Cretan-homes, Crete property estate agents

The big turn-off

by Ann Lisney

Ninety-nine per cent of the time we love living on Crete. We can usually deal with any tiny cloud that appears over the horizon with a philosophical shrug.

There are a whole host of things we love - the relaxed way of life, the friendliness of our neighbours, the absence of crime, the insights we are allowed into village traditions, the landscape, the swing of the seasons, the sense of family and honour that still prevails. But just occasionally a red mist comes down over the eyes – and that is often brought about by ineptitude or blatant lack of concern from one of the utility companies!

We have learned to deal with water shortages in our village. Some days in the summer there is no pressure at all and the storage tank on our roof does not fill at all. We have learned to get round this by having a second tank installed, so that when we do have pressure, we can fill the secondary tank. But those houses with no storage facilities get no water at all on those days. This cannot be news to our local authority… it has been the same story during the four summers we have been living here, and by all accounts it has been much the same for five or so years previously. Our local water authority even has its office in the council’s building, so there is no excuse for not sharing information. So why has the local authority given permission for three new houses in our village to have swimming pools?

The electricity company, DEH, has turned off the local supply to hundreds of customers for fifteen hours at a time, five times in recent weeks. I accept that they are probably carrying out essential repairs – but doing this without notice and in the coldest weather can hardly be good for customer relations.

The telephone company, OTE, telephoned us about three weeks ago to ask if we wanted to upgrade the modem on our ISDN telephone line to provide a faster internet speed.  We agreed, and a new modem arrived by post within a few days. We were unable to take advantage of it, however, because by then our telephone line had gone down. So had the whole of our village, and so had a whole lot of other villages in the area.

Now our village – like most Cretan villages these days - is home to a lot of elderly people. Many are old ladies who live alone, and are unwell. Almost none of them have access to a car, so they need their phones to call a taxi for a shopping trip, to take them to the health centre to see a doctor, to call an ambulance in an emergency, to keep them in contact with far-flung children, or just to be able to ring a neighbour for reassurance if they hear a worrying noise in the night.

After five days with no phones in the village, we decided it was time for some action. We went into our local OTE office and complained bitterly. We told them about all the elderly people who relied on their phones and said it was a complete disgrace that this should happen in a modern country – after all, we were ‘not living in Africa.’  We were told we were lucky that we had only been off for five days – there were other places that had been off for more than twenty! They were unable to tell us what the problem was – but thought it might be fixed ‘by Saturday’. 

So there we were, without telephone or internet connection. Then we got a few days of strong winds and our satellite connection failed, so we had no television. This was followed by a huge storm, a lightning strike and the electricity was cut off for twenty four hours.

But guess what? By Saturday afternoon, the telephone was back on. Ten minutes later, the electricity returned and the satellite dish kicked in. Harmony restored; sense of humour returned.

And the new telephone modem? That will be returned to OTE, with a snotty note to the effect that we would rather have a slower service that works all the time….