DECEMBER IN CRETE or PLUMBING THE DEPTHS

Christmas items for sale from a local school

Last year when I was still working in London and travelling back and forth to work on the train, my sister in law kept phoning us up from Crete to tell us how wonderful the weather was and how they were all still swimming because it was so hot. As we were falling over on the ice in England and freezing on station platforms at unearthly times of the day and night, all this news was absolutely sickening and we kept begging her to stop.

With this in mind,  I won't go on too much about the beautiful days we have had for the last few weeks and how we keep pinching ourselves and reminding ourselves that it is December already and how will we get used to sunshine at Christmas time.  Where did this year go?

It has been a very topsy-turvy month for the Croziers altogether. First of all, we noticed that a small puddle on the bathroom floor which we thought just appeared after a shower onto the floor tiles and was not anything to worry about.  As time went on, we realised that it was a more serious leak and that a pipe must be broken somewhere. Sadly "Hunt-the-Pipe" could not take place without dismantling the entire bathroom – which was on our list of things to do – but not yet a while due to financial constraints. However, we realised that the work had be be brought forward and our friendly builder turned up with trailers, concrete mixers, picks and shovels and took the whole room apart - floor, walls and ceiling. 

We were actually very glad to see the back of the faded rose pink wall and floor tiles and set off to choose a new colour scheme. The builder switched round everything to give much more space, we have nice lights, mirror, storage, heater and no intriguing port hole into the shed (!) Check out before and after photos below (and sorry to be so boring but in a small village this sort of thing is hugely exciting and the workmen kept our neighbours entertained for 10 days).

Chania Waterfront 3rd Dec

As we had no working bathroom, we spent the time as guests of K's sister in the bright lights of Rethymnon and I had the chance to do Christmas shopping and prepare for the Annual CIC Christmas Bazaar in Chania which takes place every year to raise a lot of money for local charities. What a production! There were 60-70 stalls rented by local traders and some came even from Athens to sell their wares. Ceramics, textiles, jewellery, woodwork, home made food, drinks and preserves, soaps, decorations, metalwork – loads and loads to look at and charity raffle stalls run by CIC members. K and I manned the Bottle Stall – ably assisted by other members but the star attraction on our stall were the volunteers from the local Red Cross who turned up in their uniforms, donned Santa Hats and really got us better organised. If nothing else, I have learned the dos and don'ts of running a tombola because it is much more tricky than you think – especially if the event has to last over two days and you have to find some way of not running out of bottles!

The local Red Cross turned up and raffle ticket sales picked up!

The quality of entertainment was amazing with a school choir singing Greek and English carols, a jazz singer, a children's entertainer who did magic and all sorts of clever juggling tricks and then a brilliant circus performer who played loads of musical instruments and sang, wire walked, unicycled around between all the stalls and was astoundingly good. All this while, there were two kitchens – one inside and one outside providing chilli, mulled wine, sausages, teas and coffees etc. We believe that the bazaar raised over 12,000 Euros for local charities which was very impressive in these hard times.

Setting up the stalls in the old Customs House

Look Soph - they even had a Sindy Doll Boutique!!!!!

We were exhausted when it was over and needed a few days to unwind which was unfortunate because there was a lecture in Rethymnon on Archaeology a couple of days later with intricate catering arrangements including a buffet lunch which seemed to be slightly beyond the capabilities of the place where the event had been held but was enjoyable all the same. Then, once this was over, we drove back to the village to see what state the bathroom was in. Of course it was a vast improvement but there was builders dust and mess which had spread throughout the house and it needed sweeping, scrubbing and mopping from top to bottom. Every shelf and every cupboard! So today has been Cleaning Day One and tomorrow will be Cleaning Day Two!! Enough for now – we are absolutely flaked out!

BEFORE .......

AFTER!