There's nothing like a good exhibition!!!

WHEN it comes to marketing their products the Greeks certainly need to wise up. On the island we have a national exhibition centre where they stage some really good events, the trouble is they usually wait until the very last minute before they promote them - and that is only half of the problem.
   Like to see a great Marilyn Monroe exhibition, or how about one all about Leonardo da Vinci or thrill the kids with a brilliant Dinosaur show? All these are at the exhibition centre and there are dozens of billboards, advertising signs and posters advertising them - the only problem? They are all finished!
   That's right, the Monroe exhibition was in October 2011. the excellent da Vinci exhibition was even earlier, and the Dinosaurs finished in October last year - despite this all the signs are still up and confuse tourists. How many children will pester their parents during the coming summer months to go to see the Dinosaurs or dad drooling over seeing the Monroe exhibition and being frustrated when they find out it has long gone.
  We cannot understand why they leave the signs up, but perhaps they want their moneys worth as they are very late putting them up in the first place. It's not only the events at the exhibition centre, which is at Gouves, but venture into Heraklion and you would be totally blown away trying to find something advertised that is actually on, they are really lax and then they moan that numbers attending these events are really poor.
   Having worked in marketing for many years in the UK, the value of promotion is imperative, so it's a source of amazement - but this has been happening for years, so you would have thought that somebody would have sorted it out by now!

Water water everywhere - except the village!!

WE have come used to water pressure being reduced, especially during the tourist season, well we are an island of course and there are great demand on supplies during the summer. But this weekend has been a real problem, not just for us, but for the whole village.
  The problem started on Saturday, continued through the weekend and was finally resolved today (Monday) - we simply did not have any water, or, sometimes just a trickle, but the whole village suffered.
  We restricted ourselves to just the one toilet, we usually have a watering can on standby filled to flush the toilet, but it was a pain. The problem was a pumping station breaking late on Friday night, parts had to be found from Heraklion, there were delays, once found they had to be fitted and tested, before the supply was back.
   Anyone with a family must have had real problems, not able to wash up of course, but you could not use a washing machine, have a shower or restrict yourself to using bottled water - something we always keep in the house.
  Service was returned late on Monday afternoon, so we could imagine a lot of families getting showered quickly in case the fault returned.