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

".........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"

......."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"

................................................. 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"

“…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