A 54 YEAR OLD MYSTERY SOLVED

For 54 years my father, Antonis Koukoutsakis, had been claiming that he had found a ruin above the Church of St. John the Hermit and for 54 years people were telling him that it doesn't exist.Finally this winter my father told me he discovered it when he was 5 years old and together we decided to go out on a hunt for this ruin. In the end we found it, proving the entire village wrong.
But by closing one mystery we opened another when we found a bizarre shaped piece of metal. Not knowing what it is we brought it down to the Cafe and started asking the locals, only to be told that this is not a tool of any sort.

Well today, six months later, we have proved them wrong once more.

My uncle Pavlos Koukoutsakis who has lived in Athens for the past 40 years, told us that he remembered the ruin and that he kept Honey Bees in it 50 years ago. So I thought it would be wise to show him this piece of metal that we found laying around. He immediatly he recognized it he said

"That's mine, I had that tool for separating the Honey trays inside the Bee hive."

So we returned it to him since he is the rightful owner of it, and it made him twenty years old again by brigning back those old memories

ME PRESENTING THE TOOL BACK TO ITS RIGHTFULL OWNER




MY FATHER TELLING US ABOUT THE DAY HE MADE THE DISCOVERY AT THE AGE OF 5

MY UNCLE REMEMBERING THE GOOD OLD DAYS IN AZOGIRES WITH TEARS NEARLY COMING OUT OF HIS EYES

ANOTHER CARD GAME IN AZOGIRES

Another peaceful Sunday in Azogires with the local tourists having a good time playing cards. This brought up old memories to the Cretan residents, so they went straight to it by organizing their own little card game. Here they are trying to get a Winner.

And of course the locals setting up their own game.

By coincidence we had a visit from an old traveler of Crete, Mr.Bernard, a man who has been traveling all around Crete on his motorbike since 1971 . He has visited even the most of dangerous places to be in the highest mountains and he has met 3 generations of Alfa Cafe owners; my grandparents, my parents and myself. He has been coming for many years and he has not missed one year of not coming to his favourite place, The Alfa Cafe.

Mr. Bernard enjoying a drink

Did I mention that he loves his cigars
And on this famous Paleochora post card from 1987, you can see Mr.Bernard on the backround and his motorbike.

Alfa Olympic Team

THE A TEAM

Last minute training for the Olympics stepped up to a new level recently in Azogires with a full turn out of the Alfa Sheep Shearing Team, (The A Team for short) I did say shearing ! (The other sheep sport is not yet suitable for the Olympics)

On a hot June day, 15 wooly and slightly bemused creatures, the sheep, were led to the chiken pen (also known as "Team Central" ) Minutes later 4 more wooly and even more bemused creatures were also led to the chicken pen, this was the mighty Alfa shearing team.

It's a well known fact that sheep do not like to be sheared. For some reason they dislike the idea of being dumped on their back and having three legs tied together. To avoid this ignominity, they tend to run away when it becomes their turn for a short back and sides. Under the hot midday sun wooly and bewildered creatures were seen running up and down the length and breadth of Team Central in obviously great distress,,,,,,,,,, trying to catch sheep !

Over the next few hours various sizes and shapes of sheep had their wool cut away, dosed with medicine and had their backs painted in Alfa Cafe colours. No reason for that, but Lucky thinks they look pretty in Blue and Yellow.

The 15 original victims were soon joined by several extras from friends and family who seemed to think that while you are at it you may as well do mine. At a crisis point in the proceedings two of the four shearing clippers fell to pieces, Tony, without adequate tools, went back to the Cafenion for a lie down but Diane sent for a pair of kitchen scissors and continued to hack at a

particularly docile ewe. What team spirit.

Ther day ended with only four serious injuries. The sheep had no wounds !

Images of the Alfa Cafenion

THE HISTORICAL RALLY OF CRETE IN AZOGIRES

Today Sunday the 15th of June. We had the honour to have the finish line in our village for the sixth Historical Rally of Crete. Organized by the well known organization of antique cars SIPAK, which means Union of Historical and Old Cars of Crete. Everyone was so amazed that they stood up while the cars were passing by; even my dog Bill Clinton jumped on the railling so he could get a better view. We hope to see more of these kind of activities in our area and we wish the union of SIPAK to honour us again in the future .

I remember these old Citroens from the Hippie days

Certain people would have problems gettng inside one of these

nowadays! The reason? Our diet

The good old Beetle

My Father and Bill Clinton observing the antique car parade -

Just to be clear, my father's the 0ne on the left!

Remember these Buicks?

Now that's what I am talking about!

Tourists enjoying the parade.

Before my time and yours.

The good old Pontiac

Local spectators who came up to Azogires all the way from Anidri

Now that's what I call letting the sunshine in!

A car crossing the finish line.

And finally the Judges who congratulated us for our cooperation - and the lovely orange juice from Alfa Cafe!

A SUPRISE VISIT

This week we had a suprise visit from the famous English author, artist and poet, Mr Sam Reed.

He is the author of the book "Fractured Dreams and Sunflowers" and he came to our cafe with his gang of friends to eat some chicken, drink some beer and enjoy the afternoon.

A PARTY FOR MR.MICK MCTIERNAN

Last Sunday all the friends came together to wish Mick McTiernan a good trip back home to the UK. He will trully be missed because he always has a way to make us smile.

We all wish Mick McTiernan a safe trip home and we hope to see him again. Next summer Mr.McTiernan, you always have a second home to come to AZOGIRES.

(Mick McTiernan is the good looking one with a white beard in the photos above, NOT one of the good looking ones with a black beard!)