Merry Xmas from Corfu . . ..

Life on Corfu - not Mars!!!!

We have been out here six weeks today (seems like a lot longer) and we have officially owned the place a month on Saturday - could be a cause for a celebratory drink!! Well so far we have moved the kitchen wall cupboard, insulated the roof space, knocked through the pantry wall, assembled a flat pack wardrobe for me, moved bedrooms twice, made a big hole in the kitchen to sitting room wall, made some shelves for the TV and DVD player. Lynn has painted the sitting room, bathroom, toilet, swept and mopped on the hour every hour and made inroads into the vast expanse of garden which included the hacking down of "the old bamboo" thank you Dick Van Dyke and trimming back of the Olive tree. Our pace I have to say has probably been a bit quicker than local tradition would be.

As I pointed out earlier everything is done when everyone is ready and usually not in a great rush. The lawyers took their time, the 2 couches we ordered from Athens took their time and we had to wait nearly 2hrs in the shop for them to arrive from the ferry port 15 minutes away. Our local Greek delivery man - not Spiros for a change - was very patient and just sat drinking coffee.

Our village is quiet and away from the busy bits - well I say busy but there is not much happening in them at the moment it would be busy during tourist season. We have been for coffees with some neighbours and we attempt to speak to everyone else in the village and they all either wave or speak. We have a workshop to the side of us where a guy keeps his 4 wheel drive and usually turns up on a weekend to sort his olive oil out. we don't see much of him other than that. His mother on law lives at the bottom of the hill down from the villa and she trolls up and down six or more times a day to tend the chickens or get some wood for her fire. Have you ever watched chickens? (doubt it, much better things to do with your time) they are quite amusing scratting and pecking around in the compound. We can see and hear them when we sit on the rear balcony with a brew, we haven't made an occupation out of it!!!

There is a local bread man who comes everyday and parks outside the villa selling fresh bread and there is a mobile veg van, carpet/rug van who park at the bottom all selling their wares.

Apart from the girl across at the back who is from Glasgow we are the only Brits in the village. People leave keys in doors, in cars and bikes and nobody bothers anyone - long may it stay that way!!

Then there is the Sunday morning ritual, no no no not that, it is the gentle sound of gunshot that awakens you just after 8 on a Sunday morning. The Corfiot males like to go "hunting" and all you hear on Sunday is the sound of gunfire echoing around the groves as they shoot anything that moves. There isn't much 4 legged wildlife left to shoot at so the birds have a rough time trying to avoid the "hunters." They have portable kennels attached to the back off their four wheel drives to house the hounds on the journey to and from the hunt. So no lie in on a Sunday!!

There is quite a big Brit population in and around Sidari and there are one or two of the bars on the front there open all year round if you want a "Brit fix" they are OK, friendly enough and a wonderful source of where to get things and get jobs done!! They also serve draught Mythos which is OK.

There is a supermarket about 1km away and a bar next to it, in fact most of the shops have bars with them and they are all usually busy with Greek guys drinking Greek coffee and water putting the world to rights. We frequent a Greek cafe bar in Acharavi and there is also a nice Greek restaurant there where they do spit roasts and splendid Greek salads!!

The weather is variable at the moment, it was good in November but we seem to be going through an unsettled patch with winds and showers - some quite stormy. Having said that it is not cold like the UK. The days are warm and we usually see some sunshine ever day at some point. We are not complaining!!

The cycling has slowed a bit apart from the odd trip to the shops, as we have family coming out here this Sunday and a week on Monday so we are trying to get the place a little orderly for them. We will carry on with a few jobs next week but we will then be on holiday until they go after that.

We are getting used to shopping now, we know the wood yard guys, the local DIY shop and there is a good one in Corfu we use - German owned we think. We have a big shop for "heavies" (booze and water, I jest) and we have a good supermarket locally which is very well stocked.

Well today Lynn has been painting the sitting room - second coat, and varnishing the new door frame. I have been to Corfu town shopping and then cutting olive wood logs with my new axe and messing with the washer trying to get it a permanent home to stop the wheeling to the bathroom on washday scenario we have!!

It is getting near beer time now so I will sign off and see how my make shift washer waste extension has done so it is "Kalespera."

Let's start at the top!!

Well on to the famous roof job!! There was (past tense - now a new larger hole in the hall) in the bathroom the smallest of holes to get through into the roof space. On venturing through not knowing what I would find in the way of bugs and crawlies never mind roof problems.

To my surprise no bugs or crawlies, a relatively new felted roof - the construction of which amazes me and they left the old chimney up and built the new roof over it see picture. You could however see the light from below coming through the olive wood ceiling!! What to do - the only thing to do was to lag it out.No problem I hear you say we do this in England all the time however we are are in bungalow type building with 12o square metres of lagging to buy and fit.

Buying and fitting no problem, it was the clean up job first of olive leaves, dust, sand, beer tins (empty sadly) and other rubbish the roofers had left behind. It took two days to sweep it all out - my turn to do some sweeping - Mrs Sweep was emptying buckets of filth for me. Once swept you could see even more light coming up through the boards. Off to the builders yard for some rock wool, when I told them I would need at least 12 bales as that's how it comes out here he threw 1 bale down (10 strips to a bale) and gave me two strips from another bale - in his mind 12 strips. I said no 12 packs - he nearly fell off his roof - in that car he asked?? Any way I took two went home unloaded and went back for another 2.

Ever worked with fibreglass?? Lovely stuff it gets everywhere, no itch too small and it goes on for days. A further two days was spent grovelling about in tight corners, over beams, banging my head and generally being too hot.

12 bales later, lots of swearing, sweating, showering and to great guffaws of the guys at the builders yard when I kept going back for more it was all done!

Not a job I want to have to do again but you can certainly see - dust wise - and feel the difference.

Mrs sweep was getting well hacked off with continual sweeping as I grovelled about in the roof space and pushed more filth down through the cracks and I was well hacked off with banging my head and knees on beams and joists - which incidentally are not uniformly apart like they are in the UK just as and where so the rock wool does not always fit between them so I had to cut everyone to size.

Well we now have cosy evenings and the occasional shower of dust as things continue to settle above.

We can now get back to planned jobs but we are convinced there will be more surprises along the the way.

A little more on life on Corfu next time - keep on blogging. . . . .