Lets twist again

When we were first here in the winter of 2003-04 there were some storms where small whirlwinds or water spouts were seen off the coast of Stoupa.  We didn't see those, but yesterday as a storm came up the coast from the south, directly in front of us a water spout formed twice in the course of about 15 minutes. 

The first one was the best, but we didn't notice it until some friends phoned us, so we were too slow with the camera.  When the second one formed we did managed to get some shots, but as you can see they are a little faint.

Our friends did however get a photo of the first one, and that's the final picture here.

Déjà view?

So, August 2 years on from the fires that devastated many areas of Greece, and what have we just experienced?

Fires again, but thankfully for most of us, only in the Athens area this time. Watching the news on Greek TV channels has been a re-run of the news two years ago, basically chaos in the way that the authorities have been prepared for, and dealt with the fires.

Although many are saying that the lack of money was a factor in the lack of preparation for an event like this, I'm inclined to think back to my post at the end of August two years ago and the phrase "attention deficit".

A new web site

It's a while since anything appeared here! The winter is a busy time, you can work outside without dying in the heat, so lots of jobs have been completed. Olives have been picked, but what a poor harvest last year! Lots of digging around the garden to improve the soil by removing more cement that was left after the house was built. Fences erected on walls to allow plants to climb and give us some privacy.

Also, I've been involved locally to help produce a new web site for some holiday apartments. The content was simple enough, but the challenge was to produce a layout that pleased everyone and was reasonably good HTML and CSS code. As anyone who has produced web pages knows, the basic code is not too difficult, it's trying to get everything to work with all the different browsers that people will use. You get it working and looking how you want with Firefox, have a look with IE7 and discover that several thing don't work. Fixing those takes a while to ensure that the HTML and CSS is still good. Now you have a look with IE6 and wonder if you are still looking at the same page. Back into the cycle again, fixing the IE6 may break the Firefox or IE7, which in turn.....

Ah well, it's just about finished now, so if anyone wants to have a look and give me any comments, please do so here. The URL for the site is http://www.lighthouse-apartments.gr . Please be gentle, the thought of fighting with all those different IE versions is not a pleasant thought.

Where have all the cicadas gone, long time passing...

Apologies to Pete Seeger for the misquote.

Two days ago suddenly almost all of the cicadas in the trees near us have either vanished or just ceased to "sing" to one another. There's just one or two that occasionally chirrup, but it's now quiet all day. The weather hasn't changed appreciably, it's still very warm, in the low/mid 30's, so that doesn't seem to be the reason. A search through internet articles about cicadas hasn't given me any clues about their "singing" season. Do they know something about the season that we don't?

Cheap phone calls FROM Greece

Here's something new we learned a few days ago (thanks to CM), you can make "cheap" calls to international land lines FROM Greece without having to buy a pre-paid card.

The cost of a call to a UK land line for example is quoted as " 0,0364 € / minute pay-per-second (including VAT)", the cost being charged as a call to the land line from which you make the call.

OTE is currently (as of 17/08/2008) quoting a price of 0,004155 € per second to phone a fixed land line in the UK. That's 0,2493 € per minute!!!! So it's certainly cheaper than OTE, but possibly not as cheap as some pre-paid cards you can buy. It does however have the convenience of being available without needing to buy a card.

To use the service you must first obtain a PIN code, there are two ways to do this. Either dial 210 6007920, this call is a standard long distance call within Greece, or visit their web page www.ifree.gr. The web page is only in Greek so be prepared! The page seems to just give you this code: , which after it expires (100 hours usage); you must call 210 6007920 to obtain a new one.

Once you have the PIN, you make calls by dialling 801 2000 802. You will be asked for the PIN code, and this is valid for 100 hours. When you need more hours you simply call 210 6007920 to obtain a new PIN code.

This is my understanding from reading the web page, and the costs I've quoted are what I have seen today. Please be aware these may change so you need to read their pages to be certain of the service.

Hot summer

Firstly and update on the telephone line. Last week OTE returned with a more cable and replaced the knot holding our connection together. Almost sad to have it repaired, how many people can boast that their telephone connection has a cable with a knot in it?

After weeks of constant sun with temperatures in the low 30's, the weather yesterday was quite cloudy and the temperature dropped to the high 20's. Just as it was getting dark we also had a quick shower of rain, the first for over 2 months. Our olive trees are suffering from the lack of rain, the olives are quite small and some are turning purple and falling from the trees. Sorry to any tourists, but we need a few more showers very soon to help the trees and garden.

Full property details

Finally we have the full description together with photographs for the house being sold in Neohori. Please click here to see all the information.

If you are interested there's a link on the page to email the owners directly.