 |
 |
Still damn HOT and we have found out that it aint mozzies biting but bed bugs, some really nasty things too. At last count I had inherited over 40 lumps across my body and Lorna with a similar number (seem to be feeding the locals).
Last full day before we head over to Kalamata Airport (open only on a Sunday) to fly to Birmingham, where rather kindly Lorna's Aunt and Uncle will put us up for the night (and give us more alcohol I hope). Monday is Lorna's 35th Birthday (but she still looks like she is in her twenties and acts like a teenager), so we are travelling courtesy of Virgin, up to Scarborough (for the princely sum of 18 pound). Sadly we have found that Greece is not the place to settle, however the journeys will continue (France and Italy next in the Yellow Banana Wagon).
Time to spend a few days with the Folks, then some really good friends (Stu and Jen and Allan, Bel and Little Miss Hazel). Before heading off out on the 27th July.
Keep coming back and watch this space to see what we will be doing next, I guarantee it will be different. Next up will be a complete rewrite of this site (gone will be the annoying music, hurrah I hear you scream) and also getting www.pebbleinthesea.com up and running.
That's it Greece, Bye Bye.
Well what have we done for the last few days, errr, naff all. Its H O T!!!! 40 odd degrees and rising, my god the last time I had this much water running off me I ran a half marathon and I aint even moving at present either.
So the days consist of up around 9ish, when we can be bothered, shower, Greek yoghurt and honey for brekky then try to find something to do beside drink beer. I have almost finished my second book and this one even has little writing and few pictures in it (impressed am i).
Last night I couldn't sleep (again, bombarded by bloody mozzies, even through the mesh and avoiding our ace blue light zapper), but I heard a noise around 4am and looked out to see a family (5 in total) of weasels having fun on next doors car, fighting, rolling, leaping higher than KITT in Knight Rider (all without the aid of ramp). You should see the state of next doors car today (ha ha ha ha).
And today we had a womble around properties in the area with a local estate agent to see what you can get for your bucks, bugger all springs to mind unless you is seriously loaded, but hey it killed half a day.
We fly back on Sunday to enjoy the misery that is English weather, oh me oh my.
TTFN
So, we have been bumbling around the Peloponnese for nearly a week now and although we are enjoying ourselves I think we both agree that the islands are much nicer than the mainland. Over here is pretty with some amazing scenery with tourism concentrated into tiny shorefronts only - ala Stoupa.
Yesterday we took a long drive down the south coast and through lots of dead and dying villages. Some of the houses in the south, despite the dead villages are more like small mafia enclosures - very large railings, electric gates etc, and then you see a bloke passing in front with a Donkey - surrealism at its best.
We stopped at a little village on the shoreline called Limeni, a pretty little place with two tavernas (only Greeks in these) and a lovely bay to swim in. We had lunch but plan to return to spend a lazy afternoon swimming then eating.
Next week is action packed, compared to this one - a series of house viewings to see how much you can get for your euros, a guy coming to view the house we are currently living in with a view to buying it, and undoubtedly more beer to see in the evenings with.
Tata for now.
House prices, whooo, the speed of inflation has killed the market from what we can see, the average 1 bedroom house, with no land or parking is approx 185,000EUR, plus between 2 and 5 percent estate agent fees and then legal costs and tax on new builds of 19 percent. The average Greek has seen dear old Brits waltz in, buy up old barns, do them up and sell them for a profit, so now they think that their barns (complete with rats, cowmuck, scorpions et al) are worth an arm an a leg without even doing the renovation on it.
So what next, still enjoying sitting around doing naff all, the sun is well in to the low 40's at present, so no sooner do you get up and dressed and your clothes are sodden. We are here for another week and a bit before we fly back in to the UK on July 9th (off to see the rellies in Brum area on the way and from what I gather they can drink more booze than the folks can, oh boy my liver has been ver naughty and it will be punished daily!!!).
We are looking to meet up with some friends on our return to the UK (not to brag that you are still working and we are lazy slobs, either).
OK, off to wander around the coast now and maybe even go skinny dipping (eeeh gads, watch out wildlife here come the English lilly white flesh).
The house we are staying in is beautiful and a credit to the owners (you can tell it was a loving restoration), we have views of the sea from the bedroom. We also had our first encounter with the local wildlife, and no it wasn't a goat either - a scorpion in the bathroom just under the toilet - still better than a Black Widow we thinks! The term hover brings a whole new meaning since that discovery...
So, what do we think of this part of Greece, well its certainly Greek and the countryside is beautiful with plenty of greenery around. Our language skills are a problem, it is not easy to communicate at the moment but we are always trying anyhow - only managed to upset 2 Greeks so far so we think we are doing ok.
This is where we came to ponder our future, the whats, wheres and hows of trying to change our lives totally whilst still in our 30s. Let no-one ever tell you it's an easy option. Ever since the US we have spent most waking moments pondering where that future will lead, how long the money will last, what ultimately will bring us happiness and contentment in this changing world. We don't yet have the answers to any of these, but we at least are prepared to try and risking everything in the process. (Answers to the meaning of life are welcome on a postcard please, and no it aint 42).
So, we have 2 weeks here before we jet back again to the UK, visit all our friends around the UK and then head off in our little yellow jeep to drive across Europe, ending back again in Thalames for the winter.
Big hellos to Zoe & Dean, Pauline, Stephanie, Christina and all the family.
Off now to enjoy more of this lovely weather..
Well a hectic few days, we went to Cross Butts in Whitby for a nice relaxing romantic evening. The room was excellent but the food, oh how terrible. This on the night of an important football match, so they let all the decent staff go home and left the dregs to cook the food and the worlds worst waitress with less English skills than a British Traffic Warden. So not an exceptional night, such a shame cos it used to be a really nice place (oh well, all things England I guess).
Over to see the Eagles in concert at the MEN and what an excellent show (my Birthday prezzie from Lorna). Seats about 100yards from the stage and they kicked off at 7.30pm straight through to 10.30pm with a minor break. Absolutely brilliant. We even got to sit in the slimmers appreciation zone, with "Northern Power Drinkers" who's bellies were huge and Viz's own creation of the Fat Slags (Shaz and Traz), who were hammered within 30 seconds of sitting down as one of them proceeded to spend the night texting her boyfriend and the other gyrated her hips on the chair in front of her, Oh boy.
Yesterday, well after a rapid change for Spike yesterday (our cat), we had to move him from a cattery where the owners had changed and the new people haven't a clue, consequently he is now 2 Kg overweight and very depressed being left in a hell hole.
And now, our plans have changed again.........
We fly to Greece on Sun 25 June for a simple 2 week break, then fly back to the UK.....and then.....We have just swapped Lorna's lovely Fiat Punto (with Carlos Fandango Wide Wheels) for a Suzuki Vitara which we will drive from Scarborough to Greece via France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Yes its another road trip!!!!!
So planning galore going on here for routes, ferries, and campgrounds.
A big hi to Al, Bel and Miss Hazel, unlucky for you we will be seeing you very soon.
Also a big thanks to the Folks (Inlaws that is) for putting up with all our trash and clothes scattered around the house.
Such a brief stop at the parents house (enough to drop the dirty laundry!!) and then we were off to Edinburgh. The four of us (Us and The Folks) all boarded the rickety train from Scarborough to York ready to catch the First Class GNER to Scotland. Ok, so another experience of UK Trains and delays, dirty trains and dodgy toilets. So our journey to Scotland started poorly, a delayed arrival of the train due to a slow train in front of it, ever heard of overtaking? No, neither has GNER. The train seats were a lovely 1965 style, complete with authentic wear and tear, oh and then the bloomin thing decided to have engine failure so we crawled to Scotland whilst having to listen to four harpies (sorry Production Development Team or something equally dull) yapping on, playing country music to the train carriage and chatting up the two "comedy script writers sat nearby" Talk about Blah Blah Blah - still a few bottles of red wine eased our anguish, and we cheered excitedly as the train crew announced that the train would terminate in Edinburgh and all passengers bound for onward travel will be transported via Bus - so harpie 1 asked "Are we getting the first Class bus or do we have to sit with the rabble?" Classic. We decided it would be unfair to actually watch them board their bus and headed off to the hotel instead.
So food, wine (note the theme here...) and then off for a wander around the city before retiring.
A big hello to all, 9 days to Greece, no packing done yet and oh far too much stuff to sort out...more wine then!
Hi to Tracey, love your Safari pictures, we'd love to do something like that, maybe one day.
Well we made it back after 16 hours flying (4 from Tokyo to Hong Kong and then 12 hours from Hong Kong to London). We started at 2am UK time, Monday 12th and eventually finished about 5 minutes ago (leaves us with about 30 odd hours without sleep).
The trip was uneventful, just long and boring, so now we have a nights rest in London, before catching the GNER service back to York and then the OAP special to Scarborough (The Yorkshire Coastliner). The last 39 days have been excellent, and we are now looking forward to a brief rest before we head off to Greece.
A big hi to Andy M and congrats on baby Laura. Also a big hi to Stephanie.
Keep coming back and we will post updates from Edinburgh and then Greece. We will also be re-writing the Ouronebigadventure website and getting the pebbleinthesea.com up and running.
Well just to add more to Lorna's previous entry, the Sumo was somthing else. For 5 hours we were entertained by impressive bouts that lasted no more than 30 seconds and all for 15GBP.
The last week in Japan has been wonderful and the planning that Lorna has put in is amazing, everything has been planned out, she has worked out all the Tube routes in advance of travelling (not the easiest of feats if you saw the Tokyo Map). We have seen some amazing sites and met some lovelly people and so helpful and friendly.
So now the horrible journey back, first flying back to Hong Kong at 6.30pm, then catching a 13hour flight back to London. A brief stopover in London, then back on the train to Scarborough for 2 days before we head to Edinburgh, then Whitby, then Manchester to see the Eagles in concert, a rest for 2 days then its off to Greece for 6 months, oh my.
Starting at 12 noon were the more junior fighters, and boy was it fun to watch - huge guys trying to justle each other out of the ring. There's lots of special rituals performed before the wrestlers even start to battle with each other, and not to mention the fancy customes of the referee. On then to a comic send up of Sumo wrestling, very funny to watch the antics. They serve beer at the stadium so we erm had quite a few whilst settled in for the day (the tournament opened at 11am and finished at 5pm), we also bought ourselves a "memento" which turned out to be two trays of food - one a sushi dish of unidentifiable fish dishes and the other of rice - hmm yum - not!
All told a nice day, very different and fun to watch and highly recommended. Tomorrow we start our journey back to the UK.