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MAY
WEATHER.....
Warming
up nicely now - it feels like an age since our last spell of seriously
hot and settled weather, but from the current trend it looks like it is
on the way. Just don't forget a good sweater if you are coming on
holiday - evenings can be very cool...
Current Chania
Webcam
Current Cretan Weather
Link
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Our previous dining room roof...
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Left more than a little something to be
desired - and of course wasn't going to be a great deal of use in
bad weather! But then, even with the new roof completed and our
first 'sideboard' installed - dispensing with the brolley would not
help much - there were no doors and windows! Read below... |
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Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some.. XIII
(Continued from April - Previous
click here).
At the end the last episode...
....
If only I had known then what I know now. Isn't that always the
case? But gelding remains good! Very good!....... |
But, for better or
worse, the roof was on. The efforts of our roofer, assisted by our own
agent, were finished. All had not gone swimmingly towards the end, when
the ridge tiles were being mortared into place by the roofer, because he
ran very short of mortar and the ridges were most definitely neither
straight
or level. The fact that the mortar had been coloured to match the tiles
couldn't hide the misalignment - or more especially - the fact that the
central ridge was lower than the ends of the others, creating a sort of
low 'u'. But the roof was on - and the interior beams and ceiling rot
proofed and varnished. It looked good. Hopefully it would never leak...
More to the point, at the time, was the fact that we could now remove
our temporary 'roof' from our (plastic) dining table and eat in the
'big' room regularly. The scaffolding would have to come out - most of
it anyway. We still needed one full height set, complete with boards as
a piece of 'functioning' furniture! 'Functioning' in that we could
stand things on the lower level - our battery powered radio, our
kerosene lantern and all those other commodities which would normally be
placed on a sideboard - normally, here, in these circumstances, anyway.
A sideboard!...
But wow, what a sideboard! With an eighteen feet high steel frame with
two working platforms about four feet wide, made from 1.5" thick
solid pine around 6-8 feet long. It most have weighed at least half a
ton. But then it also sported huge heavy duty wheels. Ask yourself, in
all seriousness, where could you get a sideboard like that? B&Q - never!
Wickes - building department maybe, but it wouldn't be labeled
'Furniture' much less 'Sideboard'. No, this one may have looked unusual,
and maybe had no cupboards, but it could support a ton or two - plus
maybe two builders with buckets of mortar no sweat - and it was mobile!
Bespoke! Stop me and buy one!! But make sure that you have an eighteen
feet high room to put it in first....
Back from the euphoria of the new roof and successfully completing the
rot-proofing and varnishing, against the odds, reality loomed once
again. We were still living in what sometimes seemed to be a cardboard replica of a Sudanese refugee
camp, or so it felt, with no doors or windows in the front house; the
plastering yet to commence in that area; the first floor mezzanine still
a drawing on a plan, though RSJ's were now in place upon which to place
the floor of that structure; no electricity and only the rudimentary
unscreeded concrete floor, the finish anything but level and seriously
dust-prone.
But, the shell of the new front-house was up, the roof was on, the
exposed beams and ceilings treated and not least, we had the
bespoke, utterly magic 'sideboard'. What more could a man (or woman)
desire?.....
A completed renovation for £40,000 + perhaps. As originally put to us by
our agent maybe... We had already had to accept that particular
eventuality as unattainable before we started the present phase. A phase
we started with an estimate from our agent that completion of the whole
project would not take the total costs to more than £60 - £65,000. That
would make the final amount something in the region of £20,000 - £25,000
over budget. Looking at where we were with progress didn't fill us with
much faith in miracles. More a faith that completion would depend
totally on the depth of our wallet...
We recognised, however, that sour grapes,
however well justified they may have been, were not the answer. We still had
our dream to complete - the nightmare of possible failure to ward off. And
the bill was still climbing, the clock ticking. We needed to get the door
and window frames fitted as soon as we could so that the plasterer could
start work... A winter without doors and windows was not an appealing
proposition - there was absolutely no form of heating - apart maybe from gas
appliances and, believe it or not, our 300Watt Tilley lamp. That gave us so
much light that night, according to neighbours, became day! It also gave off
a fair amount of heat, but could hardly heat a whole house of this size,
It also had a serious disadvantage. Although portable, moving it with one
to, for example, the loo - so as not to fall over the raised floor drains or
sit upon something which might, and most likely would, bite if sat upon, was
not an option. That would mean leaving ones companions in the dark - or
candle light - pending a return. Or possibly knocking the thing over and
thereby setting fire to the only loo we had. At least we had fitted a plastic
seat to ours, it would probably burn quite nicely encouraged by an exploding
kerosene lamp.
Such an event would leave the privy seat less - but then that was the way our
agent, who had the loo fitted, had seen fit to leave it originally. Seat savers
unite!! Soon...
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Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some..
Is condensed from the book 'Pamela's House' - in current
preparation...
Continued in June... |
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In the News
Reviews...
Miltiadis Evert - 'Sillipitiria'...
Mltiadis Evert, well known former
leader of the Greek political party 'New Democracy' (ND) sadly died on
Wednesday 9th March at the Ippokratan Hospital in Athens, aged 72 years.....
Link to Story.
Battle of Crete Anniversary Message...
Prime Minister Yiorgos Papandreou's message on the 70th anniversary of
the battle of Crete conveyed a sentiment that overcoming the present
Greek (economic) crisis would be 'a vindication for all those who died
for the country' ....
Link to Story.
Plus, Britain also sent ambassadors...
To the 70th anniversary celebration, including Prince William, the
Duke of Gloucester, minister Andrew Rothman, and the current British
Ambassador to Greece Andrew Landsman...
Link to Story.
The culmination of the ceremonies...
Marking the Battle of Crete took place in Chania on Sunday 22nd May,
first in the Venetian Harbour at Chania and later at the airfield at
Maleme and a religious service and wreath- laying at the memorial
of the fallen - a sad reflection on man's inhumanity to man caused by
Adolf Hitler's dream of conquest....
Link to Story.
The German Ambassador was also present...
Roland Michael Wegener was also present for the ceremonies, and took
advantage, along with the Hungarian embassy commercial attaché, to
discuss tourism and commerce....
Link to Story.
On a more individual local level...
A DEH (State electricity company) employee sustained serious
internal injuries and 50% skin burns. The 30-year-old was apparently
carrying out work on an electricity supply pole in Dafnes, Iraklion. He
was initially treated at Rethymno Hospital and was due for transfer to
Athens...
Link to Story.
And on a wider perspective...
The British undoubtedly and most certainly have it!But if it isn't
theirs they give it back! As can be seen from this Corfu report. A
59-year-old British tourist found a briefcase containing 30.000€
at the side of a Corfu street - and
promptly handed it in to the police - the owner apparently arrived at
the police station later 'in a state of panic'....
Link to Story.
Fugitive Judge found abroad...
Antonia Ilia, a former Greek court judge found guilty with six
others of participating in a trial-fixing ring and dereliction of duty
last November, was finally arrested in London, where she had been
evading her sentence. Greece is seeking extradition...
Link to Story
Foreign airlines head for regional airports...
Where they are charged an average of 163€
- against 949€
at Athens International
Airport. An excellent booster for Greek island tourism....
Link to Story
Which boosts Island tourism...
Cheaper costs to airlines perhaps mean cheaper holiday offers, which
perhaps mean more tourists, which perhaps means more for everyone.
Perhaps. But it is certainly working for Zakynthos...
Link to Story.
Rhodes is doing very nicely too...
At least so far this year. Tourist arrivals rose by 132%over the
corresponding period in 2010. Put down in part to Orthodox and Catholic
Easter co-inciding. But possibly also due to the waning popularity of
North African and Eastern destinations....
Link to Story.
The price of passenger ferry tickets...
As the Greek government voted through a law amendment removing
third-party levies. Several operators are reducing fares between 8 and
10% Levies applied to ferries on the Cretan routes have also been
scrapped....
Link to Story.
And the beach takeover to end...
Which often (illegally) added to the price of a holiday seems at last to
be coming to an end. Hard luck on the brolley bashers taking over whole
public beaches, but good news for the rest of the holiday-makers
....
Link to Story.
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