What a busy week we have had and how did we ever find time to go to work? Following our encounter with the French couple last week and offering them cool drinks and a rest after their days clearing their land around their new foundations, they offered us wood from the olive trees that they were having to cut down in order for their building work to get under way. Thinking of our rather puny wood stack, we eagerly accepted their very kind offer. However, with a bulldozer and heavy lorry busy moving backwards and forwards, the only way to access their growing heap of tree trunks, was to shinny up a 6 foot wall of earth, walk gingerly around the piles of stone and rubble on each side of the foundation pit (which resembles a small quarry) and then puzzle out how to get a large pile of wood around said obstacles and back into the car. We tried twice, with various forms of apparel and equipment, but decided that we needed help. Someone with a chain saw, a wheel barrow, climbing boots and a pick-up truck – and may be having a delivery of wood might cost less??? Meanwhile, Jean-Luc and France leapt around like gazelles, clearing orchards, pruning and felling trees and looking very fit indeed.
France 1 – England 0
On Tuesday after Art School, we met up with Nigel and Marya in Rethymno at the Blue Chairs and had long discussions about the problems of trying to keep an English car in Greece for more than 6 months. It would probably mean paying a huge import duty to get the English plates changed to Greek ones and we are trying to work out what to do about it. All the shops in Rethymno are preparing for Easter and look very festive.
On Wednesday we had three Herculean tasks. AE, ATE followed by OTE. The AE is the abbreviation for a Greek tax number. I dutifully queued up for the third time with the completed form, my passport, a photocopy of my passport, a copy of my birth certificate, a copy of my marriage certificate and a copy of Kimon’s AE! We got there at 8.00 a.m. and there was already a roomful of people sitting waiting for various forms of documentation but Kimon pushed me to the front and the young man took all my papers and went through them. After a few moments, he said that I would need to get my marriage certificate translated. I said, “Of Course” in a dead pan (totally furious) way. Then he said that he would give me my number, but I would have to bring the translation into the office at a later date. YAY! One success.
Then we went to the bank (ATE) which was straightforward and while we were on a roll, set off for the OTE office to ask about the delay to our telephone and broadband. Having given all the information to them 6 weeks ago and signed the contract, we had to give it all again, then sent upstairs to the Technical Department where there was a lot of cheeping going on. The far windowsill was taken up by 4 canaries chattering to each other and taking sand baths in a collection of bowls and containers. There was one lady at the untidiest desk ever with logs, folders and papers all over the place, but she put our name in a grid on a clipboard and I think this was reassuring! She said that we would not have our line until after Easter and they would call one week before they came to fix it. So that was Wednesday.
Greece 2 England 2
On Thursday we had promised to give neighbours Angeliki and Niko a lift into Perama because they had shopping to do and we were up bright and early for another 8.00 a.m. start. Niko went to the council office to help K with sorting out our water bill which was great. We also returned home with a box of cakes and half a chicken from him to say thank you for the lift. Our fridge and freezer are now overloaded with local produce – milk, eggs, oranges, lemons, sausages from the English butcher in Vamos, horta (a kind of spinach which Kimon helped to pick earlier in the week) gifts of minced beef and a large piece of fish. Together with the flour and rice we brought from the UK, there is very little we have needed to buy for about two weeks now. However, we have planned to hold a party just after Easter and invite all the villagers so that we can find a way of saying thank you.
On our return from Perama, I felt duty bound to cook this wonderful chicken and discovered Lemon Chicken in the Crete Cook Book we recently unpacked. As Niko had given us the chicken and Valero our noisy neighbour had given us lemons we did a small plate for each of them and I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did! Scrumptious (and easy!). Spying some past-their-best bananas, I decided to make an Edmonds recipe (never fails) banana loaf, packed a small weekend case, then we moved outside and painted the large wooden trunk with wood preservative and because the fumes were so overpowering, took a walk up to the Mill to clear our heads and water the mill gardens. Oh, and then I gave K a hair cut!
Check out these hilarious road signs – could not resist taking a photo!
After all this, we were completely pooped and are looking forward to a quiet weekend away! Because - on Friday, we are going on a little trip with the CIC (Cretan International Community) to Anogia (pronounced Annoy yer – a boring number of puns have emerged from this). A coach is taking about 30 of us up to this mountain village and we will stay overnight returning on Saturday evening. Photos and possible sketches to follow!
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