The Taxman and the Accountants

 Monday 2nd January 2023

This morning it was an appointment with the accountants, to see them seemed a bit strange, as everything is closed in Kamares, so no pie for the dog or me. I walked up to my friends house and I drove one of them and the dog  to Apollonia, where the accountants are. When we drove past the Car Rental place, the owner was outside, he waved, he must have recognised the car, when he saw the driver, he might have been surprised.  But he might have recognised me, they tend to, even if you have only used them once.

Photo Interlude - Street sign, there are several street signs here, but they are not used for the post, you have to get yours from the Post Office like Serifos.

We got to the Accountants, a really old school place, there were documents of mine to be copied and two forms to be signed. This is to allow the Accountant to act for me, his first job will be to request an interview with the relevant authorities which will be done using Teams. After this, if all goes well, I will get the AFM number and be able to give that to my landlord for his records, and apply for a Bank Account. I will probably have to file a tax return even though I do in the UK. During our visit our furry friend started playing up, I think he was bored, twenty four hours ago, he was on the slopes and probably thought that was where he was headed today! After this, we walked to the Angel for a drink. 

Photo Interlude - Yellow Bicycle Cafe Artemonas 

They sold my favourite pie according to the menu, and in three Greek words, I managed to ask them if they had any. The answer in Greek was no, unfortunately! I did get some water for the dog. Again our friend on the lead would not settle, he was bored. We tried a couple of other places, where we wanted to do things, but they were all closed too. So we decided to have a walk around Artemonas, I have been a couple of times, it would give the dog something to sniff and it was nice and sunny.

Photo Interlude - Sign on old building, sadly it doesn’t translate to much.

Artemonas is very pretty, a lot of it has narrow roads, so no cars, but motorbikes can go on the them. There are a lot of churches of course and pretty buildings, some are like villas. A few are abandoned which  is a pity. Thankfully after a good wander round, the dog had settled down and was relieved his boredom! We drove back to the house and had lunch. The plan is to have one more full day here tomorrow then catch the ferry to Serifos Wednesday afternoon. As Camaron is open still, a goodbye meal will be on the cards Tuesday night. I will get my ferry ticket tomorrow.

After lunch I was going to walk to dog round the loop, but he was lying on the bed and looking sleepy, so I left him with his owners. I changed on my way to the beach, at the far end was someone having a FaceTime call in a bikini. It looked like they had just been swimming. At the far end of the beach the sun was still shining on it. I sat on a chair by one of the closed tavernas. Further round someone was fishing. There was a gentle breeze. Here is a view of a house and the Agia Marina church above it. This is near where I sat.

I have been taught this on my Greek course but had not really assimilated the information. Anything ending in “os” is usually male and ending in “ia” female. There are some other clueworthy endings also. So today my friend told me Agia is a female saint and Agios male. ( churches are often named after saints) While typing this in the fisherman came past me and had a chat. He was from Georgia, he rang his wife as she speaks good English. She said the people were kind, he said he caught no fish, I wasn’t surprised unfortunately! The sun now in, I went back to my house. Tonight, dinner with my friends, then a nice walk with the dog tomorrow.