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I was just dusting my blog... and, as usual, noticed that 6 months had gone by with no news. Well, by now you should be used to this. I actually think nothing ever happens in my life here, it's just work on the one side and sunshine on the other! ;-) Not quite true, but in general it covers it.
I've had loads of pleasant visits from friends during spring and summer... and still have a few to come. Pam & Bob came by with the good news of Pam's pension being OK'ed, so it'll soon be Crete Forever for the two of them! :-) I had a long-lost friend from Denmark visiting me for a week in May, we were chatting our jaws apart. AND my daughter, Valentina, finally made it! She went into that frightening airplane together with 3 friends of hers and managed to get to Crete! We had so much fun for 2 weeks, they made me fell almost their age (not yet 30 any of them), LOL. After 3 years of promisses-promisses I finally met Dave & Hillary and their lovely daughter, they came all the way from up North, so we had a few hours on my terrace, a very nice lunch together at Vrahos overlooking the beach of Komos, and then it was bye-bye again. But since then I caught Dave on Facebook, so I keep track of what they are doing back there in Wales during the loooong and cold summer-autumn-winter months! Birgit made it down here from Agias Pelagias as well for a - short - day of chatting and laughing (Almost everybody seem to stay up North, the drive is so long, why don't you just choose your holidays in the most beautiful part of Crete... down South, I mean?). So, as far as visitors are concerned, I am just expecting some friends from Italy end of September, an old schoolmate of mine from Denmark also in September... and then I guess we shall close the season whoever is remaining with a nice party in my garden (ooops, take care of the dog leftovers!) AND on my terrace (which is safer!).
Animals? Sure! Still! Some!
Billy, my first cat - and apparently the most intelligent - is still going strong. 4 years old for a Pitsidian cat must be a world record!
And Darling - one of Millies kittens - is also still here. Since last time... all the rest are gone. Sweetie went missing. My noisiest and most amusing cat, Wheenee, went too far away on his walkabouts the last time and didn't return. My little honey, Pucci, was found in the road. I still have 2 cats - and I will never have any more cats in this place!
But I have 3 dogs! :-))) Just last month the latest stray dog member, Happy, was added to the bunch. I wish I had a photo to show you - you would know why I couldn't resist her! ;-) It is good that my garden is big enough for them and that it is all fenced! But still, they spend their day in my office, forcing me to sometimes leave the work and go out on the terrace so that they can have a little fun out there. Thank you, doggies, it does me a lot of good to get away from the PC once in a while!
Work situation is getting better. I have been very lucky to have been busy with the big project I told you about - been working on it since January and it seems to be going on for a year og two more - so the crisis haven't really hit me. And now I see signs of my old agencies coming back to life, even the Italians are starting to move a bit.... so hopefully we can ban the word "crisis" from our daily vocabulary from now on. I hope this is also the case for all of you. We saw it, we've had it, and we didn't like it! So welcome to better times from now on! :-)
Actually, the first reason for getting into my blog today was that I wanted to insert a warning about a car hire company, Eurocar, they managed to cheat my daughter, making her pay more than the agreed amount for a rental car and totally ignoring ALL the following emails requiring them to correct the error. They got the credit card number and they took what they wanted. I tried to insert a socalled "review" under the appropriate page on this site, but it seems to have been ignored, maybe because the company in question is a major client as far as advertising is concerned.
I am definitely NOT happy about that. If a Cretan company is cheating you (and I have heard that this is not a singular case), then THIS site is the appropriate site to warn other travelers to Crete about it! And if the company in question is advertising on this very site, some action should be taken. I am expecting to hear from Yannis about it, at least I hope so, otherwise there is no reason to have a page named "reviews", if only positive reviews are taken into consideration.
I wish I could manage to insert a few pictures. I should have at least one of my "cartoon dog", Lucky.... but it appears that I have to upload them to my Gallery Album. I'll give it a try!
Edited after trying this: I managed to upload 11 pics, but then the system apparently got "tired" of me and didn't want to continue... well, it is late, almost 3 am... so maybe this will do for today. I was hoping to insert the "captions" afterwards, but I simply can't find a way to do it. So, to explain, there are a few pics of where the youngsters stayed in Matala (you would dream about waking up to this view, let me know if you need directions to Alexandra's cheap place in Matala overlooking the bay), one picture of Lucky, some of my daughter getting "body art" in Matala, a game of Scrablle at Jodi's kafenion in Pitsidia.... well, have a look! :-)
Next time I'll let you know how wonderful it was to go back to Denmark for Christmas holidays... at least, these are the plans.
Then, as we all know, sometimes life makes other plans for us! ;-)
All the best
Dinny
I've had loads of pleasant visits from friends during spring and summer... and still have a few to come. Pam & Bob came by with the good news of Pam's pension being OK'ed, so it'll soon be Crete Forever for the two of them! :-) I had a long-lost friend from Denmark visiting me for a week in May, we were chatting our jaws apart. AND my daughter, Valentina, finally made it! She went into that frightening airplane together with 3 friends of hers and managed to get to Crete! We had so much fun for 2 weeks, they made me fell almost their age (not yet 30 any of them), LOL. After 3 years of promisses-promisses I finally met Dave & Hillary and their lovely daughter, they came all the way from up North, so we had a few hours on my terrace, a very nice lunch together at Vrahos overlooking the beach of Komos, and then it was bye-bye again. But since then I caught Dave on Facebook, so I keep track of what they are doing back there in Wales during the loooong and cold summer-autumn-winter months! Birgit made it down here from Agias Pelagias as well for a - short - day of chatting and laughing (Almost everybody seem to stay up North, the drive is so long, why don't you just choose your holidays in the most beautiful part of Crete... down South, I mean?). So, as far as visitors are concerned, I am just expecting some friends from Italy end of September, an old schoolmate of mine from Denmark also in September... and then I guess we shall close the season whoever is remaining with a nice party in my garden (ooops, take care of the dog leftovers!) AND on my terrace (which is safer!).
Animals? Sure! Still! Some!
Billy, my first cat - and apparently the most intelligent - is still going strong. 4 years old for a Pitsidian cat must be a world record!
And Darling - one of Millies kittens - is also still here. Since last time... all the rest are gone. Sweetie went missing. My noisiest and most amusing cat, Wheenee, went too far away on his walkabouts the last time and didn't return. My little honey, Pucci, was found in the road. I still have 2 cats - and I will never have any more cats in this place!
But I have 3 dogs! :-))) Just last month the latest stray dog member, Happy, was added to the bunch. I wish I had a photo to show you - you would know why I couldn't resist her! ;-) It is good that my garden is big enough for them and that it is all fenced! But still, they spend their day in my office, forcing me to sometimes leave the work and go out on the terrace so that they can have a little fun out there. Thank you, doggies, it does me a lot of good to get away from the PC once in a while!
Work situation is getting better. I have been very lucky to have been busy with the big project I told you about - been working on it since January and it seems to be going on for a year og two more - so the crisis haven't really hit me. And now I see signs of my old agencies coming back to life, even the Italians are starting to move a bit.... so hopefully we can ban the word "crisis" from our daily vocabulary from now on. I hope this is also the case for all of you. We saw it, we've had it, and we didn't like it! So welcome to better times from now on! :-)
Actually, the first reason for getting into my blog today was that I wanted to insert a warning about a car hire company, Eurocar, they managed to cheat my daughter, making her pay more than the agreed amount for a rental car and totally ignoring ALL the following emails requiring them to correct the error. They got the credit card number and they took what they wanted. I tried to insert a socalled "review" under the appropriate page on this site, but it seems to have been ignored, maybe because the company in question is a major client as far as advertising is concerned.
I am definitely NOT happy about that. If a Cretan company is cheating you (and I have heard that this is not a singular case), then THIS site is the appropriate site to warn other travelers to Crete about it! And if the company in question is advertising on this very site, some action should be taken. I am expecting to hear from Yannis about it, at least I hope so, otherwise there is no reason to have a page named "reviews", if only positive reviews are taken into consideration.
I wish I could manage to insert a few pictures. I should have at least one of my "cartoon dog", Lucky.... but it appears that I have to upload them to my Gallery Album. I'll give it a try!
Edited after trying this: I managed to upload 11 pics, but then the system apparently got "tired" of me and didn't want to continue... well, it is late, almost 3 am... so maybe this will do for today. I was hoping to insert the "captions" afterwards, but I simply can't find a way to do it. So, to explain, there are a few pics of where the youngsters stayed in Matala (you would dream about waking up to this view, let me know if you need directions to Alexandra's cheap place in Matala overlooking the bay), one picture of Lucky, some of my daughter getting "body art" in Matala, a game of Scrablle at Jodi's kafenion in Pitsidia.... well, have a look! :-)
Next time I'll let you know how wonderful it was to go back to Denmark for Christmas holidays... at least, these are the plans.
Then, as we all know, sometimes life makes other plans for us! ;-)
All the best
Dinny
We also had a poor experience with Eurocar, though not as bad as your daughter and I think it was Dave W who also posted about that company a year or so back.
Hope to see you in a few weeks time - we're over in early October for 10 days, though may be a bit busy on plans for our house build - see the blog I've just posted. Anyway, fingers crossed we'll be over permanently in the New Year, so will see you more regularly.
All the best
Pam & Bob