Saturday 29 September 2012

How can you get there if parts of Rhodes are invisible?

It's been a while since visiting the Greek island of Rhodes, so with a week to go we booked it, packed it.....off. We headed to the town of Afantou which apparently means invisible, however it was clearly there, on the map AND in real life. The view from our balcony over the sea, it's long pebbled beaches and the winding mountains proved it all existed.

We did a good job of ignoring the bingo night, useless reps and desperate couples who've got no conversation themselves and look for you to hook up with. Instead, we went into the small town to seek out real Greek food. We found it in every restaurant we visited too. We also discovered a gem which was half-Greek-half-English (a bit like Prince Philip), called Sergios. They specialise in home-made pasta and pizza though, not traditional Greek but they did a very good job of putting a smile on our faces as we stuffed it with dough balls, pizza, pasta and Greek wine.

So after a great relaxing holiday, the going home saga began. At 2:30AM, we were picked up by the bus, taken to the airport and told "as you know there is a 7 hour delay". We didn't know, but we knew now. Thanks Thomas Cook, you are very informative. It ended up being a much longer delay in the airport with a 12 euro voucher to buy an old looking sandwich from the war. We were eventually flown home on an antique rented french plane where the only way on and off was from stairs at the back of the plane (recently featured on Channel 4's Plane Crash). The arm rests were stuck on with gaffer tape, not sure what the wings were stuck on with.

Sunday 23 September 2012

Punishment 4u

There's been some sort of strange theme in the last few family weddings. A gypsy theme. Don't get me wrong, we are not part of the 'travelling community' and don't allow krumping, fights and grabbing as you may expect at a Gypsy wedding. It's more to do with co-incidental venues and transport. Our latest wedding (my cousin Karen, marrying Paul) was at the Wood Green Animal Sanctuary in Cambridgeshire where a famous gypsy wedding took place and was on TV. The stag 'do' for the other family wedding involved the same limo used in another televised Gypsy wedding (that's another story). I'm hoping this is co-incidence and that the family are not trying to tell us something. I know I've always said that caravans are a thing for when you are in your 40's but I'm just not ready for it yet.

The signs of marriage are always there; gentle reminders; friends getting married; family members getting married...The best reminder was in the hotel we stayed in during the celebrations. The listed building was on the grounds of an old prison. Our room was called Punishment. What else can I say?


The day was blessed with hot sunshine and drinks on the lawns were made more entertaining by the sight of a horse showing off it's manhood and some ferrets looking bored in cages. The entertainment continued after discussing how many people we could get into a school bus ride and how many sambuca's myself and my cousins could get through. This is the result of male conversation fuelled by Pimms and beers.



All in all, it was a great day and not a gypsy in sight. This was wedding number 3 of 5 this year so the suit needs another dry clean; the girlfriend needs another new dress; the bank account needs another few pounds and the belly needs another owner