Terry - Maybe book tomorrow afternnon off work to read this.
Just sometimes I miss driving along a smooth open road and not worrying about holes, mopeds, quad bikes, coaches etc and very occassionally I'd like to see what it's like again to bomb along at 80 mph plus.
( I touched 95 kph once on the way to Corfu Town )
Supermarket shopping can be a problem for both of us until we learn some more Greek.
Items like :-
Flour - Now which is plain and which is self raising ??
Tinned tomatoes - Are these chopped or whole. No good going by the picture on the can.
Bleach - I bought home some bathroom cleaner the other day. The picture on the front showed a toilet & sink!!.
Meat - Mince beef is now " can I have beef for Moussaka.
( Diced beef is " Can I have beef for stiffado" )
We haven't managed yet to buy a pork or beef joint for roasting.
But the greek butchers are very patient people and why should they have to be fluent in English? - Are our butchers fluent in Greek?
We tend to point a lot and say can I have that please. Pork chops are excellant value!
Shopping for furniture is a major chore. You don't get the selection as in England and to get the choice as sold, by DFS, for example you have to visit 4/5 places.
One place this morning had 3 dining tables to choose from. The rest, plus chairs, had to be picked via a brochure. How do you buy 6 chairs if you can't try one?
Other occassional pangs:-
Drinking water from a tap.
Work - ( But only because of the team I worked with and the customers I dealt with )
A big difference now when you've spent every previous day of your life interacting with people from all walks of nature..
This is why I love to meet forum friends on holiday so there's a lot of thanks to a lot of people in order.
Indian take aways - But we've now found a place in Sidari ( Don't deliver though )
TV/Satellite. - To get Sky Sports and Movies here you need a giant dish. Cost about e1500 plus set up etc. Then you need a subscription. i don't miss TV as much as I thought I would, but for Mrs Egg? - She misses watching the news,sports results,real life documentaries etc.
The "goods" far outweigh the "bads". Once we've got a little more Greek under our belts we can go into Garages,shops,Butchers etc with much more confidence and then the "goods" will outweigh the "bads" even more.
But, the biggest thing I miss is - Not coming on holiday for 2 weeks twice a year!!!
We would stay in Arillas, go out for the evening,have a great meal,drink far too much and walk back to the appt. Can't do this now. Can't afford to eat out every night. When we do go out I have to drive home so have to moderate the Alcohol.
A bit like home really except here I'd probably fail the English breath test.
And now we can't go out tonight as I've had 3 Ouzos typing this !!! Plus lunchtimes retsina. So, as we're not going out it must be time for another.
Cheers
Negg