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JULY WEATHER ....
A Scorcher - A fire maker.
Late 30C - early 40's Centigrade continue unabated - a sun-trapped balcony
on a white house can sometimes reach 50C and fire fighting, including aircraft,
an everyday event. Sometimes very windy. Fire-fighting produces visible
fogs.....
Latest Crete Weather Link.
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MadeleineMcCann is Still
Missing..
http://www.bringmadeleinehome.com/
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Dionysos Areopagitou St, Athens
Photo: Dionysos Areopagitou St, Acropolis on
the right Acropolis Museum behind the trees on the left! Contention - proposed
destruction of the two houses on the left.
CLICK to enlarge.
(See 'A Little Extra News' below last para - more links).
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Astratigos Village Life - Pamela's House.
Our house here, better known as 'Pamela's House', seems to have
been constructed, I thought, more of bits
that you open than bits that stay closed!...Read on..
It all started with the sudden realization that Pamela's House seemed to be
full of holes. Holes in walls that is. I mean, when we re-built the
house, just how much of our time and money went on space? On nothing? into the
void!! Vanished. Like characters in a Carpenter Sci-Fi novel...
I did a quick check - 17 doorways (7 outer including 2 double, and 10
inner. Add 12 window openings (8 double, 4 single) and the space soon adds up.
Well, not quickly - it took me half a day to actually add it up. 'Soon' is a
metaphor. An unbelievable total of around 457 square metres of nothing! 'That
must be at least half a football field I thought. Pass the slide rule, leave the
ball on the pitch...
Getting into the spirit, the swing ('swing' not 'swig' - counting needs a clear
head!) I decided to include a check on the plastered area. Was there, my
curiosity wondered, a difference between the stated (and paid for) area and the
actual plaster? It had to have all those holes in it too - otherwise the holes
would have been covered over and there would have been nowhere to put all those
doors and windows..... Logic! The space had to exist, I had to be right..
I calculated everything. Outside wall areas. Inside wall areas. Window and
doorway relief area (the bit that joins the outside to the inside) - commonly
known as thickness or depth... Tape measures swished and clicked whilst pencils
overheated the paper they raced over as the seriously astonishing results built up.
The plastered area included the holes...
Built up - now there's a contradiction in terms. I was calculating what was
there in order to show what wasn't... In order to show that 'nothing' really did
exist and had been erroneously paid for. Built up nothing! Forensic accounting!
Or mental aberration..
'Mental aberration to you too' I thought - thinking about the agent who I had
dealt with and whom I had paid, I believed, for a good deal of nothing, 'mental
aberration to you too'... I was in the land of Plato, and was he not the
greatest of the great philosophers? Or was I somewhere else completely and Plato
a Greek painter and decorator?
No, I told myself, I was here and Plato was the greatest of the great
philosophers. I remembered Archdeacon - my philosophy tutor at University. I had
once expressed concern about possibly being faced with a question I could not answer in my
first degree finals... 'Just get cracking', he had said cheerfully, 'prove that
the question isn't there!' Thus sustained I had passed... Thus sustained I was
now going to prove that 'nothing' did not exist - that it was just 'nothing' and
that I had paid for it with real money!! Something for nothing? Never!
I had bent my brain - what remained of it anyway, inside out and backwards. A
few mental somersaults and now I had it - 457 metres of nothing. What
happened when I approached the agent was like an episode from 'Fawlty
Towers'.....
'Yes, I've been thinking about this' says he - 'I think that you owe me about 5
grand!' 'Not likely' I proffered, 'it's the other way round - apart
from selling me holes, you even charged your percentage on your percentage that
I had already paid!'
'Ah that' he said 'we agreed that my percentage was on the whole bill every
month.' 'Yes' I replied, 'but you had already included your
percentage in the monthly figures - and also on the VAT and National insurance
(IKA) - it's illegal to add those to your percentage.' 'Oh' he
replied 'I had better ask Jennifer - she's good at figures!' Not in your
league I muttered to myself... It turned out that I was owed 800 pounds
(he said). I gave permission to spend it on balcony railings. In the event it
was spent, he said later, on superior plaster!
I've examined every hole and I still can't find it!! |
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In the News... Reviews..
Samaria Gorge claims two lives...
Not for the first time, Europe's longest and perhaps most famous
gorge showed it's other face. Polish 37 year old Mark Sawica and his 40 year
old sister Danuta, part of a tour group, were missing in the gorge for 5
days, despite an intensive search. Danuta was already dead and her bother
died shortly after they were found...
Link
to Story.
Possibly three....
After a 46 year old Lithuanian man died at Agia Roumeli shortly after
trekking through Samaria Gorge...
Link to Story.
Whilst a Speedboat at Malia kills...
A 49 year old German swimmer at the resort of Malia. The unnamed
man died after being hit by a speedboat..
Link to Story.
And another tourist has lucky escape...
Very lucky. Cars end up inexplicably in Cretan harbours every year.
This lucky Dutch 24 year old survived...
(Item 6)
Link
to Story.
But the heat wave kills others...
The direct effects of the recent high temperatures
on the elderly and weak are well known. Air pollution, alcohol, sun-bathing and
strenuous exercise in extreme conditions all carry risk...
(Item
2)
Link
to Story.
Which are some of the reasons...
That Greeks leave the cities for the
islands, including Crete in late July and especially in August...
(Item 3) Link
to Story.
But holidays on Crete can disappoint..
Even if you are Greek it is as well to remember that Greek hotels
generally do not reflect internationally accepted grading (Stars) systems very
precisely...
Link
to Story.
Whilst foreign tourists to Greece....
Just seem to keep right on coming, including right here to Crete. Airport
arrivals In Iraklion (Heraklion) are shown to be second only to Athens and beat
both Rhodes and Corfu!
Link
to Story.
Is 'Free Cash' the attraction? ...
Most likely not, but it seems there for the taking... though the eventual
reward may be a Cretan jail - especially if someone is injured.
(Item 7)
Link
to Story.
But bank robbery does seem popular...
As 10.000 exits the Cretan Cooperative Bank (no pun) in Chania...
(Item 7)
Link
to Story.
If not a bank, an ATM then..
Why not an ATM machine?!! Complete! Six have been 'lifted' so far this year -
But you must apparently use your own vehicles and equipment.
Link
to Story.
But Authorities bag a 'haul' themselves.
And perhaps one much more important than stolen money. 23 tons of
confiscated mercury-contaminated fish will definitely not be reaching consumers.
(Item 3)
Link
to Story.
Summer fires are killers...
As the unpredictable winds around this Cretan fire near Rethymnon change
course and three firefighters lose their lives ...
Link
to Story.
More than 100 in Greece so far..
Not only Crete, the pattern is the same everywhere and the fire services
including 'planes and helicopters, fight in impossible conditions.
Link
to Story.
And flying firefighters die too....
On Evia. So easy. So hard. So selfless - and so terribly,
terribly sad....
Link
to Story.
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NEW GUIDE PUBLISHED
Carol
Palioudaki's book
'Living in Crete'
(A gold
mine of information)
is available now
Out Now - Get it at
www.livingincrete.net
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