Officially keeping accounts on a computer is not recognised, accounts and records of meetings have to be kept in special dedicated books. To make these official they must be taken to an office in the court in Neapoli, which is the legal centre of Lassithi, the county in which we live. This is about an hour’s drive away.
Eventually we found the relevant office, firstly we noticed that the one computer in the office was not switched on. We discovered that each page in these books had to be numbered appropriately, some with a different number to each page, others with a number to 2 pages.
And the office staff do not do this you have to, so armed with an ink pad and pen we set to the task. Oops made a mistake in one book, it could not be corrected off to a book shop to buy a new one.
The rubber stamp, which features the seal of the Greek Democratic Republic, is only available in this office, Mistakenly we had stamped pages with our WWD stamp, mistake buzzer sounds again.
Done, then the final flourish the lady in charge takes out this big rubber stamp and big stamp pad hammers it down on the final page of each book and scribbles some obviously important information.
Off to the pub?! no chance - off to Agios Nikolaos to check on the latest ‘Dora the Donkey’ at the Olive Farm (see separate story).
Now off to the accountant for instructions on how to use the books. At least we now have a good accountant who actually comes from Anatoli (the village where we live ) and has a house here.
This process took up most of one day!
So to anyone setting out to be registered and thinking it will happen soon......
ALISTAIR PATON