The latest - at 4th November 2011

Well, the photography course are beginning to take shape - I'm designing the content of two courses - one for real beginners and one for intermediate level people who have a basic grasp of Digital Photography.

In Corfu it's autumn going on winter and the days are a bit cooler, but as in Spring-time new blossoms are around, so it's time to get out and take some photographs.

I've decided also to start writing a new novel using the experience I gained from my last efforts, so, that's something to while away the long winter nights! I'm also starting a blog called "Something for the over 50's..." So, if you fit the age range and would like to contribute some ideas, feel free - it's in its real infancy i.e. just born, possibly the 7 billionth blog in the world!

Less frequent posting

As all of you who have been viewing my blog will have seen over the last few months, my posts have been less frequent than I would have liked. There is a reason - I am developing a small business which concentrates more on my photographic abilities. In other words, I will be starting a photography school and conducting courses here in Corfu from next April. In order to do that I have been doing a lot of preparatory work and developing my new website pages. These will be made public when I've completed and tested them thoroughly.

Thanks for following my adventures over the last year or so - the blog will remain on the internet and I hope to be making the occasional post in the future.

Just back from Crete

4 weeks away in lovely Crete are now over. We've been attending an English Language course in Chania at Via Lingua's center. All to do with trying to get some gainful employment her in Corfu - the language schools need certification before they'll look at you.

We drove there and took ferries despite the constant threat of strike action all over Greece - currently there are strikes in place by the taxi drivers who, apart from not wanting their monopoly broken, are a bit peeved by the government selling licenses for 10% of what the current drivers paid. There are so many monopolies that have to be broken as part of Greece's being in the E.U. - taxis being not the least among the pharmacies, truck drivers, seamen etc, etc etc - I'm afraid the Greek people will have to eventually concede that being part of the E.U. is a two-way street - a bit of give and take, not all take as it seems to have been up until now.

We came here to get away from an overly politicized society - just to arrive in the middle of the most political activity I can remember.

So, back to looking at the sea and my photography - keeps the mind sane.

Pix of Crete to follow once I've resized them.......

Here again...

Things have been happening, if slowly. We're now in Crete for 4 weeks or so, taking part in a TEFL course which we hope will improve our English teaching abilities. We spent 7 years in China teaching English without this requirement, but it seems that all other countries require something like it before they will let you loose on their students!

We drove down - 400 miles or so from door to door and two days and nights enjoying discovering more of Greece. First stop was Meteora where the monasteries sit atop large rocks. The monks used to haul food and people up the rocks in baskets! I don't believe they still do that sort of thing. This was a bit of a pilgrimage for us, a non-relgious one, as we passed through this place during our drive from Saudi Arabia to Holland, so we eventually found the lovely restaurant we ate in and did it all again - just as good as the first time.

Second night was in a lovely little hotel in Piraeus. My previous encounter with Piraeus was down the main drag in a taxi to catch a ferry to Spetses, many years ago, and I wasn't too impressed then. BUT, I was totally unaware that Piraeus is in fact one of the up-market parts of Athens with an amazing history. Now it has marinas, lovely restaurants and bijoux hotels. We stayed in one of the cheaper bijoux hotels which was vet nice, family run, friendly etc and not expensive. We stay there agin on our return journey.

Tonight we meet all the other people who are taking this course - we've met one already, Hugh, from Texas - a very nice and interesting man.

So today will be spent walking to the beach and getting ready for the return to classroom tomorrow.

I'll load some photographs soon when I have some time...

Been too long.....

Yes, it's been a few weeks since I gave an update of what's happening here in Corfu. The tourists are here now, enjoying the sun and the beaches. The mix has changed considerably in the last couple of years, most visible tourists in our area now coming from Russia and Eastern European countries reflecting the rise in their fortunes and the decline in the traditional British and Italian fortunes!

They're all welcome as Corfu needs every tourist Euro it can get. A rising and worrying trend is the All-Inclusive holiday where people pay for hotel, food and drinks in advance and as long as they stay in their hotels around the pool, they can eat and drink themselves senseless on terrible food and the cheapest hooch. The local tavernas and bars see little or none of their business as these "tourists" come with almost empty pockets.

BUT, many of the Eastern Europeans seem to be giving their trade to the local businesses, the restaurants and car rental companies advertise their menus and price lists in Russian, Serbian, Polish and a few other languages in addition to the more traditional English and Italian.

The ferries are still running, the planes arriving and the buses taking them all to their hotels pass us in droves at times, so it can't all be bad in this economic climate.....

It's July and HOT

Lat week we went down to the huge sandy beach at the lagoon, Limni Konsia, which is on the south-west coast of Corfu. Here you are looking out onto the Ionian Sea and if you crane your neck, you'll be looking directly up towards Venice! The sun was hot, but the water too cold for swimming. Perhaps that's because we went in the early morning to avoid other people, but even then, I don't believe there would have been many people later in the day. Spent an hour ot two beach combing for shells and strangely-shaped pebbles.

Tomorrow we drive to southern tip of the island - the starting point of my bottom-to top walking route - next year!

July is here...

The 4th of July and my birthday treat is dinner in the rooftop garden of the Cavalieri Hotel in Corfu Town. We've been looking forward to doing this for a long time. It is positively summer now, over 30C every day and just lovely. Last week Barbara attended a 5 day course in mosaics run by two English ladies and taught by two maestros from Ravenna in italy. I would like to have done it myself since my art is confined to my photographic attempts and this would be a nice variation, perhaps next year when they do another course! Barbara created a very good copy of an ancient mosaic of a fish - well, I think so...

Here's her fish...

Getting HOT

As we progress into the summer it's getting hotter by the day and the sea, just across the road, beckons. It's now firmly in the 30's C every day and our routine will definitely change. Last July and August we spent every afternoon in the Corfiot form of a siesta - dead to the world after lunch - even with the air-conditioning on! So this summer shouldn't be much different except that we now have a beach immediately opposite our home. (See the link to the "Sandy Beach Studio for some photographs)

A quick swallow....

Yesterday we went to the Kanoni Peninsula which is the part of Corfu where the very earliest settlements were established some 5,000 years ago. They abandoned these settlements as the port they were using was silting up - even then. It is now a lagoon and hosts the Corfu Airport amongst other things. Get to the point, Rob - there were a few swallows doing figure-of-eight circuits, swooping and swirling around getting their afternoon snack of flying insects. Here's one of them - remarkably lucky shot to be in focus at all.

Piano Concert

Last night we were delighted by a student playing what we believe to be a concert as part of her final examinations from the Ionian University Music Department. She played 4 pieces by Mozart, Brahms, Ravel and Prokofiev. She played to an audience of fellow students, her teachers, family and us.

It was an honour to be allowed to listen to her play. Magnificent!

When we lived in China and Hong Kong we often went to concerts by internationally-renowned players, especially in Hong Kong where we had the opportunity to attend many concerts in their International Arts festival. She played as well as any of them, even better in some cases.

Her name was Dimitra Kokkinopoulou - watch out for that name!!!

Hotting up

Now the temperature is hitting 30C at least every day, so summer is definitely upon us. We've refurbished our separate studio in the hopes that some visitors might just want to rent it for a few weeks through the summer months.

We've had a family of nestlings and parents in our eaves for the last month and I see now that they've all gone. I'm amazed at how quickly it went from building the next to the chicks hatching, growing and flying away - 4 or 5 weeks at the most.

Here's 2a photographs taken an hour before they all left home!

The Rotunda, Spianada, Corfu

On one of my walks through Corfu Old Town this week, I took this angled shot of the Maitland Rotunda in the Spianada.



It was built to commemorate Sir Thomas Mailtland, the second Lord High Commissioners of the Ionian Island during the British administration. The Brits were not exactly kind to the Greek people, their saving grace was that the built infrastructure.

The real thing

It's lovely taking and, presumably viewing, photographs of the things people expect to see in Corfu - the Forts, Churches, Liston, Spianada etc. But it's also nice to see some of the real town taken from a vantage point normally used to zoom in on the attractions.

So here is my take on a part of Corfu Town which I think is near enough "normal".



And a close up of the little church in the previous photograph.

Summer Festival

Last night and the previous Thursday we went to the tiny Anglican Church here in Old Corfu Town to attend their summer festival. On the Thursday we were entertained by two lovely girls from The UK playing a variety of music on violin/viola and clarinet - they were wonderful. Lat night it was students from the Ionian University playing violin, cello and the flute giving us a fantastic display of their talents. They could only play a few pieces for us before rushing off to play on a "rival" concert in St George's Church in the Old Fort complex.

The second half was given by three local Greek performers playing piano and flute with the added surprise of a tenor delighting us all with some Puccini arias. He sat impassively in a rather disheveled crumpled suit waiting patiently to perform. We thought initially that he was just someone who had come along to help. When he took his place behind the music stand, composed himself, clasped his hands below his "pottish" tummy and began to sing - we were all blasted into orbit by the power and beauty of his voice. When we (all 40 of us) kept applauding him, he demurely bowed with his right hand across his heart and smiled the most infectious smile you have ever seen. Throughout the evening he sang another two times and had us in tears with the beauty of it all.

The festival was in aid of the church which is in dire financial straits - it has been in existence since 1870 and keeps surviving on a month-to-month basis.

The view from the New Fort

In keeping with my recent decision to get a bit fitter, lose weight and take more photographs, Barbara and I visited the New Fort in Corfu Town - warm day, good walk and trek up to the top of the fort and this view.



Somehow we managed to fit in a shopping trip for groceries, a visit to a ship's chandler, a garden centre and a lovely concert at the little English church in the evening. Two lovely young women had come all the way from the UK to perform in Corfu - classical violin/viola and clarinet - lovely evening - plus delicious snacks at the interval.

Life is hard here!

A blank page...

All writers face it - a blank page that somehow will not start writing itself! Well, that's just how I felt when I started writing this entry - what to write?

I've been in and around Corfu Town trying different angles when taking some photographs - it's part of my attempt at developing a "style" for a series of shots for my calendar. I'm thinking of three or four different possibilities, some or even all of them.

But part of wandering around pointing my camera involves meeting people and, since I look like I know what I'm doing and where I am, I become an unofficial tourist guide, directing people to the local sights. Something which I find very enjoyable. Being able to point people in the direction of a nice cafe with a great view of the Old Fort, or even just explaining that the cafes won't actually mind if you use their toilet without buying 5 cups of coffee gives me the chance to chat to some very nice people enjoying their vacation.

This is a very typical alley in Old Corfu Town.




So now after writing something, I'm heading out to Gastouri, where Achilleion, the palace built by Empress of Austria Elisabeth of Bavaria, also known as Sisi, is before the tourist buses make it impossible to get through.

Hang out your washing on the.......

Couldn't resist the idea of the clothes pegs dancing on the quilt.....

A bit more....

I've been distracted from processing my photographs from 2 days ago, but I always enjoy seeing this little church just outside the Old Fort - we believe it might have a Russian connection - obviously more research is needed. It is in use, but, has a small tree growing out of the bell tower and the lopsided lamppost adds a lot to its unique look.



If there's anyone out there who knows something about this church, I would love to hear from them.

Yesterday's efforts

It's always a pleasure to stroll through the Old Corfu Town - winter summer, it always has something different to show and yesterday was no exception. It's good to see tourists wandering around, filling the cafes and restaurants and searching for the lovely museums Corfu has to offer.

As part of my project to design a calendar, I've been taking pictures with that in mind. This is one of them.

Another sunny day

... and I'm sure we'll have plenty more this summer. Still not too hot, just nice, as they say - sunny with a nice breeze. So, today I'm off into town on a photo shoot - trying to get some of the old architecture in Corfu Town, plus anything else that presents itself.

This the Liston in Corfu Town - a place where only the people "on the List" could promenade in their finery.

Fishy.....

Barbara likes to buy our fish fresh from the fishermen in our local village, Benitses. It seems they do a lot of their fishing off the beach at our house, earlyish in the morning, in time for them to return to the village , set up their stalls and start selling around 8 a.m.

Yesterday morning I took these pictures of them.

Everyone knows.....

Everyone, whether they be Greek, foreign resident or not, knows that doing things, official that is, can take some time. Registering a birth, for example, can take several days including visits to several different agencies and all the queuing that involves. Well, doing your tax return falls into that category too and it isn't helped by the Byzantine addressing system here either, but more of that later. We started our tax return process by first going to enquire about changing our house address. We were duly given the forms and, when we asked about doing the actual return, were told to see an accountant, around 40 euros each was suggested - not bad at all for someone removing all the hassle. Good so far - we took the forms home and set about the task of finding a good accountant that would do the biz, as they say. Fortunately our neighbour suggested someone - that bit was easy. So, off to see the accountant - no appointment necessary, just drop in after 10.00 a.m. Lovely guy, speaks good English and even told us we would possibly have to pay a small amount in tax. So, far so good. "So", he said, "bring in all your receipts for purchases last year". Strange, we thought, but OK go along with it. "And how have you lived for the past year?". We had been drawing money from our foreign bank account from ATM's - not good so far. "OH, you'll need the pink slips from the bank for all money you've brought into Greece from your bank". Getting serious now, we thought, and began to get a bit wary.

Off to the bank to try to get pink slips for our ATM withdrawals - no go there - only transfers from bank to bank. Fortunately we had a pink slip for the money we had transferred to buy our old second-hand car, so that helped a bit.

Back to the accountant with all our receipts and the one pink slip. Now we were told to return our change of address forms to the tax office and give them a paper that said we were married and would be filing a joint return - another hour-long queue at the office, etc, plus the drive to and fro and the parking problems, etc, etc.

The accountant said he would be filing the return on-line - new technology - no more queuing etc. But, no, not quite yet, anyway. He now gave us another form which requested the on-line password to do the on-line filing. Back to the tax office for another 1.5 hour wait. Success with that, it took just 1 minute for the password to be issued, and I must say here that the people working in the tax office are always great, polite, speak English and are extremely competent - especially with queues of people waiting and all the pressures that must exert upon them.

Now parking in Corfu Town is at a premium, so I usually park on a pavement near the British Cemetery and enjoy the walk through the town centre- so getting the password to the accountant, was no problem and he seemed to be a happy bunny about it all. Incidentally, he told us we would have no tax to pay for last year and if we imported X amount of Euros from abroad this current year, we would have zero to pay next year too. Now, that was good news. So, after a month or so, goodness knows how many trips around town etc, it all seems to have been done.

Back to the Byzantine addressing methods. It's quite common here for mail to be delivered to the local cafenion and people go along, have a coffee and pick up their mail. It's also very common to give directions to a house like "Go to the centre of the village, turn right at the bakery, go along the alley for 200 metres, turn left at the small pink church and you'll see my house up on the hill. It's the one with the little yellow car outside - that is , of course, if I'm in at the time" It all helps keep everyone anonymous in a way, so only the local people really know who lives where. It all hinges on telephone numbers - that is apparently how you are identified - strange, but true. Opening a bank account is no problem with one of the ever-so-vague addresses and a mobile phone number, BUT, getting on-line banking and an ATM card require a land-line phone number. (?????)

But, for all this, I can't think of anywhere nicer to live - it's beautiful, friendly, laid-back and even sunny at times.

Our new neighbour

A few days ago I saw some fluttering outside my office window - yesterday afternoon this was the result - almost finished building their new home!

The tax man cometh!

Greece has a very strange tax system, or not, depending on your viewpoint. Having been told to use an accountant to do our tax returns, and this by the tax office, we duly did so and found to our delight that it was not another rip-off like in the UK where we used to pay an accountant £1500 + a year to make a return for 12 invoices! So, we've been told the amount we have to "import" into Greece to sustain our lifestyle and we're pleasantly surprised. Good news, for once, from a tax office!!

The visitors are now coming in full-swing and its great to see the cafes and restaurants doing good business again. Yesterday we walked around the old town and "did" our "tourist thing" taking pix and having coffee on the Liston. Always a pleasant thing to do.

Today there's a general strike, so it's a "stay at home and get on with sorting out my computer files" and "make a nice pot of soup as the weather has gotten a bit cooler, too", sort of day.

Not today.....

The wildflowers will have to wait until tomorrow - today will be spent experimenting with Photoshop "effects". We had intended to visit a photographic exhibition called "The Belle Epoque", thinking that today was the last day. Well, the organisers said the exhibition ran "until" today, but also said that viewing was on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Today is a Thursday! We came to the conclusion that their use of the word "until" and ours differ somewhat. Next time round, perhaps.

We're also discovering more on-line directories and sources of information about what is "going on" in Corfu. Very much to the credit of Dick Mulder and Daniel Blom of "What's up Corfu" and Emma Wood of the "Corfu Club". The links are now on this blog.

Part of the experimenting with PS is to find a good "effect" I can use more generally - today's experiment was this view of our house -



The perspective needed to be changed as the photograph was taken from street level and I had to tilt the camera. Also, the photo was aged and tinted. As I said, just an experiment!

Spring has sprung

It's now well and truly in to May. The Royal Wedding is now history as is Osama Bin Laden. I suppose we can rejoice at both events in some way or other.

But, here in Corfu, life is much simpler - a few more planes are touching down as the tourist season begins to take grip. It's lovely driving along the coast road up to Corfu Town and passing through the villages where the business people have been working, tidying their shopfronts and making things nice again. I don't know why more people don't visit at this time of year - the flowers are magnificent, blossoming everywhere. The weather is lovely, sunny most days but cool enough to enjoy being outside - not the blistering heat of the sun-worshippers. Wild flowers abound and I'm heading out tomorrow on a photographic expedition, suitably armed with my new "Wild Flowers of Greece" under my arm!

Photographs will follow.....

May Day is here

Well, where has the winter gone? Suddenly it's the 1st of May and the tourists are more apparent. Here in Corfu the first big event is the Easter weekend when thousands of visitors arrive. The celebrations have somewhat over-take the religious aspect of Easter, much to the annoyance of many of the local people, local and ex-pat. Where previously solemn processions would be preformed in a ver sober respectful ambience, now the crowds are too busy drinking and generally "doing their thing" that the processions are pushed into second place. The old tradition of dropping large jugs from windows continues to much applause and whatever their origin might be, they push the solemnity of Easter into the background.

BUT, visitors are needed by the thousands to bring some life into the island during the summer when most businesses make all their income.

So, Mayday is very significant as it really brings the feeling that summer has actually started, regardless of the threatening rain clouds.

Back to my project

I've been experimenting with some plug-ins for PhotoShop and thought this effect rather nice. Bit more than a plug-in involved.

Ant

Yesterday I went to take a photograph of the orange blossom that suddenly started sprouting and found this.....



I've just created a new portal for my photographs - Rob's PhotoShelter - it's still in the making and I have to load a lot of photos yet, but comments are very welcome.

The British Cemetery, Corfu

Yesterday we visited the British Cemetery in Corfu Town to see the flowers that are in abundance at this time of year - more to come later.








And, finally, the man who cares for it all, Mr. George Psalia....

Cold and wet

It's a bit wintery now, leading up to the big Easter Weekend - next weekend - but, looking out over the sea, it's grey and damp.

Time to hibernate again for a day or two!

The project (continued)

In order to actually do the project I'm working on I've had to teach myself quite a lot about Photoshop, plus learn how to properly use my digital camera. Neither has proved to be easy, but I've persevered and managed to get enough behind me to make a mark on my photography.

Here's a photograph of a very old convent on Kanoni peninsula in Corfu.

Our studio flat

The bottom floor of our new home is a very nice studio flat - sleeps two, nice kitchen, bathroom and a view of the sea PLUS a 50 meter walk to our own wee beach. Can't be bad - so, we're going to try our hand at the hospitality business this summer. See if we can help off-set some of the rent!

Came and went!!!

Well, the table sale was a non-starter. Not only had the organisers not publicised it, but someone had arranged a coach trip to the mainland for a group to visit IKEA at Ioannina. Just goes to show how much there is to do in Corfu in the non-season. Will try again next Saturday. Good thing is I got some nice comments from the other stall holders as they had very little to do other than browse each others tables!

Coming up - Table Sale at Kontokali

Saturday 2nd April sees us taking a table at the "Lighthouse" in Kontokali. A chance to make my first sale of some of my photographs which I've been posting here. It's an Easter-themed sale, so, we're trying to put an Easter spin on my photographs!! BUT, should be fun seeing what reaction I get from the public.

Here's another picture of the Windmill at Garitsa Bay, this time full-front and in the very early morning light.

Some more re-finished photographs

Anyone who has a digital camera, and that's probably most of us, will know that you must really use some techie software to get the most out of your images.

In this photograph I combined a black and white image over the original colour one and a wee bit of Photoshop magic. Compare with the one I posted earlier.




This is the view across to mainland Greece from our house.

A bit about my project.

I'm working on a photography project that entails me having to get up before dawn and hustling into Corfu before the sun rises! The idea is to get ethereal photographs of interesting parts of the town. In an earlier post I put up a first attempt at capturing Saint Spyridon Church just before sunrise. Well, as I was setting up the tripod, someone, perhaps an unknowing priest or a time-clock, switched off the lights that lit up the dome of the tower. So, I had to content myself with what was there. Undaunted, I went out again last Monday morning and took this -



Now it's just a matter of me getting to bed early and getting out more often!

Back to normal (ish)

I think we're just about back to normal, whatever that might be. Bought a proxy TV viewing option yesterday so we can now watch British TV via a laptop. No need for the satellite dish (for the time being!)
There are some workers doing up the next door house and they park opposite our house in a spot we vacated last week preferring to walk 100 meters to a safer spot on the advice of our lovely neighbours. They'd had their car smashed late last year at a cost of €5,000 yet to be reimbursed by their insurance company. We'd had two incidents when skidding cars had narrowly missed ours, so we took the advice seriously and moved. Two hours ago we heard a double thump and looked out to see the workers car had been almost written off by another skidding driver. We believe it's being caused by a water run-off along the road on a corner, supplemented with an algae-type growth that makes the corner very slippery, especially if the tyres a a bit thin!

So, HELP!!! - we moved just in time. Now, B is concerned that we didn't warn the workers from parking where they did.

I see this coming weekend could have good photo taking weather in the early morning, so it's up at 5:30 a.m. and see what I can get.......

Not quite "Now the TV"

Must be getting old - went shopping on Saturday, bought all the goodies for "Clean Monday" - first day of Lent to anyone who doesn't know these things - stood for ages in the check-out etc etc, then promptly forgot that today is the holiday. Only seeing our neighbour who should have been at work wandering about his verandah in his PJs brought it to mind. So, no satellite searching, more like visiting some of the villages to see just what people get up to today......

Now the TV

Having tried with a limited amount of success to get BBC and ITV using a proxy server in the UK, we've decided to go the satellite way. Should be fun trying to figure out what services are available without resorting to a 2.4 meter dish (€1,500 can you believe?) and SKY TV. Our neighbour tells us they had BBC Prime until they started charging for it. Tomorrow morning we go knocking on satellite dealers doors trying to get the best deal, plus filling up with heating oil for the freeze we've been promised over the next week or so - snow in Athens, for God's sake and near freezing temperatures here. Not content with looking at the snow on the mainland mountains, we're possibly going to get some of our own - help! After 7 years in China, one year in Hong Kong snow is as foreign to us as China was when we first arrived there. Mind you, that was Beijing and -15C and plenty of snow, but after one year we went south to Canton to some heat and humidity (100% plus some).

Anyway, we're loving living in a house that doesn't have white fungus growing through the paint in the bedroom and no back up of stench from the septic tank, plus water that was corroding our stainless steel cutlery and made our glasses go a milky white - and we were washing in this stuff - we actually thought that was how people had to live here - worse than living a country environment in China - and that's saying something. BUT, here we are in the lap of luxury looking over the sea from our front windows with now clean cutlery and milky-scum-free glasses!

I must say that some of the people who read this blog have made some lovely comments about my photographs, so here's a chance to say thanks and that I hope to create a calendar for 2012 containing some of them - sometime before the summer starts proper. Another little project to keep me busy.

Back again

After almost 5 weeks without, we now have our phone and internet reconnected. A new life starts in our new home and not having had my camera to hand I can only say that 2 weeks ago we saw our first dolphins about 100 meters from shore, doing the classic dolphin arc through the air and back into the water. A beautiful welcome to our new home. We're just about fully unpacked - record time - and had only this mornings efforts from the electrician to connect the inside of the house to the outside phone line - DONE!

More photographs to come as I am now preparing a portfolio of sorts, hopefully to sell during the summer when the visitors arrive to Corfu.

Moving again.........

Well, knock me down with a feather - we're moving house again! This time, hopefully, for the last time! The house we're in has developed many problems during the winter months, the rain storms etc, and has become unpleasant, not to say unhealthy, to live in. We're heading for the seaside this time and will be just yards/meters from a very nice little beach.

Our negotiations are complete, lease signed etc and all that remains is for us to make the move and the phone company to get their finger out and relocate our phone number and the internet connection that goes with it! Might take all of 3 weeks to do that!

So I will keep the blog updated with photos and comments as we progress through our latest move. As and when I can...... Just as well that we're in Greece as that is now in the hands of the Gods.

My new project

I've started a project of taking photographs around Corfu in early morning light. My first attempt was in the previous post - the picture of St Spiridon Church. For anyone who's interested I'm using the HDR technique, taking 3 photographs at different exposures and using Photoshop to merge them into an HDR image. If you want to know more about this - contact me. These are two I took today - it's the Old Citadel from across Garitsa Bay and the Windmill at the opposite side of the bay.



And the windmill.



The view across to the mainland.

Very quiet here.........

Took this in Old Corfu Town yesterday morning, very early.

The latest - at 15th Jan 2011

We're waking up to cool, crisp sunny days now - no rain!!
Yesterday we took a table at a table-top sale and made €28 - big business comes back to Corfu! Met some nice people and probably bought just as much as we sold! So we had some lovely home-baked pies for our late lunch.

Back to what I try to do best, photography and website design....
Lots to do to get more photographs resized and onto my website.

The bridge to the main road is looking the worse for wear after the storms last month and if the council don't come to repair it soon, we'll be forced to make the longish detour as our only way out of here to Corfu and civilisation!

First trip to Ioannina - part 6

Yes, IKEA - one of the main reasons for going on this trip! The next morning, after a pretty hellish night in our miserable room, the hotel actually provided us with a very decent buffet breakfast, but not the full American one they promised - a leanish continental with lots of decent coffee. We rushed off to rescue the car from the public garage and raced back to the hotel to return the pass key and retrieve our bags which the proprietor had cunningly managed to keep as guarantee we would return with the car park pass! Glad to be on the road again, we arrived just after IKEA had opened to be met by a charming young lady who told us we could have breakfast there from 9:00 a.m. for €1.4 with as many refills of their Dow Egbert's coffee as we could drink! Lesson to remember for the next time!!


Some not very interesting photographs of the IKEA store - here to satisfy the curiosity of Corfu dwellers who've been waiting years for this to happen!



The usual three hour trip around and about IKEA found us a few Euros less in pocket but happy as we just can't get reasonably priced bits and pieces in Corfu. Load up the car and head for Igoumenitsa in the hopes of getting on an earlier ferry which, at this time of year, shouldn't be a problem - and it wasn't, just a one hour wait drinking coffee opposite the entrance to the port.









We saw Santa's little helper trying to get a lift - different!!











On the ferry back to Corfu we had some lovely views of the island, the water seemed to have an oily, lazy look about it - dead calm until the ship cut through giving us these soft waves.








And beautiful sunsets.













Back home and our own bed......