"Gone fishing......"

"......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"

“.....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......."

“ .....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)

"......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..."