Making Payments

7 - 16 January 2021

We are at the final stage of getting our house permit signed off so as to make the building legal.  There are four remaining tax invoices to pay, at four different locations in Lefkas town.  The tax office, the council offices, the national insurance building and a bank.  This is a prospect to fill anyone with dread - long queues, no-one to ask which queue to join, invariably being turned away with disdain at the wrong window ... We expected the worst.  

What a pleasant surprise to find that Covid has streamlined the whole process.  It was mostly a joy.  At the tax office we were logged in and temperature checked, then found the payment section virtually empty.  We strolled up to a few windows until we found the right place, were issued an invoice and made the payment.  Slick.  Gobsmacked!

The council offices were much the same, except that a new receptionist took our info and while we waited she arranged the invoice issue and then directed us to the payment window.  We were able to re-credit our electric car charging card while we waited: a double win.

At the bank we were just lucky.  The queue outside was 6 people when we arrived, and 12 when we left.  The bill to pay was 1.89 euros, which seemed a little unnecessary, but we needed it receipted.

At the national insurance office they wouldn't let us in, but there was a phone number on the window, and we were told to ring the next day.  In the end, we were able to do the whole transaction by email, so that was even better.  All done - hurrah!

Meanwhile, the mushroom bale in the shed has produced a second flush - Dave demonstrates the size of the mushrooms.  Each one a meal in itself!

A bit of excitement: we went out for a takeaway.  While we were waiting, we asked for a glass of wine, so we found ourselves in a restaurant, where we were served a glass of wine and allowed to sit in a corner (with our masks around our chins - just in case).  They made the pizza far too quickly, we thought.

I've been working hard in the studio, developing a new direction for my painting, a little childish, very colourful, fantasy rather than realism - and this is what emerged.

Our annual pilgrimage to the best place to rake up a big bagful of leaves for the compost.

T-shirts on the line, looking like a colour palette ... hmm!