Sanders Blog

 6th June, 2010

Received an email from Jane (1) today:

Hope you’re enjoying being “home” and that house sale goes smoothly.

We’ve been v busy since the election and my strategy seems to have worked – no cuts in this year’s budget – but who knows what the spending review will bring. I am having to cope with the recruitment freeze which will begin to impact soon.

So I am glad to be off on Tues for a few days in New York with my friend Sheila. David is off to Singapore so can’t come with us. We’re flying BA – managed to avoid the strike – and staying at the Waldorf Astoria which I love. Plan to run in central park, drink cocktails in Grand Central, shop on 5th Ave and go to the Met and MOMA.

And I have ordered an iPad which will arrive for when I’m back – did think about getting it there but don’t want to waste time in apple when there’s so much to pack into 5 days! Will let you know when I am set up as I’ll probably use my personal email then as I can access it on the move. I haven’t previously bothered as my blackberry is connected to my work system.  Let us know how the house sale goes and when you are returning to Sifnos.

7th June, 2010 

We have been away from our Greek home a week already. It is still very muggy here but there are signs of rain arriving. The forecast on Sifnos is for a cloudless week with temperatures fluctuating around 27 – 28⁰C. In Huddersfield, we are expecting a grey, wet week at 16⁰C.Our buyers have had their mortgage offer confirmed. It is on its way to our solicitor. We have already signed the contracts. We expect them to sign towards the end of this week. We have said that exchange of contracts must take place on Wednesday, June 30th because we are flying back to Greece on Thursday, July 1st. We have booked the tickets. We have found a removal and storage company locally. Our next door neighbour will store one or two delicate items – TV, Computers, etc.

Wonderful story in Ta Nea (The News) newspaper this morning. It featured yet another workers’ protest and this photograph:The protest was about tax rises and pension cuts and the banner says: We Resist! Unfortunately, the protest was broken up early because rain began to fall in Syndagma Square and their resistance was broken.

8th June, 2010

We have been emptying draws and deciding what is worth keeping, what will we see ourselves wearing again and what must be discarded. Fifty shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt mostly at £40.00 a time. I must have bought double that number over the years. I was one of the early on-line customers in the late 1980s and they gave me great pleasure over the years but what use are they now? One hundred and fifty ties bought from all over Europe. Hanging on a dozen tie hangers, they represented my first dilemma of the morning. In the past twelve months, I’ve worn a tie twice. Most will have to go. Five pairs of unworn Oxford black all leather shoes. I wear casual shoes now almost all the time but I can’t bring myself to throw these out. Pauline is throwing out more shoes from her collection than I have worn in my whole career.

Arranged today with BT for our telephone and broadband connections to be cut on the day we go. Done the same with Sky. I’ve arranged our travel so that we will see all the ‘Last 16’ matches before we leave on June 30th in cluding England (winners of group C) against Serbia (runners up of group D) and we will be well settled in our Greek house before the Quarter Finals when we will probably be playing France. Very strange experience today that almost invoked one of my nightmares. For years I have occasionally had a dream in which I find myself on the operating table of a hospital where a surgeon is about to perform brain surgery on me. As I look at the scalpel, I begin to recognise the surgeon. Didn’t I use to teach you? I enquire with mounting anxiety. The surgeon’s face contorts with a sickly grin and I know at once that he is an ex-pupil of mine. That is when I wake up.

Today, I needed help with a large amount of money coming my way on the day before I leave for Greece. We will not be needing it for some time and I need help and advice in how to deal with it quickly. Pauline and I have done Private Banking for many years without really using its full potential. Now I needed it and I took out the contact details of our Private Banking Manager – one Richard Baines. Now that name rings a bell. I’m sure you are one step ahead of me and realise already he really is an ex-pupil of mine. I was his Housemaster. He was a very nice lad but not terribly bright. I’m going to be trusting most of my money to him until October. When will I wake up?

9th June, 2010

We’ve only been in this house for ten years as opposed to twenty in the previous one but it is amazing what we have accumulated. We have ordered a skip. This morning we found some very old photos in a drawer. This is me in the bath of our first house – circa 1978:

Our solicitor confirmed our sale and our completion date today so the sale is as good as complete. Opened savings account at Barclays and spoke to a financial advisor at Lloyds/TSB. The intention is to split the house proceeds between four institutions we can only jointly hold £100,000.00 in any one of them safely. The money won’t arrive until we are at the airport so our bank manager has to have accounts to put it in.

10th June, 2010

Today has been a defining day. We booked the Removal firm to take our goods to store. We were able to do this because our buyers agreed our choice of Exchange of Contracts date and Completion date. There is little now that can go wrong. (Famous last words!) The Removal Firm will visit us tomorrow with boxes and bubble wrap so that we can start the process of packing up. They will come in on the day and finish it for us.

We went over to Oldham to take Pauline’s Mum out for lunch. Pauline’s Mum had tomato soup followed by fish and chips as she always does. Pauline and I had salmon fish cakes on a bed of rocket salad which was delightful. Pauline then had strips of beef filet in a cream sauce which was excellently done and I had chicken breast wrapped in Parma Ham and Mozarella cheese which was clumsily done and a disappointment. We drank sparkling water and didn’t have a sweet. The bill came to £60.00 which Pauline’s Mum thought was disgraceful.

Another photo from that stash we found in a drawer. It says on the back in Mum’s hand: Sutton on Sea, July-August 1952 – John 1yr 4mnths.

In the foreground is me (I still wear that shirt.) and next to me I assume is Bob. I realised when I blew the photo up that it was Dad in the background playing a game with a girl who could only be Ruth. The only thing that slightly puzzles me is that, if the dates are correct, the oldest I could be was 1 yr 5 mnths and that would make Bob 7 months old. He seems well developed for 7 months. Any views?

11th June, 2010

A friend from school came over to say goodbye. Margaret was the school’s SENCO which, for the uninitiated, is the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. Pauline was her line manager and they got on well. We used the meeting as an excuse to have cream cakes with our coffee. Margaret brought a wonderful bunch of flowers. At lunchtime, we said goodbye with a real sense that we were going our separate ways and may never meet again. At that very moment, I find the concept almost unbearable but it soon passes. We move on.

In the afternoon, our removal firm brought twenty five boxes for us to start packing. We went out to Staples and bought 120 m of bubblewrap to do the job professionally.

12th June, 2010

A busy day today. Off early to Sainsburys then back to read the paper and get jobs done before the football matches start. Today I am going to document all the pictures we have hanging, take them down and wrap them with bubblewrap. We have about thirty or so. They are each about 1m x 1.5m and cost somewhere between £150.00 – £200.00 each. We have collected them over the past thirty years. We have already taken some to Greece but we hope to find space on the walls of a new apartment for most. The picture catalogue will follow next week.

30^th May, 2010

Terribly hot as we close up the shutters and walk down the road to the harbour to catch the ferry. 33°C feels incredible at mid day when you are carrying bags. Unusually, we had left the car in the garage and were flying to UK. Sweating profusely in the cafe, we order cold drinks and wait for the ferry’s hooter. When it comes, we walk smartly down the last 500m  to the jetty and Speedrunner IV. We hadn’t booked economy or even First Class. We had booked VIP Class which meant that we got leather reclining seats, smoked glass windows, our own waiter and complimentary drinks. We paid €150.00 instead of €100.00. The ferry was so packed it was worth it.

The ferry left at 17.45 and by 21.00 we were pulling in to the harbour. We walked across to the Metro station and caught a train for about €6.00 to takes to Syndagma via Omonia.

We had seats and the twenty minutes of the journey was spent looking for a branch of Leroy Merlin. I spotted one between Neo Faliro and Moscato stations and made a note. Unfortunately, by the time we had got checked in at the hotel, the restaurant had closed. We were so tired after the hot travelling, we drank a beer from our mini-bar with some salted nuts and then showered before falling asleep.

31^st May, 2010

8.00 am – Fantastic late buffet breakfast this morning: fresh orange juice, fresh fruit salad, bacon and eggs, croissants, wonderful fresh coffee. We won’t need to eat again until tonight. After breakfast, we return to our room to read the Sunday papers and check our email. Around 10.00 am we ask the hotel to call us a taxi and we go to the Leroy Merlin shop we had spotted on our way here.

How this shop gets any business? Even the Hotel concierge or the taxi driver had never heard of it. A French shop in Greece? Unbelievable. However, when we did find it, what a find. We will never be subject to the tyrany of the little island shops again. This place was one up on a huge B&Q. The tiles we were offered by the Sifnos tiler for the kitchen (only 4 sq. mtrs.) and the outside patio (200 sq. mtrs.) were in the €40.00+ region per sq. mtr. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the tiles alone would have cost over €8000.00. They weren’t even the tiles we really wanted but just what was available. The choice at Leroy Merlin was enormous and the price was less than half. The kitchen tiles were €9.50 per sq. mtr and the patio tiles were €15.00 per sq. mtr. This fantastic saving will pay for delivery and laying.

The employees of  Leroy Merlin are expected to speak French and English as well as Greek on a shop worker’s pay. The man in charge of the tile area was clearly in deep pain as he wrestled with his English but he was determined to do it. It made us feel ashamed. He took us under his wing and called for the best English speaker to accompany us as we went out in to the garden area where it was 20% discount just for one day. We bought a wonderful patio dining table and four arm chairs for €750.00. We were taken to the check out to pay for our goods and arrange delivery. A Greek-Australian was chosen to deal with us and take us through the process in that weird mangling of the English language that Australians use.

The temperature was a painfully hot 34°C as we moved out of one airconditioned superstore into another airconditioned superstore. This time is was the electrical giant, Kotsovolos which is owned by Dixons. We were after airconditioning. We chose and paid for our airconditioning, hailed a taxi and raced back to our hotel for a cup of tea and the Sunday Times.

1^st  June, 2010

8.00 am – Fantastic late buffet breakfast this morning: fresh orange juice, fresh fruit salad, bacon and eggs, croissants, wonderful fresh coffee. We won’t need  to eat again until tonight. (Notice the similarity with yesterday?) We are on Ermou Street in Athens. It is their Oxford Street and is within a hundred metres of Syndagma (Constitution) Square and the Parliament building. Pauline has been out shopping in Oxford Street while I stay in and write this. After all the walking yesterday, my legs won’t work this morning. We spent the day chilling out.

One nice discovery was a small, family run taverna in a back street. We had courgette slices  fried in batter along with garlic sauce as a starter. We followed that with roast pork and potatoes as a main course. After that, we felt stuffed but the family sent over a huge slice of watermelon as a sweet. We did our best, paid the bill of €35.00 and staggered back to the hotel for coffee.

2nd June, 2010

This morning we woke at 7.00 am, put the Greek news on to find that a transport strike has been called for tomorrow. Thank goodness we are flying today. Tomorrow there will be no buses, trams, taxis, planes, etc.. How lucky we have been. We have a shower and sing.

8.00 am – Fantastic late buffet breakfast this morning: fresh orange juice, fresh fruit salad, bacon and eggs, croissants, wonderful fresh coffee. We won’t need  to eat again until tonight. (See why I like this hotel?)

9.30 am – We set off for the airport. We will be in Manchester by 3.15 pm. We will be met by a taxi and taken home.

Good flight delayed about twenty minutes. Taxi driver picked us up in his Jag. and whisked us off to our (almost ex) home where we were met by our neighbours. The house still looked lovely which made Pauline regret selling it. She’ll get over it. We had no car so ordered a pizza and watched the news about the multiple shooting in Cumbria.

3rd June, 2010

This morning we woke at 5.00 am. It is 7.00 am in Greece and it will take us time to adjust. By 6.00 am we had had tea (no bread for toast) found the documents our solicitor wants relating to the house and still had three and a half hours to go until our car hire firm picked us up. Enterprise Car Hire arrived before 10.00 am and took us to their offices across town. After providing more examples of proof of identity than we needed to enter of leave the country and providing six signatures, we drove off in a new Vauxhall Meriva ‘Design’ MPV. It’s a bit like a wobbly box on wheels.  It has a 1.4 ltr engine which is like pushing a mule through treacle and it has manual transmission. I had cramp in my clutch leg before we’d driven the four miles home.

It is brand new but they told us for each small scratch we put in the painwork they would charge us £600.00. We immmediately switched the car on to our own policy which cost us a nominal sum and has no excess. We then drove to Sainsburys. What a joy. I bought English asparagus, a huge bag of mussels and some Jersey Royal potatoes. I can’t wait for dinner tonight!

4th June, 2010

Put on a suit and tie this morning for the first time in twelve months. It felt very strange but quite pleasant. Of course, I would choose the hottest day for a long time in England to do it. Went out to meet our Estate Agents and to put a face to the voice of those people we had been speaking to on the phone for weeks. The only thing we did learn was that our buyers had requested a ‘Buyers Survey’ but had only received a ‘Valuation Survey’.   They were not prepared to hold the process up for this but still wanted it doing. The surveyor is coming round on Monday. In spite of this, our buyers expect to have their mortgage offer confirmed over the weekend. Then we went on to our solicitor’s offices. He seemed confident that the whole process would take less than three weeks. That is exactly what we wanted to hear.

Although it could still all go wrong, I am beginning to look at flights back to Athens for the last week of June.

5th June, 2010

A warm and sultry day. We had torrential rain for half an hour last night and everywhere looks so verdantly beautiful, that we are walking round saying, “Why are we leaving here?” We are only saying it half seriously but that half has a point.

24^th May, 2010

Went into the village to buy the Sunday papers. It was absolutely crawling with tourists. We couldn’t understand why. They were mainly Greek tourists because they were in cars, causing mayhem. At that moment, Stavros walked by and told us that these people had come from Crete for two days. They were going back today on the new service from the Cretan-based shipping firm, Anek Lines, on Kriti 1. The picture below shows Kriti 1 in the harbour as cars queue to board. This is about as big a ship as our harbour will cope with. It isn’t a normal inter-island boat. It is the sort that we normally catch to sail down the Adriatic between Italy and Greece. Still, if it keeps coming to Sifnos, we might use it to visit Crete. We promise not to spoil Ruth’s holiday there in September though.

25^th May, 2010

Warm and sunny today but not too hot. Reading the Sunday papers (still) while listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 from the internet via wireless speakers in the lounge. It still feels incredibly decadent. After tea and toast in the lounge between 7.00 – 9.00 am with the radio speakers behind us, the Television News on mute in front of us and the Sunday papers in our hands we can indulge in this rich orgy of news media. It is absolute heaven. The Sundays – Times and Telegraph cost about €10.00 (£8.60)beween them. Today the new Times & Sunday Times sites are launched which will charge £2.00 per week for access but give more news coverage than before. They are free for the first month so we can try them. You can be sure we will be doing.

At 10.00 am we move outside on to the patio with our coffee and papers for another hour and then we drive up to Apollonia to arrange for our local Elinoil garage to order a new tyre for us. They say it will only take two days. Fantastic! Home for a lunch of salad, ham and blue cheese and then something we should have done long ago. We measure up the kitchen for tiles. When we go to Athens, we will order them and have them delivered to the island while we are away. We take photographs and measurements so we are sure of our colours and dimensions.

26^th May, 2010

We are just building up to the first heatwave of the season.  It has been 26°C today; predicted to be 29°C tomorrow, 33°C over the weekend and rising by Monday. We leave temporarily on Monday so it will be a hot couple of days in Athens.

27^th May, 2010

Before embracing the day outside, I had to address the problem of my internet contract. I have bought a dongle through which I can get reasonably quick (2-4 Mbps) broadband feed. I pay €30.00 per month for 5Gb of use. This is perfectly adequate even for an addict like me. Unfortunately, I have to do business through Germanos run by Eleni who speaks very little English. When I go on the web, I can do my business – monitoring usage, paying bill, etc – online. However, everything is in Greek and, although I pride myself on being able to read quite a bit of Greek, contract and technical language is important and difficult. Fortunately, Google have a fantastic translate-on-the-fly for webpages. Unfortunately, as with all translation software, it often makes absolute howlers.Today, I had to concede defeat and phone OTEnet to ask how to proceed. The operator immediately sorted me out in perfect English which he apologised for the poor quality of.

Seriously hot today. We spent the morning planting out lettuce ‘plugs’ that I had grown from seed and making sure that the automatic watering systems will work well while we are away. I have four timers each on an external tap with a hosepipe attached. Two have sprinkler systems attached to completely cover the vegetable patch and two control leaky pipe systems that drip around the bushes and trees.

After octopus salad for lunch, we spent an hour or so measuring the patio which goes all around our house so that we can buy tiles from Athens when we go.

It is about 200²m so the tiles alone will cost at least €4000.00. Still, it’s got to be done.

28^th May, 2010

Our Internet company sent us a bill but we didn’t receive it. We went to the Post Office to ask why. They said that they didn’t know who we were so they sent it back. I could pay on the internet but it will take them another month to sort that out. Everything takes so long here. Now I have had to drive up to Germanos shop to pay the bill manually – Can you believe it? Manually!

Co-incidence can be a wonderful thing at times. Sometimes not. I never cease to be surprised. I commented before that Pauline and I are inveterate planners, particularly when we are travelling. We have planned out trip back to England:

• Speedrunner – Sifnos to Piraeus (Monday 31st at 14.10)
• Tube to Athens – Ermou St, Hotel Electra
• Tube to Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (Wednesday 11.30 am)
• Fly Easyjet to Manchester (Wednesday 1.45 pm)
• Land Manchester 15.00 and met by taxi
• Picked up by Enterprise Car Rental (9.30 am Thursday)

All sorted – well, actually, no. Suddenly, as I say to Eleni at Germanos that we are leaving on Monday, she says that all Greek sea men are going on strike on Monday. We tear down to the Booking Office of Aegean Thesaurus and manage to change our tickets for the day before – Sunday – although we have to pay €50.00 more and go VIP. I joke with the girl that we will be VIPs for the day. She looks at me blankly and takes my money.

We rush home again and phone the Electra Hotel to book a third night on the Sunday. Because of the strike, I want another night at £180.00 and because of the strike, the tourists are deserting Athens in droves so I get my room easily. However, this is another example of how Greece bites you on the bum when you think you have everything sorted.

29^th May, 2010

Incredibly hot today. We spent it preparing for our departure. After that, we went out for dinner and drank too much wine – well it is the weekend.

16^th May, 2010

Received an email from our school. It’s not ours of course. We haven’t set foot in it for well over a year. In a few weeks time it will cease to exist. It is combining with a neighbouring school and reopening as an Academy on a new site. Well, that was the intention. All the remaining staff who weren’t lucky enough to be offered redundancy were officially given notice of termination of their contracts and had to apply for jobs in the Academy. Typically, of course, Oldham made a mess of it. First, the new building company hadn’t managed to acquire the site and the plan was/is to reopen in September on the split sites of the old schools for a couple of years. Next, the new Academy Head who had been appointed from Bradford resigned in disgust at the Authority’s organisation. The Authority, trying to deflect criticism, sacked the developer’s managing team. A new Head was appointed. A new managing team was appointed. A number of staff from both schools got new jobs elsewhere. A number were appointed to posts in the Academy. Suddenly, we hear that the funding may be withdrawn. It has already been frozen by the new Government.

The email we received told us of the stress and uproar amongst the staff and obvious uncertainty. Thank goodness we squeezed under the door when we did. I sent them photos illustrating our current state of stress and discomfort: me in the Greek Study and Pauline in the Greek Lounge.

17^th May, 2010

With two weeks until we leave the island, we are trying to do as much preparation work as we can. Pauline has been researching car hire because ours will be in our Greek garage. We will need one for about a month. I have been dealing with the Estate Agent and the solicitor. The couple have been back to the house and have agreed to buy most of the furniture and all the white goods. The solicitor contacts twice a day now about something. All this office work made us so jaded that we went out for a drive to a bay nearby:

18^th May, 2010

We want some more air conditioning. Stavros put a couple of units in for us – one in the lounge and one in our bedroom. Stavros is not really in favour of air conditioning. He thinks it is anti-environmental and a drain on the island’s electricity generation. Of course, he is completely bonkers in the head and everyone else around him is using air conditioning. Little George, Stavros ‘nephew, came back from a twelve month stint in the navy raving about the fact that he slept right through the night because the rooms had air conditioning. Stavros still won’t accept it. He thinks it is not only anti-environmental but unhealthy. Coming out of cold into hot and back is bound to bring on colds, etc.. As I say, he is completely bonkers in the head and we have sent for the electrician, Frangiskus, to advise us. In the meantime, we go on line to the Kotsovolos (owned by Dixons) site to look at prices. Our lounge and kitchen room is about 75-80 sq metrs. Our air conditioning unit is woefully small because that is what Stavros initially ordained before we understood the implications. We can buy what we need for €600-700.00 with free delivery. We then went up to our local branch of ‘Comet’ in Apollonia. The electrical shop is managed by Flora. The picture below shows Flora outside ‘Comet’ having just arranged her display of washing machines.

You can see Pauline likes ‘Comet’ or she did until she saw the prices of air conditioning units were 40% higher than on-line.

19^th May, 2010

We were in the Supermarket in Apollonia today and, suddenly, there was the most almighty explosion. I scare easily and dived for cover behind the sacks of flour. The girl on the till shrieked. Pauline pulled me up and explained that it was thunder. The weather forecast had been threatening this for days but hadn’t delivered. Our garden is watered by two sprinklers on timers four times a day and by two lots of leaky pipe. A downpour would be wonderful. As Pauline dusted the flour off my clothes, she led me reassuringly out to the car where huge drops of rain were falling. We were almost giddy with delight – me because I had survived the near-death experience and Pauline because, at last, the car would get washed and the gardens would be watered. We drove down from the metropolis to the port but suddenly realised as we did that the rain had stopped and been replaced by the normal strong sun. When we arrived home, we found our garden hadn’t received a single drop. Luckily, the sprinklers soon came on.

We feel rather overwhelmed by the amount of ground that we’ve got surrounding the house. It would take a lifetime to cultivate it. At the moment, we have just cleared a patch at the back of the house. Stavros has already planted a number of trees. The photograph below shows a pomegranate on the left and golden conifer on the right. Through the gap you may be able to see rows of:

Radishes
Lettuces
Rocket
Garlic
Shallots
Red and Brown skinned Onions
Carrots
French Beans
Broad Beans

Further down the garden, under the Lemon Trees, we have three different types of Potato, more Salad Leaves and Courgettes. I am having great fun growing them under these more challenging circumstances. I’m also growing Sage and Basil seedlings. It remains to be seen whether they will survive with just automatic watering while we are away for a month.

20^th May, 2010

We went down to the port ostensibly to have coffee in the cafe but really to chat to people to get information. We ask about cheap places in Athens to buy building materials. Christos, immediately directs us to the equivalent of B&Q. The French company, Leroy Merlin have begun to invade Greece.

21^st May, 2010

Friday today. The week has gone amazingly quickly. I only finished the Sunday papers a couple of days ago. These are the pressures of retirement. It’s a white knuckle ride. You just have to go with it.

We will have been on the island for five weeks on Monday. To celebrate, we went to the petrol station to fill up. Greece has gone from having the cheapest to the most expensive petrol in the European Union. To fill our car from almost empty cost us €70.00 today. That is £60.00. In Britain it would have cost us £50.00. The compensation is that it is only the second fill up in five weeks whereas we would do it weekly in UK. The other compensation was that we met ‘Famous’ at the Elinoil filling station. It is a family run place and we always go there. They sometimes hand wash our car. Everybody gets involved – two sisters, one husband and young son. The son, Apostolos, who looks a cheeky twelve year old is actually coming up to sixteen. There is a video of him on the internet playing folk music on the balalaika and singing. He has no interest in school but is passionate about filling cars up with petrol, checking tyre pressures and tinkering with engines. He does that while the women spray and clean the paintwork, vacuum and polish the interior. Husband, has jet black tusky hair and a huge, Greek moustache, helps with the final polishing. His other task is to take the small, oil tanker down to the docks to service the posh yachts that come in to moor for a day or two.

As for ‘Famous’? We met him/her sitting under an upturned fruit crate looking colourful and beautiful. After handing over two €50.00 notes for my petrol and receiving my change, I asked naively, ‘What is it? ‘Famous’, said Apostolos’ Mother. As I looked puzzled, she added, ‘Scottish’. Pauline, who is much quicker than me, said,’ Is it a grouse?’ Apostolos gave us a witheringly pained look and just nodded. I bent down to look and Apostolos unhooked a make-shift door he had created on the end of the wooden slatted fruit crate. The beautiful bird wandered out and came straight towards me talking all the time. The bird nuzzled against my hand and Apostolos smiled.

He thought his Grouse would know an Englishman when he saw one. After all, that’s where the whisky comes from. I hadn’t the heart to put him right. The bird was popped back into its crate-home and Apostolos flashed me a smile of pride as I said, ‘Goodbye’. It is moments like this that make the price of petrol irrelevant.

22^nd May, 2010

While you lot are barbecuing yourselves rigid in the unseasonally warm late May weather, we are sheltering from enormous spots of rain. They last five minutes and then the sun comes out. I spoke to Ruth last night by Skype and, when she worked out how to switch her video cam on, I found her drinking red wine in the garden. It was 7.30 at night (UK) – 9.30 pm in Greece- and already pitch black here. To cap the week, we tested our tyres this morning and found we had a nail in one. We pumped it up and drove it down to the local garage whre they yanked it out a stuck a plastic plug with adhesive in. I looked askance and pointed out that I would have to drive across Europe on that. ‘No problem’, the mechanic said and charged me €6.00.

As soon as we got home, I went on the AA website where it said:

Punctures in the tread area of the car tyre can often be repaired if the tyre’s not been driven in a flat condition for any significant distance.

Strict rules for car tyre repair – what can be repaired and how repairs should be carried out – are laid down in a British Standard (BS AU159).

One of the most important requirements of this standard is that the car tyre must be removed from the wheel to check for any internal damage which if not spotted could later result in sudden failure of the tyre.

Externally applied plugs and liquid sealants can’t be considered permanent repairs.

Before we fly to England, we will look for a supplier who can send a new tyre from Athens at great expense so that we can have it fitted when we return.

9th May, 2010 

Glorious day in spite of the results. Got up early and we gardened for three hours or so. Lunch was salad with garlic mayonnaise and griddled pork strips all washed down with a glass or two of Italian white wine. Delicious! We ate this outside under the cover of the pergola. Sunday in Kamares is quite a busy time because weekenders from Athens go back on the ferry. We watched the activity as we had our lunch.

After lunch I had a snooze as I pretended to watch the Motor Racing just waking in time to see Hamilton crashing out on his penultimate lap. In that time, Pauline made marmalade.

Then I had to watch the football while Pauline made king prawn risotto for our evening meal. It really is a hard life. After dinner, the sultry evening led us outside under a ceiling of stars. We had our coffee under the stars listening to the owls.

10^th May, 2010

Set out for the great metropolis this morning. I have to have my blood coagulation tested and the medical testing centre (The Baker and a chair) is up in the capital city – Apollonia. Below are two photographs of the busy hub of Apollonia:

The second shows men sitting on the wall waiting for the 9.30 am bus and the fish vans plying their morning trade. It used to be local fishermen selling last night’s catch. Nowadays, it is ex-fishermen selling fish they have brought in from Athens and which was probably primarily sourced from the fish farms of Igoumenitsa on the Peloponnese.  There is little fish to be caught around Sifnos these days.  The first picture is of Lakis coffee and sweet things shop. That is what the sign says. It has remained in this traditional style with the vine topped pergola and the metal sliding doors since the first day we arrived on Sifnos in July 1985. Could you take the pressure of surviving in this bustling city jungle?

11^th May, 2010

The weather is getting hotter here. Yesterday it was 28⁰C, today 29⁰C and tomorrow is forecast 30⁰C. Cruel, I know, but someone has to live through it. Went out early to get the result of my blood test and pay my €16.00 then home to read the Sunday papers. It is Tuesday, I know but I got these yesterday and will have to make them last all week. The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph cost me £10.00. You have to get your money’s worth. When I’ve finished reading them, they will be turned into fuel for the log burning stove with my latest contraption.

Will the weather ever be cold enough to allow me to burn them? April – October is not looking promising. Mind you, neither is Nick Clegg.!

The house sale is with solicitors now. We have sent a pricelist of house contents for sale – almost everything because we want a fresh start. The buyers are going round to look at it on Saturday. We will fly back to UK as soon as the solicitor advises. We have told him we will try to do a month – three weeks before the sale and a week afterwards. We will hire a car for a month and look for an unfurnished apartment for six months which will probably take us to the end of the year. We would hope to have found somewhere to buy by Christmas.

12^th May, 2010

The temperature continues to climb and I’m not talking about the Lib-Con stitch up. Wasn’t it nauseating to see Cameron & Clegg kissing on the Downing Street steps? The 30⁰C prediction was achieved. It was just too warm for gardening. Anyway, we had an email from our solicitor saying we have 6-8 weeks until completion date so we booked flights home. I had 65,000 air miles points through our Private Nat. West account and it took 63,000 of them for our flights from Athens to Manchester on June 2nd. We will leave the island on May 31st and spend two nights in Athens shopping. Having our car in our garage in Greece, we will have to hire one when we get to Manchester. We will need it for about a month. Anybody got a spare car for the month of June?

What are your feelings about ‘Danish Blue’? I remember Dad used to eat it with crackers and a bottle of red diamond pale ale for his supper in the Front Room with Mum after we had been sent to bed. I thought, eating Danish Blue was a sign of manhood. I longed to try it. When I did, I was nearly sick but I didn’t give up. For years now I have been celebrating my manhood with Danish Blue. (Well, I have occasionally cheated and bought Gorgonzola or Dolcelatte.) As a sign of the times on Sifnos, we can now buy Danish Blue in our supermarket. Today we had it for lunch with a green salad and it was wonderful.

After lunch, we went out for a drive to Chrysopigi. It is a beautiful little bay with a church built out on a promontory. Tonight, this church will be the centre of celebrations for the island faithful and then tomorrow will be a general holiday on the island. In the background of this photograph is the island of Kimolos. If you ask Sifniots what they think of Kimolos, the will say they have never heard of it and, almost certainly, few will have actually set foot on it. And yet, you can see it’s so close.

13^th May, 2010

An unbearable hot and humid day today. It feels like something will explode it is that close. We only went out today down to the harbour travel agency – Aegean Thesaurus (pronounced Agin Thesoorus) – to book our ferry tickets back to Athens.

We will leave the island on Monday, May 31st to go to Piraeus and Athens on the Speed Runner, a fast catamaran service that will get us there in just over three hours. We will go to the Electra Hotel and spend two nights. While there we will shop for garden furniture and outdoor floor tiles to have sent back to the island while we are away. On Tuesday afternoon, we will get the tube to Athens Airport and fly to Manchester.

Managed to watch England thrash Sri Lanka tonight. It was really enjoyable.

14^th May, 2010

Hot, sticky and uncomfortable today. Rain is forecast for tomorrow. For the second morning running we have gone into the lounge and heard noises in the log burning stove. On closer inspection, a gorgeous little bird with a bright yellow breast was pecking at the glass door and asking to be let out. Yesterday we panicked and went through all sorts of preparations – rubber gloves on, black plastic sacks in hand, etc, before we dared to open the door and Pauline grabbed it and released it chirpingly to freedom. Today we nonchalantly opened the windows and allowed it to fly straight out. I don’t think it was the same bird but, if it happens tomorrow, I will be interrogating it.

It is ironic that we leave the island in a fortnight for up to a month and our garden is growing so well. Lettuces, radishes, broadbeans, dwarf beans, carrots, onions, garlic and courgettes are all doing well. I’ve been up to the hardware store to buy another hosepipe and a timer to fit to the tap so that the garden will be watered six times per day for ten minutes each time. Now the potatoes are growing and the lettuces need planting out, I’m off to buy yet another timer.

15^th May, 2010

Although I don’t feel it much, it can be rather isolating and insulating living on a Greek island. In fact, the medical implications of that are too frightening to think about often. As someone in the cafe said the other day, We feel justified in not paying taxes and cheating the Government in every way because here we live on the edge. There is no hospital and only a couple of junior doctors. If you are seriously ill in the winter, you could have to wait three days for a ferry to Athens and, when it comes, it will take five or six hours. A heart attack means you die. If you can afford €1000.00 you might get there on time by helicopter if one is available but often it isn’t. Our compensation for our isolation is not ignore Athens.

Information & Communication Technology is changing things. This week I received emails from Ruth:

WAtching KP  in Twenty 20 Brill.! Election What Election.   Do not like the Sun newspaper but love the front page today …….I like our little chats on Skype.love to you both x 

and fron Jane (1):

Hi John – good to hear all well with you. The house sale sounds promising – hope it progresses well.

It’s been a fascinating weekend as you’ll have seen if you’ve been following BBC News 24. I remember 1974 as it was the 1st time I voted – I was at  university and had to go back to Repton. Easier now to manage my life as I vote by post.

Of course then we had to rely on the newspapers with limited updates from D Dimbleby – some things don’t change. Events like this emphasise the value – and downsides – of constant “news” since there is so much interest but so little to report. Somehow I find myself glued to it even though it was clear nothing was going to happen quickly. 2 of my friends are among the senior civil servants working with the party leaders to see if they can make a deal and they’re not optimistic.

Glad we went to Athens in March not May  we had several drinks in Syntagma Sq. Hopefully the volcano won’t prevent us going to New York in early June – but BA cabin crew may. We are going for a few luxurious days in the Waldorf, to go to opera at the Met, art at MOMA and shop on 5th Ave. I also plan to run in Central Park. So hopefully we’ll be able to go BA or get an alternative flight.

Have a wonderful time in your Sifnos house and hope you sell Meltham.

Jane

All other emails will be gratefully received. Poor old Portsmouth. They tried so hard.

2^nd May, 2010

Gloriously hot and sunny day today with a slight breeze. We spent it gardening in the morning and watching football in the afternoon. All across the valley in front of us we could hear cultivators chugging through Spring-warmed soil as islanders plant out their tomato, cucumber and melon plants. It gets very hot as you garden here and we take plenty of coffee and water breaks. With no real rain for two months already, the soil is bone dry. It is also covered with dying wild flowers. In order to clear them and fork over the soil, it is necessary to wet it first. I put the sprinkler system on for half an hour prior to working on the area. We are some of the very few people who can afford to do that here. Most people pay for metered water. We have our own, limitless supply. Another couple of days work and we will be sowing and planting.

We are continuing to work on our diet and it seems so much easier here. I am only drinking wine at weekends. Salads and cold, white wine are the order of the day. Today it is oktopothi salata or octopus salad. This is a piece of octopus boiled for half an hour, allowed to go cold and then chunky sliced with oil and vinegar. It tastes like fishy pork. It is wonderful. It is accompanied by olives from our own trees cured by Pauline over the winter.

Pity about the football. Bit of an anti-climax!

3^rd May, 2010

A day that started warm and became hottish at 26⁰C made gardening hard. By 11.00 am, after two hours of solid work, we were shattered. We drank a litre of water and then took a phone call from our estate agent. The second viewer decided there were just too many steps up to the house for their 84 year Mother who lives with them. The first viewer will present their mortgage credentials on Friday. They are also interested in buying some or all of our furniture & white goods. This is exactly what we want. We want a clean start in a new apartment with new furniture. There is nothing worse than old people trying to cram old and treasured furniture into new and smaller surroundings. Our pictures and our bed will go with us. We started immediately to do an inventory of the house contents.

It was such a lovely day and so hot that, after lunch we went for a drive to Faros, a small fishing village on the other side of the island. Went for a drive – it only takes 20 minutes if you drive slowly. We walked on the shoreline for a while and took some photos:

4^th  May, 2010

We decided to be sociable today and went down into the port village to have coffee at Cafe Stavros (which is owned by Stavros but rented out) run by Kristos. Kristos is just 30 years old. He was 5 when we first went to Sifnos. He recently got married to Eleni who owns and runs the Germanos outlet that sold us our Broadband dongle. Kristos has bought land to build a house.

The photographs above show the busy, Kamares High Street and Moshka’s white, delivery pantechnikon parked outside the ‘supermarket’. The photographs below were taken from inside Cafe Stavros looking to the roadside and the ‘supermarket’s blue doors and high-tec display areas and Stavros Travel Agency all below Hotel Stavros. You may be beginning to understand that Stavros has some influence here.

This afternoon Pauline has slow-cooked the shoulder of lamb on a bed of Apostoli’s onions and garlic mixed with thyme and rosemary from our garden and a bottle of red wine. Served with Dauphinoise potatoes, it was magical. Some of the left over lamb will be wrapped in phyllo pastry with slivers of feta cheese and baked in the oven. I can’t wait.

5^th  May, 2010

A day of total strike paralysis in Athens was marked by complete indifference on the island. Not only did they not strike but they were largely unaware of the rioting in Athens, of the attempt to storm the Parliament buildings and of the fire bombing of the Marfin Bank and the death of three bank workers. They were unaware because television journalists were on strike and there was little news on Greek television. Fortunately, we were able to watch the BBC news.

The mainstay of the Greek economy is tourism. Who knows what effect these scenes will have on the industry. Anyway, to more important things. I’m watching City v Spurs tonight.

6^th  May, 2010

An uncomfortably hot and humid day – 28⁰C at early afternoon – is not a day to do gardening. What did we choose to do – gardening. We have never been here in May before and we have been amazed that an area we cleared last September/October is now completely covered in wild flowers. They are wilting badly under the hot sun and lack of rain but even the dead material has to be cleared. We have been working away at it for a few days now and had enough clear ground to sow broadbeans, French beans, carrots, lettuces and radishes.

We have onion sets and seed potatoes to put in so more ground to clear and peppers and tomatoes in a week or so.

Stayed up just late enough to here the Election Exit Poll on Radio 4’s Election Night programme. It might be ten o’clock in UK but it is Midnight in Greece. As I fall in to bed, I excitedly tell Pauline the potential result. She tells me to shut up.

7^th  May, 2010

Soon after 7.00 am we are up to find that the BBC TV service has a full election results and analysis still going. With a cup of breakfast tea we sit and watch the results coming in. It is only 5.30 am in UK and everyone looks vaguely tired and jaded. We sit transfixed by the results until 3.00 pm only breaking off to griddle some chicken to have with salad for lunch. I am so glad we brought a bigger, wide screen television with us. We no longer have to strain for all the tickertape information going across the screen with the election coverage

8^th  May, 2010

A very hot but humid day today. At least 28C in the afternoon. We went to the seaside resort of Platy Gialos which is thronging with holiday makers in the Summer. Now it is deserted. It still has the sign welcoming us and the sunbed is waiting.

It was nice to get an email from Liz:

Hope you are all ok and safe despite the riots and the happenings in Greece
Looks like a revolution looming
Will the finance collapse affect you there ?
Hope you enjoy the elections from your sunny spot
Lv and best wishes to you and Pauline x Liz

Boulis, seen below herding his sheep down past our house for milking. He will die in the field with his sheep – probably aged 108.

We are not at all worried about the value of our property in Greece. We have had it valued at more than double what it cost to build already and a new law coming in about building on beautiful islands like ours means that people will need so much land to build a simple house, few people will be able to do it. The idea is to prevent density and over building.We have already had two people express interest in our house but a year or two will put considerable premium on it.

25^th April, 2010

Yesterday I was able to watch Manchester United beat Spurs quite comfortably in the end and then watch Arsenal get a poor draw. Today, after doing a bit of gardening to keep my body completely toned, I have watched  Liverpool win and Chelsea smash Stoke in to the floor.

Before we can do any gardening, we have to clear the carpet of wild flowers covering everything. It is so profuse it is quite daunting. I was hacking away at weeds and roots today when Pauline told me to stop because she could smell Rocket. As we moved the mound of wild flowers, there was my Wild Rocket bed from last year still growing on happily. All I have to do is water it.

26^th April, 2010

Up early this morning and off out to the shops. First we went to the Post Office to buy one stamp for a letter to England. It was packed. Our friend, Manolis, was in there. We had to stand in line for twenty minutes, watch the Postman record the sale of one 75 Cent stamp with pencil on paper before we could set off to the Farmakia. Our friend, Flora, is now working in the Farmakia dispensing drugs so we wanted to say Hello. Stavros has some apartments/bungalows/gites in Apollonia and we parked in his car park. When we went back to the car, he was there and suggested we went for coffee. Outside the Cafenion we sat in brilliant sunshine and drank coffees and chatted. A man who runs a hotel in Kamares came up to say Hello and I greeted him as my new neighbour. Stavros had told us he had bought land near us to build a home for him and his wife. He told us that they will start to build soon. This man is known on Sifnos as ‘His Mother’ because when you go to the restaurant attached to his Hotel and ask what he has that day, he always prefaces his answer with, “Well, today my Mother has made…..”

After coffee, we went down to see if English newspapers had started to arrive since the air flights embargo has been lifted. The answer was typically Greek – “Maybe tomorrow.” We proceeded on to a shop called Germanos. It sells mobile phones and mobile internet dongles. When we got there, we were immediately confronted one of those really frustratingly Greek red tape requirements. In order to buy a broadband dongle a citizen needs to provide four things: Name, Address, Identity Card Number or Passport Number, Tax Number.  We had the first three items with us but hadn’t anticipated needing our tax number. We received one when we were building the house but don’t know where it is. We drive home to search our computers and paper files. Eventually, I give up and phone Stavros. He rings me back in five minutes with the number and we drive straight back up to the shop with an hour to spare before it closes for lunch. The shop has closed early and won’t be open until 6.30 pm. And so Greek life proceeds – frustratingly slowly!

27^th April, 2010

The weather has turned windy and there is a chill in the wind. We have turned the under-floor heating up a notch in the evenings. We have not heard from Germanos about the internet dongle and there are no newspapers because of the transport strike in Athens. In fact, there are no new anything – no fresh vegetables, milk, etc. – because there are no ferries and no transport lorries. We are hunkered down in our house watching satellite television of demonstrations in Athens shouting We demand jobs for life. and Let Greece default on their debt. Let the Banks fail. They got us in to this mess. Don’t take it out on the poor, working people. The whole thing looks hopeless. We get a phone call from our Estate Agents with our buyers’ final bid. They leave us to decide. The decision is easy but emotionally difficult.

28^th April, 2010

We believe that there is still potential and appetite in Greece to default on their debt and trigger a run on the banks. We have £10,000.00 in the National Bank of Greece earning next to nothing in interest and decide it is safer to have it out and with us than in the Bank. When we go to withdraw it, we are met with lots of smiles and then we are asked to go to another till where we are asked for:

Our passport number
Our tax number
Our address in England
Our address in Greece
Out telephone number in Greece
My Father’s first name
Pauline’s Father’s first name

We have been banking with the National Bank of Greece for more than ten years and have put around £200,000.00 through our account. We have provided all the above information before and I am annoyed at being asked for it again. I get the impression that it is conditional upon our obtaining our money. I complain vociferously at every question. When they ask for my Father’s name, I say that he has been dead for fifty years. I offer my shoes size and the colour of my underpants. They don’t seem impressed. We fill out all the forms in triplicate but haven’t got our tax number with us. We have to go home for it – a fifteen minute drive – to collect the papers. We get up to go and, as we reach the door, the bank clerk says, Don’t you want your £10,000.00? We have misunderstood completely. We could have the money anyway. They were just updating their records. When the bank looks as beautiful as it does below, you can’t stay mad at it for long.

We move on to Germanos who have forgotten to call us to say that the dongle contract was ready. They help me set it up even though everything is in English and I could do it quicker than they could. We do it with my laptop on the wall outside the shop. The irony is that she runs a mobile phone shop but can’t get reception inside the shop. She has to go outside. This is Greece in a nutshell.

We take it home. I immediately try it in our laptop in the lounge, on the dining room table, in the study. In all of these places, the speed is so poor. I can’t even download all my emails. I am totally despondent. Pauline suggests taking it outside. Immediately, I get a good connection with excellent speed. We listen to Radio 4’s World at One (at three o’clock). Unfortunately, the weather has decided to blow a gale. I take it inside again and walk round the house trying it in every room. Joy of joys – the back bedroom provides perfect reception and internet speed. I am going to see a lot of this room. Using Skype, Pauline phones her Mum and talks for twenty minutes for 25p. The reception is perfect. We are using 3G Cosmote. We then phone our estate agent to accept our buyers offer. We are instantly homeless. We will bank the money and rent until we find somewhere to buy. We spend an hour looking through rental apartments and their costs. There are so many, it is impossible to choose. The first ferry for three days brings in The Sunday Times and the Monday Times. My cup is running over.

29th April, 2010

The Estate Agents email us to say that they have informed potential buyers that we are willing to accept their offer but that the house will remain on the market subject to their proof of financial probity. The weather is still rather cool and very windy. We did a little gardening but our heart wasn’t in it. We sit and plan what we need:

• Contact our solicitor
• Look for an empty apartment to rent while we find somewhere we want to live.
• Possibly look for storage firm for our furniture.
• Do an inventory of what is to be packed and what we don’t want to take with us.
• Look for flights home – maybe end of May/early June – to stay for a month or so.
• Look for cheap car rental for a month. Look for investment accounts for the money.

The apartments we were interested in in Surrey have all gone now but we will have to renew our search when we drive home (what home?) from Greece in October. We spend hours on the internet looking for apartments in Surrey & Kent. There are so many but most of them are poor quality developments. We are downsizing but we want quality. Particularly, we want quality of environment – a gated community, preferably, and near restaurants and a Health Club with a pool. We don’t want much: a good sized kitchen, a large lounge, two bedrooms, two bathrooms (one with power shower), secure parking. There may well come a time when we don’t want to drive to Greece and we will need to leave our car securely for long periods.

30th April, 2010

Would you believe it? We go a year without a single viewing. We knock a small amount off the price and we get an offer from our first customer. After haggling them substantially up, we accept and, two days later, someone else wants to view it. Our neighbour, Jean, emails us today to tell us that she is showing a couple round tomorrow morning. We hope this might spark a bidding competition. The property is still on the market (just) and anything could happen. Labour could retain power!

1st May, 2010

Everything is closed today but, as this merges so quietly in to strikes and other closures, who will notice the difference. It is getting a bit politically insensitive here to be a man who has retired at the age of 59 when new austerity measures are changing Greek retirement age from 53 to 67. Oh to be young again!

Lovely lunch outside today. Chicken salad with white wine. This bottle of delightful Pinot Grigio with a delicate, lemon tang was bought in an Italian supermarket and cost £1.27. If you bought it in Sainsburys they would scream ‘Half Price – only £4.99!’.

18^th April, 2010

The last leg of our journey. Get up at 6.00 am in our room in Hotel Patras Palace. Go down and settle our bill with two exhausted individuals who are obviously coming to the end of the overnight stewardship on the desk. We take our bags out to the car and then go back into the hotel to the top floor restaurant, totally glass-fronted overlooking the bay of Patras and all the ins and outs of sea traffic. We help ourselves to a hearty breakfast from the buffet tables – fresh orange juice, smoked bacon, scrambled & fried eggs, sausages, warm, crusty bread and deliciously smooth fresh coffee. To make sure that we don’t go hungry during our travels, we finish with croissants and apricot jam. All this at 7.00 am. Hard, I know, but necessary.

We drive out of the hotel’s courtyard at 7.45 am and set off to drive the 230 km from Patras on the Peloponnese to the port of Piraeus on the southern tip of the mainland. This road is known as the Attica Highway. The Greeks call it a motorway. It is the most dangerous stretch of road in Greece. If you drove it, you would soon know why. It consists of three lanes – one going each way and one that both ways fight for all the time. You can imagine the number of head-on crashes that occur. Not only that , if you try to drive at motorway speeds – 80 -120 mph, you suddenly come across a bend hidden by cypress trees that is so acute it makes your teeth rattle as you decelerate. As it is the main Attica Highway, it is full of heavy lorries. The shared, middle lane is the only way round them.

Of course, if you live through this first ordeal, there are greater things to achieve later on. From the Attica Highway one drives through the centre of Athens itself – a city where the phrases , Stop at the traffic lights and Oh no, after you Claude have never been heard. If you let someone get ahead of you, they think you are homosexual. If you stop to allow someone to cross the road, you are homosexual. And if you survive the virility test of central Athens, you descend into the Dantesque world of Piraeus where traffic lights are mere Easter decorations and left turns are death wishes

On a weekday afternoon, which is when we have normally driven this route, it takes a minimum of three hours to cover the distance. Sunday morning at 7.45 am, it took just 2.15 hours. Our hydrofoil left at 12.00 noon in boiling, hot sun. The crossing was swift and calm. We only made one stop – at Serifos – and we arrived on Sifnos by 3.15 pm. The house was decked out with wild spring flowers. They were everywhere. We lugged our luggage up the stone steps to the front door and collapsed, exhausted. It doesn’t seem to matter how enjoyable the journey, it is always exhausting.
We opened all the shutters – twenty pairs – and opened the windows, pulling down the insect nets, to allow the house to breathe the fresh mountain air after six months shut up. We put on the underfloor heating  in case there was any damp. The temperature was 26⁰C and, by the time we had unpacked the car, slotted the last bottle of the 130 I managed to fit in. I know that is not quite one a day but I am supposed to be cutting down and we will go out to eat at times so I think we will manage.

19^th April, 2010

Heavy rain in the night but we woke up to a beautifully hot and sunny day. We went out to buy provisions from the supermarket (I will show you this at another time.) and to call at the Post Office to see if our parcels had arrived. Unbelievably, it spite of the flying problems, they had. We got back to the house to find that Stavros had employed a day labourer, a young Romanian called Akis to do general menial work for us round the house and grounds. It was fortunate because he was on hand to carry the boxes up to the house. We largely spent the rest of the day unpacking and putting things away. High on the list of priorities for me was phoning Nova – the Greek equivalent of Sky – and having our satellite service switched back on. At the same time, I unpacked the flat screen television we had so carefully carried across Europe and installed it. It was lucky I did because I was just in time to watch a re-run of Arsenal losing in the 94^th minute to Wigan. I did laugh!

While I was watching that, Pauline did the cleaning. Seemed a fair division of labour. I am, after all, a new man. We have quite a number of lemons on our trees this year. We picked a few for the fruit bowl. You may see clues that the peaches and bananas were not from our garden

20th April, 2010

Thick, black cloud over the mountains around our house this morning when we got up at 7.00 am. By 10.00 am, it was hot and sunny and smelled so fresh you might eat it. Unfortunately, I am on a diet and I had to make do with a couple of cups of tea. We drink a Breakfast Tea mix first thing in the morning and an Assam during the rest of the day. We used to send for it especially from Whittards in Manchester but found Sainsburys sell an even better one. One of the calculations before coming away  was how much tea we would drink in six months. This is a vital assessment which, if underestimated, would reduce us to drinking those terrible yellow-packeted Liptons Teas. Tea  was one of the essential items that arrived in the boxes in the post.

In spite of fridges and freezers, it is customary on the island to go shopping for food every day. In England, we would shop once a week at Sainsburys, spending £100.00 – £150.00 and buying most things that we need during the week. The only thing we don’t buy is wine.  For two reasons, a Greek island and, possibly, the Mediterranean climate dictate different patterns. Quite a bit of the produce is locally grown. Everything that can’t be sourced on the island has to be brought in by sea – greatly adding to its cost. The weather means that fresh fruit and vegetables go off amazingly quickly. We might store potatoes and onions in Veg. Baskets in our kitchen at home and they will last at least a weak- probably two. Here they will be almost inedible in three days. The island location means that container lorries travel constantly between the island and Athens in order to supply the shops. Canny islanders know the days of the month when fresh chicken will be abundant on the shelves and when not to touch it because it has been there too long. In general, we all go shopping every day and buy what is freshest and available at the time – almost like the 1950s in Britain!

That is a long preamble to saying that we went shopping to the Supermarket yesterday, we went again today to buy fresh chicken, chicken liver, plaice, king prawns, smoked bacon, orange peppers, and lots of fresh fruit. We will almost certainly go again tomorrow.

21^st April, 2010

I’ve been drinking wine since the early 1970s. Almost from that point I’ve drunk at least half a bottle each evening with a meal. One of my early memories of Greece in the early 1980s was of a delightful, lemony white wine – a staple of the Greek wine industry – called Demestika. It was so cheap, even impoverished young travellers like Pauline & I could afford it. It was certainly cheaper than anything we could buy at home. Most of my early Greek experiences are filtered through a pile of squid and chips and a bottle or two of Demestika.

I have not bought a bottle of wine in a British supermarket for over fifteen years. We have tended to make twice yearly pilgrimages to the holy grail of Carrefour in France to buy our wine there. We have never run dry. Because of this, I had lost touch with UK prices until recent price wars amongst supermarket chains brought  flagged up wines Half Price at just £4.99! hey might be worth looking at – £10.00 wines for half price. When I looked, they were the very wines I have been buying for €4.00 in France and Italy. And then the Chancellor slaps even more duty on these imports from a ‘Common Market’. It is a nonsense. Well Greek wines have improved a little since the days of rot-gut Retsina but the average price of a bottle of wine on the island is €7.00. Living on a Greek Island is an expensive business nowadays – even for Greeks. Thank goodness I brought my own wine cellar with me from Europe

22nd April, 2010

From the start of the day it has been beautiful – a cloud-free day reaching  temperature of 25⁰C.  I have been very lazy. After watching the morning news show on Greek  Skai TV, I took my coffee out on to the veranda and read my latest book,  Modern Greece by CM Woodhouse. It is not what you would call a riveting read. I don’t lean over and say to Pauline, Hey you’ve got to hear this! It does help me understand a lot about the country I am living in and its people.  CM Woodhouse’s Modern Greece starts in 324 AD so newsworthy it is not. It has helped me understand much more quickly why the Greeks have always tended towards Russia rather than America, towards the eastern, Slav states rather than western countries such as France and Britain. Essentially Greeks are Slavonic in origin.

Although present day Greece is showing real signs of disassociating Orthodox Christianity from the body politic, it is still highly visible throughout society as it was in Britain even in the first half of the last century and still appears to be in Southern Ireland today. As societies become increasingly sophisticated and post-industrial, as the common people become increasingly, if relatively, wealthy, so their need for salvation diminishes and they tend to become far more sceptical of organised religion. For current day Greeks just as for Roman Catholics, the carapace of religious authority has been severely cracked by scandals which previous generations would have acquiesced in covering up or explaining away. For the Catholics, it is paedophilia and for the Greek Orthodox it is financial scandal. Just as in the Catholic Church where the older generation of believers have invested far too many years of their lives genuflecting to the pope to accept it was based on immoral nonsense now so the old Greek ladies, veiled in black still fawn before a priest cross themselves and close their ears to court cases involving drug running and money laundering. After all, it’s nothing that confession and prayer can’t put right. It’s only a few bad apples anyway.

To change the subject, I was in the internet cafe last night and Pauline had just phoned her Mum on  Skype when a message popped up to say Ruth was on-line as well. I video phoned her and was soon in Ruth’s house looking at her and Kevan leaning over her shoulder.  I got to hear some family gossip like Bob & Jane were still stuck in Madeira five days after they were supposed to have flown home. Somehow, ‘stuck’ and ‘in Madeira’ don’t seem to go together but I’m sure Jane was desperate to get back to school. I got to hear that David & his Mum were in Ireland but that Jane (1) was struggling to join them on Wednesday. In years gone by, we would be flying from Athens to Manchester at just the time of the flight closures. I have to say, an extra five days wouldn’t have gone amiss. Ruth also told me that one of her little hooligans had broken his arm in three places at Play School or somewhere like that. That’s how a childhood should start – plenty of breakages can be really character forming. I had seven broken arms before I left school. Nice to see he is keeping up the family tradition. I challenge him to beat my record!

23rd April, 2010

We are into new territory in Greece. We have never been here this late in the Spring before and didn’t realise how hot it could be. It has been quite ferocious today. Usually, we have come for Easter when all the Spring flowers are out and there is no bare earth visible and then returned in July when there are no flowers visible and all is bare earth. The sun has burnt everything off. Well now Spring flowers are still in abundance but are beginning to wilt. Some the nice bushes which have been obscured by rampant wild growth are beginning to come in to their own. The Callistemon, for example, is looking glorious. We have one in front of our bedroom and another on the front drive. In UK they are known as Callistemon or Bottle Brush because that is what they have – flowers that look like bottle brushes. Callistemon derives from the Greek – Calli (Good or beautiful) stemon (stamen).

The little Yucatan Palm is growing away beautifully now.

24th April, 2010

We went out shopping early this morning under lightly clouded skies. The temperature at 9.00 am was 25⁰C.  

11th April, 2010

After cutting the lawns and edging them, the garden has been turned over to the care of our next door neighbours for six months. Pauline went over to say goodbye to her Mum. It went better than expected. The Sunday papers were read in double quick time as packing went on apace. Tomorrow is the last full day at home.

Received an email from Malcolm & Lorraine:

Have a safe and pleasant journey. I hope the Honda performs as well as would be expected and gets you there safe and sound. We look forward to a continual dialogue of daily activities and plenty of photos of sun and sand
Best Wishes
Malcolm and Lorraine

Received an email from Jane (1)

Just wanted to wish you well on your odyssey. Enjoy both the journey and the prospect of 6 months in Sifnos as well as the time living there. You have timed it well, missing the election and what, I anticipate, will be a crazy post election period in the public sector. Who knows what will happen to the economy, FT and the Barclays shares.

David is working in Ireland and will be there for the next two or three weeks so I plan to join him for a long weekend. We’re planning to catch up with Cal and Les. Although I have been to Dublin several times I have never explored further south so am looking forward to seeing Cork and Kerry. We fly to New York for a few days in June and will be staying at the Waldorf. And we go to Peru for 3 weeks in Aug. I always book our hols for a year at a time year; that way when we are both working long hours we know we will soon have a good break to recover. I am always buying travel books for inspiration and ideas for future trips.
We have just remade our wills again (as I realised they were very out of date) in case our plane crashes in the jungles of Peru or the boat we are taking sinks in the Amazon. It’s a strange process which has also helped me think about my future plans.

Send Pauline my best wishes for your journey and for the next 6 months. It’s a beautiful weekend here in London – am off to walk down the river.

I replied to Jane

Thanks very much. You didn’t say which hotel you stayed at in Athens and what you thought of it.
I hear you’ve been a very bad girl – employing ex policemen to investigate their colleagues. Talk about the corrupt judging the corrupt!
By the way, only Jesus can walk down the river.

12th April, 2010

A frantic day getting last things done. We suddenly realised our Europ Assist that comes with our car under Hondacare only covers us for trips of 90 days. Half an hour later and £250.00 lighter we have AA Annual European cover. The bins aren’t emptied until a week on Thursday (What sort of service is that?) so everything goes into the back of the car including the lawnmower which we blew up irreparably last night and we are off to the Local Authority tip. We come here once a week anyway but today there is a queue a mile long. Back home it’s tea and toast and then we start to pack the car. The car is filled in two stages:

Stage 1: Just the boot is packed and the rear seats are left in upright position. The widescreen television fits neatly across the back of the rear seats and is strapped to the anchor points. Everything else, including a garden spade and fork (Have you seen Mediterranean spade?) and a sewing machine are piled in.

Stage 2: When we reach Sortir 40 on the E25 at Thionville, we go into Carrefore and buy all their wine. Returning to the car, we re-pack it with the back seats down to create a flat platform. The cases of wine go there to ensure the greatest weight is in the centre.

Stage 3: We drive on with Pauline saying continually, Do you think we are overloading the car? We carry on regardless until we get to Italy when we stop and start to make as much room as possible for all their wine and cheese.

13th April, 2010

Another beautiful day! What’s going on? Up early to do all the last minute jobs:

• Sweep Patio
• Hoover Carpets
• Clean and lock windows
• Phone ‘Sky’ and cancel contract.
• Phone Waterboard and turn water off.
• Take Gas & Electricity readings and upload them to the company.
• Make sure all automatic light and radio settings are correct.
• Put all rubbish in neighbour’s bin.
• Eat croissant and drink fresh coffee
• Check washer bottle in car
• Make sure laptop and mobiles are charged up.
• Empty and clean dishwasher.
• Telephone friends to say goodbye.

Shower ready for leaving. Final check and off. Thank goodness for that. Leaving is always worse than travelling. Pictures will follow but who knows when.

14th April, 2010

We had a wonderful crossing last night and disembarked this morning in Zeebrugge at 8.45 am. after a huge cooked breakfast.  Having driven this journey ten times in peak season with peak season holiday traffic, it was wonderful to drive it today with no one on the road. It was kind of France and the Benelux countries to build the wonderful motorways just for us. We are in the Novotel, Colmar, Alsace. We arrived about 4.30 pm. We have cheap, wireless, internet access for our laptop. We have walked to a wonderful restaurant 100m away and eaten a three course meal for €40.00 plus wine. We have used Skype to phone Pauline’s Mum – 20 mins for 20p – and we have been listening to BBC Radio 4 ‘PM’ programme followed by the 6.00 o’clock news. Life’s just awful for retired people!

15th April, 2010

Up at 6.45 am (5.45 UK). We have BBC News but I’m reading The Times on the internet. It is a beatiful, sunny morning. The drive through Switzerland this morning was quiet and fast. The snowline was only just above the road. This photo was taken just before the San Gottardo tunnel which 17km long.

As we descended into Italy around Lakes Maggiore, Lugano and Como, the temperature rose from 8°C – 22°C. Usually it is the middle of the night when we do this. Today, it was wonderful to see the Lakes in the Spring sunshine. We arrived in Modena, Italy at about 3.30 pm and are resting in a hotel just of the Autostrada del Sole.

16th April, 2010

Up at 6.45 am (5.45 UK). Pauline makes the tea while I get Sky News and the internet on so that I can read The Times. Early off without breakfast. Great couple of hours driving in wonderful sunshine through Emilia Romagna past acres and acres of fruit trees – pear blossom looking and smelling wonderful. Arrived at Ancona and had a toasted ham sandwich before boarding Anek Lines ferry.

17th April, 2010

Still on board Anek. We have just docked at Igoumenitsa and then we will carry on to Patras, arriving at 2.00 pm. We are then off to The Patras Palace Hotel for the night.

4th April, 2010

What a way to start Easter Sunday – at the church of QuickFit. At 5.00 pm on Easter Saturday I was checking my car tyres ( normal pressure 30 PSI) and found one to be 14 PSI. We had a quick check and found a nail head in the tread. We have had new windows and doors fitted in the past fortnight so it is possible a stray nail fell on the drive. The problem was that I was taking a banquet over to Pauline’s Mum’s flat to share with her and Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and her husband, Colin. Driving across the Pennines on Easter Sunday with a nail in my tyre didn’t appeal but what to do?

I checked the QuickFit site and found they had closed half an hour ago. There was no chance of them opening on Easter Sunday. I phoned to see if there was a message to tell me about Bank Holiday opening. A cheery voice answered. “I was just going home.” he said. He told me I didn’t have to wait till Monday. They would be open Easter Sunday. I couldn’t believe it but by 9.30 on Easter Sunday morning, with a copy of The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph on the pasenger seat, I drew up outside QuickFit in Huddersfield. Five cheery blokes quickly arrived and opened up. Half an hour later I was paying £180.00 for a new tyre and was on my way to the car washers. I was certainly impressed with QuickFit.

5th April, 2010

Received a very unpleasant email from Caroline. It was disappointing to find my little sister could find such bile in her heart.

Never mind. Move on.

6th April, 2010

Happy Birthday to me! I can’t believe I’ve managed to live to 59. That is ten more years than Dad. It is more by luck than judgement. I have certainly indulged myself more than Dad ever did and stressed myself far less.

I received best wishes from Jane 1 earlier in the week. I received Birthday wishes from Sue Wilson in Australia and Malcolm Pritchard in Birmingham via Facebook. Ruth did that too but also sent me a lovely card:

From my darling wife, Pauline I received a card with a black and white cat very reminiscent of our ‘Flossy’ who died in 1980 and from my Mother-in-Law I received lovely words:

From Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and sister-in-law, June I received:

7th April, 2010

Had people sitting outside our house in their car this morning. Maybe the price drop really has helped.

Today we packed up a wide screen television for its journey to Greece. We are running out of food because the freezer is now totally empty. Tonight it will be pizza or Chinese. (Chose Chinese but had forgotten how mediocre take away food can be compared with home cooking.) Just five days to go. We bought another £1000.00 of Euros this morning to get us through our journey. The rate this morning was £1.00 = €1.14, the highest for quite some time. Have you tried these suppliers – Travel Money Services?

8th April, 2010

Glorious morning this morning. A delight to be alive. My next door neighbour has agreed to take over all gardening duties including lawn mowing for six months while we are away. That’s a wonderful feeling and why I arranged and paid for the cowell to be put on her chimney at the same time as ours. However, it does mean I’ve got to tidy the shed out so she can easily get at the lawn mowers and strimmer.

Another person ‘cruised’ the house this morning in a Mercedes. It looks like that price cut has actually sparked some interest. Why is all this happening just as we are going away? I’m already checking flight prices from Athens to Manchester in case we have to return to exchange contracts in a couple of months. Actually, we have 62000 points in our Natwest Points scheme that will just about buy us Easyjet return flights in June. We had a professional oven cleaner in this morning so that the oven, which is eight years old, looks as good as new. Two hours of his time and equipment feels like £55.00 well spent. We have it done twice a year for the past eight years. £400.00 for an £800.00 cooker is reasonable value.

9th April, 2010

Lovely Spring morning. Off to Hepworth Honda for a Summer-Holiday service. We have bought a new car from them every year since 1984 apart from the current one which we’ve had for three years. We’ve done 39,000 miles in this which is 25,000 more than we’ve ever done before. We have always used the same salesman – a lovely chap called Chris Wood. Over the past twenty five years we’ve got to know him and his family well. We never haggle; never question the price; always have our car serviced with them. We have always had the most brilliant service from them. Since we bought this last car in February 2007, we have always gone in for our ‘Driving to Greece’ service and they always provide it free and make sure we have bottles of free engine oil to carry with us

It is a wierd feeling not to be driving a new car but we made a conscious decision three years ago to buy this one and keep it for four or possibly five years. Chris Woods told us we wouldn’t need to trade it in for twenty years but that seems excessive. A large, 4-wheel drive is ideal for carting large amounts of stuff acrosss Europe and for driving on the less than perfect roads of a Greek island. (Actually, they are rather better than those in Huddersfield at the moment.) It has leather seats and climate control. It is an automatic which is essential for driving long distances. It has the brilliant, Honda Satellite Navigation system built in. It has a huge load capacity. It has automatic lights and wipers. It will do 125 mph without effort and can be set at that on its cruise control which takes so much of the effort out. All the controls – radio, cd, dvd, blue tooth phone are controllable by switches on the steering wheel or by voice control. These are the joys of a Honda.

There is one downside of our car. Its petrol consumption is poor. Automatic gears, 4-wheel drive, air-conditioning permanently on gives us only 27 mph which is expensive nowadays but it is a small price to pay.

10th April, 2010

You can feel the summer coming even in England. Another lovely morning with a forecast of 18⁰c in Leeds – not much in Greek terms but it will do at the moment – especially with three days to go. We set off early for Huddersfield General Post Office with three parcels containing stuff we will not be able to fit in the car. The boxes weigh a total of 50 kg and will cost £120.00 to get there but these parcels will arrive on the island about the same day as we do. It may not be strictly cost effective but it does the job.