ONLY IN GREECE

Onlie in Greece

Where else but in the land of Democracy are you going to see an organic food store renting out prime rooftop billboard advertising space to ... McDonalds.

fotoLIBRA

In view of my good pals Yvonne and Gwyn Headley heading for Corfu, I feel this plug for the excellent fotoLIBRA is in order here.

By the by, Kerkyra-based readers - the reason why Corfu is being graced by the Headley presence is that the dynamic duo need to recreate some C19 pix uploaded to fotoLIBRA.

But they need broadband in Corfu, and they haven't yet found a rental apartment that provides it.

Nor have I been much help through my own extensive and powerful contacts. Thinking caps on, phili mou!

Anyone who knows of a rental with broadband to let for a week between now and end July, let me know via a comment, OK? Your reward will be great.

End of plug-'n'-plea.

Back to fotoLIBRA and two links contained in the latest newsletter from the energetic Jacqui Norman. Hmm, if I had GH's talent for hiring such hotshot help, I too could leave the store expertly attended and swan off to the Aegean:

• Recent uploads
• The recently-enabled Poster and Print service, which strikes me as tailor-made for Corfu camerati keen to make money out of their work.
  • Look above the thumbnails for the icon of a frame.
  • Click on the frame to see 22 top quality products you can buy from each image.

Check it out, register, add your own spectacular pics ... and do let's find them the perfect wired apartment.

Update, 8/8/05: Despite my fine words to Gwyn and so-called powerful contacts and intimate knowledge of Who's Who in Kerkira, and prompt replies by heroines like Saskia, I was not one jot of help to the Headleys and nor did any of the key folks over in Kerkira who are likely to have known the answer actually bother to respond.

So there's a moral for you, starting with don't place any store on what *I* pretend to think I achieve.

June 14 - RIP

I think today is the anniversary of my Dad's death. If so, it's sad that I can't remember for sure.

I can easily find out by scrolling back to my posting of the photos of his gravestone.

One year - maybe more - I came out to Corfu and, mid all the festivities and carousing, never even thought of visiting the cemetery ... and it was Dad's slogging toil over the years that *paid* for the house and all our good times.

I remembered on the flight back and it rather depressed me how thoughtless I can be.

Feckless, rather.

PS: I did have the date right ... still, no excuse for vagueness.

Broadband in Corfu

Email from longtime pal and fellow lumberjack Gwyn Headley, he of fotoLIBRA fame and the lovely Yvonne.

"We need to get away.

We have to go to Corfu to recreate some C19 pix uploaded to fotoLIBRA.

But we need broadband in Corfu, and we can’t find anywhere that has it!

Help!

As you know le tout Kerkyra, can you ask if anyone knows of an apartment with broadband to let for a week between now and end July?"

I reply, copying in Mum and Hilary Paipeti, the latter being the best bet, IMO.

Mum replies that:

"The admirable Mahmud is popping round Sunday afternoon to check my c'puter and I'm sure will give sound help/advice and so on and I'll also contact my Jon of Pelikas pal about your message.

Would love to meet them anyway.

The admirable Hilary ... may come out trumps if there is the least possibility of flogging a place ..."

Seems like Hilary is busy on property deals, so probably not worth counting on prompt or practical reply from *that* direction.

*Also*, now I think of it, I recall Mum extending a civil invitation via Hilary to her bloke, Harry, that he might like to come up to San Luca some time. HP's somewhat bizarre reply was that her bloke only accepted invitations delivered *personally*, i.e. we ask him *en personne*.

Well, phooey to *that* ....

I then email Saskia who responds by return, the darling:

"Would love to be able to help you keep your reputation as top notch 'negotiator' but I don't think I can.

What I have been able to find out if it's any help is that the Internet cafes in town will have broadband . If he
(your friend) has a Notebook with PCM PCI availability then he can buy a card here (costs about 250 euros I'm told) so that he can have access to Broadband and download and upload etc.

Finding an apartment with Broadband won't be easy, but 1st class hotels will probably (maybe?) have it. All this is gobbledegook to me, I phoned a knowledgeable friend!"

No response from mum so I email the stalwart Mahmood who replies with a prompt:

"Great to hear from you. Saw your mum last Monday and she looks well.

Re your request. we do have broadband in Corfu but it is limited to about 5 kms from Corfu town. I am trying to see who would be able to fit the bill and will let you know if I can be able to help you.

Would a hotel do?? Be in touch. Be good."

I reply thanking him and copy in Gwyn, and that's where we stand for now.

Aloha!

Looks like a reprieve for #2 daughter and best pal Y - they might be able to jet off to Hawaii for a bit of a summer break with one of Y's kin.

Pity about Greece - I'd rather liked the idea of folks calling out, "Yassou, Yasi!"

While on matters Greek, went with A to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Very much a teenage girl movie but what fascinated me was that I at long last know what and where Santorini is - it's that ridiculously picturesque white and blue tourist paradise overlooking a bay from the side of a mountain.

Fooled by the -ini suffix, I always thought it was some tourist-ridden **ITALian** resort.

Beautiful place. I always wondered where it was and what it was called.

Alex Bledel plays the girl who goes to stay with her grandma, so there's plenty of "Ya Ya" addressing and noble Greek papou profiles.

The love interest in the book is "Kostos" (surely, it'd be Costas, or was that judged too effeminate-sounding for US ears?), played here by a bloke who looked Greeky enough in a buff biceped way, but who spoke with a lisping *Dutch* accent.

I kept nudging A and hissing, "That bloke is *Dutch*, but when we looked him up, turns out Michael Rady is as American as Pittsburgh steel.

On "Picking up the Greek Accent", Rady says somewhere:

"We had four days. They flew a dialect coach in from London and we just sat there morning, noon and night, all day long working the accent. We’d go out to lunch and I had to use the accent. It was very intense, very intensive."

In that case, there's a bit of an excuse but one has to wonder about the dialect coach.