Former Shropshire man Colin Dodd writes about life in Greece, where he has lived for the past 10 years.

Blog: Hello everyone from the Ionian island of Kefalonia, in the same country as Athens for sure, but in the current financial crisis we seem to be in a different world. More on that later though.

We’re into October now, and the tourist numbers are, predictably, falling. Overall, the July tourist revenue figures were up by 17 per cent in Greece compared to last year. Kefalonia appeared to do quite well. I say appeared as the two villages close to me, Skala and Katelios, are very small, and they are somewhat over-populated with tavernas and restaurants. When you walk past you see that many do not have full tables. But if you take all the people out eating and drinking, then the numbers are quite good.

This over-population is not so good for the owners, but is a positive for the customer as competition is fierce. The place I frequent, in Katelios, Jerry’s Elliniko, had a very good season, but he has kept his prices the same for four years now, without reducing the meal size or quality, and his policy has paid off. I had two friends over for their first visit and they loved the place. They never thought about going elsewhere.

The weather is, thankfully, cooling down somewhat now. September is usually hit and miss weather wise; cooler, some rain and cloudy, but this year it was scorching, up to 50 in the sun. My friends had a brilliant week.

The roads are getting quieter too, not so many hire cars and scooters around. We had the usual tourist mishaps, people falling off scooters, cars crashing etc, but thankfully nothing serious. People do not realise how slippy the roads are here, even in the dry, and when they are wet they are lethal. The hire companies do point this out, but some folk think they know better. They soon learn. Anyone coming next year take heed: drive slowly, it’s better to be 10 mins late in this life than 20 years early in the next.

Meanwhile, we have the ongoing saga of the debt. More bailouts are needed, there will be more disruption, more political in-fighting, more Government promises (it should be a good year for mushrooms).

The general consensus is that Greece will HAVE to default. With the debt level at 160 per cent of the gross domestic product, default is looking inevitable.

The talk is of an orderly default, which would allow Greece to regenerate in the future, but when the Government says Greece is solvent, we can work our way out of this, well, that is more mushroom fodder. The debt is too high, the austerity measures are taking too long to implement, the public opposition to said measures is still delaying things, and some of the measures proposed to re-structure the public employment sector are, apparently, open to legal challenge. The Government is like a toothless tiger in all this.

So they have decide to impose a new wealth tax, to show the man in the street that they are not out to “comfort the comfortable” (their words).

The deputy Prime Minister has publicly said that he cannot afford to pay this tax, and he is on a documented income of 600,000 euros per year, and has ownership of 60 properties throughout Greece. He stated that he cannot afford the tax imposed, and that the finance minister was welcome to go and arrest him when he didn’t pay. If he can’t afford it, who can? For sure, not the average self-employed builder, trucker etc etc.

So things rumble on, yet here on Kef it seems to pass us by somehow. Yes, eventually the measures will come into being, but I’m convinced that Kefalonia will carry on as before. The Kefalonians seem to be adept at doing their own thing, regardless of what happens on the mainland. I hope this will be the case, but time will tell.

I hope you’re all enjoying the mini heat wave in the UK, make the most of it.

End of season greetings from Kef.

All the best,

Colin