It's All In A Name

At a rather official meeting today listening to the participants, it struck me how strangely some Greek men's names sound to our English ears. The presiding lawyer today was being addressed by his colleagues by his first name "Philly". My mind wandered to other "odd" male Christian names. Our very butch lorry driver is known as "Lilly", a local chemist as "Fanny", our landlord as "Vicky" - I wonder if my fellow-bloggers can think of any others?
Susan

More About Birds

I was under the impression that they stopped hunting for birds this year. All the birds seem to have flight paths (like aeroplanes) and one of them is directly over my house. So I hear lots and lots of birds, which is very nice in the spring and summer. However in the winter when the hunters sit in front of my house in their cars with a cigarette in their mouth shooting bullets over my house at five in the morning, it's not so nice. Most of the time I call them all sorts of names, threaten them, phone the police (once they asked me what kind of gun it was!) This year however it was extremely quiet, so I thought I made a point the last few years and finally won. But then I found out that the law has changed. So yes birds you can all come back now. Be careful though as not all these sporting hunters listen to the new laws.
Helga

A Corfiot Recipe - Artichoke Stew

Ingredients
8 small artichokes or 4 large ones. 2 lemons. Quarter pint olive oil. 1 onion, finely chopped. 4 large carrots. 14 very small whole onions. 4 large potatoes. 1 tsp flour. 1 bunch fresh dill, chopped or 1 tbsp dried dill. Salt and fresh ground pepper.

Instructions
Trim the artichokes, cutting off the stem, the tough outer leaves, and the tops of the other leaves. Scrub them, rub then with lemon, and put them into well-salted water to keep them from turning black. Put the olive oil in a very large, fireproof casserole or pan and sauté the chopped onion in it while you prepare the other vegetables. Scrape the carrots and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Peel the whole small onions. Peel the potatoes and cut them into about 6 pieces each. Add all the vegetables except the artichokes to the hot oil and turn them over for a few minutes until the potatoes begin to turn golden. Add the flour and dill and stir very well. Take the pan off the heat and arrange the artichokes in it, fitting the onions and pieces of carrot and potato around them. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon, add some salt and pepper and add enough hot water to just cover the vegetables. Put on a tight fitting lid, and stew at 200 centigrade for 50 -90 minutes, depending on the size of the artichokes. The water should be simmering gently. Serve very hot. The liquid becomes a delicious sauce, just a bit thickened by the potatoes.

Greece's Ageing Population

Greece’s population is steadily getting older with one in three Greeks expected to be over the age of 65 by 2050, according to data released yesterday.

Figures from the National Statistics Service (NSS) show that people aged 65 or older would account for 31.5 percent of the total, up from 18.5 percent in 2006, and the population will shrink to 10.7 million from 11.17 million in 2006.

The NSS said life expectancy had risen to 77.1 years for males, from 75 years in 1995, and to 82 years for females. But the natural rate of population growth in the period 1995 to 2004 has been negative. The birthrate fell to its lowest levels in 2001, when there were 9.3 births per 1,000 people. But the fertility rate also increased slightly to 1.41 in 2006 (from 1.34 in 2005 and 1.32 in 1995). This is a theoretical rate calculated from the number of children born per woman of childbearing age.

Greece’s population, almost 11.2 million in 2006, has been increasing mainly due to immigration.

Ton Myroforon

One of the churches in the village of Spartilas is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the second Sunday after Easter (ton Myroforon) is a major cause for celebration. On this day the Orthodox Church celebrate the anonymous myrrh-bearing women arriving at Christ's tomb early on the morning of the third day after his death to anoint his body. However, they found the tomb empty. An angel announced to them that Chist had risen and asked them to inform his disciples. Later on, Christ appears to these women and bids them to rejoice and today the Church celebrates the fearless dedication of these humble women. When everybody else (including Christ's disciples) were hiding and dispirited, these women did not hesitate to do what their love for their Master dictated. And although they had never been included in the inner circle of trusted disciples, it was to them that the Resurrection was first announced by the angel and by Christ himself.

At the end of the normal church service, the bells ring out and the procession forms up in the village street. At the very front is the large cross from the church, closely followed by the little girls from the primary school and younger tots, in pretty white dresses carrying baskets of flowers. Their proud Mums totter alongside encouragingly in their high heels. After them in these days of equality come the young boys, smart in their white shirts and blue trousers. Then are the village maidens, colourful in their silk robes and bearing bouquets of roses and lilies. The brass band of Ano Korakiana keep up a steady drumbeat and then break into a cheerful tune in front of the crowds lining the sides of the road.

The village choir follows, singing appropriate hymns and psalms, and then finally the Icon from the church preceded by several priests (Papas) in their finery. All the villagers follow behind, chattering and enjoying the sunshine and the spectacle.

This year the day was cloudy, which as a Mum with a little one in the parade I would have been glad of. Most years the day is glorious sunshine, and the slow march down to the church at the bottom of the village is long and very tiring, particularly on the way back up! We always feel sorry for the band carrying their instruments wearing those thick buttoned up uniforms.

Once back in the village, they go past the main village church (St Spiridon) onto the next one which is dedicated to St Elijah. Here some prayers are said, the choir sings another chorus, and they all turn round and go back again to the centre of the village. Once outside the church, all the girls throw their flowers infront of the Icon, as it is taken back into its place in the church.

For me, this is one of the nicest traditions of the village, and I love to see all the people who have moved away come back to join in. The people we see on a day to day basis as builders, butchers, carpenters take on a totally different role as Icon bearers, traffic directors and bell ringers, and all in their Sunday best.

In the evening the village hosts a fiesta at the church of the Virgin Mary, where the Spartilas football team organise a live band playing traditional music for everyone to dance. It's great to see old ladies dancing with young lads; they all know the steps and join in together. Can you ever imagine that happening in the UK? Lambs are roasted on spits, and bought by the kilo with a hunk of bread. All the proceeds go towards the football club and a great time is had by all. It's a great day and opportunity to see a whole village celebrating - put it into your diary for next year!
Sarah

Musings of an Estate Agent

We have somewhere in the region of 400 properties for sale on the island, but during the past week we have been busy showing the same few houses to various different clients. On Friday three of us were out on the road with clients criss-crossing and exchanging keys and sharing opinions and comments, both positive and negative. Different types of would-be buyers, huge variations in location, but the same four or five properties!

The same sort of coincidence has been known to occur with houses that have been languishing unloved and unviewed for months when for no apparent reason we receive two offers within a few days.

In the past few months we have also received sight-unseen offers on several houses, two of these accompanied by unsolicited deposits to secure the deal. It's actually one of the scariest parts of the job - showing the house they have committed to buy to clients who have never seen it before! I hasten to add that in such cases we always send reams of photos and extremely honest descriptions of the property and the location.

It all makes life interesting, I suppose.
Susan

Don't you just love the beginning of summer in Corfu?

Welcome to the beginning of the season in Corfu. People might think it means we can take time to relax with a glass of wine. Wrong! Wearing my other 'family business' hat, we have some villas and apartment properties which we let through the summer and this is the time of year when I have to join in to help get them ready.

So, the villa in Halikouna opened on 5th May. We spent weeks getting it ready. It looked wonderful but why is it that everything that worked when we closed the house in October doesnt work now, including phone, TV, DVD etc. Then the clients, never having been here before, arrived on a glorious sunny day. So far so good. However, the next day it was raining and to make matters worse there was a general power cut for a large part of the day. The day after that the washing machine decided to stop working. Still I think they are enjoying their holiday in sunny, wet, no power but very pretty Corfu!

So that one is out of the way and hopefully will now be trouble free for the rest of the season. (Yes, and pigs might fly!) Next comes the St. George villa - new this year and although I think I have bought everything to equip it, there is always something missing and I shall spend the two days before the clients arrive shuttling to and from the shops buying the last few bits and pieces. No doubt everything that works today - washing machines, dishwashers etc. - will decide to break down the day they arrive.

Moving on to the apartments - mammoth job employing two people all winter, fixing taps, loos, painting, planting, cleaning, and me - washing bedspreads I don't trust to the laundry, with one minor problem - can't use the industrial washing machine as there is no water pressure because they are filling the swimming pool, so I start counting knives and forks to find that, as usual, some apartments have ten and others have none. How can so much stuff move from one apartment to another as if by magic? Work entails about a hundred trips up and down stairs, including re-allocation of toasters, working out which coffee machines heat and which don't, attacking limescale on taps with a toothbrush, trying to match cushions, bedspreads and rugs - they all matched last year, this year they don't.

I had everything worked out to virtually the last second. A client was arriving from Italy on a ferry at 08.30, so I arranged to meet him at 09.30 - only he arrived at 06.30 so I changed it to 08.30. I arranged to take cleaning ladies to a villa at 08.00 - but they didnt turn up until 08.30. I had a meeting with a client at 11.00 to look at two specific properties, but due to a complete lack of shared languages it turned out he wanted to see four properties in totally different areas, meaning that I drove nearly 150km in total and I am still not entirely sure that he saw everything he wanted to see. Add to that the fact that I was then nearly two hours late getting back to collect my cleaning ladies, so they are not speaking to me - and the day was just perfect! Seems whatever you do at this time of year you just can't win.

Still, no doubt after next week we will be able to sit back, everything will run smoothly and we can relax in our hot tub once in a while. (Somehow I don't think so!)
Diana