We start this month's newsletter on a sad note. We had almost finished the newsletter when we received the sad news that an old friend, Jimmy Pawson had passed away on the 30th January. Knowing that many friends of Jimmy read this newsletter, Jimmy's son, Ashley has asked that we include the following. It is our privilege to do so.
 

Jimmy Pawson

1921-2009

Jim, Mr. P., Gig, Jimmy, Dad, Jimarco, Giggi all these names were used for Jimmy.

Jimmy and Daphne moved to Cavendish in the spring of 1979 and they threw themselves into village life, joining and becoming prominent members of many clubs and societies.

Jimmy took an abandoned allotment and brought it back to life, spending many hours tending his produce.

As a couple they had a large circle of friends on their beloved Corfu, where they spent many happy weeks every year. They celebrated their “big” wedding anniversaries there surrounded by family and their many friends.

He was a truly “lovely” man with a wickedly dry sense of humour that was infectious.

We have found since his death, that many others felt the same about him. He will be terribly missed.

Jimmy leaves a wife, Daphne and two children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Jimmy met the newest great-grandchild, Rueben James before he died.

Jimmy passed away peacefully in his sleep on the 30th January.

A cremation service will be held at The West Suffolk Crematorium on 17th February 2009 and will be attended by family only.

Donations are welcome to Cancer Research
 

January 2009 Newsletter

Introduction
"Happy New Year," everybody and welcome to the first newsletter of 2009. We would have added "prosperous" to that sentiment but decided that that may be too much to hope for!

The year has started quite damp and cold which is not unexpected. After the Christmas and New Year celebrations, life is quite quiet here. It is a time when we tend to spend quite a bit of time indoors on account of the weather. Fortunately we have a modest woodpile stored inside the boiler room. This has been invaluable during the periods when our boiler has been playing up. However, our olive trees are in need of pruning which will have to be done sooner rather than later to ensure that we have wood for next year.

We don't have to remind anybody that the economic climate is as dire here as it is in the UK and the United States. I guess that the silver lining is the fact that those with mortgages are finding that they have less to outlay. Mind you, it is a real pain for people like us who are on a fixed income and rely heavily upon whatever interest our savings bring.

We fear for the livelihoods of all of our friends here that are employed in the travel and tourism industry. With the strength of the euro against the pound, Greece is no longer an attractive proposition for those merely seeking sea and sun for their holidays. Clearly countries outside the euro zone are going to benefit.

Thankfully, there are still those who visit Corfu because they love the island. They, at least, will provide some income for the locals. We just hope that they are not taken advantage of with massive price hikes. We will just have to see how the year progresses and hope for the best.

That's enough doom and gloom for now let's see how January pans out!

January 2009
After the New Year's Eve celebrations I think it's fair to say that both Tricia and I were somewhat jaded. As a result, we took things easier than usual. We did have one minor piece of excitement when Bella, the recent addition to our family, escaped from the veranda.

Since we have had her, this has not been an entirely unusual event. However, Tricia had improved our defences to the point where we thought the veranda was escape-proof. When she has escaped in the past, she has usually run to the front of the house and laid on the front veranda. This time was different. We checked all of the places that we have found her in the past but to no avail. She suddenly appeared from the last place that we thought of looking for her - in the garden!

This may sound very mundane but the whole episode was to take on something of a sinister twist the next day.

The weather wasn't bad on 2nd January and in fact it was quite pleasant taking the dogs for a walk around our land. I was just returning to the house with Jake when our neighbour Christos called out to me. This in itself, is not unusual. What came next completely took me by surprise.

"Your dog has killed five of my chickens", said Christos. He quickly added that it was our new dog not Jake. I was dumbfounded and for once in my life I didn't know what to say! Christos was adamant and went on to say that he had seen Bella near the dead chickens. Other than telling me about Bella's apparent misdemeanours he seemed relatively unperturbed. I apologised profusely before taking Jake in doors and explaining to Tricia what Christos had said.

After discussing it with Tricia we decided that I should go and see Christos and offer to pay for the chickens. To be honest, Tricia and I were both sceptical as there was no sign of any blood on Bella when we had found her.

I actually found Christos coming from his garden clutching a handful of eggs. He immediately offered me some to which I replied that I thought he may need them more than me!

There was no doubt that chickens had been killed as Christos showed me one of them which had been decimated. It transpired that Christos had apparently seen Bella in his garden but had not actually seen her kill any chickens. They were dead by the time he found them. When asked, he said that he had not had any killed recently. This led me to believe that Bella may not have been the culprit as I have previously found her in his garden. I was not about to debate the issue!

The bottom line to this story was that I left Christos, who had refused any payment for his chickens, clutching four fresh eggs! Tricia and I have decided to give Bella a chance. However, I think that we will have to have a new veranda gate which will be at least twice the height.

This day was also notable for a completely different reason. By the time that I had finished regaling Tricia with the allegations against Bella, I was, to use the vernacular, browned off! I decided to go down to Gelati's for a beer with Yiorgos whom I was sure would be there.

Sure enough Yiorgos was there, as too were a couple of English friends. I think that we were on our second beers when a red car pulled up outside. I immediately recognised the occupant. It was TBW! She clearly saw me and strolled in as bold as brass. She walked straight up to me with her hand extended and bade me "Happy new year". I rejected her hand and my reply was unprintable! Suffice to say, it sounded Russian and ended in off! I think she got the message. She certainly knew that I was not happy with her.

I have to say, that as most people at the bar knew of my dispute with TBW, I was expecting something like a round of applause. Imagine my disappointment when it didn't come! However I was pleased to see that Yiorgos was displaying a broad grin. I had another beer before leaving. I certainly felt much better!

What an exciting day!

It rained for most of the weekend of the 3rd to 4th January. We did little but catch up on our reading and watch a few DVDs. On the Saturday, Tricia and I went out in the evening for dinner at the Psisimo Grill room. The meal was good and reasonably priced. We made sure that we were not overcharged on this occasion!

Sunday was more of the same! On this occasion, we went out for lunch to Zephyros Taverna with John and Michelle, and Pete and Carol. John and Michelle were due to leave for the UK the following Tuesday and so this was something of a farewell meal. If all goes to plan they will return in March. It goes without saying that the meal was up to the normal standard.

The weather improved on Monday, 5th January and Tricia and I set off for Corfu town quite early. We had a few bills to pay, the main ones being to the gas company and the car insurance for our VW. It doesn't seem possible that we have had the car for a year.

We also took the opportunity to visit the suppliers of our boiler in an attempt to obtain a new pilot light assembly. Needless to say they didn't have one but promised to contact their suppliers in Athens in an attempt to locate one. As they are the only suppliers for our boiler on the island, we have no alternative but to go with them

It was with some trepidation that we returned home. Although we had not been a particularly long time we were concerned at leaving Bella alone with Jake in the kitchen. Our trepidation was justified!

On entering the kitchen we were met by a scene of 'dog devastation'. Tricia has, or should I say had, a large ring binder in which she had countless plastic pockets containing recipes that she had collected over the years. Every page was now distributed over the kitchen floor along with the entire four baskets from our vegetable rack, all of packets of seeds and just for good measure, Bella had relieved herself on top of everything else!

To say that Tricia was not pleased was an understatement. I think that 'devastated' was more appropriate! She had thought that her ring binder was out of the dogs' reach. As Jake has never attempted to take anything other than the occasional tea towel we were pretty confident as to whom the culprit was! We have little doubt that Jake joined in though once the mayhem had commenced! We set about clearing the mess up whilst Bella hid!

Thankfully the plastic sleeves had protected Tricia's precious recipes and they had clearly made it difficult for the dogs to pick them up and chew them. The same cannot be said for the binder!

Fortunately I had a couple of spare binders and so everything was eventually restored even if it did take a couple of days.

The loss of the seeds was particularly annoying on account of the fact that many were seeds that Tricia had collected for planting next year. To be honest I haven't pursued what was lost!

All in all, 5th January was both an expensive and frustrating day.

We did little on 6th January although it was a nice day, weather-wise. This was fortunate as it was the day that John and Michelle were leaving on the first stage of the visit back to the UK.

It poured with rain on 7th January and to say that the day started badly was an understatement. Tricia and I took the dogs for their first walk of the day. We had just about got into the garden when Jake suddenly got the scent of something. He started to pull frantically and despite my best efforts, he started to drag me down the garden.

Before I could stop him my feet slid from under me and I crashed down on my back. Normally this would not have been a major disaster but on this occasion I landed on top of a large, sharp rock. I was in absolute agony but managed to hang on to Jake meanwhile cursing him at the top of my voice!

Tricia rushed to help me and took Jake from me. Looking back on it I was clearly in some kind of shock. I could barely move for a couple of minutes whilst behind me, Tricia was now having to cope with two very excited dogs. It was only when I managed to get up and turn around and I realised that Tricia was also flat on the ground! It is probably what saved us from having Jake bolt for it. Thankfully she had managed to keep a grip on Jake's lead and she proved to be too much for Jake to drag!.

It was a very sad pair and their dogs that returned home, the dogs walk having been prematurely curtailed.

I don't want to sound like a wimp but I've never had such pain in my back! The pain was ultimately to last many days. To give an indication of how badly I hurt I couldn't bring myself to remonstrate with Jake. His punishment, I guess, was that he had very short walks for several days after!

Tricia had come off marginally better but certainly ached from the bruises that she had collected. Her aches also continued for several days.

God! Did my back ache the next day? I had not slept all night and if anything, the pain in my back was worse. I did not get up until 9:45 am. For those that know me you will realise that I rarely stay in bed beyond 7:30 am. The only good thing I could say was that I was almost sure that the pain was muscular.

9th January was very showery. I was still hurting quite badly but had to go out as the VW appeared to have a puncture in the rear tyre. It turned out to be due to a screw embedded in it and was easily repaired in situ. On my way home I met the postman. He had a parcel containing some software for me. Woo hoo, a new toy to play with! This software may have a direct bearing upon the production of this newsletter as it allows me to dictate to the computer. "Ah!" I hear you say, "He really does talk to his computers!"

My blood sugar levels were very high which was probably due to overindulgence during the festive season However, I'm convinced that my fall hasn't helped. Tricia set about ensuring that my eating habits were improved! It didn't stop us from going out on Sunday, 11 January  for lunch at Zephyros Taverna followed by a walk to Almyros Beach!

That evening we watched the battle that was otherwise known as Manchester United versus Chelsea. A 3 - 0 defeat has almost certainly put paid to any hopes that Chelsea have of winning the Premier league.

As an aside, we later saw a 'ticker' on CNN news which started with the words, "Rampant United". I thought it was talking about some American soccer team. It was only later that I read the whole sentence and realised that it was describing Manchester United's performance!

We knew that the day would come when Bella would have to be neutered on account of the fact that Jake has not been! I know that this sounds sexist but Jake is that old that he has become rather attached to his bits and pieces!

How can I put this delicately? Jake had been showing rather a lot of interest in Bella over the weekend and so on Monday, 12 January I contacted one of the animal welfare groups on the island and made arrangements for Bella to undergo this procedure later that week.

Don't get the wrong idea. We were not looking for charity. It is just that we would prefer that the fees should contribute towards the running of that charity.

The only other thing that occurred that day was that I finally finished the December newsletter and Tricia proof read it. Consequently it was published later that day.

The wet weather continued although we were not suffering the same cold temperatures as were being felt in the UK. In fact, it fluctuated between 13° and 14°C.

We were up early on Thursday, 15 January as this was the day that Bella was to be taken to the vet's for her procedure. The vet's surgery was in Kanoni. As we had never been there before, it took a little while to find, not to mention going the wrong way up a main road on one occasion! However, having found the vet's surgery, we discovered that we had some time to kill.

We drove down to the waters edge near the end of the runway and gave Bella a short walk. I was glad that I had my camera in the car as they were a number of wading birds around the lagoon. I have included some of the better photographs but unfortunately the distances involved meant that I had to use digital zoom.

We presented ourselves at the vet's at 10:30 a.m.. The vet, Adonis, was a very personable man but I must confess that we were taken aback by his surgery. It was little more than a garden shed! It was with some trepidation that we left Bella. Adonis asked my name. He clearly noticed my puzzled look. Having told him my name he said, "I will call out for you when I have finished!" He assured us that the whole procedure would take no more than 20 minutes.

He was true to his word. Tricia and I returned to the surgery to find Bella unconscious on her back and with the neatest, smallest wound that we have ever seen in such circumstances.

I then made what some might consider to be a big mistake. I know that Tricia did! I asked what precisely had been removed as we are aware that some vets here remove the bare minimum which results in bitches still coming into season.

Adonis went to great lengths to explain what he had removed and then amazed us by delving into a waste bin and producing the removed organs! I think this was slightly more information than both Tricia and I had anticipated!

Whilst we were there we also had Bella vaccinated and microchipped. The bill for this whole session was €175. Adonis still had one last surprise for us!

The time came when we had to get Bella into the car. Adonis put on a surgical gown and carried Bella to our car. He grinned widely and said, "Now I put on the gown for the first time!" The whole procedure had been carried out in wearing his jumper and jeans! Oh well, this is Greece!

To put it bluntly, Bella was away with the fairies until long after we returned home. This at least meant that we were able to do a little shopping. I don't know what anyone would have thought if they had looked into our car and seen what looked like a dead dog!

Both Jake and Adonis were very good with Bella when we returned home although there were occasions when Adonis could be found prowling around the semiconscious Bella.

Despite her ordeal, Bella was still keen to go for a couple of short walks that evening. Animal's constitutions and their resilience never cease to amaze us.

As was to be expected, Bella was still somewhat groggy and slow the next day but she started to eat and was keen to go for walks.

The weather was quite sunny over the next three days if a little cool. I called in at the post office on 17th January and found that there was rather a lot of mail for us. That made a change!

Both my back and Tricia's bumps and bruises were much improved. Bella was beginning to get back to her old self. We had kept her separate from Jake overnight since the operation and she had behaved impeccably … until the morning of 18th January when she woke us up at 6:30 am!

Under normal circumstances this would not have been much of a problem. However as Tricia and I had not got to bed until sometime after 1 a.m., we were not in the best frames of mind. Why, you might ask, was it such a big deal? The truth is that we stayed up late to watch the Chelsea versus Stoke match which did not start on Greek TV until 11 p.m.. It had been a nail-biting match with Chelsea only managing to secure a 2 - 1 win during the dying minutes.

I think it is time for us to confess that the weather this month has not been the best that we have experienced since we moved here. It has been exceptionally wet although we have not had the cold temperatures that we would have expected. We have had a couple of evenings when the temperature has dropped to 4 or 5° C. It is not just us that think that it has been very wet because all of the locals are complaining too.

On account of the bad weather we have not been going out very much. I think it's fair to say that we do get a little “stir crazy”! I have been putting my time to good use! I have not felt like doing anything physical because of the various aches and pains that I have been suffering since been pulled over by Jake. I have, however, started work developing a new website that I hope will outline the various stages of building our house.

You may wonder why I want to do this and it is a fair question. The truth is that before we started building we could find very little information and as a consequence fell foul of a number of different issues.

If you remember, we had to do a lot of research before we moved out here and we subsequently developed our website, www.thecorfiot.com in the hope that it would provide information for those that follow us. Looking at the number of hits that the site has received and the number of unsolicited e-mails that we have received, we can only surmise that it has proven useful to others.

In an attempt to cheer ourselves up, we went for dinner at Maestro Taverna on Saturday, 24 January. It didn't work! To put it bluntly the meal was disappointing. We had both ordered fillet steaks but with different sauces. Tricia likes her steak cooked medium rare whereas I like mine rare. The steaks turned up with mine cooked to oblivion and Tricia's on the point of being raw. We did the very un-British thing and complained to the waitress! In fairness, Vaso the owner was very apologetic and offered to replace the steaks. Thank God that the live music was as good as ever otherwise the evening would have been a total disaster.

The grey, rainy weather continued accompanied by thunderstorms which drove Bella frantic. To add to my personal discomfort following my antics with Jake I had developed a cold which was quite unpleasant by 26th January.

We had one piece of good news in that the new pilot assembly for our boiler had arrived in Corfu town. Not only had it arrived but it was €15 cheaper than we had anticipated. With the falling value of the pound which had put it almost on parity with the Euro, this represented a welcome saving! I now had to decide whether we called in the gas engineers to fit the pilot assembly or to do it myself. I subsequently did it myself working on the theory that I had once installed a second-hand gas back boiler and hadn't blown us up!

The weather on 27th January was no better. Bella was clearly distressed by the thunder which proved to be a problem whenever we took her out. She was so frightened that she forgot the reason for going out! As you can imagine this had resulted in a few nasty surprises in the kitchen! I say no more on the subject!

My back and side continued to hurt and I must confess that it was going on much longer than I would have hoped for. Fortunately Tricia's aches from her fall seemed to be almost better. My cold, although far from being the worst I've ever experienced, was now becoming a bit of a stinker! Thank goodness for all of those bottles of  “Night Nurse" that we had bought on our last visit was in the UK!

We really were becoming stir crazy but thankfully the rain held off on 29 January. We had been invited to Yiorgos the builder’s daughter Asimina’s house. (Blimey! That's a bit of a mouthful!) Asimina and her fiance Spiros were holding a party.

This is traditionally a couple of days prior to the wedding. I think it is really something of a fertility ritual because the highlight of the occasion is the placing of babies on the marital bed. It is also traditional for the guests to throw money on to the bed along with rice and sugared almonds. Don't ask!

The family party left Yiorgos’ house in a procession from Loutses to the house in Acharavi,  to the accompaniment of shotguns being discharged and incessant car horns. Upon arrival at the house the guests emptied a van which had been part of the procession and carried the contents, mainly bedding, to the house. From what we saw Asimina and Spiros will never have to buy any bedding!

This procession was also accompanied by blasts from a shotgun along with three musicians.

It was a wonderful party and the food and drink never stopped coming. The musicians sat themselves at the dining room table and played throughout. We could see that this was going to be a late night and so left at eight o'clock.

As we returned home, it became apparent to me that Tricia was developing a cold. Oh well, share and share alike! The "Night Nurse" was about to take a bashing!

Having had such a wonderful day on the 29th, we were brought back to earth on 30th January. We learned that our friend, Jimmy, had died that morning. We were aware that he had been unwell for some time but had not expected this. Many of you that are regular readers of our newsletters will know Jimmy and his wife Daphne. They have been very well known particularly in Agni Bay where they have holidayed for many years. Jimmy will be sadly missed.

On a lighter note we attended Asimina and Spiros' wedding on Saturday the 31st January. It was held at our local church in Loutses and was scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Needless to say, Asimina did not arrive until nearly 5 p.m. Well this is Greece! This is clearly the norm as most of the guests did not turn up until well after 4pm. That included one of the Papas that were to officiate at the wedding!

The church was packed and there were many people who had to remain outside. It was a typical Greek church service with lots of chattering and members of the congregation occasionally nipping outside for a cigarette! We have included a photograph or two.

The reception was held at Luna D’Argento in Kato Korakiano which those of you who attended Yianna and Yiorgos' wedding will remember. It was a very Greek affair as you can imagine. The dancing was almost entirely Greek, well that is with the exception of the belly dancer who could have come from anywhere east of Albania!

We lost count of the number of courses of food and the wine never stopped flowing. Apart from another couple we were unaware of any other foreigners at the reception. The down side to this was that the Greeks on our table slowly drifted away leaving us sitting at the end of the table, next to the dance floor.

It was a terrific vantage point for taking photographs ... It must have been because the official photographers kept standing in front of me! However I did manage to get quite a few photographs and considering that it was under stage lighting I don't think that they came out too bad.

The reception looked like it would continue going all night. Tricia and I decided to leave around 1 a.m.as we had a long way to travel home not to mention the prospect of of walking the two dogs when we got there!

Conclusion
With the excesses of Christmas and New Year now long behind us, we are now back into our routines. As we've mentioned, the weather has been exceptionally wet which has resulted in us staying home probably more than we would normally. I cannot believe how many DVDs and downloaded television programmes we have watched!

The loss of our dear friend Jimmy at the end of the month has left us feeling very sad. Tricia and I always said that Jimmy and Daphne were what we aspired to be in later life. We see no reason to change that outlook.

On a more positive note, I don't think that we have mentioned that Louise and Steve will be visiting in May. In addition, Corinna and Dave along with our grandchildren, Lauren, Rebecca and Ryan will be visiting at the end of July. That's something to look forward to. No! Honestly! I really mean that kids!

Well that's it for January. The weather in February is normally the worst of the year in Corfu. It will have to go some to beat January!

See you all next month.

Bob and Tricia.