Shortieweb

Couldn't have picked a busier day for it, supposed to do the radio show at 2pm, then off to the dance night at Scandals that everyone has been rehrearsing for for so long and then off to the Green Frog for a gig with Last Stand!
Earlier in the week I thought that I had a bit of Man flu! Thursday, as good as over it went out and had a great day with the Village Wine Wobblers Club! Yesterday morning awoke in agony, temperature and all the stuff. So it wasn't Man flu! it was a kidney infection! and I should have known as I am a sufferer! So today, still the same, am laid up feeling sorry for myself and all those I am about to let down. if you are one of those, I apologise!

As you can see the weather is still bad here, has been for over a week now. Cold, wet, stormy and windy at times, not nice. Hopefully it will dry up and warm up soon. I don't mind the cold as much as the miserable weather.
I would like to thank Dave and Val for submitting their review and also Showgirl, who's name wasn't given to us on the form!  Please let us know who you are.
I would still like a review for the Zante Village and next I am working on Eleni and Litsa so if you have stayed at any of these please fill in a review form, found on the accomodation page for the ones you can. Would also like a reviiew of Busters Bar if you went there last year now under new ownership, same form please.
Anyway, going to wrap up and watch a film or something, hopefully will feel OK tomorrow.

It may be cold outside but I'm sure we won't feel it later, and why I hear you ask? Because it's Village Wine Wobblers Club Day! Thats why. We are having a bit of an away day today. 2-4pm we will be at Cheers Bar, who have laid on a selection of Local wines for the club members to taste and then it is back to Scandals to met the new members this week. A great suggestion from Lorna yesterday means that we will be combining ihe Thursday Wobblers club meetings with the all new Curry Club where memebers will bring a curry to try on a selected week!! Yummy!
Cloudy cold and wet! still, but we're men here! well the men are! although Tonybax thinks I'm a southern softie because I feel the cold!
Yesterday was an in day with loads of baking, but Jules was out training for the dance show at Scandals where she will perform a dance routine with Lorna, Lesley (Zante Gardens), Judy, Little Sue and Brenda (Trainaki) as the dance group "Hot Gusset". Keep your eyes out for the piccies and maybe even a vid, who knows!! Should be a laugh! I know i'm looking forward to it.
Well, the bread is proving and I'm going to make some breakfast now.
I still need a review for the White House and also Zante Village. If you could do one just click contact me and I'll get back to you. Cheers! Shortie.

It's cold!!! However I can see a bit of blue sky in the foreground over the mountains.
Still suffering (like a man) with man flu. Not too bad actually, but one hell of a sore throat, just hope it clears up for the gig on Saturday.
Sitting here I've just noticed that the kitchen bin is kicking up so I'll have to take to the dumpster! just thought you'd like to know that. But! I'm going to stick it outside and hope the cats don't rip it to shreds, while I indulge in my cup of Darjeeling. (sounds pompous that!).
Jules will be off out to practice her dance for the show on Saturday and i have a list of things to do today.
Anyway, a bit of catching up. For those that never got to see them, here is a couple of picces of the weather on the island last week.

I pinched these from Facebook as we had no snow on this side of the island but as you can see they had a good dusting in the south.
Still feels cold, but I'm sure it will warm up soon. The forecast is showing rainy all week but temps steady at around 12 degs BRRRR!!! feels cold in the day, but not so bad at night for some reason.

Anyway, have a nice day. Shortie

It's bloody horrible here at the moment! However, I would rather be here taking it easy than being in the UK working in it I suppose.
Had a touch of the man flu the last few days too so not a bad time to get it.
We ha d quite a busy week last week. It all started with Chrissies birthday. A few bevvies, then off to the Katastari Taverna for some fantastic Marios Gasolina and some lovely food. We were going home straight after but ended up nipping into Cheers for a few more, then the next day was Thursday! Jules birthday and Village Wine Wobblers Club day! I need say no more! We ended up in Yria bar after! Don't know what time we got home.
Friday the band played at Bowl' m over Tsilivi, yet another late one and Saturday, well! up early to finish the ham, pies and sausages for the farmers market at 12, then radio at 2 and then back to Scandals for our combined birthday bash at 5. No wonder I was rough Sunday! Maybe it's beer flu!
It's nice to see a bit of activity again on shortieweb. The quiet period may be over now and we can all look forward to the summer hols!! Can't wait!
I have removed the Trip Advisor page, as I'm fed up with people using the link to slate us. If people want to moan about us then they use their own link. It is becoming tedious. Trip Advisor give us badges and stuff to encourage people to leave reviews. They tell us to ask for reviews and then they allow someone to give us a poor review because we do it! So, I'll just leave it alone and let fate take it's course with it.
Will be adding a few reviews, a great one left by Big T. If you fill in the review form found on the accomodation or bars page, click the submit button and the form will be sent to me and I will publish the review. Don't worry if you do not get a reply, I will let you know when it is done.
I need a review for the White House if anyone could oblige, just fill in the form on the accomodation page. Thanks loads! Shortie

See Big Tony's updated review of the Letsos on our accomodation page under The Letsos.

It's 9am. I'm sitting in front of the rad with a cuppa char, courtesy of all you wonderful guys that brought it over, and my feet are bloody freezing cold! The weather caster is telling me it is 14 degs outside. It is not! I suppose that it is around 3 or 4 degs but it has a real chilli realfeel this morning and I'm not used to it.
We are now in the middle of what is our winter and can expect some cold snaps, but it was T-Shirt warm in the sun yesterday afternoon, but the warmth doesn't last long this time of year.
We had the first meeting of the Village Wine Wobblers Club Thursday. Not a massive turn out, but the first ones never are. The main thing is that the core of the members in the area turned up, but never mind that, what a laugh. It was exactly what it should have been. Plenty of banter, laughing and of course! wine tasting. It surprised me, the quality of the wines and I've been trying them for some years, but obviously some of the locals have been keeping these delights for themselves. This event seemed to encourage the proud owners to show off their special tipples and we sure appreciate that. It was a great effort by landlord Nick of Scandals who hosted the first tasting and made a great effort supplying at least 5 Village wines from different sources. A few other wines were provided by members themselves. We ask host bar owners to charge a corkage of 1 euro a glass for each glass of wine provided by our members. Well! they must make something. Our first host was in agreement.
We are no experts and there was no sniffing the glasses, swilling in the mouth and spitting this stuff into a bucket!! we just gulped the stuff down! We can honestly say, on this day there was not one bad wine albeit, some better than others.

These two wines were my favourite of the afternoon, but we haven't held the scoring yet so it is only my opinion at this point. On the left,  TREE TOPPLER would be the wine I could enjoy anytime! and lots of it. Medium strength for a village wine, I would estimate around 14% but goes down really well. The wine got it's name from Vasilli the brewer. He had had a little wine refreshment whilst picking his Olives (as you do) and fell out of the tree as a result! A beautiful Rose wine and the colour makes you want to drink it never mind the flavour. Next, on the right is PHILLIPO'S WINTER WARMER, supplied by the owner of Domi. A really heavy Levco but when you taste it, what a surprise! it has a warmth brought to the glass with the flavours of Cloves and Cinamon, it's fantastic, however, it is one of those drinks that 1 or 2 would satisfy before moving on to another, or even just as a nightcap.

For me the best red of the day, and an excellent red it was, again a medium strength, was given to Lesley by the people living behing them at Zante Gardens and so adopted the name LESLEY'S REAR (You can imagine the cracks about drinking this one! Ohh! there goes another!! Cracks!! AAHH) but the couple of bottles supplied of this were polished very efficiently and a drink that you could session upon. On the right, WHOLE LOTTA ROSE. Really nice chilled wine, ideal for a summers day again medium strength, but quite a light flavour.
We also tried a Rose that thought it was a Red called CONFUSED we drank it warm but next time out we decided to try it chilled although it is a really dark Rose. The strongest of the afternoon was a deep Red, PANIOTTI'S PARAFINALIA. You could smell the strength as soon as Nick opened the bottle!! If you like it strong this is the one for you. I would call it a sipping wine. Medium sweet -  dry and packed with flavour, wouldn't like to guess the strength of this.
Amongst others we had a red called PORK PIE EYED quite dry but smooth, the only white of the afternoon, and last but no way least, LOVELY JUBBLY Med - dry, fruity white, not your average village plonk.
As you can imagine it was quite a boozy afternoon and as we want it, all kept in great spirit, each afternoon should just be a friendly, merry gathering.
Next year we are going to try to encourage Brits to brew some real ales for the tasting of! If you live here and are interested, I can source most, if not all of the ingredients so let me know. I featured this week my real ginger beer, coming in at around 4% but only brought a taster so we kept drinking it in shots. I will bring enough for everyone to have a glassful next time as it went down really well.

The rest is a blur!! No seriously we finished off the afternoon, by then the evening by going to Katastari for a takeout Gyros. Now I'm not a fan of Gyros. Don't get me wrong, I like the elements of it, I love the meat, I like Chips, don't mind the bread and like the salad, but for some reason I don't like it all together, especially smothered in Tzatziki.
I had a life changing experience getting a takeout Gyros from THE VILLAGE, owned by Giannis Baco. STUNNING!!. The best Gyros meat I have ever tasted, real homemade chips and just the right amount of Tzatziki so as not to kill all the other flavours. I'll be back. You must try it!
Whilst on the subject, Giannis rival Taverna in Katastari has new owners. The family of Mario the Gas Guy now owns this place. It was always good here but I have to say, eaten there twice now, food, absolutley lovely and great value for money. We will be having a wine tasting there soon, so come along and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

Anyway, if you are about, listen in on the radion today and say hi on the chatroom. i'm on every Saturday 2pm - 4pm Greek time 12 - 2pm UK time. See you then.
(Just click on the Island FM page to the left then click the big red button to listen)

Shortie.xx

Went to this wonderful little Italian restaurant again, this time we went with Lesley and Garry of Zante Gardens. We all had a great night. We started off at Scandals and then head for the town. The town was extermely quiet, but it was a Wednesday and it is half day closing so it could be attributed to that. We went for a tipple at San Marco in the Marco Polo Square while we were waiting for the restaurant to open.

Don't know who's just walked in but it must be someone famous judging by the camara reation from Jules and Lesley! but they soon settled and look!! That bloke is taking a picce too! I wonder what the fuss is about!

OH! it's a piccie of the smart new heaters they have outside San Marco. It has a lovely setting and when busy even better.
We got our times all mixed up. we tried for the early start and early finish but the place was still shut at 7.15. Although the doors on the place were securely locked Lesley wasn't happy  with our assessment of the place being closed, and not only did she try to force the locked door but also tried to gain entry through the windows too!! So we dragged her off for some booze at San Marco before making our way back to eat now the restaurant was open.
So we scoffed loads of good value for money, tasty food and I have to add, out of 9 dishes, all Italian, none were pizza and only one was pasta. That's more like it!

After our visit we decided to grab a nightcap near home and ended up enjoying the company of Vassili of Yria bar who kept us entertained for another couple of hours. If you haven't been in Yria bar in Alykes, give it a try, just a fantastic little place to chill and chat and Vassili is a great host. Lesley was a little surprised at the strength of her Gin and Tonic!!!

She didn't complain and she still drank it!!!

It's the final of the Battle of the Bands on Saturday at last after being cancelled, I believe 3 times now and we are looking forward to it. Lets hope it's a great night of music and fun.

Still having a run of great winter weather. The early mornings are fresh now and the evenings are cold, but we get about 3 hours a day with good temps. The thermometre in the shade on the terrace reading between 18 and 20 degs midday to 3pm today and it feels really warm sitting in it. We go outside to warm up, bloody cold in the house!!

Anyway, speak soon. Shortie.

When I opened the curtains this morning, I was blessed with this wonderful sight. It has been cold at night for a while now, but to see the amount of snow on the mountain on Kefalonia was quite exasperating. It's still getting warm around lunchtime, the sun out the front on the terrace is nice but it's a bit overcast today so wont be out in it much.


I am going to take this opportunity to do a bit of cooking. Pork pies today. I have some scraggs from the ham I cooked the other day and it is perfect for a batch of little Pork Pies.
I sold out of everything at the farmers market Saturday which is great. I don't like making too much stuff as I like to keep it as fresh as I can, but it's time to up my stock a little. The ham I made sold in minutes. I have noticed that others are selling ham uncooked!! Well, how strange! It isn't ham until cooked! If you cook ham correctly, you lose about a third of the wieght during the cooking process which is why real home cooked ham is so expensive. Most processed ham, even some of the good looking pre-packed ham is cooked correctly but then injected with water, so it is difficult to buy real ham. I haven't seen any on the island other than my own and I don't make much of it. My sausages sold out too. So! today I will start to replenish my stocks while the weather crap.
I'm hoping, although I have enjoyed it, that I can stop the midweek shows on the radio now, as I have loads of stuff I want to do.
The band would like to record a CD as would Giannis and I, but time is an essence at the moment.
Anyway, must get on, lots to do and we are out for a meal with Garry and Lesley tonight, so need to be ready on time.

Shortie.

Not much doing today. Yesterday was busier with the Radio Show and all, but still not a hard day at work thingy!
Just walked the dog, here she is waiting to go with her lead on. Bless her!

And the first sight of her destination. The Beach!

Ahhh! lovely day and it's great to see the sea so calm and clear.
I have started a diet today, the problem is I cant make up my mind what sort of diet to do this time. I have done many over the years my favourie being the low carb, but I'm not sure I fancy it. I am going to go easy into it, as I dont like these 14 day inductions, you are going from eating loads to starving yourself and that is a recipe for disaster, so I am cutting a lot of fat and reducing meal sizes and at the same time reduce unrefined carbs. After a week or two, I probably wont see much difference because I am not doing an starvation induction, I will then make up my mind which direction I fancy. I believe that you should never be hungry, and you should always keep an eye on your nutrition.
Ive just eaten lunch. Last night I made a chicken tikka marinade with yoghurt. I kept some of the marinade behind. A couple of weeks ago I made a Sambal from some peppers that a friend gave me. I ground the peppers with a little garlic, fresh ginger, coriander leaf and salt to make a paste. I have about 4 large jars of the stuff and it is fantastic. You can rub it on meat as a marinade, grind some tomatoes and onion, add a little ketchup and you have a wonderful chilli dip, add a liitle more coriander leaf and a little olive oil and use it as a chilli like pesto stirring it into pasta. The uses are endless, but anyway, I mix it with greek yoghurt and some ground coriander seed and cardamon pods and marinate cubes of chicken for Tikka, but I used the part I saved as an Indian salad dressing. Toss some roughly chopped salad into it. Fantastic and if you use tomato and beetroot, fillng too.
Anway, you dont want to hear about all the tasty healthy eating ideas I have! so I'll let you go and I am going to sit in the sun while it is still here. Shortie

It is the first day of the new year for me. I never count new years day as it is a do nothing day and I luuvvv it. But today I need to get off my fat arse and do something, or the winter will just disappear.
I have been asked to do a couple of vids and piccies that give more idea what it is like here in the winter so I've started on a couple. I am going to use you tube for this as at the moment the upload speeds are better than most and it takes none of my bandwidth on here.
This one I took while on my way to feed the animals I had to pop in and get some meat, so after visiting the local butcher I switched the camera on. Click the pic to View.
   
I am processing a few Vids and pics this morning, a bit of catching up to do.
It was absolutely freezing last night, about 1 deg brrrrr!! apparently there was a frost this morning, but I never got up early enough to see it, so it looks like it is going to be a nice hot day, so I'm going to clear up out the front, let the dog out there and sit in the sun. It is quite funny when I let the dog out on the front porch, the cats think it is there's and become very  about it, territorialbut they soon move when Gracie comes out, although they don't give up without a fight the little buggers!
Ah well, have a great day, and we hope it is the start of a fantastic year for you all. Shortie

Not taking any notice of my teacher in science at school, especially in the lesson that we discussed Prisms, has left me wondering why, no matter where the sun is located in the sky, and what depth of weather condition causes it, Yes, why does the rainbow always fall in the same place? Please put me out of my misery with this one O' bright ones!

these pics were taken on the 22nd Dec. Stunning weather on the front porch, but out the back! Well, other than this rainbow, it was awful. Here's a panaramic view of front to back.

5 days later on 27th, but 3 hours earlier we had another rainbow in similar circumstances. This is a piccie of that one

The rainbow is in exactly the same position as the first! See where it hits the building on the left!
This last batch of piccies were taken this morning at 9am!


Does anyone know the answer?