Living on a Greek island

  It’s no surprise but I feel super blessed that I have so many kind and helpful friends supporting me. There has been no “I told you so”,  moments, just kind and thoughtful supporting words. So although I still feel anxious, I do feel that it’s transitory and it will go away at some point.  So a South African couple who are coming to the party, asked me if I was going to have music at the party? Well I must admit it had not crossed my mind, and I said so, so they are bringing some speaker thing, that connects to Spotify. I left the music choice down to them. I saw them going to the Henley Rewind festival Sunday. Vintage music by the banks of the river Thames. Human League were one of the bands playing. My neighbour, whose daughter is making the two cakes for the party, popped over Sunday, he kindly is giving his daughter some money for the cakes, I have given some money to a charity, close to her heart. This neighbour is hosting a Ukrainian family. He, his wife and famil...

  So the packing continues. I have been trying as time passes on, and as I do things like cut my nails, make sure that I have that item to take to Greece. I can’t raid the house here, as Hazel will be back in the Autumn and we will both be here in the Spring. Things like nail scissors. I have also bought myself a torch. I am going to check my chargers, for the phone and iPad. One thing that I must not forget is the walking boots. In the spring in Greece this year, I found them very useful as when I went on walks, the paths were wet and slippery.  There are three main mobile suppliers in Greece, Cosmote who are a bit like our BT, Vodaphone and Wind. Cosmote are not perhaps the most revered vendor, but I know their coverage was good on Serifos and I can’t find any good data about the other vendors coverage. So I thought I would get a Cosmote sim, there is a shop near my hotel in Piraeus. Mike contacted me about this Vodaphone plan that uses a nifty box that connects to your phon...

So for the next four weeks I am going to do a weekly roundup, as I count down to my “leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again moment “. Well I do actually, sometime in the Spring. With all this hot weather the allotment and house garden are suffering. In a way this is a good thing as neither are at their best, in fact the garden is loosing herbaceous perennials at an alarming rate.  So I won’t feel so bad coming back and not seeing it in its usual good condition. I have cleared the back pond out, anyone who has a pond knows this messy job has to be done on a regular basis. We need to get parts of the fence between us and our neighbour replaced as some of the panels are breaking up. At the allotment I have handed it over to another couple, but until I go we are working on it together. Again it’s not as tidy as it was, so that’s ok.   When I was doing my island hopping, trying to decide where to live, I always finished on Sifnos and I have a good collection of ...

So there are just over five weeks to go before I travel to Greece on a one way ticket. September the eleventh is not the most auspicious date to have picked perhaps. In the spare bedroom are two suitcases into which I will put the worldly things that I want to take with me to my new home. The new house is furnished but I am expecting to have to buy a few things once I get there. The longest I have ever been abroad is five weeks, just before a Christmas in Singapore many years ago. There I was able to expense nearly everything that I had buy, food, beer etc.  The island that I am relocating to is called Serifos, in the Cyclades. I have a prospective house in the town of Hora which is atop of a mountain, I need to sign the contract on that house, and I am a little nervous that I haven’t done so yet. I have some other paperwork to take, because once in Greece I need to arrange to meet a policeman on the island of Syros to apply for a five year permit to stay in there. I am a little ne...