[One of a series of email messages from us describing the trials and tribulations, good news and fun times of the Wallace family as we carve out a new life on the Greek island of Zakynthos. If you find it incredibly dreary, and want to unsubscribe, just let me know. Those who missed last year's instalments can visit my online photo gallery by clicking on this link: http://www.picturetrail.com/robwallace/459371 to get up to date. When I've edited my recent pics some more, I'll upload another album or two.]

Dear Friends

We have been back in Greece for just over three weeks (Ritsa came over a week earlier), following our 3-month break in South Africa. We had a great time, saw lots of old friends, and enjoyed being tourists in our own country. No wonder so many foreign people are discovering the delights of the Cape in summer. To those of you who entertained or accommodated us, thanks very much, and you all know you're welcome over here anytime!

There were many highlights: Chris & Fida's beautiful cottage in Montagu, Theo and Paula's spectacular home in Wilderness and the splendours of the Garden Route, get-togethers with our good friends and grecophiles in Vermont, the family Christmas gathering at Doug and Rosie's place at RooiEls (Granny Jess with all four children and 5 out of 8 grandchildren), our week in Natal after so many years (Cleopatra Mountain Farm! Any of you wine and food folk who don't know about this place, ask me!), Peter Lamb's ex-IBMer get-together at WPCC, and sundry other gatherings of old colleagues, cycling out of Llandudno with the Wildmans, many walks with Freddie from Cecilia or Newlands Forests. Ten days back in our old neighbourhood in Rosebank (thanks Lindsay and Chris!). Two wonderful weeks at the beginning and end at the Rustenberg Hydro. We'll be back!

The end of our stay was dominated by getting ready to pack up and move Natasha out of her rented cottage in Kenilworth, which we had been using as our base when we weren't anywhere else (she has decided to seek her fortune in Europe). In a way, we were just completing the move out of Rosebank that had so drained us 12 months before, since lots of furniture and belongings from Rosebank had landed up in Kenilworth. So there was plenty of deciding what should be moved to our store room in Vermont, what should go into storage, and what to be sold. And then, what to do with the animals? Dear old Muffin solved one problem a few weeks before our departure, when in the space of 2 or 3 days he went rapidly downhill, and after 18 years of companionship, we had to take him to the SPCA to be put down. We decided to take Fred with us to Greece, while the remaining two cats gave us a cliffhanger, driving Natasha to distraction, until at the last moment a new home presented itself, and the lady (a recent arrival from UK with 2 young cat-loving kids), arrived to take them from us half-an-hour before the movers came on Friday 22 February.

The actual move to storage was amazingly quick and well-organized, partly because after the chaos of the previous move, we (Natasha and I, Ritsa having flown out a week early to spend some quality time with her mother) were better prepared, and had packed everything very well before they arrived, and partly because we'd sold off a lot of things.

Natasha was working right until the bitter end, submitting articles to STYLE, House and Leisure etc. (please rush out and buy your copies NOW!), so yours truly packed through the night on Thursday – the bed had been sold anyway. But that still left lots of stuff haphazardly locked into one room, that was to go either to Vermont or to Greece.

With a million other things to attend to on the Friday (selling the car etc), we had an absolutely frantic weekend of packing and driving, with three trips to Vermont, the last unscheduled one taking place at 2.30am on Monday 25th, the morning we flew out. We snatched a couple of hours sleep, driving back at 8am in time to deliver our 120kg of unaccompanied baggage to the cargo terminal, then back to fetch Fred, take him to the Animal Travel Agency and then check ourselves in. We were knackered! It didn't help that this all took place in an extended Cape Town heat wave, and the rental car was not air conditioned.

We arrived at 5:50am 26^th February, at the new Athens International Airport, to be met by Jacqui and Rory, both looking very chic and stylish in their Athenian winter outfits, which they had acquired over many shopping trips during their winter in Athens (Athenians are VERY stylish). The temperature on landing was a very brisk 11degrees C, but later we had a perfect winter day, brilliant blue sky and bright sunshine. Athens is very beautiful in that kind of weather, which we had for virtually all of our 3-week stay, apart from one day of torrential rain, and a couple more of clearing up, before icy weather on the day that we left for Zakynthos. Lots of blossoms out, wild flowers, and orange neradzia (an inedible, thick-skinned naartjie) on the trees lining many of the streets making it very colourful.

Ritsa and I were back at the airport on the afternoon of our arrival to pick up Freddie, who had followed a different route on KLM Cargo (including a stop-over at Schipol's Pet Hotel, where he was fed, watered and walked - nothing but the best for our Fred)! What a run-around we were given! Literally. The Swissport cargo terminal is about a kilometre away from the bus stop, and from the customs building (different directions), and we also had to visit the state vet and the customs office in the arrivals terminal, about 2km away. All on foot! We must have walked about 10km, and it was four hours before we freed Fred from his Sky Kennel. We had the same run-around a week later, when our unaccompanied baggage arrived. There is a fortune awaiting the guy who introduces workflow concepts to Greece! The only reason to visit the customs building is that the customs office at Swissport is not connected to the LAN, so you have to make a 2.5km detour merely to have them issue a sequence number, which they then enter into the computer at Swissport. Really!

Anyway, Fred was none the worse for wear after his long trip - he wagged his tail, and looked for somewhere to have a well-earned leak, before boarding the bus and the Metro to go home with us, where six of us plus dog were shoe-horned into Granny's one-bedroom flat in Koukaki. Fortunately, the pleasures of Philopappus Hill, overlooking the Acropolis, wooded, green and open, were not far away, and Fred happily fell into the routine of walks up there. He visited many other parts of Athens too, and made many doggy and human friends, before boarding the long-distance bus and ferry for the island, where he is right at home again, except for the free-range fowls and roosters, which he has never seen before, and in which he displays an unhealthy interest - Ritsa fears he may be shotgunned if he gets too close, or eats too much of their chicken food.

Natasha and Jacqui were reunited after a year apart, and it was a joy to hear their giggling chatter in the bedroom as they caught up with things. They also enjoyed several shopping excursions together, the post-Christmas sales were still on, and they relished hanging out in the pavement coffee shops in various parts of the city. We went together to our favourite ouzeri in Monastiraki, with live music and very uninhibited ambience, enjoyed a Sunday evening aperitif in ultra-fashionable Psirri, and a couple of meals at my favourite souvlaki joint near Monastiraki station. Generally had a great time. I commend a winter holiday in Greece to you all. Much more than sun and sand to experience.Our enjoyment of Athens was enhanced by the fact that the pre-Lenten Carnival began shortly after we arrived (the Orthodox Easter being very late this year, Good Friday falling on Jacqui's birthday, May 3). It is a time of great frivolity and merriment in Greece, with many charming customs. Many children, and not a few adults, dress up in fancy dress to go out in the streets, shop windows are full of Carnival outfits and masks, and the streets of Plaka are thronged with good-natured merrimakers beating each other over the heads or buttocks with plastic clubs and hammers, particularly if you are young and female. Lots of people in costume; plenty of Harry Potters this year, and not a few "Osama bin Laden"s. There are a number of masked balls, and the municipality sets up a big stage in the centre of Syntagma Square, with top-class live entertainment every evening from 6-11:30pm.

The first Thursday of carnival is "Tsiknopempti", when everyone goes out to eat roasted meat, to remind themselves of the fast to come - Athens is one vast braaivleis that night, and the merriment spills over everywhere. We came across a smaller stage in a small square in Plaka (Kapnikareas Square), with traditional Greek music and dancing, and Ritsa plunged straight into the dancing circle and danced up a storm. It was astounding the mix of people dancing together - a couple of old guys of 70 or so started dancing; they were joined by a couple of similar-aged (unrelated) ladies; two 8-9 year old girls in their carnival splendour, a young couple with silly carnival hats and leather jackets, a very svelte, fashionable lady in fur coat and then a homeless guy, who had been jabbering to himself in the corner, all joined the circle, and took turns to lead the dance. All totally natural, good-natured, never a hint of unpleasantness (read alcohol abuse).

Carnival came to an end on Sunday, with huge carnival parades, particularly in the town of Patras, with tens of thousands of costumed, toyi-toying participants, lots of elaborate floats, and the town decorated with 3-metre styrofoam sculptures of carnival figures. Our bus drove through Patras on route to Zakynthos on Sunday while they were getting ready for the procession, and it was right festive! A very big RAG procession. From the bus we saw Louis XIV and his mistress in full costume sitting at a pavement cafe sipping espresso.

So here we are in Tsilivi again. We arrived in absolutely freezing weather - it had been very cold when we saw Natasha off early that morning on Easyjet to London (Luton, actually), but one feels it more acutely here, close to the sea. When we arrived, the north wind was blowing, feeling like it was coming straight out of the Arctic (in fact, it blows directly from the high, snow-covered Pindus mountains of north-west Greece - Epirus). Our little summer cottage is uninhabitable until it warms up, being 30 metres from the sea, and directly north-facing. So we have temporary digs in Sakis' holiday apartments, up in the village. Also designed for summer living, but at least we have a heater and plenty of blankets.

The weather has since warmed up, and it is sunny and nice during the day, in fact I've swum twice, but it chills down in the evenings, and the motorcycle is an excruciating experience at night.

We are hopeful that our building license will finally be issued (twelve months late), and we are relieved that a potentially nasty complaint laid by a vindictive neighbour, of building without a license, seems to have been neutralized through heroic work done by our lawyer in our absence. In fact, Ritsa is right now in Athens, trying to prise one needed approval from the town-planner's office. So far no success, owing to a hard-disk failure which means they can't print anything. And Monday is a holiday. So we live in hope for Tuesday. In the meanwhile, Jacqui, Rory, Sakis and I are busy weeding the grass we planted last summer, and preparing the ground around the bar to lay a concrete apron where we will place tables, chairs and umbrellas. If and when the license comes through, we are going to have a scramble to get everything done in time for the season opening, in less than six weeks.

The village is deserted, desolate, a far cry from the busy, frenetic atmosphere of summer. All the chairs and tables are packed away, nothing is open, except for one supermarket and the butcher. Everything else is closed, shuttered up, dusty, windswept and crumbling. A few building projects going on, including a new hotel one away from us on the beach. We hear that another bumper tourist season lies ahead; the tour companies have booked 1000 more rooms than last year, so things will seemingly by magic, change at Easter, when every place will be open and swinging, and the charter planes will darken the skies above us. Hope we'll be ready too!

More news later. Thanks for reading this far. A few pics below to whet the appetite for the photo galleries to come.

Bye for now.

Rob & Ritsa

PS (On Easter Sunday, 5 Mayl): I meant to say earlier, but didn't, that one of the first things that was brought home graphically to us when we reached Athens was the reality of the distressing fall in the value of the Rand. As just one indicator, a standard bus/trolley ticket which costs 150 drs (0.45 Euro), converted at R3.00 at the April 2001 exchange rate, and it doesn't take much mental arithmetic to work out that it's now R4.50 (a 50% increase!). So, converting into Rand, while easy at plus or minus R10 to the Euro, is a depressing business. Greek inflation/devaluation had seemed to keep pace with South Africa over the last 30 years that I have travelled and worked here, in fact in the 80's and 90's we scored heavily. Not any more, since the Drachma was pegged to the Euro two years ago, and the Rand has disintegrated.

Ah well, we look forward to earning Euros this year. The transition seems to have gone very smoothly in Greece, and we now have crisp new Euro notes and shiny coins to deal with. The smaller coins 1,2 and 5 cents (lepta here) are about as much use as those in SA, and some shopkeepers simply drop those off. There doesn't seem to be too much cheating or unwarranted rounding-up. We'll see what the Brits who come over in summer make of it.

More quick updates: Ritsa is on her way back from Athens, having been successful, after 10 days of trying, in getting the declaration we need, so, while the license is still to be issued, we are back to full speed ahead. We have finished weeding and top-dressing our lawn, and we'll be laying the concrete apron tomorrow, and today we are collecting the stones we'll need for our Albanian mason to build the stone bar counter later in the week.

We have had a week of very heavy rain, accompanied by freezing weather, so it has been a pretty miserable time, huddling in our room, doing a lot of reading. There is absolutely nothing moving in the village after dark, nothing open, and it's too bloody cold to ride into the Xora (town), so it has been very early nights. Cleared up yesterday, and today again, sunny but chilly, but at least we're able to get out and work.

Natasha is settling down in London, working very hard to find a writing job, so far with little success, and getting very depressed with how quickly her Rands are disappearing! We hope she comes up with something soon.

Cheers again

Rob