|
Introduction
What can we expect during February?
As we have mentioned before, February can be the coldest and wettest month of the year here in Corfu. To be honest, we have experienced very bad weather from well before last Christmas. As a result, we have tended to spend much more time in doors that we would like.
We have a large olive tree behind our garage which is in desperate need of pruning. Our trusty builder Yiorgos has promised to do this job for us by way of repayment for the loan of our olive nets. Even assuming that he ever gets around to doing the job, it is probably going to be too late. Our wood supply is getting very low but whatever wood is cut from the tree will be too fresh to use this year.
We really have very little planned for this month. It is unlikely that we will get much done in the garden owing to the amount of rain that we have had recently. Still, you never know!
We would like to get the kitchen decorated because it suffers from condensation which has resulted in black mould in the corners. We will have to see whether we can obtain the necessary fungus killer locally before we attempt any decorating.
I guess that it's about time that I started with the month’s newsletter. Let's see what unfolds!
February 2009
Sunday, 1st February was a really nice day. It was sunny but quite chilly. Tricia and I decided that we would go out for lunch as we had been told that Apnoea Taverna had reopened for the first time this year.
The Taverna was open as we had been told. Yiannis, the owner, was pleased to see us. Of course we were pleased to see him again but we were even more pleased to see that there was a table free by the log fire!
The meal was excellent but we have to confess that we thought that prices had gone up. We have since discussed this with many people and the general consensus is that eating out has become a far from cheap pastime. As a result, Tricia and I have spoken to many Taverna owners and explained that they are in danger of pricing themselves out of the market.
We fear for their livelihoods. Many people have told us that they will not give up their holidays but they will, however, cut down on their eating out. Knowing the Greek mentality this is likely to result in them putting their prices up further!
Having had a great meal we returned home in time to watch the Liverpool versus Chelsea football match. Sadly that was not so great. Chelsea lost 2 - 0!
We were up early on 2nd February as we had to take Bella back to the vets in Kanoni. She was only returning to have her final vaccinations and to have the stitch removed following her operation. The vet examined her and pronounced that her heart was good but on examining the inside of her thighs he expressed concern that she may be suffering from leishmaniasis. This is caused by infection from sand fly bites and is fatal.
I pointed out that we had had a blood test done to check for this by another vet and it had proved negative. I was not convinced by his hasty diagnosis and told him so. He conceded that he could be wrong and suggested that we just keep an eye on her and return with her should she exhibit any symptoms. He also showed me where to check her. We recalled that the other vet had examined her there and had commented that she thought her glands were up. This is what had prompted the original blood test.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that Bella will be okay. She has exhibited none of the symptoms that we would expect. Suffice to say, we will be getting her and Jake collars that combat insect bites including those of the sand fly.
On a personal note I was suffering with quite severe pains which I had put down to the fall I had had last month whilst out with Jake. I have to confess that now I'm not so sure. I can cope with the pain during the day but it is much worse when I lay down in bed. Now I know that everybody is going to think that this is an excuse to but I really do not feel up to doing much in the way of physical work. Who said, "No surprises there then!"?
Surprisingly we experienced temperatures of 21° C on 3rd February but this was accompanied by extremely high winds.
I was finally shamed into starting a shelving unit in the kitchen that I had been promising Tricia since we moved here. I had already bought the paint for this job and so have little excuse not to start. As a result whilst out shopping we took a long detour to the nearest wood yard and had the 30 mm MDF cut to size. There really was no going back now!
As I have previously mentioned over the years, I like wood and I like carpentry. The problem is that I am not as good at it as I wish I was. I know my limitations! This particular project was not particularly difficult but actually took me about just over a week complete. This may seem shameful but I do have my excuses ready!
Essentially the unit comprised merely of three shelves. All I needed to do was secure them and make sure that each shelf was level. This did not present too much of a problem. The problem started just after I applied a couple of coats of primer to each shelf.
As every surface of each shelf needed painting it meant that I could only do one side at a time. I had anticipated this and Tricia accepted this as a good excuse for my slow work! Having primed the shelves, I then applied the first coat of top coat. As the surface was perfectly smooth and clean, a roller seemed the ideal tool to apply the paint with. That was my first mistake. I was anticipating that the paint would dry perfectly smooth. What I hadn't anticipated was the large number of hairs that the roller had deposited on the paint!
To add to my woes, the paint that we had bought was the glossiest satin finish that Tricia and I had ever seen! This was a classic example of a product not doing what it said on the can! There was a further delay whilst the paint was allowed to harden sufficiently so that I could sand the shelves back to the primer.
As I've said this little project took forever to complete to my satisfaction and more to the point, Tricia's satisfaction!
Thursday, 5th February was a nice sunny day and I felt inspired to apply weed killer to large sections of the garden in anticipation of re-grassing. Again I had the opportunity to do a job that I had been promising Tricia for weeks. The circular path in the herb garden had been taken over by weeds. That also got the treatment!
On Tuesday, 10th February the weather wasn't too bad in the morning and so we paid a visit to Pete and Carol for coffee. You cannot believe what a change it made to be away from our house.
We had a real mixed bag of weather over the next couple of days. However it brightened up during the early evening of 11th February. On the positive side it provided a photo opportunity looking out towards Albania. We always laugh because however bad the weather is in Corfu, the sun is invariably shining in Saranda! On this occasion, Saranda was bathed in sunlight but there was also a rainbow.
Friday, 13th February was cold but it was also sunny. We were visited by our friend Debbie who needed to use the fax machine. With that mission completed Tricia and I went to Roberto's in Acharavi to see if we could get some paint mixed up that was more to our liking for the shelves in the kitchen.
The paint was just being mixed when Tricia noticed that the can of base paint was in fact gloss! By this time it was too late. The colour had gone in. We pointed out the error which was followed by lots of shouting at the assistant who had produced this wrong can of paint! Eventually we were presented with the satin paint that we had originally asked for. It was just as well because I think that I would have been suicidal had I have applied gloss paint for the second time!
A little more work was done on our new website which outlines how to build a house in Greece. We were both quite pleased with how it was progressing.
That night we decided that Tricia should have a break from cooking dinner and so we went down to Gelati's in Peritheia. I take Tricia to all the best places! In fairness, our meal was of the usual consistently good standard.
The weather was really sunny and dry on Saturday, 14th February so Tricia and I decided to go for a walk along the beach at Kalami for a change.
We were shocked at the amount of debris on the beach. We know that every winter it is the same but we could not remember seeing it in this state before. In addition, the jetty that is known and loved by many visitors had been washed away. Something will have to be done before the start of the new season because this is where the boat taxis collect people to take them to Agni Bay. We have included a couple of photographs which I hope will not distress regular visitors too much!
That afternoon I did a little more work on the new website. It was not too difficult but very time-consuming.
I'm glad to say that Chelsea managed to beat Watford 3 - 1 which lifted our spirits even higher! Add to that, the fact that Nicholas Anelka scored a hat-trick and we were cock-a-hoop!
As we've mentioned before, in amongst the bad weather we do get good days. Sunday, 15 February was one such day. It was sunny with clear blue skies, albeit the temperature was only 2° C when we got up.
After breakfast and walking the dogs, Tricia and I set off for Avlaki. We had been having problems with Bella at night and we thought that she should be put into a dog crate on the theory that she would not mess her bed. We had been kindly offered the loan of such a crate by a lady who runs a horse riding school In Avlaki.
There was an added bonus to this visit in that I managed to get five sacks of manure for the garden as well as the dog crate!
My back was still giving me serious problems. Considering that I had originally fallen over about a month previously, I was beginning to get worried. It wasn't only me though, because Tricia was equally as worried at the prospect of her having to walk both dogs should my back get any worse.
I know that some of you will say that I should not have been shovelling manure! But to be truthful, as I have already mentioned, when I'm upright, I feel fine. However, the pain is a real problem when I go to bed and keeps me awake much of the night. The knock-on effect of this is that Tricia doesn't sleep too well either! Ho hum!
Later that week we decided to take advantage of all the driftwood on the beaches. To be truthful, we actually set out to get more manure for the garden but found the stables closed. Collecting the driftwood was by way of plan ‘B’! Rather than go all the way to Kalami, we decided to try the beach at Kerasia. We were rewarded by the entire back of the car being filled up with wood. This sounds a lot, but in reality it will not last more than a few days and it needs to be dried first.
I know that the weather occupies a lot of our ramblings but come on, we are English after all! We had a bit of a shock where the weather was concerned on Thursday, 19th February. As we walked the dogs after breakfast we were sure that it was trying to snow! Unperturbed we set off for Acharavi to get a little shopping. On our way back we stopped at the Spiros Gelati's minimarket for some eggs. Another customer was commenting that it was snowing higher up.
He wasn't wrong! As we started to drive up the mountain towards Loutses the snow started to come down thicker. Just to prove it, I took a couple of photographs just so that you can see that we too have been suffering with the snow! (Says he, falling about with uncontrollable laughter!) The snow must have lasted all of two hours!
Just to show how fickle the weather has been throughout this month we have included a couple of photographs showing the amount of snow on the mountains of Albania. These were taken just after 9am 20th February.
Later in the day we set off for Nymphes. Tricia and I both subscribe to a Corfu Internet forum upon which there had been some discussion relating to recycling. It is something that gets us British a little hot under the collar! A lady known to us only as ‘Bill’ (Belinda, actually!) had suggested setting up a website similar to the ‘Freecycle’ websites, in an attempt to encourage people to swap, barter or give away unwanted items rather than dumping them. We had previously considered a similar project but had not pursued it.
Our visit to Bill was to discuss the project and to see whether or not we could all come up with a workable idea. Apart from these discussions it was an excuse for us to visit Nymphes which is a really large village on the island.
We had a really good time with Bill and it seems that there is a possibility of getting something under way. One of the major stumbling blocks with joining the ‘Freecycle’ scheme was that the organisers insisted that the site be in Greek as well as English. None of us felt that our Greek was up to it. However, the previous evening Bill had been offered assistance by a Greek friend who also spoke English. We await developments!
We had a nice evening out on Saturday, 21st February when we went to dinner with Pete and Carol. Friends Mike and Gilly from Panteleimonos had also been invited. It was a really nice evening.
At long last, Yiorgos came round to cut back the olive tree behind our garage on Sunday, 22nd February. It was quite a job and I must confess that I was concerned that the roof of the garage might be damaged by falling branches. In fairness, I think Yiorgos was as worried as I was but having promised to do the job, he put on a brave face.
Part way through the morning, we were joined by our neighbour Christos who in true Greek fashion, offered no end of 'helpful advice'! Yiorgos had got to the stage where he had to cut a couple of large branches (or should that be boughs?). It was decided that Yiorgos should tie a rope to the offending branches and that Christos and I should pull on the rope whilst Yiorgos went to work with the chainsaw.
Christos and I pulled with all our might. All was going well. I am not sure what happened then but I suspect that Yiorgos had been a little careless with the saw! The rope parted and Christos and I flew backwards! It took a second attempt after the rope was re-secured before the branch came safely down.
Of course, the deal with Yiorgos was that he was to trim the tree. That meant that I had to cut up all the branches. Fortunately it was dry and sunny the next day and I was soon at work with the chainsaw. Well that is until it kept stalling on me! Try as I might, I could not fix it. It was going to have to go into the workshop.
Tricia decided that she did not want to come into town on Tuesday, 24th February and so I took the opportunity to leave early. Having dropped off the chainsaw I then made my way to the bank in a quest for our last pink slips. For once there were no long queues at the bank. Despite the fact that I only wanted two pink slips they were not prepared to deal with them whilst I waited. After some negotiation, it was agreed that I would collect them the following Friday. This was just as well as it looked like the chainsaw would not be fixed until then.
From the bank I walked to the general hospital to visit our friend from Liapades, Billy, whom we had discovered had injured a leg following a fall at home. Billy was clearly in a lot of pain and it was clear that he was far from a model patient! Billy's wife Joan had left the hospital shortly before I had arrived but luckily for Billy his stepdaughter, Myra had taken over from her.
We're sure that many of you will have heard various horror stories about Greek hospitals. To be truthful, Corfu General Hospital is in a sad state of repair. We have been waiting for the new hospital to be completed for well over 10 years now. I learnt from Myra that they have just discovered that the basement of the new hospital floods during wet weather! You would have thought that they would have realised this as a nearby subway has been flooding for years!
The reality of being hospitalised in Corfu is that the medical treatment is fine but that is all that is provided. As a result, most patients end up with family members on hand to assist. Contrary to common belief you do get fed though!
It appeared that during the course of his fall Billy had cracked his femur. Because of his existing medical conditions the surgeons wanted to wait until some of the drugs that he takes were out of his system. At the time of my visit it was unclear when they would get round to operating.
If I'm honest, I will admit that I hate hospitals at the best of times. There is something of a smell about them that makes me feel quite nauseous. Because of this I was quite pleased when it became time for me to leave. However much I might have wanted to leave, it paled into insignificance when I considered Billy's situation. We kept our fingers crossed that the operation would be undertaken quickly and would be a success.
The long-range weather forecast had predicted that we were likely to have good weather for several days. This prompted me to get out and do some work in the garden. Over the next couple of days I did a fair amount of digging during the preparation of our onion bed. The onions and garlic were planted and the strawberry bed was partially cleared of the winter’s weeds. It made a pleasant change to be working outside again. My back wasn't too enthusiastic about my efforts though!
On Wednesday, 25th February we went into Acharavi for a little shopping. Many of you may know that there has been extensive road works between Almyros to Acharavi and beyond towards Roda. We had just left a local supermarket where a digger was hard at work outside. They had obviously struck a water pipe and there was a workman frantically baling out the hole. This relatively mundane occurrences provided an excellent photo opportunity!
On Friday, 27th February I returned to town and collected my chainsaw along with the pink slips from the bank. On this occasion I was accompanied by Tricia as she had decided that we should hit a few of the supermarkets.
The next day, it was with some trepidation that I started to cut up the logs as I was not convinced that the work done on the chainsaw was likely to have fixed the stalling. The engineer claimed that he had decoked the engine. My fears were justified. To be honest, the engine was not stalling as frequently as before but was nevertheless still stalling. Despite this, I managed to cut almost all of the logs that day.
As this was the second time that attempts had been made to stop the chainsaw from stalling I've come to the conclusion that maybe I will have to have a look at it myself. It will probably teach me not to be so lazy!
February ended with another glorious day. We had coffee on the veranda for the second time during February. We have spent most of the last couple of months complaining about the wet weather but I don't suppose that any of our friends and family back in the United Kingdom were sitting outside during February!
Conclusion
February has been what we would class as a slow winter month.
Throughout the month we have been following the weather in the UK and can honestly say that you are welcome to the heavy snowfalls that we have been witnessing from afar! The snow that we mentioned earlier in the month must have lasted for at least two hours!
Tricia has her new shelves in the kitchen which are now resplendent with a selection of her more regularly thumbed cookery books. The only problem is that she has now decided that we need to decorate the kitchen. There is also talk of maybe installing air-conditioning or an extractor. I must be honest and admit that the condensation does give us a mould problem that is going to need sorting out very quickly. A Job for next month, I think!
From time to time friends comment that the newsletter often doesn't make too much mention of Tricia's exploits! One thing that she has been doing this month is busying herself in the kitchen! This has been for a number of reasons. Firstly, the credit crunch effects us as badly as anyone else and having to transfer money at a dire exchange rate means that we have had to cut down on meals out.
It is also useful to cook in bulk which means that there is always something prepared in the freezer. There is also another reason. Tricia likes to cook! This has meant that I have experienced several new creations this month!
The new website was progressing and we are both quite pleased with it. Again, this is a project that should see the light of day next month - probably about the time that this newsletter is published!
Well, I am running out of steam and so I guess that it is time for me to hand this over to the trusty Chief Proof Reader!
Have fun.
Bob & Tricia.
|
