What the....its bloody rain!

Well would you believe it...RAIN! Never in all my years on this usual beautiful island have i known it to rain so late in June. I had my waterproofs on yesterday morning. For once the weather forecasts were right but i wish they weren't, poor little holidaymakers coming to Greece and getting UK weather.

So En-ger-land have won a game and are through to the next round, well done the lads, now everyone can say "2 world wars, 1 world cup and 1 group stage game." LOL It does go to show how bad the national team have got though lets be honest, before they'd be a dead cert to get through to quarter finals and a win in the group stage would be the normal, now everybody celebrates a win like they've won the cup itself. Then again i can't really say anything bad about the english team at least they always get to a tournament, Wales are so crap i'd do away with the welsh football side and enter a team in to the dominos league. Although there are some really good individual welsh players out there.

Thats enough about the world cup.

Business is still going absolutely brilliantly this season what with all the british/greek economy problems, just goes to show that people still need holidays and from what i've been hearing Greece is still good value for money once you get here.

Kalamaki is a lovely peaceful resort and never any trouble but it alarms me to hear that after the england game yesterday there was the odd incident of violence in the resort between english supporters, whats that all about? English fighting English. Aren't you meant to celebrate a win.
Also a certain major tour operator who has its own version of "18-30" have put every hotel they have on their books in to the online broucher for the 18-30's. With the original Club 18-30 they are purely based in Laganas and nowhere else on the island but with the major tour operators version they can book anywhere on the island thinking that hotel is for 18-30's. I wonder if the hoteliers realise this? When i looked at the list of hotels in Kalamaki that were being touted towards the 18-30's i was shocked to find what hotels were listed but i'm sure the hoteliers wouldn't be happy about this fact if they knew. If people want to party hard thats fine but lets keep it to one resort and not spoil the whole island but then again i don't think the tourn operators care that much.

Some times when i'm riding around on my bike i think of home, Cardiff and wonder what is changing in the capitol of Wales. Are Daz, Tim and Ian still talking the same rubbish about how the Bluebirds were robbed HAHA! Is my nephew Leighton ever going to get a proper job so he can by a round at our local when i arrive back in winter? What toy will be the big seller this christmas at Toys R Us so i can mass purchase them and spoil childrens christmas (only joking, baa humbug!) But then as i was turning a corner on my travels i saw a beautiful sight, Cardiff is on Zakynthos.

The Cardiff sign near St. Nicholas Beach

Well blow me down with a feather, not only is Oceanic a chill out bar and apartments its also branched out in to paint and wood stain. This tin by some spooky coincidence is under my apartment exactly where i park my motorbikes. I wonder if i can make a claim for use of name LOL.

The cocktail experiments continue!

So we're now well in to June and business couldn't be any better, had a slight blip of about 5 days during the school break but now its all back to normal and getting a full house most nights. The days and nights are getting hotter every day as the season goes on so the outdoor seating is very popular as this picture shows.

8pm last night.
As the topic title shows i am still developing new cocktails. Last year someone asked me for a Mars Bar cocktail which i did make for them but this year i had a flash of inspiration "Snickers cocktail", now you may be thinking throw a snickers in some vodka and let it disolve, wrong! or maybe blend a Snickers in with a smoothie, wrong! Oh no, thats way to easy, i've developed one using 5 seperate ingredients to make a crunchy cocktail that is a alcoholic liquid Snickers in a glass and unlike the lemon cheesecake you don't have to order it 24 hours in advance. I am getting through the ingredients at a high rate and its only been on the menu 2 days LOL. One of my customers (Tyler) was that excited about the cocktail that he fainted.

Tyler after hearing the news he couldn't have a Snickers cocktail due to alcohol.

Only joking he's sleeping, whats he trying to say about my bar haha!

As you can see from the topic above this one the Oceanic-Margarita Studios are now available to rent at not a bad price with everything included, i'll be dealing with any info needed and the bookings will be taken by Dennis, so i've got the easy part of the deal which is fine by me.

Well its now siesta time with the air con blowing away, it really is very hot now, so till next week, take care of yourselves........and each other LOL

Its getting exciting!

Well after a long meeting last night with the owner of the studios i'm looking to take on it looks like we have a deal, all we need to do is agree on a selling price to the customers. I'm trying to make it affordable holidays for couples and families. I'm having a final meeting Sunday morning, making a blog for them like this one tomorrow and hopefully then launch it when the owner has seen it and ok'd it.

Well the world cup starts today and good luck to Greece (well you didn't think i'd say England did you haha!) I'm very excited and nervous at the same time about not having a TV in the bar but i'll stick to my business plan and no matter what happens it will be a World Cup free Zone, well i think there's enough places to watch it in, almost 98% of the resort in fact. As these pictures show from last night, you don't need TV's, Promotions or entertainment to have a busy bar but you do need a lot of luck, a lot of hard work & time put in to your business and good timing of customers.

My little pet is back in the bar his name is Eddie, Eddie L'Izzard he helps me keep the Moths and Mozzies at bay, well he's supposed to but he's the worst hunter you've ever seen. He has become the most famous lizard in Kalamaki maybe even Zakynthos he's had that many pictures taken of him LOL.

Its great to see the resort starting to fill up now and hopefully all the businesses will have a good share of the custom this season, its been a difficult start for alot of them in Kalamaki and no one likes to see anyone struggling and hopefully more businesses can open after this season, all this island needs is for the tour companies to stop being so greedy with their holiday prices.

Some of the beaches to Visit on Zakynthos!

I took a tour around the some of the best beaches on the island for you to have a look at just in case you hire out a scooter, quad or car fancy visiting a few.


Crystal Beach at Kalamaki.



Gerakas Beach at the furthest point South East of the island.


Plaka Beach in Vassilikos.

St. Nicholas Beach at Vassilikos.

Alykes Beach.

Alikanas Beach.

These are just a few of the lovely beaches on the island, hope you can get to visit them.

The new Improved Oceanic!

I decided this year to do away with the artificial trees and hand written signs and replaced both, also i have given the sofas and chairs a make over and added some new tables, think i watched to many Changing Rooms in the past. Oops that sounds wrong, i mean the TV programme LOL I took these pics to add to my May review but forgot to post them so i will put them on now.

The new frontage for 2010

A full bar at Oceanic

I've spent a fortune haha. (Thats a joke by the way)

As you can see from the pics this was from one of the couple of nights that i had a full bar in May, anyone can say anything on the Net, facebook or blogs so i try to add pictures to show what i've done with the bar from last year. Also in the back ground of the second pic you can just see the changes that have happened across the road at the Cavo Doro this season.

June has picked up again now the schools are back so its back to being busy busy busy but again i take each day as it comes and enjoy my nights whether its busy or quiet. The weather is now getting really hot in the days and much warmer at nights which is great for all the open air bars.

I went to pick up some ice last night from my friends bar about 8PM and every restaurant was full, didn't see one business with more than 2 tables empty so thats great news, so it seems every restaurant on the main strip is doing better than in May.

No news on the apartments yet as still trying to pin the landlord down but the longer they're left empty the less i want them as i want to start promoting them, so he better pull his finger out LOL.

World Cup? Not in this bar it ain't haha!

Well time for the weekly update. As previously posted May was through the roof compared to the 3 previous seasons and couldn't have asked for a better start. June has been a different matter, the nights have been alot colder than in May so the streets have been very quiet but still the targets are being hit every night so i'm a happy bunny even though the bar is quieter, Roll on the warm nights. Never before have i had my outdoor heaters on after May but had them on last night.

So 6 more days till the world cup and while i'm around the resort during the day i can see that every Bar and Restaurant has a TV in it ready to show whatever match they can, except one business, Oceanic. If anyone doesn't want to watch the football there is only one or maybe two places not showing it from what i can see and one of which is my bar. Now whether i'll be busy or quiet i don't know but when i set up the Oceanic i said from the beginning if ever i had to put a TV in the bar i would close. So there will be no world cup in Oceanic but then again Wales never get through to the finals of anything so i got no worries there LOL even if they did i would close the bar and go to which ever country they were playing the final in to watch them, knowing my luck the day Wales get to the world cup it will be held in the UK HaHa!

During the day been having a lovely time going out and about with Helen and just chilling at the pool, this is the life, just taking it easy during the day and socializing with my customers at night.

First month already over, time flies when your busy!

Well its June already and May has flown by.

So what has happened so far, Well i've toured the island, been to every resort, been very busy with tripadvisor, got mugged by an 80 year old granny, seen a kitten fighting a snake and the kitten won, had my outdoor heaters on in June (never done that before) and done plenty of chilling.

The bar couldn't have gone any better in May, best start to a season i've had and quite a few nights run out of seats so a big thank you once again to Veronica and Derek at The Lighthouse Restaurant for letting me borrow some seats. I'm not full from when i open at 7pm till when i close, far from it but at one point during the night every table is taken. I'm not the busiest bar in the resort either but then again i wouldn't know as i don't check to see how busy the other bars are, i just get on doing my own thing worry about my own business and leave the others carry on doing whatever they do. All i know is that i did very well in May hitting all my targets but thats not to say it will continue but lets wait and see.

This week there is an addition to the bar and at the end of the season the winner of the addition will win £50 of holiday vouchers to put towards a holiday of their choice and it won't cost them a Euro to enter the competition, not giving to much away till its all up and running but i think it will be a good laugh for all who enter and those watching.

The new Smoothie Cocktails are very popular and i think i'll need a bigger freezer for the vanilla ice cream.

Also The Oceanic shortly will be offering rooms for rent throughout the season, I need to take some photos and come to an agreement on a price then i will post the link to the website and how you can book them, hopefully the owner will agree on the price i want to rent them out for and will give you a chance to get rooms at a good value price, so lets see what happens over the next week.

Until the next update next week, stay lucky you lovely people.