Let Me Introduce You To Jack

Who is Jack? Let me introduce you:

Jack (or full name Jack Daniels LOL) is our new family addition. Many of you who are familiar with Zakynthos will know that the island has a population of stray dogs that have to survive by living on their wits & with the help of the local Zakynthos Animal Welfare volunteers.
I had decided a long time ago that I would like to have my own dog here & when the time was right it would be one of the strays that I would give a home. We look after one of Sia's (the landlady) dogs during the Winter when she is in Switzerland. Towards the end of 2008 Anesti & me took her dog, Chocolate, down to the beach for a good walk & while there we were joined by a group of about 5 strays. One of the strays stayed close to us for much of our walk & was playing with Chocolate. I immediately felt there was something special about this little black dog & something told me I thought he was the one for me. When we returned home after our walk I made up my mind that the next time we were on the beach we would try to 'rescue' him & bring him home. About a week later we were on the beach again & looked for our little friend but he was nowhere to be seen. In fact we didn't see any stary dogs that day & we heard rumours that poison had been put down by some unscupulous people to get rid of the strays. I felt gutted & really wished that I had taken him home the week before, I thought it was the last we had seen of him. A week further on & we were back on the beach & to my great relief he was there. We managed to get him into the car using Chocolate's collar & lead & successfully got him home.
That was on the 16th November 2008 & now he is settled here with us & is a big part of our lives, we just wouldn't be without him now. He is so good & is such a character & as you can see from the photo above, he has made himself at home. We definitely made the right decision in choosing him.

House Build Progress

I've had a bit of a stressful time since just before Christmas regarding the financing for the house build. To cut a long story short I had been in discussion with my Greek bank 'Piraeus' for over a year regarding taking a small mortgage from them towards the end of the construction of the house. Just before Christmas they changed their mind & announced out of the blue that they could no longer offer me the mortgage. I suspect it was all linked to the current credit crisis & I was devastated & imagined myself having a house I could not afford to complete, like many unfinished houses you see on the island. After much stress I am pleased to now say an alternative source of funding has been found & I can at last sleep easy again. So I am now posting the latest photos below which show that the outside & inside plastering is almost complete. I also saw the builder this week to choose the floor tiles for inside & for on the veranda & balcony & choose the wood colours etc for the kitchen & bedroom units. Now that the stress has been relieved I can feel excited about it all again. Construction has slowed a bit because we have had a lot of rain lately but the plumber should be going tomorrow to start the installation of the central heating system (& yes we do need it here in the Winter)

Below - This will be the kitchen area once the units are fitted. It is much smaller than my current kitchen so I will have to be very organised.

Below - Stairs & the under stairs area which would normally have a wc & small handbasin fitted. I decided not to have these installed & to use this space for storage instead. Plumbing for the washing machine is also at the rear of the under stairs space.

Below - the 2 patio doorways that lead from the living/dining area to the veranda/garden.

Below - the view from the upstairs balcony over what will be my garden. The house you can see is the same design as mine & also has the small pool which was an optional extra which I'm not having (would have been an extra 25,000 euro) - I will have to make friends with the neighbour LOL. As far as I am aware I will be the only year round resident on the site.

Thats all for now folks, take care.