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| Harbour beach at Panormo |
Talking of fires, I had spent the best
part of two days incandescent with rage at the hacking of my Email
address which had all my daily subscriptions arriving each morning,
my entire address book over 15 years, now unattainable, and nothing
in the way of Help Desk Support (nothing) from the rich corporation
of Microsoft.
In case it helps some other
unfortunate, please delete and do not open any Email with the subject
“Private Message”. I had already done so when I saw the message
from a friend I had just been trying to speak with on Skype. As our
call kept dropping, I thought that this was a follow up. She had
tried to let me know but by this time it was too late. I understand
that these things happen from time to time, but to expect people to
wander blindly through web page forum after web page, searching fruitlessly for a
help desk or telephone number, following all the instructions and
still getting nowhere is absolutely infuriating! If I try to get
back to my account, I am presented with a bogus form to fill in
asking for all sorts of ID information, passwords and credit card
numbers. All I needed was to speak to someone whom I could be sure
was genuine because I could not believe any of the web pages
appearing on the screen were true. It's a horrible feeling being
abroad and left in cyberspace without a paddle for ever wondering if
all your connections and passwords have failed. (Yes, she is going
to blow her top, Captain!) Anyway, we spent two hours running the
virus protection full scan, filled in a bogus form and then hastily
erased everything, found every online web question and answer forum
and left bitter complaints about the complete lack of assistance to
sort things out (which would not register, because I couldn't sign in
with my Email address ….Catch 22 again and so on). Such is life.
If you need my new Email address it is captioned below but I am not even sure that my blog or Facebook will hang
together much longer because they are based on my original Email
address. Aaagghh!
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| New Email address - not so different! |
So if we disappear off the planet and
you cannot make contact, this is the reason!
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| Melons galore ! |
Meanwhile in blisteringly hot Crete,
tempers other than my own have been frayed. Lots of Athenians have
arrived in town with big cars and noisy children; our water tank has
been replaced under guarantee and has stopped leaking everywhere and
we are overwhelmed by the second glut of cucumbers, aubergines and
wonderful figs! I have been slaving over the pickle jars to ensure
that the large crop is not wasted but everyone's vegetable gardens
are obviously coming to fruition simultaneously and I feel as though
I am living in the realms of the magic porridge pot which never stops
boiling over. We cannot get the fridge door closed! The beaches are
heaving with tourists, which is good to see but we are not venturing
out for swimming until tea time most days.
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| Two jars have been given away already! |
The heat is getting to everyone and it
was almost to the point of shotguns out yesterday. Friends of ours
building a house in Crete (always a very risky enterprise) have had
one problem after another with builders, licences, lawyers,
neighbours, bureaucracy and so on. They are nearly at the point of
completing and moving in – then the man owning the field opposite
the plot pronounced that he was going to build a fence across the
access road to their house because the roadway (which they have been
using for 3 years) belongs to him (It doesn't but we have heard of
this ploy being used before) and their lawyer who was dealing with
the issue is on holiday for three weeks. It seems that blackmail
and crossing palms with silver is at the bottom of it, but it is a
bit of a scar on our little village which has always seemed so
friendly to us but can close ranks when it comes to outsiders
invading their space. A road block is a bit critical when the cement
lorry is on its way, though, and people are coming and going to
deliver goods and materials. Our friends have been grossly
overcharged for work, in some cases paid twice over when one builder
left the project and all the workmen had done the work, but not been
paid. That individual had “sold” them a piece of land which did
not belong to him and the horror story gets worse as they try to sort
it out. Other workmen have left the site leaving broken and wasted
items scattered everywhere and over-ordered materials which were not
required. Painters came one day and left taking all the equipment
and paints with them which subsequently 'disappeared'. When they
turned up for work again needing more materials and equipment, they
demanded more money over and above what they had already been paid.
K & I wonder if it would have been easier to rebuild or renovate
one of the very many existing houses needing tender loving care
instead of covering the landscape with even more concrete, and with
such a hassle. At least everyone would know the dimensions of the
building plot and services would be laid on already. Every single
stage of the build has met with some sort of opposition or dispute.
We are agog with every new happening which is so like the worst kind
of soap opera. Our friends should write a book when they have
recovered from all the stress involved, even though John Humphreys
and his son did it first.
Even if it lacks refinement and would never feature in Homes and Gardens, K & I
realise that we got off very lightly with our little stone house!
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| A cool evening at last with the moon rising over the mountain |
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