A gaff in booking my flight over the internet meant that I had booked two weeks in the UK instead of the intended one week away from Crete. In the end, it turned out to be fortuitous but a bit of a difficult time in the UK sorting out banks, pension and wishing for things out of the loft such as wellingtons and the electric blanket, which I did not have time to access!
I had wanted to book a hire car for the planned week in order to get all these jobs done but did not think I could run to a two week hire charge (plus the insurance waiver thingy and the deposit) so it was a good few days before I could get mobile and be of any use at all to Mum and Dad who were going through a bit of a rough time having both had minor ops and in need of some hands on support. After a few days of doctors and district nurses visiting and hospital appointments to keep, things got much easier. Prayer works!
Trips through the New Forest are always enjoyable and we were glad to see the colours of autumn wherever we travelled - along with the horses, ponies and, on our way from the airport, a deer which ran out across the road and was thankfully un-injured by the car ahead of us. I spent the few days I had the hire car driving very slowly and carefully (and rehearsing in my head all the time "keep to the left, keep to the left!" ).
Meanwhile the news from Kimon in Crete was filtering through. He had decided to get some painting of walls done while I was away – which we have realised is a Firth of Forth job since the walls peel constantly, and have to be repainted every year – come what may. Stone houses are lovely and cool, but they do have one or two drawbacks. He was not surprised to have the water cut off on Thursday but this happens often and rarely lasts for more than an hour or two. In his case, the Friday was Oxi Day. A commemoration of the day in WWII when Greece was invited to collaborate with Mussolini and said “Oxi” - which means NO! It also means that it is a Bank Holiday and the Water Board would not be at the other end of the phone!
The village was up in arms 4 days later when there was still no water; apparently two pumps in the water pumping station had broken down at the same time and they were waiting for parts!!! Yes, it was really fortuitous that I was not there. Goodness knows how all the elderly of the village coped without running water all this time – although the lads living next door levered the lid off their well and were last seen lowering buckets to fill some containers and I think that others had taken buckets and bowls down to the stream!
How bizarre to be in front of English TV again. I have found so many alternative ways to spend my time over the previous few months, that I find it quite difficult to sit and watch for any length of time. I noticed also how forbidding everyone looks on the pavements as they go about their business and how little people greet or talk to each other. The other side of the coin is that getting business done in England seemed so simple and what would take us a whole day of hassle in Crete as we wrestled with government offices could be achieved in 45 minutes in New Milton!
As for Tescos over half term – all those things, people and children!!! All the hoo-ha over Halloween and firework explosions! What a stir all this frenzy would attract amongst our homely Cretan neighbours to contrast with our dead-pan acceptance of it all. Our little store-room shop in the village (they turn the light on when you enter and turn it off again when you leave!) makes life so much easier and less stressful with only one make of everything on the shelf ... if it has run out you have to think of something else to make for supper. In spite of that, I confess I have bought lots of goodies to take back to Crete with me such as Tea, savlon, supermarket boxes of aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen as well as cheddar cheese and bacon. It will be really good to bring these goodies back from good old Blighty with me. I hope my suitcase is big enough!
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