Hello from Kalamaki. So lets begin from the beginning, that's always a good place to start i think.
Woke up 7.30am on Wed 28/3/12 got ready and headed off with Helen to see my mum and to make sure all my things were boxed up ready for shipping to Zakynthos. Waved goodbye to my family and headed off to train station with Helen. Was very difficult leaving this year as i need to be in the UK for Helen to make sure she's ok but i have a long term contract that i've signed and i will honour that contract no matter what happens, what's the point in signing a contract if your going to run out on it and after the 5 amazing seasons I've had I'd be stupid not to open up. Helen gave me her blessing to go back so that helped alot.
Got on the train with my packed lunch and off i went at 10.30am CHOO, CHOO! I love going on trains, you can just relax and watch the world go by. Change at Reading and off to Gatwick where i had a hotel room booked for the night as my flight was 5.45am the next day. Now on the way from Reading i went through a place called Dorking Deepdene, what a great name, wish i lived there. Got to airport at 2.45pm then shuttle bus to hotel for 3pm. Very nice newly refurbished hotel right next to airport. I asked for a top floor room facing the airport so i could watch the planes land and take off, SAD GIT!
The view from my room, plane spotting here i come.
I text Helen to ask her where the nearest bar was as i fancied sitting outside in the sun with a pint. Nearest pub was in the South Terminal which is indoors, i was at the north. so i decided to give the hotel bar a go. God, what a dull place, very boring decor and a huge TV showing "The Chase" quiz show. Barman looked as though he was auditioning for Eastenders as he was as miserable as sin and had as much personality as the bust of Queen Victoria in the Queen Vic. Now i don't know if its just a London thing or all down south but does anyone know how to poor a pint of bitter with a head? I ordered a pint of Boddies Smooth Creamflow and got something that ressembled the last specimen i gave to Simbec Medical center LOL.
What the hell is this meant to be?
Anyway i drank it as i had nowhere else to go then headed back to my room. got about 90mins sleep in all but still glad i got a room.
3am up and ready to go. The airport was quite busy but i hate the new system that airports have now where it just says "All Easyjet destinations", its chaos. There was a queue that snaked along 10 rows. then because Malaga and Zakynthos were first flights to leave they started calling all passengers from those flights to the front. Can you imagine the mayhem of all those people having to push past everyone else with their cases. There were 12 fifty something Del Boys all with their bling and golf bags trying to get through for the Malaga flight, you can imagine the language when they started pushing through LOL
Straight through, a quick large rose wine and on to the plane. The plane was half empty but thats OK as i got 3 seats to myself, lovely! Last year on my flight i had loud groups of guys and girls all heading to the island looking for work, this year peace and quiet apart from one noisey child, GGRRRRR!. We were flying in over the center of the island and as i looked down i could see loads of flooded land, they looked more like paddy fields than olive groves. I was later told it was like this because they had had so much rain this winter and only just this week its been nice for a few days on the trot.
Dropped my bags in to apartment and headed off out to see whats going on, Nothing! Not even just one supermarket open. About 3 businesses in the resort were being worked on, the rest were all shut up from last season. Quite a few have been up for sale over the winter it seems from the signs on them but that doesn't mean they won't open but we will have to see in the last week of April when most start to get ready.
Got to Oceanic and WOW! I have a new roof and its huge compared to the last one and better built and with proper walls on the one side.
My beautiful new roof, isn't it posh LOL.
Now then, Cause now i have a posh leak proof roof i will have to build a new bar area outside and sort the floor out, again. Also those white plant pots you see in the pic at the front are going so it will be a nice open space with easy access to get in. So the whole bar is having a refurb, new tables and hopefully new sofas, sofas may be in June though ready for high season. Inside is getting a make over also and i have new wall and ceiling art to go along with all the rock memorabilia. Toilets will also be having a nice freshen up. So lots to do before the 1st of May. Got my bikes up and running then headed back to apt for an early night, got to sleep about 11pm Thurs after being up since 7.30am Wed.
After a good sleep to catch up it was off to do my paperwork (OH JOY), First to accountant and all good there as i had paid up full at the end of last season. Picked up my electric bill and had a shock as now they have added a one off tax to the electric bill of between 150-400€, my bill when i come back is usually about 200€ for all winter standing charges and such like, this year 481€, Ive been robbed LOL. Time to get my music licence sorted and that was about the same as last year so that's good but now a new law has come in (surprise, surprise). You have to get a builder to draw up a plan of your bar to show where your speakers are. YOUR HAVING A LAUGH! That will cost another 100€, the lengths they'll go to to get back money for this loan haha. So that's extra money on your electric bill and money for speaker plan, can't wait to see what else they've come up with. Forgot to say on top of all this running around from office to office and having little added surprises my bike ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere and had to push it about a mile until i found a petrol station. Forgot my bike out here doesn't have a fuel gauge like my one at home, bugger!
When i went in to town to see my accountant i could only get to it via one bridge as the main bridge in to town over smelly river has collapsed on the one side so its closed while their trying to fix it. Thought i saw a hole in it last season but didn't think anything of it as all the roads have holes in them LOL.
The crumbling bridge over smelly river in Zakynthos town.
Now i'm back in my apt at 4.30pm after running around with paperwork and getting myself a Spar cooked chicken for later, MMMMMM! Think I'll head off in to town for a coffee before the sun goes down. Well thats it for now. Nothing to do tomorrow and Sunday apart from clean bar ready for painting so i will take a ride around the resorts to see whats going on elsewhere. Then Monday i have the dreaded trip to the hospital for my 5 yearly medical check, i may be traumatised by the end of monday haha.
This year i will be launching my designer t-shirt range "Oceanic Rock Legend Collection" They look pretty good on the mock up design and there are 12 different designs to choose from. Versace, Armani, WATCH OUT!
so now its back to a weekly update so until next Friday its goodbye from the island.
Woke up 7.30am on Wed 28/3/12 got ready and headed off with Helen to see my mum and to make sure all my things were boxed up ready for shipping to Zakynthos. Waved goodbye to my family and headed off to train station with Helen. Was very difficult leaving this year as i need to be in the UK for Helen to make sure she's ok but i have a long term contract that i've signed and i will honour that contract no matter what happens, what's the point in signing a contract if your going to run out on it and after the 5 amazing seasons I've had I'd be stupid not to open up. Helen gave me her blessing to go back so that helped alot.
Got on the train with my packed lunch and off i went at 10.30am CHOO, CHOO! I love going on trains, you can just relax and watch the world go by. Change at Reading and off to Gatwick where i had a hotel room booked for the night as my flight was 5.45am the next day. Now on the way from Reading i went through a place called Dorking Deepdene, what a great name, wish i lived there. Got to airport at 2.45pm then shuttle bus to hotel for 3pm. Very nice newly refurbished hotel right next to airport. I asked for a top floor room facing the airport so i could watch the planes land and take off, SAD GIT!
The view from my room, plane spotting here i come.
I text Helen to ask her where the nearest bar was as i fancied sitting outside in the sun with a pint. Nearest pub was in the South Terminal which is indoors, i was at the north. so i decided to give the hotel bar a go. God, what a dull place, very boring decor and a huge TV showing "The Chase" quiz show. Barman looked as though he was auditioning for Eastenders as he was as miserable as sin and had as much personality as the bust of Queen Victoria in the Queen Vic. Now i don't know if its just a London thing or all down south but does anyone know how to poor a pint of bitter with a head? I ordered a pint of Boddies Smooth Creamflow and got something that ressembled the last specimen i gave to Simbec Medical center LOL.What the hell is this meant to be?
Anyway i drank it as i had nowhere else to go then headed back to my room. got about 90mins sleep in all but still glad i got a room.3am up and ready to go. The airport was quite busy but i hate the new system that airports have now where it just says "All Easyjet destinations", its chaos. There was a queue that snaked along 10 rows. then because Malaga and Zakynthos were first flights to leave they started calling all passengers from those flights to the front. Can you imagine the mayhem of all those people having to push past everyone else with their cases. There were 12 fifty something Del Boys all with their bling and golf bags trying to get through for the Malaga flight, you can imagine the language when they started pushing through LOL
Straight through, a quick large rose wine and on to the plane. The plane was half empty but thats OK as i got 3 seats to myself, lovely! Last year on my flight i had loud groups of guys and girls all heading to the island looking for work, this year peace and quiet apart from one noisey child, GGRRRRR!. We were flying in over the center of the island and as i looked down i could see loads of flooded land, they looked more like paddy fields than olive groves. I was later told it was like this because they had had so much rain this winter and only just this week its been nice for a few days on the trot.
Dropped my bags in to apartment and headed off out to see whats going on, Nothing! Not even just one supermarket open. About 3 businesses in the resort were being worked on, the rest were all shut up from last season. Quite a few have been up for sale over the winter it seems from the signs on them but that doesn't mean they won't open but we will have to see in the last week of April when most start to get ready.
Got to Oceanic and WOW! I have a new roof and its huge compared to the last one and better built and with proper walls on the one side.
My beautiful new roof, isn't it posh LOL.
Now then, Cause now i have a posh leak proof roof i will have to build a new bar area outside and sort the floor out, again. Also those white plant pots you see in the pic at the front are going so it will be a nice open space with easy access to get in. So the whole bar is having a refurb, new tables and hopefully new sofas, sofas may be in June though ready for high season. Inside is getting a make over also and i have new wall and ceiling art to go along with all the rock memorabilia. Toilets will also be having a nice freshen up. So lots to do before the 1st of May. Got my bikes up and running then headed back to apt for an early night, got to sleep about 11pm Thurs after being up since 7.30am Wed.After a good sleep to catch up it was off to do my paperwork (OH JOY), First to accountant and all good there as i had paid up full at the end of last season. Picked up my electric bill and had a shock as now they have added a one off tax to the electric bill of between 150-400€, my bill when i come back is usually about 200€ for all winter standing charges and such like, this year 481€, Ive been robbed LOL. Time to get my music licence sorted and that was about the same as last year so that's good but now a new law has come in (surprise, surprise). You have to get a builder to draw up a plan of your bar to show where your speakers are. YOUR HAVING A LAUGH! That will cost another 100€, the lengths they'll go to to get back money for this loan haha. So that's extra money on your electric bill and money for speaker plan, can't wait to see what else they've come up with. Forgot to say on top of all this running around from office to office and having little added surprises my bike ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere and had to push it about a mile until i found a petrol station. Forgot my bike out here doesn't have a fuel gauge like my one at home, bugger!
When i went in to town to see my accountant i could only get to it via one bridge as the main bridge in to town over smelly river has collapsed on the one side so its closed while their trying to fix it. Thought i saw a hole in it last season but didn't think anything of it as all the roads have holes in them LOL.
The crumbling bridge over smelly river in Zakynthos town.
Now i'm back in my apt at 4.30pm after running around with paperwork and getting myself a Spar cooked chicken for later, MMMMMM! Think I'll head off in to town for a coffee before the sun goes down. Well thats it for now. Nothing to do tomorrow and Sunday apart from clean bar ready for painting so i will take a ride around the resorts to see whats going on elsewhere. Then Monday i have the dreaded trip to the hospital for my 5 yearly medical check, i may be traumatised by the end of monday haha.This year i will be launching my designer t-shirt range "Oceanic Rock Legend Collection" They look pretty good on the mock up design and there are 12 different designs to choose from. Versace, Armani, WATCH OUT!
so now its back to a weekly update so until next Friday its goodbye from the island.
