If only......

Last night Mary and I went around one of our neighbours’ homes for the evening. It became a night of sharing Christmas food delicacies and through broken Greek & English stories of the past. As the night grew a few of our other neighbours joined in as well as our host’s mother aged 96 years!
If only I had the ability to communicate better in her language to hear more of the stories of her long since departed partisan husband and her life in Greek through the years she had lived. We were honoured and shown some very old photos of the brave partisan coveted by our senior citizen.

Scaffolding comes down

I see that after 9 years the scaffolding around the Propylaea, gateway/entrance to the Acropolis has finally been removed. The cost of the preservation has totalled some 6.5 Billion Euro.
Now do you think this year we could see the motorway between Kalamata & Megalopoli finished ??

Carols in the Sun.......???

The last time I sang Christmas Carols in public was when I got all the checkout staff together in Morrisons Supermarket and sang to our customers queuing at the checkouts........well it was different !

Today Mary and I went to Kalamata and joined a group of ex-pats outside AB supermarket and for an hour and a half sang carols raising funds for "Doctors without Boarders".  (Take a look at  http://doctorswithoutborders.org/ng/ep10/ep10_volunteer.html ).  The Greek public I thought were extremely generous in their donations.......

As I did not tape or video the event I will leave you with the unusual UTube rendition with Status Quo and Rolf  Harris

MERRY  CHRISTMAS................................

Body found to be Karelia's

The corpse of a man was dredged yesterday at 7.00 in the morning by fishermen at the port. It was found to be that of Costas Karelia......
Today police still had the area taped off I guess pending investigations...........

Useful numbers to have.......

POLICE


Messinia Address: 27210/44600

TAXI

Radio Taxi: 27210/21112 - 26565

Soft: 27210/22522

Town Hall: 27210/24711

Artemis: 27210/24543

Nedontos: 27210/23434

Nedontos: 27210/23939 - 23432

Eastern Beach: 27210/28181

Government House: 27210/28222

HEALTH

Kalamata Hospital: 27210/46000

IKA Kalamata: 27,210 to 45,500

FIRE

Kalamata: 27210/28585 - 92100

Meligala: 27240-22199

Messina: 27220/25050

Gargalianoi: 27630-22199

Pylos: 27230-22199

Kyparissia: 27610-22199

Prefecture MESSINIAS

Switchboard: 27210/86102

ROAD SERVICE

ELPA: 10400

EXPRESS SERVICE: 1154

HELLAS SERVICE: 1057

INTERAMERICAN: 1168

MUNICIPALITIES

Kalamata 27210/22651-28000

Messina 27220/22231-22601-23843

Bus

Kalamata:

- Tickets to Athens: 27210/22851

- Bus Tickets for all Greece 14505

Busy, busy, busy

Well quite a busy week has just gone by, most of the food shopping done (my favourite marzipan chocolate collected from Lidl) and decorations in the house put up.

This is only the third Christmas we have spent outside the UK, and the first in Greece (the other two when we lived in Australia). Greece in recent years has began to celebrate Christmas more and more (Easter being the main celebrations), but despite this it was a pleasure not to be bombarded with Christmas hype too early; indeed most items in the shops did not appear until early December.

Last Thursday we spent a very pleasant evening joining in a quiz with other ex-pats, and Christmas Day is planned with friends in the next village.

We also had our first Christmas present from on of the locals .... a pumpkin mysteriously appeared at the bottom of our garden.Well at first I thought the dog had''nicked''someones' football!!!! A quick word over the fence in my best Greek (not), it was dropped over by the neighbour (bet she was aiming at the dog!!)
So pumpkin soup al la Dafni ............

No car insurance without KTEO

Car owners who fail to ensure that their vehicles promptly pass either state-run or private roadworthiness tests (KTEO) will not be eligible for insurance, according to a draft law being prepared by the Greek government.

A bill is due to be submitted to Parliament just after Christmas and will be in effect from the start of the year. It will prevent insurance companies from selling policies to owners of vehicles that do not have a valid KTEO certificate while cars that are submitted to the roadworthiness test will have to be insured.
Now is that a chicken and egg situation !!!!

No matter what I guess we will still see cars that should not be on the road for safety sake, and I doubt if this will force people to have insurance.......

Michael Caine would say.....

 Not alot of people know that !!!

In 1821, at the village of New Epidauros, the Greek Constitution was formed by the First National Assembly of Greeks. The modern Greek Flag was also designed at this time.

Climate center in Peloponnese

 Taken from the newspaper recently I have copied below information that further adds to the mass development in Pylos:-

The Academy of Athens, Greece’s most respected research institution, and the University of Stockholm in Sweden have signed an agreement to create a climate change observatory in the Peloponnese, it was revealed yesterday.

The center will record changes in the composition of air and water with the aim of assessing how global warming is affecting the eastern Mediterranean’s ecosystem.

“The Ionian is a crossroad for airborne pollution from industrialized countries like Germany and the Czech Republic,” said Professor Christos Zerefos, who is representing the Academy. “It also has wide biodiversity and is already facing the consequences of climate change, such as a reduction in the amount of rainfall.”

The deal was reached as an international climate change conference begins in Denmark. The observatory will be located in the large holiday resort of Costa Navarino in Pylos, Messinia, and should begin its work next summer.

Early morning beach stroll

The picture was taken this morning on the beach near Dafni, Messinias whilst taking the dog for some early excerise. Despite it being December it was still possible this morning to stroll the beach in shirt sleeves, long sleeves though !!  Whilst we have suffered a few days of rain, and indeed I believe more is on the way in the next 24 hours, the day time temperatures remain a very acceptable 18/19 degrees centigrade.

New Flu Vaccination

Vaccination of the general public aged between 6 months and 49 years for the new flu, continues in Messinia. Next Monday, December 7, vaccinations will commence for ages 50 and over. In Messinia vaccinations are done at the Hospital of Kalamata and certain district vaccination centers. Also I understand the  Department of Health, on the ground floor of Government House  in the morning; at the Cultural Center from 9 am to 12 noon and at the Municipal Clinic at Santaroza and Papanikoli from 2 after noon until 6pm.

Please however confirm these details before making a journey......