“.....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!
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......"
Posts
1 comment:
Wow! I'm so impressed with your gardening skills! Those dishes you cooked look yummy. cx
Post a Comment