Category: Sanders Blog – Hellas

2^nd May, 2010

Gloriously hot and sunny day today with a slight breeze. We spent it gardening in the morning and watching football in the afternoon. All across the valley in front of us we could hear cultivators chugging through Spring-warmed soil as islanders plant out their tomato, cucumber and melon plants. It gets very hot as you garden here and we take plenty of coffee and water breaks. With no real rain for two months already, the soil is bone dry. It is also covered with dying wild flowers. In order to clear them and fork over the soil, it is necessary to wet it first. I put the sprinkler system on for half an hour prior to working on the area. We are some of the very few people who can afford to do that here. Most people pay for metered water. We have our own, limitless supply. Another couple of days work and we will be sowing and planting.

We are continuing to work on our diet and it seems so much easier here. I am only drinking wine at weekends. Salads and cold, white wine are the order of the day. Today it is oktopothi salata or octopus salad. This is a piece of octopus boiled for half an hour, allowed to go cold and then chunky sliced with oil and vinegar. It tastes like fishy pork. It is wonderful. It is accompanied by olives from our own trees cured by Pauline over the winter.

Pity about the football. Bit of an anti-climax!

3^rd May, 2010

A day that started warm and became hottish at 26⁰C made gardening hard. By 11.00 am, after two hours of solid work, we were shattered. We drank a litre of water and then took a phone call from our estate agent. The second viewer decided there were just too many steps up to the house for their 84 year Mother who lives with them. The first viewer will present their mortgage credentials on Friday. They are also interested in buying some or all of our furniture & white goods. This is exactly what we want. We want a clean start in a new apartment with new furniture. There is nothing worse than old people trying to cram old and treasured furniture into new and smaller surroundings. Our pictures and our bed will go with us. We started immediately to do an inventory of the house contents.

It was such a lovely day and so hot that, after lunch we went for a drive to Faros, a small fishing village on the other side of the island. Went for a drive – it only takes 20 minutes if you drive slowly. We walked on the shoreline for a while and took some photos:

 

4^th  May, 2010

We decided to be sociable today and went down into the port village to have coffee at Cafe Stavros (which is owned by Stavros but rented out) run by Kristos. Kristos is just 30 years old. He was 5 when we first went to Sifnos. He recently got married to Eleni who owns and runs the Germanos outlet that sold us our Broadband dongle. Kristos has bought land to build a house.

 

The photographs above show the busy, Kamares High Street and Moshka’s white, delivery pantechnikon parked outside the ‘supermarket’. The photographs below were taken from inside Cafe Stavros looking to the roadside and the ‘supermarket’s blue doors and high-tec display areas and Stavros Travel Agency all below Hotel Stavros. You may be beginning to understand that Stavros has some influence here.

 

This afternoon Pauline has slow-cooked the shoulder of lamb on a bed of Apostoli’s onions and garlic mixed with thyme and rosemary from our garden and a bottle of red wine. Served with Dauphinoise potatoes, it was magical. Some of the left over lamb will be wrapped in phyllo pastry with slivers of feta cheese and baked in the oven. I can’t wait.

5^th  May, 2010

A day of total strike paralysis in Athens was marked by complete indifference on the island. Not only did they not strike but they were largely unaware of the rioting in Athens, of the attempt to storm the Parliament buildings and of the fire bombing of the Marfin Bank and the death of three bank workers. They were unaware because television journalists were on strike and there was little news on Greek television. Fortunately, we were able to watch the BBC news.

The mainstay of the Greek economy is tourism. Who knows what effect these scenes will have on the industry. Anyway, to more important things. I’m watching City v Spurs tonight.

6^th  May, 2010

An uncomfortably hot and humid day – 28⁰C at early afternoon – is not a day to do gardening. What did we choose to do – gardening. We have never been here in May before and we have been amazed that an area we cleared last September/October is now completely covered in wild flowers. They are wilting badly under the hot sun and lack of rain but even the dead material has to be cleared. We have been working away at it for a few days now and had enough clear ground to sow broadbeans, French beans, carrots, lettuces and radishes.

 

We have onion sets and seed potatoes to put in so more ground to clear and peppers and tomatoes in a week or so.

Stayed up just late enough to here the Election Exit Poll on Radio 4’s Election Night programme. It might be ten o’clock in UK but it is Midnight in Greece. As I fall in to bed, I excitedly tell Pauline the potential result. She tells me to shut up.

7^th  May, 2010

Soon after 7.00 am we are up to find that the BBC TV service has a full election results and analysis still going. With a cup of breakfast tea we sit and watch the results coming in. It is only 5.30 am in UK and everyone looks vaguely tired and jaded. We sit transfixed by the results until 3.00 pm only breaking off to griddle some chicken to have with salad for lunch. I am so glad we brought a bigger, wide screen television with us. We no longer have to strain for all the tickertape information going across the screen with the election coverage

8^th  May, 2010

A very hot but humid day today. At least 28C in the afternoon. We went to the seaside resort of Platy Gialos which is thronging with holiday makers in the Summer. Now it is deserted. It still has the sign welcoming us and the sunbed is waiting.

 

It was nice to get an email from Liz:

Hope you are all ok and safe despite the riots and the happenings in Greece
Looks like a revolution looming
Will the finance collapse affect you there ?
Hope you enjoy the elections from your sunny spot
Lv and best wishes to you and Pauline x Liz

Boulis, seen below herding his sheep down past our house for milking. He will die in the field with his sheep – probably aged 108.

We are not at all worried about the value of our property in Greece. We have had it valued at more than double what it cost to build already and a new law coming in about building on beautiful islands like ours means that people will need so much land to build a simple house, few people will be able to do it. The idea is to prevent density and over building.We have already had two people express interest in our house but a year or two will put considerable premium on it.

25^th April, 2010

Yesterday I was able to watch Manchester United beat Spurs quite comfortably in the end and then watch Arsenal get a poor draw. Today, after doing a bit of gardening to keep my body completely toned, I have watched  Liverpool win and Chelsea smash Stoke in to the floor.

Before we can do any gardening, we have to clear the carpet of wild flowers covering everything. It is so profuse it is quite daunting. I was hacking away at weeds and roots today when Pauline told me to stop because she could smell Rocket. As we moved the mound of wild flowers, there was my Wild Rocket bed from last year still growing on happily. All I have to do is water it.

26^th April, 2010

Up early this morning and off out to the shops. First we went to the Post Office to buy one stamp for a letter to England. It was packed. Our friend, Manolis, was in there. We had to stand in line for twenty minutes, watch the Postman record the sale of one 75 Cent stamp with pencil on paper before we could set off to the Farmakia. Our friend, Flora, is now working in the Farmakia dispensing drugs so we wanted to say Hello. Stavros has some apartments/bungalows/gites in Apollonia and we parked in his car park. When we went back to the car, he was there and suggested we went for coffee. Outside the Cafenion we sat in brilliant sunshine and drank coffees and chatted. A man who runs a hotel in Kamares came up to say Hello and I greeted him as my new neighbour. Stavros had told us he had bought land near us to build a home for him and his wife. He told us that they will start to build soon. This man is known on Sifnos as ‘His Mother’ because when you go to the restaurant attached to his Hotel and ask what he has that day, he always prefaces his answer with, “Well, today my Mother has made…..”

After coffee, we went down to see if English newspapers had started to arrive since the air flights embargo has been lifted. The answer was typically Greek – “Maybe tomorrow.” We proceeded on to a shop called Germanos. It sells mobile phones and mobile internet dongles. When we got there, we were immediately confronted one of those really frustratingly Greek red tape requirements. In order to buy a broadband dongle a citizen needs to provide four things: Name, Address, Identity Card Number or Passport Number, Tax Number.  We had the first three items with us but hadn’t anticipated needing our tax number. We received one when we were building the house but don’t know where it is. We drive home to search our computers and paper files. Eventually, I give up and phone Stavros. He rings me back in five minutes with the number and we drive straight back up to the shop with an hour to spare before it closes for lunch. The shop has closed early and won’t be open until 6.30 pm. And so Greek life proceeds – frustratingly slowly!

27^th April, 2010

The weather has turned windy and there is a chill in the wind. We have turned the under-floor heating up a notch in the evenings. We have not heard from Germanos about the internet dongle and there are no newspapers because of the transport strike in Athens. In fact, there are no new anything – no fresh vegetables, milk, etc. – because there are no ferries and no transport lorries. We are hunkered down in our house watching satellite television of demonstrations in Athens shouting We demand jobs for life. and Let Greece default on their debt. Let the Banks fail. They got us in to this mess. Don’t take it out on the poor, working people. The whole thing looks hopeless. We get a phone call from our Estate Agents with our buyers’ final bid. They leave us to decide. The decision is easy but emotionally difficult.

28^th April, 2010

We believe that there is still potential and appetite in Greece to default on their debt and trigger a run on the banks. We have £10,000.00 in the National Bank of Greece earning next to nothing in interest and decide it is safer to have it out and with us than in the Bank. When we go to withdraw it, we are met with lots of smiles and then we are asked to go to another till where we are asked for:

Our passport number
Our tax number
Our address in England
Our address in Greece
Out telephone number in Greece
My Father’s first name
Pauline’s Father’s first name

We have been banking with the National Bank of Greece for more than ten years and have put around £200,000.00 through our account. We have provided all the above information before and I am annoyed at being asked for it again. I get the impression that it is conditional upon our obtaining our money. I complain vociferously at every question. When they ask for my Father’s name, I say that he has been dead for fifty years. I offer my shoes size and the colour of my underpants. They don’t seem impressed. We fill out all the forms in triplicate but haven’t got our tax number with us. We have to go home for it – a fifteen minute drive – to collect the papers. We get up to go and, as we reach the door, the bank clerk says, Don’t you want your £10,000.00? We have misunderstood completely. We could have the money anyway. They were just updating their records. When the bank looks as beautiful as it does below, you can’t stay mad at it for long.

We move on to Germanos who have forgotten to call us to say that the dongle contract was ready. They help me set it up even though everything is in English and I could do it quicker than they could. We do it with my laptop on the wall outside the shop. The irony is that she runs a mobile phone shop but can’t get reception inside the shop. She has to go outside. This is Greece in a nutshell.

We take it home. I immediately try it in our laptop in the lounge, on the dining room table, in the study. In all of these places, the speed is so poor. I can’t even download all my emails. I am totally despondent. Pauline suggests taking it outside. Immediately, I get a good connection with excellent speed. We listen to Radio 4’s World at One (at three o’clock). Unfortunately, the weather has decided to blow a gale. I take it inside again and walk round the house trying it in every room. Joy of joys – the back bedroom provides perfect reception and internet speed. I am going to see a lot of this room. Using Skype, Pauline phones her Mum and talks for twenty minutes for 25p. The reception is perfect. We are using 3G Cosmote. We then phone our estate agent to accept our buyers offer. We are instantly homeless. We will bank the money and rent until we find somewhere to buy. We spend an hour looking through rental apartments and their costs. There are so many, it is impossible to choose. The first ferry for three days brings in The Sunday Times and the Monday Times. My cup is running over.

29th April, 2010

The Estate Agents email us to say that they have informed potential buyers that we are willing to accept their offer but that the house will remain on the market subject to their proof of financial probity. The weather is still rather cool and very windy. We did a little gardening but our heart wasn’t in it. We sit and plan what we need:

• Contact our solicitor
• Look for an empty apartment to rent while we find somewhere we want to live.
• Possibly look for storage firm for our furniture.
• Do an inventory of what is to be packed and what we don’t want to take with us.
• Look for flights home – maybe end of May/early June – to stay for a month or so.
• Look for cheap car rental for a month. Look for investment accounts for the money.

The apartments we were interested in in Surrey have all gone now but we will have to renew our search when we drive home (what home?) from Greece in October. We spend hours on the internet looking for apartments in Surrey & Kent. There are so many but most of them are poor quality developments. We are downsizing but we want quality. Particularly, we want quality of environment – a gated community, preferably, and near restaurants and a Health Club with a pool. We don’t want much: a good sized kitchen, a large lounge, two bedrooms, two bathrooms (one with power shower), secure parking. There may well come a time when we don’t want to drive to Greece and we will need to leave our car securely for long periods.

30th April, 2010

Would you believe it? We go a year without a single viewing. We knock a small amount off the price and we get an offer from our first customer. After haggling them substantially up, we accept and, two days later, someone else wants to view it. Our neighbour, Jean, emails us today to tell us that she is showing a couple round tomorrow morning. We hope this might spark a bidding competition. The property is still on the market (just) and anything could happen. Labour could retain power!

1st May, 2010

Everything is closed today but, as this merges so quietly in to strikes and other closures, who will notice the difference. It is getting a bit politically insensitive here to be a man who has retired at the age of 59 when new austerity measures are changing Greek retirement age from 53 to 67. Oh to be young again!

Lovely lunch outside today. Chicken salad with white wine. This bottle of delightful Pinot Grigio with a delicate, lemon tang was bought in an Italian supermarket and cost £1.27. If you bought it in Sainsburys they would scream ‘Half Price – only £4.99!’.

18^th April, 2010

The last leg of our journey. Get up at 6.00 am in our room in Hotel Patras Palace. Go down and settle our bill with two exhausted individuals who are obviously coming to the end of the overnight stewardship on the desk. We take our bags out to the car and then go back into the hotel to the top floor restaurant, totally glass-fronted overlooking the bay of Patras and all the ins and outs of sea traffic. We help ourselves to a hearty breakfast from the buffet tables – fresh orange juice, smoked bacon, scrambled & fried eggs, sausages, warm, crusty bread and deliciously smooth fresh coffee. To make sure that we don’t go hungry during our travels, we finish with croissants and apricot jam. All this at 7.00 am. Hard, I know, but necessary.

We drive out of the hotel’s courtyard at 7.45 am and set off to drive the 230 km from Patras on the Peloponnese to the port of Piraeus on the southern tip of the mainland. This road is known as the Attica Highway. The Greeks call it a motorway. It is the most dangerous stretch of road in Greece. If you drove it, you would soon know why. It consists of three lanes – one going each way and one that both ways fight for all the time. You can imagine the number of head-on crashes that occur. Not only that , if you try to drive at motorway speeds – 80 -120 mph, you suddenly come across a bend hidden by cypress trees that is so acute it makes your teeth rattle as you decelerate. As it is the main Attica Highway, it is full of heavy lorries. The shared, middle lane is the only way round them.

Of course, if you live through this first ordeal, there are greater things to achieve later on. From the Attica Highway one drives through the centre of Athens itself – a city where the phrases , Stop at the traffic lights and Oh no, after you Claude have never been heard. If you let someone get ahead of you, they think you are homosexual. If you stop to allow someone to cross the road, you are homosexual. And if you survive the virility test of central Athens, you descend into the Dantesque world of Piraeus where traffic lights are mere Easter decorations and left turns are death wishes

On a weekday afternoon, which is when we have normally driven this route, it takes a minimum of three hours to cover the distance. Sunday morning at 7.45 am, it took just 2.15 hours. Our hydrofoil left at 12.00 noon in boiling, hot sun. The crossing was swift and calm. We only made one stop – at Serifos – and we arrived on Sifnos by 3.15 pm. The house was decked out with wild spring flowers. They were everywhere. We lugged our luggage up the stone steps to the front door and collapsed, exhausted. It doesn’t seem to matter how enjoyable the journey, it is always exhausting.
We opened all the shutters – twenty pairs – and opened the windows, pulling down the insect nets, to allow the house to breathe the fresh mountain air after six months shut up. We put on the underfloor heating  in case there was any damp. The temperature was 26⁰C and, by the time we had unpacked the car, slotted the last bottle of the 130 I managed to fit in. I know that is not quite one a day but I am supposed to be cutting down and we will go out to eat at times so I think we will manage.

19^th April, 2010

Heavy rain in the night but we woke up to a beautifully hot and sunny day. We went out to buy provisions from the supermarket (I will show you this at another time.) and to call at the Post Office to see if our parcels had arrived. Unbelievably, it spite of the flying problems, they had. We got back to the house to find that Stavros had employed a day labourer, a young Romanian called Akis to do general menial work for us round the house and grounds. It was fortunate because he was on hand to carry the boxes up to the house. We largely spent the rest of the day unpacking and putting things away. High on the list of priorities for me was phoning Nova – the Greek equivalent of Sky – and having our satellite service switched back on. At the same time, I unpacked the flat screen television we had so carefully carried across Europe and installed it. It was lucky I did because I was just in time to watch a re-run of Arsenal losing in the 94^th minute to Wigan. I did laugh!

While I was watching that, Pauline did the cleaning. Seemed a fair division of labour. I am, after all, a new man. We have quite a number of lemons on our trees this year. We picked a few for the fruit bowl. You may see clues that the peaches and bananas were not from our garden

 

20th April, 2010

Thick, black cloud over the mountains around our house this morning when we got up at 7.00 am. By 10.00 am, it was hot and sunny and smelled so fresh you might eat it. Unfortunately, I am on a diet and I had to make do with a couple of cups of tea. We drink a Breakfast Tea mix first thing in the morning and an Assam during the rest of the day. We used to send for it especially from Whittards in Manchester but found Sainsburys sell an even better one. One of the calculations before coming away  was how much tea we would drink in six months. This is a vital assessment which, if underestimated, would reduce us to drinking those terrible yellow-packeted Liptons Teas. Tea  was one of the essential items that arrived in the boxes in the post.

In spite of fridges and freezers, it is customary on the island to go shopping for food every day. In England, we would shop once a week at Sainsburys, spending £100.00 – £150.00 and buying most things that we need during the week. The only thing we don’t buy is wine.  For two reasons, a Greek island and, possibly, the Mediterranean climate dictate different patterns. Quite a bit of the produce is locally grown. Everything that can’t be sourced on the island has to be brought in by sea – greatly adding to its cost. The weather means that fresh fruit and vegetables go off amazingly quickly. We might store potatoes and onions in Veg. Baskets in our kitchen at home and they will last at least a weak- probably two. Here they will be almost inedible in three days. The island location means that container lorries travel constantly between the island and Athens in order to supply the shops. Canny islanders know the days of the month when fresh chicken will be abundant on the shelves and when not to touch it because it has been there too long. In general, we all go shopping every day and buy what is freshest and available at the time – almost like the 1950s in Britain!

That is a long preamble to saying that we went shopping to the Supermarket yesterday, we went again today to buy fresh chicken, chicken liver, plaice, king prawns, smoked bacon, orange peppers, and lots of fresh fruit. We will almost certainly go again tomorrow.

21^st April, 2010

I’ve been drinking wine since the early 1970s. Almost from that point I’ve drunk at least half a bottle each evening with a meal. One of my early memories of Greece in the early 1980s was of a delightful, lemony white wine – a staple of the Greek wine industry – called Demestika. It was so cheap, even impoverished young travellers like Pauline & I could afford it. It was certainly cheaper than anything we could buy at home. Most of my early Greek experiences are filtered through a pile of squid and chips and a bottle or two of Demestika.

I have not bought a bottle of wine in a British supermarket for over fifteen years. We have tended to make twice yearly pilgrimages to the holy grail of Carrefour in France to buy our wine there. We have never run dry. Because of this, I had lost touch with UK prices until recent price wars amongst supermarket chains brought  flagged up wines Half Price at just £4.99! hey might be worth looking at – £10.00 wines for half price. When I looked, they were the very wines I have been buying for €4.00 in France and Italy. And then the Chancellor slaps even more duty on these imports from a ‘Common Market’. It is a nonsense. Well Greek wines have improved a little since the days of rot-gut Retsina but the average price of a bottle of wine on the island is €7.00. Living on a Greek Island is an expensive business nowadays – even for Greeks. Thank goodness I brought my own wine cellar with me from Europe

22nd April, 2010

From the start of the day it has been beautiful – a cloud-free day reaching  temperature of 25⁰C.  I have been very lazy. After watching the morning news show on Greek  Skai TV, I took my coffee out on to the veranda and read my latest book,  Modern Greece by CM Woodhouse. It is not what you would call a riveting read. I don’t lean over and say to Pauline, Hey you’ve got to hear this! It does help me understand a lot about the country I am living in and its people.  CM Woodhouse’s Modern Greece starts in 324 AD so newsworthy it is not. It has helped me understand much more quickly why the Greeks have always tended towards Russia rather than America, towards the eastern, Slav states rather than western countries such as France and Britain. Essentially Greeks are Slavonic in origin.

Although present day Greece is showing real signs of disassociating Orthodox Christianity from the body politic, it is still highly visible throughout society as it was in Britain even in the first half of the last century and still appears to be in Southern Ireland today. As societies become increasingly sophisticated and post-industrial, as the common people become increasingly, if relatively, wealthy, so their need for salvation diminishes and they tend to become far more sceptical of organised religion. For current day Greeks just as for Roman Catholics, the carapace of religious authority has been severely cracked by scandals which previous generations would have acquiesced in covering up or explaining away. For the Catholics, it is paedophilia and for the Greek Orthodox it is financial scandal. Just as in the Catholic Church where the older generation of believers have invested far too many years of their lives genuflecting to the pope to accept it was based on immoral nonsense now so the old Greek ladies, veiled in black still fawn before a priest cross themselves and close their ears to court cases involving drug running and money laundering. After all, it’s nothing that confession and prayer can’t put right. It’s only a few bad apples anyway.

To change the subject, I was in the internet cafe last night and Pauline had just phoned her Mum on  Skype when a message popped up to say Ruth was on-line as well. I video phoned her and was soon in Ruth’s house looking at her and Kevan leaning over her shoulder.  I got to hear some family gossip like Bob & Jane were still stuck in Madeira five days after they were supposed to have flown home. Somehow, ‘stuck’ and ‘in Madeira’ don’t seem to go together but I’m sure Jane was desperate to get back to school. I got to hear that David & his Mum were in Ireland but that Jane (1) was struggling to join them on Wednesday. In years gone by, we would be flying from Athens to Manchester at just the time of the flight closures. I have to say, an extra five days wouldn’t have gone amiss. Ruth also told me that one of her little hooligans had broken his arm in three places at Play School or somewhere like that. That’s how a childhood should start – plenty of breakages can be really character forming. I had seven broken arms before I left school. Nice to see he is keeping up the family tradition. I challenge him to beat my record!

23rd April, 2010

We are into new territory in Greece. We have never been here this late in the Spring before and didn’t realise how hot it could be. It has been quite ferocious today. Usually, we have come for Easter when all the Spring flowers are out and there is no bare earth visible and then returned in July when there are no flowers visible and all is bare earth. The sun has burnt everything off. Well now Spring flowers are still in abundance but are beginning to wilt. Some the nice bushes which have been obscured by rampant wild growth are beginning to come in to their own. The Callistemon, for example, is looking glorious. We have one in front of our bedroom and another on the front drive. In UK they are known as Callistemon or Bottle Brush because that is what they have – flowers that look like bottle brushes. Callistemon derives from the Greek – Calli (Good or beautiful) stemon (stamen).

 

The little Yucatan Palm is growing away beautifully now.

24th April, 2010

We went out shopping early this morning under lightly clouded skies. The temperature at 9.00 am was 25⁰C.  

11th April, 2010

After cutting the lawns and edging them, the garden has been turned over to the care of our next door neighbours for six months. Pauline went over to say goodbye to her Mum. It went better than expected. The Sunday papers were read in double quick time as packing went on apace. Tomorrow is the last full day at home.

Received an email from Malcolm & Lorraine:

Have a safe and pleasant journey. I hope the Honda performs as well as would be expected and gets you there safe and sound. We look forward to a continual dialogue of daily activities and plenty of photos of sun and sand
Best Wishes
Malcolm and Lorraine

Received an email from Jane (1)

Just wanted to wish you well on your odyssey. Enjoy both the journey and the prospect of 6 months in Sifnos as well as the time living there. You have timed it well, missing the election and what, I anticipate, will be a crazy post election period in the public sector. Who knows what will happen to the economy, FT and the Barclays shares.

David is working in Ireland and will be there for the next two or three weeks so I plan to join him for a long weekend. We’re planning to catch up with Cal and Les. Although I have been to Dublin several times I have never explored further south so am looking forward to seeing Cork and Kerry. We fly to New York for a few days in June and will be staying at the Waldorf. And we go to Peru for 3 weeks in Aug. I always book our hols for a year at a time year; that way when we are both working long hours we know we will soon have a good break to recover. I am always buying travel books for inspiration and ideas for future trips.
We have just remade our wills again (as I realised they were very out of date) in case our plane crashes in the jungles of Peru or the boat we are taking sinks in the Amazon. It’s a strange process which has also helped me think about my future plans.

Send Pauline my best wishes for your journey and for the next 6 months. It’s a beautiful weekend here in London – am off to walk down the river.

I replied to Jane

Thanks very much. You didn’t say which hotel you stayed at in Athens and what you thought of it.
I hear you’ve been a very bad girl – employing ex policemen to investigate their colleagues. Talk about the corrupt judging the corrupt!
By the way, only Jesus can walk down the river.

12th April, 2010

A frantic day getting last things done. We suddenly realised our Europ Assist that comes with our car under Hondacare only covers us for trips of 90 days. Half an hour later and £250.00 lighter we have AA Annual European cover. The bins aren’t emptied until a week on Thursday (What sort of service is that?) so everything goes into the back of the car including the lawnmower which we blew up irreparably last night and we are off to the Local Authority tip. We come here once a week anyway but today there is a queue a mile long. Back home it’s tea and toast and then we start to pack the car. The car is filled in two stages:

Stage 1: Just the boot is packed and the rear seats are left in upright position. The widescreen television fits neatly across the back of the rear seats and is strapped to the anchor points. Everything else, including a garden spade and fork (Have you seen Mediterranean spade?) and a sewing machine are piled in.

Stage 2: When we reach Sortir 40 on the E25 at Thionville, we go into Carrefore and buy all their wine. Returning to the car, we re-pack it with the back seats down to create a flat platform. The cases of wine go there to ensure the greatest weight is in the centre.

Stage 3: We drive on with Pauline saying continually, Do you think we are overloading the car? We carry on regardless until we get to Italy when we stop and start to make as much room as possible for all their wine and cheese.

13th April, 2010

Another beautiful day! What’s going on? Up early to do all the last minute jobs:

• Sweep Patio
• Hoover Carpets
• Clean and lock windows
• Phone ‘Sky’ and cancel contract.
• Phone Waterboard and turn water off.
• Take Gas & Electricity readings and upload them to the company.
• Make sure all automatic light and radio settings are correct.
• Put all rubbish in neighbour’s bin.
• Eat croissant and drink fresh coffee
• Check washer bottle in car
• Make sure laptop and mobiles are charged up.
• Empty and clean dishwasher.
• Telephone friends to say goodbye.

Shower ready for leaving. Final check and off. Thank goodness for that. Leaving is always worse than travelling. Pictures will follow but who knows when.

14th April, 2010

We had a wonderful crossing last night and disembarked this morning in Zeebrugge at 8.45 am. after a huge cooked breakfast.  Having driven this journey ten times in peak season with peak season holiday traffic, it was wonderful to drive it today with no one on the road. It was kind of France and the Benelux countries to build the wonderful motorways just for us. We are in the Novotel, Colmar, Alsace. We arrived about 4.30 pm. We have cheap, wireless, internet access for our laptop. We have walked to a wonderful restaurant 100m away and eaten a three course meal for €40.00 plus wine. We have used Skype to phone Pauline’s Mum – 20 mins for 20p – and we have been listening to BBC Radio 4 ‘PM’ programme followed by the 6.00 o’clock news. Life’s just awful for retired people!

15th April, 2010

Up at 6.45 am (5.45 UK). We have BBC News but I’m reading The Times on the internet. It is a beatiful, sunny morning. The drive through Switzerland this morning was quiet and fast. The snowline was only just above the road. This photo was taken just before the San Gottardo tunnel which 17km long.

As we descended into Italy around Lakes Maggiore, Lugano and Como, the temperature rose from 8°C – 22°C. Usually it is the middle of the night when we do this. Today, it was wonderful to see the Lakes in the Spring sunshine. We arrived in Modena, Italy at about 3.30 pm and are resting in a hotel just of the Autostrada del Sole.

16th April, 2010

Up at 6.45 am (5.45 UK). Pauline makes the tea while I get Sky News and the internet on so that I can read The Times. Early off without breakfast. Great couple of hours driving in wonderful sunshine through Emilia Romagna past acres and acres of fruit trees – pear blossom looking and smelling wonderful. Arrived at Ancona and had a toasted ham sandwich before boarding Anek Lines ferry.

17th April, 2010

Still on board Anek. We have just docked at Igoumenitsa and then we will carry on to Patras, arriving at 2.00 pm. We are then off to The Patras Palace Hotel for the night.

4th April, 2010

What a way to start Easter Sunday – at the church of QuickFit. At 5.00 pm on Easter Saturday I was checking my car tyres ( normal pressure 30 PSI) and found one to be 14 PSI. We had a quick check and found a nail head in the tread. We have had new windows and doors fitted in the past fortnight so it is possible a stray nail fell on the drive. The problem was that I was taking a banquet over to Pauline’s Mum’s flat to share with her and Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and her husband, Colin. Driving across the Pennines on Easter Sunday with a nail in my tyre didn’t appeal but what to do?

I checked the QuickFit site and found they had closed half an hour ago. There was no chance of them opening on Easter Sunday. I phoned to see if there was a message to tell me about Bank Holiday opening. A cheery voice answered. “I was just going home.” he said. He told me I didn’t have to wait till Monday. They would be open Easter Sunday. I couldn’t believe it but by 9.30 on Easter Sunday morning, with a copy of The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph on the pasenger seat, I drew up outside QuickFit in Huddersfield. Five cheery blokes quickly arrived and opened up. Half an hour later I was paying £180.00 for a new tyre and was on my way to the car washers. I was certainly impressed with QuickFit.

5th April, 2010

Received a very unpleasant email from Caroline. It was disappointing to find my little sister could find such bile in her heart.

Never mind. Move on.

6th April, 2010

Happy Birthday to me! I can’t believe I’ve managed to live to 59. That is ten more years than Dad. It is more by luck than judgement. I have certainly indulged myself more than Dad ever did and stressed myself far less.

I received best wishes from Jane 1 earlier in the week. I received Birthday wishes from Sue Wilson in Australia and Malcolm Pritchard in Birmingham via Facebook. Ruth did that too but also sent me a lovely card:

 

From my darling wife, Pauline I received a card with a black and white cat very reminiscent of our ‘Flossy’ who died in 1980 and from my Mother-in-Law I received lovely words:

     

From Pauline’s sister, Phyllis and sister-in-law, June I received:

     

7th April, 2010

Had people sitting outside our house in their car this morning. Maybe the price drop really has helped.

Today we packed up a wide screen television for its journey to Greece. We are running out of food because the freezer is now totally empty. Tonight it will be pizza or Chinese. (Chose Chinese but had forgotten how mediocre take away food can be compared with home cooking.) Just five days to go. We bought another £1000.00 of Euros this morning to get us through our journey. The rate this morning was £1.00 = €1.14, the highest for quite some time. Have you tried these suppliers – Travel Money Services?

8th April, 2010

Glorious morning this morning. A delight to be alive. My next door neighbour has agreed to take over all gardening duties including lawn mowing for six months while we are away. That’s a wonderful feeling and why I arranged and paid for the cowell to be put on her chimney at the same time as ours. However, it does mean I’ve got to tidy the shed out so she can easily get at the lawn mowers and strimmer.

Another person ‘cruised’ the house this morning in a Mercedes. It looks like that price cut has actually sparked some interest. Why is all this happening just as we are going away? I’m already checking flight prices from Athens to Manchester in case we have to return to exchange contracts in a couple of months. Actually, we have 62000 points in our Natwest Points scheme that will just about buy us Easyjet return flights in June. We had a professional oven cleaner in this morning so that the oven, which is eight years old, looks as good as new. Two hours of his time and equipment feels like £55.00 well spent. We have it done twice a year for the past eight years. £400.00 for an £800.00 cooker is reasonable value.

9th April, 2010

Lovely Spring morning. Off to Hepworth Honda for a Summer-Holiday service. We have bought a new car from them every year since 1984 apart from the current one which we’ve had for three years. We’ve done 39,000 miles in this which is 25,000 more than we’ve ever done before. We have always used the same salesman – a lovely chap called Chris Wood. Over the past twenty five years we’ve got to know him and his family well. We never haggle; never question the price; always have our car serviced with them. We have always had the most brilliant service from them. Since we bought this last car in February 2007, we have always gone in for our ‘Driving to Greece’ service and they always provide it free and make sure we have bottles of free engine oil to carry with us

It is a wierd feeling not to be driving a new car but we made a conscious decision three years ago to buy this one and keep it for four or possibly five years. Chris Woods told us we wouldn’t need to trade it in for twenty years but that seems excessive. A large, 4-wheel drive is ideal for carting large amounts of stuff acrosss Europe and for driving on the less than perfect roads of a Greek island. (Actually, they are rather better than those in Huddersfield at the moment.) It has leather seats and climate control. It is an automatic which is essential for driving long distances. It has the brilliant, Honda Satellite Navigation system built in. It has a huge load capacity. It has automatic lights and wipers. It will do 125 mph without effort and can be set at that on its cruise control which takes so much of the effort out. All the controls – radio, cd, dvd, blue tooth phone are controllable by switches on the steering wheel or by voice control. These are the joys of a Honda.

There is one downside of our car. Its petrol consumption is poor. Automatic gears, 4-wheel drive, air-conditioning permanently on gives us only 27 mph which is expensive nowadays but it is a small price to pay.

10th April, 2010

You can feel the summer coming even in England. Another lovely morning with a forecast of 18⁰c in Leeds – not much in Greek terms but it will do at the moment – especially with three days to go. We set off early for Huddersfield General Post Office with three parcels containing stuff we will not be able to fit in the car. The boxes weigh a total of 50 kg and will cost £120.00 to get there but these parcels will arrive on the island about the same day as we do. It may not be strictly cost effective but it does the job.

 

28th March, 2010 

Putting the clocks back and forward used to be such a chore. I am dominated by time and have clocks and watches everywhere. Nowadays almost all of them are radio controlled timepieces. The clock in the kitchen, the clock in the dressing room, the radio alarm by the bed are all controlled and reset by the signal from Rugby. The clock on the TV, the clock in my car are both set by satelllite signals. I love driving across Europe because the Satellite Navigation system resets the clock by one hour in France and two hours in Greece. Having reset our watches, our phones and the cooker clock manually, we were ready to start the day.

It was a lovely, sunny day dominated by the Papers and some poor quality football. I cooked Belly Pork with Savoy Cabbage and red pepper and white wine jus. It went down very well.

29th March, 2010 

The windows and doors were inspected this morning, one or two adjusted and the job signed off. The curtains have gone back up. The burglar alarm man turned up to reattach the contacts to the new back door and patio door and put a new battery into the alarm box. Thirty minutes = £110.00. Just like teaching. The house has gone back to its pristine order.

I’ve found a simple instruction video on the web to teach me how to create a proxy server on my PC so that, in Greece, I can fool the BBC into believing that I am receiving my internet feed from UK and are worthy, therefore, of watching British TV free of charge.

Keep getting emails from Ruth telling me how soft I am. Of course, she’s right. Did you watch Married, Single, Other tonight? I did through floods of tears. What can I do about it? At my age?

30th March, 2010 

For the past 30 years I have been driving Pauline to Vidal Sassoon’s in Manchester or Leeds every couple of months to have her hair cut. That’s all she has and in the arcane gradation of hair dressing salons, she has always insisted on a ‘Top Stylist’ to cut her hair. Recently, that has cost £60.00 but it does make her happy. In return, she always cuts mine herself. The last time I had my hair cut by a Barber was 1968 and it cost Ten Shillings so I’ve been saving that at least. Recently, the ‘Top Stylist’ from Sassoon’s in Leeds left the shop and set up on her own in Farsley, Pudsey. Pauline was so pleased with her expertise that we went today to have her hair cut privately.

I don’t know if you are aware but Farsley is in The Rhubarb Triangle, a 9-square-mile triangle in West Yorkshire located between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell, famous for producing early forced Rhubarb. If you’ve ever eaten ‘Champagne Rhubarb’, even in a yoghurt, you can be sure it came from the Rhubarb Triangle. Farsley, Pudsey is renowned for Rhubarb or Tusky as Keith Waterhouse  would call it.

   

I have a close University friend called Tash (because he had one.) who was so proud that he came from The Rhubarb Triangle.

Pauline’s hairdresser had set up shop in a flat in the heart of old Farsley. It forced Pauline to break her solemn pledge never to set foot in a school again. Her hairdresser’s flat was in an old school.

   

We leave for Greece two weeks today which means that Pauline will not have her Sassoon-trained hairdresser for six months. There is no one on the island that she will trust to cut her hair but, as luck will have it, her hairdresser used to live and work in Athens and will provide Pauline with recommendations for a top stylist there. Mind you, it will be an expensive haircut – seven hour, £100.00 round trip on the ferry, £150.00 night in a hotel, £100.00 eating out plus the cost of the hair cut. Still, as long as it makes her feel better!

31st March, 2010 

We could see snow on the Pennines across the valley but we were thankfully free of it. Received an email from Jane on her return from Athens:

Hi John – thanks for posting my photo for a second week. My team who run my office and therefore have access to all my emails think you are as mad as a march hare. But then they now know that to be a family trait

We had a great trip to Athens – the taxi drivers were back at work but the firemen went on strike on Tues and had a demo in Syntagma Square – this was good for us as we were not on fire and their demo cleared the traffic which meant we could walk about without threat from Athenian drivers. Athens is so much nicer than when we last went 30 years ago. The weather was glorious, the hotel was 5 star and we had a suite with a view of the Acropolis and I loved the new museum. We also returned to the Archaeological Museum to see again Agamemnon’s death mask, Zeus and the horse and boy jockey – amazing. The Greeks seem to have learned how to make good wine in the intervening years. So a great success and fortunately I had booked us on Easy Jet  not BA so we travelled without problem and v cheaply – and I have always been snooty about the orange airline. I will be using them and their on line check in and speedy boarding system again

Hope you have a great birthday – does it seem strange to be nearly 60?

Jane

I like to keep up with current affairs. Each day I read or browse on-line The Times, The Huddersfield Examiner, The Oldham Chronicle, Kathimerini (The Athens-based English Greek Newspaper), Ta Nea (Greek Newspaper) and four or five Greek Blogs. I found this in one of the blogs yesterday:

1st April, 2010 

White Rabbit! Jane sent me a photo of her and her team. This is Jane and the rest of the The Irish Peatland Conservation Council :

Don’t they look gorgeous. Why are they so weak on Climate Change? Happy April to you all!

Had a meeting with our Estate Agent at lunchtime. Agreed to drop our price by £25,000.00. Told them that we were leaving the country for six months and that all selling would be up to them. They didn’t seem phased by that. They’ll probably do nothing just as last year.

In the afternoon I went to Armitages Garden Centre to buy seed Potatoes to take to Greece. I already have the onion sets. I also bought some asparagus roots and rhubarb roots. I am going to create the rhubarb triangle of the Aegean.

2nd April, 2010 

Hope you read the opening reports of the Shoesmith-stitchup by Ofsted & Balls. Shocking as it is, nobody in Public Service should be at all surprised by the illegal and utterly immoral behaviour of that ridiculous body and their bully-boy boss, Balls. Ofsted is a creature of Balls and Balls is a creature of corrupt power. Rewritten 17 times to erradicate any criticism of police or Health officials, remove any positivity about Shoesmith and deflect all blame away from Balls and on to her, the toady Ofsted Inspectors must be in their last throes of influence. Read the full reports below:

3rd April, 2010 

It was nice to read that I am normal. Not that I doubted it inspite of the chattering classes attempts to re-define the roles of the sexes. The Male Brain, as Louann Brizendine concludes in her sequel to The Female Brain, is ‘marinated in testosterone’ and is hard-wired to cause men to lie and take risks and to be low on personal responsibility and social conditioning. At one time I almost worried that I had a one-track mind. Now I can relax in the knowledge that it’s normal. Thanks, Louann, you little minx!

21st March, 2010

United powered majestically past Liverpool and Chelsea faltered pathetically at Blackburn. Increasingly, Chelsea are looking like an ageing bunch who will have to be replaced for next season.

 

22nd March, 2010

Whenever we are away, the house is automatically lit. We currently have twelve timed lights including one outside permanently on a dusk/dawn switch. Because six months is a long time, I have had to break the rule of a life time and purchase energy-saving, long-life bulbs. I almost had to get a mortgage to pay for them. Fortunately, Pauline had save up £140.00 in Sainsburys points which went towards defraying the cost. We needed them. Our weekly shop leapt from £100.00 to nearly £500.00 with all the items we needed to take or send before us by freight. You wouldn’t believe that toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, toothbrush heads, coffee, tea, etc., could cost so much but when you are buying for 6 months it soon mounts up.

23rd March, 2010

Lovely day today. Went to see Ruth & Kevan in Bolton. We went for coffee. It took 30 minutes from house to house. Ruth’s house is neat as a new pin. In fact, every house on her estate looks neat as a new pin. The lawns are manicured to within an inch of their lives. It was lovely to see them both but particularly Ruth who has been so kind and supportive of me since Mum died and over this first year of our retirement. She is a lovely girl who we should all count ourselves grateful to have as a sister.

Kevan doesn’t look any different to the man I remember in 1972. He must be the Peter Pan of Bolton. He is gentle, mild mannered and empathetic.  No wonder Ruth chose him. Perhaps he chose her. We leave for Greece three weeks today and Ruth and I will keep in contact with Skype. Anybody else on Skype?

24th March, 2010

Terrible memories today of the sweep coming to 81 High Street. I’ve probably written about this before so you must excuse me but I always remember the Dining Room beings swathed in sheets and towels on the floor and the table right up to the hearth. We were banished to our bedrooms until the big clean up had been completed and then Brunch was served. Today we spent hours covering every carpet upstairs and down, taking down curtains and blinds. Coral Windows are coming tomorrow to fit new patio windows, new back door, new windows at the back of the house. On Friday, the blind man comes. Let’s hope he can find his way here.

25th March, 2010

After Mum, the alarm got us up at 6.00 am. Pauline shot out of bed. Within half an hour, I was awake. After tea and toast, we put the finishing touches to covering up the televisions, computers, etc. By 8.00 am I was off to Sainsburys to buy biscuits for the workers. As I arrived home, I met my neighbour, Jean, who told me that her husband, Peregrine, who is lecturer in a tertiary college in Bradford, was informed by email yesterday that he had been identified in a small pool of lecturers for possible redundancy. He is 48. This is an immediate sign of the slimming of public sector provision in general and tertiary education in particular. The fact that Perry is in the business of skilling young apprentices is of little importance apparently.

At about 9.00 am, the van arrived and the banging began:

Perigrine’s wife, Jean, is a bird lover. The lawn is covered with bits of bread in the morning but our lounge carpet is covered in bits of bread by the evening. It is a straight forward process of redistribution mainly done by magpies. They sit on our chimney and yell down it before carpet bombing with stale white sliced. I’ve asked Jean for a healthier brown but to no avail. Before we go away, we are determined to get a cowell put on the chimney. We don’t want to come home to six months of stale bread.

I’m going to be known as the man with the diseased phallus on the top of his house.

26th March, 2010

Went round to speak to my next door neighbour this afternoon. Put one foot on their ‘decking’ which had a winter’s litchen and water on it. It was like stepping on to black ice. I fell quite comically headlong but managed to avoid damaging the woodwork. Struggling to my knees and then feet a little shaken and with green-stained knees and elbows, I dismissed the fall with a wry smile but, as the evening wore on, I became increasingly stiff and my ankle throbbed. I had quite a bit of pain to get upstairs for bath and bed. I really don’t think it is broken.

27th March, 2010

Got up in the middle of the night, forgetting about my ankle damage and nearly fell headlong again with the pain. As the day goes on, however, the pain eases and it is clearly just a sprain or slight ligament damage. Saw my doctor today to obtain medication for the next 200 days. This amounts to:

• Amlodipine -1000mg
• Atorvastatin – 4000mg
• Doxazosin – 400mg
• Losartan – 20,000mg
• Pioglitazone – 9000mg
• Metformin – 200,000mg
• Warfarin – 1740mg

I feel quite ashamed of the fact that this is what is keeping me alive. Spent a lot of today preparing the launch of a new (additional) blog which will allow me to limber up for writing a book on our Greek experiences. I will maintain it over the six months abroad with vignettes of small island life particularly under the scrutiny of economic hardship and reducing European subsidies.

You will notice that a ladybird has dropped by to keep a close eye on the Blog. She is very welcome just as you are.

Everyone who goes to Bolton has a nice time. Pauline and I went on Tuesday and had coffee and conversation. Man. United went today and had three points.

I posted a letter to Mike today.

14th March, 2010

Happy Mother’s Day

Today was a beautifully sunny and warm day. We drove over to Oldham. We ate lunch in the flat and had Cod in Mornay Sauce with home-made chips. Before Pauline’s Mum could say she was ‘stuffed’, she was force-fed Apple Crumble with Custard. While John & Pauline struggled with ‘seconds’, Mum stumbled to the toilet and then puffed back to her chair. As she fell back into her chair, she switched on the television and adjusted the volume to level 34. Right, are you going? she said and Mother’s Day was over.

15th March, 2010

Blood coagulant check showed everything stable. One more visit the day before we leave for Greece and the it will be down to phone calls from the island. Had a nice email from Bob today. More than twenty years ago, I asked him to be the Executor of my Will. Fifteen years later, following the build of our Greek house, I sent him a Codicil. As we prepare to leave the real world for six months, I felt the need to check that everything was in place. Pauline knew exactly where to find our copies of the Wills but I wondered if Bob would remember. He is only young don’t forget. His response was delightfully reassuring:

Thanks for this.  I do still have all the paperwork you sent me (and I know where it is)

Stay well – enjoy your time in Greece – and smile to yourself when you think of me commuting each day on the treadmill in London

Best wishes

Bob

16th March, 2010

We set off to Hull exactly four weeks today. I have been buying seeds, onion sets, seed potatoes, etc to take with us. I’ve got to hit the ground running when we get there because we are right at the end of the sowing season in the Mediterranean.

17th March, 2010

Two more hospital check-ups for Pauline’s Mum this week and one more next week and we will have almost seen the end of them before we go.

Article from the front page of a Greek Newspaper today:

No cabs on streets tomorrow

There will be no taxis serving the capital and other major Greek cities tomorrow as cabbies stage a 24-hour strike. Taxi drivers object to government plans to make them issue receipts, keep account books and pay tax according to their income. The cabbies are protesting despite the government’s decision to postpone the implementation of these measures, originally planned to take effect immediately, until 2011. Under the current system, drivers pay just over 1,200 euros in tax each year, regardless of what they earn. Cabbies staged two 24-hour strikes last month and have pledged to continue their action until the government satisfies their demands.

This gives you a flavour of what the Greek Government is up against. Some echoes of this, of course, are to be found in the BA strike and the Unite Union’s relationship with The Labour Party not least with Mrs Har-person.

18th March, 2010

I wrote to Cal wishing her Happy St Patrick’s Day and including her essential emblem:

She wrote this back to me:

Thank’s! I had a grand day. I didn’t bother with green sausages this year just my usual bowl of Flahavan’s porridge. Then I had a lovely day in the garden planting 3 apple tress and finally getting my goosegog bush in the ground. Anyway, of course we had the bacon and cabbage with floury shpuds and parsley sauce probably like the whole nation on Patrick’s Day and a few scoops alright of the aul fire water, poitin.

Beamish and Murphy’s are the Cork stouts not that nonsense (West Brit) Dublin stout-Guinness.

I did have a right aul head on me the next day at work but I was instructing a yound lad of 18 who is totally blind to make pizzas, I am getting him ready to start Uni in Sept, he is doing his leaving cert at the minute and I have been instructing him in Braille and long cane for the last year and then I had to go to a 5 year old who is totally blind also and do long cane training with him, he has a global developmental delay also so he can be a right little bugger when he wants.

Life is mental at the minute as of course you know this time of year is so busy in the garden. I spent the whole of last weekend disinfecting my cold frame and pots before I go planting my veg seeds. I am doing carrots, parsnips, potatoes of course and all the usual suspects of the salad world.

Got to run I am instructing 16 volunteers in sighted guiding on Monday morning at the Uni before they support a group of 8-14year olds doing beep baseball and goal ball at a Camp Ability we are running at easter.

Yeah, I know the Toon should be going up but I don’t think they’ll stay up unless that stupid southerner Ashley buggers off and money is spent on players. My beloved Rams are doing reasonably well but they won’t be going up…………..Yours, on the brink. Cal x

PS: I am certain now that I was mixed up on the maternity ward in Derby City Hospital and given to the wrong family, ewe’s are all too weird for me to be related to any of you!

19th March, 2010

I was just about to email Jane for a photo when I received an email from her:

Subject: FW: Photo

Hi John – a photo of me. First year in the High School they discovered that I had no hand/eye/ball/bat coordination for any sport but I could memorise the rules for most games so they made me junior referee for the hockey matches. This is me clearly looking slightly anxious prior to my first refereeing the home game against Derby Girls High. Some might say my life script is being a “referee” .

Sorry we have not been able to get together before you go off to Sifnos. David and I fly to Athens this weekend – first time we have been back since 1980. So am looking forward to visiting the Acropolis Museum and sitting in the sunshine etc.

20th March, 2010

Pouring with rain today. The Saturday Times brought new delight. In 1994 I was the first person in my area to access the internet. Sixteen years ago, of course, it didn’t look anything like it does today. It wasn’t a graphical medium. It was dial-up and a 14.4 kbit/s modem which had formerly powered a fax machine. I remember making my first connection and accessing files from Manchester University. I was so excited I went screaming over to demand that the current Headteacher (who was subsequently sacked for incompetence) came to witness the earth shattering occasion. After four unsuccessful attempts to connect, it was fifth time lucky. He took one look a the string of text appearing slowly on the screen, said, Humph! Is that it? and walked off. I must admit that I hardly noticed. I was on a different planet. Ever since then, I have dreamed of and agitated for all interaction to take place on the net. I worked towards a virtual school until I finally the Learning Platform adopted in my own school.

It is now a requirement for all schools. I have long believed that access to services – local and national govermental as well as commercial – should be accessed over the web and I was pleased to see the Labour Party is flagging that up in The Times today.

7th March, 2010

Glorious sunshine AGAIN. The views across our valley were beautiful, although the snow covered ridges of the Pennines in the distance, have rather been lost in these photographs.

8th March, 2010

Long and arduous day today. Pauline’s Mum’s cataract operation is coming good but our trip to the hospital with her today got more and more exasperating by the hour. We have been treating extreme infection in her operated-on eye with three different creams/ointments every two hours. It has been an exhausting and exhaustive programme. The eye is showing real improvement. We were told to take her back to the Eye Clinic for 2.30 pm today. We got there early. The pattern is always the same: I drop Pauline and her Mum outside the Clinic with a wheelchair. I drive round and round the carpark until a space becomes available. Pauline arrives in the Clinic before the appointment time and then wait hours to be seen. Today, in spite of a precise appointment time, she was told the wait would be at least three hours – oh and by the way, we can do nothing until her notes arrive. These notes never arrive.

Because of my Mother-in-Law’s age, we have been regulars at the Oldham Royal over the past two or three years. Every time, the appointment is prefaced by an inordinate wait, an unknown doctor appears and asks all the same questions as the last time because the notes from before cannot be found. When it comes to it, the treatment is sympathetic and effective but the infrastructure is appalling. The consultation invariably ends the same way. Pauline’s Mum is given a prescription which can only be obtained at the Infirmary’s Dispensary. This is about the size of a cupboard. Get three people on the customer side of the counter and the bodily contact becomes so indecent observers would categorise it as troilism. The main function of this despensary is to service the hospital. Any outpatient demands go strictly to the back of the queue. After three hours in the clinic, Pauline had another 45 minutes in the Dispensary by which time her Mum was so desperate for the toilet, we nearly put out a flood alert (in my car!). The National Health Service is made up of lots of lovely, caring and often highly skilled people all drowning under a bureaucratic framework that is unable to cope with the demands of 2010.

9th March, 2010

Not feeling well today. Ironic really because it is five weeks short of one year since we were last in school. Only yesterday, I was remarking that, in that time, I we had suffered not one single illness. Usually, in any school year, we come in contact with so many ill people that I guarantee two or three bouts of cold/’flu.. Did a little bit of gardening in the sunshine but my heart wasn’t in it.

As you know, we all hate Arsenal but even I had to marvel at their performance against Porto tonight. It was breathtaking and the goal by little Nasri was wonderful. I still don’t rate Bendtner inspite of his hat-trick.

10th March, 2010

Sunny and warm today. We spent some time outside tidying up after this destructive winter. I suspect that a number of shrubs that have survived the past decade have been done for by this winter.

Received an email from Catherine. This is what she said:

Hi John

I had a lovely 55th b’day, It was a sunny but cold day.1 teach full time except for Tueday pm and eve when I am at college doing a psychotherapy and counselling degree. I teach the children who are out of school for one reason or another but mostly the ones I teach have phobias, OCD, trauma or Aspergers so it is interesting! I also am doing my first placement at a counselling service in Worthing which takes up evenings-I have to do 18months probation before getting paid work. I don’t get much time to do much else at the moment. The course finishes at Xmas – if I can get all the assignments completed! I don’t think I will ever be rich but don’t care about that as I have simple pleasures except Larie and I would like to move abroad to live in the sun. Jamie would like to move out of home but rent and properties are v expensive here. He is part way through accountancy training and has a very expensive girlfriend so no money! Our dog Bella is getting old so I am already eyeing up some puppies… but not telling her of course! I don’t mind keeping in touch but won’t be doing it every week as I don’t have time or the inclination and family stuff is not my’cup of tea’-to quote mum. hope that’s enough info to keep you going

Cathy

I’m still not sure what made so many of us so anti-‘family stuff’ as Catherine puts it when so much emphasis was put on it in our early life. Maybe I’ve answered my own speculation in that sentence but I’m not sure. Answers to jrsanders@btinternet.com.

Talk about class! Did you see United tonight? Rooooneeeyy!

11th March, 2010

Cut the lawns today for the first time in 6 months. I needed oxygen after finishing it. Pauline drove over to have lunch with her Mum and arrived back to find me collapsed on one of the garden benches. I’m sure it did me good. I’ll be ready to run with Jane BG soon.

The whole of Greece was on strike today – no flights, ferries, trains, buses, taxis, trams, schools. No public sector of any sort and the Olympic Airways workers who were sacked when it was privatised a year ago are still striking too. Rubbish is not being collected again:

To make matters worse, Athens has been hit by a huge cloud of sand whipped up on winds blowing across the Sahara. The city is covered in a yellow film of sand.

12th March, 2010

Wonderful photo from Greek newspaper – Ta Nea (The News) – this morning of the demonstrations in Athens yesterday. It is taken in Syntagma (Constitution/Parliament) Square right outside Hotel Grande Bretagne. Unfortunately, it didn’t show the banks and shops that were firebombed or the policemen injured.

You will have noticed that I read Kathimerini (the English version) because my Greek is too weak to sustain the full Greek version. It is part of The International Herald Tribune . However, in the past few months I have upgraded Internet Explorer to Version 8 which is so superior to previous versions and it offers so much more in terms of Add-ons. Particularly, one can integrate Google toolbar with its language translator. This is a fantastic piece of software which allows me to load a multi-column newspaper page with dense text in Greek and it is translated in front of my eyes in less than a minute. The translation isn’t perfect but it’s a hell of a lot better than I could do and I can now get a Greek’s insight into the news.

Below is a copy of the front page of Ta Nea (The News) in Greek and then in its rough translation:

    

13th March, 2010

I haven’t been to Ripon for thirty years and haven’t visited The Black Bull pub since 1972. It used to be a favourite haunt as a student. I was one of twenty males amid 620 females at Ripon. The transition in 1969 from an all boys Grammar School to an all girls College was genuinely enjoyable. In spite of having lots of sisters, I didn’t really know that girls were like that. Thirty eight years ago I left that closeted environment where everything was done for me and entered the real world. What a shock. The twenty males, of course, bonded strongly and, although one died during the course and two dropped out, we always knew ourselves as The Company of Twenty.

And yet, I really am not one for dwelling in the past. I have always resisted reunions. Today, in retirement, I went back to meet The Company of Twenty. In doing so, I visited the College buildings that are now private, residential apartments; I visited the building where my old flat was with the noisy brothel above. The green bay windows on the first floor was ours. The top floor was all together top shelf.

I visited The Black Bull where old men like me shook hands and tried to recreate the past. I came away deciding that I probably wouldn’t do that again.

28th February, 2010

Sunday papers pretty boring today. Man United won but that was equally flat match. Disappointing!

1st March, 2010

First day of Spring. Hurrah! Beautiful sunny day. Thought about pressure washing the patio. Thought about it but didn’t do it.

Reading the Greek Blogs and Newspapers still fretting about the Greek economic crisis. The Government is trying to find ways of forcing earners to pay tax on their earnings. As I reported last week, even doctors and dentists declare their annual earnings as €5000 instead of €100,000 in crude but successful attempts to avoid paying tax. If you go to them for treatment, they are supposed to give you a bill with a tax receipt which they file with their accountant and, ultimately, the government. They don’t issue these receipts because they know it is a paper trail of evidence to their earnings.

Of course, honest citizens should report these frauds but don’t because, if they insist on a tax receipt from their doctor, they are charged more instead. Unfortunately, what happens is that the Inland Revenue estimates their earnings and taxes them accordingly. This leads to ever decreasing declarations of earnings. Some earners, however, are easier to check on than others. Taxi drivers are going to have a meter in their cars that will record their journeys and their charges and, therefore, their earnings. They are going to be charged tax on their actual earnings. This is revolutionary in Greece. Consequently, all taxi drivers on going on a two day strike. Unluckily for them, most Athenians are looking forward to the taxi drivers’ strike because the roads will not be clogged up by yellow taxis.

2nd March, 2010

Only the second day of Spring but it is so beautiful today that after a long swim/jacuzzi/steamroom, followed by bacon sandwiches and The Times, Pauline is tidying up the garden in warm sunshine while I clean the patio and steps up to the house with my pressure washer. It takes about 4-6 hours altogether so I have to pace myself. Also, it has to be done twice a year. It won’t get done again until November. Let’s hope I’ve sold it by then.

Got an email from Malcolm Pritchard tonight. It was nice hear from him although I think Ruth was trying to get me in to trouble for using his photo without permission. However, Ruth did send me this picture of Malcolm taking part in the Winter Olympics – which, at his age, is impressive.

3rd March, 2010

A stressful and emotional day today. Took Pauline’s Mum for the first of her two cataract operations. A lttle nervous because we’ve pushed her into doing it and we know there is a (small) risk. The surgeon started operating at 7.30 am and, although I don’t know how many he was getting through, Pauline’s Mum was last on the list at 4.30 pm. Even so, she had to present at 11.30 in the morning.

 We took her to the Oldham Royal Infirmary with a wheel chair in the back of the car. The parking is impossible so I dropped them off and spent 40 mins looking for parking while Pauline took her up to the ward and made sure she was settled.

Off to Sainsburys to buy sandwiches for lunch and then in to Pauline’s Mum’s flat to do some essential wiring before she got back. Every time we phone, she takes ten minutes to get out of her chair and another ten to hobble across the room to the phone. She has resisted us moving her phone next to her chair but now is our chance. All went well. Next we had an appointment at Millfield, the Anchor Housing Care Home just up the road from her warden assisted flats.

Apart from the appointment that Pauline had made for us to visit this place, there was another impetus on my mind. Pauline’s Mum saves all the back copies of the Oldham Chronicle for us. We read them to see the names of all the children we have taught who are mentioned in the Crime reports, got married or died of a drug overdose and the occasional one who has graduated from University. We are always reading them a week after the event. On Monday, we read about Ellen Brierley, the first ever Mayor of Oldham, one time chair of the Education Committee, former Governor of our school. She had left her home where she had lived independently until the age of 95 and moved in to Millfield where she was celebrating her 96th birthday attended by the current Mayor of Oldham and the current Mayoress and Chair of the Education Committee.

We were invited in through the front door of the Home by the Patient Care Manager. She started to ask about our position with Pauline’s Mum. Pauline told her that her Mum was 95 and increasingly frail. I told her I had seen the story about Ellen Brierley in the paper. Suddenly, a Nurse walked past, did a double take and then walked back again and said, Hello Mr & Mrs Sanders. How are you? I knew her face immediately but couldn’t put a name to her. The Care Manager whispered her name as the Nurse disappeared. Two minutes later, she was back, announcing that she was 40 this year and her son was doing very well, thank you. This sort of thing happens all the time to us. I am (un)fortunate that I instantly remember their face from 40 years ago but can’t remember their name. Pauline usually doesn’t recognise them at all. They always remember us and, for that reason, expect us to remember every instant of their school life. They challenge us to remember. It can be very stressful. Another orderly walked past and I recognised her instantly but couldn’t put a name to her.

As we walked on, the Care Manager pointed out Ellen Brierley sitting at a table talking to another resident. Her face lighted on me in instant recognition (I’m not easy to forget.) and I went over to greet her. She looked immaculate as if she was just about to chair the next Education Committee and she began to speak in the way I had heard her speak so many times over the past 40 years. I told her which school Pauline and I had taught at since 1972 and she responded in a controlled and cultured speech to praise all the work we had done. She knew us to have been of the highest order of teachers or that’s what I thought she was saying until I suddenly realised she was using all the right words (education speak) but none of them were in the right order. They made absolutely no sense at all. I had cut out the story about her from the paper and when I told her, she said, I wondered where it was. I’ve been searching my mind …. We never quite got to what she was searching her mind for as a nurse came and took her away. This was my first ever contact with the effects of Alzheimer’s.

4th March, 2010

Athens is in chaos. A blog I follow published this photo of all the striking taxis. Not content with striking, they have parked right across Syntagma (Constitution) Square preventing all private motorists and buses from going about their business. Anyone who knows Athens, knows that Syntagma Square is an essential thoroughfare for the city. Closing it paralyses everything.

With stupid talk of Germany demanding Greece sell all its islands and the Acropolis before it gets a bail-out, the Greeks are getting more and more angry. Another general strike is called for tomorrow.

5th March, 2010

Our worst fears are realised this morning after a phone call to tell us that Pauline’s Mum cannot see out of the operated-on eye and is distressed. Pauline phones the hospital who tell us to take her in immediately. Another 30 mile trip. We get to the hospital at 12.30 pm. I drop them off with the wheel chair and then drive round the car park looking for a parking space. Although I find one quickly this time, the 12.45 pm appointment becomes 3.00 pm. It is quite scandalous how a 95 year old woman can be treated in that way. The news is good and bad. The operation looks as if it has been a success and the lens is clear. The eye socket, however, is severely infected, swollen and urgently needs treatment.

The treatment is even worse for an old lady. She has to use three different sorts of drops/gells to be squeezed in to her eye every two hours with fifteen minute intervals between them. I produce a chart to pin on her kitchen door. The logistics would challenge a Maths Graduate never mind an old lady with one eye and poor legs. She gets up at 5.00 am each day (Don’t ask why.) The chart begins:

5.30 am – Red Tube
5.45 am – Blue Tube
6.00 am – Tube from Fridge
7.30 am – Red Tube
7.45 am – Blue Tube

Not only does she have to read this chart with one, very old eye but she has to be able to open the tubes with terribly arthritic hands and squeeze it into her own eye something like twenty times before her bedtime at 8.00 pm. I’m beginning to really see why growing old is no fun.

6th March, 2010

Lovely experience today. I was preparing Pauline’s new laptop for taking to Greece. She has a desktop in the Study but, while she worked on that, I used the wireless connection on the laptop to set up radio and television services for access in Greece. Most British television isn’t accessible over the web when one is outside UK. The IP address from a foreign internet provider is blocked which means so is the content. One can get Sky News (BBC News I can get in Greece anyway.) and some ITV programming but the big thing is, we can get BBC Radio. I have wireless speakers to put round the house there so, through the internet, we can download Radio 4 (DREAM ON!) and listen to the Today programme in bed. If the Greek Sports Channels don’t cover the Test Matches and it was rather hit and miss last year, I will be able to listen to Test Match Special.

While I was on-line, a message popped up about Ruth trying Skype out. I clicked on Video Call and Ruth popped up. We had a lovely fifteen minute chat. Because it was Skype to Skype, it was absolutely free. We have agreed to meet for coffee in one of the next few Tuesdays before we leave. We will then make arrangements for when we will be on line to phone each other. What a lovely (old) girl she is.