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MARCH
WEATHER.....
Remained extremely changeable over short periods of time. Temperatures
still on a see-saw. There were some extremely violent storms and squalls near the coast.
Both air and sea traffic were halted on occasions...
Current Chania
Webcam
Current Cretan Weather
Link _____________________________
The roof, at last, was going on...
A day that sometimes we despaired of ever seeing - the roof was at
last, after all the efforts and emotional turmoil, was going
on top. Not quite the way we had envisaged - pine joists and not
cypress beams - and a bit lower than originally planned...
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Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some.. XII
(Continued from January - Previous
click here).
At the end the last episode...
....
My goodness but it was good fun! By The time the roofer arrived on
the Monday all was ready. Done.
Our agent was helping the roofer. My thoughts as he stood on the topmost
bricks were, of course, anxiety that the mortar may not have set
properly.... |
So there we were,
back living our dream. The nightmare of the previous three days now on
the way to being a distant memory - apart from the facts of my
badly sprained wrists, stooping gait because of the strained back and
sun-burnt head! My ego, however, lived on - we had done it - no delay,
no extra brick deliveries, no further expense. We could only grin and
let the other workers, our agent and the roofer, take a turn in the
Astratigonian boiler room...
The first day consisted mainly of the delivery of the materials - roof
beams and tiles - in a way a great relief, in another way a
disappointment. It was a great relief to see another stage in our
journey commencing, but in a way it was very disappointing that the roof
beams could no longer be the hoped for Cypress trunks used by our agent
in his own house. These could not now be obtained and we were having
planed pine beams - knots and all - though these did look superb we
had to admit.
Plus, as usual throughout our agent-managed (one less charitable might
be tempted to say miss-managed) project, we had reached this point
only after confronting some unexpected hurdles. The first was raised by
the English owner of the holiday-home next door. Our agent was
also her agent. He had somehow failed to tell her the height of our
property, which stood in front of hers. Now it fell to Pam to pour oil
onto the possibly turbulent water lest, after everything, she were to
object to our building. In the event we had agreed to reduce the building
height by 3 feet, which we had achieved. Now our (double) agent was
suggesting that if we agreed to lower the roof pitch the eventual height
would be even less, a plus in neighbourly relationships.
Our distant neighbour, the agent explained, advertised her house for
holidays on the basis of uninterrupted views over the Bay of Chania, and
our original proposed house height would have negated this.... So, being neighbourly, we had
lowered the walls by the mentioned three feet, and would now lower the roof
height by agreeing to lower the pitch of the roof - but only if our
roofer guaranteed that such change would not affect it's performance.
Guarantee forthcoming - our Greek speaking agent assured us - we agreed.
A decision we non-Greek speakers were, (some fourteen years or so
later), to live to regret....
It is now perhaps a matter of interest only to those who have no need of
a visit to 'Specsavers', but subsequent checks revealed that if our
house was to block anyone's view they would need to be stood in a
position impossible in the neighbours' house. But then we had to build
ours in order to prove that, by which time the matter was purely
academic...
On with the roofing!
On with the roof joists; on went the boards; on went the rigid
insulation; on went the felt. - It was a sort of mesh-based very
thin black plastic - but it was, we supposed, waterproof - and on went the
tiles. And didn't it just look good - even when only the ridges remained
to fit.
Lightening never, we are assured, strikes twice in the same place. We
have this assurance from those who having been struck once and survived,
but who have always refused to stand in the place they were struck the first
time ever again. Those who didn't survive the first time remain
ominously silent on the subject!
The remainder of the 'Doesn't strike twice' advisors have never
been struck at all, so are not really the best people to advise on the
topic...
And so it is with building materials. Having just managed, by the skin
of my teeth to survive the 'not enough bricks' situation our agent
had what could only have been a 'Parthian Shot' in store for me. When
the roof had reached the stage of adding the ridges, he advised me not
to use any more 'stuff' (Mortar) for the job I was doing in the kitchen
to be. The roofer needed all the ingredients that were left to complete
the roof ridging - and he couldn't get more delivered until next week...
Now where had I been standing last time I heard that?!
But this time there was no escape - if the roofer was not to have to
return next week (more expense) to finish the job then I had to take the
weekend off. Not difficult with all the bits of my body which either
didn't work properly or didn't work at all.... I took the weekend off...
Astratigos Village Life.... Getting some..
Is condensed from the book 'Pamela's House' - in current
preparation...
Continued in April... |
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In the News
Reviews...
Ryanair to Crete...
Hard on the heels of easyjet, which now has flights into both
Iraklion and, in the summer, Chania, Irish Budget airline Ryanair is to
launch flights between Chania, Frankfurt and Milan.....
Link to Story.
But perhaps Thomson holiday flights are still...
A reminder from last month - Thomson may still be the safest bet for getting here and back home without the financial
surprises of the cheap airlines. Have a look and listen to this story,
turn up the sound on you computer - ENJOY!...
Link to Story.
More seriously...
Not everyone is seeking to escape Crete - March saw a very high
number of evacuees escaping war-torn Libya with the help of Greek ferry
operators. Not all, apparently, wanted to go through the immigration
controls (in this case in Souda Bay) and jumped ship before it docked -
resulting in several deaths....
Link to Story.
By March
18th...
The
Cretan coastguard had recovered a total of 13 bodies from the 49
people, all Bangladeshi nationals who had jumped ship outside Souda Bay.
One Bangladeshi remained unaccounted for...
Link to Story.
Remaining on the migration issue...
237 illegal immigrants who had been on hunger strike in Athens for
six weeks were due to return to Crete, their point of origin, after a
government amnesty provided a six month period of grace to remain in
Greece...
Link to Story.
But there was a temporary hitch...
When two of the migrants refused to accept the deal and threatened
to set fire to themselves unless they were granted full residence
permits...
Link to Story.
Plus, US troops and ships...
Began arriving in Souda Bay early in the month with the objective of
helping establish a proposed 'no-fly zone' over libya....
Link to Story.
And Greek ferry companies...
Have never, apparently since Minoan times, had it so good as foreign
governments seek to evacuate their nationals from the Libyan crisis.
Business is booming. if you will forgive the pun....
Link to Story.
Greece - and Crete was
noted...
Later received that thanks of the Chinese government for their help
in evacuating Chinese nationals from Libya....
Link to Story.
Libya - by 20th March Greece...
And in particular the island of Crete had undoubtedly entered the
'frontline' of military operations connected with the Libyan crisis.
Whilst the recently arrived US forces had departed Souda Bay to move
their operations nearer Libya. Souda Bay air base - in reality also a
functioning international airport - had become an important
staging post in enforcing the 'no-fly zone' on Libya. Fighter aircraft
from several NATO countries were operating from the base...
Link to Story.
On a different subject...
The police 'electronic crimes unit' traced the source of a bogus email
spreading false information about Greece defaulting on it's debts on
March 25th, to a 45 year-old machinist on Crete. A number of people have
been charged in connection with the e-mail...
Link to Story.
Plus tsunamis...
Professor Costas Synolakis, Professor of natural
hazards at the Technical University of Crete and Director of the
Hellenic Centre for Maritime Research, cautions about the lack of a
tsunami warning system. He points to what could be very important
lessons from history in the Mediterranean region...
Link to Story
And we are not kidding...
When we say above about the weather in March, conditions really were
very unstable - if you can't believe it - have a look at this...
Link to Story
Quicklink. Snow in
Athens
White Christmas had nothing on this....
Link to Story.
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