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. . . . .

The Greek way. . . . .

Back again for another episode. I forgot to mention our banking experience on a trip to Corfu town with Steve the estate agent. We were heading into town to see the both lawyers and the notary so they could tell us first hand what was going on. We were also going to the bank with Steve to sign some papers for our account. Our lawyer had our bank book as she opened the account for us and she was away and we could not get hold of it. We signed up but we needed some cash and Steve asked if we could have some cash and explained that Chryssa had the bank book. To our amazement they said "as it's you Steve. how much would you like" and asked to see our passports!! We can't imagine that happening in Barclays down the high street.

Well the place is now ours and we have a shed load of things to do. Oh, by the way we have a washer in our kitchen and when we tried to use it for the first time we found it that it was not plumbed in!! In fact it had never been used the transit tape was still on it from when it was shipped over from the UK. What to do, well we found a tap under the sink in the bathroom and they also have plug sockets in bathrooms out here, not the safest of ideas but when needs must. In order to wash we wheel the washer to the bathroom, connect up to the tap for water and put the waste pipe in the sink - makes washing day an adventure!!

In an attempt to make life easier we decided to knock a door through the pantry wall because as a pantry or cupboard it was useless. The plan being to knock a door through then put the washer at one end and plumb it via the bathroom and also put the fridge in there as there is another door way we want to knock through into the sitting/dining room. The pantry door was successfully knocked through and the next job is to paint it prior to fitting the washer and fridge in there.

Oh no we have yet another problem . . . . . the ceilings in the house are of traditional olive wood and look very nice too. However, this flimsy wood is all there is between us and the rafters so any heat generated through the day is lost straight through the ceiling, that plus the fact all the mess and debris the guys left when they put the new roof on constantly comes down through the cracks in the lovely olive wood ceiling. Well not only is this a waste of energy, the constant mess coming down is driving Mrs Mop to distraction!! More on the loft saga next time and believe me it is a sage as it has put all other jobs including the washer move on hold until completion. Well sign off time now. more later Mr Mop . . . . .

Oh no, what next . . . .

To continue the saga, Steve left us and within ten minutes we had no water. So a quick call by Steve to the vendors who were in the UK and we found the elusive stop valve and all was well. Not a real problem Houston I hear you say, no the real problem was that the deal had not gone through and the house was not ours yet!!

The contract signing was supposed to be happening whilst we were at sea on the way down, in fact it had been happening for the previous few weeks but for varying Greek issues it had not. This time however it was the fault of the vendors and some paperwork which they had not submitted.

This went on for two weeks, its tomorrow, its tomorrow whilst we lived in the place. We actually went to the signing on Thursday 13th November. It was in a Greek notary's office in Corfu town. At one point there was two Greek lawyers, a Greek notary, the receptionist, the agent Steve and myself all stood round a table looking at the topographics - deeds as we know them. It took over three hours to sign the contracts after we first had it read out to us in English. It was quite a stressful day but at the end of it we finally owned the place. Funnily enough, most of the money was handed over in cash - cheques are not so good over here.

Well you can imagine the relief for us as we could now actually get on and do something with the place where as before we were in effect living in someone else's house and could do nothing, not a pleasant experience but all sorted eventually.

Contracts now signed, the place is ours more, fun and games later getting to grips with the place and the shops . . .

The run out to Kerkyra

We have managed to get our Internet widget working a bit better so here is another episode.

We left home on the 21st October just after 0900hrs heading for Winchelsea in east Sussex to stay with Marian who is a cycling friend for a couple of nights before the ferry to Dunquerke. I have to say we were very lucky with the weather all the way as it was fine dry and sunny right up 'til we arrived in Cortina in the Italian Dolomites.

We had a run out on the bikes on Wednesday with Marian which was good as she lives in a lovely part of the country (click on the picture and check the road name, it's been stolen a few times strangely enough.) We were introduced to Marians new canine companion Keisha who is full of beans and quite a lively little guy. We tried to sneak out of Marians at 0600hrs on the Thursday morning to get the 0800 ferry but Keisha was not letting us have a sneaky exit!!

The ferry to Dunquerke was good and fairly uneventful in the eyes of the non seafarers - Lynn, she managed to hang onto her last full English for a while.

We then found our way down to Chalons en Champagne to a camp site where we have stayed before. We used the toll roads for speed and were there around 5ish. It did however take us another hour of driving and a lot of frustrated swearing by me around Chalons to find the campsite. At the site reception said they had a space left yet there was no-one else on the site!! She put us on exactly the same pitch we had past time. First camp went OK, albeit a little damp in the morning.

Up early brewed up and off towards Strasbourg. More motorways and we stopped along the way for another brew and some breakfast. Why is it that the French insist on building new toilets with those awful "stand and deliver" footplates in them??

We were having trouble with the stove as it appeared to be boiling all the water away. We finally worked out that the pan had a leak which got worse when it was heated thus leaking away not boiling!! What a pair of muppets.

Well we arrived in Strasbourg late afternoon and again struggled to find the site which was fairly central to the city. We were only having one night here but we decided to have two and have a day in the city as the weather was so good and we had the time to do it. What a place, beautiful cathedral, lovely old city within the rivers. We walked up to have a look at the buildings of the European Council, Parliament and Human Rights or Droights de Homme as it is know locally - the places that have given me so much grief over the past years at work with jobs worth legislation.!!

An enjoyable day was here then we moved on the following day towards Innsbruck.

Today we were driving through Germany into Austria. It was a lovely drive and got better as we get nearer to the Alps and the Tyrolean region. More vile toilets were experienced on the route through Germany - why is this??

We found the campsite in Innsbruck easiest yet - super site with a backdrop to die for.

We walked out in the evening for a beer - loosely speaking of course as there is only England where you can get proper beer. We found a bar and they still smoke in bars here, it was OK and we went again the following night. We had a day in the city which was fun with our Innsbruck K-Day bus ticket. The old part is lovely and the surroundings are wonderful. The campsite was on a hill but we managed for a couple of nights. Super place and we will go there again.

The next day we were heading for Cortina in the Italian Dolomites to have a look on the way to to Venice. It was a super drive over the Brena Pass and through the Alps. Sadly as we hit Cortina the rain started and it was too high, cold and wet to camp there so it was executive decision time and straight onto Venice!

Reasonable journey down to Venice in the rain until we actually hit Venice at rush hour - what a BIG mistake. More swearing and obscenities as we moved slowly alongside giant trucks with small Italians them in the wrong direction because we missed the turn - signs were crap and we're sticking by that excuse. We eventually turned round and found the camp site we were looking for 8kms out of Venice. It was however trashing it down and the tent was still wet from the previous night and was not looking like a good option.

We enquired about a pitch or the tent - no problem, Lynn then asked do you have any other accommodation, yes we have cabins (a mini caravan) never has one looked so good we were in like a shot. Heat on big shower now time for a drink, another problem we were told at the bar we had to charge a site token to buy anything as they did not deal in cash. When we eventually did this and got back to the bar we had almost lost the will to live and any appetite for a beer (loose term as you can only get real beer in England!!) Good nights kip ahead of the ferry - which Lynn was dreading with her none sea legs.

We got a few supplies before we headed for the ferry again no or limited crap signage. We arrived at the port of Venice which next to Dover was disorganised, untidy and a bit of a free for all. Anyway the ship was on time and we drove on board and found our cabin which was cozy. It was trashing it down and we didn't realise that the ship actually went through the city to get out to sea!!! What a super way to see Venice.

The crossing apart from being long was fairly uneventful apart from going past Corfu to Igoummenitsa first then back up to Corfu. As we neared Corfu we contacted the agent Steve to get our instructions for getting into our new home in Kopsochilades. We docked around 1345 on on Thursday 30th October and just had a short 30 minute drive up to the village. It was weird actually driving our car up through Corfu. We arrived at the house and Steve and his wife Josie were there to meet us. We had a chat, wander around and got the gen on what was where and how we did things with the place. They then left us to unload with plans to see them again the following day.

All was not what it should have been, there was a problem Houston . . . . . . more later.

Welcome to Corfu!!!!!

Well here we are in sunny Corfu. A 1250 mile drive, a twenty four hour ferry, five nights in a damp tent and one night in a blissful cabin in Venice (as it was p'ing it down) we pulled into the port of Corfu.

The car went like a hero problem free, even over the mighty Alps!!

The tent was good although every day was sunny and clear the inside of the tent was wet through every morning due to low overnight temps, a heavy dew and too much breathing!!

Well so far so good eventful from day one and at some point this week I will explain all.

The weather here is good, generally sunny and warm to hot with mild evenings (sorry.)

The house is OK plenty, for us to do and we are managing to cycle to local shops for fresh veg/fruit etc. This raises the eyebrows of the locals who must refer to us as that "odd English couple who cycle everywhere." They all speak albeit in Greek and we have no idea what they are saying but some do speak English which does help us a little.

It took us a while to get on line and in touch with the world but we are there now and we will keep in touch.

I will put some more on this week about our trip over which was great and a few other bits.

I have to go and assemble my new flat pack wardrobe now so I have somewhere to put all my gear. More Greek instructions - joy.

Bye for now more later

D&L