Left - The Haralambous clan are very happily back on Ithaki, especially Melanie, who has endured a long cold winter in London where she works, while the rest of her family enjoyed the milder South African weather.

When the sun shines, you can bet your bottom dollar that the baysides around Ithaca will be filled with people enjoying some Greek Kitchen outdoors. Although visitors are still only dribbling in at the moment, news from yacht charters and holiday rental companies is that the pre- bookings for the Season are very strong, so once again, so it would seem, Ithaki may escape the doom and gloom that has been predicted in the current economic crisis. Who wouldn't want to be sitting by the sea with good drink.

"Try this Erika" insists Billy. I run for my life. He chased after me, but didn't catch me, and thus was saved from trying the sheeps belly lining. Just because I love Ithaki, doesn't mean I love sheeps stomach lining. I played my vegetarian hand and was allowed to escape the taste test. Phew! Summer fun begins!

Monday 3rd - Ote (Greece Telephony & Internet Provider) has confirmed that ADSL will be coming to the north of Ithaca within 1 month. Can it be true????

Tuesday 4th - The yachts are coming. Over the past couple of days as you look across the Ionian, the very blue Ionian, the sea is dotted with yachts taking advantage of the May breezes. At this time of year it's easy to tell the visitor from the local. The local is still wearing long sleeves and the visitors are in their Speedos (very very short swimmers) and not much else.

Stavros has a new restaurant. 'Ithaki' an easy name to remember. Dina Vasilopoulos, Stavros' local hairdresser opened up last week and seems to be very popular already with visitors. Good fresh food is what is promised. We'll check it out soon with some pics and some taste testing to let you know.

Right - Klara Koitler, one of Ithakis talented artists is having an exhibition in Athens from 21 - 31 May 2010. If you're in Athens during that time, it will be well worth your while to see Klaras paintings. I personally think they're fantastic. The Exhibition will be held at the Pnevmatiko Kentro (Centre) in Neos Ionias.

Wednesday 5th - Today, more visitor travel plans have been disrupted through the General strikes around Greece. The Kefalonia ferry is staying put as is the Superfast to Italy, among others.

Dimitris Vogdanis-Danis is running the Vathy Art Gallery this year. The full program for the Gallery should be in my mailbox soon, but for now, we've been told that from the 22 - 25 June you are invited to the art Exhibition of Bosmat Niron. The Exhibition is inspired by the use of Recycled Materials and is under the care of the recycling program of Ithaki. There will also be a Workshop for students.
www.bosmatniron.com ORGANIZER D.VOGDANIS-DANIS
SPONSORS:OKIALOS PUBLICATIONS-VODAFONE D.STANITSAS

Saturday 8th - Funny weather the past few days. First a warm wind blew from the south, drizzling some very dirty rain over shiney washed cars and today a cool wind from the north, which had everyone thinking it's winter again. By the afternoon, it was quite muggy and warm, but the overcast sky made for little joy. Over the past few years I've often mentioned the chem trails in the sky, well finally it seems, someone has asked the Greek Parliament for an explanation. Can't wait to hear.

This month sees our sleepy villages of Kioni and Frikes in the north of Ithaca, come alive again. In Kioni there will be one sad departure and that is Diamanto from Mentor Cafe Bar. The small Cafe on the bayside is no longer, but don't despair, Diamanto will be opening up another shop, somewhat removed from the Cafe business, where the Elpinor Mini market was located.

Everyone with a Cosmote Wireless broadband connection and an Otenet Mail account will have noticed a sudden difficulty in sending emails. Seems like one of the 2 has blocked the other, but neither is claiming responsibility. So where does that leave businesses that need their email? Well, it leaves them to setting up webmail. Not ideal and a bit of a cheek considering most are paying quite alot of money each month for the service. The same problem occured last year when it was discovered that C's firewall was a little too aggressive, but they're not admitting it this time. If you can receive but not send, don't blame yourself, blame your servers who will of course insist it's your problem and not theirs.

Hey hey hey it's magic. 2 hours after I uploaded the text above, we got our email back. Wow! Great!

Above - Mike & Trish visit on whirlwind and share a chat with Mark. If Mark is here then Mr. Yefuri is also lurking around. Breakfast (hopefully) and amazing dinners ahead.