Contents
Lifestyle Too
New Crossword Competition!
This month we launch a new Crossword Competition. At the end of the year our final tally was as follows: Judy Hall in the lead on 50 points and Trevor and Linda Sanders in second place on 46 points. Congratulations to our winners - we will be in touch soon to fix up those meals and to organize the prize giving ceremony. And once again, Surprise, surprise, the rules of our all new competition are exactly the same as before. Submit your entries to us by the copy deadline and each month we will publish a running tally of top five scorers. At the end of the year, the top scoring contestant(s) will win a meal for two at a restaurant in Rethymnon courtesy of the Bugle. You will find the solution to last month’s crossword on our Fun and Games page, and, if you are very lucky (and if we remember - we got a bit slack about this at the end of 2009), we might even supply some hints towards the end of the month on our
Facebook group wall. Keep those entries rolling in!
Olive Pips
It was only a matter of time, really. According to a report in the New York Times, olive growers in the Apokoronas and Sfakia region are being chased by the EU for a refund of nearly €375,000 from fraudulent subsidy claims. Some years back local agricultural co-operatives put in wildly inflated claims for the amount of olives being grown in the area—according to one source to be able to grow the amount of olives that were being claimed for one would have to plant trees all the way from Apokoronas to Santorini. The co-operatives got away with it for a while, but partly due to a whistle blowing farmer they’ve now been rumbled and the EU want the cash back. Squeeze them until the pips squeak?
A Cleaner Greener Rethymnon?
Let’s not be cynical. We’ll resist the temptation to say “Look out for the squadron of low flying pigs”. Anyway, moving on….The results of an urban transport study for Rethymnon have recently been made public. The objective of the study is to find ways to reduce the amount of cars in the town centre, some people have even gone as far as saying ‘remove’ the car from the town centre completely (but somehow we don’t see that happening yet, if ever!). Some welcome proposals include increasing the area of car-free zone in the summer, linking the centre with other areas of the town by cycling paths and public transport. The head of the research team even mentioned a tram in this context (now that would be fun!). A ‘park-and-ride’ system, with one car park to the west and one to the east of the city is seen as key element contributing to the success of the proposals. The overall aim of the scheme is to improve the quality of life for residents and make the city a more attractive place for the visitor. Good start, but whilst we’re about it, let’s tackle the graffiti problem as well!
Where Can I Recycle Waste Items?
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 (going towards Hania). They even pay you as they recycle the spares and give you a paper for tax purposes!
