Liz & Keith In Corfu: July 2010

"......I’m gone fishing, I got me a line
Nothing I do is gonna make the difference
So I’m taking the time........"

.........Soup of the day, Kevin the fish & other stories…….

We collected Liz's brother Paddy and Loraine and Michael from the airport, late Sunday evening, the Gatwick flight had been delayed by 2 hours, so a bit of hanging around in arrivals took place, where we got chatting to a wonderful lady who has lived on the island since the late 60’s, married to a Corfiot surgeon. And in the time we had to wait for the flight, she told us some amazing tales of her life in Corfu and some of the amazing people she has met, people we have read about in books written on Corfu. Amazingly every time we have been to the airport in the last 4 weeks she has been there, either dropping off or picking up family and friends, and she now refers to us as her “airport friends”.

Anyway, back to our visitors, P, L & M were staying with us for a combined 3 week stay, with Liz’s birthday week in the middle of it all.

Our new neighbours for a few weeks
We made the most of our time together in the 1st week and went out and about, sight seeing, etc.

Walking along the cliff top to Arillas, with Paddy ahead checking out the Greek Health & Safety

One of our first tasks was to stock up on the basics:- beer, olive oil & lemons!! In our bid for “the goodlife” and self sufficiency, our landlord and friend ‘Stephanos’ (or as Liz calls him, San Stephanos!) supplies us with olive oil from his olive groves, and Bob and Bev have introduced us to a deserted orchard, in the middle of an old olive grove, which is full of lemon trees still heavy with fruit.

We took Paddy and family to the orchard and picked an abundance of lemons to use for home made lemonade, lemon cakes etc… but in the end they all got used up in gin & tonic.. Ooops! Maybe next time? They are the sweetest lemons you could ever taste and take G&T onto another level.

One thing that was high on Paddy’s wish list was to catch his own fish and cook it, He’d brought some basic fishing gear with him from the UK. We discussed all the possibilities of achieving this, for example standing on the rocks surrounding the harbour for hours like the Greeks do, but in the end we decided that hiring a speed boat for the day would give us all a trip out and Paddy could fish and we would all be happy. It turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer so far, the sea was calm with a nice breeze, and the best place to be in those conditions was on a boat.

We set sail armed with one of Liz’s famous picnics in the direction of Paleokastritsa. And on route stopped and did a bit of fishing and swimming in the small bays. Somewhere between St George & Paleokastritsa we spotted a deserted beach under a steep rock face, we decided to drop anchor and swim and eat our picnic.

Sorry Lorraine,but I just love this photo of you .... lol ......x.......Bless!!!!!

The water was so clear and we could see shoals of small fish swimming all around the boat, we threw bits of sandwiches and crisps, which drew more fish ever closer to the boat. It was inevitable that Paddy and Keith wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to try to catch a fish. Paddy assembled his rod and stuff and cast a line out,

Keith used Paddy's 1960’s army survival-fishing kit he’d also brought with him, which was a thick green line with a hook on the end! pretty basic stuff.

Anyway, armed with this and a left over prawn as bait, Keith dropped the line over the side, and within minutes he had a bite! He yanked the line out of the water and on the deck of the boat landed ‘Kevin the fish’ …..Panic set in, nobody knew what to do, screams emitted from the girls and Michael, but Keith and Paddy were stunned. “Kevin “ fell off his hook and flapped about on the boat. In an attempt to put him out of his misery it was decided he should be knocked on the head, but what with?.... more panic. After what seemed like minutes, a 2-litre water bottle was found and used as a lethal weapon and Kevin was no more.

Keith & Kevin.....................................How Big?

He wasn’t exactly fish supper; we needed more, so lines were cast again. 5 minutes later Keith pulled another fish out, bigger than the 1st but instead of landing on the deck the line wrapped around the canopy pole and Kevin’s mate, flapped about suspended in mid air in slow motion. But once again our hardy fishermen seemed unable to deal with their catch, so much so that by the time they’d decided who was going to handle the fish he’d wriggled free of his hook and jumped back into the sea, he’d got away… He obviously warned his mates of Kevin’s fate because the boys never got anywhere near catching another fish.

We gave up fishing and decided to cool off with a swim, although Michael was a little concerned about getting in the water in case the fish decided to gang up on us on their territory. We survived and spent the rest of the afternoon sailing the clear waters off Corfu’s beautiful west coast, with Michael driving the boat, we all took turns sitting on the front of the boat like a scene out of titanic.

All week we shopped, cooked, drank and hung out together, and after Keith’s gigs we stayed up chatting till the early hours, usually about different business ideas we could start out here. But this would involve Liz ‘working’ so every morning she found flaws in the previous evenings idea.

And good old Michael ‘soup of the day’ Daniels always did the washing up! (He can stay again!) Every time we went to a restaurant Michael got very excited if soup of the day was on the menu and usually ordered it, much to our amusement, so the name stuck all holiday.

Pasta bake........'soup of the day was off'

Liz and Lorraine seemed to spend a lot of their waking hours on the balcony in their nighties. I think Liz was hoping Lorraine would stay out for the summer, because she was so good at cleaning & tidying, might have to buy her a little black dress and a
mop! And Paddy’s morning ritual would be to dance onto the balcony, totally naked, cracking jokes in a foreign accent, in that John Cleese, ‘A fish called Wanda’ sort of way.

Paddy has been a star, when he wasn’t making us all laugh; he was doing various DIY jobs on our house. Not major stuff but those little things that make life more comfortable. He replaced all the mosquito netting on all the shutters, and stopped the front door sticking from years of paint, he cleaned fans, descaled all the taps with vinegar, fitted the portable air con units so that the warm air went outside. Fitted a screen at one end of the balcony to stop the sun dazzling the laptop screen!
And of course BBQ'd

Unfortunately this was not Kevin......

He also built up quite a rapport with the young Greek woman in the DIY shop in Sidari. She would always try and encourage him to do things the ‘Greek way’ For example, he wanted to buy some wood to build a frame to make a pergola, to grow vine at the front of our house; so she told him where he could find some really strong bamboo growing by the roadside, “that’s how my mother does it”, she explained. So we have collected several long lengths of bamboo to dry it out ready to use next year.

Compost corner update.....one potato, 2 potato, 3 potato....4!!!!

And finally.......Monday 21st June…….2 airport runs on the same day for Liz as 20 more of her family arrive to celebrate her birthday (Not all staying at our house thankfully ;O) Birthday blog to follow shortly.

"......You can waste a whole lifetime,
Trying to be
What you think is expected of you
But you’ll never be free
........May as well go fishing"

“.....It was a teenage wedding, and the old folks wished 'em well

You could see that Pierre did truly love the mademoiselle....”

It seems ages since we blogged but the past few weeks have been so busy, our lives have been a blur of events and visitors and gigs and gardening! So here goes with an update on most of the month of June! (2 more posts to follow in a couple of days)

It started with a wedding! …..2 years ago, we met a couple who were on holiday here called Luke & Katherine, who had seen Keith play in the Athens bar, and asked him if he would play at their wedding in Corfu in 2010. We got a call in November to confirm dates etc… and the gig was on.

......where a gazebo had been erected on the beach for the ceremony with the reception in the taverna.

Unfortunately, right next to the gazebo, sat a large shapely Czech lady in a skimpy bikini, catching the last rays of the sunshine, right in line of all the “official” photographs, she was persuaded to move by the wedding organiser “Noula” (who incidentally organised our wedding 5 years ago) and with the help of 4 very, very eager young men she was moved, with her sun bed, clothes and parasol, 20 metres the other side of the event!

The local registrar finally arrived to conduct the civil ceremony, he thought he was dressed to kill! With a David Ginola type hair cut (google it) a black suit and White patent shoes!!!!! It was like a scene from a Godfather movie!

With unusual Greek efficiency it took about 5 mins to pronounce them man & wife, several photo shots on the beach then up to the local church for some more before moving onto the reception.

Keith’s role at the wedding was to play guitar and sing after the food and use his music system to play stuff to dance the night away to and of course the 1st dance! ‘for the happy couple’. Luke had compiled a memory stick with hours of songs for this purpose and given it to us to transfer onto the ipod. Keith knew that the 1st song was going to be an Aerosmith song, which he presumed was going to be “don’t want to miss a thing”; anyway ½ the music files were not in the right format for itunes and partway during the conversion process from memory stick to itunes the laptop crashed resulting in transferring all the song titles but only ½ the music… and wiping the memory stick clean! (bugger!). (Which isn’t quite what Keith said, but something close)

So Keith spent the whole of the next 2 days finding the songs he needed from his ipod and external hard drive and managed to retrieve about 90% of the songs he needed, but no aerosmith! so we went on line and bought 3 tracks, certain that they were the ones he’d need!

In the moments after the ceremony on the beach Keith told Luke a bit of what had happened but reassured him he’d got it covered, Luke said you’ve got the song “angel” then… ..nope he hadn’t got that one! so in the 20 mins photo taking gap, Keith raced home got the laptop, went to a bar with wireless internet, downloaded the song, transferred it to his ipod and set it up for the 1st dance phew!!!!!! After that it all went like clockwork we ate & drank too much we partied and danced until the very early hours and everyone left very happy.

On June 13th we had arranged to meet our friends., Steve and Linda from Preston who were visiting Corfu Town for the day as part of their Mediterranean cruise. We often see the huge cruise ships, sometimes on the horizon from our balcony, late at night where they resemble a giant old Atari computer game shining bright against the pitch black sea & sky, or moored up in Corfu Town Port, where they look like floating hotels, dwarfing the buildings close by.

These cruise ships are a daily occurrence bringing close to 3000 tourists and their spending power into the shops bars and restaurants of Corfu town, this is an essential part of their revenue.

When we met Steve & Linda at the old port, a steady stream of taxis and coaches had been lined up to whisk the day-trippers into the centre of town. We met just before midday and they had 5 hours before they had to be back onboard for their evening meal followed by an overnight sail to main land Greece. So we provided a whistle stop tour of some of our favourite attractions and scenic routes around the city.

This included a meander through the little back streets and shops that lead to the main shopping area then an ouzo & wine meze’ in the tree lined cafes on the Liston. A walk along the sea front back to the car, parked at the old port. Then a drive through the city to Mouse Island for a browse around the monastery and then a beer overlooking the end of the runway for a bit of plane and motorbike spotting (see previous blogs)

At the far end of the runway Keith spotted an unusual building, the roof of which resembling a British shopping arcade, it was the cruise ship Steve & Linda had arrived on, this was probably 5 miles away and looked even more impressive than close up.

We made time for one more stop, to a café in the old part of Corfu Town for a beer or two at local (non tourist) prices, then we drove our visitors back to the gates of the new port where their ship awaited their return. It’s great to meet friends from the UK in our summer habitat, and it was nice for them to visit places they had only seen on our blogs!

On the same day as Steve & Linda’s visit, Paddy, Lorraine & Michael were arriving to stay with us and as their flight arrived at 11pm we decided to stick around in Corfu Town, rather than drive back again later. We had a very pleasant evening on the Liston, drinking iced coffee and watching the world go by. Lots of beautiful young Corfiots spend there evenings meeting up here and it gets very lively.

As we sat there we were unexpectedly treated to a huge parade from the St Spiridon Catholic Church.