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JULY WEATHER.....
Some like
it hot! Very hot!! The 30's and 40's (and we don't mean the year!) were
very much on the cards as things got very much warmer. But then perhaps
that is our 'Raison d'être'. Best to stay out of the sun unless well
protected...
Current Chania
Webcam
Current Cretan Weather
Link
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Plaster, plaster, on the wall....
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Which is the plaster to beat them all? And will it all be done
before our holidays are over at Christmas? |
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Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some.. XIV
(Continued from June - Previous
click here).
At the end the last episode...
....Plus that posed a very, very, interesting question. Assuming for a moment that our
agent's explanation was absolutely accurate, and that the rains in Spain -
sorry - Crete, would run down inside the roof tiles and eventually balloon
down and burst into the roof space, sinking my wife and family and my entire
ship, why would no rain penetrate the completely unprotected roof tiles,
but leak through felt covered ones?......... |
But, whatever the truth
of the matter, one thing seemed certain, not having the protection of the
felt, and supposedly the associated boarding, would not have cost any more.
Or any less, depending upon one's point of view....
And there were now more pressing points which needed to be pursued.
Particularly as the plasterer and his mate were now getting on with the job
in hand - plastering! It always seemed a bit of a curios sport to me
(although I did once plaster a small bathroom). First you sort of 'flick' a
trowel-full of the wet plaster at the intended area of the wall - where it
somehow miraculously landed and stayed 'stuck' - in strips about a couple of
inches wide and a couple of feet apart, and then smoothed the strips level
across the wall. Then, after a little hardening, just fill in the spaces and
use a piece of wood to scrape the gaps level...
All of which sounds easy enough, though a bit messy and lots of clearing up,
but then, after 'plastering' the whole area - new house; courtyard; walls
involved and the like, the whole process was repeated with a 'finishing'
coat. To make everything smooth... In other words, you do the job twice.
But then we didn't need to worry about the second coat, the 'finish', as
we would be safely in the UK for our Christmas break when that event
occurred.
And the first coat, it had to be admitted, did look good, even at that
stage. Wet and sticky for a while maybe, but good...
Then our next account - more like a brief note of what had been spent and
what was left (and by implication what was 'owing') arrived. It was then
that we noticed an anomaly. It seemed that our agent had added our amounts
due, including his interest at 15%, to the total amounts due, and then had
added the interest.. We puzzled over that for a while, and then asked for a
conference.
He seemed genuinely puzzled himself when we pointed out that if he totaled
the interest having already included it we would be paying the same interest
twice! We all went over the same ground at least twice before he declared
that he would have to get his partner to check the figures. He did. The
result was that he owed us a sum of money which came to, all things being
even and including what we had in the bank, enough to pay off the plasterer
and get a set of wrought-iron railings made and fitted around the
first floor balcony wall. Our glee was, to say the least, unsuppressed...
We should have known better....
At the time it seem one of the best pieces of news for a long time. Free
money! Well, that was just the euphoria. As we all know,
there is no such thing as a free lunch. But right now, for us, there most
certainly was. We even located the tradesman who would do the railing job and made
sure that the price was right. We were looking, we thought at a double
whammy. A completed newly plastered house and new railing all around
the first floor balcony. Magic! Couldn't wait to get them painted. We
discussed and agreed all with everyone concerned and departed for the UK
with a sense of a job well done (and paid for).. 'Christmas is a comin in,
a comin in, a comin in!! Bring on the turkey, don't spare the pud - stick a
bit of holly on'....
Meanwhile the plasterer plastered. Arches, square doorways, large
windows, small windows. It felt like play-school reborn. After all the
trials and tribulations, the seriously good and seriously bad times, our
dream of the sunshine was approaching the final stages of reality.
And, for once, just this once maybe, we were quid's in. It was nearly
time to go to the ball. We could safely enjoy our Christmas festivities for
the first time in several years...
After a lifetime of work we had reached retirement in the middle of what had
seemed like an avalanche of perpetual problems. Well, we had taken them all
on, beaten them down, and now it was our turn. Our dream was so close to
being reality that nothing, but nothing, could stop us now.
We were home and dry, all bar the shouting - weren't we?....
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Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some..
Is condensed from the book 'Pamela's House' - in current
preparation...
Continued in August... |
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In the News
Reviews...
Counterfeit cash...
Led four young Dutch tourists, aged between 20 and 24-years-old, into
the hands of the police in Hersonissos after being found in possession
of 11 counterfeit euro (€)
notes. The men had been positively identified by the owner of the bar as
passing the notes...
Link to Story.
Illegal immigrants...
Sixty illegal immigrants were spotted on the coast at Spatha, Chania.
They were collected by an Irish FRONTEX (border protection vessel) and
taken to Souda Bay. The immigrants, including 20 minors, said that they
had been landed by a migrant-running vessel...
Link to Story.
Plus, a wildfire contained...
One of the largest wildfires in the area of Rethymnon in recent
years was finally contained after destroying thousands of stremmata of
land, including forest and grazing land, sheep pens, animals and
threatening many homes in the area of Agios Vasilios...
Link to Story
But eight arrested for
dangerous driving...
Hersonissos police arrested eight British tourists for reckless
driving and endangering pedestrians and other vehicles. Their four-wheel
motorcycles had been rented in Malia....
Link to Story.
Tourists found well...
Two French tourists in their fifties were found safe and well after
failing to meet friends at a rendezvous at Balou. They had set out on
foot on Monday but when they failed to make the rendezvous friends had
alerted the police, whom joined Firemen and Hellenic Red Cross members
in a search. They were discovered safe and well on Tuesday. They
had no cell phones with them......
Link to Story
But one young man died...
As a 19 year old participant in a volunteer program failed to
rendezvous with his team on Wednesday 20th July. An organized search
operation including Samaria Gorge Foresters, specially trained EMAK
rescuers and dogs, Red Cross members and local hikers resulted his body
being found wedged in a crevice in the gorge on Thursday...
Link
to Story.
And yet the province of Chania...
Which includes the Samaria Gorge, the longest and deepest in Europe,
attracts thousand of tourists of all ages every year. Not all of course
'do' the gorge, as there is an abundance of other desirable activities, but it is
perhaps as well to remember that the Crete has a hostile side. Care will
repay amply with superbly enjoyable holidays...
Link to Story.
Plus - a not-so-young
Belgian man...
Loses his bike, his personal belongings, and, more importantly to him,
22 years worth of personal notes and signatures intended to gain him
entrance into the Guinness Book of Records.
Christian Van Limbergen, 61 years-old had his bicycle, property and the
all important diaries stolen whilst taking a nap in the famous Venetian
Harbour at Chania. The diaries contained the evidence from over 30,000
authorities around Europe of his epic journey for the Guinness Book of
Records.
Christian made an impassioned plea for the thieves to keep everything but to
let him have the diaries back...
Link
to Story.
Freak accident kills Cretans
in Germany...
Five members of a Chania family were killed instantly in a freak road
accident near Munich (Germany), when a lorry loaded with logs lost it's
load. The logs fell onto the family car, in which they were travelling. The
accident occurred on July 7th.
Both parents and three children, aged 14, 16, and 18-years-old were killed,
but a fourth child, a 3-month old, had remained in Chania in the care of
relatives...
Link to Story.
Quick Link...
Avra Imperial beach resort and spa. 251 rooms & 77 luxury suites;
spa's; private & shared swimming pools - both fresh and salt water;
conference centres; incredible lounge, pool and beach barsl;
offers/packages; news and press; guestbook; English, Greek, Rumanian and
French languages! A vast luxury spa resort/hotel. newly opened in 2011.
Luxury seems a byword - check out the guestbook...
Link to Story.
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