Flags Out! Paleo is Back in Business!

On Monday the 2009 Blue Flags went up. These testify to the cleanliness of the beaches in EU terms, and the municipality boasts this status for the three town beaches and those at Gramenon and Anidri. The 13th of July might seem a bit a bit late in the season.. but it's that sort of a year (and posssibly the new burden of assigning every last sunbed license in the country has been a bit much for Athens!)
Anyway, the arrival coincides with some other improvements.
Mother Nature has deposited a bit more sand at the far end of the beach and the supply and distribution of the sunbeds has expanded.

.. and out in the main street we have plenty of tables at the kafenions at night!

The road has a couple of coatings of asphalt and is just a bit bumpy round the manholes. The pavements are fully passable and there is a very high but white-painted kerb separating the two. Similar treatments are due to start in October for the "top" up to the church and the "bottom" down to the Livicon, and by next summer there will be granite pavements, street lamps, buried wiring and the dreaded "water feature" somewhere. The periptero (kiosk) -
will be moved, the statue - where so many of our kids congregated over the years- will come back, but the pair of public phones next to Yanni's is lying sadly behind the OTE and is not going to be returned to its former spot.
As for this year - no problems, so - if you can - get on over here with your euros and improving pounds to help the good folk make up for May and June!
(That's for Nikos who thinks the blog has been unfair on the place! Mmmmmm!)

.. and last week the Open Air Cinema started its season. At first it was groans all round! Along with the magnificent and ever-present "Zorba" we had "Prime" and "Robinson Crusoe" - shown frequently over the last two years and getting no better for it. Then - bliss and rapture!- two new films as you see.:- "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Benjamin Button".

(Our spies report that the wrong film ran for 10 minutes the other night, but hey!)

This week has also been jolly hot:- some perfect days followed by widy ones (moving round easterly now so inclined to sandblast). We got Yvette out from under her cover and went to Anidri yesterday and the Viena today.