Category: Sanders Blog – Hellas

19th September, 2010

Beautiful swim today. The air and the water are hot/warm. The temperature was 34C/92F. We did an hour in the sea and then came back for a late lunch at 3.30 pm. We had garlic sauce and courgette crisps with biscuits and blue cheese. As we nibbled we watched Man. U. v Liverpool. It was a really good match which United didn’t manage to lose in the final minutes. Berbatov scored a hat trick. In UK he is called Ber_ber_toff but in Greece he is known as Ber_BAH_toff.

After this there were two more games to choose from: Wigan 0 v Man City 2 or Chelsea 4 v Blackpool 0. I watched the former but they were both poor.

We ate and drank so much for lunch that we didn’t want an evening meal. We just sat outside with a mug of tea and watched the sun go down over the harbour.

We leave the island two weeks today.

20th September, 2010

Or there again, maybe we won’t. The Greeks have taken the one piece of industrial action that can really hinder us. They are blocking the road we go on between Piraeus & Patras to get our ferry to Italy. The Greek government have been instructed to break monopoly industries and bring in competition. They are doing just that with the Pharmacies, The Railways, The Transport Lorries, etc. The Lorry owners have all paid €2,00,000 – €3,00,000 to belong to the monopoly industry. They face losing their investment when foreign firms come in free of charge. The are incensed and have parked their lorries to block the major roads as the lobby Parliament. The Athens – Corinth – Patras highway is blocked. If we can’t get down it, we are stuck. I used to pray for rain but now I pray for an end to the lorry strike.

 

The sea and sun were at their perfect, September best today. We indulged it all at the beginning of our last two weeks before returning to the Land of Rain. (Perhaps)

21st September, 2010

For the first time in months we went into old Sifnos – Apollonia –  for a change. I was struck by the stark contrast between our house and those that first attracted us as tourists.

   

and then I suddenly spotted modern Sifnos breaking in.

22nd September, 2010

I’m not a believer in miracles but one happened today. I went to the chaotic post office and a woman behind the counter handed me three letters that had arrived for me. I had applied for internet banking with the National Bank of Greece and they had sent me my password. I had a letter from a friend in Oldham and I had a postcard from someone called ‘Mike’.

 

I don’t know who this person is but they’ve got a bloody cheek sending me love! And what the hell has he sent me a picture of a church for?

23d September, 2010

A cloudy but warm day today. Last night I sent Ruth in Crete about six text messages on Skype and a couple from my phone about the state of the last One Day Test. It was just like Test Match Special. I sent more Texts in two hours than I have in two years. Today we broke Greek law and nearly brought the Fire Brigade down on us. We have been tidying the garden in readiness for leaving. As we have about four acres of garden, it takes some doing. As a result, we had a lot of rubbish and I decided to have a bonfire. I must admit, it did go up alarmingly quickly but Stavros later told us that we could have faced a huge fine because it is illegal to start a bonfire until the beginning of October – because of the tinder dry land.

24th September, 2010

We now pay a small Greek tax each year to signify we are house owners and members of the community. It only amounts to €120.00 between us but it makes us feel wanted. The President of the island has obviously heard we are paying tax because for the first time in the fifteen years since he was first elected, he actually went out of his way to wave to us as we drove through the seaside village of Platys Gialos. He has never acknowledged us in any way before and nor has any other island politician. Essentially, until now we were tourists. Remember, there should be no taxation without representation. Now we are paying tax we should be allowed a community vote. The community votes for the Presidency in two months. Maybe that’s why he waved!

Decided I would write to Mike.

25th September, 2010

Every morning at 8.00 am, I switch off the television news and switch on the internet. Through wireless speakers, we listen to Radio 4’s Today programme. It is our one connection with UK culture. Today was dominated by who would win the Labour Part leadership but sandwiched between the brothers Milliband was a short item about the big sporting event today. Not Man. City v Chelsea nor Liverpool v Sunderland but The Gordon Bennett Cup – a balloon race first started in 1906 which has been run 53 times somewhere in Europe since inception. This year it is in England and based in Bristol. If you want to attend, click on the picture below for the website:

It is a football afternoon with four games showing. I will watch Man. City v Chelsea and West Ham v Spurs. Also available is Arsenal W. Brom and Liverpool v Sunderland. I’ve just sent a text message to Ruth on Crete alerting her to Bolton v Man U. on Greek TV tomorrow afternoon. Hope she can catch it.

12th September, 2010

Just three weeks left on the island this year. We bought our ferry ticket to Piraeus this morning €137.00 one way for two adults plus a car. Then the most wonderful thing happened. It rained. It was our first rain for six months. The heavens absolutely opened and it poured for an hour. Within twenty minutes of it stopping, the hot sun had completely dried the patio and we were sitting outside in an atmosphere perfumed with herbs – oregano, thyme and rosemary.

13th September, 2010

Today is ‘Back-to-School Day’ right across Greece. There is nothing regional about education here. It is centrally directed and intimately interwoven with Church & State. The curriculum is centralised and every school should be teaching the same thing at the same time on the same day right across the Mainland and the islands. Today all schools open for about an hour. Priests, Politicians and Teachers attended. After that, they are told who their class teacher will be for the year and will be given a clear plastic bag containing all their exercise books. Then they go home for the rest of the day and lessons start on Tuesday.

Pauline & I couldn’t resist first day celebrations and followed Stavros with his three children – Nikos, aged 13, Markos, aged 10 and Ellie, aged 6 – as they attended the First Day speeches. It took place in the school yard. On the platform were four Greek Orthodox priests, the island’s President, leaders of PASOK and NEA DEMOKRATIA, the Headteacher of the Secondary School and the Head of the Primary School.

Everybody, including the teachers, dressed as if they had just come of the beach. The idea of a uniform is a non-starter although Nikos chose to wear the national costume coat for the special occasion.

 

 

14th September, 2010

Wonderful rain storm with thunder. We got up at 3.30 am to watch it. I wanted to dance naked on the patio but Pauline wouldn’t let me. She said I would look gross and would offend the goats. This morning, after breakfast of Assam tea, homemade bread toasted with cherry jam, we decided to drive across the island to see what effects the rain had brought. As we drove two hundred metres from our house, up over the first incline, near Apostolis farm, the road was covered with partridges adult and young. The young ones didn’t want to move. Later, when we got back, we looked them up on the internet. They were red legged partridges delighting in the puddles. I bet they taste nice.

Driving on we found a huge herd of goats blocking the road. They were desperate for all the fresh vegetation that springs up with the first taste of water since February.

 

There is a bulb, the size of a large hyacinth which throws up a large, white stick flower all over the island – a bit like liatris. This is cultivated liatris.

This is the wild, Sifnos plant.

  

Driving on over the highest point in the centre of the island, we see all the neighbouring islands in the clearer air. This is Serifos:

and this is Folegandros:

15th September, 2010

A work day today. Pauline was using the annual supply we get from our window and door manufacturers, Sylor. They give us a pack containing a bottle of detergent and a bottle of oil. To maintain our ten year warranty, we clean and all the windows and doors each year. While Pauline is doing that, I clear the garden. Eventually, I will lime it before we leave so that the winter rains can wash the lime into the soil in readiness for next year.

16th September, 2010

I was using wonderful, ratcheted loppers that I found in the local hardware store. There is an invasive and prickly bush which spreads quickly across the land here. It looks and feels a bit like hawthorn. I bought the loppers especially to cut it back. I was happily hacking away on the hillside behind the house; the sun was hot – reaching low 30Cs/90Fs – at 11.00am and I had my big, floppy  hat on and thick, gardening gloves. One minute I was manfully slashing and burning and the next minute I was flat on my back with my head down a hole. Every time I tried to turn a push myself up, the further my arms and head went down the hole. I felt like a beetle, flipped on its back and unable to escape. After a few minutes of hollering, my little helper appeared and I was pulled out of the hole and comforted with coffee and biscuits which made the whole experience worthwhile although, being a warfarin-user, there is a worry about internal bleeding. I easily cover my body with huge, purple bruise marks and cuts refuse to stop. On this occasion, only my pride is bruised.

In the afternoon, we had a wonderful swim. We still go every day for an hour. The water temperature is a little cooler – it has an edge to it – but it is easy to get in and so crystal clear. We do our swim and then straight back to the house for lunch which tends to be ham and rocket sandwiches. The bread is homemade. The rocket is from the garden and the ham is from the windmill supermarket.

18th September, 2010

Saturday brings shopping, swimming and football. The temperature today was 33C/92F but felt hotter. The sea was gorgeous and warm. We had a wonderful swim and I didn’t want to get out but Pauline was going (more) wrinkly and the first football match was about to start. Today the matches available were:

Stoke 1 v West Ham 1 – quite a good game, I thought
Everton 0 v Newcastle 1 – a fantastic game & I really enjoyed it
Spurs 3 v Wolves 1 – on at the same time as above
Sunderland 1 v Arsenal 1 – wonderful

Salmon en Croute for dinner this evening with a bottle of claret – one of my last fifteen bottles. I have managed them well because we only have fourteen nights left on the island. Pauline capped the day today by falling through the bottom of a third canvas sun chair. We bought them from B&Q fifteen years ago so I can’t complain but Pauline can. Not only has she felt a bit embarrassed but she badly bruised her back on one and scraped the backs of her legs on another. Fortunately, this time she only made me laugh.

5th September, 2010

The Sifnos school yard is being swept; the windows are being opened to air the building. The Sifnos Secondary School is preparing for opening in one week. After a three and a half week holiday, they should be.

6th September, 2010

When we drive past the school yard today on our way to the supermarket, the teachers are sitting on the wall outside in the sunshine being addressed by a guest speaker. This is staff training Sifnos-style. Oh, the stess! When we talk to our friends on the island who have Secondary-age children, they are excited because of a new development. A new (on-line) curriculum is being introduced in Greece this September. It is an expensive development because each pupil will need a notebook/laptop and the country can’t afford them. England can’t afford that. Greece’s answer is to release it in just twenty areas of the country. Sifnos has been selected. The one problem is that, although the kids know how to use the machinery, the staff don’t.

Pauline went to the Post Office but our parcel still hasn’t arrive.

7th September, 2010

A bit windy today. We didn’t go swimming. We are still waiting for our parcel from London. It was posted twelve days ago and should have arrived after four days – maybe five. The UK postal service say our parcel is in Greece. The Greek postal service is in chaos.

8th September, 2010

I don’t think I told you what the parcel was we were waiting for. One of our lifelines throughout the six months away is a tyre inflator for the car. You plug it into the cigarette lighter and the engine powers the inflator. We have needed it three times in the past six months. It makes the difference between sitting around for hours waiting for assistance and spending five minutes sorting out your own problems and driving to a garage. In many remote spots on Sifnos, it could mean not waiting half a day for someone who doesn’t speak English. The other day, ours fell apart and we couldn’t repair it. Nothing was available on the island. We turned to the web and Argos. We found a upgrade for £40.00. Pauline’s niece in London bought it and forwarded it by Parcel Force.

9th September, 2010

Wonderfully warm and calm day today. We only have just over three weeks left so job completion is getting a bit more important. Mundane jobs like applying teak oil to the patio furniture, clearing the vegetable patch, giving the windows and doors their once-a-year treatment. Each year we go to the Woodman’s works where we meet Kostas, who speaks not a word of English, and his wife, Maria, who speaks English fluently. They give us – free of charge – a package containing a bottle of detergent and a bottle of oil. The two will do one treatment of all the woodwork and maintain our ten year warranty.

Had my INR (anti-coagulant) test today. The result was near perfect 2.3 so I phone Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with the good news. John, the doctor in the Path. Lab., says I don’t need another for five weeks so this time it will be on the NHS and free.

Swimming was fantastic today. The water was warm and crystal clear. The surface was like sheet glass. There was a handful of people on the beach. If it could only stay like this.

10th September, 2010

Cleaning the house this morning. Pauline got us up early. My job is change a light bulb, sweep and mop the patio and NOT use the family bathroom toilet after it has been cleaned. Why? Professor Ken Toyne and his wife, Jennifer are coming for coffee and it has to be spruce. I am walking round wearing a hang-dog, beaten expression to emphasise my subjegation. However, it is a beautiful day. 33C/91F is forecast. We will be swimmming this afternoon.

11th September, 2010

On Thursday, we went down to see Apostolis to buy some meat. We wanted beef. There was a bit of shuffling and then Apostolis’ wife and Stavros’ sister, Moshka phoned up to the farm a couple of kilometres away and Apostolis came haring down the mountain on his moped. Arriving at the shop breathless, Moshka said we wanted beef. It’s finished, he said. More in two days. He returned to his farm.

That night, as we sat drinking coffee on our patio, Apostolis open-topped lorry came back down the mountain. He tooted as he passed us with one huge, dead cow in the back. It was a magnificent and huge, brown and white beast lying on its side, distinctly DEAD. We watched the lorry slowly trundle into the valley and thread its way through the narrow tracks to Apostolis’ ‘slaughter building’. Our coffee ran cold as we contemplated the awful fact that our request had resulted in that death.

Today, with all such thoughts dismissed, we went in and bought a couple of kilos of magnificent, dark red beef. Slow cooking with onions, carrots and a litre of red wine, we will eat it with jacket potatoes. Sorry, Jane BG! Sorry brown cow!

29th August, 2010

In any other year we would have been travelling back across Europe ready for a start back to work on Monday. As it is, Monday is a Bank Holiday in UK and, because our old school becomes an Academy this term, the school holidays have been extended until September 14th. Typical!

30th August, 2010

We were wandering out into the sea for our daily swim when we got a call, Ey Up Lad. I knew immediately that it was Stelios. It was the same greeting he used when we first met twenty years ago in Apollonia square. Then he was a young lad of 25 and I was a mere sprog of 39. Pauline and I were sitting at Lakis Kafenion, drinking coffee and watching the world go by. Stelios (No not that Stelios of Easyjet fame.) came by unfurling a roll of plastic pipe across my feet and on to the local restaurant which had lost its water supply. Stelios was the first Yorkshire Greek that I had met.

It turns out that after a spell on the ferries, Stelios, who was born and had family in Sifnos, landed in UK and met a girl and got married. Eventually, Stelios opened a Mediterranean restaurant in Leeds doing Greek/Italian food and was very successful. He and his wife had two lovely daughters and have a house in West Ardsley. You can take Greece out of the boy but not the boy out of Greece. Stelios came back to Sifnos and built a house with ‘Rooms’ attached and now spends the Summer here and the Winter in West Ardsley. It was their last swim of the Summer and were leaving today for Athens, flying back to UK tomorrow so the girls could get to school on Wednesday.

31st August, 2010

One of the great successes and leaps forward this year has been establish mobile broadband in the Greek house. It is not brilliant and one has to be patient at times but we can do our business. We bought an Cosmotedongle for our laptop. It is 3G mobile, of course, and that is not perfect on a Greek island. Particularly, we found that when all the tourists arrived with their 3G mobiles, the bandwidth was just completely consumed. Although we had plenty of connection signals, our pages loaded as if they were being filtered through concrete. Now the tourists have left, we have a reasonable service again.

One compromise I have had to make is moving out of the study because the signal is almost non-existent there. We have put a desk in the lounge. The desktop computer is still in the study but the laptop is in the lounge and attached to it is the wireless distributor which feeds the wireless speakers so we can listen to the Today programme from Radio 4. As I type, I look out over the valley to the mountain. This morning, it is really beautiful.

 

1st September, 2010

In 2002, we started to pay for our Greek house build by purchasing the land. Over the next four years we spent €320,00.00. At the time we were sending over money in wadges of £20,000.00 to Stavros. At the exchange rate at the time, the value of these euros was £220,000.00. Today, the value of those euros is £266,000.00. We recently had it valued at £350,000.00 – £400,000.00. Even in these difficult times it is possible to make money out of property – as long as Greece doesn’t leave or get thrown out of the Eurozone.

2nd September, 2010

As I think I have written before, electricity supply is the carrot with which those building houses are persuaded to pay tax on it. Until the receipts for purchase of materials and labour are submitted and successfully scrutinised and signed off by the tax authorities in Milos, the house owner is not given full electricity supply. For building power is needed and provided but not at full strength. After all tax payments have been received – proved by the tax receipts – the supply is upgraded to full power. Our house was completed six years ago. collation of all the paperwork took another two years by the accountant. The paperwork has been sitting in Milos for four years waiting for scrutiny and stamp of approval. We are still using building-strength power. It isn’t a major problem to us. We don’t have to compromise our lifestyle and it is a great deal cheaper but it is a symbol of Greek bureaucracy.

Today we went to the DEH office in Apollonia. The man behind the desk could speak a word of English so we took our friend, Rania, with us to translate. He basically confirmed for us that we had been using electricity completely illegally for six years be he understood that the officials in Milos were rushed off their feet and it might be another six years until we had our paperwork stamped. Below is the view from the electricity office:

3rd September, 2010

For some reason, there is no longer a postal delivery on Sifnos. For years a man has ridden round the island on a motorcycle with a huge leather bag slung across his chest filled with mail. No longer. Everyone has to go to the Post Office and look through a box of mail for their own post. If it is left there too long, it is sent back. This has resulted in many trips to the Post Office and long queues at the counter. We are waiting for a parcel from London and have gone up each of the last three days. We are going again today.

Throughout the summer, our island is like our little world – or it was until satellite tv and the internet. Even so, the islanders never talk about any other island than their own and if we refer to one, the reply as if we are talking about some remote region of the Amazon. To reinforce this, you can never see another island from Sifnos. Daily, ferries come from other islands and go to other islands but it takes hours to get there. This seems to emphasise and exaggerate the distance between them. Suddenly, in September, the heat haze goes and islands emerge into the crisp, blue sky and they are incredibly close. This is Kimolos. It looks like you could walk there in half an hour. It actually takes two and a half hours by boat and is a beautiful island. Pauline & I went there a few years ago. Almost nobody from Sifnos will ever set foot on Kimolos. They just don’t see the point.

Usually, we drive 12,000 miles a year. We have averaged that for nearly thirty years. It is five months since we got in our car and drove to Hull docks, drove all the way across Europe, across the Pelopponese and then to the shops, etc on our island and in those five months we have clocked up exactly 2,000 miles. Next month, when we drive home, we will arrive in Huddersfield with just over 3,000 miles on the clock since we left in April – exactly half our normal total. The moral is: if you want to cut down the mileage on your car, drive to Greece and back.

22nd August, 2010 

Two fat ladies. Only 16 weeks until I’ve completed two years of this Blog. I can’t decide whether to stop then or not. I’ve got time to decide. Just 6 weeks until we leave the island and 7 until we arrive in UK. We’ve just been reviewing our diaries and that first week is manic. We have appointments for:

• The Dentist
• The Eye Specialist
• The Dermatologist
• Breast Screening
• Anti-Coagulation Clinic
• Hospital check up for Pauline’s Mum
• Car Service

We then drive south to stay with Pauline’s sister and start looking at properties in reality rather than on the internet.

23rd August, 2010 

Thankfully, today is cloudy and windy and only 30C/89F. It really is refreshing to have a cool day! Sunday papers today. We read them under the pergola and really enjoyed the change intemperature. It was not a day for swimming today – for the first time in months. Maybe, there is a hint of Autumn in the weather. We went out for a drive to a locally popular bay and were surprised how quiet it was. It had an end of season feel.

24th August, 2010 

More painting today. The wind has dropped but the temperature is forecast to reach no more than 34C/93F. We painted until I was tired and then had a fantastic hour’s swim in warm and wonderful waters.

25th August, 2010 

Today is traditionally the end of the Greek’s holidays. By the 25th of August, they are back in Athens and ready for work.  We already have some idea because the two car/bike rental businesses have lots of bikes back in front of their shops. The beach is much quieter and it is easy to park our car.

26th August, 2010 

Frangiskus, the electrician, came to finish of the last of the outside lights. The photograph below is an attemp to show how they look at night. When he was leaving, Frangiskus tried to go without being paid. I had to insist we paid him for his three evening’s work and even then it was only €70.00 or £57.00. Had to drive Pauline up to the Post Office to check if we had any mail. I park the car next to the Old Trafford of Sifnos. Of course, although the islanders know more about West Brom FC and Manchester City than I do and follow all their matches closely each weekend, there first sport is Basketball and that is the inter-village competion. Nowadays, with relative afffluence on Sifnos because of tourism, they have a purpose-built arena. It is pictured below:

27th August, 2010 

Received the final bills for all the tiling today. It was very pleasing. Dimitris, Janis & Lurch came round to say goodbye and collect their tools. The bill for 210 sq.mtrs of outside tiling, for concrete leveling, for building small edging walls and for plastering an outside wall plus some finishing off inside the house of skirting tiles and 5 sq.mtrs of tiling the kitchen came to €5800.00. The tiles cost €3000.00 and the materials cost €750.00. The total cost for all the building work was €9550.00. If you add in the electrician’s bill of €350.00, this year’s building total comes to €9900.00 or £8250.00. It has made a massive difference to the house. It is now completely ‘finished’. Only landscaping remains.

The air temperature today was 36C but last night had a little chill in the air and the sea today had a slightly fresher quality. The first signs of Autumn are coming. Greek TV is full of adverts for ‘Back to School’ products – bags, pads and pens, etc.. The long range forecast for Greece is frightening. After our heatwave summer, they are expecting torrential rain and freezing temperatures  across the islands throughout the whole of September. Late evening skies can be attractive now. This one is at 9.10 pm.

28th August, 2010 

Now we have all our outside lights fitted and working, we can’t resist using them all to show off. Stavros says that from his house – about two kilometres across the valley – it looks like Blackpool Illuminations. Well, he didn’t actually say that but words to that effect. Everyone around the bay puts their lights on at 9.00 pm just as the sun goes down.

15th August, 2010

A little breeze today and 38C. We only went out to swim. I enjoyed the City v Arsenal match until the last couple of minutes. I thought the Cole sending off was a bit harsh.

16th August, 2010

We started the day with a whole string of jobs but it was so warm and the Sunday papers arrived. We did virtually none of them.

17th August, 2010

The entire country is collapsing with heatstroke. It is reported that August is turning out to be the hottest in Athens since records began although how they can know that by the middle of the month I don’t understand.

The vegetable garden has to be watered about five or six times a day for fifteen minutes at a time because of the intense sun but it is still producing. This little collection on the patio today shows French beans which we pick every couple of days and cook and serve cold as a salad dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and a dip – skordalia – garlic sauce, onions which we are starting to pull now and carrots which we have been pulling for a day or two. Not pictured is a huge bag of rocket leaves for salad and another huge bag of basil leaves for pesto.

18th August, 2010

Since we got mobile broadband, Pauline has phoned her Mum about three times a day using Skype over the internet. It is a 3G connection which can be a bit iffy on the island at times – particularly peak tourist days when the 3G bandwidth is under high demand. Still, it has revolutionised her phone calls. Last year’s mobile bill of about £500.00 has been reduced to about £30.00. Today, her Mum who is 96 in two weeks’ time, was upset.  Mabel, a lady who has been a cleaner in the warden-assisted building and who Pauline’s Mum got very friendly with, retired about a month ago because she was 61. For the last few years she has been doing Mum’s washing. She would visit one morning, staying for toast and a chat and then return a few mornings later with the clean washing and stay for toast and a chat. It has been a lovely friendship and a life saver for Mum.

When she retired from her cleaning job Mabel had a leaving do at the flats. She assured Mum that she would still come and do her washing as usual. A month later, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 61. She will lose her whole bowel. She had to go back today to the hospital to ascertain whether the cancer has spread to her chest. The poor woman’s husband is also ill and unable to accompany her to hospital. How cruel is life and how fortunate I feel.

19th August, 2010

Frangiskus came today and started the work of putting lights up on our outside steps, under our pergola/dining area and putting a new ceiling fan in one of the bedrooms. I thought I would show you our outside steps. They are largely decorative but Pauline was keen to have the Cycladic tradition maintained in our house. In the Cyclades, people will go up on to their flat roofs and whitewash them each spring because the stong white colour reflects the heat of the sun back upwards. The diurnal range in the islands is much narrower than in Athens. I’m not sure why. In summer, the night time temperature rarely falls below 24C/75F after averaging 32C/90F during the day. The concrete structures absorb the heat during the day and radiate it during the night. For that reason, we paid a great deal more money for our house to have a double ceiling/roof with thich insulation in between. All the cavity walls are packed with insulation. This is to keep the heat out in summer and in during the winter. Also, of course, we paid a fortune for triple glazing. Many people building here baulk at the cost but repent at leisure. It was Stavros who cautioned us to bite the bullet and pay what amounted to an extra 25% on the building costs. He was absolutely right.

 

20th August, 2010

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me but we went on an expedition to the rubbish tip. See what you’ve missed. Pauline & I have become refuse tip aficianados over the past few years. Bi-weekly collections in Huddersfield have meant alternate weekly trips to the local tip. In Sifnos, refuse wagons (and there are three) just constantly drive round the island, from about six in the morning until darkness, collecting rubbish and ferrying it up the mountain at the centre of the island and throwing it in the huge crevasse which they have been using for centuries. The crevasse has been smouldering permanently since we came to the island in the early ’80s and the smoke can be seen rising from the mountain like a volcanoe.

Why did we go to the tip – well, not only did we have to order all our own materials for the tilers and feed and water them constantly during the day and pay them when they had finished the job but we had to tidy up after them when they left. Obviously, there were dozens of tile boxes, cement sacks, tile off cuts, etc left behind. We had to gather them all up in sacks, put the seats down in our car and make two trips up the mountain to feed the every hungry crevasse. Greek workers have such a hard life.

21st August, 2010

It is a cooler day – maybe only 32C/90F – and I have taken the opportunity to finish tidying up after the builders, putting surplus materials like bags of cement, bricks and breeze blocks in the garage for future use. My wonderful wife, on the other hand has been cooking. Twice a week or so she cooks bread. She buys a kilo and half of loose flour from a sack in the supermarket. Now we are sated of raspberry buns, she is making a production line of Greek Apple Cake (really apple upsidedown cake) with lovely apple syrup poured over. Today she made both.

Yesterday, Pauline made pesto using our own basil and then made Salmon en Croute with pesto sauce. We went to Apostolli, Stavros’ brother-in-law and bought a shoulder of beef from a cow raised and slaughtered on his farm a couple of kilometers away from our house and then butchered in his shop down in the port. The meat is a delight and Pauline is making Stifado – a traditional Greek dish of chuck beef and small onions slowly cooked with herbs and red wine and cinnamon. In this case, she was able to use our home grown shallots. Will I ever loose weight? Below you can see all three things cooked today proudly displayed in our newly tiled kitchen, the bowl of shallots pulled yesterday from the garden and the half cooked stifado.

   

Now I have an evening of football to look forward to:

5.00 pm: Arsenal v Blackpool or Stoke v Spurs

7.15 pm: Wigan v Chelsea.

8th August, 2010

We have exactly eight weeks left on the island this year. The heatwave continues. A day without tilers, which is a relief, and we can go out shopping. Swimming was fantastic. Sorry to go on about this but the sea is so remarkable this year. It is as warm as a bath, calm because there is no meltemi and crystal clear. We spend just over an hour swimming each day at around 2.00 pm. Lunch in Greece is 3.00 pm. Until Friday, the beach has been fairly quiet but Friday night was Exodus Night when thousands of Greeks leave Athens, cram on to ferries at Piraeus bound for the islands.

They stay for ten days and then return to Athens. Suddenly the island is flooded with cars and most sane islanders don’t drive far because the Athenians are maniacal. They are now on the beaches. Pauline and I don’t stay on the beach. We drive down from our house, which takes less than two minutes, park and swim. We walk out of the sea after an hour swimming each way across the bay – about a kilometre in total – get in the car and drive home. We shower outside on the patio to get the sand off and then again in the house before making lunch.

From the moment the tourists arrive the islanders can’t wait for them to leave but they know that a few weeks of torment will fund their lives until the same time next year so they hold their breaths and hold out their hands for the money.

9th August, 2010

The tilers arrived at 6.30 this morning. We think it will take about another four days for the outside to be completed before they begin the kitchen walls. After two hours we go ot to buy cheese pies or tyropitas  (τυρóπιτα) for their elevenses which are had at 9.30 am because of the early start. They have it with iced coffee which we also supply. I sometimes think it would be easier to do the tiling ourselves but I don’t really have all the skills. The τυρóπιτα is layers of filo parcel that contains either feta or yellow cheese baked in the oven. It is staple breakfast for many islanders.

While the tilers had their elevenses at 9.30 am,  we were able to indulge our Monday morning pleasure of reading the Sunday papers and later listening to Test Match Special as England murder the Pakistanis.

Decided to go to Athens on Wednesday and stay over night. We will buy some patio furniture for lounging about on. We leave on Wednesday by SpeedRunner at 12.30 pm and arrive in Piraeus at 3.30 pm. Taxi to Leroy Merlin – the French B&Q – and then on to our favourite Electra Hotel which has reduced its prices from €160.00 to €100.00 because of the recession. The ferry each way is €95.00 so the total travel is €190.00 or £160.00 plus £85.00 for the hotel. The furniture will have cost us £300.00 before we pay for it and then we will have to pay for delivery to the island.

10th August, 2010

So hot and humid this morning I’m sweating just reading The Times on-line. I don’t know how Pauline’s coping spring cleaning the settees and vacuuming all the floors. Looks like we’ve got a feast of football on television this weekend. On our Nova satellite channel we’ve got all these games live:

• Spurs v Man City
• Aston Villa v West Ham
• Blackburn v Everton
• Chelsea v W. Brom.
• Liverpool v Arsenal

The Villa & Blackburn matches are on at the same time so I will be faced with a dilemma then but, otherwise, it is wall to wall football.

The Times front page article is suggesting that the housing market is faltering with supply far outstripping ability to buy. This is exactly what I was expecting as more bad economic news about job losses in the Public Sector with subsequent knock on effects in the Private Sector undermining confidence in the domestic housing market. We are hoping that a cash buyer in late autumn and over the winter will be able to drive a hard bargain when looking to purchase a new property.

11th August, 2010

Off to Athens this morning just as the heatwave intensifies and a heatwave on the island is an inferno with knobs on in Athens. We will flit from airconditioned boat to air conditioned shops to airconditioned hotel. I’ve decided not to take my laptop with me for one night so the Blog will continue tomorrow evening when we get home.

Lovely time in Athens but much too hot. We bought a few things fot the house including a new iron for Pauline. She gets all the best presents. We checked in at our favourite hotel, went for dinner in our favourite restaurant and returned to our airconditioned room to read the papers and watch tv.

12th August, 2010

This morning, after the best breakfast in Greece, we tried to go shopping. We walked for less than ten minutes before giving up and diving in to Marks & Spencers. This was not to shop, although Pauline was happy to check a few rails out, but to give me a chance to sit under the freezing airconditioning to dry my shirt out before continuing the last 200 metres to the hotel. The temperature at 10.00 am was 38C. By the time we got down to Piraeus on the train at 4.00 pm, it was a shattering 45C or 113F. This is the highest temperature we have knowingly experienced and it was hard to walk ten paces in it without diving for shade. In the old days – 30 years ago – we would be waiting on the quayside in the full sun for the ferry to arrive. A couple of years ago, the port authorities installed air conditioned waiting rooms. That’s where we sat until our air conditioned catamaran – High Speed 6 – arrived. When we first travelled to Sifnos in 1984, it took six hours by hot and noisy ferry. The new, chilled,  High Speed 6 took two and a half hours.

13th August, 2010

This morning the temperature is forecast to stay at record levels for the whole weekend. Of course, it is always quite a bit cooler on an island because the water encourages breezes. It will be 35C throughout the weekend. The tilers were finishing off outside and putting on the kitchen tiles inside. Tomorrow they will finish by grouting. They are lovely lads with real skill and pride in their work. We have enjoyed having them here and the house looks a lot better for it.

Was on line tonight when up popped a request to speak to Ruth over the Skype phone. We had a lovely 10 minute chat by video phone. Unfortunately, I realised half way through that I was naked because it was so hot. Fortunately, Ruth didn’t complain.

14th August, 2010

The tilers came for a couple of hours this morning to finish off and tidy up. It is still just as hot but we had to shop. As well as food, we went up to see the gorgeous Flora in the electrical shop. We had ordered nine outside lights and a fan for one of the spare rooms. Outside lights are very important in Greece as people live most of their lives there. We have about twenty around our patios and now the tiles are finished, we want to highlight them at night. It’s called being pretentious with knobs on. Frangiskus, the electrician, will be round to fit them all for us.

1st August, 2010

No workmen here today so we could relax a bit. It is very hot and there is no breeze. We have to do the shopping today because the lorry strike is over for the moment and the supermarket will have fresh supplies. The petrol tanker strike has been the most dangerous so far for the government but they have to break the monopoly, closed-shops and making the tanker drivers back down – however temporarily – is a major success. Unfortunately, many tourists have been inconvenienced – many who drive from the Balkans have cancelled all together. For a country which relies on tourist income, this is disastrous. Apparently, tourist traffic is down by 20%.

2nd August, 2010

A day of banging cement mixers Greek tradesmen shouting at Albanian skivvies, bricks and barrow loads of cement being moved. And all in incredible heat. We felt quite tired at the end of it. We were up at 6.30 am and the workers arrived at 7.00 am. They worked through until 3.00 pm. Breaks were at 10.00 am when we served iced coffee and Pauline’s magical substitute for the traditional cheese pies. She made twenty huge raspberry buns and they disappeared in minutes. I am thinking of shipping these raspberry buns to Athens because I’m sure they would make a winning contribution to breaking the strikes.

 

3rd August, 2010

A temperature of 36°C is forecast for today and 38°C tomorrow. It is only 7.20 am now and the workers have been here an hour already. You readers in England are still snoring (particularly you, Ruth) because it is only 5.20 am.

After leaving iced coffees for the workers and the latest batch of raspberry buns, we drove up to Apollonia to the Medical Testing Centre. I was going for my INR test and had to wait for ten minutes while a young mother had her test done. Fortunately, she left her little baby in the waiting room in its push chair. The baby was probably about 6 months old so I set about teaching it English. Unfortunately we didn’t get very far before mother took it away (I didn’t like to ask if it was a boy or a girl).

My blood was tested and we left at about 10.30 am. We were told to phone after 1.00 pm for the result. I went swimming and forgot. This evening, we drove up to the supermarket and there was the baker/bloood tester. He upbraided me for not phoning and said he was concerned because my reading was still too high. (This is all at the cheese counter.) I must contact Huddersfield Hospital tomorrow.

4th August, 2010

The temperature did not fall below 28°C last night. The air conditioning was on all last night. We were woken this morning at 6.30 am by the sound of tiles being cut and laid. The tilers found the full sun of 2.00 pm just too much and will start and finish early. By 8.00 this morning we were supplying them with iced water and a bowl of fresh figs. By 9.00 am, we were giving them iced coffee and biscuits. This is tradition. They walk off the job if you don’t observe it. You can see how these things – on a national scale – have brought Greek commercial life to its knees. The workers’ expectations are enormous. They are costing me a fortune in biscuits.

 

Our favourite local restaurant, – known to us by the names of its owners – Panos & Rania’s, usually make their own pesto from Basil grown in their own garden. This year they have had a disaster and their plants have failed. I, on the other hand, have had a major success and today we are going to supply them with a bag of Basil leaves to make their pesto.

5th August, 2010

Screamingly hot and humid today. The tiling across the front of the house is virtually finished although it still has to be grouted. It is looking great and we are excited that the surrounds of the house will soon be completed. We have had virtually no wind this year – something which can be quite a feature of Greek island August. Last year the meltemi blew for two long months. Because there is no wind, the sea is so hot. If it was a bath, you would put cold water in to it.

6th August, 2010

Almost pinned in the house for the morning because the doorsteps were being tiled. Spent quite a bit of time on the internet as a result. We planned our journey ‘home’ and confirmed hotel bookings:

• 3/10 – Patras Palace Hotel
• 4/10 – Patras Palace Hotel
• 5/10 – Anek Lines (Olympic Spirit) up the Adriatic to Ancona
• 6/10 – Holiday Inn Lugano Centre
• 7/10 – Metz Technopole Hotel

Photos in order from left to right:

   

7th August, 2010

The Tilers have done a half day today because it is so hot it is barely possible to stay outside for longer than half an hour with drinking litres of water. We are going to have an early swim and then come home and make bread. The patio is really starting to look good:

 

25th July, 2010

A really hot one today and humid too. Even in the early morning it was 31°C. By swimming time at around 2.30 pm it had reached 39°C. Too hot to do anything so did nothing after a refreshing dip but watch the motor racing.

26th July, 2010

We are not sure exactly when Dimitris, the tiler, will start work but today, as we were painting the front of the house and I was covered from head to toe in white paint, a lorry drew up and delivered dozens of bags of tile adhesive. We can only paint at the front of the house because of the heat and then only until 11.30 am because the sun is so high and hot it burns your hat off.

27th July, 2010

As we furnished this house, it has amused us to include objects & pieces of furniture that are founded in our past. For example, we have a settle or bench which is solid oak, slightly ecclesiastical in style and dates back to 1850. It was made for Oldham Town Hall Council Chamber and I bought it for Pauline for her 30th birthday – nearly thirty years ago. To have that in a house on a Greek island rather stretches the connection but amply illustrates a segment of our life. In just the same way, we have a trunk that Pauline had as a student when she went up from Oldham to her College in Tottenham in 1970. Her Mum, who literally had no money, had to save hard to buy her the trunk but was determined she should have everything other students would have. This trunk represented a considerable sacrifice on her part. 

It is on its last journey and is used to store things here in our garage but it maintains that sense of obligation that Pauline has always carried around with her and links her strongly with a wrinkly, little old lady still fighting the fight in a warden-assisted apartment in Oldham.

28th July, 2010

Won’t bore you with the monotony of it but carried on painting. I’m really beginning to enjoy the achievement. The house is so sparkling white that I need to wear my dark glasses. We have been working for a week now – painting hard in the morning and swimming hard in the afternoon. It has been so hot that it has been difficult to eat too much. By lunchtime today, I said to Pauline, “I think you’d better weigh me.” When I stepped on the scales, we found I had lost a stone in a week. I must be careful. I’ll be making Jane (2) look fat.

Another strike has started in Greece today. We’ve had the civil servants, the lawyers, the tourist workers, the seamen, the airport workers, the taxi drivers. Last week all hospital doctors were on strike for a week. Today, the lorry and petrol tanker drivers went on strike. Within hours, petrol stations across the country had run out of fuel. Queues of cars formed along roads leading to petrol stations. Fortunately, our island has just had two petrol ships in to replenish the two petrol stations on the island.

 

29th July, 2010

The downside of the petrol strike is that no supply lorries can get to the island. We are almost out of Mythos. I’ve still got plenty of French & Italian wine but I’ve been trying to eke it out with iced Greek beer. Mythos is the beer of choice in Greece. When I first came to Greece nearly thirty years ago it was dominated by Fix Beer and that has just been relaunched. They all taste the same to me. 

Only 33°C today. I’ve had to put my coat on. Don’t need so much iced beer, fortunately. The tiler arrived tonight to say that he would start work tomorrow. We are looking forward to having the work done but not to the disruption which will probably last a month.

30th July, 2010 

Received a lovely email from Jane (2) this morning. She is a nice girl for someone so skinny and fit. 

Hi John
I missed your email a couple of weeks ago, so read the blog and found out why. I will continue to read it as I like to see your news. Hope it doesn’t get too hot out there though. 39 is pretty warm! (see global warming article in Times today!)
Take care
Love Jane

I replied:

How lovely of you to find the time to write. I really appreciate it.  Have you retired yet? You must be old enough now! You need to do it before your legs give in and you’ve overused them already. I can tell you, it really is fantastic. I read the article in the Times yesterday and noted that it came from the Met Office who forecast the ‘barbecue summer’ and the ‘mild winter’ both of which turned out to be totally wrong. Maybe third time lucky …

Are you having a holiday or is Farnham all the holiday you need. I don’t want to alarm you but a number of interesting properties have come up in Farnham recently. We might be neighbours after all. There’s a reason not to retire. Thanks for the email.
Love John

30th July, 2010 

Very hot day today. Four young men were barrowing liquid cement up the banking to level up the patio prior to laying the tiles. It is so hot, four or five inches of cement is dry enough to walk on in half an hour.

 

18^th July, 2010

Interesting day. In the morning, Pauline repainted (touched up) the pergola before the tiles are laid. She is going to hang a considerable number of floor to ceiling curtains in a tent effect which will cut down on sun glare and overall heat. While she was doing that, I was doing a bit of gardening. I dug up one root of Maris Piper – 7 or 8 huge, white fleshed potatoes; one root of King Edward’s – 6 small new potatoes with characteristic blush. They will be ready in about a month; similarly with Anya salad potatoes. I cut another four courgettes. We can’t cope with them at the moment. I picked a huge mound of broad beans which took me about an hour to pod. I thinned out the carrots and I took 8 or so baby carrots and I pulled one white and one red onion.

It is a hot one today – 37⁰C – and we went swimming by 2.00 pm. We go swimming every day. The water was crystal clear and wonderful. We swam across the bay and back as we try to do each day. After swimming we got home and showered and then I scrubbed and boiled 8 or so of the smallest new potatoes and we ate them covered in butter from a bowl. We ate all the other vegetables for dinner along with griddled, spatchcocked chicken which had been marinaded in herbs, yoghurt, mustard and garlic.

19^th July, 2010

My back has come out of spasm and my chest infection, although not gone, is being controlled enough to let me sleep. Received a couple of lovely, supportive and encouraging emails from Ruth over the past two or three days. Had some fantastic experiences today. Fulfilled every man’s dream when I met a Swedish model. Mind you, she was about 70 and in a petrol station but it was fun. At Elinoil we drove in to fill up with petrol. It cost €69.00 – £58.50 – although it was the first fill up in three weeks. The garage is run by a wonderful family – Father and Mother with 16 year old son and Mother’s sister. They tried to get a new tyre for us but couldn’t. We sent one from England. They thought that we’d be straight up to get it fitted but we’ve decided to make do with the temporary repair until we are ready to travel. Explaining that to them was not going well until, suddenly, this statuesque lady intervened. It turned out she’d been living on Sifnos since 1971 and was married to a Sifniot. She spoke fluent Greek and English as well as Swedish. I told her the tale and she related it in Greek. Problem solved.

I had gone up to the Medical Testing Centre to have my monthly blood test – INR – at a cost of €16.00. It is done by the Baker and he was much less of a Butcher this month. Before he started I said, I would like use my arm tomorrow if possible. My reading was too high at 3.9 but it may have been affected by paracetamol which I needed for my bad back. We walked next door to the Bank. Pauline went in and took out some money. Monday morning and there was a big queue. I sat on the stone seat outside in the sunshine. I was there for ten minutes and must have said good morning to twenty people in that time. Some of them I wasn’t even sure who they were but they knew me. It was a nice feeling to think we had made so many friends and acquaintances on the island.

As we drove home at about 11.30 am, we stopped at the paper shop and bought The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph. The rest of the day was guaranteed!

20^th July, 2010

Got up feeling very optimistic after a reasonable sleep but still with some unpleasant dreams. After doing a few jobs around the house, we went for a swim. Once again, the water was absolutely wonderful – warm, tranquil, crystal clear, studded with little fish. I more than 25 years of coming here, we can’t remember it being more wonderful.

Phoned the lab at Huddersfield Royal. I told them my figures and said it was too high. I said I had been using paracetamol which might have affected it. “No”, said the technician “but like my last caller from Spain, you’ve probably upped your alcohol intake.” So that was me told.

21^st July, 2010

Wonderful day today. We have about a fortnight until the tiler comes so we thought we would get stuck in and freshen up the white paint on the outside of the house first. Pauline has re-painted the pergola and between us we have re-painted one end of the house. We were supposed to go out to eat tonight but, after another magical swim, we made a quick tea at home and prepared for an early night.

22^nd July, 2010

Wonderful day again today. After working hard yesterday, we decided to have a rest day. We drove up to the supermarkets to do a bit of shopping. Pauline had to make bread and biscuits. Had lots of banter with the wife of the owner of the supermarket. She tries so hard to communicate and we have good fun. Then we drive down to Kamares port.  As we walk back to the store, we stop to talk to Rania at the restaurant we enjoy. We drive back and are waved to or tooted at by so many people on our route. I am left consider the simple and unvarnished friendship and respect these people offer up instinctively and to compare it with those who are connected to me by accident of birth.

23^rd July, 2010

A painting day to day. We did one third of the front of the house and were shattered at the end of it. Half way through the morning, Stavros brought the tiler, Dimitris, and his mate up to the house to measure up in preparation for tiling the patio and kitchen. I’m expecting a bill of about €10,000.00 for all the work we need. After painting we had another wonderful swim and then Pauline cooked Apostolis’ beef in a bottle of French Rosé wine with our own potatoes and broad beans. It was a meal to remember.

24^th July, 2010

Went up to the DIY shop in Apollonia early this morning while it was quiet and cool. We bought two more huge tubs of Dulux exterior maisonary paint at €76.00 per tub. We also got a spool of wire to encourage the bougainvilleas to climb the pergola. We went on to the electrical shop to buy two lights for the pergola and eight moor to go around the outside of the property. Frangiskus, the electrician will be back shortly to do the electrical work.When we got home, we worked on retraining the bougainvilleas but they are stubborn, dry and full of spikes. We have two and neither are really typical of the island. These are the ones we have: