For the year 2008 the Greek government has implemented phases 2 and 3 of the planned tax reform program that the conservative ND (Nea Demokratia) party has initiated when they came to power in 2004. You might think of Greece as a poor country. You’d be wrong. As a matter of fact, Greece is...
Read more →Day 7 of ADSL flakiness. On Monday December 31st I went to OTE in Iraklio to speak to a real person about my ADSL problems. Of course I didn’t get any further than an administrative staff member who dully noted down what I said (I presented her with a nice spreadsheet of all the...
Read more →So, it’s that time of the year again… A short year it was, and a warm one. Too short and too warm to blog. I had some setbacks, work related, but I won’t dwell on that here. Life’s too short for that. Otherwise we’re doing fine, Yvonne’s practice has really taken off this year,...
Read more →I’m back from my visit to Lefkogia, accompanied by Renata, the civil engineer (not building engineer as I mentioned in the previous article). A civil engineer (‘POLITIKOS MIKANIKOS’) is usually hired to review a specific plot and to ensure that boundaries are within the description in a title document. They can also be consulted...
Read more →Lefkogia is a small village with 239 inhabitants. Its name comes from the white (=lefko) and land (=gea) and obviously has to do with the color of the land of the area. To the east, both Preveli Palm Beach (Limni) as well as the monastery of Preveli can be accessed from the village. To...
Read more →Everybody knows that some countries “excel” in bureaucracy over others. On a European level Greece definitely belongs to the top of the league. On a national playing field within Greece, IKA must be the champion. The one and only requirement to enter the IKA workforce used to be your affiliation with the right political...
Read more →We’re moving to a new address. The place we currently live in has become a bit problematic. First there was the (forced) public sale in April of 4 of the 8 appartments. Then 2 months later the owner put out adverts for the remaining 4 appartments. None of them have been sold yet, but...
Read more →Once upon a time…. yes, it’s time for a fairy tale again ….there was a guy who had the nerve to think that he was good at problem solving. Let’s call him Sol for the sake of giving him a name. Not that the name has any importance or relevance to this story, it’s...
Read more →…that I kept you up to date, wouldn’t you say? I’m terribly sorry if I had you worried for a while there, but I’m really fine. It was just writer’s block. Or something like that. You can call it procrastination too. I just couldn’t bring myself to writing. I had lost any and all...
Read more →After 2 days I still couldn’t remember the name of my new doctor. I kept referring to him as “Curly” to Yvonne. So, Curly came to see me today at around 11:00 and removed the bandages (and the toilet roll!) of the stefanography. It didn’t look pretty down there! My right groin was all...
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