Sanders Blog

4th October, 2015

Everything moves on. Here, the Autumn marches in front of us and the evening temperatures emphasise the change.

We are moving on in the coming week. This morning, our buyers’ Daughter & Son-in-Law came round for a familiarisation session. I had already prepared a ‘Welcome’ folder and it explained everything they wanted to know. They seemed very happy. The buyer arrives from Australia next weekend – long after we have moved out. We can now relax for the last few days here. Everything is in store. Everybody in the legal process is tied in. All we wait for is the prescribed timeline to run its course – like the seasons – and we will become itinerant for about six months.

We are going to get back to our gym work prior to trips to France, Yorkshire and a month – maybe two – in Tenerife. We want to emerge from the winter fitter and leaner and ready for the completion of our new house. February/March will be spent researching flooring and furniture suppliers and we hope to move in in mid-March/early April. Life could be worse!

5th October, 2015

Happy Birthday to my darling wife.

I can no longer sing to her When you’re 64 because she is. As you can tell from the photo, she doesn’t look her age. We are going to celebrate by a trip to the Health Club for an hour and then out for lunch. We are looking forward to Guinea Fowl Kiev at the Maybury Inn.

6th October, 2015

A grey, showery but humid day. We went to the Storage Pod to leave belongings and then on to Phyllis & Colin to deliver racks of clothes. We will move in with them tomorrow afternoon. We are incredibly lucky to have their kindness. We have been saying our goodbyes to all the people we have known around here. Our neighbours and friends who have supported us and shared their concerns. Now, it all falls away and we move on – leaving all cares and responsibilities behind us.

We are in a fortunate position. We have agreed a price for our new property although we don’t need to pay for it for six months. Our capital will make more than £7000.00 in the time it sits in our account. That makes us happy and will go towards the furnishing of our new home. Next week we will be in France on a shopping trip and then a week in Yorkshire. Soon afterwards, we fly off for a month in Tenerife. Home for December and then off for another month abroad before we settle down to planning the furnishing of our new home in West Sussex.

This evening we have recorded readings for Water – Affinity Water, Electricity – Scottish Power and heating generated by our Development’s plant. In six months’ time, we will be looking for new suppliers to service our new property but, until then, we can sit back and relax.

7th October, 2015

A second grey, showery but humid day. I went to bed at midnight last night but was awake, listening to Radio 4 News at 5.00 am and thinking through the jobs we have to do. Everything hinges on a phone call from our solicitor to say that the buyers’ solicitor has transferred the money and it is on its way to our bank account. Then we leave in our own time because the buyer will not be around for a few days.

Pauline is defrosting the fridge/freezer. I’ve emptied and cleaned the coffee maker. The bed has been stripped and the linen bagged up. The bathrooms are empty, the bedrooms are empty, the study is empty and we are gradually withdrawing to the Kitchen and Lounge.I am the gopher as Pauline barks out the orders. Our neighbour, Rosina, knocked lightly on the door at 7.30 am, on her way to work. It was nice of her to call and say goodbye. Our other neighbour – General Vicky – has driven back from Nottinghamshire to say goodbye.

Unlike many other houses we have bought and sold, the leaving process is not really an emotional one here just a logistical one. The sooner now we’re gone the better.

11.30 am and the solicitor has confirmed the ‘Completion’. The money has been transferred. I’ve checked our bank accounts and it has arrived. We’ve been to see General Vicky to say goodbye. The estate agent has phoned to congratulate us and to thank us for our custom. The phone lines have been unplugged, the broadband router is about to be disconnected. We are going out for lunch and onward. Farewell world. Welcome new horizons!

Well those horizons weren’t far off. We got as far as the nearest gastro-pub filled with ladies who like to lunch. Kalamari starters followed by sea bass fillets on a bed of roasted vegetables. A lovely and expensive bottle of Pinot Grigio was ordered but failed to arrive in time for the starter course. I hailed a passing waitress who apologised and brought our £25.00 bottle of white wine. It was a bottle that I buy for £4.00 abroad.

It was delicious with the fish. Pauline ate a sickly chocolate pudding and I had a cheese board selection. When the bill arrived, the wine had not been added and, do you know, I didn’t remind them. I hate being grossly overcharged on the wine. Mind you, I don’t mind being grossly undercharged.

8th October, 2015

A new morning has dawned chilly but beautifully bright with clear, blue skies and strong sun. It is strange waking in a different bed, a different room. We both slept well but we were shattered after the adrenalin packed day we completed yesterday. Today, we will deal with the aftermath. I’ve got to move money to investment accounts to make the most of this six month hiatus. We have to sort out all the ‘stuff’ we have brought with us so we don’t clog up our relations’ house.

We will spend a couple of hours at the Health Club today and most days until we leave for Sussex. We’ve got three trips coming up before Christmas and we’ve chosen our hotels carefully so that they’ve got gyms and pools. While our lives are disrupted, we must keep some things constant.

9th October, 2015

Another glorious start to the day. Let’s face it, they usually are when you’re retired. The sun is up. The sky is blue and we’ve got so much left to do ….. This morning, I have spent an hour charging up, updating and working out Colin’s new, Garmin sat. nav. I don’t know why I abbreviate the words but anything more seems less appropriate.

After a hard couple of hours in the gym and the pool, we drove back to our temporary home and griddled large kalamari with peppers and onions outside in the garden which was bathed in sunshine and a temperature of 20C/68F.

We’ve spent the afternoon going through furniture brochures for our new house.

10th October, 2015

As the sun streamed in, we spent the morning making future plans and enjoying these brief moments of not having the responsibilities of property ownership. A trip to Asda for beef steaks. The sell a wonderful quality Aberdeen Angus Filet steak which we griddle medium rare.

It melts in the mouth with gorgeous flavour. It goes so well with Greek salad. We spent an hour and a half at the Health Club in the gym and the pool and then back for griddled Sea Bass filets, mushrooms and onions with salad.

We cooked outside again. The middle of October is delightful here. Now, we are off for a week in France. We hope the season will continue.

27th September, 2015

Blue sky and strong sun all day although the temperature is beginning to drop this evening. Pauline is enthralled by the night sky, stars, planets and the moon. Harvest moon tonight appeals to me because of the poetry and romance associated with it. For Pauline, it is a scientific occurrence that is fascinating.

It is reported that:

The Moon will turn a rusty hue in the early hours of Monday and may seem larger in the sky. The event is caused by a total lunar eclipse coinciding with another astronomical event called a ‘supermoon’.

We are also told that Surrey will be cloudless at 3.00 am when the eclipse is likely to be viewable. I have a feeling that I may be tired all day tomorrow.

28th September, 2015

Tired this morning. I was in bed at midnight last night and then woken to get up and view the night sky at 3.30 am. It was worth it though and we didn’t even have to leave the bedroom to be able to watch the moon turn red.

We woke again to another beautiful day of blue sky and strong but obviously lower sunshine. The day reached 20C/68F. We continued to tick the jobs off for our move in ten days time. Pauline also produced questions we want to ask about our new house build when we drive down there tomorrow morning.

29th September, 2015

The gorgeous weather continues. We are about to enter our final week here and we are driving down to Sussex this morning to see the progress on our house. The temperature is  20C/68F once again with strong sunshine.  The journey is really enjoyable and the South Downs look wonderful in the sunshine. We arrive in about an hour and discuss the minutiae of kitchen fittings – units, flooring, taps, etc.. We discuss fitted wardrobes, Hall flooring until I can take no more and we fix a follow up meeting before we leave for our month in Tenerife.

We drove down to the village which was bathed in sunshine. There are a couple of pubs – although we never use pubs at all – a Post Office, a Co-Op, a Butchers, Bakers and Odds & Ends shop. There are a couple of restaurants and a church. It is a stereotypical English village with a cross on a triangular green in the centre. All is as it should be. The locals seemed very friendly. Some even spoke to us.

30th September, 2015

Already the end of September. We are in our last week in Woking as citizens. It doesn’t feel as momentous as some house moves we’ve made. After all, we’ve only lived here for two of the four years we’ve owned it. It will be about twenty weeks until our new house is ready to move in to but we will be abroad for about half of that time. In our tradition, I ordered a framed picture of the property to put up in the next Study. It arrived today, only cost me £50.00 and took five days from ordering.

The sun has shone all day again and the temperature reached 23C/73F. We sat outside for an hour or so and Pauline griddled sweet-fleshed sea bass in the garden. We ate it with salad. What a wonderful meal!

1st October, 2015

Happy October!

It’s a glorious morning here in Surrey but I suspect it is across Britain. My old stomping ground of Ripon in North Yorkshire is featured in a lovely photo on the front of The Times this morning.

This is Studley royal park. When Jeremy Corbyn comes to power, it will be renamed Studley Park.

2nd October, 2015

Needed some financial advice. Phoned our private banking manager. Asked a couple of salient questions. Met with a blustering response. Found I knew more about the situation than the banking manager. A bit disconcerting.

Last time we sold a property, we had to split the proceeds between four, separate banks. Each bank guarantee of deposit covers £85,000 per person or £170,000 for our joint accounts. Because it is a Europe-wide guarantee, it is expressed in Euros (€100,000) and then converted to Pounds Sterling. With the declining strength of the Pound, this guarantee will reduce in January to £75,000 per person or £150,000 for a joint account. The one caveat to this is that the FSCS will provide a £1 million protection limit for temporary high balances held with your bank. Proceeds resulting from the life events such as Real Estate transactions (property purchase, sale proceeds, equity release) are categorised as temporary high balances.

One would have thought that a personal banking manager, providing a service we pay highly for and supposedly an expert in exactly this sort of transaction, would have this information at her finger tips. When I read the details out to her directly from the Financial Compensation Services Scheme website, she expressed surprise and pledged to instruct the rest of her colleagues at the bank. Good luck with that! If she applies, she could pass her GCSE Oral with that speech.

3rd October, 2015

The end is nigh. We leave our apartment in five days but the Study has to be dismantled TODAY! I’ve been putting it off. I can do it no longer. Normal Service is going to be disrupted.

The broadband router will remain active until minutes before we leave so I can use Wi-Fi on my laptop and iPad but it’s not the same.

The trees around us are turning to glorious, autumnal colours. The lawns were striped by the gardener yesterday. Why does it always look so nice when one is leaving? But leave we must. The next stage of our journey is beckoning.

RIP Denis Healey – a boyhood hero of mine -who has died at the age of 98. The world of politics will miss your strength.

20th September, 2015

Gorgeous day. We were up early and emptying our garage to take everything to the storage for the next few months. We drove through warm sunshine loaded up with boxes. We now only have immediate necessities for the next couple of weeks and clothes which still have to be packed.

We came home and griddled fillet steak and vegetables – shallots, courgettes and mushrooms – outside in the delightful day. Fresh, British strawberries, raspberries and blackberries with a dollop of yoghurt have been our pudding every day for months. They are wonderful and I am addicted.

In Greece, the writing is already on the wall. New Democracy have conceded defeat to Syriza who look to be achieving around 35% of the vote – just short of a parliamentary majority.

The lunatic Golden Dawn have gained around 7.0%. This may well be their nadir and one from which they will subsequently fade over the next few years.

The re-election of Syriza means the bailout terms will be adhered to and anything else the EEC demands. The Single Property Tax (ENFIA) which has been levied over the past two or three years is based on the surface area and not the actual value of the property. This has led to tax rates which have outraged the property owning classes. The annual tax rates come close to 2 percent of the real value of a property, while the real tax rate on the income that a property can fetch often exceeds 50 percent. We were so lucky to get out before they impacted upon us and, in a weird way, grateful to Stavros for completely bungling our building finances which delayed the legalisation of our power supply which delayed the signing off of our property build which delayed the levy of the tax. All those Greeks who own small, old properties – often inherited and unused for years – are paying the price for the indulgence.

21st September, 2015

A damp autumnal day today full of mists and mellow fruitfulness. We’ve now packed and moved almost everything bar our clothes to storage. All services – Burglar Alarm, Electricity, Water, TV/Broadband/Phone have been alerted. Our Buyer’s Welcome Pack has been finished so we can enjoy our last couple of weeks here. We intend to make a trip down to Sussex in the next few days to see how far the build has moved on since the end of August.

Heavy rain, strong winds and low temperatures have hit many areas across Greece on today but something more serious is about to hit middle class self-employed Greeks and that is taxation. Syriza are keen to replace cuts in pensions for the poor with taxation on those who can afford to pay – middle class self-employed Greeks who have avoided paying for years.

Kathimerini reports:

The Greek property market remains a global laggard as the continuing decline in prices means the country still ranks among the worst performers in the world in this respect. According to the latest survey by the ‘Global Property Guide’, on the second quarter of 2015, the local property market had the third worst performance among 40 countries as property prices dropped by 5.92 percent on an annual basis.

Higher property taxes accompanying plummeting property values is a recipe for extreme pain and stasis in the market.

22nd September, 2015

Warm but sporadically heavy rain this morning although we are told the afternoon will dry up. Hope so because we are taking our filing cabinets to the store if the weather’s alright. This morning I’ve been producing a timeline of what is happening to us between now and the middle of December just so I can keep a handle on things.

I’ve also been preparing a picture of our Duplex for framing. We have a tradition of framing and mounting a collection of photographs of the properties we’ve bought and sold over our married lives and I will put them up in the Study of our new house. I will even include the advertising sign that was mounted on the gate of our Greek property for the best part of a year before we sold. It will look good in the new house.

  

There is a sharp cartoon in Kathimerini today:

and you do have to wonder how much he is benefiting the majority of Greek people.

23rd September, 2015

The Autumn Equinox – equal night and day. I must admit, I make no concessions to it – up at 7.00 am and to bed at midnight is my unerring routine. Today, we all but completed packing and removal of all our goods and chattels with the exception of the clothes we will need in the next few weeks. We still have space in our storage pod so we can get in quite easily to retrieve things if we need them.

Today, I took the lovely, Lavender plants – Stoechas Pedunculata –  that have flowered all summer in pots outside our front door and planted them out in the beds as our own contribution to the communal gardens.

We leave, putting the keys through the letterbox as we go, two weeks today.

24th September, 2015

Interesting day. Lovely, sunny, warm weather. We griddled filet steak and vegetables outside in the garden for our meal. We completed the purchase of our new property by transferring 10% of the purchase price with the other 90% to follow in around 4 – 5 months. It turned out to be a very old fashioned affair in which we could only transfer a maximum of £20,000.00 on-line so we actually had to drive to a bank branch to send the deposit. Haven’t been in a bank for a very long time.

We are going down to see building development on Tuesday. Apparently, the roof is on and windows and doors will soon make it watertight. This will mean that the winter weather won’t hold development up. It is timed for completion by March. We are hoping for earlier.

25th September, 2015

Lovely day full of sun and blue sky. We did a quick trip to the surgery for my blood test – pre-annual review – and free ‘flu jab. Off to Tesco for our weekly shop because we have a fistful of money-off coupons to lure us back plus very cheap petrol. We filled the car for £1.05/€1.42 per litre today. We are having to think very carefully about our shopping needs with only 12 days left here. Today, we griddled squid (calamari) in the garden and ate it with Greek salad.

26th September, 2015

It has been a lovely, long day of sun and blue sky. I must admit to rather an inactive day at my computer to keep up with correspondence and in front of the television to watch two Premiere League matches and the England – Wales rugby match from Twickenham. I did do the cooking and that was outside again – griddled chicken with griddled vegetables.

Pauline continued to pack boxes. My one contribution was to remove the wine racks from the walls – they provide 140 bottle storage and will be useful at the new house although, I’m going to have a wine cooler fitted in the new kitchen.

They store so many bottles, it takes me all week to get through it. We are going to France soon so I will have to moderate my buying until we’re settled again.

Can you believe the report this weekend in Greek Reporter amongst others:

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) reports that the phenomenon of illegal accommodation sites is constantly growing in the country, causing great problems for the authorities, due to tax evasion.

Tax evasion? They will have to get a grip on legal accommodation sites first. They are much bigger evaders of tax than the little people trying to make ends meet. I’ve already written to the Greek Finance Authority with my concerns on tax evasion in the tourist industry and, particularly, double or false accounting which has become a way of life.

 

13th September, 2015

Things are moving quite quickly at the moment – for us as well as Jeremy Corbin. We have to ‘Exchange Contracts’ in the next couple of days and ‘Complete’ in the first week of October. From that point on, we are homeless. We don’t yet know whether our buyers are buying all our furniture, some of it or none of it. We don’t know if we will need a furniture removal firm, a white van man or we will just use our car. We were going to stay with Pauline’s sister but she has guests in October so we are desperately casting around for somewhere to stay. Jeremy is desperately casting around for experienced politicians who are prepared to serve in his shadow cabinet.

What we have done this morning is book a month on the south west coast of Tenerife in Los Gigantes which has nothing to do with big beans as the Greeks might think but is the name derived from big cliffs on the shoreline.

  

 

One thing it is not is understated. It’s got a Health Club with Spa & Gym plus indoor and outdoor pools. It will help us pass the month of November!

14th September, 2015

We contacted the solicitor acting for us on our apartment sale. We told her what the estate agent had reported but she said she had heard absolutely nothing. She will find out and get back to us. All morning we heard nothing. We went out for a long session at the Health Club. We did an hour in the Gym and another in the pool, etc.. Absolutely shattered, we drove home. If you know Surrey you will know that it is heavily wooded. It is a paradise for Tree Surgeons. Our route to the Health Club is lined with huge trees and mainly Oak and Horse Chestnut. As we speed under them, the trees bomb us with acorns and conkers which are in abundance this year.

Just as we were preparing our meal – grilled chicken and Greek Salad – the solicitor rang to say the exchange of contracts had gone through. The 10% deposit had been lodged and the sale was now irrevocable. We agreed a completion date of October 7th so we can now make all our arrangements.

To add to the pleasure and simplify the move, our buyers have agreed to buy every single stick of furniture at exactly the prices that we requested. This will mean that we will move the small, personal items that were not for sale by ourselves in our car. We will rent a little extra amount of storage to keep them until our move in February/March next year. When our new house is built, we will furnish it completely anew. What fun!

15th September, 2015

Things are running at full tilt. Informing two sets of solicitors, reading contracts and lots of small print, moving money between accounts to pay deposit on the new house, filling stacking, plastic storage boxes is all going on with urgency. We have fifteen of them from the last English move.

We’ve been to the Storage Pod to rent additional space. Our car, with the seats down, will take 8 storage boxes. I can just lift one full of books and files or full of crockery and glassware. They will be stored for up to 6 months. We leave the apartment three weeks tomorrow.

16th September, 2015

Warm – 24C/75F but very wet today. We managed to get to the storage pod with 8 boxes of books, etc. before the rain came down and then home to do more packing and paperwork. This will be the second day without gym work but we’ll go tomorrow.

 

Cancelling services should be easy. It’s certainly easy starting them with Sky – TV/Phone line/Broadband – answer within a minute if you want to open a new contract. If you want to end an existing one, it takes 20 mins.. Electricity, Council Tax, Water all have to be cancelled. Our Service agreement in our property must be ended and our pre-paid charges returned. We have to notify the TV Licensing Authority, The DVLA for our driver’s Licences, the Banks, and the Post Office for re-addressing of mail. These are all niggly things which take up time but have to be addressed.

We have bought and sold many properties and moved many times but it doesn’t get any easier. We wonder how we found the time when we were working. Still the goal at the end makes it all worthwhile.

17th September, 2015

Lovely, warm and sunny morning spent indoors packing boxes. A trip to the storage this afternoon will see the Study and Kitchen cleared of everything bar essentials for the maintenance of life – computer, scanner colour laser and an electric griddle, coffee maker and kettle.

Eight more boxes taken to the Storage Pod. About eight more to go before we can relax and feel as if we can be ready to leave. Just three weeks to go before we have to be out. We can’t really believe it has gone so quickly but we have to adjust immediately to our new environment.

Talking about adjusting to new environments, the new Labour Party leader is doing just that. Almost every national newspaper is doing its best to rubbish him. After all, he’s just not playing the ‘game’ by their rules.

While all that’s happening, the Greek electorate look like moving back to the centre leaving left and right precariously balanced. In some ways, this is far more dangerous. What Greece needs now is clarity, determination and strength. It needs the programme it has agreed to be pushed through immediately or even sooner.

18th September, 2015

Glorious early Autumn morning but we are still dominated by boxes, packing, boxes, packing. We have 18 or 19 days left to do it but we have always been like this. Things have to be done now. In Greece last year, I was making daily, early morning trips down to the communal bins dumping things that just wouldn’t be suitable for anyone else before our sale went through and we handed over the house to someone else. I find/found it quite cathartic leaving the old behind and moving on – starting afresh. It is so liberating. I wonder how the goldfish are doing in their little world. It seems so far away now.

In between wrapping and packing, I’ve been doing the financial accounts in order to keep a tight grip on the moving costs. It’s good fun and keeps me sane to know things are under control. We will take another 8 boxes to the storage pod this afternoon and the property will heave a huge sigh of relief as space appears.

This evening I am continuing to prepare the Welcome Pack & Guide to living here, using the services, seeking help, managing the electric gates, burglar alarm and identifying all the keys. We are also writing guides to easy use of the white goods, televisions and satellite systems. Our buyer has been living in Australia for years and will find many of these things a little stressful at first. We want her to be happy in her new home.

19th September, 2015

Another lovely, lovely day with warm sunshine. Shopping at Sainsbury’s by 9.30 am and then home to continue the packing. The Welcome Pack & Guide is now complete and accompanied by all the user booklets that came with the washing machine, dishwasher, oven & hob, fridge-freezer, televisions, burglar alarm, heating system and much more.

 

6th September, 2015

The Blog will catch up with itself in a few days when we are in a position to update. Currently, we are travelling.

7th September, 2015

Early start. Up at 3.00 am and in the car by 4.00 am. At Heathrow – Terminal 5 Long Stay Car Park by 4.30 am and dropped our bags at British Airways desk by 5.00 am. We went through Passport Control and into Departures immediately. We have membership of all the private Lounges through our Bank. We went down to the Aspire Lounge & Spa and had breakfast – bacon and scrambled egg with coffee. The wi-fi there is excellent.

Our flight took off on time at 6.45 am and we arrived in Athens 10 mins early at 12.10 pm. Pauline had bought new, lime green cases which were easy to spot on the carousel when they came from the aircraft and we were soon walking across the concourse to the train for Syndagma. The temperature was 35C/95F. Five minutes later we were in our Hotel – The Electra Palace – and our suite. It was 2.30 pm by the time we took our suitcases up in the lift and put the kettle on for a cup of tea.

When we were settled, we went for a swim in the pool and a jacuzzi relax. We spent the best part of a hour there before returning for a shower and another relax. We went shopping for peanuts, bottles of wine and water. At 7.00 pm, we went to our favourite, street corner taverna. Pauline had grilled sea bass and I had grilled, large squid.

We shared a Greek Salad, garlic dip and bottle of white wine. It was delicious.

8th September, 2015

Up late today – 8.00 am (which is 6.00 am in UK). Went down for breakfast at 9.00 am. It was a struggle to eat. Returned to our room to read the paper but,  by 11.00 am, we walked down to Monastiraki train station and took the train to Piraeus. Athens and the train were very quiet. Few tourist around anywhere. We got off at Piraeus Port station and walked the full arc of ferry docks. We ended up at the Zante Ferries boat for Sifnos – the Andreas Kalvos. That’s where we met up with our Sifnos friends.

Piraeus was different to any other time we have seen it in the past thirty five years. It was dead – the roads, pavements, docks were dead. The cafes which once thrived were all closed. The ticket offices largely gone. The trains were mainly empty. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, crowds of migrants appeared near the train station. They were affluent, controlled and business like. They were led by group leaders who handed out ‘stamped’ travel/identity documents. Everyone carried smartphones which were glued to their ears. Everyone was being directed to ‘Express to Germany’ coaches. Prices were being negotiated – calmly and quietly. These were not desperate people without money but confident, Middle Class people who had money to buy their freedom.

9th September, 2015

Wonderful day. Warm and sunny reaching 32C/90F. After a late breakfast, we set off on a walk to Kolonaki.

It was hot and sweaty by the time we arrived. Shops, restaurants and coffee shops followed by Embassies and more shops and then back to Syndagma. Coffee and newspapers in our hotel suite and then out to Monastiraki and the fruit sellers outside the station entrance. A bag full of big, fat, sweet figs and a kilo of green, seedless grapes cost under 3 Euros. We walked back to our hotel and feasted on fruit.

At 3.00 pm, we went down to the Spa Centre and spent an hour or more in the jacuzzi, pool and sauna. At 7.00 pm we went out to our favourite street corner taverna for Greek Salad, Skordalia (garlic sauce) and grilled salmon. The whole thing with a litre (kilo) of white wine cost 38 euros. This, in a capital city, is amazing.

10th September, 2015

Before breakfast, Pauline made a cup of tea and I tested my INR. It was a near perfect 2.7 which I immediately emailed to Woking Anticoagulation Department. It was 8.15 am in Greece so only 6.15 am in Woking but I got dosage advice by return email. Breakfast at 8.30 am today and then back to our room for coffee and newspapers. At 10.30 am, Pauline went to the Hairdressing Salon across the road –

http://michalisanousakis.com/about.html

She has been using it for the past 15 years and has her hair cut by the owner. Every time she books, an assistant rather gingerly whispers the price – this year it was €57.00/£41.00 – which is actually nearly half what she would pay at Sasson’s in London.

By mid day, we were walking down the shopping street which is Ermou and then through the Plaka, via the meat and fish market, where everything was so cheap but few were buying, to Omonia Square where the pavements and doorways were crowded with immigrants.

 

More than ever, Athens looked down-at-heel, impoverished and ill at ease with itself. So many shops and restaurants that we have frequented over the years have just disappeared and many remaining are quiet and desperate to draw tourists in. We walked back up Stadiou Street to Syndagma and back to our hotel for a cup of tea.

Mid afternoon, we had a good swim, jacuzzi and sauna. We fly back to London tomorrow afternoon. I’m a B.A. Club member and I use an app on my phone & iPad to manage our bookings. Using the app, I selected our seats – emergency exit/extra legroom, window and centre. Now, 24hrs before, we are ‘checking-in’ on-line and collecting our boarding passes on our mobile phones.

Just as we were about to go out Dinner, we received a phone call to say that our buyers had signed the contract for our apartment and will be paying the 10% deposit tomorrow. We were elated. Tonight we ate Greek Salad, Garlic Sauce and griddled Sea Bass all washed down with dry and ice-cold white wine. It was delicious. Our sweet was sweet, green grapes and a glass of ouzo. Heaven. When we got back to our hotel room, as usual, a chocolate in a small box was placed by either side of our bed.

11th September, 2015

A lovely morning – especially for retired teachers. Greek schools restart this morning. Across the block from our hotel, a local school has its windows flung open and the small school yard which is marked out as a basketball court, has been set up with a sound system. Trailing electrical leads snake down from an upstairs window to the microphone which will relay the speeches of a local dignitary, the Headteacher and the ubiquitous member of the Orthodox Church.

The television morning news programmes – and I favour the Skai channel’s Proti Grammi (First Programme), are playing heavily on shortages of teachers in Greece and the inability of some schools to reopen because of it.

Of course, we are playing heavily on the fact that we no longer need to teach. After breakfast, we finished packing, paid our bill and walked up to the Metro station at Syndagma. We took a clean and empty train to the airport for the extravagant (not) sum of Euros 14 for the two of us instead of a cramped and hairy journey by taxi for a minimum of Euros 40. At the airport, we immediately dropped our bags at the BA desk and went to the airside lounge – the Melina Mecouri Lounge – where we had comfortable seats, lovely free coffee and good wi-fi courtesy of our card membership.

We often complain about our monthly bank account charges but these Lounge facilities are worth it on their own. The charge would be £35.00 each – £70.00 – for every time we used them on this trip alone, we used three Lounges – potentially £210.00 – which is almost total, annual charge. The peace and quiet and free flowing red wine would make me want to pay it anyway.

We boarded our flight on time and without fuss. It always takes longer leaving Greece than arriving – something to do with prevailing winds. We set off at 2.45 pm (G.T.) and will land at 4.45 pm (B.T.).

We landed five minutes early, soon collected our bags. The Long Stay car park bus arrived and we were soon in our car. That is when we had our first hiccup. Our sat.nav. Proposed routing us on the M4 whereas we would have expected M5. Immediately, our screen flashed up 6 mile queues ahead. We returned to Terminal 5 and started again but this time forcing it to follow the M5. It was Friday night and rush hour so traffic was heavy and slow but we were home in half an hour.

12th September, 2015

Tired this morning but shopping called. We were in Sainsbury’s by 9.30 am. We have a trip to France next week but, now the legal process on the sale of our property has been accelerated, the timing is all wrong so we have to change our travel dates. I use Booking.com for the hotel bookings (naturally!). They make life so easy. We’ve managed to defer our hotel and channel tunnel crossing by three or four weeks which means we will have moved out by then. The proposed ‘Completion’ date on our property is Pauline’s birthday – October 5th. We will probably negotiate a couple of extra days and then bank the money and go away.

We are looking at taking an extended ‘sun’ holiday in November – three or four weeks – where we can be warm, swim outside, use a Health Club and walk along the beach. We are currently considering West coast Teneriffe in a hotel that bans children and has good quality internet provision. They don’t come cheap but at least that tends to ensure peace and quiet. Our neighbour near to us has an apartment out their and has been advising us on areas. We did go to Fuerteventura many years ago so a different Canary Island might be interesting while we are homeless.

30th August, 2015

The penultimate day of Summer 2015 has been pleasant but quiet. We had quite a lot to do so we didn’t go out to exercise. We will go tomorrow – Bank Holiday Monday or so we are led to believe. It means so little to us. – when the Health Club will be like a ghost town.

Received an email from our builder this afternoon with an illustration of current development of our new house.

If the weather is kind, we will be in it for mid February. If not, it might be Easter – March 27th, 2016. We will be going down soon to discuss kitchen units, floor tiles, wooden floors in the hall and study, fitted Study furniture, bathroom/en suite tiles, wardrobes, garden paving/landscaping, etc., etc.. Pauline is on the case.

31st August, 2015

A soggy end to August and the Health Club was packed with workers punishing themselves on their day off. We did our hour and marvelled at the ‘free car wash’ provided by the weather. What disappoints me is that I don’t get noticeably fitter. I am just as tired and my shirt is just as heavy with sweat today as it was when I first started this madness. I’ll never catch Jane BG at this rate.

She won a silver medal in the World Masters Athletic Championships, August 2015Lyon.

A Sifnos friend contacted us yesterday and we are looking forward to going back to Greece in a few days time. Kathimerini has a Leader Article which echoes exactly my thoughts:

Greek election may reopen can of worms

The upcoming Greek election may reopen the can of worms that the country’s recent 86 billion euro bailout deal with its creditors was supposed to close. Given that no party is likely to emerge from the Sept. 20 vote with a majority, it may be hard to form a strong government that can implement the program. There’s even a risk that there will be yet more elections, tipping Greece back into crisis.

I’m looking forward to hearing the word on the street or the talk in the café. It is so much better than reading about it.

1st September, 2015

The Summer has gone and the Autumn begins. The weather remains the same. Actually, the day opened with torrential rain which recently gave way to blue skies and sunshine but the ark is close to floating.

À propos of absolutely nothing, I came across this amusing picture on the web this morning:

and this excellent one-liner from the Edinburgh Fringe:

I lost my virginity very late. When it finally happened, I wasn’t so much deflowered as deadheaded.

Can you tell I’m having a quiet day? Well, I’ve done another hour’s exercise and the rain has returned. The ark has edged further off the patio and the cats are getting their life jackets on.

2nd September, 2015

The day has opened quietly. Some schools in England go back today. In Surrey, they go back tomorrow. In our house, they never go back. We received an update from our Estate Agents which suggested that our buyers wanted to ‘Complete’ quickly on the purchase of our property. We may only have 4 – 6 weeks left here.

We also received an invitation from our builder to go down and view the development of our new house.  We won’t be doing that for a while because we will be abroad but we have been to visit flooring specialists. We will need tiling throughout the ground floor – Hall, Study, Cloakroom, Toilet, Kitchen-Family Room, Laundry. With such a big expanse, it is important to get it right. We drove over to a stockist/supplier to look at examples and came back with ideas. We think that half will be wood and half tiled. We’ve got a few months to think about it.

3rd September, 2015

A mild but overcast day. We had a trip out to Camberley which took about an hour as a round trip. It never ceases to amaze me how rural everywhere in Surrey is. We went on to the Health Club for an hour’s exercise and then came home to griddle chicken and vegetables outside in the garden.

Will the Greeks give Tsipras ‘one last chance’? Will they vote with the left wing breakaway, Popular Unity, for a return to the Drachma and reject ‘Austerity’? Will they turn back to the corruption of the past and choose New Democracy? Between a rock, a hard place and a very hard place is where the Greeks are. Why would anyone seek asylum there?

4th September, 2015

All the kids went back to school yesterday leaving us behind in our dotage. It still feels strange yet wonderful. As we wave goodbye to our neighbours’ children and cheer when they’ve gone, we fill our days with keeping fit and healthy and planning the interiors of our new house. We are currently projected to move in at the end of February – beginning of March which will mean we can return to our drive across Europe about April time. Before then we and the builders have to make decisions about

• tiles (and, possibly, underfloor heating),
• kitchen units,
• fitted wardrobes,
• Study furniture,
• white goods,
• outdoor paving and garden landscaping,
• the garage door automated, etc..

We will have to arrange for

• a new phone line to be installed,
• a satellite or cable supplier to connect to our media distribution panel,
• a broadband supplier,
• a doctor and a dentist.

In the meantime, we are off to Greece for a jaunt followed by some time in France and some time in Yorkshire. We haven’t got time to work!

I started my teaching career in a Victorian school in Derker, Oldham. I lived in a flat in Acre Lane three streets away. This afternoon, I watched a programme on television in which the Texan model and former husband of Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, explored her ancestry.

 

How funny to find her grandfather was born three streets away in Waverley Street, Oldham. To add to the irony, it emerged that Mick Jagger’s father, Joe Jagger, lived in Greenfield and taught at Hulme Grammar School in Oldham.

5th September, 2015

I am a creature of habit – to the point that it drives my wife mad. In my retired reincarnation, I start the day shortly after 7.00 am with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, a cup of Yorkshire tea followed shortly afterwards by a large cup of freshly brewed coffee. I love my bean-to-cup coffee maker.

It grinds the beans, forces pressurised hot water through the newly made grounds and produces a lovely head on the coffee. The Italians would probably call me a philistine because I needed frothed milk on the top. Over the frothed head, I sprinkle cinnamon and then chocolate powder.

Now I am ready to read the Politics Section in my digital newspaper followed by my favourite section – The Obituaries. You have to keep up with the dead!

23rd August, 2015

Another humid day which featured half an hour of light rain that helped me avoid plant watering and temporarily held the inevitable Test match result up for an hour or so. We had intended to go the gym but events took over – watching the Test match, the FI Motor Racing from Belgium (something interesting has to come from Belgium) and two Premier League football matches.

Booked a crossing through the Tunnel for our forthcoming journey. The return cost was about £112.00/€155.00 which I paid with my Private Banking Charge Card. I don’t know why but my Bank chose this morning to do a random check on payments, stopped the card account for fifteen minutes and texted me to confirm it was me using the card and not a thief. I should be reassured by this but it irritated me today. I had booked a crossing and a hotel plus another transaction in Surrey and all three had been blocked. I had to contact each company in turn to explain why I needed to resubmit payment. It made a bit of a nonsense of on-line, rapid payment.

Before we go away, we are hoping for the first time in many years to find Pick Your Own Victoria Plums. We both love them and Pauline would also like to make some jam.

They should be ready now but they’re not even in the shops yet.

24th August, 2015

Woke up to warm, torrential rain which alternated with sun most of the day. Why couldn’t England have held on until the final day?

We completed all our Buyer/Seller paperwork and I can assure you that is a lot of work. Off to the Post Office to despatch it to Woking and Worthing and then out to the health Club for some much needed exercise. I really enjoyed it and felt fitter than I have done for a long time – in fact, since the early 1970s when I stopped playing competitive sport. I can’t believe that’s more than 40 years ago. Even Ruth was young then!

Our meal today was a delightful Greek Salad with cold roast chicken and duck. It feels so privileged to have such delightful food. This feeling is accentuated when I read of the residents of Symi trying to help the immigrants arriving on their shores from nearby Turkey.

 

These pictures are featured on the Symi Dream Blog today and feature islanders collecting basic necessities for the burgeoning migrant population.

25th August, 2015

A second, consecutive day of heavy rain interspersed with a bit of sun. It’s certainly helping the gardens if not the inhabitants. We have had a quiet day. We visited The Storage Pod to check that increased space will be available when we move out and did another hour’s exercise on the treadmill. Our meal was a seafood salad – tomato and cucumber with a dressing of olive oil and capers to accompany smoked salmon, king prawns and small prawns.

I think this is my favourite meal at the moment. Particularly, we have found a producer of the most wonderful smoked salmon, badged by Pru Leith and sold by Asda. We go out of our way to buy it. It sounds rather ‘precious’ but it is materially better than any other easily bought product. You should try it!

The Greeks don’t appear totally confident in Tsipras as he seeks re-election. This is summed up in this morning’s cartoon in Kathimerini newspaper.

As a sign of the continuing woes, Greece’s state insurance funds are resorting to external loans to cover their needs as fears grow that the measures of the third bailout will not be enough to cover the rest of 2015’s liquidity needs.

The deficit of IKA is expected to grow due to the dramatic increase in unemployment, political and economic uncertainty, capital controls, the measures of the third bailout and the early elections, which are expected to impact on the revenues of insurance funds this autumn.

26th August, 2015

We are experiencing rain in biblical proportions for the third, consecutive day. I knew that Jeremy Corbyn was up to no good. We are considering building an ark. There are two cats live near here. My dilemma is how much to charge them. Should I consider them as refugees or economic migrants?

All the contractual documents had arrived by the time we got back from the Health Club. Lots of signatures for us and 10% deposit from our buyers which will lock them in and give us additional peace of mind. We just want it to stop raining now so the builders can get on with our new house. Pauline is already planning all the flooring, the kitchen type and layout. Which washing machine and which tumble dryer is concentrating minds as we prepare to go in to an English house with a Laundry for the first time in five years. I’m allowed to have a view about how to kit out the Study although Pauline will probably decide. It’s nice to see her enjoying it.

27th August, 2015

Got up at 6.00 am and went out at 6.30 am to the Walk-in Hospital for an official INR test. I usually do it myself at home but like to do an ‘official’ check once in a while. Within about 4 hrs, I received an email confirming my INR at 2.5 which couldn’t be more perfect.

I don’t know what’s happened. We start to build the ark and they turn the water off. A pleasant, late Summer’s day. We are going down to see the progress on our new house tomorrow so we did our weekly shop today. First we delivered signed contracts to our solicitor so that the selling process is not held up and then drove on to Sainsbury’s. We checked in to a shop that supplies fitted bedroom furniture to decide what we wanted putting in our new bedrooms and then came home for coffee and newspapers.

Eventually, we chickened out of exercise today and got through jobs that needed to be completed. Our neighbour is about to put her Duplex on the market and a property just across from us will go up for sale in September. People are beginning to realise that the market has moved so far and so fast in the four years since we bought that it is an attractive proposition to cash in and move on. If one’s free to go where one wants like us, it is even more profitable.

28th August, 2015

Up at 6.00 am on a beautiful morning. We drove down to the South Coast to see the work of our builders on our new home. It was an enjoyable couple of hours and, even though the roof isn’t on yet, we are already planning the kitchen/Garden Room, Laundry, Garden and planting, Study, Lounge and built-in wardrobes in the four bedrooms. Flooring is already a major topic for discussion plus tiles in the bathrooms. Should they be full or half height? Such questions will be at the centre of Pauline’s internet searches for weeks.

Went to the Health Club this afternoon but I stopped 10mins early because I felt really tired. Strangely, I felt dissatisfied with myself for the rest of the evening – felt as if I’d let myself down. Our meal cheered me up. We had dressed Cornish crab with tomato & cucumber salad, taramasalata and humous. Lovely.

29th August, 2015

Up early on a lovely morning. Everywhere is quiet and fresh. The hydrangeas we bought for the gardener to put in have flowered delightfully.

Did a full hour’s exercise at lunchtime to salve my conscience and then came home to a couple of football matches and ate roast tarragon chicken with roast vegetables – shallots, fennel and mushrooms.

Opinion polls indicating that the September 20 elections will be very close which is not good news for a country that needs firm, decisive leadership in the face of uncomfortable decisions.

Only Forward says the Syriza slogan but, if New Democracy get back, it could become ‘only backward’.

16th August, 2015

Quiet Sunday – quite delightful – worshipping at the altar of newspapers and Premier League football. The exciting Labour Leadership election is hotting up

while Manchester City, a team I’ve never favoured in my life, got my full support today as they thrashed Chelsea 3-0.

17th August, 2015

Amazing how quickly things move on when you want them to slow down a bit. A huge ‘Sellers Pack’ of documents arrived from our law firm today. We have had a hard day finding documents, phoning people like our Management Company, Estate Agent and Solicitor to complete our Homework. Actually, it will dominate tomorrow morning as well. We managed to fit in an hour on the treadmill and will do our best to fit one in tomorrow although we have to visit the Law Firm which we, wisely, chose locally. We are going down to see the progress on the new house on Wednesday and that will take up our day. The final Ashes Test starts on Thursday so I’m hoping to catch that.

Kathimerini reports today that a quarter of a million less people travelled through the country’s ports in the last six weeks.

Specifically in July, passenger traffic fell by 12.38 % compared to last year, with the number of routes served reduced by 4.6 %.  Car transportation dropped 18.09 percent while trucks were down 15.26 %.

18th August, 2015

We are exhausted after a long day of paperwork, form filling, file finding, copying followed by a legal meeting. Whose idea was it to sell and buy a house? The day was prefaced by our Estate Agent ringing to say our builders wanted to ‘exchange contracts’ on the new house in three weeks. The Estate Agent was sceptical. We spent the entire morning filling in the ‘Sellers’ forms, looking out Lease Documents, Service Charge Accounts, Energy Certificates, creating a Fixtures & Fittings list. The morning was only broken up by the arrival of ten, huge, plastic Storage Boxes.

We already have ten stacked in storage from our last move. Unfortunately, these ten – contrary to sellers description don’t fit into each other. Ten is a lot of big boxes to stack. A bonus, however, is that each box came packed in an industrial strength, cardboard box. This means that, ultimately, we will have an extra twenty boxes for packing and storage or removal.

19th August, 2015

We drove down to Sussex this morning to see the property we have just agreed to buy. Angmering is a lovely village. The property will be ready in March next year and is fine for what we require. This is the floor plan of the two levels:

Within two miles of the new house, there is a huge Garden Centre, three, megastore-sized supermarkets – Sainsburys, Waitrose and Asda and two Health Cubs – Virgin Active and David Lloyd’s.

On the edge of the South Downs, the coast is about ten minutes away.

We are already looking forward to getting to know the area. We just have to settle on a Doctors’ and Dentists’ surgeries. The drive back took just one hour.

20th August, 2015

We woke at 5.00 am, thinking about yesterday’s events. It was still half dark which is indicative of the season’s progress. We had a swathe of documents from the property developers, from the legal firm who are selling the property and the legal firm involved in our purchase of the new house. How people manage to cope with this while they are in full time work although I suppose we did a number of times.

We went to the Health Club for an hour and I then relaxed with a few hours of the Fifth Ashes Test Match. Our Nuffield Health Club looked so small after visiting the massive David Lloyd place in Angmering.

It has been a sweaty, humid day and we are forecast to reach 30C/86F over the weekend. It will be good re-acclimatisation for impending trip to Greece.

21st August, 2015

A hot and humid day which reached 26C/79F. We had to scramble around to find someone who would do the Identity Certification process for us. It’s for an anti-Money Laundering check that moving, spending large amounts of money now requires. Eventually, we found a Post Office branch big enough to certify copies of our Passports and Driving Licence Photo Cards so we can get them off to our solicitor who is dealing with the purchase of the new house.

We did so much charging around in town and then did a full Sainsbury’s shop so we decided to give the Health Club a miss. I was able to watch the Test Match, grill lamb steaks and mixed vegetables outside in the garden and generally chill out. It gave me chance to read through my Blog list and the Greek newspapers. As predicted, of course, a breakaway of 25 Syriza MPs has formed a new party under the leadership of former Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis.

It is to be known as Popular Unity, and will campaign on an anti-austerity platform. As the third largest party, it has to be given the chance to form a government before Elections (εκλογές) are called – probably on September 20th or 27th. The economy is on autopilot again thanks to political developments. Ironically, thunder storms and strong winds are forecast over Greece this weekend.

22nd August, 2015

A hot and sunny day – forecast to reach somewhere between 29C-32C/84F-90F. It is a day when Mum would have been red-faced as she complained about the heat. Even so, it would have been her 92nd birthday today so Happy Birthday, Mum.

This is her, aged 13 in 1936, on holiday in Brighton with her father – the dandy – Grandad Coghlan.

We’ve got a busy few weeks ahead – just as we like it. We have to do as much as we can in preparation for our sale/purchase and removal from our current property. We will shortly be going back to Greece. Almost immediately after our return, we will leave for France and, in the latter half of October, spend some time in Yorkshire. It is possible that we will have moved out by then but we would rather stall that until the end of October. After we’ve moved out, we would like to rent somewhere in Europe for a month or so. I have a feeling we’re going to be tired by Christmas!

9th August, 2015

Gorgeous, gorgeous morning of High Summer. Sitting in the sun, drinking freshly made cappuccino and reading The Sunday Times on my iPad. What more can you ask for?

Read a couple of lovely jokes in the papers over the past, two days:

What do you call an Australian who is good with a bat? …….. a vet!

Hedgehogs…………Why can’t they share the hedge?

In spite of the lovely day, I must go for a workout. I feel lethargic after my day off yesterday.

The gym was totally empty. I had the equipment completely to myself at 11.30 on a Sunday morning. What’s wrong with everyone? They can’t be still in bed, surely! I did my hour and then drove home in 26C/79F of delicious sunshine. As soon as I walked out of the garage, I saw a couple standing in the gardens, looking at our property. When we approached them, they apologised profusely and said they had booked a viewing for Tuesday evening because that was the only time they could get out of work to view together. We took them round the property immediately. It turns out that they were buying for her mother who has sold a property in Sydney, Australia and was looking to relocate nearer to them in Guilford/Woking area. Nice people who liked the property, We will see what happens.

10th August, 2015

A hot and sweaty day. In the morning, Pauline made a lovely, Lemon Cake for Phyllis and Colin who are coming round for coffee tomorrow.

We were just preparing to leave for the Health Club when the Estate Agent phoned to say the couple who dropped by on spec. yesterday with a prospect of viewing ‘officially’ on Tuesday, had rung this morning and offered the full asking price which, not surprisingly, we have accepted. It is £40,000 more than it was valued at last Autumn and almost double what we paid for it four years ago. To add to our joy, the buyer is a cash buyer – lady returning from Australia who has no furniture. She is interested in buying ours. For the second time in five years, we may be having a clean and light move where we can start afresh with everything new – lovely! They are coming round tomorrow to talk about the furniture and its cost.

We are going back to Greece soon but expect to be moving out of here by the end of November. We don’t expect to be moving in to our new house until February/March at the earliest so we may take a long term let abroad – France or Italy or maybe even Canary Islands. Could be fun.

We were just settling down for the evening when, about 9.30 pm, a knock came on the door. A young man – mid 20s or so – was standing there in running gear. He explained that he had bought one of the flats here and moved in recently. He was a banker and worked in the centre of London. He runs to the station in the morning, showers and changes at work and then runs back to the train station after work and back to his flat when getting off the train. He’d just completed this activity tonight when he realised that he had left his key at work.

He was stuck outside his flat sweating in his running gear with nowhere to shower or sleep. To add to his plight, his mobile phone was flat. To make it worse, the only person he knew living within reach was his ex-girlfriend who he was reluctant to call on. He suddenly thought of someone about five miles away. We drove him round and everything was resolved.

11th August, 2015

Another day of high humidity. We tidied the apartment prior to visitors coming for coffee but didn’t go to the Health Club because, when our visitors had left, we set about listing all the furniture, etc that we were happy to include in the sale. We searched out and haggled over prices and then I typed it all up.

Our buyers returned with the estate agent and confirmed that they wanted the whole process to go through as quickly as possible. The husband didn’t want his Mother-in-Law returning from Australia and living with him any longer than need be. He has the cash and wants the property as soon as possible.

Now, we are pleased to have sold so quickly but we also have to sign a deal on a new and much bigger property. This apartment was fine for when we were spending our summers in Greece but now we want a substantial, new-build house with real space.

12th August, 2015

The day after our property sale was confirmed, we have gone into hyperdrive:

• The first job was to select, check out and engage legal services for Property Conveyancing. It is possible for this job to be done by legal firms from Landsend to John O’Groats and we were offered by legal teams across the country with guaranteed fees ranging from £600.00 – £2000.00 (€840 – €2800). I felt slightly guilty about being timid but we chose a Woking firm with a fee of around £1000.00 / €1400.
• The next job was to inform our Management Company of our impending activity. They will have to provide solicitors with documentation and us with returned, pre-paid Service Charge for about five months. We will also have a large part of our Heating charges returned.
• We then had to hook our Estate Agent up with the legal firm and the Management Company.
• Pauline returned to searching new-build properties, identifying and researching geographical areas and then contacting Developers about timescales. She’s been doing this for some time but her efforts are now recharged with purpose.
• I had the lovely job of emailing people to let them know our news and then to begin researching potential European rentals for when we move out and are waiting for our new house to be completed.

13th August, 2015

A hot, steamy day of high humidity. We are progressing our situation by phoning Developers in the southern Counties to find out about availability and timing of properties we would consider buying. My job is to consider the finances and arrangements for it when we’ve sold. In January, the Bank Guarantee Scheme only covers us for £75,000 (€106,000) instead of the current £85,000 per person per Bank. This is because it is roughly the equivalent of €100,000. So, any one Bank will guarantee our Joint Account for just £150,000 (€212,000). In October/November, I will have to find six, separate institutions in which to deposit money if I want our deposit to be completely safe before we purchase our new house.

We went to the Health Club for the first time since Monday. Because of the break, it felt quite hard. I felt better about myself afterwards though. We ate a very simple meal of cold fish and salad which felt good in the heat of the day. ‘A’ Level results are out today. One of Pauline’s family is mid-6th Form course and struggling a bit. Lots of us are late developers. I did a quick search and found a wonderful course at the University of Greenwich with a low entry requirement and, as I wrote to him about it, I found myself thinking – I’d like to do that. It was a sandwich course over 4 years –

BA (Hons) Public Relations & Communications

You never know. I might apply.  Unfortunately, I will be 68 when I graduate. Will I still be employable?

14th August, 2015

Mild but moist day today. We did our supermarket shopping and then Pauline stayed at home to receive a parcel delivery while I went to the Health Club. Pauline had ordered a set of suitcases which, I must admit, I took a little persuading with the colour. It is called Chartreuse in the marketing blurb. I was persuaded with the argument that, not only would it stand out at the airport but was the ‘in colour’ for this winter. To prove this, my wife took me in to a number of dress shops where clothes featuring this colour were coming on to the rails. Nice try but I can’t afford new clothes as well!

Of course, by the time I had got home from my exercise, no parcel had been delivered and wasn’t until 7.00 pm. We will use these cases for our trip to Greece, a trip to Yorkshire and a trip to France. We will probably go away for two or three months after leaving our property and before  any new build is ready to move in to. We can’t decide whether to rent a property in the South of France or in Tuscany/Umbria in Italy for three months or to get guaranteed sun and relaxation with a couple of months or so in a hotel in the Canary Islands.

The Greek Parliament may have agreed the new austerity policies forced on them by Europe although it may be at the cost of the Government with the strong possibility of a General Election in September. Kathimerini features a cartoon today which appealed to me:

Images of floods of migrants washing up on the shores of Aegean islands are playing even less well across Europe than the earlier economic instability. There is a hint of lawlessness subtly  underplaying the implied atmosphere. The Daily Express has run and article warning of the dangers of holidaying in Greece. Under a headline of

The most dangerous holiday destinations

they say that  Holiday makers travelling to Greece were warned of moped and car accidents, sexual assault and violence on the streets. 

15th August, 2015

Interesting day. We bought a house. It is on the south coast in Angmering. A four bed property with two bathrooms, study and garage and south west facing garden, it will suit us well for a year or two.

Unfortunately, it won’t be available to move in to until February/March. I feel a long trip abroad coming on.

2nd August, 2015

All the roads are closed for miles around us for the Prudential Ride London-Surrey Cycle Event.

It is an absolutely beautiful day for it – warm and sunny – but it is still annoying if you suffer the tyranny of cyclists clogging up the roads all week and then find them taking over completely on Sunday. I wouldn’t mind if they paid road fund licence fees, took safety tests and carried insurance but they don’t. They think they are a law unto themselves, undertaking traffic, jumping the lights and, in Surrey, riding on the pavements. Most other places in the country, riding on the pavements can be punished with an on-the-spot fine but, in Surrey, it seems to be encouraged. We are trying to get to a barbecue less than five miles away and hoping the cycling stasi have reached nirvana. I’ll let you know. ….. ….

…. Fortunately, a plague of cyclists, as they are known, had gone home for their teas by the time we ventured out for a lovely barbecue in the garden with ten family members. They cooked wonderful steaks and salmon kebabs, chicken kebabs and pork & chorizo sausages. Pauline had made lemon meringue and lemon cheese cake to go with a huge, Eton Mess. The weather was hot and sunny right up until the time we left at 9.00 pm. A lovely day.

3rd August, 2015

Woke up feeling tired and it has remained with me all day. We decided not to go to the Health Club. Had to take Pauline in to town for a eye test and a couple of pairs of new reading glasses. Age comes to us all and so does tiredness. I did some sedate research for Paulines nephew who is considering taking a Degree in Journalism next year. Just reading the courses made me want to start all over again!

Reported in The Times today is the story of Cristiano Ronaldo who was best man for Jorge Mendes, his agent, at his wedding on Sunday. Ronaldo gave him a wedding present of – a Greek island. We don’t know which one yet but it is rumoured to be Sifnos.

4th August, 2015

Overcast day reaching 23C/71F which feels disappointing for August. We have spent an hour on exercise in the gym and the rest just pottering today. Feels lazy but we are retired. In Britain, the government starts to return the Royal Bank of Scotland and, apart for quibbles at its price, there is little opposition. In Greece, a plan to privatize €50 billion worth of Greek state-owned assets is not so popular. In fact, Greeks have an historical aversion to selling off State-owned assets. However, this is how the world looks when you are in hock to the Germans.

5th August, 2015

An overcast day of 24C/75F. We went on a wild goose chase to antique shops in the area looking for a replacement glass shade after one was broken by a house viewer who was trying to open a window.

We had owned the lamp for the whole of our married life – it even featured in our wedding photographs back in 1978. The Estate Agent’s insurance will fund a replacement but we can’t find one. Pauline researched on the net and lined up a number of local antique shops to visit. This morning we drove to three and found that none were still trading. So much for the internet’s currency. Ironically, as soon as we got home, the estate agent phoned through to book another viewing of our property tomorrow.

Articles in Kathimerini and Ta Nea today sound like Greece returning to bad, old ways although they come, in part, from Syriza’s need to address the problems:

• A 53-year-old woman is accused by the Financial Police of illegally drawing her dead mother’s two pensions and disability benefits for eight years, costing the IKA Social Security Foundation at least 140,000 euros, according to investigators.
• Tax evasion is most prevalent among businesses that operate at night in tourism destinations, and mostly concerns the failure to issue receipts, according to data from the latest inspections.
• Greek farmers gear up for protests.
• Several Greek domestic and international flights were cancelled on Wednesday as air traffic controllers went on strike.

The whole thing does sound rather like déjà vu all over again.

6th August, 2015

An interesting day that started with a Windows 10 upgrade. Yes, I know, I’m a geek. I love to learn new skills, try out new computer platforms, trial new gadgets. Many people, particularly as the get older, don’t want things to change. I am the exact opposite. I constantly want to move forward and leave the past behind. I know I’m only talking about a new, computer platform but it is a test to crack.

Although I’m enjoying navigating my way through the new platform but one unfortunate corollary of the upgrade is that a now defunct version of Ms Excel badged Ms Money – an Accounts software package – will run on the new platform and there will be no upgrade. Pauline has been maintaining our household accounts using this software for 30 years. One of my jobs will be to research and plug that gap. I’m looking at one called BankTree.

We had to leave our property by 12.15 pm to allow a viewing. We combined it with our fourth trip to the Health Club this week. We are trying hard on our eating plan which isn’t difficult with so much lovely fish and bountiful mountains of fresh fruit. We are maxing out on strawberries, raspberries, cherries and peaches. Our meal was smoked salmon, king prawns, small prawns, Greek Salad and Avocado salad. It was accompanied by sparkling water because we are in the first week of an alcohol-free-August. It was delightful for a day that reached 26C/79F.

Of course the day was topped off by Englands demolition of Australia in the fourth Ashes Test at Trent Bridge. Australia were skittled out for a record breaking 60 all out. Stuart Broad was the hero of the day with 8 wickets.

7th August, 2015

A lovely, warm day which brought England within a breath of winning the Test Match and the Ashes. Tomorrow is said to be an even nicer day and England should wrap it up by lunchtime even though we don’t eat lunch.

We have had 2 – 3000 potential migrants knocking on the Channel Tunnel door for the past few months and one or two have managed to get in. UNHCR has bitterly criticised Greece for failing to address its immigrant influx. Tsipras described it as a crisis within a crisis. EU border agency Frontex said that almost 50,000 migrants arrived in the EU in July via Greece, compared to 41,700 in all of 2014. The UNHCR said that the total figure for the year so far stands at around 124,000, which is more than 750 % up on the same period in 2014. How on earth Greece is able to deal with the flood of migrants washing up on its island I don’t know.

Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR director for Europe, said:

The level of suffering we have seen on the islands is unbearable. People arrive thinking they are in the European Union. What we have seen was not anything acceptable in terms of standards of treatment.

The UNHCR director had been visiting the Greek islands of Lesvos, Kos and Chios.

8th August, 2015

A really enjoyable day which reached 26C/79F with strong sunshine. For us, it was a day off work. After five, consecutive days of work out in the gym, we still got up at 7.00 am but read the paper, drank fresh coffee, sat in the sunshine, watched the Test match completed with a comprehensive win by England of the match and the Ashes series.

Phyllis and Colin wanted some help with booking a hotel on Booking.com. I use it all the time – so much so that I now get 10% reductions on all prices. We booked it, printed all the paperwork and nipped to their house with the results. The crucial thing was that I was home in time to watch Man. Utd. win the opening match of the new Premier League season against Spurs.

It was nice to have a day off but I will be back at the Health Club tomorrow. The only problem is that Parliament is in recess so I won’t have a political programme to to distract me from the effort.