9th August 2009
Michael & Jane in Spain, Catherine & Caroline in Ireland, Liz in Portugal, Robert & Ruth on a narrow boat, John in Greece. What is the world coming to? No wonder we lost the Test. No ones watching whats going on!
10th August 2009
Fruit tree watering for me. Pergola painting for Pauline. Its Monday so Sunday papers at 11.00 am and then off to the Windmill supermarket.
This is the paper shop. The name of the shop written in red is pronounced vivliopothio which means ‘book and everything shop’.
This is the Windmill supermarket. The white van is parked over the ‘No Parking’ sign.
This is Supermarket 2. We actually managed to buy Brie cheese here today. It came in a tin. The orange car is parked exactly in front of the ‘No Parking’ sign.
11th August 2009
Very quiet day today painting the pergola, a little bit of gardening and a swim followed by a sloppy film on Nova satellite tv.
12th August 2009
Went up to the hardware store this morning and bought garden shears and loppers for controlling the bushes. We bought more paint for the pergola and a huge tub of external paint for painting the garden walls. It cost 75.00. It was so heavy I could barely carry it. By 9.00 am we were at the internet cafe to post the first half of the weeks Blog. This is what the Internet Cafe looks like:
One of the beautiful things about where we live in Greece is the ability to star gaze. In fact I bought a telescope for partly that reason. When we eat out on our patio at night, we can see a skyful of stars. Tonight we were looking for the shooting shower of meteorites – Perseid. We saw two events. One was certainly a Perseid meteorite producing a long trail of light disappearing over the mountain. The other was Paulines torch.
13th August 2009
Ten years ago we asked our bank for a £50,000.00 Bridging Loan to buy a field on an island in Greece. We were incredibly lucky to ask a bank manager who not only harboured the same ambition as us to build a house in Greece but one who knew our island and where the field was. She helped us have the confidence to go ahead with our project and commit some £200,000.00 that we didnt have. We quickly paid back the bridging loan and now own the house outright. We retired this summer and, fortuitously, so did she. Sue Riding was lovely to us as Manager of our Nat. West branch. Soon after helping us, she visited our island. She then moved on to work for Coutts Bank. Today I wrote to her with pictures of the house and wishing her happy retirement.
14th August 2009
The painting of the Pergola is now complete. Eventually, we may have a solid roof but, for now, we have the traditional bamboo cane covering which filters the sunlight without completely blocking it out. We have a small, electric oven with grill and hot plates that we cook on out there. In fact, in the summer, we cook and eat out there. At the moment my favourite is griddled fish or chicken with vegetables done under the pergola. You can see our wasp-catching pots hanging down.
15th August 2009
I picked up lovely emails from Bob and Catherine when I logged on at the Internet Cafe on Wednesday. It was nice to hear from them both. It made me very happy.
Sanders Blog 