Whoppers and Weightwatchers

It was a noisy start to the day as the “I have whoppers straight from the thalassa” fish van obviously had a good catch on the morning tide and roared round to the village at 7.00 am to sell his wares. It was far too early for us and we do wish he would turn his loudspeaker down! One day I will go out and investigate what whoppers actually are … but in the meantime, we live in amused ignorance of the “I have Whoppers and a very Loud Megaphone Fish Truck Ltd”.

Last week, we had friends staying with us which was fun – also slightly alarming as Croziers Aloft is not really geared up for a proper B & B clientèle being one floor short of a bathroom and our friends running an English Tourist Board approved … proper B & B in the UK. However, they were very adaptable, it was a good week and we explored all that our local coastline had to offer in Panormo and Bali. On Tuesday we drove up to Margerites to look at the ceramics and see the potters at work but it was a little quieter than usual. Eleni, our favourite restaurateur, raki maker, post mistress and general good egg treated us to a lovely home-cooked lunch … (I would really like her yemistes - stuffed tomato recipe) … and we wandered around looking for small items which could be packed easily. On Wednesday, we set off for Spilli with a bucket full of empty water bottles to fill up at the lion's head fountains in the centre of the town. The water was deliciously cool and we enjoyed a surreptitious ice cream when no one else was looking! The traders in the town had lots of hand crafted and embroidered items for sale and having lived through the worst winter in Crete for 50 years, I could fully understand why the Cretan folk would need to have such skills and crafts to keep them occupied while holed up away from the winter rains.

Spilli for Icecream.  The bucket was a bit of a giveaway!

On Thursday, we revisited Bali and spent the morning snorkelling around the rocky beach. Half way through the day K disappeared and we kept looking along the beach wondering where he had got to. Eventually, looking the picture of insouciance, he arrived by sea chugging along on a pedalo – fully clothed – and we all had a turn around the bay making a complete hash of steering, all shouting instructions at once and laughing like complete teenagers. If we thought getting ON the pedalo was difficult, this proved nothing like as difficult as GETTING OFF. Needless to say K's shirt and trousers got a good soaking and he had to spend another half an hour buying a dry T shirt before lunch. Still it gave a full morning's amusement to the other people on the beach who assured us they would give us a very wide berth and swim as far away in the opposite direction as possible. This was not easy to achieve either with our erratic efforts at steering! Meanwhile, out to sea, another couple had overturned their kayak and we watched them – slightly alarmed – trying to turn it over and get back in. Discretion being the better part of valour, I ran as fast as I could to the boat hire hut and persuaded the young man to take out a motor boat and rescue them as they were just out of his sight line. Thankfully, we all emerged unscathed from our nautical episodes on Thursday!

Pedalo-ing in Bali

Realising that we were running out of time before our friends had to get their flight home, we squeezed a trip to Camping Elizabeth where we met up with K's sister and made a quick visit to Rethymno in the evening. We just managed to have a quick wander through the old Venetian part of the town and walk around the harbour. We could not believe the week went so quickly and it was all too soon before the hire car had to be returned and K drove our pals back to Heraklion. They had never had as much red wine before and we had never eaten so much ice cream!

The Taverna at Panormo

The 13 May was the Red Cross Coffee and Cake Morning at our friends' Bob and Evvie's house at Maroulas. It is always a fixture of the CIC and about 100 people both Cretan and other English speakers turned up to this fundraiser. I nervously turned up with Apricot Muffins cooked with Cretan flour which never does what I expect it to do – but they all seemed to go!! The financial constraints are beginning to bite in Greece and people do not have so much ready cash, but we still raised over 1000 euros to support the Red Cross medical volunteers with much needed supplies, a portable defibrillator had been located from an English charity and there was still enough to make up food parcels for people in the big cities who had no means of support. It was LOADS of work for Bob and Ev but a wonderful opportunity to meet up and ... MOUNTAINS OF CAKE!!!!!

 There are a lot of people on strict diets this week as a result of everything we had last week!
 A-DI-OS for now.