Apokoronas Our Home

So far a fairly routine day. Emails, Phone calls, down to the village for a bit of shopping. We also had to find the doctor to write C's prescription he arrived later than expected at his surgery and it was quite cold waiting! however he wrote the prescription and we got the medication to last us at least over the weekend. On the way back whilst dropping of some rubbish at the skip, we found two good quality bedside cabinets thrown out, only in need of a clean up and a fresh coat of paint. We called in to see someone about some work and found a delivery of wood in progress, this of course meant that we had to go inside with the couple and the person delivering the wood and have several rakis. By the time I got home I was running rather late with my other work. I managed to get 4 loads of washing pretty well dried by late afternoon and hung the rest over the stove to air. A phone call to the lawyer gave me an update on the situation with the new council - which takes over tomorrow. ...

The day started fine but cloudy. About 10.30 when I had gone to get my road tax and a bit of shopping the heavens opened! The rest of the day the mountains were hidden and the temperature dropped considerably.  Winter seems to be here at last and the temperature is likely to stay low as snow is likely to  stay on the mountains now. Last year we had very little snow - I wonder if we will have more this year. The rain continued into the night and I was dreading driving to Hania in the early morning, but luckily the rain had stopped and the roads were quiet.  Visiting Hania hospital is always a social event - you can be sure of meeting somebody you know as you are walking through the corridors. Today was no exception and I bumped into three or four acquaintances. On the way back we discovered that the Pharmacy in Vamos was closed. This is a slight problem as the cardiologist husband of the chemist is also away and we cannot get the prescription filled in. -  Xristos'...

The new council was sworn in on Boxing day. The ceremony was well attended by civil and church dignitaries and MPs from a variety of parties. After the official service, taken by the Bishop and several priests ( the communist leader was sworn in separately at the end) there was the usual Cretan hospitality. This consisted of local wine, kalitsounia and roast lamb. Being full of a surfeit of roast Turkey and all the trimmings from the day before I did not indulge. The day was warm and sunny and the road outside the town hall was packed and lots of "networking" was going on. We took lots of photos for use on the website later - I suggested that anyone wearing a suit and tie should be photographed - even if we were not sure who he or she was, we could find out later!  Today I had a good purge of my office. Cupboards were tidied, old paperwork filed or shredded and old newspapers disposed of. I will continue in the coming days so everything is ready for the New Year. ( The cupbo...

Winter arrived overnight! Friday we were basking in 25 degrees and Saturday night we had snow. Quite a shock to the system. We were lucky. Some places woke with no electricity, no water and no internet. Our wood burning stove certainly earns its keep as  it provides not only heating, but cooking facilities too. We had salmon with jacket potatoes, sweet potato and red cabbage today. The snow is melting now and there is not much left. Tomorrow will be back to the olives if the weather keeps ok. Yesterday I made Christmas puddings and steamed them on the stove all evening. Today is the first anniversary of the death of Uncle Georgo. the time seems to have gone very quickly. It is the name day of Spyros today so lots of parties going on....

Well you may have noticed ( or not) that there has been no blog for a couple of days. The last few days have gone by in  blur and I could not even tell you where the days have gone! A lot of trips into the electricity office in Hania, chasing around paperwork etc. We are still waiting for the court to make a final pronunciation about the elections - though no body really expects things to change. The council members, new and old, are continuing with daily business and planning for the new.  We have been working on the newsletter and the updated website, I hope they will both be launched before Christmas. The weather is still very unseasonal and is warm and sunny, we really need some rain, but at this point it would be nice to get the olives collected before the weather breaks.  Had an interesting conversation about Rethymnon - Friends love it, I don't. We are talking about everyday shopping and business here not about holidays. I suppose it is where you get used to! I f...

Yes. I got back to the gym! Started off planning a quiet day. Went to Vamos at about 9a.m. to the pharmacy and from there on to buy some ham from Jon the butcher. From there off to the hardware store and bought paint to do my louvre doors out the back. So much for my quiet day - painting the french window shutters and the shutters of the two windows in the living room took me up to lunchtime - as well as dealing with phone calls etc. After lunch I shook myself and went of to Vrysses to the gym. I was there from about 2p.m. and took it fairly gently as I have not been for a couple of months due to the elections. On my return home it was time to feed the animals ( dogs, cats, chickens and rabbits) and make more phone calls! today I received several calls about council business so I must collate the information and speak to Mr Markakis about it tomorrow. One twinning request from the Uk, one offer of help from someone who works for the EEC development department and various other items....

Up and out early today. Left at 7 a.m. stopped at the cashpoint in Georgioupolis and met clients by 7.30 to go into Rethymnon early. the weather was warm again, but not so windy. Off into town then, first stop was DEH ( electricity board) to close their account and open a new one in the name of the house purchaser. All went smoothly except we had forgotten to take a meter reading before we left so while we were doing the paperwork Al shot back to the village to take the reading. All done and now all they have to do is to go back in a couple of days to pay their final bill and get their deposit back. From there we walked down through the town to the Phone office where the procedure was repeated, except they wanted an extra piece of paper that I must get by Monday. Out of town then and a stop to pay my car insurance and get a quote for another car. On to the water board to change the name on the water bill - except it was closed as the man is out collecting his olives. A quick trip into ...

Although it is the end of November it is still warm with southerly winds which are bringing the temperature up to 28 degrees. the day started with a trip to Hania, we were there by 7.45. On the way back I realised I was very low on petrol and hoped it could last out till Georgioupolis. I went home first to have a quick change of clothes and put on a black suit and headed off again to a funeral in Georgioupolis. The funeral was that of a family man who had felt ill and died ten minutes later yesterday morning. I assume it was his heart. He was a member of a large family and there was a huge turn out. I noticed the current mayor of Kryoneridas and the ex mayor of Georgioupolis amongst the mourners. The sun was beating down and there was very little shade. I was glad when the service was over. After that it was home for a quick poached egg and then off to see some clients who had just sold their house and wanted to sell their ducks, geese and chickens. A race back home for another meeting...

Very windy today - not a good day for picking olives. The wind is from the south so it has been pretty warm. Rather different to the snow I see reported from the UK. The strikes at the ports here on Crete are beginning to take their toll and a lot of farmers are losing their stock as they cannot send it to market.The farmers are also planning to close the roads in retaliation of the ports being closed - not sure how that will help!  My essay is nearly finished. Need to take a break from it for a while and re read it later, then finish the footnotes and bibliography. Just watched an episode of Dr Who on Greek television - the Greeks are a little bemused by the Daleks!  Anna called me to tell me she has arranged an interview with Grigoris Markakis, the Mayor of Kryoneridas and the Mayor elect of Apokoronas, for our new newsletter. We are on the hunt for a tape recorder! He has a great deal of work to do to get ready for the take over in January. The government is running semin...

The Olive season has begun and I can hear the sound of people working in the fields. This year I don't expect to be out in the fields myself! After a phone call late last night ( after I had actually gone to sleep) about an appointment today I was expecting to go to Rethymnon with clients. In the event it was delayed and apart from a short meeting I spent the day sorting the office, catching up on emails, downloading and printing information and working on my essay. I stopped for a while when some friends called by to borrow and olive net ( only having one tree it was not worth their while to buy one for themselves) I enjoyed having time to have a sort out and catch up, but will suffer for it next week I suspect! Now its evening and of course most offices are open so it is time to make some calls and chase lawyers, builders and clients!

Off early to Hania. First to the accountant followed by the bank. Walked across town to "courthouse square" to meet a builder. Much to my amazement he was early! Had a coffee and discussed business and he promised to call me with information later in the morning. From there I walked back across town  to meet some clients and go to a lawyer with them ( first floor). The clients went off and I continued my work in Hania by going to the public notary and getting photocopies of the plans of a house for another client to put in his file. ( this entailed up and down to the office - second floor- twice) From there I went back to the lawyer ( first floor) and from there off toward a civil engineer. On the way I called the builder who had not phoned me with the information from the morning and he assured me that All was ok and he had arranged to get the paper we needed for the Poleodomia. Up then to the civil engineer ( third floor) to discover that my clients should have filled out a...

Yesterday was one of "those" days. It started well enough and I believed I would have a quiet morning catching up on office work and my University essay. It began to go awry at about 9 when Christos  - having gone to check whether some olives were ready to harvest - was bitten by a dog! The bite was not serious, but as it had broken the skin we thought we had better go to the health centre at Vamos. Having been ( eventually) checked out by a doctor we discovered they did not have any Tetanus inoculations there or antibiotics, so we went down to the pharmacy with the prescription - to discover they had none either! We were told to come back at 7.30 in the evening when they would have got some in. While I was in Vamos I took the chance to order a turkey for Christmas from 'Jon the Butcher'.   By the time we got home it was lunchtime so we had some aubergine casserole and C went for a siesta while I tried to get back to work. I knew I had to leave for another appointmen...

Up with the lark - or at least the cats -  to meet clients at the IKA office by 8a.m. Everything went smoothly - though there was a certain amount ( i.e. a lot) of hanging around. Afterwards they went off to do some business in Hania and I went in to the court where the election re count has been going on to check my personal votes. The leader of the EMAAK party has not accepted the vote and is examining every piece of paper - this has happened six times now since last Sunday's vote! On the way back from town I stopped off at the new "British Food Shop" in Kalyves - unfortunately she has been so busy the shelves were nearly empty - a new delivery including Xmas goodies is imminent so I will call back on Monday. Sat down to do some work and flicked the tv on to see the news, as I was going through the channels I came across an Arabic channel where the film "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves" was just starting. This film is worthing watching for the sheriff of Nottingh...

The day started with a very useful meeting with our active "supporters" who helped at the polling stations, got the word out etc. We have decided to bring out a monthly newsletter which will include important updates from the council, interviews with councillors and answering FAQ's. We intend this to be in Greek and English - this is in addition to anything the council may do.  We are going to arrange a collection in the memory of David Webb and will ask his wife what she prefers us to do with the amount collected.    We are also going to have a celebration party for "Helpers" and spouses in two weeks time, before the Xmas celebrations kick in. Themed around Asian food - to have a change from the usual.  I had a call telling me I have to be in Hania before 8 tomorrow and this appointment will be followed by going to check yet more votes in the court. I plan to start back to the gym this week. Tomorrow if I get back from Hania at a reasonable time! I have te...

In the morning I went to meet some clients in Vamos to go with them to discuss their project with their lawyer. While I was waiting I was approached by several Greek people discussing the proposed "Foreign Cemetery" One of them tried to sell me a suitable plot! This is an issue that has been ongoing for some time, the local council has no problems with it, nor the Greek Church. It has the blessing of the Archbishop of Crete "Irenaios" who in fact was in charge of the Orthodox church in Bristol some years ago. The problem seems to be a detail in the Greek constitution which is causing the hold up.  Some of the Greek people I spoke to  thought it was a crematorium that had been proposed, which is a different issue - cremation being against the beliefs of the Orthodox church. I explained as best I could and the outcome was positive amongst the local population.  During the day I was delighted by the number of Greek people - most of whom I had never seen before in my ...

Having called in the morning to find out if we had the final detailed results of the election, I was informed that the re-counts were still going on. Not only for individuals but all the votes, down to the colour of the ink! I pointed out that one small polling station, their one blue biro having broken, continued in black..... I decided to give the bathroom a "once over'. At this point the mixer tap on the bath totally disintegrated. Luckily the tap was off at the time so I did not have a flood. A neighbour - who knows about these things - called in and confirmed my suspicion that the only solution was a whole new tap. Consequently I went off to the hardware store at Vamos. Having chosen the new tap ( the cheapest they had at 40 euro!) I discovered that they were not able to take credit cards so I had to go up to the ATM. Going up through the village I got stuck behind a bus that was jammed at the junction due to badly parked cars on the narrow road. Having got my money I re...

This blog is to supplement the "Latest News" on the Apokoronas Our Home website and I hope it will fill in a few gaps as to the everyday workings of the council! These last few days I have been reminded of the first episode of "Yes Minister" when Jim Hacker is waiting for a call from the Prime Minister. Our Party DEKA won the election and Mr Grigoris Markakis will be the first Mayor of Apokoronas, The young "new blood" in the old Dimos of Georgioupolis won easily and we have new blood in all areas, - a good start, but lots more to do I am waiting to hear if I got a seat on the main council as there are re-counts going on. I hope to hear today. The hard work starts now and  a lot of planning and preparing is going on. I am also tackling my essay for the Diploma I am working on so times are fairly busy. There's a start. More later as I get into a routine.