Change of blog!

I have decided to change to using Tumblr for my blog and have changed its name to "Postcards from Corfu"

Here's the link:

Postcards from Corfu

Back again.......

It's been a while since I posted, but now we are settled back in Corfu and I have just about finished the design of my new website, I feel free enough to start posting here again.

On Friday last, I was walking in the Ropa Valley, Corfu and took these photographs. First time out with my camera this year - been too wet and unpleasant until now!!

Promise - more to come.........

A little animation

Since it's coming up to Christmas, I dug out an animated Christmas Card I created when we were in the deepest of darkest China. 

This is it - 

Christmas in Old Amsterdam

I'm going to be creating some new animations in the New Year - now we're getting settled in and things are in their places.

Hi folks,

Sorry I've not posted recently, BUT, things are about to change.....

We're now settled in our flat, unpacked etc and can now settle down to taking some pix and playing around with PhotoShop etc.

Here's an example of what I'm trying to do at the moment - two photographs from Venice.

Petition

Not being too political - the last time I did that the Chinese government banned my little blog "Letters from China". Hopefully the Greek government won't follow their example.

Petition for Greek journalist Kostas Vaxevanis

Back in Corfu

We're now back in Greece - it's official! Been here just over 5 weeks and have just about unpacked.

Back into things, like paying our tax on the car, getting the Greek equivalent of the MOT done, getting pink slips from the bank, changing addresses etc, etc, etc. So, we're now back in the full swing of things.

I'm developing my photography website, Rob's Photoshelter, and designing digital photography courses to run next year.

BUT, right now we're in the midst of a thunder storm and being deluged with Corfu's annual rainfall in one day, or, so it seems!

Back to mopping up the verandah!!

Wait a minute (or perhaps 9 months)

What's that I see on the far horizon - sunshine? Can't be England, no, it's Greek sunshine and coming at the end of September - in other words, we're going back to Corfu!!

So, the blog will be re-started (kick-started, perhaps) into new life.

Watch this spot.........

Sorry to say.......

It all had to come to and end sometime and it did in January 2012. Well, a couple of days before the New Year actually. We left Corfu and our lovely villa to move to England and a nice house in Norfolk. I think the reasons would be obvious, but just in case you've had your head in the sand for the last year or so, the Greek economy went pear-shaped and our thoughts of earning a living through teaching followed soon after.

So here ends "Letters from Greece" and within a week or so will start "A Scotsman in Norfolk" - tales from East Anglia as seen through the eyes of a mountain-starved Scotsman - hopefully amusing enough to attract some visitors!! PLUS, more photographs - and to start with, one I took a while ago whilst visiting Ely Cathedral....

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.