Shortieweb

A couple of pics of the new places open this year in Alykes.
As you cross the bridge from Alykanas you may remember the log cabin that has been half built for many years now. Well now it is open. I haven't had any reports as yet and haven't had time to go there myself but I drove past in the afternoon yesterday and took a couple of snaps.

on the approach

And passing!

And a bit of the garden area. It all looks very nice and relaxing overlooking the river. Would love to hear from anyone that has eaten there.
Further on and opposite the Sugarbush what used to be Speros is now The Mediterranean. An extensive menu is available and it all looks nice.

Wait a minute! who's that guy waving? i must investigate!

It's Miri ! Your host here and those that know him will know what a great bloke he is.. If the food is as good as his jolly service then they will be on a winner. Give it a try and let me know. I am very interested to see how this place does, i checked out the menu and I think there is something for everyone here.

You will need to zoom in to see it, but you can see the amount on it anyway!

But just this would be enough to get me in!
Good luck to the team there.

Yesterdays Weather - Hot and sunny - 33 degs

Exchange rate in the area - 112

Mossie Watch - put on the protection guys, the little blighters are nipping

ATM Watch - All working fine

Barry & Elaines Weather - zakynthos today is sunny 29c : today i think a nice pork wrap for my dinner wish she was back i,m eating to well :: shoooo!!!

Today's Special

I've never seen anyone get so excited about a pair of socks! Andy has always been the same, even when he was a kid we would say to him "what do you want for Christmas?" and he would reply "nothing really!" but he always enjoyed what he got and even then amongst loads of expensive gifts he would get excited about something like socks!
Anyway! yesterday he got a fur hat and some socks and Les had fixed Ethel! For those that don't remember Ethel, it is his little red scooter that used to have a shopping basket on the front. Well after around 3 years off the road Les has got it going. We had the bodywork redone a couple of years ago and all the smashed lights and instrument panel replaced but Andy never got round to getting the engine running, so Les offered to do it and he did.

Andy in his birthday hat and slick shades that Bob and Linda bought him

Yes V for victory, I think, as he gets ready to hit the road reunited with his old faithfull Ethel. You'll be glad to hear that the exhaust is fixed now so that Greek guy that used to chase after him for waking all his guests when Andy was on his way to work, can rest now.

Leaving us yesterday, Debs and Martin. Nice couple from Milton Keynes, stayed at the Venus for 2 weeks.

Charlotte and Shaun here without Ray and Gill and seem to be having a great time anyway.

Andy telling Ashton that it is his birthday

And the cake of course

Rab C with his favourite toy. We'll see  plenty of Rabs artwork over the next few weeks.


Gimpy, the stray we took in just over a year ago is starting to make a slow recovery thank god. He was bitten by a sandfly at some point, probably before we took him in, as he has had a protective collar since we have had him. The effects of the bite do not show for at least 6 months and we were treating him for a dermal rash after taking pictures of his rash to the vet.All of a sudden it flared up as the toxins took over his body. His claws started to grow at a fast rate and he broke out in scabs all over his body and he looked like he was going to die laying in his bed limp and helpless. We have worked with him over the past few months and he is now starting to respond to treatment. The rash is nearly gone and his scabs are drying up and going anf most importantly, he is becoming his old self. The effects of the bite cannot be passed to other animals, only the bite of a sandfly directly can cause the symptoms, however the sandfly fuels the deasease from infected animals so we keep him extra protected to keep the sandfly at bay in the interest of other dogs.

Bless him, he's a lovely dog but he does like making a mess with his bed and stuff!!! Doesn't he look well though!

Yesterdays Weather - Well lovely and hot but windy and cloudy in the evening. 30 degs
Exchange rate in the area - 112
Mossie Watch - put on the protection guys, the little blighters are nipping
ATM Watch - All working fine
Barry & Elaines Weather - Can't get it today but! Forecast is warm and 25 degs. The temps are always under on the forecasts! they should get real thermometres!! anyway, as usual, it is forecast to get hot at the end of the week! Chris and Tony arrive! they always make the sun shine!

Irish music singer, guitarist, Islanad FM Dj and really nice guy, Middi is back on the island with equally nice wife Kelly and their Little "Middi Me" Doc James who is a ringer for his Pa and in more ways than one!

That's the way start them early. None of this yukky milk stuff, a real Shortie burger!

A couple of snack sized burgers to break themselves in as they have only been here a few days!
It was great to see them back again especially as we thought that they wouldn't get here this year.
Middi is playing Molly Malones while he is over and we were trying to talk him into doing at least one radio show before he leaves the island.

Ahhh!
Well don't forget that you can now pick up Island FM on your radio now in Alykanas and Alykes. Just Tune to 88.1 FM to pick up all the local stuff and news.
I've heard that Jet2 are flying from East Midlands next year. Apparently it will take a while for prices to settle but it is all a step in the right direction.
Late deals seem to be the way forward this season again and of course packages, but hopefully, with support the budget flights will be back soon.

it's 8.45 here and already I have done my chores now it's off to town to shop for goods and stuff, so all those rumours about us not working are nonsense!!! Everyday Jules and I work around 16 hours except Sundays when we have a lie in and days later in the season when I manage to get ahead of everything! and you know what! I wouldn't swap it for anything, what a great way to make a living!
Anyway peeps, got to get moving, see you later!! The sun is out and the sky is blue!!!

Yesterdays Weather - hot and sunny. 31 degs

Exchange Rate in the Resort - 112

Mossie Watch - Not bad

ATM Watch - All working

Barry & Elaines Weather - I'm too early for Barry and Elaine this morning lol. But this is one of their pics and the forecast today is sunny and lots of degrees

Special Today Pork belly with Black Tower

It has been a bit quiet again the last few days but if it is going to be quiet then it is best quiet when the weather is a bit down, I lose the garden anyway. The weather also makes a difference to trade for me as people tend to eat early, when we are not open so we lose a lot of evening trade.
Still, we are getting enough in to keep the books afloat. Today is a big change over day. Although most days are change over days now some are bigger than others and because of the influx of Scottish clients these past few weeks today, the main flight day for Scottish airports I believe, will have a large impact on the numbers here until it refills again.
The weather is picking up now and looking good as far as we can see, so, sun lotion on guys!
The webcam is getting better but we are still tweaking it a bit.
If you are coming over and want to hire a car let me know we have a deal with Dragon Rentals up the road now also I can swing a bit of discount on quad and scooter hire too.

Lyn and Pete arrived the other day for 2 weeks, we'll hopefully get a pic of them tanned before they go

Homeward bound for Bill. Great to see you mate and I think you are back later in the season again. Hope to see you then.

Mick W and Karen n co popped over from Alykes again. Mick told me they will be staying in Alykanas later in the season so we'll see you then. Thanks a bundle for making the effort to come to see us, always great when people do that! See you soon.

Richard Knight, Seila and co in a football team style piccie. Lovely people always happy and a pleasure to see them

With Bob and Linda over it would be rude not ot have a night out and it was our anniversary the other day so we decided to make it that night!
You can tell how the night was progressing!!

A liitle more civilised the girls!!!! For a whilr anyway!

Now this is dangerous! Bob in control of the shots!!

Don't know what was happening here, but it really doesn't look good does it. Punishment maybe for touching the Vodka!!
Anyway, it was a great night. We got home at a strange time and as you do I decided to sit on my stool and update Facebook! P***ed as a fart!
Always dangerous! Anyway, I fell asleep on my stool and ended up falling off. I ended up in a heap on the floor of the kitchen surrounded by my collection of pans that I had taken with me on the way down! Jules slept through the noise! I wondered what the hell was happening!
Bloody shots! they're great though!

There is only one way to serve a fillet steak and that is lightly seasoned. Killing this beautiful piece of meat with sauce is a sin and if cooked correctly will be moist and tasty no matter how you enjoy it form blue to extra well done and that is what you get here ay the Cosy.
Every week we sell out early usually many bookings allow ne to cater for more but whatever is over always goes out fast.
Fried onions and mushroom are an option and homemade fries, peas or salad.
Book in advance, available every Saturday.

And of course, the Ribs! We'll say no more!
We have Rab, Diane and co this week and following over the next few weeks we have loads of shortiewebbers including Big Tony and Chris, Wiggy, Rab and Tracey and even my sister!! my head is waiting for those hangovers already.
I have an offer from Nikos at the Golden Dolphin. He says that any day any of you shortiewebbers would like to sit on the beach at the Golden Dolphin, if I call him the day before, he will put on the BBQ for you. Now that is a treat. Souvlaki, Sardines!! sunshine and beer on the golden sand by that beautiful sea, oh my word! Just let me know.

A nice morning after a couple of not so nice days!
Although it hasn't rained it just hasn't been hot and sunny and it has been cold in the evenings but hopefully all that will change over the next couple of days.
The area has gone a little quiet but there are enough people about to keep us moving.
I'm not sure about the new webcam, it is a step towards streaming video but the picture quality suffers somewhat. We are working on it. Please let me have your comments.
Departures this week -

Mike and Linda. First time at the Venus and the Cosy Corner but I think we have a couple of fans here and our type of guys too. A pleasure having here. Hope to see you again.

Ange and Darren. A couple of guys that have become an important part of what we do. They have paid an intereat in what we do all winter, have kept in touch and have become friends. Lovely to see you again guys and hope to see you again soon! You will be missed!

As you know I have been playing with some original deep south american recipes ever since I started using a smoker. Well i don't use the smoker as much as I'd like to yet because I have realised that you need to concentrate on flavours and cooking techniques before wandering off into the world of smoking food.
I have been particularly interested in meat spice rubs and have formulted a couple that I am very pleased with. I tried them with many cuts of pork but settled with rib racks. I understand now how these flavours work and why they use them. I am cooking about 4 racks a day at the moment but hope it moves on and eventually I want to offer Ribs and Chicken using my new chicken rub on the same plate. A bit of guinea pig style testing to do first.
Lorna tried these last night and like everyone else complimented them. Fantastic. I love it when a plan comes together!!

This full rack of Pacetta ribs does not fit on the plate comfortably but hey ho! we are all people of the world here! This giant rack with homemade chips and salad and a BBQ sce dip is only 8.90 at the moment and i hope to keep it that way.

Sad goodbyes to our first customers and founders of the Village Wine Wobblers Club, Maureen and Pete joined by son Dave, Oh! and Wayne!!
Everyone is mistaking Wayne for Mateo from the series Benidorm! I should find a way to abuse that!

Brian and Nelly over again for the 4th year running. Great to see you both and hope to see you again next year.

Roly and Anne came in to see us yesterday afternoon. Nice couple and they have been coming here for many years and know everyone. Thanks for popping down, it's alwys appreciated when people make the effort.

Bob and Linda over for about a month. Gonna need more of Jules fabulous Maltezer Cheesecake! delicious!

Sheila and Richard Knight are over at the moment and popped down last night. Great to see them back and it probably wont be the last time this season either.

Caaaake!! Dave

I'm not going to ask!!! Dave obviously looking for Caaaaaaaaake!!
I don't look at Trip Advisor much anymore. It frightens me after the attack on there last year but somebody pointed this out to me.
I'd like to thank these guys for having the decency to wright this review after writing that they would never return a couple of years ago!

Well that was a great start to the season, but short lived. I think maybe there were a few cheap holiday deals for a change this year which gave us a busyish couple of weeks.
I am trying hard to get on top of my cooking so that I can get a little time for Jules and I to relax for a couple of hours and I'm gunning for when the guys are all over in June. Should be a great couple of weeks and I'm really looking forward to it!
For those that have noticed I haven't updated the menu page yet and the reason is that I can't settle with it. I'm still making changes! I need to be brave about a couple of items and we have tried some that I feel will not work so I need to stabilise it before the final print.
The webcam seems to be working fine at the moment although we are slowly working towards streaming video. Don't know if that a possible yet, will have to wait to find out!

Lovely family

Fantastic seeing Janice and Marty over again. They stayed at the Plessas this time and seemed impressed. Really enjoyed your company again guys.

Freinds of Dave and Lorna came back with them again this year. Always a pleasure and Dave had everyone calling "Caaaake" ask me about it another time!

The not so "Horrible"  Neil and lovely wife Tracey. Always enjoy their company, keeps me smiling! Hope we see you again later in the season, if not, Radio in the winter.

George and his good lady. George and his brother Speros now own and run Alkionis and seem to be getting them in. He's lubbin' it!

A familiar sight whilst having a drink in DNA! Sexy boy Nikos woo's the crowd!

Little Oliver kept us all amused for the past 2 weeks. He brought his family with him too! Great little fellah! Knows how to run the business now!

Thanks to Neil (Horrible) for bringing friends Brenda, Ted and Jason. Really nice people. Brenda gave me a lot of stick though! but apparently, I deserved it! Hope to see you all again.

Steve and Marie back again, this time staying at the Venus. Their holiday seemed to pass so quickly but they usually come over a couple of times in the season, so hopefully will see them again.

Grandad (Les) doing his bit in the evening! Bless

Trudy and Debs Wear the shirt with pride!! No, not new staff, just great customers!

Great to see Tonybax and this time they've come mob handed! I forgot to pay him for the Tea bags and Oxo's last night but I'm sure i'll get him before he goes.

We still have plenty of shortiewebbers over and I'm sure many to come. Loads of people asking for T-Shirts this year. If you do want them they are 10e each and I have to order them so just message me with the sizes and I'll make sure you get one.
Well the weather has been a little iffy over the last couple of days but the forecast says it's clearing up now! Hope so, it looks alright today!

Yesterdays Weather - Mainly Cloudy and about 26 degs

Exchange Rate in the Resort - 114

Mossie Watch - bring the protection, some days there are quite a few

ATM Watch - All working

Barry & Elaines Weather - zakynthos today is sunny between showers 24c : thanks pete for pic : greece really does go at a slower pace : greek pizza delivery service in operation !!

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It was the first gig of the season last night at the Ariadne Tzilivi and all went well especially as Giannis and I have not had a minute of practice in 7 months. OK a couple of small hiccups but nothing bad and we busked our way through the night getting back into it as each song was played. I don't think that we'll do many this year as we need to update our set and of course we have our work commitments to consider.
I have considered doing a small set of the quieter stuff at the Cosy especially as this year people seem to believe that the music laws have changed allowing live entertainment. I'm not sure about this. The new music licence give licence to play music in any form as long as outside the business it levels do not exceed 80 decibels. I'm not suprised to see this on the licence as last year, as part of the criteria of the application was to submit an engineers report detailing the equipment that you use in the establishment and a statement from the engineer that this equipment would not exceed the given levels. We all had to comply, so it is no wonder that the licence has this statement.
I have enquired about this and nobody can give a straight answer! I asked Nelly, our troubleshooter, to find out whether it was legal to hold a live performance or not but even she was confused! This is still a grey area as far as I am concerned. One thing that was for sure was, you have supplied a statement to the local authorities declaring that you will use only the equipment tested by your engineer. The moment you bring any outside equipment into the premesis and switch it on you are breaking the law! I will wait to see how this goes!
At the Cosy this week it has been fabulous. We've had many returnees and as usual met some great new friends that we can only hope will return at some point. The shortieweb family grows.
Breakfasts have been busy and I mean busy, but Sharon is knocking them out although I demand fresh brekkies for everyone. I think now that people know the quality and complete value for money that our breakfast is.

Delicious! and a full English with tea or coffee, toast and Jam is still only 3,50!!! Bargainsville Arizona Matey!
The evenings have been busy too and the new menu items are going well. I haven't sold many giant ribs yet, I think the meal is too big, but those that have had them have enjoyed them. I'll give them another week or so and if they don't take off, i'll change them.

Dangerous Dave looks impressed at the kilo of sticky ribs on his plate and he ate them all too!

It's great having Maureen and Pete back. They are here after 5 years since their last visit to welcome us into our 6th year of trading. These guys who have brought son Dave with them this time, were our first regular customers. When they came down to the Cosy the first time we had only 10 items on our menu. Maureen had to help peel potatoes and Pete washed up as we couldn't cope with the amount of customers we had and the business wasn't very well equipped! Thanks to guys like these we have become what we are.
More importantly so, Maureen was the founder member of the Village Wine Wobblers Club. We started the club after she visited us one afternoon after a ride on the Trainaki!!! and so it was, 5 years ago, because of this lady the club was born!
We'll have to have a get together before they go.

It was great meeting Connor and family. Regular with us. Hope to see you all again.

Kieron and family returned again this year to eat us out of sausages! nice one. Lovely to see you again guys. Maybe next year too we hope.

Great couple, also returnees and coming back again later in the year, just so laid back these guys. They know how to holiday in Alykanas.

Ange and Darren back again. These guys are responsible for sending the Megadeath sauce that we all tried, drunk as skunks at the Wobblers club one afternoon. Fantastic to see you both again. Darren drank 9 pints of our Homemade Ginger beer on his first night! I think he likes it!

You don't know how good it was to see Brian and Nelly again. May just wouldn't be the same without them. Part of the family, and fixtures!
Our first Middi Bassman that Simon of the Wild Murphy's invented, sold a couple of days ago and this is how it was constructed.

On the bottom of the bun There is Fried onion, mushroom, bacon and cheese, Lashings of Chicken curry and of course the meat pattie or burger if you like.

The same is added to 4 layers and then 1 final burger and Chicken curry

And then the burger is crowned! Spectacular!
Well, the sun is shining and promises to hit around 30 degs today which is great for all you guys on holiday. I haven't seen more that 20 minutes of sunshine since April and I won't see any today either. This is the first morning that we have had any time for ourselves and I am sitting updating the website.
I understand that although the webcam is working we are having a few teething problems with it. Get on and have a look and let me know on the chat room if you can see it or not. My computer guy is working on it, but we have upgraded the camera and there is a script problem. I'm sure it will be fixed soon.
New restaurant opening tomorrow. The Acropolis is situated next to Busters and is owned by Clair who used to cook at Shoestring. Good luck with the restaurant.
I have Marty and Jan over also 'orrible (Neil) and Tracey. Will update with piccies tomorrow.

Yesterdays Weather - cloudy most of the day. 24 degs

Exchange Rate in the Resort - 114

Mossie Watch - Not bad at the moment

ATM Watch - All working fine

Barry & Elaines Weather - zakynthos today is sunny 31c:

Special Today -

Looking forward to getting into the kitchen for the first Roast day of the season. It's hectic on Sunday's and the bookings are good so should be a blast.
Alykanas is bustling at the moment, plenty of people about and most of it is open.
Alykes is just a few paces behind but as usual their bookings start to blossom a little later in the month, but soon I'm sure it will be as busy a s normal.
A few places opening today. The Apollo, as I said yesterday, looking great.
In Alykes The Mediterranean. I have seen the menu for this place and it looks great.
For those that know the impeccable Miri form Memories a few years ago, then the Olive Tree and Grapevines, you will know what a great host he will be as front man for this traditional Greek restaurant offering some unusual dishes including some real Greel Peasant classics that have been lost in time!
Also, The log cabin over the Bridge opens today. Don't know the name of it yet, but I have been informed that the guys from Ambrossia are opening it and contrary to rumours will be opening Ambrossia too. The cabin will be offering traditional Greek Meze style food. Sounds great.
Alkionis opened last night with new owners Speros and Gorgious Gorge who used to have Zues in Tzilivi again with a traditional Greek menu.
Good luck to all and have a great summer.

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Yesterdays Weather - Sunny and hot. around 26 degs

Exchange Rate in the Resort - 114e

Mossie Watch - Not bad at the moment

ATM Watch - 1 open and working

Barry & Elaines Weather -  zakynthos today is sunny 25c. pos rain later lets all have a friendly get together and chill out.

Special Today -