some woodpigeons have taken to roosting on a ledge of our property. They poo in gargantuan proportions and it is disgusting as it builds up. Clapping doesn’t shift them at all and I daren’t throw stones for fear of breaking windows. I know that a daft Sifnian tried a bird scarer to adverse effect. A neighbour suggested a water cannon/gun. I researched it and found one on Amazon.

It arrived this morning. I’ve used it tonight and one blast got rid of the birds. Two hours later, there is still no sign of them. It fires a powerful jet up to 60 ft/20ms. This is Boys Own stuff. I may hunt cats tomorrow!

4th June, 2015

Well, one shot from the water cannon scared off the pigeons immediately. They didn’t return last night and haven’t returned tonight. I think it’s worked although I find it hard to conceive. Very warm night tonight on a day that reached 26C/79F. We sat outside for an hour but the sun was just too intense and too hot.  We were visited by the photographer who did all the work for the sales brochure on the house. Two sales executives arrived to familiarise themselves with the layout prior to conducting house viewings. I went off to do a couple of hours at the Health Club and then returned to take Pauline for a check up at the Surgery. Her recovery from the operation, which was ten weeks ago, has not been as fast as we expected. She still has bruising and residual discomfort and is being referred back for a scan.

The Greek government are toughing it out.

They are, nominally at least, defaulting on their payment to the IMF tomorrow and choosing to roll up all their payments until the end of the month. Even then, they won’t be able to afford repayment without a bailout. There is now a real risk of a ‘run’ on the banks. The concomitant of that will be a shortage of all the basics of life which will make a ‘holiday’ more like a battle.

5th June, 2015

Hot and humid day which reached 26F/79 at mid afternoon. We were having our first meeting with our dentist. It involved an inspection and two x-rays each and cost us £148.00.  No National Health practice availability around here in affluent Surrey. While we were at the dentist, our Estate Agent was conducting the first viewing of our apartment.

The Greeks are taking their task of attracting as many tourists as possible this season really seriously. Here’s a selection of newspaper headlines:

• The Daily Telegraph – Who will put Greece out of its misery? It’s time they left the  euro.

• The Independent – Greece crisis: Alexis Tsipras dismisses ‘irrational’ proposals for country’s debt repayment

• The Times – Tsipras turns to Putin and accuses West of sabotage

• The Express – Now British holiday flights face delays as Greek cash crisis starts to bite

I don’t think this is going to do it.

6th June, 2015

A warm day of sun and cloud which has reached 21C/69F at 10.00 am. We did a quick trip to Tesco, had the car cleaned while we were there and came back to clean the inside, check tyre pressure and oil levels prior to setting off for Europe.

Our Sifnos friends told us last night that the owners of our Greek house had applied in the recent Community meeting for street lighting to be installed near to the house. That’s exactly what we were planning to do this year but, with cash(credit) controls imminent, getting our money out of Greece was by far the best thing to do last year. We will be back soon to see what is going on.

24th May, 2015

Doesn’t time fly when you’re enjoying yourself! The last week of May has arrived. After yesterday, we needed a bit of a rest. Fortunately, May Bank Holiday is the focus for sport, sport, sport. Today, the Premier League has been completed with Hull being relegated. There are so many things from Hull that deserve relegation! Formula 1 Monaco saw Lewis Hamilton cheated out of a victory and, at Lords, the England team fought back to raise a challenge to New Zealand in the first Test match of the Summer. One of us had to do something today and it fell to Pauline to produce a meal of dressed crab, smoked salmonand salad.

Beautiful flavours for a lovely day! 2

5th May, 2015

Bank Holiday Monday. All the workers are still in bed catching up on beauty sleep. It means nothing when you’re retired. Up at 7.00 am as usual.Lovely day again although not too warm – 17C/63F  at 10.00 am and reaching 22C/70F by mid afternoon. We are going to the Health Club for a good workout and then coming home to contact estate agents to arrange valuations over the next few days. Next week, we expect to put the property on the market and then see how things go before we set off for Europe.

26th May, 2015

A much nicer day than we expected. We cooked outside and sat in the sun to drink a bottle of wine. Three Estate Agencies came to value our property. They were remarkably similar in estimate price which was reassuring and, although we haven’t told them yet, we have easily chosen one to represent us. They all told us that demand for properties is strong but supply of sellers weak. It is a seller’s market which is good. They were all confident of finding a buyer for our property within six weeks but told us that the period after that to ‘completion’ would be 10 – 16 weeks. This will take us to the end of October or beginning of November which is getting to the point where we want to be. We can go abroad without worry. I read lots of Greek island Blogs each day/week (see my side bar menu) and it has been striking that they rarely mention two, major, newsworthy items. I don’t really understand how they can so blatantly ignore the real world although I know from my own experience that island life creates a separate, isolated world somewhat insulated from reality. Islands can become like goldfish bowls where the actors begin to feel they are life’s major players rather than just goldfish. The Greek economy is rarely discussed other than very tangentially. One blog recently dismissed the discussion as so much hot air which would evaporate and life would go on as it always does. I suspect a rude awakening but, maybe, he will be proved right. The other news item that has been noticeably missing from island blogs even on the Dodecanese side is the influx of migrants washing up on Greek shores day after day this Spring. I suspect that both items are not considered conducive to tourism. I believe that the origins of the ‘Greek Disease’ can be found in this myopia. Ignore problems and they will go away. The sun will still shine. While the second proposition is likely to be well founded, the first is quite definitely not.

27th May, 2015

Gorgeous day which reached 22C/70F but felt much hotter in our sheltered ‘garden quad’. Pauline entertained the final two estate agents while I did two hours at the Health Club – an hour in the gym and a second in the pool/steam room/Jacuzzi/sauna. We then sat out with garlic stuffed olives and a glass of wine in the sunshine as we reviewed our valuations.

We have been in this property for four years although we’ve only lived in it for two. All five valuers are remarkably close in their evaluation this time. Quite astonishingly, the property has increased by 65% in that time. It has totally justified our decision to buy and move down here. We firmly expect to sell and move by the end of November.

28th May, 2015

Another lovely day. We did a morning shop at Sainsbury’s. Our bill of £118.00 was paid for by £100.00 of vouchers and £8.00 of bonuses. It cost us precisely nothing. The same will be the case for another five weeks of Sainsbury’s shopping whenever they are over the next two years.

We had intended to go to the gym but were so late back that we had other things to fit in. We have received the paperwork confirming discussions that we’ve had over the past couple of days with estate agents. Although their market valuations are fairly close together, their charges are quite disparate. One charges 0.7% of sale price, four charge 1% and one charges 2.25%. Rather counter-intuitively, we’ve decided to go with the most expensive.

We believe that they can squeeze more out of the market than the others especially with their offices in Central London. Owners who live here tend to walk the 10 minutes to the station and then take the train for 30 mins. to Waterloo. It is ideal for the commuters. We will soon see if our judgement and their confidence is justified.

29th May, 2015

We started off with rain today. Eventually, it became sunny and warm. It rained torrentially at midday but I was undertaking a two hour work out at the Health Club and just came out to find a very clean car in the car park.

The day didn’t start well. Pauline woke me at 5.00 am. She had been woken herself by a rapidly racing pulse. Her heart rate was 188/104 with a pulse rate of 103. For someone who was sleeping, that is rather alarming and, for Pauline, totally out of the normal. At 8.00 am, we phoned our Doctor’s Surgery and got an appointment for 9.30 am. Pauline was given an ECG and had a blood test. The ECG result was fine and the blood result will be next week. We were relieved to find that there was nothing alarming immediately.

The cost of selling a property is huge so it is a decision that must not be rushed. We made a decision yesterday, slept on it and had one or two questions for the agent we had selected. We phoned them and satisfied ourselves that we have made the right decision. We will meet them next week and sign the paperwork before going away.

30th May, 2015

A pleasant day – reasonably sunny although not particularly warm. We decided to give the Health Club a miss today. We did paperwork connected with the sale of the property. I also revelled in being able to watch the Second Test from Leeds and a rather one-sided FA Cup Final in which Arsenal thrashed Villa 4-0.

With news of thousands more migrants being plucked out of the Mediterranean in the past 24 hours, the controversy is having an adverse effect on tourism to Greece where tourists are complaining of streets littered with migrants particularly on Dodecanese islands. Righteous indignation from Greeks at the insensitivity of tourist complaints doesn’t sit too well with those who have saved all year for a couple of weeks of escapism. The Times ran an article today about the Greek islands but focussed on Serifos & Milos. Sifnos was conspicuous by its absence. They’ve obviously met The Poison Dwarf as well.

17th May, 2015

Woke up on this fine morning to find a huge fox sunbathing on the lawn at the fringe of our wood.

It was totally unperturbed about us but its coat shone in the sunlight. It was clearly healthy and well fed.

Pauline received an email to inform us that we had won the lottery again. It turned out to be only £25.00/€34.35 but it’s better than nothing.

18th May, 2015

A warm but distinctly damp morning which gave way to strong, afternoon sun. We went out to sort Phyllis’ broadband service out. It’s working now but the email address she was being offered is so perversely ridiculous that she is prepared to pay BT money to continue using her original one.

We spent a couple of hours doing something which were doing in Sifnos exactly a year ago. We were de-cluttering our house prior to marketing/sale of it. We’ve bought and sold five houses now and our routine is fairly well honed. It’s amazing how cathartic bagging up and disposing of one’s past can be. Actually, I’m going to rent 20 sq. ft. of storage space to get some things – including 35 large, framed pictures that I haven’t got round to selling – out of the property to increase the sense of space here.

We are going out to the south coast to re-visit a development later this week. Next week we will go through three estate agency valuations and make a decision who to go with.

As I warned some weeks ago, tourists and tourist companies are starting to take fright at the fragile state of the Greek banking industry. Bloomberg is reporting that Greek Bonds have tumbled on speculation that the government has really only days until the cash runs out and that German tourists, in particular, are now hesitating about committing bookings to the country.

19th May, 2015

This has been a strange day. It started off with a Thunder and lightning storm and was followed by huge hailstones. Later the skies cleared to brilliant blue with strong sun.

I was supposed to be going to the Health Club but, as I drove there, my head started going ‘gongy’ and I felt, briefly, disorientated. I had to stop the car and turn round and go home by which time the spell was over but it was a little alarming at the time. Pauline wondered if I had experienced a small stroke but I have no after effect symptoms. Pauline’s health is still not perfect. She has all the signs of being ‘run down’ with eye infection, mouth ulcers and still sore at the site of her operation. We may have to put Greece off until September. It will give us more time for house hunting/buying anyway.

20th May, 2015

Superfast Ferries have confirmed the current cost of our return tickets to Patras from Ancona. It is €1300.00/£930.00 which is more than usual in spite of  improved currency exchange.

We first travelled with them in 2000. This year, they are advertising the fact that it is their twentieth year. We certainly didn’t realise at the time how new they were when we chose them. Today, I booked our Eurotunnel crossing which remains very similar to last year in price. Britain does have – temporarily at least – sub zero inflation.

Pauline’s health is still a little fragile but improving. Today, she accompanied me to the Health Club and she did some ‘light walking’ for an hour. She got through it without mishap but was really feeling the effects afterwards. She also cooked the most wonderful meal for us today. We had casseroled pheasant with roasted fennel and shallots. I was in heaven. I was certainly pleased to have no follow on of yesterday’s health scare although I did get a nice text from Ruth referring to it.

21st May, 2015

A glorious morning with warm sun and blue sky. The gardeners are here already mowing the lawns and strimming the edges. We have a busy day. As part of our de-cluttering phase, we are going to the central refuse tip to get rid of weeded out waste. We are going on to book a storage room for additional but immediately unnecessary possessions. After a last Tesco shop for some time, we are going to do a Health Club session. After that, I can collapse in front of the First Test at Lords against the New Zealanders.

Enjoyed the first Test Cricket for 16 years. Lunched on Lobster and prawn salad with cold Prosecco and collapsed happy.

22nd May, 2015

A pleasant day of cloud and sun with temperatures around 19C/66F. We finally got round to renting storage space in Brooklands, Weybridge. It will cost us £102.00/€143.00 for three months.

We expect to need six months at the most. We will be taking a large collection of framed pictures and a number of huge, plastic storage boxes full of ‘stuff’ which we don’t want to throw away but won’t need before we move. The apartment will heave a great sigh of relief when they are gone.

Next week we will invite three or four estate agents to value our property. We are told that even average property prices have increased by £21,000.00/€29,500.00 since it was last valued. However, as soon as we have a valuation, we will make a decision about how much we want to spend on the next property. Most people of our age are looking to downsize. Not so many are looking to go the other way but we think it is the best investment for our money at the moment. We are going down to the Sussex/Hampshire coastal area later next week to look at property developments.

23rd May, 2015

Happy Birthday to Ruth – an excellent, if old, sister:

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look …
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.

W.B.Yeats

As she says, we’ll all be nodding by the fire soon enough! I feel like it now after the day we’ve had. It was like being back at work. Having booked the self-storage pod, we were up early and set to with a will, boxing up lots of ‘stuff’ that is cluttering our Duplex but we don’t want to throw away. Added to that, I stacked 35 huge and very heavy framed pictures that we brought from our Yorkshire house. We put the seats flat in our ‘4×4’ and filled it with ‘stuff’ and then drove the three or so miles to our storage building. It is an excellent, bright and modern facility hyper-controlled by multiple passwords, locks, lifts and CCTV monitored corridors. The owner, it turns out, is Italian who had owned a restaurant in central London and who originates from Puglia. This is somewhere we are keen to visit so we have pledged to stay connected to him for future reference.

By mid-afternoon, we had loaded and unloaded the car a number of times, set the locks on our storage unit and driven away just as light rain fell. There had been some rain at Lords but the cricket was still quite dire. We ate smoked salmon and prawns with Greek salad and collapsed exhausted.

Meanwhile, things have become so perilous in Greece that Kathimerini reports

 Tour Operators (and any sensible tourists will act with the same caution) after the drachma clauses seen in tourism contracts, are now forcing hoteliers in Greece to sign contracts with a Greek default clause.  ….. Furthermore, the financial terms of contracts will depend on the planned value-added tax hikes on tourism.

Their competitors are rubbing their hands with glee. To add the atmosphere of dangerous chaos, The Times runs a story this morning headed,

Greek hospitals run out of sheets, painkillers and cash to pay nurses!

In it they catalogue the parlous state the State Healthcare system has fallen into and quote an Athenian surgeon:

We are at a breaking point. There is no money to repair medical equipment, no money for ambulances to use for petrol, no money to hire nurses and no money to buy modern surgical supplies.

One wonders where this will end – particularly if they exit the European Monetary Union.

10th May, 2015

A warm day of sun and cloud devoted to the newspapers. Obviously the majority of serious newspapers were concentrating on post election match analysis.

To a left leaning voter like myself, it was blindingly obvious that Labour had deserted the centre ground. They had shunned – even provoked – business and seen a return to centrist, statist actions that belonged in the pre-Thatcher era. There can be no going back and that will include in the choice of a new leader. Social Democracy will have to be at the heart of the new party’s appeal to the electorate. It could be a long haul.

11th May, 2015

A warm day which reached 20C/68F. We did an early trip to Sainsbury’s in Knaphill and I then did an hour at the Health Centre. I timed it to combine with political discussion of Cameron’s new cabinet and Labour’s struggle for the party leadership. The time soon flies with gripping viewing like that. The warmer weather combined with my exertions meant I left dripping in sweat and hotter than the environment. We had a lovely, light meal of smoked salmon, prawns and salad.

Pauline has spent the afternoon ordering dresses on-line. She certainly needs something to perk her up. She is still at less than full health and vigour. It is amazing how surgery has affected her. It is almost eight weeks since her operation. We are champing at the bit to get travelling but can’t make arrangements until she is up to it.

12th May, 2015

Pleasant day of sun and cloud reaching only 18C/65F. Pauline spent her morning liaising with the Management Company for our Development while I exercised at the gym. We had fish and salad for lunch and planned travel in the next few weeks. Starting to feel a little hemmed in and missing our drive across Europe. Got to get going soon.

Will Greece still be open for business? Kathimerini reports this morning that, although Greece managed to cobble together a repayment to the IMF today,

it finds itself in a state of quarantine, as is anything related to the “Greek risk,” due to the ongoing uncertainty and the danger of a serious liquidity accident. Foreign banks and stockbrokerages have either drastically cut or altogether stopped conducting transactions with their Greek peers over fears of the complications an accident or capital controls would generate.

This is just one step from the Cypriot debacle when full capital controls left citizens unable to use cash machines and eventually limited to withdrawals of pitifully small amounts of money.

13th May, 2015

Absolutely gorgeous Summer’s day with temperatures reaching 24C/75F. We spent it busily visiting people and places before sitting out this afternoon. Drove to town for Pauline to pick up a dress she’d ordered but not before three others had been delivered to our door. Actually, she ultimately only liked two of the four. We spent a couple of hours at Phyllis’s house trying to set up her new EE Broadband hub but it ended in a frustrated call to EE who hadn’t completed the connection.

About 1.00 pm, we drove on to the nearest garden centre to buy a couple of ceramic planters and some lovely mixed lavenders to fill them with a bag of compost and a bag of gravel.

We got captivated by a large, white hydrangea and a similar blue one, threw in a yellow lupin and a mauve, Greek lavender and we’d spent £150.00. Still, it’s all in a good cause and they do express quintessential, English Summer!

14th May, 2015

The gardener arrived early, spent the morning cutting the lawns. I asked him to plant our new purchases. We went off to see Phyllis and try to get her broadband up and running. It is a simple business but I still couldn’t manage it. Eventually, we found out that the phone company

hadn’t done their job correctly and we just have to wait for that to be effected. It’s pretty poor service and rather frustrating. They would fit in as a Greek operator. When we got home, the gardener had finished his job and the skies had opened, watering in the new plants perfectly.

Pauline spent a couple of hours doing house work while I spent the same time at the Health Club – an hour on the treadmill and an hour in the pool/Steam Room, Sauna. Felt great when I got home for a meal of tomato & basil soup followed by roast chicken and vegetables.

15th May, 2015

We had the most wonderful, heavy rain last night providing much needed drinks to the natural world. The lavenders that we had planted thanked us with a fine display this morning.

The day has been mild and dry. We did an early Tesco shop and then some house cleaning and tidying. Pauline cooked a wonderful meal of roast hake with roast vegetables – onion, fennel and mushroom.

If you compare us with Greece, we have no concerns about the regularity of pension payments – our teachers’ pensions or our State pensions – which are never late and often early if a Bank Holiday or weekend intervenes. In Greece, Public Sector pay was paid mid-May but there are real concerns about end of May and June payments. Just imagine how that must feel! One wonders whether big-ticket projects like the new, Sifnos school will have the finance to complete and continue if the supply of central finance dries up. We know our island friends are very worried about the future.

16th May, 2015

Lovely, sunny and warm – 22C/70F – day. The grounds around us look beautiful. The lawns were striped on Thursday. Birds are singing everywhere and bushes are flowering in abundance. Pauline did some de-cluttering of the house (late Spring Cleaning?) today while I did a hard hour’s workout at the Health Club.

We use a Bank credit card that provides us with ‘points’ for each pound we spend using it. As everything we spend is done through our credit card account and then paid off at the end of the month, we rack up quite a collection of points. These points can be traded in for flights and its predecessor was the Airmiles company. They can also be traded in for commodities through named companies, sold for cash or vouchers. Last year, we used our points to buy return British Airways flights to Athens but it is an expensive way to do it. This year, we have already have amassed enough points to be sold for £350.00/€481.00 cash but, alternatively, we can buy £700.00/€962.00 worth of Sainsbury’s vouchers and that is what I’ve done.

It will pay our supermarket bill for a month which can’t be bad.

Conversely, Channel 4 News revealed tonight that they had obtained a copy of a confidential Greek government briefing paper which states categorically that, if they don’t receive additional bailout money in the next three weeks, they will be insolvent and then the banking system will go into meltdown. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

3rd May, 2015