February 2008 Newsletter
Introduction
February's newsletter is predictably late! I don't know where the time has been going lately!

We started the month with our son David still here for a few more days. We think that he at least has had a break from work which cannot be a bad thing. David and I at least agree that work is the curse of the drinking classes!

We anticipate that the weather will probably be the worst of the year. February is normally cold and very wet, or at least it has been since we moved to Greece. It's something like a British winter with a few nice days. We shall have to see.

Tricia's Mum’s hip operation appears to be progressing well and we anticipate her being returned home in a week or two. It has been a real worry for us as we have had to rely upon information from Tricia's sister, Sandra, who has been providing constant updates. It has clearly been an enormous strain for Sandra and her Dad making daily visits to the hospital. We hope that Mum will be home soon. At that point Tricia can make a decision about visiting and maybe lending a helping hand - if only to give her Dad some respite for a short period.

Well that has set the scene for February so I suppose we ought to see what the reality brings!

February 2008
True to form 1st February was showery. I was due a blood test and so my first job was to present myself at the local laboratory in Acharavi. After completing that chore I restocked the animals feed in Roda before returning home to where Tricia was spending 'quality time' with David! (Well preparing lunch, anyway!)

In the evening, we took David to Maestro Taverna for dinner. The meal was excellent. So far we have had better meals out than when we took David out the last time he was here. (Thankfully!)

The showers continued into Saturday 2nd February. We all spent the day pursuing a number of our collective favourite pastimes - eating, drinking and watching football!

Lunch was a superb 'all day breakfast' at 'The Pirates Bar' in Roda. We are glad to say that it was up to their usual high standard. Later, we watched Portsmouth draw 1 - 1 with Chelsea before going for our evening meal at 'Agonari Taverna' Anther good meal.

There was no let up with the weather on Sunday 3rd February. In fact, when I got up there was a really thick fog. We hoped that this was not going to be repeated the following morning as David was due to be leaving for the UK on the early flight from Corfu to Athens.

Tricia had promised David a traditional Sunday roast that evening which left the rest of the day to take care of. David wanted to visit the Kafeneio to say goodbye to Philipos as his holiday was drawing to a close. It came as no surprise to find Yiorgos our builder in there when we arrived! By the time we had downed a few drinks, David confessed that he was starving. Tricia mentioned sandwiches for lunch. David suggested Gelati's! David's vote won, especially as he volunteered to treat us!

We finished off lunch with a couple of special whiskies courtesy of Dad. It seemed only fair as David paid for lunch. David was impressed with Gelati's prices and spent much of the afternoon trying to work out how he (Spiros) could possibly make a living! It goes without saying that Tricia's Sunday roast in the evening was up to her usual high standard. If nothing else, our 'little boy' was not going to return home hungry the next day!

The 4th February saw us up bright and early to get David to the airport. Thankfully there was not a repeat of the previous day's fog and his flight departed on time. The journey home went smoothly with none of the trials and tribulations of his outbound flight. Suffice to say that the early start left Tricia and I shattered for the rest of the day.

Tuesday 5th February saw some of the worst weather this year. The rain was truly torrential and it was accompanied by a real thunderstorm. I can vouch for all of this. Firstly because I was out in it driving up to Mike Beckett's house and secondly because when I returned home I found that the phones were out again. On this occasion I was convinced that the modem was alright on account of the extra surge protection.

The weather was the least of our worries. We received disturbing information from Tricia's sister, Sandra, that their Mum had attempted to get up in the night and had fallen. It appeared that someone had forgotten to put the rails up on the side of her bed. There was now the prospect of a further operation. This was disturbing news for the whole family and needless to say, came as something of a shock as Mum appeared to be progressing so well.

That afternoon, I visited the laboratory to collect the results of my earlier blood test. More bad news! The readings were seriously high. I felt really depressed about this as I didn't think that I had been overdoing things over Christmas. I guess that what made it more depressing was that I actually felt really well! Oh well, there was going to be one unhappy diabetic nurse when I next spoke to her! It occurred to me that I could lie to her but then, at the end of the day, I would only be kidding myself.

The weather brightened on Thursday 7th February as did my disposition. The OTE engineer came to fix our phone. For once it was not the modem that had fried in the storm. The engineer expressed satisfaction that his previous advice had worked. This time it was the actual wall socket. (If only I had known as I had a spare!) The engineer must have been in a really good mood as he left me a brand new modem in case of further problems. Why would he do this you might ask? Simple. It's a long way for him to come from Skripero!

The only downside of the day came when I telephoned the diabetic clinic. No, I didn't lie about my test results! Predictably, the diabetic nurse was not impressed and upped my medication. Ho hum!

The brighter weather continued but at the same time the temperatures started to fall quite significantly - particularly overnight. Following my visit to Mike Beckett's on the 5th, I had been kicking around the idea of transferring our cd and record collection to mp3 format. As the new car had provision to play mp3 files it seemed a good idea as the prospect of getting 4 or 5 music cd's transferred to just one cd was particularly tempting.

Tricia's Mum remained in hospital and to be truthful, the low esteem in which I hold the NHS as an organisation has plummeted to new depths.

Although relatively cold, particularly at night, the weather continued to be bright and sunny. We managed to force ourselves out for a meal at Maestro Taverna on Saturday, 9th February and on Sunday, 10th we decided to go out for a ride down the coast road. Apart from anything else, it gave us an opportunity to give the newly cleaned car a run out!

There was an additional motive for this trip apart from enjoying the sunny views. A friend is having a house built in Tanzanatika and we had promised to check out the site in their absence. Suffice to say that we were relieved to find that there were definite signs of work having started. Come on! This Greece and Greek builders that we are talking about!

On the 11th, Tricia and I set about cleaning out the loft area of all the concrete that I had chiselled up in an attempt to level the floor prior to battening and laying the floorboards. I knew that we had left those incomplete flower beds for a purpose. It may help with drainage. At least that's what we keep telling ourselves!

Life continued pretty much as normal for the next few days with the occasional phone calls to TBW and the usual lies. The weather also continued to be beautifully bright and sunny. Winter has been remarkably mild this year. Then on February 14th things became ... er ... interesting!

It was of course, St Valentine's Day. and we started receiving messages from friends and family along the lines of, "Did the earth move for you?" "How (in)appropriate!", we thought. It was only when we turned on Sky News that we discovered that mainland Greece had been rocked by a major earthquake. We were totally oblivious to it. Thankfully, there were no casualties that we were aware of.

The bright weather continued although there was an occasional overnight shower. Do you recall how cold we mentioned it was getting at night? Well, on Sunday, 17th February we awoke to no water and frozen pipes. Fortunately, as the day warmed up, the pipes thawed without bursting. That night the temperature fell to -4°C. and the pipes froze again! Suffice to say that once we thawed out again, we decided to lag the outside taps and the water meter. The water company were shrewd that night. They turned off the supply! That was the night that it didn't freeze!

On Tuesday, 19th February we decided to go out for a trip down to the south of the island as it was such a nice day. We renewed our acquaintance with Kavos! God! It is an ugly place, even in winter. However it still has a fantastic beach. It's a shame about how the place has developed over the years. We had a chuckle at some of the bar and restaurant names. There was one that brought back memories of the old Harry Enfield comedy sketch with the Kebab shop owner 'Stavros'. There emblazoned over the shop was "Stavros Kebab Innit"!. (If you don't see the joke, try saying this with a Greek accent!)

We stopped off for a coffee in Lefkimmi at a little place by the river. Tricia was keen to try the 'River Taverna' (made popular by Rick Stein) but it was too early. After our coffees we were chatting to the owner and her English daughter-in-law. I recounted our visit to Kavos and in particular our amusement at the Kebab house, "Stavros Kebab Innit". Everybody had a good laugh. Then we made to leave and I spotted the name of the place that we had just patronised. It was called, "The Cheeky Face"! I can only assume that it has lost something in the translation from Greek. Don't get us wrong. The service was good and from what we have been told since, they do very good food. We will return one day.

The next day, we worked all morning in the vegetable garden and the kitchen garden. Unsurprisingly when it came to lunch Tricia felt like a break. We decided upon lunch at Gelati's! We had just sat down when we were joined by friends Debbie and Doug. We had just about finished our meals when in walked Yiorgos our builder. We shared a few stories and a couple of drinks before deciding to beat a hasty retreat. This had the makings of becoming something of a session!

We decided to call in on Pete and Carol to see how their work on the house was progressing on Saturday, 23rd February. Strewth! Had they been working? Things were really taking shape. However, Pete was definitely suffering and was having difficulty getting up every time he sat down for a rest. He has had an ongoing problem and to be honest we are concerned that he may be overdoing things. We can do no more than express our concerns.

That night we all went to Agonari Taverna for a meal. I really like this place. It is very popular with Greeks and as usual we were the only foreigners in there. Tricia and I were surprised at how quiet it was. It was far from empty but we would have anticipated there being at least twice as many people in there. Despite the lack of clientele, the music was good and the food excellent. Carol commented that it was the first time in a long while that they had been out for a traditional Greek meal. I guess that sums the place up well - traditionally Greek.

The weather continued to be nice. It was sunny but not too hot. In fact it was ideal for working in the garden. In the next few days I managed to rotovate the vegetable plot - twice! We have had plans to grow grapes and last year I had taken cuttings from Philipos' vines and planted them in a row, the length of the vegetable plot.

Most appeared to have caught and so I erected galvanised poles and threaded steel cables between them in the hope that we can train them along the wires. Rather than having them grow over a pergola, we want them nothing higher than head height. We may get less of a crop but they will be easier to pick. Bear in mind that as much as I like them their sugar content for a diabetic is a bit on the high side and as for wine ... Still Tricia has none of these inhibitions!

After the success of Tricia's strawberry plants in the kitchen garden last year, we decided to move most of them to a permanent strawberry patch in the vegetable garden where it would be easier to manage them. They went berserk last year and took over! We still have a few plants in pots on the kitchen terrace which are flowering already and look really healthy. We watch their progress with interest.

By the 28th February the temperatures reached 17°C. and I was pleased to have an excuse not to work in the garden! I had received a phone call from Philipos who was having troubles with his new computer. In fact he only wanted to set up a new email account. It was the best excuse to visit the kafeneio in a long time. Yes, believe it or not I only drank coffee!

With that job sorted, I returned home where we received a phone call from Pete. He wanted to collect a couple of spare sheets of plasterboard that I had over-ordered for the loft. It wasn't long before he and Carol arrived. I was wondering what I would do with a couple of surplus sheets of plasterboard!

The car endured yet another wash that afternoon.

On the 29th February, we finished the month by visiting friends, Neal and Bev who had just completed on the purchase of a house in Agios Nikolas near Petriti in the south of the island. What a nice place. We were impressed by the size of the rooms and the orchard out the back. They have great ideas for how they want to develop the house over time. We shall be interested to see the end product.

We had an excellent lunch at a taverna on the beach at nearby Notos (I think it was Notos!) The food was simple but good and very fresh. The owner was a jolly man who must be in his seventies. He never stopped singing! It was a real taste of how Corfu used to be. We actually rate the South of the island for this reason. Yes, there are places there that we don't like. Equally there are places in the North of the island that we don't rate. The south is refreshingly different.

Conclusion
Well we have had a bonus with an extra day in February for the leap year. It has been a month of mixed emotions for us. At the forefront of our minds has been Tricia's Mum languishing in an NHS hospital and clearly not progressing as well as we and the rest of the family would have anticipated. Tricia is devastated and will undoubtedly be visiting as soon as Mum is allowed home, if only to give her Dad and sister Sandra a break. We all expected Tricia's Mum to be home long ago. I regret to say that we are of the opinion that the delay has been through negligence ... but that is another story.

Our dispositions have been improved by the continuing mild weather for the time of year. The fact that we have managed to make up time with our gardens has helped. It is so nice to be able to be outside on a regular basis. Life in Greece is, after all, lived mainly outside! Despite a couple of days where we experienced freezing conditions we have escaped any damage to our water system. At least we have been prompted into lagging the exposed parts that we can't turn off.

David's visit over the end of January into the beginning of this month was an unexpected bonus. We expect a couple of visits over the summer but an unexpected visit during the winter was really welcome. Yes, in case you missed it, that was a hint!

Well now, what have we to look forward to next month? Hopefully Tricia's Mum will be home from hospital. Then of course there's our Greek tax returns ... Joy!

See you all next month. Sorry for the delay with this month's epistle!

Bob & Tricia