August 09, 2006 A new beginning, again

We have finally completed our 3rd move in 2 years. Besides being ripped off by gypsies, it was a fairly organized event. The new place has two bedroom, one bath and a balcony to die for. We are back to the beach in what will soon be called the American compound. (The house next to us is owned by a rich Greek American who only uses it in August. It is very fancy dancy!)

Here's the pic of the new place - that's Alan walking up the gravel driveway (going to be fun in the winter when it rains!) We live on the second story of that back house. All brand new, which is nice in some ways and boring in others. But it was hard to find any place that had everything I wanted: quiet, beach, traditional, warm, close to town, no unusual smells, quiet neighbors, etc. So I went with quiet, warm, no smells and beach.

Across the street is the sea. We are elevated and can see the sea for miles. We see Delphi again like we did at the first place we stayed at and at night we hear the sounds of the lapping waves instead of the roar of motorcycles! It is soooo quiet here, so much cooler and so much further away from the city. We are paying a lot more, but I think it is worth it. (600 insead of 400 euros).

To make the trip into town less of an event, I just got an electric bike. No gas, no petrol, just plug it in at night and I have a quiet power bike, one that gets me up the hills without my breaking into a sweat!

Oh yeah, the gypsy bit. I wanted to use the same movers I had used before and when I saw their truck I talked to one of the workers and said I wanted them to move us again. He said, "great" and told me to give him a call when I was ready. When I started to write down the number that was on the side of the truck, he said, no that one's no good, here's the new one and gave me a different phone number.

Turns out he "stole me" from the regular movers by giving me his number and when the move was over, he hit me for 600 euros for something that should have been 300. I was so involved with the move and so lacking in language skills, that I just paid him (after getting it down from 650 to 600 - HA).

So now friends are going to help me track these jokers down and get some money back. Turns out the real mover had fired these guys right after I first talked to them for other underhanded activities.

Thank god it's only money and not my life that is at stake. It's only money.


Terry