Roll on September...

On our return to Yorkshire we were of course delighted to see friends and family again but naturally after a few weeks thoughts started to turn again to Greece and to our new place in Assos in particular. We knew that there was to be work done at the house in our absence like a separate electricity supply, it's currently just tapped off "dads" in the lower part of the building and the same for the water. There was also painting to be done and for the owner to take out of the property the things he didn't want us to have.

By the same reckoning we had to get things in order to take back. There was no cooker, fridge, freezer or washing machine in the place, also the curtains were no particularly to our taste so this had to be organised. White and electrical goods in Greece are at least 50% more expensive than in the UK (the current weakness of the Pound against the Euro doesn't help this at all) so we determined that whatever we could carry from the UK we would. To this end we bought a baby belling cooker, which is sufficient for our use, on EBay, we already had a spare fridge freezer and a caravan twin tub washer, the camp kitchen was also designated as going for the extra work space it provided. We decided that with only two rings on the cooker we would take a veg steamer and the George Foreman with us. In addition to this we have a device called a "Bravoska" which is like an electric pan which you can use upside down as a small oven or right way up as a large electric pan with lid. It's brilliant you can even roast a chicken or joint in it!

During the summer we also had Christenings for Melissa and Findley, and a none family christening for Grace, the grand daughter of our very good friends Allen and Jean. An 85th birthday party for Sandra's dad Geoff, another milestone reached and of course we had to get dad a passport so that he could come out and visit us.



The first picture shows Geoff with Libby on his knee me at the far side with John & Jo at the near side. Taken behind our house to keep Geoff in the shade on one of the few hot day we experience in dear old Blighty.











The second Picture shows Allen and I in Gary's back garden, cooking for the multitude at the "bit of a do" after the joint christenings of Melissa and Findley. Between us is Chris boozing and eating as is the way of these events.








September was now upon us and we had spent, spent, spent.... got all the things we intended taking with us and it was now just a case of going. We decided to wait until after Melissa had her first birthday on 28th September as we had missed her being born the year previous while we were in Parga.

So it was that on 28th September at 21:00 GMT we set off for Greece once more with the car packed so tightly it was impossible to get anything more in or on it, we even had a new IKEA dinner service sat on the arm rest.

As mentioned earlier we got stung by not booking the channel tunnel but that aside the now familiar journey through Europe was uneventful and in two day after an overnight stay at Grafenhausen once more we were in Ancona awaiting the ferry. This time we had a brilliant crossing and Sandra enjoyed the cruise feel more than she had done on the two previous occasions.

Coming up... Back to Ellaniki