Sunday lunch turned out to be everything expected of it. Again there were about thirty people there eating and drinking under a great fir tree but with the warm sun on our backs. The sky was cloudless. The lamb was done on a spit but Jannis and Vana have an enormous outside wood oven for baking pies and I remarked to Douglas it is big enough to be cremated in and he agreed.
I never cease to be amazed at the amount of building that has gone on these last few years and, despite the recession, is still going on. Vamos, which is the capital of this region, was once a thriving community evidently but, when work became scarce many young people drifted away and houses were left to fall into rack and ruin. Since we came there has been a reversal in the town’s fortunes with a number of new houses being built all around the outskirts and, this last year in our little neck of the woods more in the village itself, at least seven or eight ruins, well no more than stone walls really, have been rebuilt completely changing the area. There are of course more tourists now to help fill the town’s coffers and some of these rebuilds are for accommodating them. Who knows though what this year’s season which is just beginning will be like? I believe a lot of businesses have been suffering. It’s a sort of chain reaction eventually affecting everybody.
As far as real estate is concerned though people are not buying. Thirty new houses built in Litsarda are still for the most part standing empty after a couple of years on the market, there are quite a few resales no one seems to want and now there is a shortage of rental property. It seems prospective immigrants want to rent rather than buy. Probably a very good idea; they can spend a few months taking stock and then decide whether or not to buy or go back to wherever they came from. I’m certainly glad we bought when we did. There is no way we would be able to afford this house now the way property prices have risen, especially a large house with a large garden right in the village and there’s no way we could afford to return to the UK even if we felt so inclined.
“Dead On Target” has been delivered from the printers and I for one was rather excited about it. I thought the cover exceptionally good and atmospheric but oh no, not Mr Perfectionist Foote and Mr Perfectionist Beeching. It’s not right. What’s not right about it? It’s just not right. They have spent hours on respective computers and are still not satisfied. That’s perfectionist for you.
Can’t end this Blog by not mentioning that to-day the 6th April, Chris and I will have known each other for fifty years. That is some going I reckon.