Introduction
As we mentioned last month, Easter is early this year, both in the UK and Greece. Everywhere is geared up for it in Greece as it is a much more of an occasion here. As well as the obvious religious festival, it is a time when families get together. This is particularly reflected in Corfu whose population swelsl by as many as 100,000.

A Potted Synopsis of Easter in Corfu!
Be aware that the devout Orthodox Christians will have been fasting since Clean Monday. No meat will have been consumed during the Lent period. The breaking of this fast takes place after midnight on Easter Saturday when traditionally, a soup called magiritsa is consumed. Being made of tripe, it is one delicacy that we avoid! Easter Sunday is a day when friends and family gorge themselves on lamb, goat and kokaretsi (sheep's innards). All of this is cooked on a spit and is truly delicious always assuming that you are not a vegetarian!

Traditionally, the preparations start around the Thursday before Easter when hard boiled eggs are dyed red and placed inside tsoureki, a bread that is baked that day. Some eggs are reserved for the Easter Sunday feast. Competitions are held where everyone takes an egg and has a go at trying to crack their opponent's egg by striking them together. The holder of the surviving egg is deemed the champion. Simple pleasures!

Good Friday , marking the death of Christ, is a particularly sombre day and in Corfu Town is marked with solemn religious parades accompanied by by brass bands playing suitably solemn music.

Easter Saturday in Corfu starts with much of the same. In Corfu Town, there are larger parades attended by schools, youth groups, civic and military dignitaries, government ministers and of course, members of the clergy and religious leaders of various denominations. The mummified remains of St Spiridon, the island's Patron Saint, are paraded in a glass casket, held aloft. All of these various groups are accompanied by brass bands. It is a sight that should not be missed. As Tricia says, "It's not everybody that gets to see a real Saint!"

At 11pm that day there follows an odd tradition which as far as we are aware, is unique to Corfu. terracotta pots, jugs and jars are hurled from windows to smash on the ground below. How this tradition started is a bit of a mystery but the two most frequent suggestions are that it either stems from a pagan ceremony to mark the start of Spring or it symbolises the bombardment of Christ's enemies. Your guess is as good as ours. All we will say is that the sight of some of the immense pots that are hurled from second and third floor balconies overlooking The Liston is truly spectacular!

Church services continue up to and beyond midnight. The congregations, all clutching candles, increase with the passage of time. A little before midnight the flame is passed from the priest to the congregation until all of the candles are lit. At midnight, the priest chants, "Christos anesti!" (Christ is risen!) The congregation respond with "Alithos anesti!" (Truly, he is risen!") At this point, it is not uncommon for fireworks to be let off, shotguns to be fired and ships to sound their horns in celebration.

The congregations make their way home clutching their lighted candles. Upon arrival home, they make the sign of the cross above their front doors with candle smoke for protection.

So there you have a brief rundown on Greek Easter in Corfu. Other islands have other unique celebrations. One that we would love to witness is the firing of hundreds of homemade rockets by two parishes on the island of Chios, who attempt to hit their opponents bell tower. (As neither can decide who has won, this is repeated every Easter!)

As well as Easter, Tricia will be visiting the UK for ten days to see our new granddaughter, Maggie. I have to wait until May!

That's enough preamble. Let's check out April.

April 2010
We had a sunny start to the month.

If you had been following last month's offering, you will recall that I had managed to buy the wrong hose for our pressure washer. Fortunately, our local hardware store had managed to source the correct one on 1st April. No joke, honest! This may seem a minor triumph but the pressure washer is rated highly amongst our tools here. It is surpassed by only the chainsaw and strimmers!

Friday, 2nd April was sunny and saw both Tricia and I working in the garden. Whilst Tricia weeded a couple of flower beds, I trimmed some of the olive trees and ended up with two monster bonfires. Getting rid of garden rubbish that can be burnt is of increasing importance now as fires are not permitted beyond the end of this month. The wet winter has meant that it has been rarely possible to burn anything. We decided to forgo the evening parades in Corfu Town as we had a very busy weekend planned ahead of us.

We were up very early on Saturday, 3rd April, so that we could get the dogs walked and then go and collect Alan and Pauline for the first of our two trips to Corfu Town that day.

We managed to get parked easily in the Old Port car park and made our way up to The Liston with the intention of getting a table at the Olympia. Wrong! Despite being there before 7.30am, all of the tables were either taken or had been reserved by judiciously placed car keys or sunglasses! Such is the importance of this day in the Corfiot calendar. I resisted the urge to ... er ... lose these keys or sunglasses. Apart from anything else, there were too many people looking!

Despite this setback we managed to find a table further up the Liston near to the Palace of St Michael and St George. We settled down with a few coffees to await the parades that would not start for at least a couple of hours. It was Alan and Pauline's first Easter in Corfu and they were keen to see the celebrations. Secretly, we hoped that they wouldn't be disappointed. By the end of the weekend, I think that they were suitably impressed!

We were all seated, happily enjoying our coffees and some biscuits Tricia had bought from the kiosk opposite, when there was a very loud 'plop!' Everybody looked around. Everybody that is except me. I knew what it was! I looked down to see the largest bird's poo ever deposited on my lap! Well, didn't that cause some stifled sniggers from the assembled throng! I was mortified but declined offers for assistance in wiping off the mess. I don't know about a large bird. It looked as if a passing tyrannosaurus had relieved itself on me! Fortunately, this episode didn't leave me scarred for life!

The parade came and I managed to get a lot of photographs despite having to jostle my way to the front of the crowd. Despite having witnessed these celebrations many times before, they still hold a fascination for us. If I had to pass comment upon this year's parade, I would be forced to say that it was much smaller than we have previously witnessed. Maybe this is a reflection of the economic difficulties Greece finds herself in. We can't explain it. Suffice to say that all the important elements of the celebration were still there.

Following the dispersal of the parade, we settled down to wait until 11am when the pot-throwing was to take place. When it came to it, I think that Alan and Pauline were surprised at the size of some of the pots that were thrown from the balconies overlooking The Liston. I hope that our photographs do this justice.

We made our way back to the car and had a remarkably easy journey back home. We dropped Alan and Pauline off and went home for lunch and to walk the dogs. We just had time for a short siesta before returning to collect Alan and Pauline for the second of our visits to Corfu Town that day.

Again, we were in town early so that we beat the crowds. Our first port of call was the Olympia for ouzo mezedes and aperitifs in general. This allowed us time to chill out and generally 'people watch' before making our way to 'La Famiglia' Italian restaurant for a very nice dinner. We have only been there once before and it has yet to disappoint us.

Following dinner, we took a slow walk back to the Liston. By now it was dark and the town was packed with visitors and street sellers alike. We took the opportunity to buy candles from one of the many gypsies that were to be found about every fifty metres. Sadly, Tricia couldn't find any candy floss sellers this year!

We joined the rapidly growing crowd on the green near to the old fortress who had gathered to hear the relayed church service. As midnight arrived, the firework display commenced. It was a wonderful site and probably the largest that we have seen in Corfu. Both Tricia and I have some quite nice photographic records of the event, some of which will make it to this month's photo gallery!

Following the display, we started to join the crowds for the long walk back to the car. A band struck up with some very lively music and appeared to follow us most of the way back to the car. It was reminiscent of films one sees of the processions and bands one sees depicting New Orleans!

It had been a very tiring day but a wonderful experience never the less.

Sunday 4th April was a beautiful, sunny day. Tricia and I both reckoned that it was the hottest day this year.

We had been invited to friends, Colin and Susan's for Easter Dinner. It had originally been billed as a small affair but appeared to have grown since the original invites went out! Colin was to be found slaving over a 15 kilo lamb and kokaretsi both turning on spits over an olive wood charcoal fire. He had been helped and generally advised by Spiros whom many visitors here will know as the proprietor of Agni Boats. (Yiannis ‘the boat’’s brother-in-law.)

An enormous table had been set on their veranda and I think it fair to say that the food never stopped coming! It was a tremendous day, enjoyed by everyone. The weather was the crowning glory! We have since commented that in the event of us planning anything that was dependant upon good weather, then we would ensure that Colin and Susan were invited. Those who have followed our tales will recall that their wedding on the 14th October was also an uncommonly hot and sunny day for the time of year.

I think that it would be hard to beat such a spread. We can't wait for next Easter!

The next day was really overcast and not too warm. What a change from Easter Sunday!

The 6th and 7th April saw both Tricia and I hard at it in the garden. Tricia made great inroads into the flower beds whilst I tackled the never ending strimming and application of weedkiller to the lower terrace. It went without saying that by the evening, Tricia's back was killing her!

On Thursday 8th April, Philipos paid a visit to help me to load the rotovator into the back of the car, as I had promised to turn over his little vegetable patch. He didn't come empty handed as he brought a bottle of his own wine and a bottle of his own wine vinegar in payment and later filled my petrol can. The whole job didn't take an hour and so I was quite happy. The petrol alone would keep the strimmer going for quite a few days!

The good weather continued into Friday 9th April and I took advantage of it to have a major strimming spree until about 2pm. I was forced to stop when the head on the strimmer disintegrated. Worse still, I couldn't remove the remains from the machine. Argh!

We had a bit of a result that morning with one of the local fish vans. We were having coffee when Spiros 'the fish' drove by. We flagged him down and bought a couple of sea bream for dinner. At €5, we thought that this was good value. However, to make it better, Spiros scooped up a couple of handfuls of gavros (small anchovies) and presented us with them for nothing. There turned out to be forty fish weighing about half a kilo. They made a great lunch. We grilled the sea bream on the barbecue that evening. That was our first barbecue of the year. Very nice.

The only good thing that happened on Saturday 10th April was that Chelsea beat Aston Villa 3 - 0 to get through to the final of the FA Cup.

The bad thing that happened was that I spent all morning, firstly getting the remains of the strimmer head off and then trying to find a replacement. In the end, I had to admit defeat. There was nothing for it but to head off into Corfu Town before the shops shut. (Everything closes Saturday afternoons.) I had to miss lunch but fortunately my confidence in the supplier was justified. By the time I returned home, starving, it was 4pm! "Why the urgency?" you might ask. The truth was that bad weather had been forecast in a couple of days and I wanted to get as much strimming done before then as possible.

The following day started sunny and so I set about strimming only to get myself soaked in a shower!

Being a Sunday, we decided to go out for lunch as the sun had started to shine again. However, we were quite late getting to Apnoea Taverna and found the car park packed. It took a little ingenuity parking but knowledge of the owner's and staff's cars helped as we just double parked behind them!

When we got into the taverna, we found that it was heaving. There was a little table free just inside the door. It didn't stay free long! There was no particular reason for the crowd other than that it was a really nice day. Of the seven tables inside the taverna, we knew people at four of them, five if you counted Yiannis the owner's sister and brother-in-law!

Despite having to wait, we had a superb meal. I don't know whether it was because they had been so busy or whether it was a mistake but the meal proved to be amazingly cheap! Another great lunch at Apnoea.

We had to stay at home on Monday, 12th April as we had been promised a gas delivery either that day or the following one. Suffice to say that it didn't turn up! Despite being showery, I managed to get more strimming done. Unfortunately those showers continued into the next day which put paid to further strimming.

The gas turned up mid morning on Tuesday 13th April. I had utilised the time waiting, completing last month's newsletter so that Tricia could proofread it before publication. We headed off into town shopping that afternoon.

I think that this is a good time to mention the 'no fly' policy that was introduced over the UK and progressively across mainland Europe following the volcanic ash particles spewing from a volcano in Iceland. Tricia was getting worried as she was due to fly to the UK on 21st April. That did little for Tricia's disposition. The fact that Tricia and I had been nominated by friends to host an 'Indian Night' on Friday, 16th April didn't do much to help either!

The idea was that we would host the evening and provide the rice and a pudding. Darryl and Paula were nominated to provide the meat dish, Alex and Dave were to provide the starter and John and Michelle were to provide an additional curry.

This, of course meant that Tricia was to anguish about this for the next few days! Recipes had to be researched on the Internet. (Yes! Google really is our friend!) Then ingredients had to be sourced, not to mention the fact that the house needed 'spring cleaning'. Two dogs and a cat, all of which were moulting, didn't help matters. Then of course, there is the generic mess and general untidiness caused by 'yours truly' to contend with! I did the only honourable thing. I vanished into the garden with the strimmer for a couple of days, surfacing briefly for meals and to get the last minute supplies that had been overlooked! (Like beer!)

As it turned out, the evening went well. Friday, 16th April was really warm and we started the evening with drinks and starters on the veranda. All of the 'girls' vanished into the kitchen to ensure that the main courses were finalised whilst us blokes remained out of the way on the veranda, discussing important things and drinking beer and retsina!

The meal went well and despite having a small mountain of washing up, we were very happy. Tricia wants to do the curry for the next meal! The poor dogs seemed totally bemused by the unexpected company. Jake behaved (reasonably) impeccably). We won't discuss the fact that Bella was overcome with excitement and pee'd on the lounge floor though!

The dogs were so disorientated that Tricia surprised them by marching into the kitchen before they had woken up on Saturday morning!

We started that Saturday by finishing the washing up and general tidying up. Before we had finished, I excused myself and went off to the seed merchant to buy some more plants for the vegetable garden. Tricia and I had been in dispute as to how many more tomato plants we needed. I had originally bought ten and thought that another row or two would suffice. Tricia was having none of that. I was dispatched to buy another 22 plants. I knew that we had bought a lot when the wife of the seed merchant asked if we had a hotel!

I returned home with the tomatoes as well as peppers, courgette plants and a few summer cabbage plants for good measure. I started to make inroads into the planting that day but was beaten by the light. What am I talking about? The light had nothing to do with it! Chelsea were away to Tottenham Hotspur at 7pm! The worse of it was that Chelsea lost and finished just one point ahead of Manchester United in the Premier League title race.

The 'no fly' policy was still in force and Tricia was becoming increasingly worried. Our friend Pauline was the first victim of it that we knew personally. She was due to fly out to the UK this day. She had re-booked her flight the following Tuesday. Both that flight and Tricia's the following day were beginning to look unlikely. Pauline and I spoke on the phone about her predicament. There was nothing for it. We all decided to go out for a meal the next day!

Sunday, 18th April was really sunny and warm. No! It wasn't warm. It was hot! - Over 24°C in the shade on our veranda. I got up early to make a start on the planting and after breakfast was joined by Tricia who put in sterling work with a hoe. The recent warm weather with intermittent rain had meant that the weeds were trying to get a foothold. They hadn't reckoned on Tricia with her hoe!

We managed to get everything planted before it was time for 11am coffee, always a leisurely affair!

We were about to leave for Apnoea Taverna, when the phone rang. It was Pauline and Alan who were already there. The taverna was closed. There followed a rapid re-scheduling and we decided to meet up at Maestro Taverna.

On our arrival at Maestro, we were greeted as old friends by Vaso, the owner. Alan and Pauline had already secured a nice table outside by the beach. The sunshine was brilliant. By the time that we eventually left, I had definite signs of 'T-shirt arms'!

We dispensed with the menus and instead, asked Vaso what she had. Good choice! There were lots of fresh fish! We all settled on fresh kalamari (squid), fresh gavros, (small anchovies), fresh mussels in white wine and garlic, mushrooms,, a Greek salad and of course ... a plate of chips!

The meal rated as one of the best that we had all eaten this year. The kalamari and gavros were cooked to perfection. We had the mussels as a main course. Eventually two bowls of steaming mussels were brought to the table along with an apology! We had asked for four portions. They only had enough for three portions. You could have fooled us as we struggled to finish those two bowls! The meal was rounded off with free homemade ice cream and coffees.

That meal and the wonderful weather had lifted all of our spirits after the worrying news about the lack of flights to and from the UK. However, that evening, we discovered that a number of airlines had sent up test flights and had reported that the levels of pollution appeared not to be as bad as reported. Urgent meetings were being held all over Europe to discuss the issue which was now costing hundreds of millions of pounds. Would the flying ban be lifted? Would it heck! They put off making a decision until Monday!

Monday 19th April came and the flying ban was still in force. By midday it was announced that it would remain until at least the early hours of Tuesday. Pauline's rescheduled flight was now looking in jeopardy. The weather had been dire all night and the rain continued throughout the day. It was so bad that we were in the clouds when Tricia and I took the dogs for their walk at about 2pm. At least with the weather being bad, I was able to get the newsletter right up to date. So, if the newsletter is late this month, I am going to have to come up with a pretty good excuse!

With one day to go before she was due to leave for the UK, it was a very despondent Tricia that woke up on Tuesday 20th April. The first thing that she did was to check her e-mail. Woo Hoo! There was a message from Easyjet saying that her flight was on. That lifted her spirits.

Sadly, her joy was short lived as Sky News was reporting that although some flights from Scotland were leaving, London airports were unlikely to be operating that day. There were conflicting messages all day and Tricia was getting increasingly frustrated.

Whilst all this was unfolding, I took myself off to the local seed merchant and bought some cucumber plants. I also had to visit the supermarket as there were items that we were short of that Tricia assured me that I would be unable to survive without in her absence. With the mood that she was in, I wasn't about to argue.

Now planting a few cucumbers may seem a pretty trivial job. Let's be honest, it is! However I was short of sturdy posts to mount some form of frame on to give them room to climb. I went scavenging and found a 3½ metre length in the basement that was ideal for cutting down. A rummage behind the garage produced some old planks that if cut down would provide sturdy supports for the peppers. I have never been so glad that I bought a table saw a few years ago!

Erecting the framework and planting the cucumbers was completed after lunch. All this time, Tricia kept checking her flights. Easyjet were insisting that the flight from Corfu was scheduled to leave the next day. News came that London airports were unlikely to open before 1am on 21st April. It was a very despondent Tricia that watched TV that night. Even watching 'The Special One', Jose Mourinho's team, Inter Milan beat Barcelona in the semi-final of The Champion's League 3 - 1 couldn't hold her attention!

Then, shortly before midnight our time, (10pm UK time) the news that Tricia and hundreds of thousands of others wanted to hear broke. The blanket ban on flying over Britain was to be lifted at 10pm UK time. Tricia was still not convinced that she was going to get on the plane the next morning! She hadn't even packed her case! We had a fitful few hours sleep that night!

Tricia and I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock at 5.30am on Wednesday, 21st April. Yes, I know it was overkill but Tricia had visions of all manner of scallywags trying to deprive her of her seat! As a result, we arrived at Corfu Airport at around 7.30pm. It was deserted! Totally! On the plus side, the weather was beautifully sunny.

The departures board was showing her flight as departing on time. Tricia began to believe at last. We hung around, sitting in the car until about 8.20am before returning to the departures hall. She was third in the queue for the check-in desk that was not due to open until 8.40am!

Of course, having checked in and having received her boarding pass, you would imagine that Tricia would be showing some signs of elation, wouldn't you? -Especially after learning that the inbound flight had apparently left the UK for Corfu on time. Nah!

Everything changed when the inbound flight arrived 10 minutes early!

Whilst sitting in the cafeteria we were joined by friends Jeff and Maggie, fellow Loutsiotis's. They too had been booked on this flight for their scheduled flight home. There must be something about Loutses that brought us all a bit of luck. Poor Pauline who had been due to fly to the UK the day before wasn't so lucky.

Tricia's flight left on time and she was met by our daughter Louise who drove them to see her Dad and sister for the start of her 10 day visit. Tricia reported that the flight had been excellent despite there being no food on board. The landing was apparently the best she had ever experienced. This may seem a minor thing but given the stress she had been under for the past six days, it made her day.

I returned home via Lidl's and a garden centre to buy some more lettuces plants. I called in at the post office to find that the health supplements that Tricia wanted to take with her had arrived! I was less concerned about that than the €200 electricity bill! Methinks that the tumble drier will be having a long awaited rest for many months now!

In line with our policy this year, the lettuces were planted immediately after lunch! I waited until the evening before watering the gardens.

I had to return to Corfu Town on Thursday 22nd April to pay the final instalment of our outstanding tax bill. (The money transfer from the UK had not arrived in time for me to do this whilst I was there the day before. As it had to be paid by the 26th April, I was concerned that I might get caught out by the tax office going on strike.

Things really are that uncertain at the moment. It seems that everybody and their aunts want to strike about something. Last week, the kiosks decided that they were going on strike because they thought that the increases in tax on cigarettes would harm their business. I don't know who are the biggest dimwits, the smokers or the kiosk owners!

After collecting a bankers cheque, I made my way into town. I arrived at the nearest car park to find it unattended and remarkably empty. I made my way up towards San Rocco Square to the sounds of loudhailers and speeches being blasted out over public address systems. There was clearly some form of large protest going on. As with the UK, workers are seriously concerned for their jobs not to mention their standards of living. Greeks are particularly good at letting vent to their feelings in such circumstances!

I arrived at the tax offices to find yet another protest taking place on the steps. Now I was really worried that they would be on strike. I needn't have! The office was manned and our debt to Greek society was finally expunged. (I hope!)

I wanted to buy some more storage for our computers and needed to get to a shop in the centre of town. As I drew nearer, the noise increased. The protests had turned into a march that was now effectively blocking my way to the shop. So near, yet so far away. The march appeared endless as I stood bemused on the footpath.

I have to confess to being somewhat irritated as the passing marchers were moving at a snail's pace. God! Didn't they know I was busy? There was only one thing for it. I strode purposefully out into the marching throng and performed a series of body swerves and pirouettes until I emerged unscathed on the other side of the road. I have to confess that that I had first assessed the mood of the crowd. They didn't appear to be a bunch of raving anarchists, merely ordinary people concerned for their livelihoods. The municipal police didn't seem too concerned either as much of the crowd control was being done by an unarmed woman officer!

With my mission complete, it was time to head home. It seemed like a good idea to take the coast road and to call in on Alan and Pauline to scrounge a cup of coffee and to check out how much work had been completed on their new house. I have to confess that it was looking stunning. It was particularly nice weather and the views across Kouloura, Kalami and Agni Bay were breath-taking. It is probably my favourite view on the island.

After coffee and a chat it was time to go home and give the dogs their lunchtime walk. To be honest, they had to wait until I had my lunch first!

The evening saw me up at the top of our land strimming. The weeds and grass were nearly waist high in places. I was far from finished when I realised that it was nearly 7.30pm. The dogs hadn't been fed and walked and I still had my dinner to prepare! Yes, I had a late dinner!

Friday, 23rd April saw me chasing around but doing nothing in particular. I had an interesting visit to Dave and Alex's house where I found Dave and friend John exploring how Dave was going to connect automatic irrigation to his sterna (rain water tank). The sterna was built in venetian times and sits beneath their veranda. The object of the exercise was to get a pump to draw the water without damaging anything as it is all pretty much as the Venetians left it. During the course of his deliberations, Dave unlocked and lifted the door to the sterna.

What a revelation! It was immense! Having 'dipped' it to find how much water was in there, we were all amazed to find 3.7metres depth. There was room for about another 3 metres capacity. Without going down into the sterna, it is impossible to say what its capacity is. I wouldn't mind betting that it wouldn't be far off 100 cubic metres if full to capacity. That's an awful lot of free water!

I left Dave and John to their deliberations and finished my shopping in Acharavi. To be honest, I was hurting from, my previous night's strimming exploits!

On Saturday, 24th April I was back working outside. I had decided to make a start on wiring and fitting some external lights near the steps down onto the land. The most strenuous part of this was digging a 25 metre long trench to bury the conduit and cable in under the terrace. It was hot work.

I had the cable and various junction boxes. The only thing missing was the conduit. This necessitated a visit to the local electrical supplier in Platonas. By the time that I returned home, it was time for lunch and walking the dogs! Although far from finished, I managed to get the cable and conduit laid and the trench filled back in before it was time to walk the dogs and make my dinner. Yes, it was another late dinner!

That night, whilst out walking Jake, I had a couple of firsts for this year. I saw the first firefly in our garden and that damned disco kicked off in Albania. If it wasn't the disco, John and Michelle were playing their music extremely loudly!

I continued with the outside lighting project for a while on Sunday, 25th April. I had to drill through two 40 centimetre stone columns for the cable to pass through. Then came the fitting of the lamps to the same two columns. This wasn't the easiest of jobs and necessitated a little improvised stone masonry! Before I knew it, I had to make lunch and walk the dogs.

That afternoon, I had been invited to Dave and Alex's for a barbecue. To be truthful, both Tricia and I had been invited. She will pick her moments for these trips to the UK! It was a lovely afternoon with great food and great company.

The crowning glory for the day came with Chelsea beating Stoke 7 - 0 and restoring them to the top of the Premier Division. Two matches within a month where Chelsea have scored 7 goals is not bad by anyone's standard!

I think that the animals were all missing Tricia. I found Adonis, our cat asleep on Tricia's slippers. Jake appeared to have chewed the pad on one of his paws out of boredom and was now walking on three legs. Bella refused to eat her dinner. Instead she ate copious amounts of grass whilst out and promptly threw up on the lounge carpet! Thank heavens that it is nearly time to lift the carpets for summer!

Monday, 27th April saw me at work finishing off the outside lighting project. To my amazement come darkness, everything worked. Sometimes I surprise myself!

There was time to fit in a bit more strimming in the evening and water both the vegetable patch and the kitchen garden. I really am going to get the automatic irrigation sorted out soon!

Our run of good weather continued into Tuesday 29th April. I knew that much of the day was going to be spent strimming. I had been putting off the worst bit which was the slope leading up into the olives. The grass and weeds were now very tall and the ground is littered with stones of varying sizes. I got stuck in and did about four hours work before deciding that it was time for lunch and a bit of a siesta. The dogs also had to be walked!

This monster strimming escapade was tinged with a little sadness as a couple of large toads got caught up in the operation. Let's just say, that if you are not familiar with a petrol engined strimmer, they can be very unforgiving. I fear that one was dead and the other was more than a little shell-shocked. It did manage to crawl away ... very slowly.

I resumed strimming at around 5pm until a little after 7pm. My dinner was very welcome. I think that the animals were ready for theirs too!

By way of a change, I met up with Dave and Alex in the kafeneion that night for a couple of drinks. It wasn't a late one. Bayern Munich were playing Lyon in the second leg of their semi final of the Champion's League. I wasn't too worried who won, but wasn't disappointed when it turned out to be Bayern! I was home just after ten pm and caught most of the match.

Wednesday, 28th April was warm and sunny. I felt obliged to make more inroads into the never ending strimming. The truth is that the weather conditions have meant that the grass and weeds have been growing at an alarming rate. I am under no illusion that as soon as I have been deemed to have finished, I will have to go over it all again! At least with it reduced to a respectable height, it is relatively easy to go over it all. We have two large slopes that were covered in bracken. By continually keeping it cut down, we have all but eradicated it on one bank and the other is vastly improved. Keeping the land strimmed is probably our (my!) biggest chore!

I kept going until 7.15pm and decided that was enough. The dogs needed feeding and walking and on top of that I needed my dinner. The only flaw in all this was that I had forgotten to take anything out of the freezer! With the Barcelona v Inter Milan match being televised at 9.45pm, I had a difficult decision to make.

There was nothing for it. After attending to the animals, I headed off to Gelati's! What a result that turned out to be. He had lamb in the oven that had about five minutes to go before it was ready. It was a superb dinner.

I was home in time to watch the match. Mourinho's Inter Milan did a superb defensive job with only ten men. Their defence was finally breached giving Barcelona a 1 - 0 victory. However, as Inter had won the first leg of this semi final, 3 - 1, they won on aggregate. To say that Jose Mourinho was pleased with his team's efforts was an understatement. As he is one of my heroes, I was very pleased for him too! I look forward to the forthcoming Champion's League Final when Inter take on Bayern Munich. It should be entertaining.

I awoke on Thursday, 29th April to find it raining. That was unexpected. I was really glad that I had finished the bulk of the strimming the day before. It was something of an early start as I had made the decision to go into Corfu Town to get some shopping before Tricia returned. Apart from anything else, the dogs were out of their food and I had to get another sack of it.

The shopping expedition went to plan and I returned at lunch time as the rain showers stopped. I had all manner of plans for the day, but somehow, they seemed to fall by the wayside. Ho hum!

Friday, 30th April saw me working out in the garden for the majority of the day. As Tricia was due home in a couple of days I also had to make some inroads into tidying the house!

Conclusion
April 2010 was busy. Easter was a particularly busy time at the beginning of the month. It rated as one of the best that we have experienced in recent years.

The vastly improved weather has seen us hard at it in the garden. Although slightly behind, we have managed to catch up quite well. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the vegetable garden is more productive than last year.

Tricia's trip to the UK will shortly come to an end. She has been enjoying her trip and has been doing her grandmotherly duties helping out Corinna.

We finish on a more general reflection upon Greece and her ailing economy. Ailing is perhaps a little generous. It's in a dire state! The austerity proposals being put forward by the government in an attempt to secure an EU /IMF bail out have not gone down well with much of the population. As always, it is the poorer section of the population who will be called upon to suffer the worst cuts. Blimey! I am beginning to sound like a Socialist! Like that will ever happen!

I will never complain about the cost of petrol in the UK again!

I think that we will finish here because as usual, I am late in publishing the newsletter!

May 2010 Introduction
We started the month with Tricia still in the UK but her return was imminent. There was just time to tidy up before she returned! For my sins, I was due to return to the UK myself and because of the flight prices, I was due to stay longer than I would have liked to. I was determined to make as much use of the time there as possible, seeing family and if possible, friends. Oh yes, the April newsletter had not been published.

Let's see what happened.

May 2010
Saturday, 1st May was the first time that Tricia had not been here to make her traditional May Day garland, since we moved to Greece. I thought of putting a bunch of wild flowers on the front of the car but couldn't because by the time I had realised, I was late for an appointment and anyway, I had strimmed them all in the garden!

I had arranged to meet David and Eda for lunch at Taverna Nikolas in Agni. Although it was sunny, it was not over-warm by the sea. In fact, I thought that it had been warmer at home.

We had an excellent meal and a few drinks whilst we discussed what had been going on in our lives since we had last met. Their plans for another trip to South Africa this year made me jealous. (No they are not going for the World Cup!)

On Sunday, 2nd May I collected Tricia from the airport. She had travelled with our friend, Reg Drury. Unbeknown to us, another friend, Keith Wren was on the same flight, as was Jackie, the wife of Russell from the fish and chip shop in Sidari!.

In readiness for Tricia's return, I had bought a fresh chicken from Darryl with a view to having a roast chicken dinner that night. I couldn't believe it! Tricia wouldn't cook it! She said that she had endured a long day, as she had got up before 2am that morning after having only three hours sleep! I vowed to lick her back into shape pretty darned quick. Needless to say, I made dinner that evening!

I'm sure that none of you expect me to get into far into a newsletter before rambling on about something a little on the techie side of things. This month is no exception. However, I am sure that Tricia will accept that she was the instigator. I will explain.

Whilst Tricia had been staying with Louise, she had been impressed with Louise's Ubuntu installation on her computer. She couldn't believe how much faster it was than the the previous Microsoft installation. For the uninitiated, I should point out that Ubuntu is a distribution of the Linux operating system. It is my operating system of choice and I only have Microsoft installed on a couple of machines because of some old legacy software that I have to support. I had previously sold Louise on the idea and she had successfully installed it herself whilst eradicating all traces of anything Microsoft. Not only that, but she had convinced husband Steve to go down the same route! Oh did I mention that Ubuntu is free?

Tricia had long complained about how slow her machine was. As a result, on Monday, 3rd May, I made a start on converting her computer to run Linux by installing software on her Microsoft Windows powered machine that would help her make the transition without too much pain. I promised that I would install Ubuntu when she was sure that she was happy with the new software.

I went off to work in the garden despite Tricia's prophesies of dire weather. It transpired that she had been looking at the weather reports for Chatteris!

We took the opportunity provided by good weather to work in the garden for the next few days.

On 7th May we worked in the garden during the morning but treated ourselves to dinner out at Gelati's with Alan and Pauline and her sister, Carol. A nice evening and yet again it was an evening where Spiros ended up being rushed by a sudden influx of customers. It is a standing joke that whenever Tricia and I visit Spiros, everybody else turns up!

Saturday, 8th May started with light showers first thing. I worked in garden before popping down to Darryl's butcher shop. Whilst there, I met up with Sarah and Reg. I learnt some news that I definitely did not want to hear. Apparently, there was a general strike planned for the following Wednesday when I was due to be flying to the UK. That night Tricia and I had dinner at Agni with David and Eda. I fear that all of the gardening was beginning to take its toll. I was afraid of falling asleep in the taverna! You will be pleased to hear that I survived the night and we both made it home safely.

Sunday, 9th May started very hot. We worked frantically in the garden. My efforts were directed towards the re-laying of the automatic irrigation so that Tricia did not have to worry about extra watering whilst I was in the UK. She was going to be fully occupied with eight dog walks a day!

However, the true highlight of the day and perhaps the year (with the exception of the birth of granddaugghter, Maggie) was that the Premier League Championship was decided. It had by no means been a forgone conclusion but we are delighted to remind everyone that Chelsea FC are now Premier League Champions. It was a shame that there were no English teams to contest the Champion's League this year but Chelsea still had the chance of doing the double by winning the FA Cup. (Unlike Manchester United! :-)) Oh how we celebrated!

Monday, 10th May was very hot in the sun. I got up early and strimmed 'the orchard' and various paths for Tricia. I had to go shopping for more nozzles for the automatic watering, not to mention buying some bits to make sure Tricia didn't starve! I worked in the garden in the afternoon planting beans and connecting up around 100 nozzles for the onions and beans.

I was still sweating on whether there would be a strike on 12th May. I continued to work like a Trojan in the garden during the morning on Tuesday 11th May! Although the automatic watering was working to schedule, we were beginning to think that we were asking too much of it. There is a good argument for installing a further tap with an irrigation clock attached. That way we could water the garden at two different times from two different feeds. As I write this, I am beginning to think that this is a good idea as it requires only a modest outlay and not too much work.

We had a treat lined up for lunch! We had arranged to meet David and Eda at the White House Taverna in Kalami for lunch. What a great location. The weather was nice and sunny and it made a real change to be confronted with a menu with which we weren’t familiar.

Granted that the White House is not the cheapest place but if one chooses from the menu with a little care, there are some really great value delicious dishes. The ‘Lamb in Dough’ is one that springs to mind. The beer prices are acceptable too! Given the outstanding location, we think that it is well worth a visit and will be returning during the summer.

I think that it was fair to say that we had an excellent meal in good company.

Come Wednesday, 12th May I was up early. My flight was still scheduled. Woo Hoo! Said "Goodbye" to Tricia and the animals and drove the old car to Alan and Pauline's. Alan had kindly offered to run me to the airport which meant that I didn't have eight days of parking fees. (He promised that he would collect me too!)

The journey to the airport was uneventful. I hadn't been there long before things started to go wrong! The inbound flight was late leaving Gatwick and was not due to land until 35 minutes after we were due to take off. As it happened, the plane landed and they managed one of the fastest turnarounds that I can remember. If memory serves me well, we had a twenty minute turnaround at Brindisi with Ryanair once. Easy jet matched it! As a result, we landed only a little late and I was out of the terminal, with my luggage thirty minutes after the plane had been scheduled to land. Well done Easyjet!

The onward journey to Louise and Steve's was uneventful. Of course, I had to make one of my now customary calls to Lakeside Shopping Mall before finally turning up! I had to buy myself one of those essential items that most of you probably have already - a SatNav. That evening, at my request, we ate out at the Shaad Indian Restaurant in Hextable. It is a terrific location. The food was first rate and the service impeccable, as always. Suffice to say, I needed my bed when we returned home!

Thursday, 13th May saw me up early to travel to Corinna and Dave's house in Chatteris. I had a very early appointment in Chatteris and needed to ensure that I beat the rush hour, not to mention the inevitable hold-ups on the M25. I arrived in time to see our grandchildren before they went to school and had my first sight of our (not so) new arrival, Maggie. She is as pretty as she is in her photographs.

Friday, 14th May saw me venturing off to Peterborough on my own. I had a shopping list of clothes to buy.

What a wonderful invention satellite navigation systems are! I must confess that these are a technological innovation that we have been late to embrace. They are now so reasonably priced that I cannot believe that they don't come as standard fittings in all new vehicles. Okay, so they are not entirely infallible but they are pretty darned good, in my humble opinion.

Shopping for clothes has become a miserable experience for me, particularly where trousers are concerned. Having lost a lot of weight over the last eight or nine years, I find that I am between sizes with many manufacturers. Added to that is the change in styles over the years. Take for example the case of trying to buy a pair of blue jeans.

Let's face it. I am a product of an era when blue jeans were almost a uniform and during the winter, not to mention part of the summer, they are almost standard attire for me in Greece. When it comes to shopping for them, I found that leg lengths have altered so that I either have to buy a pair that are too wide or the leg lengths make them look as if they have had a fight with my shoes!

Then there is the added problem of style, or should that be lack of it! I was offered jeans that looked as if they had been worn by about thirty different people before they made it to the clothing stores. Then I was offered jeans that were obviously designed to expose 'builder's bums' or perhaps worse, one's underwear. I am sorry but at 62 years of age, I don't want to look like an out of work Rap artist! Then finally comes the pair of jeans that look as if a previous owner had been mauled by a tiger leaving them shredded to pieces! What's that all about? Paying good money for jeans in worse condition than those that I was seeking to replace? I don't think so. What a bunch of Malakas!

I have to say that I had a frustrating shopping experience. It didn't stop with trousers! I also had a nightmare trying to find a casual pair of shoes in M&S. For a start, they didn't offer UK half sizes. I am a European size 44 which for the uninitiated, equates to a UK size 9½.

I went for a size 10. The first pair that I tried fitted my left foot perfectly but the right shoe was big enough to insert three fingers as well as my foot. The second pair that I tried was the opposite. The right shoe was perfect but the left was like a tourniquet!

I did what any sensible person would do. I swapped the two pairs around! Then for good measure, knowing what a surveillance state the UK has become, I told the cashier what I had done! That caused some consternation, particularly when I told her that I would never be able to find the pair that I had made the swap with! They sold me the shoes!

Despite my trials and tribulations, I did manage to pick up a few bargains and so the trip wasn't entirely a wasted journey. I guess that having to find shops in a city that I am not familiar with didn't help.

What can I say about Saturday, 15th May? I'll tell you what! CHELSEA WON THE CUP FINAL! That completed what had been a fantastic season for them. They had done the 'Double' by winning the Premier League as well as the FA Cup. They had scored more goals by miles during the season for any Premier League team - ever. (Eat your hearts out, Manchester United!) Didier Drogba won the 'Golden Boot' for scoring more goals than anybody in the Premier League. (Eat your heart out, Rooney!) Finally, Petr Cech jointly won the 'Golden glove' along with Pepe Reina of Liverpool for the most clean sheets of the season. (17). Yes! Not bad if you are a Chelsea supporter!

Sunday, 16th May saw Corinna and I taking the kids out for dinner at The Mill House in Huntingdon. The meal was good and the kids perfect!

That evening saw me driving back to Louise and Steve's as I had made plans to see my Aunt Wynne in Croydon, the next day.

Just to remind everyone, this was the time that the 'Ash Cloud' caused by the erupting volcano in Iceland, started to cause all manner of mayhem again, where UK air space was concerned. Tricia and I began to sweat as to whether my flight would leave. This was despite all manner of airlines making test flights and strongly suggesting that the bans imposed by the UK Aviation Authorities were more than a bit of overkill.

Add to this, the prospect of a general strike being planned in Greece for the day of my return and you will begin to see the reason for our concern. Fortunately, Tricia found a report (in Greek) from the Greek Air Traffic Controller's Union which gave us a little encouragement. From our best attempts at translating this report, it appeared that although the Air Traffic Controllers were in agreement over the need for action to combat the government's proposals, they felt that if they were to strike, it would not be in the national interest due to the importance of tourism to the economy. Hooray for commonsense! I always like to think that all air traffic controllers are responsible people!

On Monday, 17th May I went to visit my Aunt Wynne. It was the first time that I had seen her since the death of my Uncle Trevor. It was really nice to see her again and we managed to catch up on what had been happening in our respective lives. It was a shame that I was unable to see my cousins Sheran and Gary but they have to work! Had I have visited a week earlier, Sheran had been home from work. Ho hum! Wynne and I had lunch together at a nearby pub before returning to her house. All too soon, it was time to return to Louise and Steve's

The next morning saw me returning to Chatteris as I had a Retinopathy appointment that morning. Unfortunately, I missed Ryan's sports day this year as it coincided with my appointment. I had a slight problem in that my appointment was in the village of Burwell, some half an hour’s drive from Corinna's.

For the uninitiated, I should point out that this check-up involves the putting of special drops in your eyes before they take photographs of the back of your eyes. The drops cause your pupils to dilate so that you look like you are high! The downside is that it also makes your eyes stream and it is impossible to drive for quite a while. After the examination, there was nothing for it but to go for a walk and find something to eat. Still it was a nice sunny day and my sunglasses didn't look out of place!

Wednesday 19th May was quite busy. Apart from packing in readiness for my flight which was early the next morning, I had a box to pack for shipping and then there was the highlight of the day! - Rebecca's Sports Day!

It was all over too quickly. I had one last appointment that afternoon at the doctor's before driving back to Louise and Steve's. Louise made me a nice dinner that night - her take on 'Beef Wellington'. I guess you would call it Beef without the Wellington!. Very nice it was too!

It seemed no sooner had I gone to bed than it was time to get up again for my short journey to Gatwick. Yes! Both the ash cloud and threatened strikes had abated! My flight left pretty much on time and I was on my way.

The flight was excellent. We passed over Corfu. The cabin crew had taken their seats for landing. Then came an announcement. It appeared that it had been raining over Corfu Airport and that there was surface water which had not cleared. Apparently, the plane was deemed to be too overweight to attempt a landing and so we were ordered to fly in circles over the south of the island to burn off fuel! Despite a few groans, the passengers took the news in their stride. Well, what would you expect? Most of us were British after all!

No sooner had we landed and passed through immigration than I spotted my transport home. Alan and Pauline were waiting to pick me up and take me to their house where I had left the old Ford.

I was tired but relieved to be home. I was especially relieved to find that Jake had been on his best behaviour and had not caused Tricia any problems.

There apparently had been a terrible storm overnight. As a welcome home present, the thunderstorm continued for about 24 hours!

Tricia had done a magnificent job of keeping the vegetable garden under control, not to mention eating the first of the strawberries! However, there was still much to do. We spent much of our time during the next week or so working in the garden and vegetable patch.

On Saturday, 22nd May, Tricia and I went out for lunch at Yialios Taverna with John and Michelle. The last time we had visited, (which was the first time for Tricia and I) It had been quite nice with a good atmosphere. This time, it appeared deserted when we arrived.

However, the son of the owners appeared at the door and assured us that he was open. The lack of any other customers should have been a warning to us! In retrospect, he clearly wasn't open. The food was below average and quite expensive. It was only after we started chatting that we discovered that our host's mother was in hospital and that he had done everything himself. Talk about chief cook and bottle washer! We (Tricia and I) may give them a second chance given the circumstances. John and Michelle were not so forgiving!

We decided to set off for a drink elsewhere. We stumbled upon a bar / cafe on the Roda - Sidari road that none of us had visited before. What a revelation. It was clean, tidy and hospitable. Add to that the fact that the prices were astounding and I think that it is fair to say that we will revisit.

After a couple of drinks, we started to head homeward. ... Well until we got as far as Yiannis' Kafeneion in Acharavi! I swear that we only had one drink there! The trouble was that after that drink, we were all beginning to feel hungry again! There was nothing for it. We decided to visit the grill room opposite for a pita gyro and chips each ... or two in John's case!

We returned home at about 9.45pm. Not bad for lunch! The dogs were very pleased to see us!

We really never intended being out so long. The truth was that Tricia and I wanted to see Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich in the Champion's League Final. We were home in time and Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan duly obliged. What a great day it had been, if you discounted lunch!

The weather had been reasonable and we were able to get some more work done in the garden. We had barbecues on two or three days. They weren't anything special but were a nice way to wind down after finishing in the garden - usually when it became too warm.

One of the jobs that I had been tackling was to shift a pile of rocks that had been left on our first terrace and take them further up our land to where I have been 'messing about' with something of a drystone wall.

Whilst doing this on 25th, May, I had something of an upsetting moment. Having cleared most of the rocks I had set about levelling the ground with a pick-axe. I suddenly noticed what looked a bit like a bit of blood. Upon further inspection, discovered that I had accidentally disturbed a hedgehog's nest and in so doing had killed two of her babies. I was devastated. I moved the remains of the nest to a safe place as there were still two surviving baby hedgehogs. I have never seen such small specimens, before or since. I didn't find Mum at first as she was so well camouflaged. Having found her, I reunited her with her offspring.

Mum was having nothing of it. She was off like a rocket! We are pretty certain that she has taken refuge beneath the roots of an olive tree. Her babies vanished one by one the next day. We can only hope that she had ushered them off to her new home.

On Wednesday, 26th May, we had the opportunity to catch up with old friends again. Neal and Bev had come up to stay overnight in one of Periklis's apartments in Agni from their house in Petriti. We had arranged to meet them at Taverna Nikolas for dinner that night.

It was good to catch up on what had been going on in our lives since we had last met. It was also a good opportunity to take the mickey out of yet another Manchester United fan. Sorry Neal!

On Saturday, 29th May we had been invited to a beach barbecue at Gialiskari Beach near Ag. Spiridon. (No, not the one between Kalami and Agni Bay, nor the one on the opposite side of the island that also bears the same name!)

Everyone contributed. Our (Tricia's!) contribution was the pudding because she's quite good at them! It was a tremendous evening that went on until about 5am! We couldn't believe that we hadn't done it before!

On 31st May, flush with the success of Saturday night's barbecue, we decided to put what we had learnt to the test. No more charcoal sausages for us! It was a leisurely way to end the month!

Conclusion
I think it fair to say that much of this month had been taken up with UK visits and a massive onslaught in the garden, particularly the vegetable patch. We are determined that this year is going to be more successful than the previous. The economic climate in Greece means that producing as much of our own vegetables as possible will help augment our dwindling income caused by the weak Sterling, low interest rates and the Greek austerity measures. A knock on effect is that we don't have to drive anywhere to buy them and with petrol fluctuating between €1.53 and €1.60, that is a serious consideration.

Although Tricia and I have no trips planned for the forseeable future, we do have a number of friends visiting the island next month which will mean that we should be paying many visits to Kalami and Agni, not to mention having one or two meals out by the sea!

I will finish upon what will be a sad note for us and many of our friends too. It looks as if John and Michelle's house sale here will be going through in the not to distant future and we will be bidding them farewell as they will be returning to the UK. They, not to mention their exploits around barbecues and other great culinary experiences, will be greatly missed by a great number of people. They are good fun too!

That's it! Finished. The irony is that we now have no internet connection to upload the finished article with. I guess that I am going to have to vist the Kafeneion tonight and use Philipos's wifi!

All the best,

Bob & Tricia