“….Oh well in 5 years time we could be walking around a zoo
With the sun shining down over me and you……”
We have been here 2 weeks today, and have been pretty much incommunicado, with no phone or internet in our villa as promised :O( ……and today we received a text from Pippa which just read “BLOG??? X” …….we’d better get on with it then ……..
So here we go again! This is our 5th season inCorfu, and guess what?…. it still feels like magic.
The day before we sailed from Hull to Rotterdam we stayed overnight at Paddy & Lorraine’s. And despite all our best intentions to take just the bare essentials this year, we have ended up with a car load of stuff, (bringing bits for Bob & Bev’s house in Corfu; a few pressie’s for Debbie and Franco; and 500 units of mosquito repellant c/o the company we work for in the UK to sell whilst we are over here).
So Sunday morning Keith & Paddy somehow managed to load the car. They spread everything out on the drive and amazingly after 3 hours of what looked like a complex Chinese puzzle, it all went in with just enough room for the two of us, with the overwhelming smell of citronella from the Mosiguard!
We have a new house in Corfu this year. It is only 100 yards away from our old one, so we are still on the coast, up a hill with stunning views over San Stefanos bay.
Our new landlord is Nikos; he is the brother of our previous landlord and just as friendly and chilled. We have taken half of a beautiful property this time and Keith’s muso friend Andy fromPrestonhas taken the other half. He has come over this year with his wife Emma and their 2 year old daughter, India for his 1st season gigging inCorfu.
We drove in tandem with Andy without any dramas across Europe, through Holland, Germany,Switzerland andItaly, to catch the ferry fromVenice.
The weather was great, and the scenery spectacular, the only hold up was the 17km long San Gottard tunnel where a car had broken down deep inside it, causing several miles of tailbacks in both directions.
The only other thing of note were the Italian toll points, where Andy, on his own, in a right hand drive car and the toll booths are on the left, had to leap out, run around the car to pay, then jump back in and drive off, without causing any of the famous Italian road rage, he managed it all very well!.
As usual we were given superb hospitality by Paul & family in Heidelberg and by Deborah & family in Milan. Every year we have stayed at theirs on the way down toVenice and then again on the way back which has become a very special part of our trip. At Debbie and Franco’s we undertook a supermarket excursion to stock up on copious amounts parmesan cheese for our Corfu stay, although it was double wrapped and stored in a cool bag deep in the car, the smell of parmesan blended with the citronella oils, no wonder we passed through the border checks without anyone asking us for documents.
At Paul’s as in previous years the asparagus season had just begun and the local crop was ready and freshly picked. Paul & Milana, traditionally feed us a tasty dish of fresh asparagus with a home made garlic mayonnaise which Keith swears he could still taste when we got on the Greek ferry 2 days later.
We arrived early for the ferry and chatted to other brits doing the same trip as us and shared motoring experiences etc. we asked about the availability of cabins and we were told ask on board as it should be cheaper! So Keith left us on the quay side and wandered onto the ship, found the ships purser and asked about cabins. He was put 1st on the list then made his way back out to the cars just as we were loading on, he jumped in to the car as it went up the gangway and we drove into the ships hold (can you imagine doing that on P&O?).
A message for Keith came over the tannoy just as we sailed and he was offered a 4 berth outside cabin for 75 euros! We decided to split it 3 ways 25 euros each (a bargain) Keith told them it was for 2 people so they had discounted the rate, and when we got the keys only 2 beds were set up, the top bunks were locked up to the bulkhead, but Andy being the enterprising chap that he is used a knife from his picnic box and managed to unlock one of the top bunks. Result!!! We had 3 comfy beds for the journey, and having spent 3 days on the road we all seemed to sleep the clock round.
We awoke Thursday morning to the sight ofCorfuIslandcoming into view through the early morning mist it was a beautiful site, our home for the next 5 months. Our newCorfuhouse is far more modern than our previous one, for example, we have hot water in the kitchen!! So we don’t have to fill buckets from the bathroom to wash up any more. It is still a traditional Corfiot villa but it has been well maintained. We have a large open plan kitchen, dining and living area, a large bathroom and a double bedroom. The garden is huge and the balcony and terraces are huge and beautifully tiled. As soon as we had unloaded the car, Keith unpacked his new toy we had brought over from theUK, his electric rotivator! After spending an hour or so building it up, and then being advised by both Andy & Liz that it wasn’t a good idea to use it wearing flip flops, he got to work on the garden!
Within hours Nikos (the owner) sent a guy over with his tractor to clear more land for us to cultivate; they drive tractors over here like they drive their scooters, on the edge and very fast, although Spiro the driver did wear a mask to keep the dust out!
The following day another old guy came to strim for us, which he eventually did, but not until he told us his life story. We have now planted tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines and pepper plants, as well as spinach rocket and coriander seeds which are already coming up. With the extra land now cleared, Keith plans to grow other veg including lettuce, beetroot and lots of melons.
The season seems to be slow taking off this year; obviously things are changing here because of the Greek economic crisis, there is a real sense of uncertainty, but luckily Keith has managed to secure 3 gigs a week from last year and 1 new one and has the option of 2 more starting in June. And it looks as though Liz will be doing an airport transfer job for Thomson’s or Olympic 2 days a week starting in June. (Believe it when you see it)
“….And there’ll be sun sun sun…All over our bodies
Sun Sun Sun All down our necks
And Sun Sun Sun all over our faces
And sun sun sun so what the heck
Cos I’ll be laughing at all your silly jokes
And we’ll be laughing about how we used to smoke
All those stupid little cigarettes
And drink stupid wine
Cos it’s what we needed to have a good time…..”
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