A few posts ago I mentioned that at some point I was going to have to submit my application for my Greek tax number or ΑΦΜ (did you notice there that I can now switch between English & Greek characters on the keyboard-clever eh) There are several things you cannot do without it, including buying a house or car, getting a telephone line or internet or obtaining utilities in your own name. I had called into the tax office in Zakynthos town a week or so ago with Justine & Simon. This was nothing at all like a tax office in England. Up several flights of stairs we came to a very small office with just 2 desks, one of which was occupied by a lady that Simon spoke to in Greek & was told I needed to complete the form M1 which was duly handed over. So I now had my M1 form which not surprisingly was written completely in Greek. In the UK the form would likely have been available in every conceivable language but in Greece they come in Greek & only Greek. Over the next few days I sat & poured over my form armed with my Greek/English dictionary, a pencil & an eraser. It didn't help that some of the words did not seem to appear at all in the dictionary & so it became a case of find something similar & guess the context the word was used in. I also used
Babel Fish Translation on the internet for some words. Having completed the M1 to the best of my ability, which included my name details, those of both my mother & father, address etc. & a few gaps remaining that I hadn't been able to work out, I went into town with Sia last Thursday & returned to the tax office. I handed over my form & photocopy of my passport expecting to be faced with a host of further questions asked in Greek. Surprisingly & much to my relief the lady looked at the form, typed into her pc & printed off a sheet of paper which she handed over. LOW & BEHOLD there was my ΑΦΜ number. So I am now officially registered with the Greek tax authorities which as well as allowing me to do all the things mentioned previously also gives me the dubious priviledge of being able to pay Greek taxes when/if the time comes.
I was now on a roll & decided that as the OTE office (which I suppose is the equivelent of BT) was only down the road, now was the time to try to get a telephone line sorted for the house. In order to eventually get my own internet access (as opposed to linking up to Simon & Justine's network) I first needed the phone line. I knew that OTE currently had no more broadband availabilty at the present time but at least with my phone line sorted I could either wait for availabilty of broadband through OTE or go to another provider.
I managed to speak to a very helpful lady called Natasha at OTE who speaks very good English (you soon learn to make a note of people's names you deal with who speak English) So about 15 minutes later I leave the OTE office having signed up for a telephone line which by all accounts may well be installed sometime next week. I will wait & see on that one, I have already learnt to take timescales in Greece with a pinch of salt (or αλατι which means salt - second α should have an accent over it but I don't know yet how to do them)
Hopefully when I eventually get my own internet connection I will no longer have to sit out on the balcony at night fighting off the mosquitos in order to get an internet signal from Simon & Justine's house.
Having successfully negotiated Greek bureaucracy twice in one day I decided to head for the beach on the pushbike where I spent a very pleasent afternoon swimming in the warm sea & lazing by the pool reading a book, at one of the beachside hotels. Life feels good.
