San Stefanos Online ~ North West Corfu

I'd be grateful if anybody could tell me what the TUI rooms are like at Silver Moon.  I know a lot of people it there, but what's the difference between the private rooms and TUI rooms?

I'm very sad to report that Theodora, Spiros' venerable mother at Nafsika, has died. Her funeral was today.

A legendary cook, she was 89, and had been suffering ill-health for many years. For a long time she could be found sitting inside the hotel that she and her husband George built over thirty years go, usually with the little dog Marley by her side. She had a beautiful warm smile and a timeless air about her.

I'm very pleased to say that my new novel "Almond - and the deep blue sea" will be published this week. It's a tongue-in-cheek thriller set in Agios Stefanos, featuring private investigator Johnny Almond, who was a detective in London until he made a career-ending mistake.

It'll be available in Kindle and paperback.

It's a nervous moment for me, as you can imagine! I do hope you will enjoy it. You'll certainly know what the locations and the food look like!

 

Corfu-info.com has several webcams which are fun to look at.

But - joy! - the latest is at the airport. It's probably from the bar with a good view of the runway.

https://corfu-info.com/corfu-airport-webcam/#live

It's great to see the planes landing and taking off. Using this in conjunction with https://www.flightradar24.com/airport/cfu you can see when there will be something to watch!

My experience from younger family members is that they are suspicious of an old-fashioned bar of soap. They think anything that comes out of a bottle in a slurp is better. They are wrong.

Here are the scientific facts, which have not been very well explained by government or media:

1.   Soap is more effective against viruses that alcohol
2.   Alcohol is more effective against bacteria

Bacteria are living organisms. They are like amoebas. They lock onto cells and fuse with them and then transfer DNA into the cell to reproduce, pretty much the same way spermatozoa fuse with eggs to make an embryo.  Alcohol is a poison, and kills them.

Viruses are not alive in the same way at all. They are, in the case of corona viruses, hollow spheres of lipid (fat) enclosing RNA, the more primitive precursor of DNA. They only have one purpose – to reproduce. They lock onto a cell using their spikes and inject the RNA into the cell. The cell then becomes a factory to make them in vast numbers.

Because viruses are not “alive” you can’t kill them; but you can destroy them. To do this you must break their outer walls the way a siege engine breaks a castle wall. Alcohol can do this, but slowly compared to soap.
Soap loves two things: water and fat. You can keep a bar of soap in a dry cupboard for years. But wet it, and it will develop a soft surface. Leave it in a dish of water and it will turn into gloop. When you wash your hands with soapy water it makes the skin slippery. Because soap also likes fat, if it encounters any, such as the fatty remains of the lamb chop you picked, up it will bind with it, loosen its grip on the skin, and it will slide off in running water. The same applies to corona viruses: the soap starts to  dissolve the lipid walls, which are punctured, like putting acid on a football. The virus bursts, spills its payload of RNA and is flushed off the skin.

Getting it off the skin requires some friction to help the virus to unstick. That’s why, as the actress said to the bishop, it’s important to rub if you want to get it off. The same applies to alcohol, but it’s not as efficient and takes longer.

Whomsoever of our ancestors discovered that mixing and heating sodium hydroxide, water and animal fat to make soap deserves a great big memorial. Soap has saved countless lives, and can help to save ours now. 

I've spent a lot of time talking to people in Agios Stefanos about being a playwright and screenwriter, and there's always the question "What have you written?"

Apart from the grime of The Bill and Eastenders, there is one thing I wrote set in another beautiful, but very different, island from Corfu - Dominica in the Caribbean. Originally from Trinidad, the director Horace Ove was the first black director to work in UK film and television. Alas, Horace now has advanced Alzheimers. The producer, Malcolm Craddock, died last year. At the age of nearly 77 I don't have a lot of time left, and I hope this will be a suitable memorial to all three of us! Originally commissioned and shown by Channel 4, and recently screened at the BFI, "The Orchid House" has now been released on All Four. If you have four hours to spare, the link is here:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-orchid-house

Might be worth noting here any good or bad news when it comes to holiday dosh...

I tend to quote TravelFX for cash, because it's almost always the best rate.

Today the rate is quite good by the poor contemporary standards at 1.1403
IMX puts this down to lower growth in the Eurozone and the possibility of Brexit being postponed or cancelled. As nobody has a clue about what's going to happen it's all a shot in the dark.

I notice various people have started the usual discussion on Facebook about whether it's better to buy Euros now or wait and see if the rate goes up.
Today (March 17) TravelFX's rate is 1.245.

Before Xmas it was over 1.4 - that is before Cameron announced the referendum date in February. The referendum has created a climate of instability, so it's very unlikely that we are going to see the rate go much higher.

HSBC and other banks are predicting a potential drop of 20% in the rate in the event of a Brexit vote: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/24/brexit-could-wipe-20-percent-off-the-pound-warns-hsbc

The net result of that would be (on today's rates) a new rate of 0.996. As a consequence, we could expect a 20% increase in the cost of a holiday.

The conclusion for me is that it's probably better to buy Euros well before June. If it goes much above 1.3 I'll get some.