Where did the Last Week Go?

I can't believe it's over a week since I posted on the blog. It only seems like yesterday, I can only assume that now I'm working & it's all new the days are flying by. The job seems to be going fine by the way & I'm enjoying it.

I've been keeping in touch with Justine & Simon since they left on their travels to Australia. They spent a few days in London & also in Hong Kong & I can report that they have now arrived safely in Sydney, Australia. I have to now be really concious of the time difference when texting etc as they are now 9 hours ahead of me.

I was able to enjoy a web cam conversation with them both this morning on MSN. It was great being able to see & hear them from so far away. Simon pulled me up about not having updated this blog as I am always pulling him up for not regularly doing his. I thought I had better make a concerted effort tonight to get it done.

I also got a phone call from my landlady Sia & her husband Otto yesterday from Switzerland. They were just ringing to say hello & see that everything was ok. Now remember, at present I speak very little Greek, Sia speaks Greek & very very little English & Otto speaks Swiss & no English. I really don't know how we managed to get through the call but we did. The main points were yes Sandra is ok, yes the dogs are ok & eating, yes the house is ok & yes the garden is ok, yes it is cold in Switzerland, yes Sia & Otto are ok - we did a lot of laughing too. So everything is - ok.

I'm still trying to finalise all my tax affairs in the UK. I'd sent them 2 forms a couple of weeks ago which I wanted to chase up, particularly as one of the forms could well lead to a tax refund which would be nice. I use one of the new Tesco Internet Phones which makes calls very cheap, just as well when you are calling places like Inland Revenue & National Insurance offices from Greece.

I spent a very pleasant evening last night at the home of another English lady I had previously only been in contact with by email & phone. She was having a get together over nibbles (which turned out to be a very impressive spread) & drinks. I got to speak to quite a few other people there, mainly English ex pats which was nice. As I was driving Simon's car I stuck to drinking lemonade & just had a small glass of Rose shortly before leaving.

Driving along the main road almost at the turn off to home I suddenly noticed I was being flagged in to the side of the road by the police. On stopping I immediately wound down my window & the police officer said something to me in Greek so I informed him I was English. Luckily he spoke a little & said he needed me to get out of the car. All I could think about was that I had just had the small glass of wine, silly really because I knew I was nowhere near the limit but I could still taste it on my breath. I walked around to the boot of the police car & noticed someone else had also been stopped so at least I realised it was a spot check of some sort & not just me who had been singled out.

The officer asked if I had had a drink & I said that I'd had the small glass of wine. He was actually smiling which did put me at my ease a bit as he then said fairly light-heartedly 'vodka' 'whisky' to which I said no. Then I saw the breathalyser kit - I have never ever taken a breathalyser test before so had no idea how hard I was to blow into it or anything so I just took a deep breath & blew.

Like I said I knew I was fine but kept thinking, what if the machine is defective or something. As it turned out I had absolutely nothing to worry about - my reading was a big fat ZERO so I completed my journey home, grateful for the fact that I don't chance drinking over the limit & driving.

Tomorrow, as it's my non working day, I'm meeting up with a couple of friends in town for coffee which I'm looking forward to.

Mastering The Moped

I've just realised that I didn't report on my first solo trip out on the moped so will rectify that now. I decided to take the plunge on Saturday with a view to riding it just along my work route so that I could use it for that journey if I felt comfortable to. So that's what I did & it went very well so I decided to ride around for a bit longer & did a bit of exploring some back roads including getting more practice on taking corners. Before I knew it I found myself riding into Kalamaki & then to Laganas so from there I braved the main road to get safely back to home. All in all I was probably out on it for about an hour & definitely built my confidence up quite a bit - & yes I did wear a helmet.

My Journey To & From Work In Pictures

On yesterday's post I said I would put up some photos taken to show my journey to/from work so here they are.


The view to the right is what I first see when I leave work to make my way back home.


The next photographs show some of the lovely surroundings I pass along the way.







Shady olive groves.










Mount Skopos in the distance & as all the photos show, it was a beautiful sunny day too





Back in the UK just the journey to work & back was enough to push up the stress levels, my journey now is relaxed & stress free.

So What's Been Happening Over The Last Week

Since my last post there is quite a lot to report. The biggest piece of news is that I have secured myself a job here. It came about from an email I sent to a website requesting some advice regarding the current rules & regulations around work permits. As well as responding to my enquiry, Lisa, the lady that replied mentioned that she was considering taking on some admin/secretarial help & might I be interested. I immediately got on the phone to her & we had a brief chat & I made arrangements to meet up with her last Friday.

The outcome of that meeting is that I have started working with her. It's part time initially & on a trial to see how it goes & how well we work together, as I am working from Lisa's home. If I prove myself capable then it's envisaged that from May 07 the job would become full time over the Summer months. I started on Tuesday of this week & so far it seems to be going well.

The company is Zante Connect If you take a look at the website you will see that it was set up by Lisa & Sandra (not me) It contains lots of useful information & services relating to Zante (Zakynthos)

I'm working with Lisa mainly providing admin/secretarial support for the real estate & property management side of the business. I will also be dealing with email enquiries received. So if you're looking for information about Zante (Zakynthos) particularly if you are thinking of buying property then make sure you check Zante Connect regularly.

So what else have I been up to? I mentioned a couple of posts ago that the moped had been fixed ready for Justine to teach me to ride it. Well I've had a few lessons, first along the straight back roads to where we live. Although I have driven a car for many years I have never ridden a moped or similar (& you can't really count my push bike in the same category) On my first lesson I did eventually manage to get enough confidence to take my feet off the floor. After lessons on the road Simon & Justine then got me to ride it around the courtyard at our home. As this is quite tight for space it was good further practice. My last lesson was to teach me to be able to confidently go around corners. I was keen to learn to ride the moped before Justine & Simon left for Australia for their 7 week trip so that I would have some transport. They'd not been sure whether they were going to take the car & drive the Zakynthos to Athens part of the journey.

Which brings me on to the next update - Justine & Simon left today and as it happens, did not take the car so I went with them to the airport to see them off & drove the car back home. So I now I have both the car & the moped at my disposal while they are away. The world is my oyster (or at least Zakynthos is)
I have yet to do a 'solo' journey on the moped so over the next few days I plan to ride it along the route I take to work. It only actually takes me about 10 minutes on the push bike but as the road is quite good & not very busy it will be a good journey to do to get used to the moped.

I've taken some photographs along my route to work which I'll post on here shortly - It's such a contrast compared to the journey that I had into work in the UK with it's congested inner city roads, traffic fumes etc.
I know which I prefer!

A BIG BIG THANK YOU

This is one thing that I really, really have to post & that is a BIG BIG THANK YOU to all you people who have taken the time & the trouble to put lovely comments onto my blog.

It makes it all the more worthwhile to know that people are reading & enjoying it & following my progress. I hope that it will maybe help others to realise their dreams too.

Anything is possible if you want it enough. Fate may play a part in placing opportunities before you but only you can choose whether to seize the opportunities & do something with them or let them pass you by.

A Glorious Day To Complete Some Challenge Tasks

If you read my post of 17th October you will know that I've been set a list of 'Sandra's Suggestions' by my message board pals, to carry out over the off season months.
Well when I woke up this morning & looked out at a glorious blue sky it just had to be a day for gettting out on the push bike with my camera. A great day for trying to capture some of the photos that folks wanted to see. There was also some warmth in the sun so although I set out wearing long sleeves, luckily I had a no sleeve top with me too which I ended the afternoon by changing into as it warmed up.

I set off taking my usual route first to Laganas & noticed some activity in one of the bars as I passed by (Shooters on the Kalamaki - Laganas road) I probably noticed the activity as everywhere else was absolutely quiet & dead. Justine & Simon know the owners of this bar & I'd met them very briefly when I was on the island for a week in May. This was when I'd started to think about the possibilities of moving here. I stopped off to say Hi & pass the time of day. While there they asked if I wanted a kitten, & when I saw them I could have happily taken them all but where I live there are 3 dogs who, lovely as they are, do not tolerate cats.

Back on the bike I continued into Laganas to the main strip to capture one of the photographs I needed showing it as a ghost town. As you can see below it was pretty quiet.




While there I also took a photo of part of Laganas beach, also very empty.








Rather than return to the road, I decided to cycle along the beach to my next destination which was Kalamaki. I'm sure it's good for the leg muscles, cycling on sand. It was ok where the sand was fairly firm, which was most of the way but every now & then I hit soft sand I couldn't keep the bike going as the wheels dug in. So now & again I got off & walked the bike taking advantage of the breaks to grab a few more shots to complete my tasks, one being Kalamaki beach with NO sunbeds on, seen here on the next photo.

The only people I saw were a few folks walking their dogs on the beach & believe it or not one man in the sea - a braver man than me!

I had also been asked whether the Greek flag, located on the pill box seen from Kalamaki beach, flew all year round or just in the summer season.

As you can see on the photo, the flag is not flying so it must just get raised for the holiday season.

Then finally a Kalamaki ghost town.










After capturing my photos I took a slow & relaxed ride around Kalamaki just generally exploring a few of the back roads I'd not been down before, taking advantage of there being very little traffic. Then with the sun still shining I enjoyed the ride back home. Later as the evening came I watched the sky turn to shades of pink candy floss through my window as the sun set. A good sign for sunny weather continuing. I thought again how lucky I am to be living here as I recalled what a lovely day I had just spent.

Officially A Resident

Today I took advantage of a lift into town with Justine & Simon as I still had no idea what time my bus is running during the Winter months. First stop was the police station to see if my blue card was ready for collection. It was & so I now have a residency permit for a period of 5 years before it will need to be renewed. Another small step along the way completed.

My second port of call was the bus station in another attempt to find out the Winter times. With the man at the kiosks limited English & my even more limited Greek, I think I have been told there are now just 2 buses on my route going into town daily & 2 returning. To get into town I either need to be up at the crack of dawn to catch the 7.30am (bearing in mind the shops are not open quite that early) or wait & catch the next & last bus into town at 2.45pm (and most shops close for siesta at 2.30pm) The return buses are at 7.15am & 2.30pm.
So if I catch the 7.30am to town I can only come back on the 2.30pm & if I catch the 2.45pm bus to town there is no bus to bring me back the same day. Or that is what I think I have been told!!!!!
Simon took Justine's moped up to the garage this afternoon to have it's back tyre inflated so it's now ready for Justine to teach me to ride it. I've been told it's easy once you get the hang of it - we shall see. At least I'm familiar now with driving on the right. I'll be so pleased to finally have some transport so I can get out a bit more & not have to rely on the Winter bus service. How often I'm able to get out will also be very much down to the weather & the copious amounts of rain I've been told to expect. I shall also be borrowing Justine's all-in-one waterproofs to wear on the bike as & when required if they fit.

Windy Day

I didn't get to go into town to pick up my 'Blue Card' yesterday so I don't know whether it was ready or not. I was due to go in on the back of my friend's moped again but in the morning the wind was gusting quite strongly so she texted to say she thought it was unsafe on the bike in the conditions.
I could possibly have gone in on the bus but it is proving impossible at the moment to get hold of an up to date timetable from the bus station. When I rang to check the time of the next available bus that would get me into town, I discovered it would not have got me there before the permit office closed. So I will probably have to leave it now until Monday.
Sia & Otto have left this morning to spend the Winter in Switzerland, hopefully the wind dies down & does not prevent the ferry from leaving which can sometimes happen I am told. It will seem strange without them around.

It's been very windy again today bringing quite a chill to the air although the sky was still blue most of the day.

The photo is of my wood burning stove blazing away earlier this evening bringing a lovely cosy warmth to my lounge while I listened to the wind outside.

I'm becoming an expert fire layer up. I never realised all those years ago when I earned my Girl Guide firelighter badge that it would come in so useful now.

Application For Residence Permit (Blue Card)

Having now been here for 3 months it was time to apply for my residence permit. This required a visit to a local police station on the island. I chose to go to the station in Zakynthos town & my friend Debbie very kindly took me in on the back of her moped & accompanied me to the station. Debbie had already been through this procedure for herself earlier in the year & had prepared me as to what documents I needed (4 copies of my passport & 8 !!!!! passport size photos) She also knew which police officer was the one to see because he was the 'nice one' & spoke good English.

On arrival we made our way to the appropriate office where the opening hours posted on a sign on the door indicated they were open for business. However the door was firmly shut & a couple of knocks brought no response. There were several people sat on the chairs in the corridor & they indicated that no-one was available but it seemed they had decided to wait, which we assumed meant maybe someone would be back later. So time to go & get a coffee in town.

After a coffee & a chat we headed back to the police station & the little group of people who had been sitting on the chairs had gone.
This could either mean they had given up & gone home or they had been dealt with & then left. I hoped for the latter. Debbie then spotted the 'nice' officer & he recognised her too & so we were led into his office. I handed over my documents & my signature was requested on numerous copies of official documents, one being a declaration that I had the means to support myself. So lets hope the money lasts until I get a job next season if I stay.

So I just have to call back now on Friday to collect my 'blue card' which will hopefully !! be ready & waiting for me.