A bit more about Greece

We stayed in a very clean and spacious apartment just outside of the town of Sidari in Corfu, part of the Ionian islands. The town itself is just tacky and nasty. Over-developed, like much of the Greek Islands. The restaurants sell English all-day fried breakfasts, burgers, sunday roasts. It's all so disappointing when what you really want is a small traditional taverna, offering delicious local specialities. Fortunately such places do exist, but we had to venture a little way down the road, out of the main town, to find them. The bars all have huge plasma screens showing football from the UK and Peter Kay DVDs - these were everywhere, I guess because of the high proportion of Northerners staying in the town. So many fat, sunburnt, beer-swilling idiots. I walked along the main strip filming the horror with our camcorder. First time I've taken one on holiday, so I had a bit of fun filming stuff and providing a running commentary.

We did confine ourselves mostly to lounging by the pool (with the ipod nano and an Iain Banks I was more than happy) and eating out in the evenings, as having Fin with us restricted our activities a bit. Usually we would have hired some pedal bikes and gone off exploring, but I still managed to get out for a run on a couple of days - once in the middle of a thunderstorm, and once in the scorching mid-day sun! I ran along the side of a dusty road running out of town and up into the hills while all the younger party kids drove by on hired quad-bikes. Finlay got to try some swimming in the pool, with his mum or dad holding him, and dressed from head to toe in a very sweet UV-protective outfit.

It was a little colder than he was used to and had to be fished out one time because he started shivering! Terrible parents we are, forcing the boy into freezing waters so he'll get ahead in sports when he's older! He also got his first dip in the sea - just a paddle really, but he seemed to like the feeling of his feet sinking into wet sand. His buggy was almost lost in the soggy post-storm sand a couple of times, when the wheels got stuck.

Food was very nice, once (as I say) you get to the good tavernas. They do wonders with aubergines, frying them in olive oil with herbs. Tzatziki is always a winner, big beans, and mains like swordfish steak, kleftiko (lamb and veg hotpot thing) and stifado (beef and onions in tomato sauce). My giving up vegetarianism all seems worth it when I'm over here. Tab still sticks to the veggies (and fish). They even had special Corfu-only olives that I tried as a starter - smaller, rounder, more delicately flavoured.

The thunderstorms were great. They would build in the afternoon or evening and grow into monsters, with hours of non-stop thunder, lightning and rain. However hard and long they last though, it only took a couple of hours of sunshine for everything to dry out and warm up again.