First week in Arillas
Thursday 2nd April 2015
We docked at 7am and made our way across the port to catch the little ferry to Corfu.
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| Only in Greece would this white van be allowed to board |
Beautiful sunny day, very calm sea and the cheapest Nescafe and Cheese and ham toasty in Greece.
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| Easter bunny for Sophia |
When we docked we made our way North to Arillas and arrived about mid-day to a warm welcome from t'other Phil and Jen, our dear friends from Glastonbury, Kostas, Spiro and Sophia. We had a quick glass of wine and then went over to our apartment, we unpacked the van, Phil had a much needed siesta while I took Poppy for a run and also to buy some water. I drove down to the front, and had a quick welcome kiss from Dimitris at Brouklis. He is busy having a new extraction system fitted in the kitchen, also decorating ready for the opening after Easter. I saw Leon and Billy in Amourada they were laying a new floor, the whole place looked like a building site. I passed the new Beauty shop next to Theos car hire. The Malibu have also created a new cosy area, they look just about ready to open. Then on to Sharon’s, there was lots of activity going on, painting, cleaning and tidying. I saw Sharon, Gary and Poppy, Will and Danielle, Angie, Lezek and Bobby. I had a quick chat to Sharon while Poppy had a run around, it was too rough to take her on the almost non existent beach. Sharon leant me a 6 pack of water to save me going up to Berettas. We had a nice meal at the Marvel this evening with t'other Phil and Jen.
Friday 3rd April 2015
Good Friday in the UK. We have to wait for Easter until next weekend in Greece.
We had a lazy morning and then made our way down to Sharon's pool bar for a quiz..
Joined up with t'other Phil and Jen – our team name was 'The 4 Village Idiots' – we won!
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| I went in the pool lol. |
This evening we drove up to the Night Owl and had the best Chicken Souvlaki in the world. I have never seen t'other Phil finish 2 skewers before lol. Neil joined us for a meal and we delivered his items we had brought over from England with us. When the other diners left, Linda and Nikos came and sat with us for a chat. Quality time with our Greek friends when they are not too busy – wonderful.
Saturday 4th April 2015
Another lazy morning for us then we picked t'other Phil and Jen up and drove over to Sidari. First stop was Sea Monkeys to say hello to Fiona and Toffee, she was very busy painting and cleaning, so we just showed t'other Phil and Jen the beautiful spot we love to chill out in. Then we had lunch on the strip, dropped t'other Phil and Jen off at Matts bar to meet up with Neil again. While we went to deliver some things we brought over from the UK for Laura, our friend at the UK shop. We did our weekly shop at Diellas, picked our friends up and drove back to Arillas. Ate at the Marvel again and said goodbye to t'other Phil and Jen, as they fly back tomorrow.
Sunday 5th April 2015
Easter Sunday in the UK. It was very cloudy in Arillas first thing this morning, the forecast is rain for the next two days. It was dull and rained on and off all day. As a thank you for delivering Laura's treasures, she gave us a pack of fresh English sausages. This is a new item in the shop this year, she has taught her Greek butcher how to make English sausages and I must say they are very good. There are several flavours and the one we had is called UK Gold which is a thick, in a round (similar to Cumberland) one. It was absolutely delicious, we do not eat much English food while we are here as we prefer Greek but as this was a gift we had to try it. I cooked it slowly for 45 mins in the oven, we had sausage butties for lunch and then finished it off for our evening meal with vegetables. I wish I had taken a photo of it, but I forgot! You can tell we loved it as we will be buying it again when we next go to Sidari. We still have no Wi-Fi in the apartment so we sat and watched an episode of Poldark our son Andy had downloaded and sent to my laptop before we left UK. He has sent some more as well but they are up there in space waiting for our Wi-Fi connection. We passed the evening away looking at all the old photos on the laptop, we have some wonderful memories of family events, and holidays. It was quite moving, chatting to each other and remembering people who are no longer with us.
Monday 6th April 2015
We had a really big thunderstorm in the night, it even woke me up. Poor Poppy was shaking and jumped up on the bed with Phil when the loud thunderclaps occurred. It lasted for quite a while and must have been right overhead as it lightened, then within a few seconds it thundered. It also lashed it down with rain. The car park was covered in puddles when we got up but it was bright and sunny. We popped over to the Marvel to have a drink this afternoon and took the opportunity to download some episodes of Poldark on the laptop, which we had missed. While we were there Bob and Nicola arrived, we had a good catch up with them. They invited us to a BBQ at their house tomorrow – looking forward to that. We stayed in tonight and watched Poldark. . I needed my Aiden Turner fix. We also watched the last episode of Mr Selfridge – what a strange ending!
Tuesday 7th April 2015
Bright, windy and sunny today but very cold, I hung some washing out and it dried quite quickly. We picked up our new German friends, Steffi and Nils and drove to Bob and Nics house for the BBQ. We had a great time, plenty of food, drinks, laughter and good music. Poppy had a whale of a time as she is allowed to roam around and there were plenty of people to throw her sticks. Sharon and Gary turned up with their Poppy so the two dogs were very happy playing together. It was very pleasant sat on the verandah out of the wind but as soon as the sun went in it turned cold. The chef de jour was Paul, and he did a fantastic job – shame about your burnt arms Paul lol. Will and Danielle were also there, such a lovely friendly couple. I originally thought she was French but it turns out she is a Lancashire lass.
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Bob was going to a gig in Sidari so we made our way back to the Marvel for a drink with Steffi and Nils. They are a lovely couple who have been to Arillas three times now. Unfortunately as Steffi is a teacher she is not allowed to be on Facebook, it is such a shame as she is so friendly, I am sure they both would love Arillas Addicts. I have her email and promised to send her a link to my Blog. They are going to try and get to Arillas in August to see Roy Bumblefoot Thal, as they are Guns n Roses fans. We had a lovely evening, they enjoyed practising their English on us. We ended the evening with B52's and Baileys.
Wednesday 8th April 2015
Bright and sunny morning, still chilly though and the wind seems to have dropped. Two years ago today since Phil had his heart attacks, we are so thankful that his by-pass worked so well and that we are able to enjoy this lifestyle we have.
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| Our lovely friend Bob brought us a fresh loaf from his local bakery today, |
We had it for lunch, I made some egg mayonnaise, why do eggs and bread taste better in Arillas? I had a quick chat to my grand daughter Larissa on Whatsapp today as we still have no Internet. She is having a baby boy – due on May 19th – I am missing out on seeing her bump grow. They are both fine and she will be giving up work for her Maternity leave in a couple of weeks. I will fly home for a week when he is born, to meet my new Great grandson, Leaving Phil and Poppy in Arillas. We went for a walk this afternoon the temperature got up to 15° but it was cool out of the sun. We had a chat to Dimitris at Brouklis, who is busy cleaning up after all the work he has had done in his kitchen. He also told us Noufris will not be the waiter this year, he will be working at the Brewery.
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| Testing the new bench |
We had a quick chat to Billy, Amourada still looks like a builders site, they have installed a new ramp for prams, wheelchairs etc. We asked when they will be open and he more or less said when they see the first coachload of visitors they will rush around and open. The ATM is still covered and the notice says ' Open from April to October' hello…it is April lol. We went to the Marvel to say goodbye to Steffi and Nils who were flying back to Germany tonight.
On our way back to the apartment we picked some oranges and lemons.
Tonight we stayed in and finished off the fresh bread with good old fashioned egg and chips. For desert we had beautiful fresh picked, sweet and juicy orange. Then we watched 2 episodes of Poldark, I am sure Aiden Turner gets more good looking each episode.
The end of our first week – so busy and enjoyable. Lots more to come hopefully.
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