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Our english neighbour brought an unexpected gift
They have been doing alterations on their house since last summer. The first thing they did was to send me a message to say there would be to-ing and fro-ing, more traffic and noise than usual. And then this summer they brought round a couple of bottles of nice greek wine and some english chocolates. The best sort of neighbours!
I sometimes note that traffic and parking rules don't really apply here. We double or even triple park and leave the keys in the ignition. Proper parking for cars is limited and everyone likes to leave their vehicle in front of the cafeteria where they drink their coffee or do their shopping. Locals know the rules. City slickers do not.
We found a legal parking space and went off for coffee and other busy-ness and came back to find this car parked up right behind us. After a lot of shouting and asking around we found the owner's wife at the cafe opposite taking no notice. When she was singled out she said her husband had the keys and went off to find him. No 'sorry, wait a minute please'.
He eventually came along, no sorry from him either but we did get a blast of 'just be patient, can't you' from the wife. That's 'not on' you visitors. You may spend a bit of money but don't annoy us in this summer heat with your city ways.
Of course, as we pulled out the husband went into our legal parking space. No 'thank you' for that either.
It's October now and the island is still full. The roads are mad with scooters, quad bikes and groups of walkers. The harbour has wall to wall yachts. Make hay while the sun shines they say. Well, the tourists are still doing just that and the extended family needs them.
We do too to some extent. It makes for fascinating people watching. The yachts coming in this morning were captained by Sunday-sailors and hitting the dock or the yachts already parked up. Lots of tut-tutting from experienced sailor K. Overweight germans wearing speedos and alcoholic french and scandanavians drinking tankards well before the sun was over the yardarm were good for a poke (not literally) and the morning passed cheerily
Sounds like a whole lot of fun!
ReplyDeletePeople watching? Always a laugh
DeleteYour blog title is a Dave Clarke Five song. Kind English neighbours.
ReplyDeleteI remember that song. Great group
DeleteHow nice to bring a gift! And those chocolates would have been gone right away :-)
ReplyDeleteParking, ugh. Here in town, people do their best. The Greek Festival is always a challenge for parking, it's an older part of town. They did provide park and ride service, but since I had to be there early, I snagged a great spot on the street next to the church...along with all the other workers! But I wonder if those rude folks could have found a "legal" parking spot and walked in? Or is that too much work, haha.
I did manage to ration the chocolates. That's a first for me!
DeleteThe council tries to disuade us from parking downtown now and provides a free bus. We often use that but just to go the pharmacy which is in the middle of town we often use the car. Our motorbikes are better. so much easier to park
Such lovely neighbours
ReplyDeleteSuch rude tourists
It just goes to show there is good and bad in everyone. It’s a choice to be a nasty pasty. May they all get the karma they deserve
Amen!! That woman annoyed me so much. She was just sitting there watching us and wouldn't have moved and then had the gall to complain. Roll on winter winds!
DeleteOur tourists have mostly gone. No more NL or GB cars around, just tractors, hunters, and chestnut gatherers.
ReplyDeleteOctober is usually such a quiet month. Still people around but not too many. This year theyve all come down here for a final fling it seems
DeleteAt least in Piraeus people parked inconveniently for others often have the good sense to put their mobile phone number on the dash. Good neighbours and considerate drivers are gold dust - precious and relatively rare.
ReplyDeleteA mobile number. Now that is a really good idea. Local vehicles we know but these 'foreigners' are just too many and really out of place. They drive slowly to admire the view, dont know where to pull over and let others pass on the barrow backstreets and park all over the damn place. Hope they dont all return to your neighbourhood !
DeleteTourists!! What else is there to say ...
ReplyDelete.ovely gift from the neighbours. Sounds like the tourists need a lesson in local courtesy before they come to the island. Great people watching though as you say.
ReplyDelete