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AUGUST
WEATHER
..... The hot and
windy conditions of July are reported to have continued throughout the
month - with possibly a Melteme. The rain gods apparently remained
sleeping - which was good news for the holiday makers - mostly mainland
Greeks who arrive here in August....
Chania
Webcam Current Cretan Weather
Link
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Hotel Restaurant Baldi - Switzerland...
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You just won't get a more personal, friendly and efficient
service than you will find at Hotel Baldi.
Even the bill will make you smile - though we are not sure about the
cable-car to Lago Temmorgio - looks a long way up!
Click to enlarge picture.
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Astratigos Village Life....
Continues in September (Previous episode
here). This month only it is replaced
by Travelers Tales... |
Travelers Tales....
Almost without a hitch!
Regular readers of the Cretanvista news page or short stories will be
well used to our getting into situations which can be, to say the least,
just a little difficult to resolve. Sometime the only solution is to see
the funny side... Sometimes the best is to use a big hammer... Sometimes
the best is simply to say thank-you to your guardian angel - or whoever
lent the hand which extricated you from the mire! This is one of the
latter. Enjoy...
Lets go to Asda! (And Matalan! And Staples! And B&Q!) And, I
thought, perhaps somewhat uncharitably, to all the other large stores we
could find in Lincoln. We could do a trolley race in each, cramming as
much as we could grab in 3 minutes into our trolley before the time
expired (and we were asked to pay for it all) - and the ambulance crews
were allowed in to pick up the dead and injured from our high speed
forays!
Like all men, I do not like shopping. London, Paris, Berlin, Athens,
Moscow, Minsk or anywhere else - you can keep it. Period. But, on
our visits to the UK by road I have deeply vested interests and a long
list of long promised (to myself) goodies I want. Yes, lets go shopping.
I almost ran to the car! Well, I walked quickly anyway...
Out with the keys. Down with the open sesame button and -
nothing... No flashing warning lights as the immobilizer switched
off. No reassuring 'thunk' as the door locks opened. Just -
nothing... The battery was as dead as the long lost Do-do.. No
problem, something must have been left switched on. Out came the life
saver of any (can't be push started) automatics - the stand-by battery
driven jump-start pack...
It turned the engine about one revolution before it too died. To a long
standing automatic man this was no problem! Get the jump leads out
- get another car and 'Vrooom', let the supermarket race commence...
I discovered a small problem. The jump leads were still in Crete - we,
and the car, were in the UK...
Don't panic. Our neighbour has a garage workshop full of everything one
needs for car repairs - we had once even changed a Volvo engine in
there. Next problem - he was away camping. His mother had
the answer - his garage keys. The next problem was simple - his jump
leads had also gone camping! One of his daughters mobile
'phoned
(at least
something was mobile) him. I was speaking to his also camping wife in
no time. No problem - there is a set of jump leads in his work van. We
raided that - liberated the leads, liberated my son-in-laws Volkswagen,
liberated my daughter to drive it and bingo - where in gods name is the
battery?! On the Volkswagen that is. It obviously was there
because the engine was running - awaiting it's jump-start duty...
We finally located it. Leads on. My CRV started instantly and all was
well, wasn't it?.... Well that was just the problem - we didn't know
what had flattened the battery in the first place. We still had our UK
mileage plus 2500miles or so go back to Greece. The best place to start
was our local Honda main agent in Lincoln - we just did not want a long
drive with the anxiety of wondering just when the car might stop - in
the middle of the 17km long St Gottard tunnel in Switzerland maybe.....
Or maybe when we came to drive off one of the three ferries we would
have to use. To Lincoln Honda we went...
The young lady at the desk by the door took my tale and referred me to
the gentleman across the showroom at another desk. He too listened
briefly to our tale, requested my keys and said my car would be about 30
- 40 minutes... I thought that would be the length of time we
would still be the owners of our shopping cash
- or even our bank balance,
for several months. 'Have a seat in the waiting area' he said
'there's a free tea and coffee bar
- help yourselves'.
We did - I mean, when you are just about to sink your life savings (I
thought) into a totally unexpected black hole, free tea and or coffee is
at least better than having to pay for it.
The result? The workshop manager returned on time - waving a large piece
of paper which just had to be a big bill (pay to get your keys
back...).
It was not a bill. It was a complete 'visual appraisal' checklist - the whole car had been examined,
not just the electrics, and nothing had been found wanting!
Well, the front pads were found a bit thin - but would do a few thousand miles
more - to Crete easily. So how much were we in for?...
'Nothing' said workshop manager David Holloway 'Gratis - on
us - have a good trip'. We did, and we are now back on Crete. The
car performed as Honda's do - perfectly. Like a dream... All the
way home...
Want a to drive a dream? Get a Honda!
| Our sincere
thanks to all at
Lincoln Honda - they delivered what can only be the Rolls Royce
of service and knew nothing of our intention to publish this story
before providing it. The free add (link above) is entirely our idea.
Our sincere thanks, Wilf & Pam Burgess. |
(Astratigos Village Life returns next month) |
|
In the News
Reviews...
Pharmacy shotgun raid...
Flying glass from a shot computer
injured a Chania pharmacist attempting to disarm a raider - it could
have been a lot worse...
Link to Story.
Whilst a Cretan motorist...
Reportedly swerving to avoid a
cyclist, lost control of his car and injured 15 teenage children at an
Ierapetra bus stop...
(item 1)
Link to
Story.
Three of the teenagers injured...
Were reported to be in a critical
condition in an iraklio (Heraklion) hospital...
(item 1)
Link to
Story.
Though full recovery was expected...
As a few days after the accident
doctors reported that the children were stable and a full recovery was
expected...
(item 3)
Link to
Story.
Two Czech tourists in Samaria...
Had to be rescued from the Samaria Gorge after going missing a day
earlier...
(item 6)
Link to Story.
Plus Cretan pensions robbers...
Escaped with 20.000 Euros after holding up a postal van en-route to
deliver farmers pensions in Nomos Irkalio...
(item 7)
Link to Story.
Meanwhile, Cretan police arrested...
After several days surveillance, arrested two Albanian nationals in
the act of hiding a parcel of drugs near the Chania-Rethymnon road. They
also found more drugs, including a small amount of cocaine, at the home
of the men...
(item
4)
Link to Story.
And followed up those arrests...
By arresting another two Albanian men who
had allegedly placed a suitcase containing 2 Kilos of cannabis on a plot
of land they rented in Nomos Therisos...
(item
4)
Link to Story.
In the Cretan hotspot of Malia...
Became just a little hotter as a 26 year old Greek woman, reportedly
upset by the behaviour of a 20 year old British tourist , threw spirits
over him and set him alight. The tourist was being treated in hospital
for 2nd degree burns...
Link to Story.
The woman involved...
Marina Fanouraki, surrendered to police and was charged next day,
but the trial has been delayed because the tourist, Stuart Feltham from
Swindon in Wiltshire, left Crete for the UK fearing apparently for
his own safety. Marina Fanouraki is reported to be pressing ahead with
her own charges - sexual assault, molestation and insulting language
allegedly used against her...
Link to Story.
Meanwhile some Greeks use guns...
To settle differences - both in Chania and in Athens...
(item 4)
Link to Story.
But Malia was the scene of the sad death...
Of 17 year old British holidaymaker Andre Young, whose body was found on
a Malia building site after attempting to make his way back to his
hotel, reportedly after a heavy drinking session. Police said that his
death was the result of a heavy fall. There were no suspicious
circumstances...
Link to Story.
The Ethniki Odos...
The national highway running along the north coast of Crete was recently
the scene of another major accident in which one man died and several,
including an Italian tourist were injured. An unborn child also died
when the mother, injured in the accident, miscarried on her way to
hospital...
Link to
Story.
But some Cretans are saved...
Perhaps by the gods. Medical men will tell you that falling from a
height of around nine feet is sufficient to prove fatal to the average
adult. So how did this 50 year-old survive after falling from the roof
of a four story building in Chania?
And his TV aerial, which he had climbed up there to fix - get fixed?....
Link to Story.
And, on an even lighter note...
Did you know that Aesop's crow fable was no tall tale?! Have a look
at this magical bit of research done at Cambridge University, UK, which
tells how the crows of Aesop's fable were not really crows, but rooks.
And shows how rooks can raise the water level in a test-tube by dropping
stones in it....
Very clever if the rook has stones it can pick up and drop in - but what
if there are no stones? Wee in it perhaps?!...
Could these things be related to the price of shares, or be linked
to the recession in some way? Will rooks dropping stones in it help. or
will some politician have to wee in it?......
Link to Story.
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