What a welcome

We're back, we're brown and quite chilled out, already missing long lazy days by the sea, frappe in hand.

I see the political climate hasn't improved during our holiday, in fact it seems to be worse, TV news seems sadly all too similar to what it was almost 4 weeks ago.

This however sums it up for me:

You never had it so good, Invictor

Aging rockers they may be and the lip sync is crap but the words are brilliant. Watch it and weep.

Interlude

It has been a frantic week mostly spent dealing with an elderly woman who is determined to starve herself to death. She neither wants to eat nor drink nor let anyone help her. It is sad. After discharge from hospital last week things got worse. Today it all came to a head and finally a patient, kind district nurse with the temperament and voice of a sergeant major finally got our lady moving again and mobilised the troops so from tomorrow the long suffering family will not have to cope alone. My sister in law is beyond words, barely able to speak after daily, in fact hourly battles of wills, unable to fathom how someone could let themself go in this manner. Serious illness has been ruled out. A perverse desire to be supremely awkward is the consistent diagnosis.

Meanwhile I have taken refuge in my genealogy, odd moments at the ends of the days where I can think about something else. I was researching some Romany family. Well what a surprise that turned out to be and no picnic either. It seems amid the depths of the message boards and history web sites, dark forces are lurking and nasty comments and messages lead to massive fallings-out, board wars and worse. Some sites have all but closed. People I thought were friendly are revealed in their full-blown nastiness. I can't believe the things that were said about squabbles several years old and obviously involving people who know each other away from the internet. I am sad, disillusioned and disheartened and began to wonder if it was all worth it. I had some of my work plagiarised in the past, in one instance several years ago a whole family tree I passed to someone for their perusal suddenly turned up all over the net. A couple of more recent things have turned up too but nothing on such a scale as then. Discussing this recently in general on a website I was astounded to be almost hounded to say who had done it. It seemed my interrogator had a guilty conscience but I desisted from getting involved. This then followed me to another website where I had seen none of the embattled for days and was gaily chatting about something completely different. Those who did get involved were followed all over the net by individuals who feel that they have an axe to grind and a point to make but their logic and grammar is so hard to follow, no-one can really tell what it's all about. I don't care, it was the principal that was at stake and in future I won't be sharing anything.

So genealogy hasn't given me any respite at all. One thing that will however begins tomorrow, we finally return to Greece and our lovely Kalamos. The weather there is 30 degrees and sun is forecast for weeks. I'll think of you on the beach on Wednesday. See you in June.

Little things....

Did you see my fish? Unashamedly pinched the idea from velo-gubbed-legs.

I love 'em, reminds me of blue skies, hot sun and clear blue seas. It's only taken me a week to realise though, they're even cooler than I thought.

Did you see what happens if you click on them and feed them? Smart.

Doesn't take much does it??

The start of a love affair

Coming to the end of yet another horrid, wet, English summer which in my book is the second which has beenmruined by all the problems we have had with this house move, I have to face that it's highly unlikely that I will be going to Greece again this year. The downturn in the building trade here means that WH has to work while he still has work and so has been unable to finish our new place. Having given up over 5 months last winter to the build, which with hindsight was a total waste of time given the vagaries of the weather (again) and his fellow workers who let us down in droves, his customers won't wait any longer. I don't mind this, after all he is earning when other local builders are not. What I do mind is having had no real taste of warm weather other then during Grandad's Holiday in late May. I am also missing Greece itself and our usual leisurely stays in the back of beyond places we both love.

My love affair with Greece began as a teenager. My required O' Level English reading, along with a million other kids, was My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell's account of his family's sojourn in Corfu in the 1920's. I was instantly drawn to this strange sounding country where interesting wildlife abounded, the people were strange, views were magical and you were never more than a few miles from the sea. The descriptions of exotic plants which my father had planted in our garden and which we fussed over to keep alive in the English Midlands but which grew wild in Corfu fascinated me. In those days I didn't like the heat so wasn't really bothered on that score. I read and re-read that book a hundred times in my late teens and twenties.

It was not until I took up with WH that I actually got to go there. In 1994, the girls were whisked off by their mother to Ibiza for a fortnight giving only 2 hours notice to WH. He freaked as he had done the previous year when a similar thing had happened and so, like the previous year when he was advised by his GP, we decided to go away ourselves. His house would not seem so empty if we ourselves were not there either. In those days, pre-internet (for us anyway), we abandoned looking for cheap deals on Teletext and called the agent direct. We stood in WH's porch listening to the phone between us, WH did the talking. By then of course, I was sick and not able to walk far, the first holiday he was offered was in Paxos, a villa in the Olive groves up a steep hill. He declined. Further unsuitable offers were also turned down. Finally he was agreeing to one, from Birmingham later that week. By then I had tired of standing and was sitting on the bottom of the stairs unable to hear the 'other end'. Having given all his credit card details the call abruptly came to an end. WH was not over impressed but it was a holiday after all and a cheap one at that. "I don't know what the accommodation will be but they assure me it will be on the flat. Allocation on arrival or some such name, they tell you all the details when you land. Oh it's Corfu, don't know what that will be like". My heart leapt, I was finally going.

We went in late May in a heatwave. Our accommodation proved to be a 2 bedroom apartment in a block of 6 overlooking a meadow of wild flowers just off the centre of Roda. We also had a full sized kitchen, two bathrooms and a shower with a curtain, unheard of in those days. It was on the ground floor, had a terrace giving onto the field and which was planted with bright flowers amongst which lived a whole army of little lizards. In two minutes you could be on the beach; round the corner, down the main street of the old village, past the church, on past the old ladies sitting in a row of hard chairs along their house walls, past the kafenion with it's whiff of ouzo, strong coffee and cigarette smoke and the old men arguing outside and walk through a gap between two cafes, the sparkling water visible through the little alleyway. I loved it. We had a bakery on 'our' corner and we went every morning for bread and pastries, sugary, vanilla-ey and cinnamonney scents teasing our taste buds. In those days a loaf was 270 drachma, about 54 pence, a yardstick I still measure the prices with today, only now the currency is the Euro (Evro) and bread is more than 60 cents (lepta).

We didn't do much on that first trip, we were too much in awe of the place and money was tight. We did hire a car for a couple of days and WH began to hone his skills as a Greek driver. 14 years later he slots in effortlessly. We drove around and everywhere we went Cistus sunroses abounded along with fields of myriad wild flowers. Little churches sat on hillsides, old cottages with tumbledown roofs had yards full of geraniums planted in blue painted feta tins, old ladies in black followed herds of goats for miles on the roads in the hills, men carried bundles of sticks whilst riding side-saddle on dusty, sad looking donkeys, chickens flapped out of hedges. Taking a picture in Sinies village one mid morning the whole school of 14 children fell out in to the street and posed for camera unbidden, along with a tiny sandy puppy clutched by a waif like 6 year old with dark eyes and a coy smile, "Hello" they chanted, "English? Thank you" as if by rote. One of the most brilliant sights was on the road along the the sea front in Roda itself, a piece of waste ground next to a moped rental lot. There were a couple of scrubby trees and chickens pecked amongst the dirt and greenery underneath them, taking to the branches in the heat of the day. One day the place was transformed, the greenery had flowered to become a vibrant square of brilliant red poppies.

That was the week which really kindled the fire. We have returned to Corfu 6 times since together and WH even took the girls on an 18 to 30's holiday in Kavos on another occasion, just Dad and 3 teenage girls. Together we have always stayed in the north and love the quieter more laid back spots. We've also been all over Greece since some years going 3 times. We want to live there eventually but sadly probably not in Corfu. We love the quieter, totally Greek places now and somewhere sleepy on the mainland beckons, maybe somewhere in Pelion although that is getting quite touristy now, maybe on the Amvrakikos gulf, Amphilochia perhaps, where we once had a wonderful Sunday lunch and not a Brit in sight (or sound), maybe near Volos airport at Nea Anchialos, the centre of a growing wine region. Wherever we end up it will always be that first holiday to Corfu we will remember the most, the week that sowed the seeds of a dream.

More snippets from last week

"I'm singing you my butterfly sitting in the car song" - Grandaughter aged 4.

We found a dormouse living in an olive tree in the garden.

In a restaurant the waiter insisted in calling me Momma. Was it my size or my organisation skills which prompted that? Or maybe because I paid the bill, for 11.

Grandaughter managed to turn upside down in her inflatable in the pool. "I forgot my arm bands wasn't I silly?" Dad jumped in fully clothed and hauled her out whilst the assembled group breathed a huge sigh of relief. Daughter 3 remarked he had managed to preserve his cigarette which was still between his lips. "Well you try and relight that then".

Asking for a 'Greek' breakfast in San Stephanos we were offered 'Full English' full stop. What on earth is going on?

Two cats spent the night on a chair outside my window. They hung around for breakfast and shared a lizard. After that we never saw them again.

Collecting the hire cars we were given the keys in order of the driver's name. 4 days later we discovered we were all driving the wrong cars! Note to self: In future check the documents as well, even if they are in Greek.

One whole watermelon is just about big enough for 11 people for a whole week. The pips get everywhere though.

In 30 degree heat I can walk and walk and walk. And swim and swim and swim. Am I better than I was? You bet.

What I did on my holidays

Went on a glass bottomed boat.

Watched the sun rise, twice.

Listened to scops owls.

Ate chicken souvlaki at a restaurant I hadn't been to for 8 years and it still tasted the same.

Swam at Sidari beach and it really is the warmest water in Greece.

Went lizard hunting with the Grandkids.

Watched a young jay drink from our pool.

Taught some of the Grandkids how to hold a crab.

Ate hot cheese dip and crackers.

Sat 2 hours in a restaurant waiting for a power cut to end. Dinner never tasted so good.

Watched my 3 stepdaughters giggling and laughing together like they hadn't for years and years.

Went to Mouse Island and Pontikonisi.

Sat on the Liston with a frappe and people watched.

Saw a Grandad with the biggest smile ever.

Fell asleep to the sound of waves on pebbles.

Snatches of conversations

"Nanny, can I have a oghurt and semonade to drink?"

"All the little houses are getting bigger and bigger through this window"

"Is that a shark or a sardine?"

"I've turned some stones over there, I looked under some here as well, and do you know what Nanny? There aren't ANY pigging crabs"

" Ugh, it's all antsies and they're carrying their Magnix all over"....."Yes I know they look like eggs, I just said, they've got their Magnix"

"Well he can just put that big lobster down and show someone else, I don't want to see it."

"Of course I tried some new food, I had 4 sorts of hotdogs and funny bread, so that's five."

"Do you know, Denmark and Germany get all their electricity from windchimes."

"I'm so brave I'm going to jump in that stream and catch a turtle right now. Oh no I don't think I will, it's all slimy"

"I'm going to live here for ever, well if I can bring my own bed and a tv"

"Aunty, you can just get straight back in that pool and come out the proper way. BY THE STEPS, right."

The holiday is over, now the memories start.

The joys of spring

I did something today which I had not been able to do for 16 years, since I was first ill. I went to Exeter shopping on my own. I had a good reason to go, I got my ring back, fixed. It's smaller and looks great, especially since they seem to have cleaned it and made it look ever more sparkly.

Exeter has always bothered me as far as driving there alone goes. I don't know the road system too well, I never know where to park that isn't a two mile hike to the shops and then I get lost. Since they opened the Princesshay shopping centre and another new car park it seems easier, so today I took the plunge. It was great, it was warm,19 degrees C when I left which was not bad for April, there were no big crowds and best of all I went in new shops and bought new clothes and a handbag and generally had lovely time. Later on I went to see a friend who owns a shop in the city and had a coffee and sit down with her and then went back and did a bit more window shopping before driving home.

So far this week I've been really busy, have been out every day, done loads of gardening too, and still feel fitter than I have done for more years than I want to count. Granted the weather has something to do with it but I just feel alive right now. Hopefully I can improve more in the next couple of weeks before I go to Denmark and then on my return I am scheduled for surgery again, afterwards I have 4 weeks to recover then it's the Great Corfu Holiday. Time flies when you're having fun.

Aarhus here we come

As if one Spring holiday and a recent long weekend in the smoke wasn't enough, another trip away has leapt up and bitten us on the proverbial. Ms A, our zany Danish friend and ex-neighbour, is throwing a party to celebrate her son's confirmation in April, the invite arrived on WH's birthday and of course we are going.

What a logistical nightmare. The most convenient flights are from Stansted, a 4 hour drive from here at least, we take off very early in the morning and arrive back at midnight. So that involves a hotel either side. Then we have to get from Aarhus to the family's home much further south, so we have to hire a car. We could get away with a small one but somehow Denmark doesn't do small ones to rent as WH found out last time he went (alone), so big car it is then. Having discovered all this I tried to make all the relevant bookings. For some reason last night all the relevant web sites were either down or running like treacle on ice, not worth waiting for. So this morning I was up with the lark and maxing out the credit card.

All I left have to do now is confirm the car hire, I put this off as it seems so horrendously expensive and I sort of thought that maybe later on it would be cheaper or perhaps I wouldn't notice the huge amount, either way I've postponed this until last. Last time WH went to Denmark we had an argument with the car hire people that went on for months as they insisted he had returned the car empty of petrol and had charged him £70 for the privilege, in reality he had filled it to overflowing 5km from the drop off precisely so he didn't get charged very much.

So now we have 5 days in Denmark to look forward to, only 5 weeks before the big Greek trip, somehow I think the house move will be on hold for even longer.

The secret's out at last.

Worst Half celebrates his birthday in style this weekend. Last night we had Birthday cake, a few presents and told him of his impending suprise. First off was the presentation of a 'Magic Key' fashioned by middle grandson out of tin foil and cardboard, about 10 inches long it obviously opened a very big lock. All the grandkids were shouting 'It's the key of the door, Grandad' but even they didn't know which door and where it was.

Next up he was given an 'itinerary', travel agent style with flight and accomodation details and then the biggest surprise of all, he gets to go on holiday with his 10 closest family. He read it out loud, the kids and Great Nan, who was there to watch, were totally bemused, 'What is it, what is it?' they were all asking.

So elder daughter explained that in the spring we are all off on holiday for a week, the whole family, on an airoplane, and Grandad is over the moon. The key is for the door of the villa we are going to stay in. WH always wanted to do something like this but never had the time or the opportunity. He's been beaming ever since.

As for me it's a huge relief after keeping a secret like this for the best part of 14 months. The logistics of organising 3 families coming from two directions has been almost a nightmare at times. Especially when they all fall out. I must admit they were all threatened that if WH did find out beforehand it would all be 'off'. He would have never agreed if it had not been all signed, sealed and paid for in full, ever mindful of the cost.

So the secret was kept brilliantly until about a month ago then somebody totally unrelated happened to mention to WH that one of us was having trouble getting their passport photo signed. WH repeated the tale to me. Fortunately the News was on TV and I managed to act quickly for once and gestured to him to shut up as I thought I'd just heard that the mortgage rate had gone up. Well that certainly concentrated his mind and the crisis averted. Several days later he returned to the theme again and I was asked what the passport was for, 'EuroDisney with their Mum in September,' I countered, 'Not that it will probably happen, they're too disorganised' and again changed the subject. Then I left the folder containing all details, payments etc, open on the side in the office, he never even noticed. The same week youngest daughter was quizzing him about driving abroad 'In case I go to Switzerland or anything' she added quickly. The grandkids, too, were asking why they needed a passport photograph 'In case you ever go on holiday,' was the swift answer along with a telling off for some minor misdmeanor to avoid any more questions.

Anyway, we can all breathe easy now; the secret's out and has been the main topic of conversation for the last 24 hours. He never suspected a thing, not once, although he thought I'd been spending a lot of time on the phone, and not just business calls either!

At the end of May we are all off to NE Corfu, I just hope Corfu knows what it is in for.

Some of last week's highlights

1. I spent a day in the sun sorting 4 huge piles of bricks.

2. A Mistle thrush set up home in the oak tree opposite my house and has been singing to us ever since.

3. The garage door on the new house finally went on with the help of youngest grandson who insisted on putting in all the 'big' screws himself.

4. I weighed in at the GPs and was 8kg lighter than I was 8 weeks ago. Not bad huh??

5. I made some headway on a puzzling aspect of my family tree but I'm still trying to figure out how my dyed-in-the wool, Cockney, uncle came to be born in Edinburgh.

6. It has been sunny for 6 whole days.

7. I discovered that my new fig tree gets the sun all day every day. That promises even more figs for this year.

I've got to look on the bright side. WH is suffering from extreme stress and clinical depression. Not much fun and mostly caused by one particular customer. We urgently need to get some sun and some rest.

Watch this space.

Greek by numbers

Ena 1 .........Number of Delta Nirvana pralines and cream ice-creams I ate, strangely I only want savoury stuff now but I thought that may have changed when I had another of these, my absolute favourite for so long, sadly it didn't.

Dio 2..........Number of swims before breakfast, well most days anyhow

Tria 3.........Number of oranges to make a glassful of freshly squeezed juice in my 10 euro new juicer

Tessera 4.....Number of cars parallel parked in Argalasti crossroads before the policeman blew his whistle and got them all moved

Pende 5.......Number of moths a gecko can eat in a minute if the going is really good

Eckse 6........Number of waterplanes in view at one time from Affisos beach when they were filling up in the Pagasitic Gulf

Efta 7.........Number of bottles of wine a week we drank on the terrace, yes I know we're both tea-total here but at less than 31 a bottle you have to really!

Octo 8.........Number of kilos of oranges bought for juicing in 2 weeks, not all at the same time, we'd got no where to store them all.

Enea 9.........Number of boats in front of the window in the morning

Deka 10...... Number of frappes two of you can drink in one day. They just don't taste the same here.

Back from the brink

Whew, it was hot out there, 42 degrees when we got to Greece and into a region of severe forest fires. Earlier in the week it had been 47 degrees so we escaped the worst. We spent one night in a hotel as the road was closed at Afites where the fire crossed over and so we couldn't get to Kalamos for 24 hours.

It was worth the wait though. I spent hours and hours in the sea, the locals recognised us from previous visits and we adapted perfectly to life in a small village at the water's edge.

Waterplane just about to scoop from the sea.

Gone away

Just a note to say we are off to Kalamos again tomorrow so I won't be around for a while.

I know I owe people emails but I have had so little time the last couple of weeks I am all behind.

The weather is set to be very hot so we'll be making the most of the sea at the end of the patio.

See you in two and a half weeks.

Not much to say

...other than it has been an extremely busy week so far:

The Painter is in residence sorting out the bathroom
I have spent HOURS on the phone to solicitors, estate agents and the like.
Mr Hippy Chic has been to visit and to collect his post.
WH's No 1 Assistant is coming back from India and bringing his wife to visit too. Yay!
I dug up a huge bush in the back garden.
I'm sunburnt badly from the effects of gardening, so....
I am now sporting a big hat, cotton gloves and fetching zinc white sunblock.
The holiday confirmation arrived.
I have been packing for the move.

I am still feeling so much better. ......