Learning Greek is Fun!

We did a bit of a spring clean at Chateau Bugle before heading off towards the North Atlantic. For those of you who know us well, don’t faint, it didn’t involve much dusting. Anyway, at some point during this therapeutic exercise we unearthed an old favourite that we had almost forgotten about. It’s a gem of a phrasebook bought here on Crete in the mid 1980s for the princely sum of 190 drachmas. If you look hard enough in some of the older bookshops around town you may still be able to find a copy. The title of the book is “EVERYDAY GREEK: THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE SMALL METHOD FOR ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE WITH EXTENSIVE VOCABULARY”. It’s an English primer too, the title in Greek being: ‘ΑΓΓΛΙΚΗ ΜΕΘΟΔΟΣ: ΑΝΕΥ ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΟΥ ΜΕΤΑ ΔΙΑΛΟΓΩΝ’ (very loosely translated as: “Who needs a teacher to learn English? After this you’ll speak it just fine”). The book is by Σ. Δ. ΣΤΟΥΡΙΩΤΗ and the publisher is (or was) Paraschos Kalfakis Editions (ISBN number? Ha, ha, very funny). Now before we go any further, just in case you think that the editor has suddenly got an attack of the ‘Colonial Brit Year in Provence let’s poke fun at the locals’ variety there are a couple of things she would like to say. Firstly, you clearly haven’t read what’s been written about Boris Johnson and London in this issue yet, secondly, the author had the last laugh, as the phrasebook became a bestseller. We’ll just give you a few examples: In the section headed ‘Acquaintance - At the station, At the port’ we get glimpses of a rapidly developing beautiful relationship. We start with ‘Can I help you?’ (μπορώ να σας βοηθήσω;) which is swiftly followed by ‘I live by myself’ (εγώ μένω μόνος). A couple of pages later we find ‘Are you free this evening?’ (είστε ελεύθερη απόψε;) and ‘You dance like a fairy’ (χορεύετε σαν νεράιδο). It will come as no surprise to you to learn that we wind up with the phrases ‘I am head over ears in love with you’ (είμαι πολύ ερωτευμένος μαζί σου) and ‘I will be your devoted husband all your life’ (θα είμαι αφοσιωμένος). This even before the price of the Rent Rooms has been sorted out. You will only get a couple more snippets this month. We liked the phrase you should know for using the telephone: ‘Hullo! We are cut off’ (εμπρός! Μας έκοψαν). We also were intrigued by some of the helpful ‘word pairings’ that have been supplied. For example, in the ‘Travel’ section we get the happy coupling of ’steamer’ (ατμόπλοιο) and ’spare parts’ (ανταλλακτικά). There is plenty more mileage in this one….

The Bugle is now on Facebook

As some of you will already know, in February we launched an online group for the Bugle on Facebook (the social networking site). It’s an open group, anyone can join, and we would love to receive your feedback, suggestions for features, and photos etc. It’s also another way for us to post details of up and coming events as and when they happen - in between publication dates - and to make announcements . And remember, the forum on www.rethymnon.biz is alive and kicking, too!

This is the link for the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54919322524

Apart from using the blue and yellow recycling bins for household waste other items can be recycled as follows:

Disposal of broken electrical goods. There is a depot just outside town which will take anything ‘that had a plug on it’ (including washing machines and fridges). Drivers, take the National Road towards Heraklion in Misiria. Turn off the highway after about 100—150 metres, hang a right and you should soon see recycling bins etc. The depot is open from 6am to 3pm on weekdays, and from 6am to 12 noon at weekends. For further information call 28310 57940. For large objects that need collection call 195 from any phone.

Old telephones and small telecoms items. There is a green bin in the entrance of the main OTE office..

Batteries. various places in town including OTE, DEI, Germanos, Marinopoulos and Champion.

Old cars. DRAKOS on the left hand side of the National Road a short way out of Rethymnon. They even pay you as they recycle the spares and give you a paper for tax purposes!