Sarah Ticherou

Meeting British locals

A vital part of our role at the Consulate is providing a service to the British who have settled here in Corfu. The British Embassy website provides information on living in Greece but this list is not exhaustive and we receive a wide range of enquiries on a daily basis. Some of these enquiries which come under the general heading of ‘ lifestyle’ are not things we can help with, but there are a whole range of other consular  services such as the paperwork for marriages or legalisation of documents which we do offer that a lot of folk are not aware of.

During the summer we are so busy dealing with the many consular cases involving people on holiday,  we don’t really have the chance to meet a lot of the British locals. I felt it was important to invite people into the Consulate on an informal occasion in order to meet more people but also to provide info on what we do. I’ve found since starting this job in May that there are also a lot of preconceptions around about what the role of Vice Consul involves. There is actually a day job in addition to turning up to represent HMG at ceremonial or social events! So with this in mind, we arranged a Christmas open day. Posters were put up in various locations on the hope that, if people were in Corfu Town, they would pop in for a few minutes for some mulled wine, a mince pie and a chat.

We had an excellent turnout and it proved to be an ideal opportunity to have a chat with a large number of the local Brits. It was nice getting to know people but also introduce a lot of the services we provide. There was curiosity about how I was appointed to this role which gave me a good opportunity to explain the Embassy and the FCO’s recruitment policy generally – nothing more complicated than appointing the best person for the job!  We were also pleased to discuss the changing face of consular work which I was only too happy to discuss. I think there was surprise at how pro-active Consular work has become- our funky Greece wide publicity campaign and close co-operation with British Tour Operators is not what people expect we do.

I enjoyed being able to take part in a social event; spending time chatting with local Brits to get their take on life in Corfu and offering support and advice in any way we can.

Posted at 15:44 19 December 2008 by Sarah Ticherou  |  Comments[2]