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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

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.

Friday, May 27, 2011

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

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

Thursday, May 26, 2011

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.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

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.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

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.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

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.





Tuesday, May 17, 2011

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.

Friday, May 13, 2011

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!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

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!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

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.....

Sunday, May 1, 2011

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.