Mon 7 Aug - After weeks of sizzling, steaming days, last night it rained. What in August? Yes, in August. Today it's a cool day, some cloud, too much wind and too fresh to spend all day at the beach for those not accustomed to northern climates.
Anyone looking for a job? Yefuri Restaurant in Platrithia is looking for you. Go to NEW - Click here and look under Staff Needed right side of page for details.
Thu 10 Aug - Last night was the August Full Moon. Did you know that all the ancient sites (outdoor) around Greece, are open to the public for no cost each August Full Moon. I didn't, but was enlightened by Masso and Maria Deftereos, who know lots of lovely things about Greece, culture and music.
In case you haven't seen the photo on Around the villages pg 10, it was raining. Storms and heavy clouds had fallen over our summer isle and made it wintery today. By lunchtime the skies were clearing.
Otenet are off with the pixies again. Must be a big problem, because not even ACN, who rents modems and lines from Ote, are accessible. Oh, for any internet connection that worked even 90% of the time.
Fri 11 Aug - Bad news for holiday goers who had booked their Ithaki Summer with Tapestry Holidays, UK. This morning, the company closed for business in the High Season, leaving many Brits scrambling for flights and accommodation with only days before their planned holidays. Of course the Accommodations around the island will still try to accommodate the guests if they book again independently, but the Charter flights have been cancelled, making getting to the island a wee bit difficult, especially in August when spare seats are rare.
We have it on good authority that Bemenis Bar (The business) will have a new owner after the Summer season. Not telling who just yet, but their faces are quite regular on ithacagreece.com. The bar will soon be beating to a different drum with a new enthusiasm to entice the Bar goers inside. We wish Bemeni great fishing times ahead.
Speaking of Bemenis, one young girl severely cut her hand while dancing on the bar. The girl momentarily lost her balance and in an effort to regain it, lifted her hand a little too high, catching her palm on the ceiling fan which gashed a 12 stitch cut into her hand. Friends rushed her to Vathy Hospital at 5am. The girl is suffering from a little shock and quite a bit of pain, but is recovering well.
Yesterday, the skies didn't clear until evening and even then, lightning was still flashing in the sky. It rained most of the day and made things quite miserable for those working on their tans.
Sun 13 Aug - Ska band playing in Kioni tonight and word has it that maybe, just maybe, hard candy in the guise of Lola Demo, will do a few thrashy songs afterwards, but let's see how the day pans out first. We may all be too tired.
It may be an idea to encourage mopeds again. The traffic jams around the island have been amazing. Sleepy Stavros is car locked regularly at peak times. One lane roads make it hard to move on.
Fri 18 Aug - This week saw a record amount of yachts in Kioni. the count was over 90.
Tomorrow there's The National Ballet Company of the Republic of Georgia performs traditional dance at the Garden Theatre in Vathy. Starts 9.30pm
Road rage is rife on Ithaki as the narrow roads try, but fail to accommodate the masses of cars on the island at the moment. It doesn't help that some are driving like they're on the freeway from Athens to Corinth, others, on the wrong side of the road, and some Sunday drivers stopping point blank to get that perfect photo op on the side of the road. We've been lucky so far to avoid the tragedies evident on other islands, but it's only a matter of time. Have people forgotten that children use the roads in the villages to play on? Driving 80 through Lefki is madness! Overtaking on bends is madness! Racing through Frikes and Stavros, where waiters and waitresses cross the road from restaurant to bay side, is madness! Accidents don't just happen to someone else. They happen to us, so please slow down and drive on the right side of the road. Nothing requires getting there in a hurry on Ithaca. Enjoy the views and drive safely before Ithaca is scarred with the tragic road accident statistics of elsewhere.
Another thing that is worth mention during the heatwave that will be upon us from today until next week is to not flick those lit cig buts from the car windows. Much of Greece is on fire right at this moment, so please please don't light any fires here, this includes BBQs on the beach. Ithacans have nowhere to run if there's a big fire here.
If you've been keeping up you will have seen that the Ithacans Around The world section is filling up with faces. Please don't forget to send your stories if you have agreed to be part of this section. Include email address if you want to be contacted, and if you have a personal website, include the link to that also.
Sat 19 Aug - 2 funerals and a wedding. Funeral number 1 - my unblemished record to getting to all the Fimios Performances. I missed the National Ballet Co of the Republic of Georgia because the date I had was wrong. Probably my fault, but maybe not. Funeral No. 2 - the ithacagreece.com camera is dead. I tried to resuscitate it, but the light sensor flooded everything with light, and it seems once it saw that white light, it headed straight to digi-heaven. Wedding - Nadia Deftereos and Ryan Fitzgerald tomorrow. Thanks to Poppy Pagoulatou, who will lend me her camera tonight, pics will be taken...after I read the manual, and thanks to Dave Ayling, who will buy a camera for me in the UK to bring over when he comes on Tuesday, ithacagreece.com will be fully functional again with more pics.
Mon 21 Aug - Word has it that 700 visitors left the island on Sunday. Unless they're going to a cooler climate, they'll no doubt regret leaving the beaches to the sun on these heatwave days. There is a cool change predicted for Tuesday or Wednesday with a drop of 10 degrees in the temps, but the respite won't last long, another heatwave is due in late Thursday to early Friday.
I'm a little scared I'll jinx it, but the power grid has been working just fine, even though all of Greece must be using airconditioning these past days. The other night there was about 1/2 an hour where split second on/off, on/off occurred, but no power out thankfully.
No Karagiozi pics unfortunately, because I didn't have time to read the manual that came with the camera I borrowed after the good old ithacagreece.com camera decided to opt out of life, I accidentally deleted all the pics I took. Sorry too to those who were going to be included on the Who's Here. Oh what a week!
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