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..."