Liz & Keith In Corfu

"The Day we caught the train....."

2011-06-06T16:34:00.013+03:00

"I never saw it as the start its more a change of heart
Rapping on the windows, whistling down the chimney pot
blowing off the dust in the room where I forgot I laid my plans in solid rock
Stepping through the door like a troubadour whiling just an hour away,
looking at the trees on the roadside feeling its a holiday.
You and I should ride the coast and wind up in our favourite coats just miles away......."

We are now getting into our usual routine over here:- with a late-ish start to the day; a bit of beach time; some great food, usually home cooking; then out to play some guitar; home at 1am; watch the ferries go by from the balcony; then sleep!

Our first friends to arrive this year were Ian and Rachel, (Ian worked with us in the UK in the winter time).

We knew they were coming over for a holiday but didn’t really know if we would meet up. They arrived on Friday for a 1 week stay in Arillas, the village over the hill from us. Keith had been out and about touting for work the week before, and had agreed to play at a new venue in Arillas (called Kaloudis Village); so imagine our surprise, when we walked in and the 1st people we saw were… Ian and Rachel, who were staying on the complex, and had seen the posters for the gig, but Keith couldn’t convince them he had laid it on especially for them!

When we arrived, the owner Vasillis, (who calls himself Billy) insisted we had dinner on the house before the gig! (We now have 3 venues a week that feed us for free before each gig ;O))
The gig was great, lots of banter with the audience. By the end of the night it was agreed that this would be a regular booking for the summer and each week the gig and the food have got better and better.
All the gigs so far have been fantastic, I don’t know if its Keith’s playing, or the new format of handing out the song lists, or that the venues and the people in them are just right for what Keith does, but the feedback at the end of each night has been amazing.

As Ian and Rachel had never been to Corfu before, we arranged to take them out and about one day, to show them some of the local sights, followed by lunch in a fish taverna. When we collected them the weather was a bit overcast with the threat of a bit of rain, so we did a quick trip up to Afianos, (regular guests will be familiar with this excursion into Lizzy’s little old lady paradise) Liz is still looking for that elusive ‘perfect little old lady’ picture.

And Keith for his perfect vehicle!

Next we set off to the deserted village of Ano Perithia, via some picturesque villages like Magoulades, with a World War 2 torpedo in the village square!

We chased a rain cloud all the way along the north coast until we turned inland and climbed up towards Ano Perithia, where we found sunny skies and of course great views up the mountain and down across the channel towards Albania.

During the 14th century, there were many attacks and pirate raids on Corfu. And the settlements and homes that had been established in the foothills of the mountains were vulnerable. So families sought refuge higher up and built second homes and communities, Ano Perithia became the perfect location for a ‘hidden’ village where you could see….but not be seen. The village has Venetian architecture and is surrounded by 8 churches. But by the 1940’s as these threats subsided, and many Greeks went to America, the village had gradually become more and more deserted and now no longer has any inhabitants. It does however have several tavernas for the tourists.

As it is early in the season it was very very quiet up in the village which made it even more charming and curious, all those empty houses, over grown and lost in the foliage, it was so beautiful and full of spring flowers, all of these disappear as the temperature increases leaving a hot dusty landscape during the summer months.

We managed to resist, sitting down in a village taverna for some local made walnut cake and headed for a sea food lunch. Ian & Rachel had not eaten much sea food on this holiday and they were keen to sample the local cuisine; so where better to take them than the 3 brothers in Astrakari, another of Lizzy’s favorite haunts for all sorts of reasons.
We were greeted handsomely by George and his family, we got the best table in the house (as we were the only ones there it was easy to do) although it started raining just as we sat down and Keith found the perfect position for the rain to drip down his neck through a small hole in the awning over the taverna.

As Ian & Rachel, but particularly Ian, had limited experience of eating sea food they were keen to try, so asked for our recommendations, they didn’t want fish! So we suggested a meze of cuttlefish and octopus in a spicy red sauce, calamari, and courgette and feta balls deep fried, they though it sounded great, although Ian sounded a bit wary but thought ‘what the heck I’m on holiday lets give it a try’. The food arrived and as we have eaten there many times before we knew what we were getting, it is beautiful food though it is served in a very rustic way, so calamari is not those homogenized battered rubber rings you get in restaurants in the uk, this is the real deal straight out of the sea lightly dipped in flour and deep fried, beautiful! The same with the octopus and cuttlefish it’s in a tomato and onion sauce quite spicy and very oily, and although the octopus legs taste like chicken (doesn’t everything) the suckers are still on so you know you are eating octopus.

To put it politely Ian was way out of his comfort zone, but to be fair he tried everything, even though before each mouthful he said “I am out of my comfort zone doing this”. We believe they enjoyed the experience, they both definitely loved the courgette balls and were pleased they’d tried the food; But maybe they were being polite?
As we took them back to their lovely resort of Arillas we drove through the main street of Sidari to show them what they ‘could have had’!!

"5 YEARS TIME........"

2011-05-25T13:34:00.004+03:00

“….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 5^th 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 1^st 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…..”

"Thank you for the music......."

2010-09-11T16:37:00.038+03:00

".....Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing....."

After all Liz’s birthday visitors left at the beginning of July …… the weather finally settled down, the world cup finished and the gigs got back on track.
We have probably had our most enjoyable season here so far, and this has been largely due to having a constant stream of great visitors, many thanks to you all, especially as you came to so many of Keith’s gigs!!!
And especially to our friends Bob and Bev, who also spend all summer here, and come to the Athens bar gig every week!

Here is a brief flavour of the past few weeks

Lorraine and Michael on a trip to Corfu Town after a week of sun bathing and chilling
Becky, Pig and Hannah ......“Mojitos are us” again and again and again

Shirley and Kathryn “ the ladies wot lunched” & drink Pimms!!! ...and a spot og gardening

Lorraine, Paul, Oli and Laura
Much fooling around in the water, boats. Rings, midnight swims, cocktails and karaoke

Jules and Pete boats and bikes and gigging with Keith

Andy and Emma, lots of sun and guitar playing

Sheila had a week of R &R before her next employment adventure
Sarah, Rebecca and Louise 'the 3 amigos' soaked up the sun, & some wind & rain, and souvenier shopped till we all dropped and Sarah was the toast of Corfu with her amazing singing

And today we are collecting out last visitors from the airport (Paddy and Lorraine….Again!!))
Keith needs the car for his gig tonight ....so I have hired another mode of transport to go and collect them from the airport ;O)

...."So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me"

"Birthday............"

2010-08-01T12:52:00.021+03:00

"........I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party....."

Birthday morning.......Liz and Lorraine on our balcony...still in their nighties!

On 21st June, 20 of Liz’s family arrived for her 50th Birthday bash! And an excuse for us to be tourists for a week!

....... Mum.........with her 4 girls.....x

It took 2 trips to the airport to collect everyone, a morning trip for Siobhan, Sammie & Ryan, then an evening jaunt to collect the bulk of the visitors on a flight from Leeds/Bradford. We collected some in our car and the rest had hired 3 cars between them, so we drove in convoy through the centre of Corfu and then the 1hr 15min journey to our village at San Stefanos (Avliotes)

We all arrived safe and sound!

Mum, Sheila, Paddy and Lorraine all stayed with us and the rest stayed in various accommodations in the resort. Siobhan, Maggie, Sammie and Ryan stayed at the luxurious Delfino Blu http://www.delfinoblu.gr/

Pippa, Wolf, Michael and Elena stayed at Stamatis Apts
Martin, Helen, Emily, David, Ruth and James stayed at The Theresa Apts

The weather remained unsettled for most of the week but this wasn’t an issue. Most days we all met up at the Athina Hotel pool, usually late morning or early afternoon, to chat swim and drink beer! Come rain or shine we swam in the pool and one afternoon in extremely heavy rain we were the only people on the beach and had a fantastic experience swimming in the sea.

We had the ‘famous’ full English breakfast at the Condor bar, Bikes and quads were hired

and we all met up to watch England being knocked out of the world cup. A mob went to The Manthos Taverna Greek night, and then some of the younger ones went into Sidari for a night out.

One evening we had all 20 sat round our table for a meal in our back garden.

Everyone came to Keith’s gig in the Athens bar
http://www.athens-bar.com

Birthday Party night was a superb meal at The Mythica restaurant,

followed by cocktails at the Athens bar, with a watermelon full of vodka shots,

then dancing the night away and karaoke in the Condor bar, till the early hours!
Liz’s family will move heaven and earth to party! Thanks to everyone who made the trip! Love you x

And the world premier of our wedding video was shown, a magical day in Corfu 2005 with 50 family and friends. Carmel in Oz has patiently and brilliantly pieced together bits of footage gleaned from all the footage taken by our wedding guests to make a fantastic lasting memory for us to treasure. Thanks sweetie!

".......I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you......."

"Gone fishing......"

2010-07-08T21:39:00.025+03:00

"......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"

"You never can tell"

2010-07-03T17:37:00.027+03:00

“.....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.
It snaked through all the narrow streets with a full brass band leading the way.
Paddy, Lorraine and Michael have arrived to stay with us for 3 weeks!

And now........Gardeners world update……

........Freshly picked from our garden......

....and then cooked the same day..........YUM!

"........But when the sun went down, the volume went down as well

...."C'est la vie," say the old folks, "It goes to show you never can tell......"

"First there is a mountain......."

2010-06-16T21:10:00.018+03:00

“ .....then there is no mountain, then there is.........”

While we’ve been waiting for the summer here to kick in, we have been out and about exploring.

We decided to visit the old medieval castle outside Paleokastritsa, called the Angelokastro, perched dramatically on an impossibly abrupt hill around 6miles up the coast from town.

Its been closed for a few years due to ‘renovation’, and we heard it was open again. On the way we passed through a small village called Krini, which was “little old lady heaven” for Liz; there were so many elderly people in the streets, doorways and balconies, that she didn’t know which way to turn. It was a wonderful quaint and unspoilt village with no sign of tourism around.

The weather was cool enough for the hike (we thought). We arrived at the foot of it armed with walking sandals and bottles of water and set off.

We climbed the steep steps, with very little in the way of ‘health and safety’, no hand rails or level surfaces, but luckily there were warning signs strategically placed.

The view over the ropes.....

The ruined castle is a stiff 20 minute walk up a steep, stepped path from the car park, but the effort is rewarded by stunning, almost circular views of the surrounding sea and land - on a clear day, it's possible to see Corfu Town. . Little remains of the fort but it was well worth the climb.

When we started out it was clear blue skies,but as we reached the top the clouds were rolling in. So we didn’t hang around for long.

We made our way back down, in the car and went into Paleokastritsa for a stroll round the harbour. Paleokastritsa is a very popular tourist destination, even with the Corfiots it seems, because as we parked up, a coach load of elderly day-trippers were all just getting back on their coach. Not only did they bring the kitchen sink but their donkey to help them carry everything came too!!

It was so funny, because as they were walking to their coach, the donkey that was grazing in the nearby field, spotted one of the little old ladies and followed her across the road, much to the amusement of all her friends. It wouldn’t leave her alone, it clearly thought it knew her and had to be persuaded by several of the men to go away!

We have done the usual trips down to Corfu Town (to go to Lidl for cheap toilet paper and washing powder) so while we were there, we popped down to Mouse Island, where we have been many times before with various friends & relatives, to view the sites, watch the planes and of course, watch the motorcycles navigate across the narrow causeway for a 5 mile shortcut out of Corfu Town. But it’s a lot safer now because new signs have been installed, to encourage people to be more responsible when using the causeway.

We saw this sign outside the Thomas Bay Hotel in San Stefanos.......

As we couldn’t see any feathered birds or local live stock, on their starting blocks, we assumed it was formula one racing??

......Bob and Keith out for a quick spin in Bobs kit car

(Ralf and Teds new ‘sit and ride’ rotivator?)

Meanwhile back in compost corner: the upper & lower fields are blooming marvellous!! We have tomatoes everywhere, potatoes & peas that are nearly ready and all the other assorted veg we planted is growing like mad, it’s probably the combination of sunshine & lots of water. And we are eating our own salad and rocket and spinach etc already.

More updates to follow.......

“.....The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is....”

Reasons to be cheerful.........(part 3)

2010-05-30T15:32:00.019+03:00

"......Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly
Good golly Miss Molly and boats
Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley and nanny goats......."
…..Part 1
The 2010 Season starts:-

When we arrived on the 1st of May everywhere was deserted, no sun beds on the beach, no bars or restaurants open and nobody on the streets or beach, San Stefanos had a sort of melancholic tranquillity about it.
Over the next few days the locals got stuck into cleaning, painting, tidying and building work:-
The hotel where Becky and Siobhan are staying is nearly finished......
and the village gradually came back to life. It has been a very wet and windy winter here, not as cold as the UK, but pretty stormy for many months and the evidence of this could be seen on the beach where all the winter’s debris and litter had accumulated and countless tonnes of sand had been washed away;
The leaning lifeguards chair
Mountains of seaweed and debris had piled up, and a caravan that provides hot and cold drinks on the beach during the summer had been completely washed away! Although someone had rescued the drinks fridge and tied it to a pontoon to stop it washing away. Parts of the caravan are now being washed up a mile away up towards the far end of the beach.

There has been an air of anticipation all over Corfu; locals, bar owners & ex-pats all wondering what will happen to the Greek economy and what effect this will have on the coming season. One major change has been the introduction of loads of tax inspectors, checking and checking again the books of all the business’s. Everybody is having to issue receipts for things so it can be traced back for tax purposes, this is so against the Greek & Corfiot way of life, tax is to be avoided at all cost! There is a sense of injustice locally, as many high paid lawyers, doctors and of course politicians seem able to avoid paying tax and politicians are immune from prosecution, for any crimes they may commit, (that sounds familiar) VAT has gone up twice in recent weeks (meaning that shops bars couldn’t give receipts until their tills had been changed each time). Drinks, cigarettes & petrol have all gone up in price, petrol prices reaching the dizzy heights of 1.60 a litre at the start of May. The only bonus for the average man is all this has meant that the smoking ban has fallen by the wayside.

But life goes on and we all fall into doing what we do best! Keith has been out getting gigs, 4 nights a week lined up with further opportunities of work as the season progresses.
And we have had our first visitors, Kate, Jason & their 3 year old daughter Ella.
They are friends of Bob & Bev’s and they stayed with us in our studio for the 1st week of the season, we showed them some of the delights of the island and our resort and of course, ‘you know who’s’ gig at The Athens bar!
The weather was kind to them and there was only one day when it was cold and windy, but the day they left, storms came in high winds, rain,
The view from our balcony
more wind lots more rain and thunderstorms; in all, the next 6 days it peed down and was so cold at night we retreated back into our sleeping bags which we bought to keep warm on the boat overnight!
The veg we planted at the house were flooded, but the ones in the' lower field' have thrived.
…..Part2
Liz’s dentist experience:-
For several weeks, possibly months Liz has had an ongoing problem with a tooth ache, she’s been to the dentist in the UK umpteen times, had some major work done on it, lots of antibiotics and spent loads of money trying to get it sorted. Only to arrive in Corfu with….. Toothache. Having consulted locals about how good or possible it was to visit a dentist over here, she decided enough was enough and we went to Sidari to “book” an appointment.
The dentist is over a parade of shops so we trudged up the stairs and through the glass doors of a waiting room, there was no one around so we walked in sat down, then decided after a few minutes to see if there was anyone around! Liz opened a door to see a female dentist working on some blokes tooth; she quickly closed the door and waited.
This turned out to be a lucky move because 5 minutes later this man came out dressed in oily overalls, if we hadn’t popped our heads around the door Liz would have thought he was the dentist and run like hell!
The dentist then called Liz into the room, she told her the problem, still thinking she was booking an appointment, and was promptly sat in the chair, given an injection and minutes later she was minus a tooth and 50 euros lighter! She had never had a tooth out before and was rather shocked by the force required and the amount of blood that ended up all over the dentist! She said it reminded her of a scene out of a horror movie! Still it’s done and now she has one thing less to complain about after the weather, the heat, the cold, the sun, the rain, the hard beds, the birds, the cockerels, the noise of the strimmers etc…. (and keith!)
…..Part 3
Our first month here
Liz is all better now!!
We have been meeting up with all our friends that we have made here over the last 4 years. The veg is growing well. We have filled our new freezer that we brought over in the car from the UK. Keith has work.....
...... (and Liz hasn’t) Although she is happily employed using our Italian made washing-machine that we bought from an expat (Kath), on line before we arrived. We arranged to collect it from a man who was storing it for her in an old house in the back of beyond somewhere near Sidari! We loaded it into the car got it home, and with a 'bit of help' from Bob ('Keith and DIY' is like 'Liz and work') it is now plumbed in, the only issue with it, is that all the operating instructions are in Italian, so we have worked out temperature & spin and where the powder goes, then Liz donnes her black dress and hey presto becomes “domestica greek godess!!”

And finally……. the good weather is here:O)!

"....Why don't you get back into bed
Why don't you get back into bed..."

James Taylor & Carly Simon - Close Your Eyes

2010-05-26T23:14:00.000+03:00

"Me and the Farmer get on fine........."

2010-05-16T21:31:00.010+03:00

"............Through stormy weather and bottles of wine........”

In our aim to become more self sufficient this year, we have decided it would be a good idea to grow some of our own veg . So Keith and our friend Bob (in the guise of Ralph and Ted from the “FastShow”); Have been mostly...... working in the lower field! Last year, over a glass or two of Ouzo, with our friends Bob ‘n’ Bev, we talked about using the large expanse of wilderness behind their house in Aviolotes. It was an old olive grove, long since deserted and sold off to them to build their house, we concluded that if it could be ploughed and rotivated we could grow some veg for our communal use. And what seemed like a good drunken idea turned into reality when Bob arranged for “Spiro”and his tractor to pull out some old tree stumps and clear his land. We were committed to the ‘goodlife’ !

We all arrived back here in Corfu in May having acquired various gardening tools and packets of seeds, bulbs and plants to stock our veggie experience. Bob proudly showed off his latest purchases; an electric rotivator and having watched a programme of the “hairy bikers” showing off some speciality potatoes (red & blue coloured) they’d brought some of those as well! We were mightily impressed.

A couple of days after arriving we got to work on the lower field, Keith & Bob doing most of the donkey work

although Liz and Bev were allowed to drive the rotivator a couple of times when the boys had finished playing ,

and Liz planted all the peas, (which is nice)....... then had a well earned cigarette or two!! We have planted seed potatoes, onions, carrots, beetroot, peppers, garden peas, various salad seeds, some tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, courgettes, and melons.

It is amazing how fast everything grows here, within days things started sprouting up, we have now been here 2 weeks and already things are coming up, tomato plants are flowering, all the seeds we planted are coming through, this weekend we had a 12 hour downpour followed by hot sunshine and as a consequence our little plantation looks like a school experiment; you know, the one, when you leave cress on blotting paper on a window ledge...... Today we have been mostly ........putting netting up for our peas, and banking up the beds around the potato plants, and sitting watching it all grow!!

It is going to be so nice eating our own produce, although Liz is still unsure about eating anything that is grown in soil, as all her veg normally arrives clean from the supermarket! There is still a bit of educating to be done there I think!

“......Me and the farmer like brother like sister
Get on like hand and blister,
Me and the farmer.......”

"Wherever I lay my hat (or sleeping bag)......that's my home..."

2010-05-09T14:36:00.011+03:00

.........I’m the kind of guy who’s always on the roam.......

This year we started our journey with an overnight stop at Paddy and Lorraine’s new home just east of Leeds. In the morning we had one last trip to Morrisons to stock up on food for the journey (we are trying to do it cheaper this year ;O))
Once on the Hull ferry, and loaded down with the finest deli picnic that Morrisons in Knottingley could muster, we set off on our fourth annual 1000 mile road trip across Europe! “We dined on mince and slices of quince, wrapped up in a 5 euro note”. The only cash we spent on board was to stock up on duty free fags and Gin for the journey south. We had imagined this time that the car would be relatively empty compared with previous years but it was rammed full as usual! We had presents for relatives along the way and holiday essentials for some of our visitors, and what seems like a years supply of tins of tuna & tomatoes, oh and an upright freezer! There seemed to be just about enough room for the two of us in the front.

Arriving at Europort, Rotterdam
The weather was glorious all the way through Holland and Germany!
Picnic in Holland
We did our usual overnight with Paul and Milena in Heidleburg, where we dined on fresh seasonal asparagus with Paul’s home-made garlic mayo. We had an equally glorious day travelling through the Alps to Milan,
and we considered going over the San Gottard pass instead of doing the 17km tunnel but as it turned out the pass was closed due to an avalanche and too much snow...... so tunnel it was!
We spent two nights in Milan as Debbie and Franco’s guests; the first night we all went out for a meal and sampled the delights of Milan City by night.
Starting with a happy hour in a bar where Elle’s friend Vanessa works! The happy hour here is not a cheap “drink all you can” option; but an 8 euro “buy a drink and eat as much hot and cold buffet as you want!”

We later wandered to the city centre square where the Duomo Cathedral is. As we wandered back to the car we heard shouts and horns etc... it turned out that Inter Milan had just beaten Barcelona to get to the final of the Champions League, so as many fans as possible on scooters or in cars were blowing their horns and waving giant flags heading for the city square to celebrate into the small hours.
The following day we went shopping with Debbie to the local Carrefour hypermarket to stock up for the journey and buy things that you just can’t get cheaply in Corfu, like pasta and parmesan cheese. We spent another pleasant evening with the Sannelli family, eating, drinking and watching football.
In the morning, as the sun rose we hit the road to avoid the morning rush hour madness on the Milan motorways and arrived in Venice before 10am. We were on board the ferry by 11.30!! This year we have booked as foot passengers with NO cabin (to save money!) but we were well prepared, with 2 sleeping bags and 2 self inflating mattresses and we had seen many people camping out on deck on previous trips and thought it looked easy. We picked our spot to camp and set up our beds, cool box and got the wine out ready for the long haul!
There were plenty of other people doing the same around us and it all felt very cosy. (Although Keith did feel quite apprehensive, Liz and camping are never together in the same sentence and he knew there was always the possibility that she could wake up in the middle of the night shouting “I can’t cope with this”)
The ferry was fairly quiet and as we sailed out of Venice it felt quite chilly!

We had lunch, followed by a nap to try the sleeping bags out for a couple of hours. But when we woke up we were the only ones left on deck! Everyone else had retreated to the warmth of indoors. Because it was absolutely blowing a gale...... plastic chairs were blowing past us on deck and as we tried to pack our stuff away we just felt ridiculous!! We managed to get inside eventually and sat in a lounge to plan our next move.
It didn’t take us long to decide to get a cabin and as the ship was so quiet they were offering cabins for next to nothing. Liz booked a cabin just for herself which turned out to be only 80 Euros and a 4 berth! Result!! So we sat in our warm cabin ate all the salami, cheeses & seafood deli stuff we’d bought in Italy drank our wine and felt quite smug as we tucked up for the night in a warm cabin.
So all of you who were laying bets that we wouldn’t be able to cope with camping on board, that will be the easiest few quid you have ever made.

We woke up just off the coast of Corfu with the sun beating down while we watched our destination sail into view. We arrived in Port at 1pm drove off the ferry and within an hour we are in San Stefano for the summer.
We are back at our lovely house on the hill, overlooking the sea.
...."For I'm the type of boy who is always on the roam,
wherever I lay my hat that's my home,
I'm telling you that's my home....."

"On the road again....."

2009-10-19T20:57:00.027+03:00

".........Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends.
Insisting that the world keep turning our way........"

As we came to the end of what has been a very successful season, (90 gigs in 18 weeks; an average of 5 per week) our last visitor arrived. Carmel flew into Corfu all the way from Oz, (via London, Paris, York & Leeds) Carmel and Liz ..........(our house is just over the hill behind them!)

She spent 3 days with us on the island chilling, as part of her 4-week trip to see family & friends in Europe. So we treated her to sea, sun, fine dining and of course a Keith gig.
The weather held fine for the duration of her visit. The first day though the sea was rough which gave Carmel chance to show off her body surfing skills she has picked up in Oz,

.........plenty of surf

but the next 2 days the sea was like a lake so swimming across the bay before breakfast was the order of the day. (Obviously not Liz ;O))

As we were winding down from all the gigging we had most nights free and we reintroduced Carmel to Jenny, they last met at our wedding 4 years ago, she is now running the Mythica restaurant with her partner Leo; and to Stefano & Athina and family at the Condor Bar. She also had the pleasure of meeting some of the other musos from the UK, who live this strange lifestyle of gigging all night, sleeping all day or just hanging out in bars. She was amused to find that we were known as Keith & Keithena (Liz) or Keith & Mrs Keith and Carmel became known as Miss Keith by some of the local bar owners.
We ate out with our friends Bev and Bob, and took Carmel to their house to see their new baby chickens. Keith, Bob, Bev and Liz in the Athens Bar

And of course we did the “Waves” Taverna lunch,

the Condor breakfast, and the final gig of the season was fittingly at the 5 star hotel “Restina Suites” for a chill out evening with a great atmosphere. Keith played at the 5 star every Sunday night all season

It was sad to say goodbye to people who have become good friends over the past 5 months but we can look forward to seeing them again next year as lots of work has been pencilled in for the 2010 season.

It took us no time at all to pack up our house having done this for the last 3 years. We stored away our belongings ready to do this all over again next year. Our house overlooks the sea and even in the height of summer everything is fairly damp, so all our clothes, bedding and towels are vacuum packed, and stored in breathable boxes, so that they don’t rot away during the winter. We gave everywhere a quick clean, turned everything off and locked the door for the last time until May 2010.

We set off before sunrise for the ferry and arrived at the port and loaded on at 7am for the 26-hour journey to Venice.

This is our ferry pulling in with its doors opening at the same time (will the Greeks ever learn?)
.....A Beautiful sunrise at the ferry port

........Our ferry from Corfu to Venice

Carmel watching the sun rise at the start of our 26 hour journey across the Ionian Sea

Keith managed to catch a few hours of sunbathing on deck, whilst Liz & Carmel caught up on their sleep. Carmel just about managed to shut the world out

Then we spent the evening in the dining room on board before retiring to our cabin for the night. We woke up to a superb breakfast in our cabin, before we all piled out on deck to watch Venice go past on both sides of the ferry.
The view of Venice as we sailed up the Grand Canal
Poor Carmel didn’t know which side of the boat to film from as there is sooo much to see.
We docked and made our way to the town of Verona where we had arranged to meet up with Shiela (Liz’s sister, one of our strategically placed relatives when planning our route home)
Sheila, Carmel and Liz in Verona

We had a few hours to kill so we saw the sites, including Juliet’s balcony!

and the Coliseum
We had several great Italian coffees and Pizza and wine for lunch with Sheila
before getting back on the road to Keith’s sisters home in Milan (yep, another strategically placed relative)
That evening, Keith went with Franco to watch his nephew Georgio play football whilst the girls (Liz, Deborah, Carmel and Eleonora) chatted and chatted. A fab meal later with kilo’s of home made tiramisu,
Deborah's Home made Tiramisu......yum!

we retired to bed to get a good sleep ready for the next leg,

This is just before we drove through the 17km long San Gottard Tunnel, one of the longest tunnels in Europe, which takes you from the Italian side of Switzerland to the German side of Switzerland

....then through the Swiss Alps to Germany and another overnight stop with our 3rd strategically placed relatives, Paul and Milena in Heidelberg.

Paul, Milena and Carmel had a lot of catching up to do having not seen each other for over 3 years; we decided this was best done over a meal. So that evening the five of us walked into the old town of Heidelberg. It is an amazing town full of old buildings and cobbled streets, ornate bridges over the river and lots and lots of restaurants and street cafes, all overlooked by a beautiful castle.

View across the river to the Castle in Heidelberg

It was a great evening; we ate fantastic local food and drank some pretty good German wine & beer! The following day we set off for the last leg of our journey to the coast, the long schlep to Rotterdam to catch the ferry home!

Once again the weather was kind to us, we detoured slightly to drive up the Rhine valley, then across Germany and a bit of Belgium & Holland. As this was the middle of September, the autumn colours were starting to come in with the trees changing from green to red and yellow hues; the massive wind turbines towered over the trees as the scenery changed from the rolling hills of the vineyards of Germany into the flat landscape of the Netherlands.

For the whole of the journey through Europe we’d had bright sunshine, clear skies, and open roads! A totally smooth journey! But as we got closer to Rotterdam the roads got bigger, with more lanes and the rush hour traffic was starting to build and it quickly became apparent just how big the City of Rotterdam is. It was quite stressful to drive through, (but still not as mad as the Italian motorways near Milan). This was a new route for us because we have always sailed from Zeebrugge before. We seemed to drive forever through endless miles of oil tanks and petrochemical works, before we reached the ferry port. We got on board, found our cabin, then settled down on the ”sun deck” with large drinks to watch the sun set over the docks and chemical works. And congratulated Carmel for surviving the 1000-mile road trip with us!

...... Rotterdam docks at sunset

We woke up Sat morning with the ferry in the Humber estuary,
and gorged ourselves silly, on a massive “eat all you can” breakfast buffet, before heading west on the M62 towards home!

More of the same next year!!! Love L&K

"........Just can't wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again..........."

ps ....see you Christmas 2010 Carmely Choc x

"Hey You!!! .....don't watch that......"

2009-09-16T14:24:00.010+03:00

".........watch this! .......This is the heavy, heavy monster sound………..
........one step BEYOND!!!!!!"

Last year Gemma, Caitlyn, Finley & Arwen came to stay with us for what seemed like the whole summer, 6 weeks of fun! And it didn’t look like they were going to get out here at all this year. But Gemma, always one for a bargain, spotted a last minute deal, so they booked, it packed it and F***ing arrived!!
For 2 weeks our house was very busy and noisy and lots of fun!!
...especially at bedtime!!
And for 2 weeks it was sun, sun, sun….. so we did beach.... pool......
.....pool.... beach and a bit more beach. We stayed mainly in San Stef, as the beach we used last year in Arillas was washed away in the winter storms, leaving a tiny strip of sand and loads and loads of pebbles.
The beach here is perfect, especially for small children, the water is very shallow for a long way out, no rocks and hardly any current or undertow,
so there is less likelihood that they would get into any difficulties compared to the local pools. .....which can be full of Crocodiles!!!!
..........and Dolphins

The 4 of them quickly familiarised themselves with places they went to so often last year,
........Athina pool

and many happy hours were spent digging in the sand, swimming in the sea, and that was just Keith! He thinks that he can get away with digging up ½ the beach cos he has his grandkids with him, even though most of the time they are not interested in his latest recreation of Windsor Castle or the Hoover dam, until he turns his back and it becomes a race to see which of the 2 little ones can destroy it first. Still it keeps him quiet for a few hours (for a change)
Its amazing what a difference 12 months can make; last year both Arwen & Finley seemed too young to appreciate the full “at the seaside” experience, but this year they had the time of their lives. This year Finley has learnt to jump in the water and hold his breath (thank goodness) as last year every time he jumped in the swimming pool he swallowed ½ the contents and promptly brought it back up again! Gemma spent a couple of hours successfully teaching him how to hold his nose and dive as he leapt into the water.

Arwen wasn’t even walking last year so it has been a big change for her, running into the sea, splashing everyone in the water, she has turned out to be a water baby just like her brother and sister.
Caitlyn, being much older than the other two, enjoyed the bits she got to do without the 2 little ones, like going to a couple of Keith’s gigs with Liz, drinking cocktails (non alcoholic….. we think?) shopping trips (when the little ones were asleep), and mixing with older kids, both family and acquaintances she met by the Athina pool. At one of Keith’s gigs in Sidari she ended up playing pool and exchanging email addresses with a group of girls from Birmingham, her self-confidence has been amazing this year.
One night Liz took a night off from her role as tour/merchandise manager for Keith, and took Gemma and co to see a Michael Jackson tribute act playing in the Condor Bar in our village. They had fun, although Finley found it too loud and walked around with his hands over his ears all night, much to everybody’s amusement.
Just as he did a couple of nights later when they all trooped down to see Keith (Papoo) do his weekly gig at the Athens bar, Arwen danced, Caitlyn chattered (and chattered) to the adults, and Finley was frankly not amused and wanted to go home! (A man of taste)
The two weeks flew by,
and soon it was time to take them to the airport for the flight home,
it was such a good fortnight, a great example of having lots of fun without going mad and not spending loads of money, on eating out, trips out, or hiring boats or bikes ‘n’ stuff.

Keith was working on the night of the airport run so we dropped him off in Sidari, and then carried on to Corfu airport. I picked him up about midnight and we got back to our lovely, empty and quiet house for a nightcap on the balcony. When we woke up in the morning, the beach was suddenly empty the town felt so sleepy, It was soooo quiet, it seemed like not only Gemma and family had gone home but most of the other holidaymakers had as well. It is now September and the summer season is drawing to a close and in a few weeks we will be back in the UK reflecting on the summer just gone and who knows next year?

It all seems like “Madness”

“One step beyond”. Do do do, dodododododo….

"Pulling mussels from a shell"

2009-09-06T18:13:00.016+03:00

......."They do it down on camber sands
They do it at Waikiki
Lazing about the beach all day,
At night the crickets creepy
Squinting faces at the sky
A Harold Robbins paperback
Surfers drop their boards and dry
And everybody wants a hat"

Phew! August is over and the end of the silly season!
We have had a deluge of visitors, just as Ele and Vanessa left………….. Do, Dan, Paul, Milena and Family arrived and then Gemma and the kids. One warm barmy evening, when our friends Bob and Bev popped round on their way home from work, we were throwing a BBQ and it resulted in 14 of us all on the balcony, eating, drinking and partying.

We enjoyed doing the usual sightseeing duties, and took Do and Dan to Kassiopi, then up to the Monastery on the mountain ........and then to one of Do’s favourite restaurants in Strinilas under the old Elm tree,
also a fish treat for Dan at the Three Brothers in Astrakari. Liz took them for a day out to Paleokstritsa for a browse round the monastery there, and then lunch in a village on the way home, away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist beaten track.

It really highlights different aspects of the environment here when we have visitors because obviously everyone’s needs and experiences are unique. From Liz’s Mum who is 80 next year to Arwen who will be 2 in October. There are challenges and issues every time we set foot out of our door.
Because, whilst the Greeks are very clearly, family orientated, they have no concept of good old British ‘health and safety’. Everywhere you go there are uneven steps with no handrails, or hand rails 3 feet high and nothing beneath them to stop toddlers falling off the cliff, unfinished roads, pot holes so deep you could hide in them, or great big ridges of concrete, left where a cement mixer had dribbled the last drops of its load onto the road surface, there are very few pavements and of course pedestrian crossings, painted on the road are “just for decoration”, there is at least one bar we know has a children’s playground right on the road side with a fence to separate the children from the bar area, but no gate to stop little ones running straight onto the road!
But whilst this is a challenging environment for my Mum, she felt as though she had stayed on a health farm by the time she left. She swam in the sea or the pool every day and did her exercises
And we managed to do quite a lot of walking. This is a very hilly island, so everywhere you walk is pretty demanding. Also the heat wave we have waited for all season has now arrived so it is very hot ‘n’ sticky both day and night. Paul and family arrived on the overnight ferry from Brindise at 5am, they were staying in the nearby village of Afionas, so we drove over at 8am to say hello and have breakfast with them. This is a great time of day to spot locals doing local things and we were not disappointed, there was a great photo opportunity for Keith with a little old lady and her donkey! We met Paul ‘n’ family, checked out their apartment, then drove down to the bay below (Agios Georgios) for food. We found a taverna on the sea front that offered full breakfast at a reasonable price; so 7 full fry-ups were ordered. Agios Georgios is a more cosmopolitan resort than San Stefanos, and they cater for more German, Italian and Dutch taste, so when the breakfast arrived it was eggs, English bacon, brockvorst, tomatoes and mushrooms!! Perfect start to a perfect Greek experience! Agios Georgios is a deep water bay, great for swimming straight off the shore and ideal for snorkelling, and perfect for sailing. We returned the following day, the sea was as expected, much colder than San stef, as it is a very enclosed bay and deep water but we all had a great swim, with Dan, Liam and Keith challenging each other to swim around the yachts moored in the bay. The sand here is very gritty and soft so sandcastles are out of the question and getting in and out of the water proved to be a challenge for those of us less agile, although Liam and Antonia were on hand to help the stranded onto the shore.

We had a family meal in a restaurant on netural ground between Arillas and Afionas, a taverna called the Night Owl. Which did not include a lot of the typical Greek oven dishes but was all charcoal grilled stuff, with some nice specialities of octopus stuffed calamari and souvalaki plus lots of local wine and Retsina, which I must confess we are starting to get a liking for. We all piled back to Paul’s apartment for a quick nightcap and a really sweet flute recital by Antonia, then home for a last ouzo on our balcony before bed. Paul and Milena walked over to our resort a few times and when Gemma and the kids arrived, a great inter family rapport developed. Caitlyn and Antonia played together in and out of the Athina pool; Liam mixed his time between playing with the girls and keeping Finley occupied. Leaving us adults to chill either by the pool, or on the beach and able to swim in peace in the increasingly calm and very warm sea.
Paul was persuaded by the older children that it would be ‘fun’ to hire a pedalo; so he was duly dispatched to cost it out; the deal was done and Paul, Liam, Caitlyn and Antonia set sail in a very choppy sea for an hour. They didn’t get very far but had fun taking it in turns to slide into the water and generally fool around 100 metres off shore, whilst Paul bailed the water out with his hat! One afternoon, Paul, Milena, Keith, Liz, Liam and Antonia decide to take a long walk to the far end of San Stef beach (yep, the bit where people take their clothes off)
As soon as we got there, Milena left her clothes on the beach and headed for the sea, as did Keith and then Liz; the youngsters were horrified and wanted to go back to where ‘normal’ people bathed, much to the amusement of the adults!

A visit to a Keith Mitchell gig is compulsory if you come and visit us here, so on Thursday night we all trooped down on mass to the Athens bar to do our duty and a good night was had by all. The last time Paul and Milena had seen Keith play was last Christmas in Harrogate, where the entire audience consisted of Liz’s family and our friend Shirley and her mate. So it was a treat and a surprise to see Keith work with a ‘real’ crowd.

Do, Dan, Paul and family left us on Friday, after we took them into Corfu town for a quick look round and an ouzo meze, then onto the airport. So now just a few more days of excitement and mayhem, (beach, gig, pool, beach, gig, pool!!!) with Gemma and the kids, then tranquillity for 10 days before the final countdown to our journey home when Carmel arrives from Oz and we travel home together through Europe and back to the UK.

"Wild Night"

2009-08-23T12:29:00.024+03:00

................................................. Thelma & Louise

“The Wild night is calling
All the girls walk by, dressed up for each other
And the boys do the boogie woogie, on the corner of the street
And the people passing by just stare in wild wonder, yeah
And inside the jukebox roars just like thunder”

August is so different here compared to the rest of the season. It’s Hot, hot, hot, too hot! The island is in a blaze of heat and sunshine, and whilst the sea breeze is soothing on the beaches, it can feel a bit like a fan-assisted oven sometimes! The temperature has really changed, the days are hotter but shorter and the evenings are really warm and sticky. The landscape is not as green, there are a lot less flowers, and everywhere has become dustier.

And busy, busy, busy….. This is the 4th month of the tourist season and the bar and restaurant owners have become frazzled. The atmosphere generally is not as chilled as the rest of the season. Usually everyone is frazzled due to overwork and too many late nights, but this year it’s been compounded by the lack of tourists, lack of spending and the lack of any real income from the season! Traditionally the bars have dropped the live music in their bars in August because the punters are coming in anyway but not this season. They are all being so affected by the current economic climate. Therefore Keith is still doing 6 gigs a week (so we are getting frazzled too!!)

the empty beach early in the season

The beaches are a lot more crowded, including more Greek families. We often sit on our fold away chairs on the beach; watching the world go by and the Greek families usually provide us with great entertainment. The way they park on the beach is hilarious, double parking is almost compulsory and they bring everything but the kitchen sink with them; all shapes and sizes of sun beds and elaborate parasols and tents, radios, cool boxes and the all essential bat and ball games! They are masters of outdoor living!

The same view of our beach in August
The roads are full of transfer coaches, hired cars and scooters and Italians!! They come to Corfu in August in their 100’s. And the visitors in our annex apartment were no exception! Eleonora (Keith’s niece) and her friend Venessa (aka Thelma & Louise); arrived in Corfu on the Venice ferry for a 2 week vacation/road trip! Their little ford fiesta was loaded to the gills with supplies of food and clothes and of course lots of shoes!! If all the Italian tourists arrive here as well stocked up as this, it’s no wonder the locals class them as ‘poor spenders’, cos you name it…. they had it, food, drinks, toilet rolls and lots and lots and lots of pasta!!!!!!

They soon settled in and from a quiet beginning of just going down to the beach,

..............in a beach taverna

and having dinner on the balcony and sometimes coming to Keith’s gigs they soon spread their wings and ventured into the night in Sidari. They explored the clubs and bars arriving home just before dawn like vampires, having left a trail of lovesick puppies in their wake!!!

It was the same when they had a day out in Paleo (with Liz as chaperone.)

the harbour in paleo

Paleokastritsa is a traditional Italian holiday destination on Corfu and full of beautiful people. So Liz was dispatched to a beach side taverna to spend a couple of hours, drinking frappe and people watching from afar, whilst the girls sunbathed on the beach and swatted off the speedo clad masses with supreme ease.

It was astonishing to watch the young Greek/ Italian and English boys fall over themselves just to take a second look, on the beach, in the street and in the bars, it was always the same!! But the girls didn’t seem to notice; they were more interested in buying shoes or sampling elaborate cocktails.

a lunch in corfu town

Over the years we have met lots of people who have told us about mishaps they have had with hired cars on the island, mainly burst tyres or going off the road or hitting potholes but we must say this has never happened to us (yet!) So as part of our induction to the island we warned Thelma & Louise about potholes in the road, oncoming coaches and motor bikes. But what we didn’t say was don’t run over the edge of pavements in Sidari!! So guess what? They accidently ran over a pavement, and got a puncture right in the middle of the main Sidari strip of bars @ 2am in the morning!!!
So being the enterprising, good looking, Italian girls that they are, they got a local man and his son to change the wheel for them! He was out picking up his teenage daughters from the nightclub opposite, so when the daughters noticed the girls’ plight, they persuaded their dad to help change the wheel and the local girls disappeared back into the nightclub! Much to the irritation of their dad who’d had a struggle getting them out of there in the first place!!!!

With the wheel fixed they made their way back to base and the following day we arranged for the tyre to be changed at a local garage. And with a smile and a wink from the girls the price was dropped from 80 euros to 20! It was a bit like a scene from one of those ZZ top videos in the 90’s (Legs!)
On the middle Sunday of their stay a beach party was advertised for our beach in San Stef. Live bands & a DJ, starting at 6pm sounded a good idea and although Keith was working we said we would get back to see the end of it. On the day not much seemed to be happening, they’d organised the bar and oil barrels as tables but no sign of a stage or electrics etc.
Then at 7pm using the local speedboat and JCB, a spare pontoon was dragged from the corner of the beach to become the stage

The stage arrives

and in ‘Greek time’, a generator, lights, band gear and BBQ all arrived and were set up. It all started close to midnight and at 1am when we returned a local trash metal band was in full flow playing Pink Floyd covers and some original material (quite well as it turned out). At 1.30am the DJ took over to play dance music and bass and drum stuff, we left about 2.30am and went to be bed but the party continued till 5.30am with our windows rattling away from the bass sound ½ mile away!

the band on the beach

The 2 weeks rapidly drew to a close and we got up at 4.30am to accompany Thelma & Louise to the ferry port for their return trip. The night before Keith had played locally at the Athens bar, we escaped there at about 1.30am and with the ferry due out at 7am we left home at 5am to get to the port on time, but as we passed the Athens bar, it was packed and still going strong with drinkers, tourist & locals alike.
We waited till the girls drove onto the ferry before returning home. It was so nice to drive through Corfu town at that time of the day with the sun coming up and the town just starting to come alive without all the noise and ‘caffuffel’ of the usual daily routine.

on their last day soaking up the sun
“…..And everything looks so complete,
when you’re walkin down on the streets
And the wind catches your feet, sets you flyin', cryin'…..”

.........they are missed so much, someone has built a memorial to them on the spot where they sunbathed everyday!

"Tempted"

2009-08-06T15:26:00.045+03:00

“…I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste,
a flannel for my face
Pajamas, a hairbrush, new shoes and a case.
I said to my reflection,
Let's get out of this place….”

When we first planned to come back to Corfu this year, we extended an invitation to a huge list of friends and family to come and stay with us for a week or 2 of rest, relaxation, rock hard beds, over indulgence, stomach upsets, sunburn and mosquito bites……….and apart from our family visitors, so far only one of our friends has been ‘tempted’ to come over. Jules arrived on her own last Friday for her ‘Shirley Valentine’ experience.
............Jules finds a stoney faced companion......"Hello Rock"

a selection of "Jules"...Shirley Valentine moments! " hello shoes"

In an action packed week, we tried to tick as many boxes for her as possible, with trips to Corfu Town, Mouse Island, Afianos (our local Greek theme park village!), lots of bars and tavernas; a BBQ on our balcony and of course Keith’s gigs, where Jules made 2 guest appearances, which delighted the punters.

Jules & Keith "rock" the Athens bar

Jules is an experienced biker; she has a full licence and owns a bike in the UK. So we hired bikes and had a fantastic day out exploring the North of the Island.

........... Biker Chicks!

We collected the bikes and the first stop was to get fuel, but as we left the garage forecourt Jules set off first and proceeded to drive on the left!!!!! Liz frantically shouted and blew her horn until Jules eventually realised what was wrong. A worrying start to the day! We had a final destination in mind…… The 3 Brothers restaurant on Astrakari beach (where else would you go for a “Shirley Valentine “ meal)

...so with Keith leading the way we visited or drove through every village in a 20 mile radius of home ending with the letters “des” Kavadades, Magoulades, Armenades, Rachtades, Karousades and Velonades (where we got married - 3rd August 2005)

Above, the wedding day and now 4 years later

& Agrafi !!!! (Well there had to be one odd one that didn’t end in ‘des’)

As we drove through Armenades, Keith spotted a tortoise in the road just close to a tight bend, he slowed down to show us and we pulled up to take a closer look. Liz decided she would pick the tortoise up and move it to the road side, where it would be safer, but in the time it took to stop the bike put it on its stand and walk over to the little jaywalker, a local man on his bike sped around the corner and hit the tortoise, which sent our little friend flying! It ended up spinning around, upside down in the road, amid screams of shock ‘n’ horror from the girls. Liz picked up her new friend and placed it gently on the roadside to the sound of hissing and spitting (…from the tortoise I think?) and we drove off…..shell-shocked!

At Agrafi we accidentally did a little ‘off roading’; where Keith followed a road sign instead of his sense of direction and we ended up down a dirt track and into a field of corn. We turned around and made our way back to the road through a track full of huge bamboo plants and onto our destination, where the lunch was as expected, with quality sea food and eye candy for the girls.

But the highlight this week was the day we all went to see Eric Burden and the Animals (yep he’s still alive) in Corfu town at the old fort!!

With Jules and our friends Bob and Bev, who live just up the road from us in Avliotes.

Bob & Bev

We’d tried to by tickets in advance but to no avail, so it meant get there early have some food in town then go to the gig and pay on the door. Not knowing what Greek security would be like at the venue, and being seasoned outdoor concertgoers, we decided to take our own ‘disguised’ drinks with us. We had 4x500ml water bottles; one filled with Ouzo; two with Gin & Tonic and the other with water to mix with the Ouzo!!! We needn’t have bothered as no one checked bags or anything all we did was save money on the bar in the arena.

This was the most beautiful venue, in the grounds of the old fortress and with the church as the backdrop to the stage overlooking the sea front,
lit up with various coloured spotlights; it was the perfect setting for an evening of live music.

note the empty space between the front row and the stage ....soon to be filled!!

However, whether it was local organising or Eric’s rock star persona, the concert that should’ve started at 9pm still hadn’t started by 10pm! And with no support act, even the locals were getting restless. With lots of slow handclapping and whistles echoing around we were eventually told it would start in 5 mins. A seating arrangement of plastic chairs in front of the stage had quietly filled up during the wait for the gig to start with 300 chairs;

But by now a crowd of over 1000 people had gathered and chairs were being jealously guarded and it became like musical chairs if one was left unattended for any length of time. The front row of chairs was a discreet 30 feet away from the front of the stage, far enough back to allow the people sat there to see above the raised stage.

But as the music started all the people lingering around at the back without seats moved forward to make this space a “mosh pit” and as Eric Burdon & the animals came on stage, any hope of sitting down to watch the band disappeared.

The band was good, none of the original Animals though, just some very good session musicians, Keith reckoned that the drummer was the same one we’d seen with Crowded House last year. Eric Burdon looked great, with a shock of white/blond hair, more than he had in the 60’s and looking very cool in his shades, which disguised the fact that he is probably in his late 60’s now! They played all the hits including of course “House of the rising sun” ..................which made the crowd all sing along, it was a short set just over an hour, plus the encore with “We gotta get out of this place” which was preceded by a spectacular drum solo, and as the band came back on stage, one by one each one solo’d; 15 mins later it was all over, it was an event worth going to as a spectacle not sure if any of us would pay 25euros to see Eric Burdon again but we all agreed it had been a good night out!

And to round the week off we all piled in the car to Corfu town for a last minute shop, sightsee and to meet Keith’s niece Eleanora and her friend Vanessa who arrived on the Venice/Corfu ferry to stay with us for 2 weeks!!

................................Thelma & Louise Arrive

“We gotta get out of this place

If it's the last thing we ever do

We gotta get out of this place Girl,

there's a better life for me and you”

Eric Burdon

"All Summer Long......"

2009-07-26T14:59:00.027+03:00

".....It was 2009, my thoughts were short, my hair was long
Caught somewhere between a boy and a man....."

"CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW???!!!......."

During our second week with Becky, Pig and Hannah we decided to risk trespassing on Paul Deuchlands land once again, and took them to see Afianos village.

This time however we were offered the most priceless photo opportunity. There were 4 little Greek old ladies sat on a wall, and when Becky asked them if it was OK to take their photo, they beckoned at Hannah to come and sit with them. But Hannah was too scared so Pig very enthusiastically took the opportunity to squeeze in-between them and have his photo taken and they became very giddy and excitable.
Pig with his Greek Biatchos

Becky has very enthusiastically embraced Liz’s unhealthy obsession with “Greek Little Old Ladies” and never missed a chance to photograph them!!

................here is just a small sample of some of her great photos.

We hired a boat again, but this time we sailed round the Sidari coastline, we had been here before and seen young lads jumping from 1000 foot high (slight exaggeration) rocks into the sea. Keith & Pig decided to re-live their youth and do the same. We moored the boat and they swam off the boat and over to the rocks, but getting out of the water proved tricky, as the rock had a slippy mossy ledge and a difficult surface to climb onto. So instead of coming out of the water like Greek gods, they both emerged on all fours like a pair of grannies on ice!!!

Then to the rock itself! Keith had jumped off here last year with Gemma and Caitlyn but he said it looked a lot higher than he remembered and so he opted for diving in off a lower ledge. Pig on the other hand, was so inspired by the nubile local girls jumping from the top rock, that he just went for it!!!

Pigs can fly!!!....

He said afterwards he was in the air a long time, long enough to reflect on the wisdom of what he was half way through doing! They both survived and swam back to the boat, which had drifted somewhat, so they had a few hundred-metre swim to add to their death-defying feat.

We had another trip to Corfu town for some more sight seeing and some shopping therapy. It is getting much much busier now, it felt so much more lively than previous visits. As we meandered through the streets we suddenly found ourselves following a procession of traditional Greek musicians and singers, all in traditional costume, they looked like a salvation army band in gondoliers outfits; With guitars, an accordion player or two and a couple of women with tambourines They were fantastic, the singers were singing perfect harmonies as they strolled through the crowded streets, to the delight of shop owners customers and tourists alike, they were clearly busking for money encouraging all to leave money in their upturned tambourines, we followd them to the exit point of the narrow streets near to the old port.

Where Keith & Pig had to do another typical blokey thing!! Try on hats with hair!!! They were not alone in this pursuit as several German Dutch and Italian men were making equal fools of themselves much to the delight and embarrassment of their wives girlfriends and teenage children.

............................................................Chuckle brothers!

As usual we had lots of meals out in Restaurants and Tavernas but there was one treat that Becky had insisted on having, and that was to go to one particular restaurant…..The Three Brothers on Astrakari beach. It is a Fish Taverna that we often visit, although Liz doesn’t eat fish she is always very enthusiastic about going there. This is because the three brothers are great Greek ‘eye candy’ and always flirt with her. And having been there last year Becky (who also doesn’t eat fish!!?? )Was very enthusiastic to take us there to treat us to lunch for Liz’s birthday. The food was fantastic as usual, the girls had their flirt with the decidedly average looking George & Yannis, his equally plain twin brother, we all agreed it was a superb meal except for one minor detail, the wine, which was something else! If you ever want an example of a wine not travelling well this was it, it couldn’t travel off the beach it was undrinkable!!!!! The boys politely finished off the 1/2litre we’d ordered, then we all moved swiftly onto beer to wash the taste away.

On their last night Keith was doing his weekly gig at The Athens bar in San Stefanos. (Hannah couldn’t wait to see her favourite International rock star again!!)

This time we were treated to a guest appearance from a tourist who could sing!! A couple had been in San Stefanos to get married and the bride groom was a singer in a rock band, so with a little prompting from his new inlaws, he and his best man who was also a guitarist, got up and did a couple of songs much to the delight of the crowd of family and well wishers they had brought with them.

Whilst they were playing the mother-in-law came up to Keith to say thanks for letting “Damo” and “Dave” sing and play, and as she shook his hand she slipped a rolled up note into his hand! Thinking it was probably a 5 euro note; he didn’t look at it and transferred it into his pocket before going back up to play, it was only later when everyone had gone that he looked at this note to find it was a 50 euro note!!! Amazing what a thank you that was.

So our 2 weeks of having some great company came to a rapid end and we returned our visitors to Corfu town and the airport, and settled back into our usual routine, to prepare for our next influx of guests at the end of July.

“Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking 'bout tomorrow
Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long……….”

p.s.

Keith has done 50 gigs since we got here.......it's knackering and he says he is starting to feel like an old man......so I went and got one for him!!!

"Trains and Boats and Planes........"

2009-07-13T08:09:00.042+03:00

...............Well no trains but we do have boats and planes and a carriage…. A horse drawn one!

This is a quick summary of our days out with Becky, “Pig” and Hannah, our most recent visitors from the UK.

Hannah

Becky and Pig

Although they are not staying with us but “slumming it” at the local boutique hotel, Delfino Blue www.delfinoblu.gr

As they are in the poor part of town we thought we’d take pity on them and take them out to see some of the wonderful sights on this island. We started off by showing them the highest point of the island and the monastery, where Becky and Liz managed to get a swift peek at a local “hunky” monk.
On the way up to the monastery, we noticed something slowly crossing the road, we thought at first it was a hedgehog but as we got closer it was a tortoise!!! Which live in the wild here; Keith had read in books by Gerald Durell and co that they existed in this area but we never expected to see one, we stopped and had a 5 minute photo opportunity with him then carried on up the hill.
We followed this with lunch in a mountain village where we planned the next few days. On our way back we called into the fishing village of Kassiopi, where our intrepid guests spied boats to hire and having negotiated an excellent rate of hire arranged to come back later in the week for a 6 hour adventure around the north eastern coastline. We’d only ever hired boats around San Stef. So we were very keen to join them on their adventure into what was for us an unknown area.

Liz, prepared a huge picnic including sandwiches, cheeses, ham, salami and of course beer and wine, we picked up our intrepid travellers and set off for life on the ocean waves!

B,H and P are experienced ‘boat people’ so we felt very safe setting out from Kassiopi harbour.

We travelled north towards the sandy beaches of Kalamaki Bay, and strayed a little further north to the edge of Almiros close to where Keith plays guitar on a Sunday night. then turned back and travelled south along the coast down to the beautiful and expensive resorts including Agni, where the beautiful and the rich play and dine out in top quality restaurants.

We stopped several times to swim and snorkel and introduce Hannah who is now 7 to the delights of swimming in the sea. We dropped anchor and picnicked in a beautiful bay just below San Stefanos on the east coast (yep they have as little imagination in place names as they have in naming their sons and daughters)
With fish swimming all around the boat in crystal clear waters. Becky and “Pig” or as we were now calling him “Captain Jack’s Eye” took turns at the wheel, as we sailed past beautiful luxury villas with pools

and even some with their own beaches and jetties, and at one point there were so many villas with pools that even 500 metres off shore we could smell the chlorine from their pools.

We arrived back in port late afternoon very happy and tired Keith and I saw areas of the coastline we didn’t know existed which we will explore again maybe on land or maybe hire a boat and visit some of these hidden gems of villages that are not evident from the road.

Another day we visited the marina at Gouvia, where the sea planes are based, with the idea that Becky, Hannah and Pig could maybe do the trip we once did to the local island Paxos, however the sea plane service is not running this year, but we did have a good old brows around the 100’s of very big stylish yachts and cruisers in the marina (how the other half live)

Then onto to Corfu town, as we’ve said before we never tire of visiting the town and its always nice to show people around for the first time, so as usual we parked in the old port and walked into the old narrow streets that surround this area. It was so hot that we had to keep taking refreshment stops; so on to the Liston for an ouzo meze and into the back streets for a lunch in a ‘locals only’ taverna.

Hannah was fascinated by the horse drawn carriages parked up on the edge of the liston and as we crossed the area leading to the old fortress the old guys who drive these carriages started to try and draw us in to a carriage ride we resisted then walked away discussed tactics and offered them a silly price to take us all for a drive, they said Yes!!!! So ½ hour touring the streets of old Corfu in a horse and cart with Hannah sitting proudly up front with the driver was a great treat!!
We’d planned to finish the day out by visiting Mouse Island again; this time we did route one straight to the key side just as a plane was landing (it was Friday, transfer day) and we all looked at each other and said ‘wouldn’t it be fab if we were on the causeway at the end of the runway when a plane came in’!!!!!!

As we waited….. Piggy spotted the lights of a plane coming in towards us, we positioned ourselves right in the middle of the flight path and braced ourselves on the footpath for the plane landing 100 metres away from us and flying right over our heads. What a noise, what a scary but exhilarating experience, which made us all scream!! it was a real white knuckle moment!!!

But not quite as crazy as the scooter riders who use this causeway to short cut the journey to Corfu town by 5 miles by driving along the narrow concrete track over the waterway; where there is just enough room for the bike or a pedestrian but not both but that doesn’t stop them hare-ing along oblivious to the dangers or anybody on the footpath……….just one kick……. !!
Anyway back in the car but before we set off home time for a couple of more photo opportunities as 2 more planes landed and 2 taxied to the end of the runway and took off, it was just like Keith’s lunch breaks at Yeadon tarn, next to Leeds Bradford Airport!!!

Thursday was the highlight for Hannah, she was going to actually go to one of Keith’s gigs!! She really is very excited that she actually knows a proper’ rock star’…..in real life! Thursdays gig is local in San Stefanos and is always a very lively one. Hannahs’s only issue, (which she pointed out to Keith) was that he played Sweet Home Alabama wrong!! It sounded nothing like Kid Rock? But she had a ball and was allowed stay up til 1am!!
What a perfect end to their first week here!

……..You are from another part of the world
You had to go back awhile and then
You said you soon would return again
I’m waiting here like I promised to
I’m waiting here, but where are you……?

Riders on the storm.....

2009-07-04T17:49:00.021+03:00

It’s just over 3 weeks since Paddy and Lorraine went home,

Paddy and Keith acting the goat....

........so we have had a couple of weeks to recover before our next visitors arrived last Friday.

On the last day of Paddy and Lorraine’s stay, Liz and Paddy decided to hire a moped each and do some exploring. They assured Nikos that they were both experienced bikers, so he gave them 2 brand new bikes!!

But this was the first time Liz had ever ridden a bike! So a quick 10-minute lesson from Paddy in our back garden

and off they went through the mountains all the way to Paliokastritsa for their first pit stop.

A quick meze taverna lunch then back to base after a 4 hour adventure Liz is now sooo expert on 2 wheels she wants to get a bike for home (Mid life crisis?) And we are considering hiring one here for the rest of the summer, because even the rental people are suffering the downturn and what would normally cost 20 euros a day to hire a brand new scooter we can have for 3 euros.

We all agreed our favourite time of day here is between 5pm and 7pm, when it is still warm but not roasting! So we often went for an early evening stroll along San Stefanos beach; where there is a surprising variety of activities going on at this time of day.

Beach Aerobics (ladies only)

Power walking (fit German ladies only) and jogging

and Fishing,

and Liz havin a fag break (locals only)

and from the safety of our balcony, we have also observed Belly-dancing classes in the evening sun on the beach.

Keith is still doing 6 gigs a week, but things feel very different from our first 2 years here. Hotel and bar owners are all twitchy about the lack of tourists and the limited spending power of those that are in resorts. So as a consequence, they indulge in trying to tinker with everything; the acts that play in their bars, the days and times of gigs, they are watching the clock to see if or when any extra people will be walking down the street to their little empire!!!

A tourist makes a guest appearance at one of Keith's gigs

We have been lucky Keith has managed to keep all his nights booked up and if a venue owner has become “twitchy” we’ve found another one lined up ready to replace it. Some other musicians are not being quite so proactive, trying to trade on past success’s to get work and pricing themselves out of a depressed market and as a result only working 3 nights a week!

A typical audience at Keith's gigs
To add to the local’s misery about the economy etc. we have had a couple of weeks of unusually stormy weather,

whilst you have been having your heat wave in the UK. (the Greeks have even started to talk about the weather just like the Brits do!) We have had a week of fantastic electrical storms lasting for hours, usually at night with the whole sky lighting up, and the noise from the thunder rattles all the doors and windows throughout the town. This has meant cooler daytime temperatures, which we have taken advantage of and done some of the exploring that is difficult to do when it is ‘scorchio’.
Last week we spent a few hours rambling around the remains of the Old Fort in Corfu town. This was built by the Venetians upon the remains of a Byzantine castle between 1400 and 1500. (That’s years, not time of day, cos between 14.00 and 15.00 is when the locals siesta) Then the British made alterations in 16th and 18th centuries.

There is a huge moat around it, and underneath a maze of tunnels to explore.

We climbed to the top to experience the impressive view over Corfu Town and out to sea.

We never get bored of visiting Corfu Town, we just love its unique atmosphere.

"Street Life..."

2009-06-17T19:57:00.023+03:00

".......You can run away from time..... "

There is lot to be said for the Greek way of doing things! .........They just do it!!

More than once locally and several times in Corfu Town we have seen amazing daredevil workmanship going on;

Workman removing window frames with a crowbar!

.....where men would stand over sheer drops and work without hats, nets or safety equipment of any kind,

Note the total lack of any safety equipment plank on plank,

a great balancing act!

and at the local petrol station, where it’s tradition to hang out with your mates, pull up a chair outside on the forecourt, have a frappe and of course a cigarette or two!! Back in the UK we seem to hold a healthy respect for our electricity supply, we treat it with care and teach our kids not to stick fingers in the sockets etc.. and we can’t even tinker with the electrics in our homes ourselves without being qualified to do so.

However, here in Corfu it doesn’t appear to hold the same mystique or fear factor, maybe its because the electric supply comes from the mainland (underground or underwater)
Nobody seems to have a problem propping a metal ladder against an electricity pole (no boots, helmet or mate to hold the ladder at the bottom) and connecting or disconnecting the supply at will!
This happened the other week when the truck that dumps seaweed up the hill from or house (see last years blog) managed to tangle a low hanging electric cable (that feeds our street lights), around the cab roof! He disengaged it and drove off but the cable was left hanging very low down across the road. He did this on a couple of occasions that day and on the third trip just revved the engine a bit more and pulled the cable from its socket on the pylon and drove off. On his way back down he stopped, picked up the cable from the middle of the road and dumped it in the hedgerow outside our house!!!!
Two days later a man from the electric company appeared, put his ladder up against the pole, picked up the discarded cable, climbed the ladder in shorts and sandals, then “taped” the cable back together, job done!!! a bit of gafer tape should do it!!!!

Today we woke up to no electricity (again!) In hot weather, this can happen as everyone switches on their air con and overloads the fragile system we have over here. So with no power we are sat on our balcony, the only sounds coming from the resort are the birds in the trees and motorbikes and one solitary generator somewhere in a taverna in town and that’s it,…. peaceful !!!
Suddenly we saw huge jets of water being sprayed in the air at the other side of the village for no apparent reason, then it moved to a point where we could see an orange coloured water tanker with a jet hose on top doing what at first appeared to be watering the large pineapple looking trees near one of the bigger hotels. It moved on and arrived at the Athina hotel where it was then obvious it was spraying the main electricity pylons and switch boxes that control the electricity supply into the village!!!! water cannon on electric cables .....priceless!
Having done this for several minutes they stopped and drove up and down the path to the poolside bar a couple of times and then stopped again.

electricity truck at the Athina pool

We thought they were going to move on and towards our house so we might get a decent photo of this bizarre event, but no, they stopped, and with the usual fuss , noise and gesturing proceeded to insert a large hose pipe into the Athina pool from the truck!!!! They had run out of water!!!!! filling up with water from the swimming pool, make sure you dont suck up any small children !!
So now they began to refill the truck with water from the swimming pool much to the amazement and horror of the people bathing in the pool and sunbathing around it, 10 minutes later with the truck full, off they go to water the rest of the electric pylons in the village!!!

By now we have been awake for over an hour and the need for a coffee is overwhelming, so I’m sent next door to the studio where we have a gas cooker, to warm up milk and the coffee jug and fairly predictably half way through the process the electric came back on.

Hey ho good old Greek infrastructure!!!

There is a tradition of street selling throughout this part of the world. Many products are hawked around the streets on trucks, carts and donkeys; we have seen vehicles overloaded with pots pans chairs and tables etc. and they advertise their wares over a load speaker.

this is a flat bed astra van, loaded 8 feet high with everything including the kitchen sink!!!

People sell fruit and veg, bread, fish and garden plants, in fact many of the restaurants buy their sundry items from these people, usually with much haggling and of course gesturing and brinkmanship.
We have been drawn into this world and over the past few weeks, sometimes with a bit of help from our Greek neighbours, we have bought an extra table and chairs for our patio, a huge string of garlic enough for the whole summer, some tomato, pepper and basil plants to grow and cultivate for our own consumption and cooking.

It is a fun way of doing things and you know it's local produce you're getting; and beats going to the supermarket.

"Street Life, But you better not get old

Street life Or you're gonna feel the cold"

"In The Avenues and Alleyways......."

2009-06-17T17:00:00.017+03:00

“……….Go to the city

Stay through the daytime

safe in the sunshine

stay till the daytime

turns into night……..”

After our foggy day’s adventure with P&L to the Monastery, we decided to make full use of the hire car & sat nav, but in beautiful sunshine! We set off to explore the west coast of the island. We had already done the Afionas walk on our own but decided to give our visitors the “Greek village experience”

Liz and Loraine run the gauntlet past some villagers

Paddy and Lorraine were just as enchanted as we were by this beautiful village.

This time we got up close to the goats and goat herder, as we attempted to do the tricky coastal walk beyond Afionas village. We soon gave up the idea as the terrain proved to be tougher than we first thought and Lorraine had only flip flops on her feet so we abandoned the walk and got back into the car.

The next resort round the coast from Afionas is Agios George and we found a new route down to the beach via the house that Paul & family will rent in the summer!

We parked on the sea front and walked the length of the beach; the day was extremely hot so it was a treat to be up to our ankles in cool seawater. This resort is more of a cosmopolitan mix, as many German, Dutch, Russian & Italian tourists visit here each summer & many of the tavernas cater for a more Germanic taste, which seems to better quality than you often find in Corfu.

We had decided to eat lunch in a small taverna in Arillas (near to home) but thought, as it was still a bit too early we’d take the scenic route back to it!

View of Agios George and Arillas bays

So back into the car & out of the other end of the marvellous horseshoe shaped bay of Agios George, we followed the coastal road using the satnav towards a village called Pagni. We turned upwards in the direction of Paelokastritsa, zigzagging up a steep cliff face, as we climbed, the view below us became increasingly spectacular and near the crest of the hill we pulled over and took full advantage of the photo opportunity. Onwards and upwards we headed a bit deeper inland through an area where much farming was going on. One would think that crops would be better grown at sea level but up here fruit veg and wine crops seemed to be in every available plot of land.

There were road side sellers of local produce, mainly old people, who would leap out of their standard issue white plastic chairs and run into the road to flag us down (just like mad dogs chasing cars), Paddy managed to swerve around them and we carried on. Paddy used his satnav to mark points of interest to follow up later in the week, when he and Lorraine went out on their own in the car.

We eventually arrived back in Arillas 2 hours later & having detoured about 30 miles, to a superb mixture of local spinach pie, Squid, beer, local wine & Paddy had the chef’s salad, which seemed to increase in volume with every mouthful he consumed. The rest of the day was a mixture of poolside resting for Keith & Lorraine and Internet for Liz & Paddy, where a plan was hatched for them to hire scooters & blaze a trail across the island (another blog to follow on that).
Paddy & Lorraine had a couple of days exploring on their own in the car & found many hidden gems that we hadn’t discovered but we will visit in the coming weeks.

On Sunday Paddy had to give the car back, so they came with us for Keith’s nighttime gig in the 5 star hotel.

They booked into the very posh restaurant there and dined whilst Keith played & Liz glued her face to the restaurant window and watched their a-la-carte experience with great envy. Apparently the food was as good as Keith’s playing?!? Or maybe even better, they highly recommended it anyway (the food that is)

The view from the 5 star restaurant

As a final full day out for them, the five of us, including, Martina, (as Paddy calls her) as in (Sat-nav-all-over) set off for a Corfu town adventure. We parked close to the “Mon Repos” area and walked back into town via tree-lined streets & into the main town.

As it was close to midday the heat was intense, so we meandered through narrow shady lanes occasionally wandering into the air-conditioned shops. Whilst the girls browsed in a shoe shop, (Liz was trying to persuade Lorraine to buy some bright pink “fake” Crocs), the boys spotted a back street giros bar & promptly tucked into a beer & giros pitta fest!!!!

After this brief fuel stop we did some more sightseeing, up around the old fortress into the fish & fruit and veg market; and we went back into the narrow streets that lead to the main square. Corfu Town takes its siesta time seriously and even most of the churches had shut up shop for a sleep, but we managed to show P&L the inside of the St Spiridon Cathedral and as it was not the height of summer the air con wasn’t switched on, so it was no cooler in here than in the street.

Well nothing else to do but head for the Liston & another beer break (got to keep your fluid levels up in these temperatures). Liz introduced P&L to the delights of the wine meze; a delicious array of local things on sticks with chips and a glass of wine for 50 cents more than just a glass of wine! After this brief but very pleasant stop, only interrupted by the usual street seller of DVD’s and watches, we moved on past 5 star hotels & beautiful properties towards the car, which was now thankfully conveniently in the shade.

We used the satnav to find the end of the spur of land beyond Mon Repos at the end of the airport runway where “Mouse Island” and its monastery can be found.

Through a maze of one-way streets, and past some amazing old Roman ruins we arrived at a parking place overlooking Mouse Island where 2 tavernas have possibly the best views of this much photographed Greek icon!

But we decided to get a better look having spotted a parking area below. It took another 20 minutes of driving back around & through the one-way system to finally arrive on the quay side .. perfect!!!

Although as we pulled away from the top area Liz had to negotiate her way through and past two coaches that were discharging their passengers!!! Yep busloads of Japanese tourists, milling everywhere, and in the time it took us to drive around the streets to reach the foot of the cliff, they had climbed down the steps from the taverna and were moving on mass toward the little island, which was our destination!!!

We waited till most had been there, bought the postcard, taken the pictures, and departed before we dared to explore.

There is a single track causeway that runs across the end of the runway linking this part of Corfu Town to the southern part of the island, just wide enough for pedestrians and of course scooters.

Keith & Paddy went to have a look with the hope that a plane might land or take off, while they were out there!

It was only when they had got back to near the car that a Lear jet landed and some reasonable photos were gained.

We set off back home stopping off at the great bakery we patronise on every trip to & from Corfu Town and several kilos of baklava & ice creams later we made our way home with the satnav twittering away about our destination.

We have had a great 10 days with Paddy and Loraine. It’s fab having people over because it makes us change our routine and do more ‘touristy’ stuff. (Cos most of the time we are locals you know!!)

“…….Dream till the sunrise

creeps into your eyes

Dream till the sunrise

Turns on the day……..”

Follow this link to see Paddy's photo slide show!!

http://s544.photobucket.com/albums/hh354/phdaniels/Corfu%2009/?action=view&current=35c3eb0c.pbr

"We're on the road to nowhere......."

2009-06-06T15:52:00.009+03:00

Have you heard the one about a bloke called Paddy who finds a bargain upgrade for his Satnav on ebay, which gives him a detailed road map of all of Europe including Corfu, and then spends £300 flying out to Corfu to try it out?

Yep our 1st visitors arrived on Tuesday; Paddy and Lorraine are here for 10 days! They are staying with us in our studio annex, and one of the first things Paddy did was hire a car for a week so he can explore the island and use his satnav!!

Unfortunately, we woke up on Wednesday morning to some “changeable “ weather (it was peeing down) but we thought, head out for the monastery on the highest part of the island, do some exploring then lunch in a taverna which is a particular family favourite under an old elm tree in a village called Strinilas.

Paddy set the Satnav for the nearest point to the monastery we could find and off we went. It took us through some interesting local villages, past Sidari and on to Roda village. By the time we reached Roda we were in the middle of a torrential downpour, the sky was black, so the headlights and wipers were full on; it was like being in a tropical storm!

We carried on towards Acharavi; Keith was sat in the front with a map as well as watching the Satnav to see which way it was going to take us! This is a route that we have used several times, so we were surprised when the voice on the device said turn right!! But we had all agreed that it would be interesting to follow ‘her’ no matter what; just to see how accurate ‘she’ was and if there were some hidden gems that we had not yet discovered!

This “road” we’d turned into looked at first like an entrance to a quarry but turned out to be a narrow road, but within a few hundred metres it soon became a dirt track, we carried on as it seemed OK and could have been a link to the main road we wanted to join, just up ahead. But that main road didn’t materialise for several miles, and in the meantime we meandered through an olive grove or two and up and down a very picturesque hillside. Whilst the driving was very ‘challenging’ for Paddy, being a passenger was quite a ‘fairground ride’.

After 20 minutes or so we emerged out of the undergrowth onto a minor road and carried on towards our destination. We had another couple of minor detours where ‘she’ couldn’t tell the difference between a tarmac or concrete road or a farm track and a couple of times we all got out and let Paddy drive the car to a safe place to turn around, as the track we found ourselves on had become just two tyre tracks with a large ridge in the middle and the grass growing on it was dusting the exhaust and the underside of the car.

The Satnav called all roads “Road” …..pretty much in the same way that all bar owners here are called “Spiros”.

We finally found a road we recognised and with the weather and clouds closing in we decided to drive up the mountain to the monastery! Most of the next 5 or 6 miles we drove in thick cloud with minimum visibility and we were so grateful for the Satnav as she told us where the bends were and hairpins.

We arrived at the top of the mountain to see a sight which resembled a “Hammer” horror film, with 2 ornate gates half open at the entrance of a Gothic building which loomed in the fog and cloud

…….but no sign of Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee,

just a solitary monk and some very energetic German cyclists who had climbed nearly a 1000 metres on their bikes in virtual zero visibility. And it was absolutely freezing!

We wandered around, in our flipflops and kagools, giggling about the conditions and took loads of pictures and took shelter in the chapel

We were hoping the cloud would clear and we would have unrivalled views of the island above the clouds!!

But the weather was not clearing so back in the car and lunch!! When we got to Strinilas it was still chilly and instead of dining under the elm tree in the village the owners had opened the indoor bit to the taverna. So we ate indoors and drank the local wine, which clearly would not travel well or very far, probably not even out of the village! Paddy and Lorraine bought some local olive oil to take home and by the time we’d eaten the weather had cleared quite a bit and we enjoyed a scenic drive home, this time sticking to the main roads.
The jury is still out on how accurate the Satnav is. If it looks like a dirt track when ‘she’ says turn right it probably is just a dirt track!! And there were times when we drove on perfectly good roads and she had no record of them!!

“………we know where we're goin'
but we don't know where we've been.
And we know what we're knowing'
but we can't say what we've seen……..”

Paddy’s Response…..

“From my perspective: The booking of the visit and the purchase of the mapping for the Satnav were the opposite way round. The Satnav worked but did need to be over-ruled regularly. We did see some new and interesting places but following it slavishly would have got you in some serious trouble. Over the last four days Lorraine and I have covered about 350 kms North, South East and West and seen some beautiful places. The next few days are to relax and enjoy the weather and the relaxed atmosphere.

It has been really nice returning for the fourth time and being recognised and treated very well by all the locals. It has been especially nice spending time with Liz and Keith and watching our shares on the internet as they went up 20% in one day.

Apart from that one day of overcast and rainy weather it has been lovely, I would heartily recommend June (as Martin & Helen had recommended it to us). Now the weather for us is perfect Tee-shirt and shorts during the day and long trousers and sleeves in the evening.”

"One of those days in England......"

2009-05-28T23:00:00.021+03:00

…....with the country goin' broke......."

A day out in Corfu Town

On Saturday we had a rare ‘gig free’ day off, so we decided to have a day out and explore Corfu Town, not the tourist spots but the bits that we have glimpsed on route to and from the airport run.
As usual we didn’t get an early start and once we’d stopped for pastries at the excellent bakery on the main road just on the outskirts of Corfu town, (2 spinach pies later) it was midday; Oops! We parked at the old harbour and took the short cut through the town and across the “Liston”

This is a beautiful tree lined square with a large grassy area, which in the height of summer is packed with cars, motorbikes, horse drawn carriages and tourists. It was so quiet and deserted! We carried on past the fort and onto the road that runs alongside the sea front.

We have often driven past this area and it always looks interesting. So we set off walking and discovered streets with beautiful roof top gardens and tavernas that seemed to cater for the locals rather than the tourist trade. The whole area was quite run down with many derelict buildings

and overgrown boulevards

but it was really charming too and retained a character that has been lost in some other parts of the town. There were signs for European funding projects taking place to revitalise the area and there was evidence of these old buildings being restored and brought back to life.

We walked to an area known as Mon Repos. (named after a 2 Ronnie’s sketch?).

“The tumbledown structure of the basilica, built by bishop Iovian in the V century, is located across the road of the entrance into the park. The park is filled with various vegetation and refreshing coolness, especially urgent during hot day. The monastery of Saint Euphemia hid behind the hedge. A little further, along the path there is the small palace Mon Repos. Formerly it was a summer residence of Greek kings, now here is the museum, where the archaeological finds, assembled from the adjacent places are collected. Further the path leads to the heap of the stone blocks, partly stowed, partly scattered. This is the temple of Hera (Heraeum) of VII - IV century B.C. Still further there are the ruins of the Doric temple of Artemis.”

This quote above is from a great blog by a Russian tourist, see link below
http://www.eikones.zoxt.net/en/ker3.html

They were charging 2 euros to enter the gardens and jump off the pier into the sea so we decided to give it a miss! The café’s here were characterless, purely tourist rip off places and they even have a little motorised “train” to carry people to this part of town from the Liston and conveniently bypass the run down areas we had just walked through.

It was boiling hot and although we had brought bottles of water with us we were both feeling the effects of the midday sun, so on our way back to the car we detoured down tree lined avenues which led to the main square in the town past some incredibly beautiful villas and apartments.

It was just after 2pm when we walked through the town and through the marbled streets back to the Liston. It was so quiet in town, people had probably gone for their siestas, and it was great to see the streets so empty.

We decided to have a drink and a ‘meze’ in one of our favourite bars on the Liston; (basically you can have a glass of wine for 2.5 euros or wine with a meze for 3 euros, which is a small plate of local meats, cheeses, olives, chips and bread! Bargain!)
As we were being served, we noticed several men wearing cricket whites. Our waiter explained, that every year, on this UK Bank holiday weekend, a cricket team from England is invited to take on a Greek side as part of a traditional 3-day annual event! We watched them warm up and then commence play as if it was a Sunday afternoon on a village green somewhere in the English countryside. The only difference being, it was 30 degrees in the shade and not raining! The Liston is probably half the size of a cricket pitch and they were using proper cork balls!!!! Cars were still parked nearby and any boundaries scored went under, over or into the cars or 30 feet in the other direction, so the ball could land amongst all the high-class bars and tavernas, which surrounded the area! It was a bit biazzar to say the least. But stuff that legends are made of. We have often heard of this cricket match-taking place but could never have imagined how they played on such a small pitch or that we would ever see it happen! They even had their Cricketers WAGS quaffing champers and eating clubs sandwiches. Shouting “jolly good show what”!!!!!

We had a fascinating few hours watching this spectacle (and 3 wine mezes) before returning through the deserted streets to our car and back home.

"One of those days in England..... chompin' baked beans in my coat

Tell me when it matters, love, I might just wanna get out of bed to see"

(by Roy Harper.......for those of you who care!)

"We are the Village Green Preservation Society"...

2009-05-20T18:31:00.031+03:00

The view from Afianos village overlooking Arillas & the San Stefanos headland where we live

This year we have decided to have some days out walking instead of just exploring out and about in the car. Also May is cooler so it’s a good opportunity to don our groovy walking sandals and climb some hills.

Lemon Trees & Olive Groves
We had already done the cliff top walk from our house in San Stefanos (NW) across to Arillas village, so today we decided to venture further and walk over to the lovely old village of Afianos; which is perched high on the headland looking down on Agios Georgios Bay to the south and the open Ionian Sea to the north. A view from a cliff top Taverna

Afianos is where Paul and Milena have booked to stay in August, and where we briefly visited them when they stayed there for our wedding holiday. More panoramic views of the Arillas bay
From Arillas we walked up the very hilly and winding road and through the olive groves to Afianos. As soon as we got to the edge of the village we saw an old Greek woman shearing her sheep! V exciting, Liz has become obsessed with spotting little old greek ladies over the last 3 years?? "God save mrs. mopp and good old mother riley..."

Anyway, we asked her in our best Greek if it was ok to take a photo. She was very sweet and obligingly posed with her sheep. Then she proudly asked us to feel the sheepskin that was on the ground in front of her; which we did and it was grim, it was oily and very smelly; but we told her it was very beautiful.

One sheared sheep minus its coat which is on the floor in front of sheep n owner

Not much further up the road we saw another Greek woman, this time in traditional dress, she had dragged a hosepipe across the road from her house to water her veg patch, whilst her frail looking husband sat in the garden shouting instructions to her and she was muttering away back to him. Little ol' lady carrying the regulation blue plastic bag; ...over the years, everywhere we go in Corfu we have constantly seen ‘little old Greek ladies’ walking up hills with their blue carrier bag. We have a theory that they are on their way back from the local ‘dealers’ house and the bags are full of ‘grass’ & “E’s” for the “liddle ol’ lady” raves they have once the tourist bus has past. lol. As we got further into the village we kept seeing donkeys tied up in every field, old & very smelly! Then right on cue a woman came walking down the road leading her heavily ladened donkey, for another touristy photo op. carry that load!
This started to feel like we were on the set of a Film featuring ‘traditional life in a Greek village’; or something the local tourist board had arranged for the tourist season. A sort of “Beamish-os” or Jorvik-eos does my ass look big etc........
All the gardens had chickens in, vegetables growing and the most fantastic flowers, it just got more beautiful the further into the village we walked.
You have to walk through very pretty narrow winding streets where no cars or bikes can go; to get to the top of the village, which takes you out onto a hill overlooking both the Agios George Bay and the Arillas Bay.

The intrepid Liz power walking through the village

a view through a garden gate

Millstones various sizes!!!!

And here we saw a Greek woman bringing her goats in for milking and another old lady was hammering wooden stakes into the ground for her vegetables.

Panoramic view of Agios Georgios

One of our favourite days out so far.....

"Preserving the old ways from being abused;

Protecting the new ways for me and for you

What more can we do......"

More soon.......L&K

Why does it always rain on me..........?

2009-05-12T13:28:00.044+03:00

Leaving Hull on Sunday......

at sunset.....

........... at quarter past G&T.........!

We have been here in Corfu for just over a week now. We took our time driving down to Venice, stopping over with family as usual on the way. We had 3 days on the road, and it rained & rained & rained & snowed!!!!

Drove past 100's of castles down the Rhine valley........

..... and through clouds and more clouds

The evening we spent with Paul & Milena in Heidelberg was very musical, with Paul & Keith playing guitar ............and Antonia playing beautifully on her flute

Fed and watered....we left Paul’s house on Tuesday morning in light rain and within 10 miles it was heavy rain for virtually the rest of the journey.

Switzerland...rain...snow...and cherry blossom....

Then going through the Alps, just as we were about to enter the St Gottard tunnel, a snow storm blew in; it was an amazing experience, we had considered driving over the pass rather than using the tunnel but the pass was closed due to bad weather so we didn’t have to make that choice.

Italian lakes in all their glory.....

The bad weather continued through Italy,

and when we got to Deborah’s in Milan there was a thunderstorm late in the evening. After a very pleasant evening with the Sannelli family in Milan we set off to Shelia’s and experienced the rush hour traffic around Milan.

Italian drivers have a unique way of driving, they drive at high speed right up to the bumper of the car in front almost pushing them out of the way, then lots of sudden braking and swerving from lane to lane, usually at the last minute before they turn off for their junction, it’s like the “wacky races” and how there are not more serious accidents I do not know.

We arrived at Sheila’s in the Italian Lakes on Wednesday and had a particularly ‘wet’ night!! This time due to lots of wine and an intense wine fuelled debate where we put the world to rights, after which we decided the following day to do some sight seeing and go to Verona for the afternoon.

What an amazing old city with fantastic old buildings and all the stuff you’d expect from a tourist hot spot including a Mc d’s with a “tastefully” different coloured M to be “subtle” in amongst the ancient Roman and Venetian architecture……nice!

There were lots of street artists and things going on for the tourists.

Whilst we where there the heavens opened once again for another downpour and the marble tiled streets became skating rinks and Liz in her flip flops had to cling on to me for dear life at the risk of falling over!

Romeo...Romeo...where for art thou??
........In Macdonalds of course....!!

We escaped the downpour by stitting and eating in a pizza place in the main square and people watched for an hour.

On Friday morning we finally woke up to decent weather as we set off to do the short trip to Venice.

Snow on the Italian Alps on the way to Venice....

What has surprised us so far is the price of fuel! It is more expensive than in the UK; in Holland the average price was 1.34 euros, Germany was about 1.20 euros, and when we drove through the alps the 1st services we stopped at wanted a staggering 1.68 euros per litre, luckily the average price on Corfu this year is just under the euro at .97 cents.

Anyway with a slight detour on route to Venice due to a new stretch of motorway not recognised by the SatNav, we arrived with time to spare for the 24hour ferry crossing to Corfu, unlike some people, who arrived with minutes to spare, the ferry was just about all loaded up and over a 20 minute period just before the doors closed, what seemed like an endless stream of last minute passengers in their cars and trucks had to be fitted on to the ferry;
..with the usual Greek/Italian mayhem and chaos, a British car that arrived at the last minute got loaded on and off 3 times before the job was done.

The trip from Venice to Corfu was largely uneventful,

We had a great cabin this year...

the ferry was fairly quiet, and we felt like real youngsters compared with the average age of the other passengers.

The only drama was that this year with all the smoking ban in Italy and the forthcoming ban in Greece (yep they are gonna try to do it here…This July!!) Liz couldn’t buy any cigs on the boat!!!! Not that she’d planned to stock up with thousands as in previous years, but not a one anywhere on board. This must have caught many people by surprise ‘cos 1st stop on mainland Greece and several people got off whilst the boarding and unloading took place and they ran to the shop at the ferry port and bought some for the remainder of the journey, even some of the crew wizzed over to the shop to buy some!

So we arrived here last Saturday, happy to find our home just as we had left it. We have spent a majority of our first week networking and finding work and catching up with friends. And Keith has managed to do 3 gigs in the first week.

So all is well. Will blog again soon.

"Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter"..

2009-04-11T18:36:00.019+03:00

.....Well it’s been months since we last blogged hope you haven’t missed us too much. It’s not because we’ve been lazing around doing nothing since our return last September; on the contrary it’s because it’s been so chaotic. Now as we start to get ready for another summer on the sun-drenched island of Corfu, we thought it was time for an update.

We arrived back in sunny Yorkshire mid September and threw ourselves back into work, Keith went straight back into gigging in the Pubs, and we rounded up the usual suspects to come and support the cause. Including Paul & Milena, all the way from Germany. Paul is seen here passing on the finer points of his Dylan repertoire to Keith!!

We also returned to a new home............ (living with Liz’s son Adam & his girlfriend Amanda). We all very quickly realized though, that house sharing was not for us, we felt as though we were living the student lifestyle all over again! But we made it work for 4 months until we found a place of our own at the end of January.

End of October it was Arwen's first birthday, so she had a Halloween Party (find Keith in this picture?? Ha Ha)

We had a fab December and Christmas; starting when we went to the Officers Christmas ball at Sandhurst with Paddy and Lorraine. A very posh do, with lots of posh nosh and champers!! Christmas involved most of Lizzy’s family; including Siobhan after her gap year traveling round the world, and Sheila who had taken her first winter off for years of being a ski rep; all converged on Helen & Martins house at some point over the festive period. Resulting in impromptu parties and social gatherings on a daily basis! On Christmas Day Pippa tried (in vain) to teach her mum the art of ‘charades’

We collected Gemma and the grandkids from Durham and spent Boxing Day at Keith’s parents with his youngest son Simon.

Phil was still in Thailand but he returned home late January full of tales from his 6 months in the Far East. Even Debbie and Franco (Keith’s sister & family) got over for a pre-Christmas visit.

As Caitlyn's birthday falls between Christmas & New Year we usually go over & do something for her birthday, this year she decided it would be ice skating at Whitley Bay ice rink, as stadiums go it would give Bradford ice rink a run for its money as 'the grottiest public venue', it had a bowling alley upstairs that had seen better days it was like a being in a film set from the 50's but a good time was had by all & we returned to Gemma's for an evening on wii-fit & alcohol.

NYE resulted in Liz having a few anxious days, as news of her daughter Carmel in Oz taking a tumble flew round the internet (via facebook, twitter, skype and the rest)

She spent NYE in hospital with only her laptop for company and high on painkilling drugs, rather than partying as she’d planned, but luckily with physio and a strong heart she has made a speedy recovery.

January and February saw several days of deep snow adding to the bleak mid winter we experienced as we sought to find a home of our own. Then fate took a hand as it does and a chance conversation with a friend of Keith’s saw us move out of the city and relocate to the beautiful countryside on the outskirts of Keighley.

It feels like we have finally found home, a 200 year old stone cottage for the two of us, in a village called Steeton; with 2 pubs 100 yards away, easy commuting distance either by road or rail, to Leeds and Preston for work and family and nights out. Liz managed a sight-seeing trip of the local area on her first train journey home from work. She managed to miss her stop and ended up in Skipton! Not a great start but she got over it and has managed to get off at the right station ever since!

So here we are, it’s Easter, and with spring arriving.......it's the start of the wedding season!? In our village here in Steeton they seem to like to do things differently. Here is a picture of a wedding we spotted a couple of weeks ago

anyway............... our ferries are booked, we’ve contacted all our relatives on route and organized our overnight stops, on our way to Venice for the ferry to Corfu, We will arrive in Corfu on 1st May for the summer season. Keith’s been practicing some new songs for the summer, plus trying to learn all the ones he tried to play last summer. Liz has been trying on her little black dress and organizing her sales pitch ready for selling cd’s to her public. “Here comes the sun…..do do do do …………”

"Two of us riding nowhere........

2008-09-06T15:34:00.009+03:00

…..Spending someone's Hard earned pay….”
And now the end is near and we face the long drive home.
It’s been weeks since our last confession, and its not that we had nothing to say it’s just that we were so busy doing stuff with our visitors. Then when everyone went home we just stopped! And did nothing for several days in a daze!

Anyway here is a brief summary and pics of the last 7 weeks

In one crazy week we had 17 family members staying in San Stefanos, some with us (Gemma etc.), others, mainly Helen & Martins family, in apartments just up the road from us, it was a bit like a re- run of the wedding holiday. We managed to fit in a Greek night with dancing, at Manthos Taverna,

some dangerous ball games in the Athina pool and as we had little kids with us, so lots of digging in the sand. Adults only though!! Kids are only there to watch and learn!

We also dragged numerous family members to Keith’s gigs so the bar owners were very happy. It was Adams birthday during that week so a drunken night out in Sidari took place ending in a boozy gig at Napoleons bar

where Keith was playing, then some late night dancing in the Condor till the small hours.. Some of the gang went to Aqualand one day and had an amazing day out (see Caitlyns blog) it was a crazy action packed week.
Helen & Martin & family left and we had a couple more weeks with Gemma & the kids and Adam, who was joined in the second week by Amanda, who missed him so much she came back for another week after she’d gone home.

One of the highlights of the week was hiring a high powered boat for the day; we all piled into the boat and spent lots of time jumping in and out of coves snorkelling (and caught a couple of starfish)

and generally acting like big kids whilst the little kids watched on, although Finley did have a swim in the sea and Arwen threw up in the boat.
We carried on business as usual at night with the gigs, but during the day we walked miles with pushchairs and stuff up and down the hills and across the beaches, Liz has now got ‘buns of steel’ and is in danger of becoming muscle-bound (maybe)

Finally the day came, and on the Monday we said a fond farewell to everybody with 2 trips to the airport and we came home at about 2 in the morning to a very calm peaceful house aaah! and relax!!! As our house quietened down so has the resort and we have had some relaxing days on the beach and chilled out evenings sat on the balcony with a G&T and watching the world go very slowly by.

All summer we have continued to gig constantly 4,5 sometimes 6 gigs a week, even in August, when traditionally Greek bar owners expect their bars to be full without paying out for entertainment, if a gig has been dropped there always seemed to be 2 others who wanted Keith to play at their bar. Also people who saw Keith last year have come back and said hello again, so slowly we are building a reputation just as some of the established artists on the island have.
Keith has been invited to play in jamming sessions with other muso’s on Monday nights in Roda and a couple of weeks ago he was asked to do a gig in Ipsos with a Greek band who we met last year.
Some friends from Preston Julie, Claire & Sarah (all muso’s)

came to Corfu for a week, Clare was keen to do some singing and ended up doing a spot at 3 of Keith ‘s gigs, and got offers of work for next year if she wants it. (That’s how Keith got started). Its been a lot of fun and we have made some great friends and got to know a lot more people through the music this year.

“……You and I have memories

Longer than the road that stretches out ahead…..”

Byeeeeeeeeeee.....x

Schools out for Summer.....(Caitlyn's Blog)

2008-09-06T15:02:00.010+03:00

Out for summer.....Out till fall.....We might not go back at all....

Introducing Caitlyn 8yrs old (Keith's Grandaughter) Our first guest writer....

15th July Me, Mum Finley and Arwen got to Grandad and Lizzy’s house ready for our 6 weeks holiday.

Every day we have been going to the Athina pool or on the beach with a packed lunch. Every day is really sunny and we are all going brown.

On the third week the Cockerills arrived at night, then the next day we all met up at the Athena pool. Then at night we went out for a meal and we went Greek dancing.

The next day we went to the beach, and we got some floats for the sea, after we played bat and ball in the sea and we built sand castles.

One day we hired a canoe

At night we had a barbeque at Grandads house and some of us played on the Nintedo Ds. The next day Adam and Amanda arrived and we went out for a meal then after we went to the Acabar I got a cocktail. The next day Adam and Amanda came to are apartment on their bike to say hi

We went to the water park and we went on loads of free falls. We went in the three brothers restaurant for tea.

We went to the gig at the Condor Bar and there was another girl called Caitlyn who stayed in apartments next to us. Every day we look for little old ladies to take pictures of to go on a calendar.
One night we went to a Greek festival there were loads of dancing.

We went to Corfu town to have a bimble and I had a Henna Tattoo done on my back! We went to Sidari to buy me a watch, a bag and a hat.

Then after 6 weeks we had to go home.

Byeeee love from Caitlyn....x

Nizlopi....Lizlopi...the JCB Song......

2008-09-06T14:27:00.008+03:00

'..........And the engine rattles my bum like berserk
While we're singin' , 'Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work!'

Up at the crack of dawn today……. and Liz was about to have an adventure!

Because of the shape and location of the beach at San Stefanos, a couple of times a week several tons of seaweed gets washed onto the shoreline. The local business owners need this moving, so they arrange for a man with a truck and a man with a JCB to come and shift it, early in the morning before the tourists arrive on the beach.

And where does it go? Into a land fill area up the hill behind our house, so at about 7/ 7.30 ish a truck full of seaweed goes past our house every 10 minutes or so for about 2 hours.

Finley loves trucks and tractors but especially JCB’s so he was in heaven when he spotted the activity going on all around where we live.

Liz being a morning person (now) decided that it would be a treat to take him down to the beach at 7am to get close up to the trucks. Gemma said she’d never seen Liz get dressed so fast at the prospect of hanging out with the truckers. And before Gemma could get Arwen and Caitlyn ready Liz was off with Finley to the beach.

As Gemma reached the beach 10 minutes or so later, the truck was coming down the hill past our house having tipped a load of seaweed and who should be in the cab waving to her?? …… Liz and Finley, she can be such a fast mover when she wants to be!
Apparently the two guys with the trucks were so taken with Finley that they let him sit in the JCB as well, he steered the machine and used the controls (on the drivers knee)

whilst it picked up the seaweed, then he suggested that Finley and Liz went in the truck up the hill whilst he unloaded his truck!!!

Liz thought it was a Shirley Valentine moment having misheard the line in the film about a boat and a truck? They all returned about an hour later very happy having had lots of photo opportunities and Liz had her ride in a truck!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGkseGFQLh4&feature=related

Forever in my dreams my heart will be, hanging on to this sweet memory...

2008-07-27T16:59:00.007+03:00

….Take me back to the place that I know....On the beach

Gemma and the kids!!!!!!

They arrived in fine spirits and ready for their 6 weeks! stay.

We had rearranged the spare bedroom to accommodate them all with a blow up bed and a travel cot for Arwen, we all had a good nights sleep and awoke at 7am!!!! ready for our first full day of kids on the beach, kids in the pool whilst still maintaining 6 gigs a week!, Unfortunately it was still very windy, too windy to go anywhere, we even had to eat in the kitchen it was so blustery, which was strange for us as we have always eaten out on the balcony here. We did manage the Athina pool later on that day as the winds died down.

On the beach…….

We took them all in the morning to the Athina pool, home for lunch then a quick siesta

...then we thought we’d take Finley & Arwen for their first taste of the beach; literally! as it turned out, both of them sampled eating sand

before they realised it was more fun splashing in the sea and watching their granddad dig in the sand!!! (Keith welcomed the excuse to finally be able to dig holes in the sand and make sandcastles)

The following day we went back for a longer spell, armed with parasols, buckets & spades, toy trucks and a borrowed Lilo from one of our friends who runs the local sun bed hire, we also had armbands for Finley so he could really go in the sea.
We’d picked the hottest day so far to do this (40 degrees) and although we kept the little ones smothered in lotions we all had to spend a lot of time in the sea and under the parasols to keep cool.

Finley never stopped running all day, until he finally fell asleep on the lilo under a parasol after a long play in the sea.

We all arrived home exhausted after a full day on the sand.
Keith got involved with a bit of sand castle wars with the German family who parked themselves next to us on the beach. Keith & Caitlyn had gently built a Pyramid /sand castle with the basic plastic bucket & spade set we had bought at the local shop but Keith was a bit gob-smacked when the father of the family appeared with his folding, all metal shovel come pickaxe and proceeded to tunnel his way into the sand.

It was just like watching a military operation, we had to drag Keith away before this major earth works was completed or before he went and jumped on the turrets.

At the end of the first week the weather changed again and we had a couple more windy days, so we decided to go out and about looking for some sheltered bays to play out in. After a hearty breakfast we all piled into the car and set off for Paleokastritsa only 30 mins away. But 10 miles and 20 minutes later Finley woke up and promptly threw up everywhere, all over Gemma and the back seat of the car. And because he is 2 years old and at the ‘touch every button’ and ‘play with every switch’ stage, we had centrally locked the windows and the doors of the car, poor Gemma couldn’t even stick Finley’s head out of the window to avoid the deluge. We pulled over, hosed Gemma and Finley down, threw away some of the stuff in the back of the car (including a book that Keith had borrowed from his colleague Andrew at work) that had been hit by Finley’s tsunami, then we returned home without further incident, day out cancelled, another lesson learned, don’t fill a 2 year old with yoghurt before going on windy Greek roads!

Thursday was a really rainy day and having learnt the lesson of the previous day, we didn’t fill the kids with food as we set off for a day out in Corfu town. It poured down all the way into Corfu town and it appeared that everybody else with a car had decided to do the same thing, the traffic was chaos, and many of the traffic lights had stopped working, possibly due to the rain storm. We couldn’t get into any of the town centre car parks so we headed up the main road to the airport where the supermarkets and toy shops are, first stop the Corfu branch of “toys r os” where we purchased some toy trucks and diggers. Then to another store called Jumbo where Liz was in shopping heaven, aisle after aisle of toys, toiletries and general stuff that only Liz would want to buy! 1 hour later, armed with more toys and toiletries than you could shake a stick at, we emerged into sunshine and headed back into Corfu town. This time we parked and spent a couple of hours sightseeing, eating & Caitlyn shopped till we all dropped, we even managed to fit in a visit to a children’s playground near the old fortress before going back to the car at 5pm and then home.
What an eventful first week with only 5 more to go….and as the season gets busier, more requests for gigs keep coming in, Keith is now doing 6 gigs a week and with the change in our sleeping pattern (the kids wake up at 7am) we are now finally living a Greek lifestyle and taking essential siestas in the afternoons so we don’t burn out with the pace we are keeping. Ah well back to the pool !

“Oh how I wish you were here”....

2008-07-27T16:22:00.008+03:00

....we're just two lost souls, living in a fish bowl, year after year.....

Be careful what you wish for …….

We had expected to have 3 weeks of recharging our batteries and detoxing, but as usual, things don’t always go as you plan them. As Helen and Martin left they were saying how much they were missing Emily their granddaughter, and we were saying the same about Gemma and the kids, and how we couldn’t wait to see them in 3 weeks time! Well we didn’t have to wait that long we got a phone call on the Sunday from Gemma, saying she was fed up and an hour later she’d booked a flight to arrive on the Tuesday, THIS Tuesday!!! Only 3 days of peace and tranquillity!!!!

There was a gale force wind blowing when we woke up on the Tuesday morning so we decided to have a day out in Corfu town seeing some of the things we’d meant to look at when the weather was not so hot, this seemed like an ideal day for it. We parked up at the old port

and walked along in the direction of the Liston and the old fortress. We passed old Venetian style buildings some with plaques telling of the famous and not so famous people who’d lived there including Edward Lear.

We walked through the archway

and into the grounds of the palace of SS Michael & George,

which houses the museum of Asian Art. It is a fascinating building, which started life in 1819 as a summer royal residence for British monarchy. We wandered around the grounds

which also contain throw backs to its time as a residency including a spiral staircase going down to a jetty from which private bathing could take place.

We went from here to the old fortress, which dominates the east side of Corfu town, dating back to pre Byzantine times, and was made into an island by the Venetians in the 15th century when a channel was dug between the fort and the Town. We climbed to the highest point of the fort which gave us impressive views over Corfu town

...many photos later and very windswept we climbed down and returned into the heart of the old town. We had a nice meal in one of our favourite restaurants in the square near St Spiridon Cathedral then off to the airport to pick up our next visitors.

View of a massive cruise boat from the grounds of the palace

The wheels on the bus.....

2008-07-09T13:23:00.014+03:00

......go round and round...

Do you know? Visitors are like buses….
(Apart from Helen and Martin who appear to be permanent residents!)
We didn’t get any visitors for the first 5 weeks then 4 lots come along one after the other!
First Becky, Piggy (Steve) & Hannah, (Keith’s friends from work) stayed in San Stefanos for a week,

then as they left on the Friday, Liz’s mum (Do) arrived

along with Paddy & Lorraine (Liz’s brother & his wife) on 2 separate flights, then as we took Do back to the airport this Friday, Paddy’s son Michael & his friend Kim arrived

and Liz picked them up on the same airport run. Friday really is transfer day here in Corfu. We have had some great adventures with our guests and visitors and of course some great meals out!

We took Becky & Co to view Paleokastrisa (from a distance as it is a tourist trap) then lunch at the Three Brothers on Astrakari beach. Keith & Pig drooled over the beautiful sea food on offer, while Liz & Becky drooled over the brothers serving us Hannah befriended a young Greek girl of a similar age, who lived at the restaurant in the summer, and by the time we’d finished eating, both girls were playing well together despite having no common language between them. Liz’s mum stayed with us for a week, Helen & Martin moved into an apartment with Paddy & Lorraine a short distance away, (as the crow flies, but up and down 2 big hills). Doreen managed to swim in the sea most days at the pool at the Athina and had a couple of days out in the car. First with us, then with Paddy & Lorraine, with a couple of lunches in mountain villages,

where we bought fresh oregano to hang up and dry and some local olive oil. Paddy and Lorraine also took Do out for a day in their hire car including up to the highest point on Corfu, where a monastery is situated, with the biggest and ugliest radio mast who’s four legs are strategically placed within the four corners of the monastery yard. We also had yet another BBQ at the house on the hill this time as well as the lamb chops we cooked fish & some prawns marinated in chilli & garlic sauce, and of course all washed down with beautiful Greek wine.

An almost compulsory element to visiting us is you have to sit through at least one of Keith’s gigs; Becky & Co managed to get a way with one, Doreen did the same, so far Paddy & Lorraine have done 3 gigs, and Paddy still hasn’t had a cigarette!!!
On the Tuesday afternoon the girls became ladies wot lunch (and shop!)

and the boys went to the Sea Monkey afternoon gig in Sidari, and despite all the tales of semi-nakedness on the beach Paddy was stilled amazed by the sight of a young couple, (in very skimpy swim wear) who had set up camp right in front of where Keith plays, and proceeded to kiss, cuddled and generally climb all over each other on one sun bed in full view of everyone in the bar, Maybe they couldn’t get a room anywhere! Luckily they decided to go for a swim to cool down; just before Keith started playing (his guitar that is and yes, on his own etc…) the boys definately needed a cold swim & shower after that gig.

There has been a real increase in the temperature here in the last 2 weeks, it is now an average 33 degrees during the day although some days it has been as hot as 38. And in the evening as high as 24 /25 degrees, we are soldiering on with 2 fans going at night and I think we have acclimatised to the heat. It helps being so close to the sea with a breeze to help to cool us down. The apartment the others are sharing has air con as they keep reminding us, but as the units extract onto their balcony, the heat from them makes it impossible to sit out! So when we go round to collect them all 4 are sat inside, air-con on, with the temperature at about 17 degrees (just like at home then!!)

Randomly saw this 'big bird' whilst driving around.....?

At the end of this week calm will descend as we have no guests or visitors for 3 weeks so we will ‘try to’ detox and cook at home and recharge our batteries ready for the next invasion of tourists.

The Road is Long........with many a winding turn...

2008-06-24T11:59:00.020+03:00

Its been a while since we blogged, for many reasons but mainly because the days are falling into a pattern, wake up late, sit on the balcony, go and eat lunch and drink some wine, siesta, go to the beach, eat an evening meal…… more wine, then Keith’s gigs……. then a night cap on the balcony, then bed about 1 or 2 am!

We have been out and about a bit as well; last week we went to the deserted village of Ano Perithia (6 tavernas and 4 tourist shops) we ate in the “Foros” Taverna that Rick Stein featured in his Mediterranean cookery series last year. To say its was a bit rustic was an understatement, this was one of very few occupied properties that looked deserted, the kitchen was upstairs and the stairs and the ground floor area looked unswept and full of cobwebs and old rag rugs that hadn’t been shaken out for years. We ate outside under a dead grape vine that rustled in the breeze.

Martin managed to wind Liz up about the conditions inside and the state of the toilets and kitchen and had told her if “Ramsey” had been here instead of “Stein” he would’ve shut the” f***ing place down”!!!!!
Anyway we decided to risk it and ordered lunch; Helen had a rabbit stefado I had Lamb in a lemon sauce Liz had meatballs and Martin went for local meat pie (not Pukka) washed down of course with some local wine. The meal was actually very pleasant, although the rabbit looked as big as the lamb I was eating (not sure where they got that from) Martins meat pie didn’t specify what meat it was and Liz, whilst dubious about the origins of the meatballs, enjoyed her meal. As we waited to pay, the waitress brought us some complimentary home made walnut cake; dripping in honey, it was amazing, even though by then we had seen the bearded lady from upstairs that was cooking our food.

We got back into a scorching hot car and spent a couple of hours driving around the narrow lanes and picturesque little villages that sit below the mountains in the north of the island.

On Friday more visitors arrived, Keith’s work colleague, Becky and her partner and daughter arrived to stay at the Athina Hotel for a week. And coincidently a couple also arrived who are Martins friends from football. So this helped to fill out the Condor Bar on Saturday night at Keith’s gig. The bar was very busy, with everyone singing along and tapping their feet (except for Spiros the barman, who insisted on clapping loudly but hopelessly out of rhythm), and there were even people dancing!!!

Saturday was a day of reflection for us all, as it was 1 year to the day that Jonathan (Liz’s brother) died. In the evening we went up to the “Romanza” hotel for a meal where Jonathan and Maggie had stayed for our wedding. The menu was the same as it was 3 years ago, and we ate many of Jonathan’s recommendations including the liver and the pate’;

.....we shared a few anecdotes and raised our glasses in a toast as the sun set beautifully over the bay.

Monday evening BBQ
As we had friends in town and also the fact we’d done a lot of eating out recently we decided that we would throw a BBQ at home! So a quick shopping trip to Sidari for Keith & Martin, who came back with a load of salad stuff booze (of course) and fresh lamb from the butcher in the Sidari supermarket. We know it was fresh as the butcher dragged the carcass (including the head) out of the back room when the boys asked for 20 lamb chops and dismantled it in front of their eyes, He went through a bit of a comedy routine of pretending to chop his thumb off and pick it up off the floor!!
They also came back with a 20kilo sack of olive wood charcoal, which should see us through to at least next year.

The BBQ was a great success, all the chops had been marinated in lemon, oregano, and olive oil, Martin made burgers with mint & feta, and we had a few kebabs and sausages as well, it was all cooked to perfection, and served up just as the sun set behind our balcony. Much wine was consumed, chill out music played on the ipod, we chatted late into the evening while Hannah (Becky’s daughter) played on the laptop on a BBC’s children’s website. It really is a great outdoor lifestyle here, the only issue is with the mosquitoes as dusk falls, but even that is a minor irritation.

More recipes and lifestyle tips from Martin to come in future blogs! YAMMAS!!

Every Day's an Endless Stream of Cigarettes and Magazines........

2008-06-12T12:11:00.008+03:00

............................ Now Helen and Martin are here!

Corfu Flora (as promised)

Electrical Storms
Our 3rd week in Corfu started with a bang, well several of them in fact, we had a couple of spectacular electrical storms. From the lookout point on our balcony, on the edge of the bay, you could see the storms roll in over the village an hour before they landed. In particular, on Saturday, as Keith was leaving to set up for his gig at the Condor in San Stefanos, the sky turned black, the sea turned an amazing turquoise colour and then the whole sky lit up with fork and sheet lightening for about an hour. We managed to unload all the equipment into the venue just as the rain came down, the road became a river and we were trapped for about 40 mins in the bar, so we had to have a G&T while we waited for the storm to clear. The whole storm lasted about 2 hours and just cleared in time for the gig to start at 9.30pm.

Strikes and picket lines Greek style
On Friday we collected Helen and Martin from the airport. When we arrived there seemed to be more than the usual chaos, only 2 or 3 coaches in the pick up area with long queues of people waiting around. All the Thompson staff were doing what they do best, walking around with clipboards putting people into queues in the blazing sunshine. We discovered that there was in fact a coach driver’s strike and we had driven through a picket line to get to the arrivals area. The strike was just employee drivers only; only the owner-drivers were ok to pick up for the holiday companies. The airport was chaotic with huge queues at the taxi rank, the taxis had inflated their prices to maximise profits and everyone was very fraught. Apparently the only way the tour companies could get people from the resort to the airport was to bus them to the nearest port (in the north that would be Kassiopi) and then boat them to Corfu town harbour and then either taxi or mini bus to the airport.
Our route across the top to Arillas

Sunday morning walk over the hill to Arillas
Helen woke up on Sunday morning with a bright idea, whilst the temperatures are not so hot (25 degrees) “why don’t we walk over the hill to Arillas!” I don’t know who was more surprised when she suggested it? Us or Helen when we all agreed that we should do it.
It took us about 45 minutes to get up the hill and along the headland and down to Arillas with some fantastic views of both bays from the top of the hill and many photo opportunities. It gave us a different perspective of our village and where places lay in relation to where we are staying. A nice leisurely lunch in a taverna in Arillas with wine…… then all we had to do was walk back over the hill to home!! An hour later and with a few sore leg muscles, we arrived back in San Stef. Had a quick swim in the Athina pool to ease the muscles, then a siesta (it’s a hard life)
View of San Stefanos on our walk

Emergency Modification to PA Equipment
Many of you will know that Keith invested in a state of the art P.A. system a few months ago, the sound quality is amazing, plus its small, light weight and easy to set up and dismantle and even Liz gets involved in packing it all away at gigs. As you can imagine being a BOSE system it wasn’t cheap, so it was more than a bit irritating when a pin that holds the clip, that holds the mixer, that fastens onto the mic stand, that helps Keith make it sound sooo fantastic! Broke!!!!
The only thing left to do was to borrow a safety pin from Helen, and replace the broken pin and it worked !!!!! (see piccy). Keith will be contacting Mr Bose on his return to the UK, Helen wants to patent the modification. (Not sure what is holding up her knickers now though?)
See the safety pin holding the desk onto the stand

“Keiths a lot more confident now?”
As you can imagine now that our drinking buddies have arrived, the alcohol consumption has increased a bit, which also means the mindless chatter of Keith & Martin has started. The other night, after a gig, Martin spent a good 1 ½ hours debating (mainly with himself), how the new P.A. system has increased Keith’s confidence! “Is it the system?” “Is he more confident?” “He wasn’t like that last year!” It was like having a tape loop running. Needless to say it has become a catchphrase for the summer!
Keith P.A. all set up for a gig

2 Gigs in one day
This Tuesday (tritti) Keith managed to do 2 gigs in one day! The 1st was on the beach in Sidari at the “Seamonkey’s” Bar, 2pm till 4pm and the next one was also in Sidari at “One For The Road” where he played last year, this was 10pm till 12. Two very contrasting gigs both equally enjoyable, Keith thinks he played over 30 songs at each of the 2 hour gigs and he worked out he played 47 different songs (anorak!) he even remembered most of the words as well!!
More Flora

Martin’s office
Martin got a bit giddy when he found out he could get access to the internet on our balcony and at the Athina Pool side. So the first chance he got we went armed with books ipods & suntan cream down to the pool and Martin set up his office. Because of the glaring sun he had to improvise and put a cover on so he could see the screen, so here is a picture of martin working hard in his office by the pool. Good to see he’s not taking too much time out from the world of high finance.

Martin by the pool on his laptop

Sitting in the morning sun.........

2008-06-04T14:54:00.005+03:00

........... Waiting for the evening to come...

We have settled back into the Greek way of life really easily, it’s as if we have never been away. We have been here for 12 days now and Keith has already done 5 gigs. A couple are the same ones as last year but 3 have been in large restaurants in the Centre of Sidari. Playing to the diners from 7.30 to 9.30pm with free dinner for us both thrown in. Then we still have the rest of the evening left to go out, which is nice!

Keiths first gig this year
Beach bar Gig
Today’s gig was in a bar on the beach in Sidari (the Sea-Monkey) from 2pm till 4pm. In the morning the weather was a bit indifferent, it started off with rain and as we set off for Sidari it was very cloudy, so we set out with no sun block or lotions, Liz even thought about taking an umbrella. We set up in the garden on the beach of this bar, under a tree for shelter (mainly from the rain), then 10 minutes into the gig the sun came out, we misjudged the projectory of the sun completely and Keith spent the next 2 hours in full sun, playing guitar!!!!! It was a fun gig though; great audience reaction and we sold 6 Cd’s. Keith had a few problems keeping eye contact with the audience, as several of the 40 something women decided to sun bathe topless right in front of him, he said there was more flesh on show than a night out in Newcastle!!!!
The Beach Bar Gig
Greek workmen
When we’d been in the house about a week we heard a crashing noise, followed by the sound of running water, the toilet cistern had fallen off the wall, one of the problems with living this close to the sea is that all things metal corrode very quickly, so the screws holding the cistern to the wall had rotted. Anyway we told Stefano, our landlord, about the problem and he quickly arranged for a plumber to call.
We were just about to go out the following day when this tall hunky bloke with long blonde hair, in dungaree’s turned up and said in a B movie voice “ello I’m coming here to fix your plumbing” Liz was a bit too quick to suggest I went ahead down to the beach because she didn’t mind following on when the plumber had finished. (Yeh right)
Been catching up on lots of people we met last year
Once we got here we set about networking with people we met and or worked with last year. During the winter it would appear all sorts of fall outs have occurred, so many of the Greek bar owners have either disappeared or fallen out with the brother that they were in partnership with last year. One example is the Thallasos Restaurant in Arillas where we had many fab nights last year, Yannis the good looking long haired brother has quit the business run by his brother and his wife, and he is now working as a tiler; (Liz now wants to renovate property over here mainly with lots of plumbing and tiling.) We also caught up with “Chips” in Roda; Darren May and Groucho (2 fellow muso’s) and Mick and his wife Helen who used to run the Sundowners bar in San Stef. And our friends at The Waves Restaurant and The Athina Hotel are all well. All seem to be making ends meet in their own way. We also went to The Roda Tavern and had a great meal and chat with Costas and his wife Voula, (who is expecting another baby in the Autumn). It is great to be back amongst our extended circle of friends.
View of Waves Restaurant and Athina Hotel from our balcony
Shopping for local produce and cooking in our new slow cooker
One of the purchases we made before we set off to Corfu this year was a slow cooker. (I think only people of a certain age can get excited about such an event?) We can sort out a meal in the morning, usually a Greek dish like pastistada or klefitico, put all the ingredients in and 6 hours later when we return from the beach we have a great meal waiting for us. We are really enjoying finding little farm shops and buying locally grown products. It really does make a huge difference to the quality and colour and flavour. (Next thing you know Keith will be getting an allotment!!)
Out and about looking for flowers
Skyping from our balcony using the wireless Internet from our local taverna
In the last couple of days we have discovered that after 10 at night we can get wireless Internet from our balcony accessed from the Condor Bar ¾ of a mile away. So we have been merrily ‘chatting’ away using Skype to Helen, Martin, Paddy, Lorraine, Gemma, Sheila and Katarina Liz also got on line by the pool at the Athina Hotel (although you may ask, what kind of saddo takes their laptop to the pool?) Liz does !!!!!!

On T'internet on T'balcony

On T'internet by T'pool

Keith jogging on the beach
We find when we are living here; there are aspects of our life style that are very different from in the UK. Obviously it is very ‘outdoor’ here but we tend to feel a lot fitter because we walk more instead of using the car and we are swimming every day. In the first few days Keith even went out every morning and jogged the full length of the San Stef beach and back, this has tailed off a bit now as the Ouzo nights and excess gigging have kicked in. We needed to burn off the calories because on Friday Helen & Martin arrive, so then we will be back to our usual excessive ways.
First (and only?) sunset photo
Keith collecting pictures of flowers (beats the usual 100 shots of the sunsets)
This year instead of sunsets and silly signs I’ve persuaded Keith to photograph some other aspects of life in Corfu and at this time of year the whole island is in bloom and very green. We are not sure what all the plants are called but the smells and the colours are amazing, something you don’t get in the height of summer as everything is fried to a crisp by then. We will post some photos of them over the next few weeks.
Flora
Locations of gigs so far
Tuesday “Sea monkey” in Sidari 2-4
Wednesday “Smugglers” Sidari 10- 12
Thursday “Calypso” Sidari 7.30 - 9.30
Friday “Madison’s” Sidari 8-10
Saturday “Condor Bar“San Stefano 10-12
Sunday “Calypso” Sidari 7.30-9.30

Hope it is not too rainy in the UK! Love to you all.

Local produce "Yamass!"

Giddy up, Giddy up and get away……

2008-05-27T15:32:00.004+03:00

……we’re going crazy and we are going today… here we go…..Rocking all over the world….. Corfu 2008

We sailed from Hull on Monday evening, 19th May, a bit earlier than we sailed last year and the ferry was so much quieter (and cheaper) the only area of the boat that was busy was the cabaret lounge, which by chance is also the only bit of the boat you can smoke in!

We filled up with cheaper fuel in Holland (1.44 euros per litre) and headed for our strategically placed family members, for our 3 overnight stops. Firstly, Paul and Milena’s in Heidelberg. The road systems in Europe seem so efficient, it all moves without major hold up or huge traffic jams even when the inevitable road works occur and despite the fact that everything seems to be transported the length and breadth of Europe by truck.

The Rhine

We were making such good time on the roads, that when we spoke to Paul he suggested a scenic little detour down the Rhine valley via Koblensk. A large railway town with links to eastern Europe, (see Schindler’s list).

St Goar

Anyway the scenery was absolutely stunning, lots of fairy tale castles in the hills, picturesque little towns perched on the sides of the fast flowing Rhine, with huge barges and ferries battling against the current, up and down stream. We stopped for some lunch in a little town called St Goar, and had a dish of local sausage, sauerkraut and fried potatoes, washed down with a couple of glasses of locally brewed beer.

Keith in a bar in St Goar (Rhine Valley)

We arrived at Paul and Milena’s beautiful home at about 5pm after a full day covering 350 miles.
Warmly welcomed, beers opened, a few stories exchanged and Paul displayed his culinary skills and created a fresh garlic mayonnaise (Good old Delia), whilst Milena cooked local grown asparagus, which is in season at the moment. We had a meze of local and Italian meats, plus a couple bottles of local Riesling (is there a theme developing here? Local food local booze?) We stayed overnight in their guest apartment next door to their house, then up and on the road again in the morning by 9am.

Driving in Switzerland

We headed for Milan, to our next overnight stop at Debbie and Franco’s house. We did all the obligatory oooooing and aahhhing as we drove through Switzerland but the sky was progressively getting greyer the further south we went. Another warm welcome awaited us at Debbie and Franco’s and another 350 miles covered. We were wined and dined with local food and wine in that enviable Italian style and even managed to watch the football, The Champions League Final. After much drama and shouting, (only at the football) we crashed out about midnight.

Then back on the road in the morning just a short hop to Sheila’s in the Italian lakes area near Simioni which is just 10 miles or so away from where she lived last year at Lake Garda. Sheila has a beautiful apartment in a tastefully converted farm with a large private veranda and a shared pool (take note Paddy and Martin for design ideas) Sheila didn’t let us down (bless her) she made us a lunch with bacon (from her freezer that she had brought from the UK) sausage (Lidal Specials), egg and beans, accompanied by Champagne and red wine. In the evening we walked to her local pizzeria, we had a great meal with more red wine and saw loads of fire flies as we walked back to her apartment (we think?) fell into bed and slept well.

Sheila outside the converted farm where she lives

In the morning we had a couple of hours drive to the port in Venice. This leg of our journey was pretty spectacular, with the most incredible electrical storms over the Venice skyline. We witnessed the same pandemonium as last year at the port as the Greeks loaded all the vehicles onto the ferry. We waited patiently as they found odd vehicles to load on in no particular order, then with 15mins to go, a man on a moped rushed up to say anyone for Corfu get on the boat now!! The usual mad rush then ensued. Poor Liz was dying to go and tell them a more efficient and logical way of doing it!!

It appears that the Greeks have heard of multi-tasking, as the man who showed us to our cabin was also the waiter for our evening meal and the same young man ‘directing’ the loading of the ferry, AND the on board pool attendant/ lifeguard. The expression “Spiros of all trade’s master of none” springs to mind! There was even a deck hand doing some painting on a glass roof over the passenger area, and for health and safety reasons someone had tied him to a hand rail with a rope attached to the back of his boiler suit, only in Greece!

We had a great 24-hour crossing, much quieter than the ferries both ways last year. I don’t think they are quite prepared for the busy holiday season yet or the arrival of the Brits on the ferries, as Liz managed to buy up all the Silk Cut on board in just 2 hits!!! We even managed to get an outside cabin and woke up to spectacular views of the approach to Corfu. We arrived in Corfu town at 2pm Saturday having driven just over 1000 miles, it felt like we had arrived home. Keith’s first gig is on Wednesday night and with 3 others booked it already feels like business as usual.
This is the view from our balcony overlooking San Stefanos village
Our contact details are:-
keith.muso@gmail.com
and
lizzy.away@gmail.com
(notice how both our email addresses reflect our occupations!!?)

Will blog again soon.......bye for now xxxxx

Carmel's House in the Middle of her Street

2008-01-15T01:07:00.000+02:00

This is Carmel's lovely house on Miller Street in Bondi

It is single storey, so when you go in the front door, down the hall (which Carmel has just finished hoovering!) there are 3 bedrooms; first Ruth's (Housemate 1), then Christina's (Housemate 2) and then Carmel's (Housemate 3)

Then you go straight on into the lounge, diner

Where you will find Carmel with her nose in a book (The last Harry Potter book.... )

Then into the kitchen, which leads out into a pretty sun room at the back

Then down some steps into the garden at the back

Where you will also find Carmel cooking our dinner on her new Barbie!!

"Carmel's house....... is a very very very fine house....with a Kookaburra in the yard"

Hey Now, Hey Now, Don't Dream its Over

2008-01-15T00:12:00.000+02:00

Liz on Red Bull ???

When we arrived on Dec 21st we stayed in an apartment on Bondi beach, just 10 mins walk from Carmel’s house............ We have done cliff top walks visiting different local beaches, gone swimming in very dangerous currents; in fact we have walked so many miles up and down the hills of Sydney that we have both got "buns of steel" as Carmel calls them!

Everyday has been a breakfast experience, we have had so many delicious breakfasts in numerous cafes all over the Bondi area, we tried to pick the best breakfast but after a while they all blended into each other (in the memory that is!). Carmel cooking us a fine breakfast!

We have visited the Circular Quay and the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge; & taken umpteen photos, well you can't have too many pics of the Opera House and it looks different from every angle. We spent a day at Watson’s bay to see the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race; We visited another area of Sydney called the Rocks, where we ate Kangaroo and drank real Ale!; this is an old area of Sydney where many slums used to exist prior to the construction of the Sydney Bridge, it is now an arty area with a great street market, and of course lots of hills.

Arty Statue in The Rocks District

We hired a car for 3 days and went to the Blue Mountains where we walked in the Rain Forest, also to Palm Beach where we slummed it with the rich and famous in the posh suburbs. we spent another amazing day in The Royal National Park south of the city. We have eaten meals out in a variety of nationalities of restaurants including Thai, Brazilian, Italian, Japanese, Moroccan, French;
Our adventures have not just been confined to day time; the Sydney festival started on the 5th January and we went to the opening night of The Sydney Festival where we saw Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame, also the multi- international group The Pink Martinis in The State Theatre.

Monday 7th Jan
Today we moved out of our Bondi apartment to spend our last 4 nights in Australia in the City (CBD – Central Business District) and give ourselves a luxurious treat, we booked into the 5* Sheraton Park Hotel, which faces Hyde Park. This area is a complete contrast to the village like atmosphere of where Carmel lives. It is hectic and vibrant, with a mixture of old and modern architecture.
We met Carmel at 6pm and got the train to Darling Harbour. A bit touristy but a very impressive area. We had dinner at the famous Nick’s Fish Restaurant and afterward sat on a bench with ice creams and watched the world go by. We ended the evening with a night cap on the Sheraton balcony bar, overlooking Hyde Park people watching. (Liz gave them a royal wave off the balcony.)

View of Hyde Park from the balcony

Tuesday 8th Jan
Apologies for going on about breakfasts so much, but the breakfast at the Sheraton was something else! one could feed a 3rd world country for a day with the range of food on offer here, from the usual bacon eggs etc. to freshly made pancakes & omlettes to cereals, fruit, rice dishes yohurt and even a full honeycomb for people who wanted honey on their breakfast or in their coffee!

Wednesday 9th Jan
After Breakfast we met Carmel at The Circular Quay, Customs House, but she had to do a days work work, so Keith and I went to the port and got ourselves a ferry to Manly for the day and got yet another angle for photos of the Opera House and the bridge. We had a bucket of King Prawns with a pint of Toheys beer on a roof top bar overlooking the beach for lunch.

We met up with Carmel again at 6pm to go into the city to go to the cinema. First we went to a Spanish restaurant and had Tapas. The cinema experience was in Gold class, to see "Atonement". (see Carmels blog for a film buffs guide to gold class!)

Thursday 10th Jan
Carmel met us at our hotel and we went and had 'Yum Cha', which is basically Chinese food brought to your table on trolleys, and the staff try to pursuade you to try their wares. You select your choice, then someone else comes along with another trolley of food, eventually they go away, you pay for whats on your table, and its a great way to do a buffet! (and luckily for Liz , nothing was raw!!) Then we shopped til we dropped.

In the evening we went to eat in the mainly Italian area of the city just below Hyde Park, we actually ate in a Moroccan Restaurant, although on the menu there was kangaroo, crocodile & local fish dishes.

CHEERS!

Then to The Speigal Tent to see "La Clique"

Friday 11th Jan
Carmel joined us for our final breakfast in Auastralia, at The Sheraton,

The Roof Top Pool at The Sheraton

We sat in the lounge reviewing the holiday and all the great things we'd seen and done. Sadly at 2pm we had to say our goodbyes and we got a taxi and headed to the airport for our 24hr journey back to the uk!

Thanks a million Carmel for a Fab holiday and our first Oz experience!!

Bye Bye Carmel.............X

Amusing signs & posters in Oz

2008-01-14T22:55:00.000+02:00

As usual on our travels we find all sorts of interesting and amusing signs, like the Oz version of "No Entry" or the safety instructions in the Blue Mountains forest trail.

In the uk the only time you are likely see shop names like these, would probably be on the hairdressers, but in Sydney they like using word-play signs on all sorts of business's, like this one for a burger shop, or these two signs, one is for a sex shop "Tool Shed" the other though similar in style is actually an off licence!

Hope these signs amuse you as much as they did us!

Liz also found many signs with names of people she knows & loves, for exampleand but sadly we didnt see any signs for "Sheila's Wheels"

Four Seasons in one Day

2008-01-08T02:03:00.000+02:00

I can't believe we have not posted a new blog since New Years Day!!...... but we just haven't had a spare minute. We hired a car for 3 days to see some areas outside Sydney.

Northern Beaches

On Day 1 we went up the coast to Palm beach, where Home and Away is filmed (whatever that is?) This is a very swanky area full of million dollar mansions. The atmosphere on the beach here is very different from Bondi, it is full of families coming down to the beach after work and school to do some surfing, and chillin.

Day 2 we drove to the Blue Mountains about 200km west of Sydney. This area is beautiful, if you click this link you can see Carmel's blog with her account of our trip.

Liz in the rainforest in the Blue Mountains

Day 3 we went South of Sydney, towards Woollongong, to the Royal National Park. We had a full day in the most beautiful unspoilt area of countryside a huge area of rain forest and bush right on the coastline. It has been a protected area for over 100 years so no houses or people living or camping in the national park. We followed the map to a parking area near the coast and as we came into the parking spot a large lizard or small croc. ran across the road, when we parked we followed the trail through a small wooded area to the most perfect beach, white sand in a sheltered cove, with a lagoon behind it that stopped 3 metres from the sea. In the park we went to Wattamolla Beach and picnic area, it is just the most perfect swimming and sunbathing spot, you could swim safely in the deep freshwater lagoon or play in the surf on the shore or you could lie on the beach or shelter in the trees alongside the lagoon. We could have stayed there for hours! Eventually we moved on to the furthest edge of the park where the gum tree forest turns into temperate rain forest, so that half the trees are palms and other tropical vegetation, it is an incredible place to be in, not just for the views but the sounds as well insects and parrots make an incredible din.

The stunning view at the National Park

Pelicans enjoying the lovely day

We eventually headed back to Sydney as we had an important task to do, to take Carmel to buy her 1st BBQ! The shop we went to was BBQ Heaven everything but the outdoor kitchen sink, prices ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars for a BBQ that resembled a fully fitted kitchen. She felt that now she owned a BBQ she really was Australian!! (Her next door neighbour assured her you are only a real Oz when you own 2 BBQ's!) So we spent the rest of the evening in Carmel's lovely back garden cooking on the Barbie and drinking a few beers!

Keith demonstrates his BBQ skills

On Saturday we spent the evening in the Domain in the centre of Sydney, for the Opening Night of the Sydney Festival, (Crowded House wrote, "4 seasons in one day" about the Domain) all events on the 1st night are free & we arranged with Carmel and a group of her friends & colleagues to go and see Brian Wilson of the BeachBoys fame, supported by (an oz rock star) Paul Kelly. The weather was a bit changeable, just as we settled down to picnic and party, the heavens opened! Undaunted we used brollies and bin liners as waterproof poncho's and danced the night away to great songs from the classic BeachBoys catalogue inc. Good Vibrations and Sloop John B! Although the rain reduced the crowd slightly in numbers, by the end of the gig the Domain was almost full, with more than 100,000 people dancing in a natural amphitheatre in the heart of the city. We tramped out of the park a bit wet but very happy and looking forward to an early start the following day to go boating and BBQ ing on the Hawkesbery river at 7am!

Bopping to Brian Wilson in The Domain