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FEBRUARY WEATHER ...
Remained very changeable. Including a real snowstorm on the 13th which made driving difficult, but which made the landscape really beautiful. Again there were some beautifully warm sunny days. The nights were often very cold. We had to buy an extra tonne of logs.....
APOLOGIES FROM ME! 
Horizontal Webmaster
Above: The February CVNews is so late that it has been a difficult to decide to include it at all. Caused by my becoming ill for the first time in many years, certainly the first time in Greece, and hospitalized. Being horizontal in the relatively young Chania General Hospital was certainly, as the friends who delivered me there had promised, "An experience"....
I have nothing but praise and grateful thanks to those responsible for my rapid, very competent and effective treatment. It is taking a little while to fully recover, but, my wife Pam being a retired nurse, I am doing nothing to rush the process!!
A NEW STORY....
Rather than risk boring everyone with my own episode of 'Emergency - Holby City', I intend to write-up my stay in Chania General as a short story. One of my "Yes, but what do you do in the day though?".... efforts. Possibly entitled "Sometimes we go to the Hospital"...
Retiring - or just moving here....
We receive regularly a number of enquiries regarding aspects of living on Crete. Cars, caravans, dogs, cats, wives and children. We have not yet been asked about mother-in laws! (Probably because they are, wise people,
already here)! One recent visitor said that getting information about retiring here was difficult, but that he had found cretanvista helpful. We do try....
There are some simple rules.....
1. Get up-to-date information from official sources. The British Consulate in Crete has an excellent file of information for British passport holders - which you can get online from the e-mail address in the column on the left of this paragraph.
2. The Greek Embassy in Holland Park, London will also tell you of the various formalities applicable to YOUR circumstances. Complete essential formalities before you leave the UK - it makes life much easier. 3. Talk to people who have already done it - but remember that circumstances are rarely identical. Generalising may well lead you seriously astray.
People who have already "done it" are often convinced that what happened to them will happen to you if you follow their advice. It might - or it might not!
4. Remember - salespeople exist to sell something - holidays, houses, businesses, time-share, cars or whatever in order to make money. From you. Whilst they are sometimes a good source of information you should never treat any advice as being as good as official versions. Regard the prime objective of any sales pitch as being to get you to buy.
5. Ascertain the true price of the property. Don't be shy - you have a perfect right to know the cost of what something you are being offered really is. You will be paying the sales staff - ask them how much! Including VAT and any extras. If they won't tell you don't buy.. And don't accept vague answers. 10% is vague. 10% of what - where 'what' equals a stated (written - contractual) total price you would be asked to pay.
Include everything. Have a look at: An Old House and think very carefully about what you really want. Hire your own solicitors and accountants, not those working for he selling agent. Remember that in the case of a dispute you can hardly ask the professionals acting for the agents to act for you also.... |
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ASTRATIGOS VILLAGE LIFE...
One of the more pleasant aspects of living in a Cretan village is the lack of people! That is not to say that people are not welcome. Indeed, visitors are probably more welcome than they would otherwise be. But the pace of life inflicted by such happenings as the the departure of the school bus at 7.30am and it's return at 1.30pm, marking, for example, the beginning and end of a morning's activity completely
different to anything we know in England.
Right now there is considerable house renovation going on by local owners seeking to lure a holiday-making family or two here for their summer break. Not a bad choice if you want to be off the beaten track. Close enough to civilisation for a short drive to get you there, but far enough away from the maddening crowds to bring you privacy and peace.....
Though maybe not quiet!! The traveling tradesmen - the baker; the greengrocer; the fishmonger; the sellers of live chickens and rabbits; of pigs; of clothes; of footwear; of glass and crockery; of beer and bottled water (and of course soft drinks), of chairs and tables; of carpets and curtains. All will appear, although maybe not on the same day, in an assortment of
vehicles. An assortment of vehicles having one thing in common. MEGAPHONES! The original, long lasting, lifetime guaranteed (and guaranteed to get you attention), all-American bullhorn!! Often with an insidious twist - being connected to an amplified tape recorder....
You can't hear the sheep; goats; pigs and chickens for them!! But then nor can you hear the constant noise of traffic, of trucks, cars, trains and 'planes of massed people going about their daily business; of railway station and airport tannoys that you left at home. What you might find a bit disconcerting here in Astratigos, (apart from the mobile tradesmen), is the birdsong; the calls of the hawks
and eagles passing overhead; the outline of vultures sailing a blue sky against a blazing sun. Or the soft night-time hoot of scops owls; the sudden chilling screech of a nearby barn owl; or maybe a startled polecat.
The dogs bark. The cats meow. The church bells ring the services.
But the bustling shops do not open. The tavernas stay closed and the bars don't have lager louts..... There are none of these things in Astratigos!!
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