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MAY
WEATHER
..... Hot!
Very, very hot quite suddenly in the north west, where we have been used
to gradual warm-ups for some years, before reaching this year's blistering summer
heat which usually reaches it's zenith in August..
Chania
Webcam Current Cretan Weather
Link
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Next Month in Astratigos Village life...
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Ah-tishoo, ahtishoo! - but
wait! After our stumping up an additional £1300 (1990 prices)
our agent found this even cheaper way of preventing the 'barn'
falling down.!!. Well, it was novel... Don't miss next month!
Click picture to enlarge.
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Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some..IV
(Continued from April - Previous click here).
At the end of last month...
"The cheque was delivered. Our power of attorney assigned to the agent -
all we could do now was to cross our fingers and hope that we had not
made a vast mistake. Feeling helpless in a situation we should have been
controlling was extremely unpleasant..." |
The next news we received was both good and bad - and, life being so
exciting (where else the nightmares of this quality!) the two did not
quite balance out. Not quite at all...
The first good news was that our cheque had been delivered, had cleared,
and was now in our agents bank account as Greek drachmae. In theory
anyway. The second good news was that the law was being changed - we would be able
to buy without the Greek partner that we didn't have!
The bad news was that both changes also changed the position from able to step back
and think again. If the money was there and the law was changed we were
on the edge of the abyss... Irrevocable decision time. But God, whose
only Son had been able to walk on water, stepped onto (rather than into)
the abyss and held out a helping hand. We would be able to return to
Crete and be there when the purchase was made! See the money handed over
ourselves. We booked the flights....
For the first time we stayed in Astratigos - right next to our intended
dream home. We could (and did) wander around the ruin to our heart's
content. Awaiting the word from the agent that we were all to attend the
office of the sellers' lawyer in Chania to hand over the money (cash)
and get our receipt and contract.. We had only a few days before we were
due to leave again... Would it happen in time?.. Suddenly
it was (according to our agent) on! Tomorrow evening. Chania... He
would call for us...
Next morning we went for a drive - might as well use the hire car. Get
to know the area a little...
When we returned our agent told us that the meeting had had to
be cancelled... Spirits down, anxieties up.. Still, there was always
another day - just as long as it arrived before our flight home.
Next day we went out again in the afternoon - returning about 7pm. There
was a note stuck on the door. The cancelled
meeting was suddenly on again - our agent had had to go without us to do the
deal (or maybe that should have been deed?). Intentionally or not, we
had been very neatly side-stepped and left out of the meeting where the
deal was, right about then, being done...
Alexander Graham Bell might as well not have been born, there was no telephone
available. Our agent had one at his house, but he was in Chania with the
loot. Mobiles were in their infancy and we didn't have one. Besides, we
didn't have a number to call. And we didn't even know where in Chania this
elusive meeting was being held. But at least it was being held and the money
handed over. A relief - though we never saw any evidence of the
actual meeting...
Precisely how much changed hands we would be unable to determine for some
considerable time. Oh, we
knew how much we thought had been handed over - it was the actual amount
that changed hands in the office of the vendor's lawyers - from our
agent to the vendors - that was later to be brought into question...
But for us, the deed was done.
Objective one - obtain the property - the first stage of our dream - achieved.
And all done directly by our
agent without our having to lift a finger or set eyes upon vendors we
probably couldn't communicate with - and their lawyer. And all for no fee!
Well, the agent would later receive 10% fee's from our property development, and so
graciously refused any sales agent fee.....
Next day we all went to Chania, to the office of a public notary, where we
would sign our agreement deed personally and become the legal owners of this
grand 650m2 ruined house and
overgrown garden.
Because we could not speak Greek the Notary's assistant read the whole thing
through in English, confirmed that we understood and agreed, and asked us to sign
for the start of our dream proper.. On the morning of October 26th 1990, at
Chania - we signed!
(Continued next month) |
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In the News
Reviews...
68th Anniversary of the Battle of Crete...
Still remembered, still celebrated, still attended by
survivors; descendants; relatives and friends from all over the world...
(item 6)
Link to Story.
Plus The Red Arrows...
Not the first time in Greece, but with a new leader members
and display since their previous visit (Athens), the Red arrows helped to
commemorate the Battle of Crete in 1941 with an amazing display over the
Venetian Harbour at Chania...
(item 1)
Link to
Story.
Zoniana trial resumed in Athens...
But the wife of the special police guard seriously wounded in the raid
on the Cretan village of Zoniana withdraws her civil suite against the
suspected perpetrators. Her husband was paralyzed from the neck down.
The trial continues on criminal charges against the 42 suspects
Link to Story.
And Cretan farmers in Athens return...
And unlike their attempt to reach Parliament earlier this year -
this time 1000 arrived at Syntagma square and met representatives of
Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis...
Link to Story.
Arson in Iraklion..
As fire bombers attack an apartment block and a car using
gas-canister bombs in the port area of the city...
(item 5)
Link to Story.
Googling in Athens must stop...
The Greek Data Protection Authority
banned Google for taking further photographs for the Google 'Street
View' pending the submission of further information by the search
engine..
(item
4)
Link to Story.
Iraklion tugboat Captain...
The 45 year old captain died whilst at work on his boat when
struck by a crane..
(item 6)
Link to Story.
Paid ransom fails to save businessman...
The charred remains of Iraklion businessman abducted from his home were
subsequently discovered in a burning car at around the time that the
ransom money was paid... He was reported to have been strangled...
Link to
Story.
Children's summer camp...
A summer camp for children in Nomos Chanion, run by the Greek
Orthodox Church was vandalized by unidentified intruders...
(item 6)
Link to Story.
Whilst bare-faced Brits in Cretan Court...
A group of British men, reportedly aged between 18 and 60 years old,
faced a court in Crete after spending the night in police cells - for
allegedly parading around the resort of Malia in Nun- costumes and
'flashing their backsides at residents'...
Link to Story.
And, still on the subject of the British...
John Hogan, held in a Greek psychiatric hospital for almost three
years, after jumping from a Cretan hotel balcony holding his two young
children - has been freed by an Athens court...
The court accepted that he had been temporarily insane at the
time... His son died in the tragedy.... (item 1) Link to Story.
But some Britons are commended...
Britons such as Mr Henry Marsh, a London neurosurgeon who for the
last 15 years has been visiting the Ukraine offering his services
voluntarily for the public good. Honoured by a documentary about
him at the Kos (Greece) Health Film Festival. Never heard of Henry
Marsh? You are missing something - click the link....
Link to Story.
And some Greeks may not know...
That taking photographs of young children in the UK is a very strict
no, no in the present paranoid situation...Pericles Antoniou, an amateur
photographer for 25 years, may yet end up in prison...
Link to Story.
Whilst WWI hospital ship sunk off Kea...
HMHS Brittannic - sister ship to the ill fated Titanic which sank
off the Greek island of Kea in 1916 after hitting a German mine, claimed
the life of British diver Carl Spencer on May 24th..
Link to Story.
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true democracy, Greece is using Google satellite imagery to
monitor and protect forestland from illegal constructions,
so perhaps Google will be allowed
to attract tourists as well shortly with its Street View.
