Another needy animal

The closer we get to the house being completed, the busier we are and it becomes a race against time. Marble is now laid throughout the house, on windowsills and doorsteps and Ashley and I have filled, rubbed, primed, aqua sealed and started to paint the lower floor walls.

We have been back and forth to Kalamata many times and have chosen the style and colour for the electrical sockets and switches and the light fittings for almost the whole of the house. One particular day whilst there we collected the toilet, sink, shower with all fittings for downstairs and loaded the lot into the back of our Terios. Just room left for a few groceries!

Change of plan, in the car park of the supermarket we bumped into a couple of friends and got talking. They mentioned they were looking for a table and chairs for their terrace and we had seen a very good, reasonable set in Atlantic, one of the big supermarkets here. We had already recommended a couple of other friends but hadn’t made up our minds yet to get one for ourselves. As they weren’t sure where Atlantic was we all went together and low and behold they had sold out. All they had was one table that was reserved; awaiting delivery, for some other people we had recommend. The staff are brilliant and very helpful they let our friends have the reserved one, which they said they would replace and also try and get us a table and six chairs from another branch. Their car was already almost full and they only just managed to get the table in. Problem, there was only room for the driver! So one of our friends’ had to travel squashed in the back of our car with the bathroom fittings, holding onto our toilet and hoping not to be caught short.

Before the season started we had promised ourselves a trip to Monemvasia, on the east side of the Peloponnese. From Stoupa we drove down to Gythio from where the road is excellent to Monemvasia, the journey of about 150km took us only two and a half hours.

Monemvasia is a small, walled town set at the foot of a 300m high rock which projects out into the sea. At one time it was a stronghold but became deserted when the inhabitants moved to the new village on the mainland. In recent years people have moved back to the old town and it has now been developed into a small tourist centre. There are many very attractive small hotels, plenty of places to eat and small tourist shops along the narrow cobbled streets. Malmsey wine was originally produced here and exported in large quantities. The remains of the old wall run round the lower part and if you can manage the steep climb to the summit you will see the remains of the fortress and enjoy the stunning views.

Some of you may remember Bob the dog, now renamed Seb (Sebastian). He is the dog with the limp we mentioned on the website around February time. A few days ago he deposited himself on our doorstep and was absolutely covered in tics, Ashley started to pull them off with pliers then realised there were far too many. We got him some ‘Spot On’ at the pharmacy, which worked wonders, and I am sure he felt much better for it. We could no longer ignore his problem and see him suffer so arranged through KAWS to visit a vet in Kalamata to get him checked over. We thought Seb has probably never been in a car and decided to take him to our house a few times before making the long journey to the vet to try and get him used to the car. This journey to our house is no more than seven minutes and he was sick at least once, sometimes more on each journey.

The night before we were due to take him to Kalamata we starved him, a precautionary step to help with the travel sickness, and set off with forty minutes to spare. Poor thing was ill seven times and we only just arrived in time.

The vet was extremely good with him, he took some blood and ran tests immediately. He told us that Seb was suffering from an illness transmitted by sand flies. Apparently this is a big problem for dogs and the vet told us that 70% of dogs in Greece are infected, in the future it will become 100%. Many dogs are just carriers and don’t develop the symptoms, never the less all dogs should be tested twice a year. The disease is not infectious to humans or other dogs.


We had intended, once his paw was better, to ask the KAWS to find him a loving home, as we are not in a position to accept responsibility for a dog at the moment, although a better, more loving dog would be hard to find and we are very fond of him. It seems now there is little hope, as he requires medication every day for a year, and then more tests. If after the first year the tests show he is responding, he then has to take medication for one week, every month, for the rest of his life.

We have taken some photographs of Sebastian which we have emailed to a member of KAWS which will be published in an issue of their magazine. We can only hope someone will adopt him, if not we’re not sure what will happen to him.

Almost Tourist Season

At our house, the roof has been completed for some time now and work is once again surging ahead. The lower floor is all but finished with the tiling completed and the marble laid for the windowsills. This now means that the exact measurements can be taken for the windows and doors and the aluminium units prepared for delivery.
The men are working on the front verandas at the moment; these together with the stairs to the garden will be the last external stonework to be done on the house. After that the rest of the work is inside except for the finishing touches such as cleaning the outside, stones and porrie (corner stones). Vagelis is a bit of a stickler for having things aesthetically right.

We had decided right from the start that we would paint the ground floor ourselves to try and save a bit on costs. We ventured back to our friendly local builders merchants, as we thought we owed him some trade after the saga with the wood stain, and stocked up on primer, rollers, sandpaper etc. No one told us the ceiling and walls had to be rubbed down and primed before they could be painted and we have already spent three very long tiring days rubbing with sandpaper trying to achieve a professional finish.

Many Greeks returned to the area for the Easter holidays and many of the tavernas opened giving everywhere a good feel. On the Friday of Easter weekend we walked down to the church late in the evening as Mass was finishing. Everyone held candles and after the Mass formed a procession through the village and back to the church where they were blessed and given a flower from the epitaph. Since Easter we have seen many tourists in the area and the place has come to life. Work is being done on tavernas and shops and the whole area has been tidied in readiness for the main tourist season. The holiday reps have also returned this week and are getting ready for their first tourists to fly into Kalamata in May.

On the 17th April we saw a helicopter carrying a large ‘bucket’, which it had filled from the sea. There was obviously a fire somewhere as about half an hour later two seaplanes made several journeys down to the sea to fill up. A bad omen perhaps as the fire hazard is considered to start from May. At that time a fire crew is stationed at a viewpoint on the Kalamata road from which they can see for miles over Kardamyli, Stoupa, Agios Nikolaos and right down to Trachila. A friend has since told us that what we saw may have been a practice run as they had one last year at about the same time.

For anyone not bored hearing about our two cats, they have both had their stitches out and have recovered from their operations and enjoying their freedom once more.