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JANUARY
WEATHER.....
COLD,
very cold. And wet very wet And windy, very windy. Whoever
put it about that the sun shines for 365 days every year on Crete was
telling the truth. But unfortunately most of that sunshine is above the
clouds. Above the rain. Above the winds. Above the almost freezing
cold!...
Current Chania
Webcam
Current Cretan Weather
Link
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The weather was definitely not good....
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Which means wet and cold, the ground absolutely saturated with water
- even the lemon tree stopped drinking..... |
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Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some.. XIV
Piping the New Year in....
There is nothing, just nothing like being in your own home, in front of
a roaring log fire with your fist clutching a glass of good single malt
whisky; singing Auld Lang Syne as the fireworks burst into the crisp sharp
night sky on the first day of the year. New Years Day! Magical. Bagpipes and
all that. If I was a bit younger I might be provoked into mentioning Jimmy
Shand and his Scottish accordion band!! But for several years we all
attended the local village pub where a piper from the local RAF base, a
real piper playing real bagpipes, in Scottish national dress, brought in the
New Year.
But, good though it was, when we returned to our Cretan home after the new
year celebrations, the sound of the pipes lingered on... Water pipes! BIG
water pipes. And little water pipes. Enough pipes making enough noise to
make a piper's eyes water! Unfortunately for us the pipes leading from
beneath our Cretan home were playing a very strange 'gurgling' type tune,
although admittedly only when the loo was flushed! But then gurgling noises
are not really so bad
- if you don't understand Greek plumbing that is....
Let me explain. Our Cretan village does not have a mains sewerage system.
Instead each house has its own 'pit' - cess pit that is. All waste water is
sent down there, where all the 'sediment' drops to the bottom. The clear
water then leeches out to the land below. Always live at the top of a hill,
or at least high up - and don't plant veg in the vicinity - we wouldn't want
to eat our own carrots now would we - not knowing where they had been
an' all.... Like the rest of nature however, all must be in balance.
The pit needs time to process the waste. If it is fed too quickly with too
much stuff well, it sort of over-balances. If it is pushed really hard it
will come up, as well as go down! Well the pipes are all connected, top to
bottom (or should that be the other way round?). Too much water at one end
will result in things flowing the other way!!
Which is shortly after the pipes making gurgling noises....
So there we were, sat upon our Cretan mountainside, with the incessant rain
being incessant for several days, raising the level of the ground water to
at least the same level as the top of the pit, when nature called for
attention....
It really is best on these occasions, as we well know (but never remember
until after making the mistake), to content oneself with a half-flush
of the loo. That way, if things go bad, they will only be half as bad as
might have otherwise been the case! Anyway, what happened next was
inevitable given the memory lapse. Amidst all that rain, with the ground
absolutely sodden and the pit already brimming, I pulled the chain....
Well 'pulled' the the lever on the toilet flushing mechanism up as far as it
would go (the English equivalent I suppose of a 'full flush'. Which is when
I remembered the pipes...
It was, I suspect, the equivalent of a tsunami. First you notice all the
water go down (all of it, which is it's own warning), then the pipes
begin to play (or, more properly, to gurgle) and then the water returns at
twice the speed and height with which it left! It is terrifying! The noise
was like an express strain sucking (heaven forbid) followed almost
immediately with a sloshing and gurgling noise - like some thing coming
up - instead of going down the pipes.
Fortunately, as a child, I had often visited the home of my grandparents in
the UK, who also had a cesspit. I had been taught from an early age about
the value of ensuring that one's dress is in order before playing with
flushing mechanisms of any sort. In order, so to speak, to avoid the
possible embarrassment of an emergency exit leaving one caught with one's
pants down! In other words I was ready, almost, for what happened next....
The sloshing and gurgling was followed by a dead, almost eerie, silence.
Then a hissing noise like underground trains make as they approach a station
pushing the air along in front. Then, instead of the squeal of brakes (well,
this was the loo) a superb whooshing followed immediately by a strangled
gurgling, as the returning water re-filled the loo bowl and burst up the
floor drain (every Greek loo has one to prevent flooding!) to begin flowing
across the floor. I hopped out of the way just before it reached me...
Saved!
But that wasn't quite the end of the story. A few days later, knowing
full well (but having forgotten) that the pit was still a major threat
to human life, I was luxuriating in my superbly warm bath. Being in the
habit of topping up the hot water when things start to cool off at all,
my bath was, as usual under normal circumstance, more than reasonably
full. It was then, knowing that time was up and being completely stupid,
I hooked out the plug with my toes....
The sloshing and gurgling as the bath emptied was followed instantly by
an eerie silence, which was followed by a hissing noise ..... Far to
late to run, especially with no clothes on.... It was evil.... |
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In the News
Reviews...
Cretan suicides...
Out of the total number of 511 suicides in Greece in 2011, 20 are Cretan.
Several are said to be local businessmen who have encountered financial
difficulties. Local business leaders are considering setting up a
special counseling unit....
Link to Story.
Shotgun murder...
25-year-old shepherd Manolis Michelioudakis was shot dead over an
apparent dispute over grazing rights near Chania, Crete. A 30 year old
suspect surrendered to police and was arrested on murder charges. Police
were said to be guarding homes of the suspect's relatives, fearing
reprisals..
Link to Story.
Female Cretan teacher charged...
..with sexual molestation of a minor after the mother of her
15 year old son accused her. Investigators suspected that the teacher
had been using the social networking site 'Facebook' to arrange meetings
with 10-15 year-old boys...
Link to Story
Forgiven Debt...
A full-time female civil servant with three children who was
struggling to pay off her debts to banks who had refused to offer new
terms, has won the protection of the Justice of the Peace Court in
Chania, Crete. She will now have to repay just
€30.000
of her
€112.000
debt - the rest being written off... and there are many other similar
appeals in the offing...
Link to Story.
But tax dodgers are actively sought...
In a bid to root out rampant tax evasion in Greece, a country with
but 11 million or so people, where evaders currently said to owe around
14.877 billion Euros in unpaid tax, evaders are to be
named and shamed......
Link to Story
And one man was arrested...
For allegedly owing €12.7
million to the state. Other arrests are following...
Link
to Story.
The government is already chasing...
Racketeers who are using usury rackets (and others using methods of
dodging taxation) as a way of laundering their profits. ..
Link to Story.
Meanwhile a 58-yesr-old businessman
...
the alleged leader of usury and extortion racket was arrested in
Thessaloniki...The businessman was reported to have claimed that the
release of videos in his possession could lead to the 'eradication' of
Parliament....
Link
to Story.
Not surprising then...
That Greece is having a rough time. The total labour costs throughout
the country fell to 14.5% as Greek salaries and wages are cut as a
result austerity measures...
Link to Story.
And many bills remain unpaid...
A particularly complex situation largely resulting from unpaid
'emergency property taxes'. GENOA (Union of State Electric Employees)
said that 1.5 billion bills remain unpaid, but 'slammed plans' by the
Public Power Corporation (state electricity provider) to cut off debtors'
electricity..
Link to Story.
Meanwhile two private electricity companies...
Hellas Power and Energa have their licenses revoked by the Russian-Arab
Fund allegedly because of unpaid debts...
Link to Story.
But the bad news...
Was tempered by the good on the 19th, when DEH (the state
electricity company) that disconnections would be postponed during the
cold weather...
Link to Story.
Is not really the good news...
As the following day, on the 20th, DEH, said that they would start
disconnections on the following Monday, reversing the previous pledge not
to disconnect people who had not paid their emergency property tax. The
first 20,000 were already listed, the only exceptions being ill health
or unemployment...
Link to Story.
But then...
Another reprieve, but accompanied by the threat of higher property
taxes, divided into more installments for the coming year...
(Item 3)
Link to Story.
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