Things that go bleep in the night ..... (or Bleepless in Barton)

Apologies for the delay in posting a blog recently but I have been in the UK and enjoying sparkling weather and causing considerable food envy by eating lobster at Christchurch Quay on a happy day out. I was glad to get the flight back to Crete before the winter storms set in across Britain and returned to Crete where it was a bit more peaceful. 40 years ago, K and I travelled to Greece for our honeymoon and the weather was horrible in Greece and lovely in England which made us wonder why we had spent all that money on air flights! However, I needed to get back to celebrate our anniversary and somehow got it right for once. It is lovely to be here this September. There are stunning blue skies and warm sun during the day but it is clear and cold with bright, bright stars at night. I will be delving in my big wooden storage chest to unearth the duvet in the next couple of weeks or two.

Full table while four people ate lobster !!!!!

The journey back and forth to England was hampered by a horrible back problem and for a day or two, I thought that I might have to cancel. Fortunately, Aegean Airlines were really helpful when I called them to ask for assistance at the airport as I remembered quite a long walk from the Domestic to International side of the airport and I did not think I would be able to manage it. K had asked the Pharmacist for help with pain killers and I had three packs of different items with very strict instructions on them. So the short story is that I arrived home at Heathrow in a wheelchair and had to return via wheelchair also to comply with the terms and conditions of the ticket. This was an educational process and I was able to find out about being wheelchair bound first hand and like the Curate's egg, it was good in parts. The journey out from Heraklion and Athens had been marvellous, but the journey back had been different altogether. OK, it is fine being parked against a corridor wall in a proper wheelchair that can be self wheeled while the helpers are busy doing other things and helping other people. With this sort of conveyance, it is possible to find the disabled loo and generally pass an hour or so before the flight leaves without being a nuisance. I was left on a bench at the departure gate at Heathrow while the flight was delayed for an hour with no way of moving, stuck at the back of the plane in a window seat and had to wait until 3.30 pm in the afternoon before I was able to get to a Ladies Cloakroom having set off very early in the morning. On the journey home, people left me in places, promising to come back and didn't more than once so – in the end, it seemed better to try and hobble off the bus with my stick, through the passport control (while a kind Doctor from Heraklion carried my hand luggage) and get someone to fetch a trolley for my big case which a strong, young lad hooked from the conveyor for me. Thank goodness friends were there to meet me and people are willing to do random acts of kindness!

I would like to say that the back is on the mend, but sadly it is only marginally better and I still cannot walk very much.

Whilst in England, we had another bleeping adventure and spent several days of being kept awake by an annoying bleep near the stairs. On my last visit home, a muffled bleeping which I had been following round the house for a couple of days turned out to be coming from dear Mum, or at least Mum's defibrillator. It had me puzzled for a long time, because it was rarely in the same place and on discovery, involved an emergency trip to A & E to get sorted.

Sorry, no illustrations for alarm systems ..... !

This time, Mum had been very late down to breakfast one morning checking each corner of her bedroom to try and find out where the sound was coming from. We were fairly certain that the battery on the smoke alarm on the top landing needed changing. Looking at the cover, the wording said that the device did not have a battery and we needed to contact the manufacturer for a replacement. As two devices (upstairs and downstairs) had been fitted by the Fire Brigade, we phoned them and a lovely man came round with a telescopic ladder and a cheery grin to change it. We directed him upstairs and he niftily removed the old one and fitted a replacement … magic. He was just explaining what to do if it ever happened again – just unscrew the device like a light bulb and the bleeping would stop. (BLEEP!) Oh dear, if the bleeping was supposed to stop, why was it still bleeping? Bother, my mistake, it must be the one on the lower landing. No the bleeping was not from there … it was definitely upstairs. (BLEEP). After several more minutes chasing about, we discovered a white plastic box hidden away on a small table by the bannisters which my Father had bought and forgotten about several years ago to detect carbon monoxide. Being deaf, Dad could not hear any of the bleeping last time or this time, but we had to apologise very profusely to the man from the Fire Brigade. Most embarrassing. However, it was all sorted and I left Mum and Dad's house in Barton totally bleepless.

Back in the village in Crete, all the summer visitors have left and we are loving the clear, sunny views of Mount Psiloritis (= Mt. Ida) and realise that it will not be long before the snows are back on the peaks. The sea temperature is beginning to cool now and today we luxuriated on a beach with only a handful of sunbathers. Late September and early October are wonderful this year and we are enjoying all the Autumn weather despite the leaves from the tree which need sweeping up each morning. School went back on 15 September, so there are fewer children playing in the square and chattering their way in and out of the little village shop. K spent today with thick, gloopy paint for the flat roofs slapping it on liberally to keep the house wind and waterproof for another year. We will see!!!

WALKING WOUNDED

Just to set the record straight, I have managed to recover my original Hotmail Account, which is a big relief because I have addresses and important information going back 15 or so years. However, it took four weeks and a great deal of effort on my part and the part of my brother who bravely filled in forms which I had dismissed as spoofs since they requested so much identification and credit card details (which I left blank and the form did not work, but which my brother left blank and seemed to work for him!) I wrote lots of big howlers to Microsoft in any box which appeared at the bottom of any page lamenting bitterly about the fate of hapless Hotmail victims and eventually at the end of August, my ID form was accepted. Hallelujah! The danger is that with all the Emails arriving daily which are either filed or deleted and the increasing passage of time, you have no accurate memory of Emails you received 2-3 weeks before everything collapsed. Happily, my brother remembered an Email he had sent to me and managed to retrieve it on his phone, and after this, we were in with a chance.

In the meantime, I opened a new hotmail account and a G-mail account and directed all the Emails from the Hotmails to my Gmail so that I will have a better chance of recovery next time around. All I have to do is take my own advice and keep a little hand written address book of everyone's Email addresses and try to keep it up to date. No wonder, I no longer have time to go to work every day! I will not burden anyone with the frustration of trying to open a Paypal account which is currently keeping me well exercised.

While all this has been going on, Croziers have been in the wars. A nice afternoon treat at water park a few weeks back triggered a fall on slippery paving which ended up in a swollen and brightly coloured ankle and foot. This has still not returned to normal. Leaning over the oven to put a tray away last week found me clutching at my back as something “pinged” and I have been simultaneously hobbling and limping for days now. Bother, bother, bother. Then, K tripped on lethal Cretan steps yesterday and bashed his knee – so both of us are bandaged up and look like wounded soldiers. This has caused great consternation/entertainment for all of our vocal neighbours! The focal point of their day is watching us climb into the car each morning and try to manoeuvre it around the door steps, railings, steep ledges and other miscellaneous hazards of the tiny square outside Kosta and Angelliki's cafeneon.

 Everybody at the cafeneon looks forward to their comic break, sitting in the shade of the mulberry tree and looking up from their tiny coffee cups to shout in chorus as we struggle backwards and forwards ... “ELLA, ELLA, ELLA”. (Come on, come on, come on!) A few dogs start barking and pigeons depart to other window sills in the noisy enclosed space. To be honest, we both find it off-putting, keep stalling the engine and look more incompetent every day. Such fun!!!  K is fast approaching a 'Skaz Moss' moment - Croziers around the globe will know what this means!

Anyway, enough of the grumps. We have had a nice few days getting out and about and the weather is producing some lovely cool September evenings which make it really pleasant to sit and watch the sun go down with stunning fire-burnished skies and the blue moon rise, huge and luminous over the mountain tops. Friday evening, we went to Georgopoli for the CIC (Cretan International Community) Extraordinary General Meeting which was called because we had lost two important Board members who had had to return to Holland and the UK respectively as a result of health problems. A new President and Vice President were voted in unanimously by 30 plus members in attendance and we are confident that the good fellowship, excursions and fund raising ideas will continue to flourish. On Saturday, we had promised some Austrians with a young son, who visit our village every summer, that we would take the kayak down to the harbour and they had a fun morning exploring round and about. The sea was a little choppy but they managed to capsize only once!

On Sunday, I met up with a car load travelling to the Anglican Church by driving for 20 mins to a mustering point and getting a lift another 45 minutes to Kefala, where the little English Church meets. It was lovely to get there, but is quite a mammoth journey to accomplish more than once a month encompassing a long trip along the highway, and over a mountain or two in a complicated route which looks different every time I do it.

Today, we had the CIC coffee morning at Camping Elizabeth and the sun shone, although we noticed quite a few dark clouds over the mountains signifying that the weather is now on the change.  It was a good opportunity to pass on another water melon which haven't quite come to the end of their season ...!

At 5 o'clock a Pool Party.  We were invited down the road by a new friend who has a lovely house and pool a short walk along the track towards Panormo. As her brother owns the house next door (also with its own pool) and we saw how lovely the two villas were inside, I wondered whether the brother's house was ever available for rental and guess what? It is. We will get details of its website, if anyone is interested in staying in a lovely villa with all mod cons only 7 minute walk away from us.

Enough for tonight, the wounded soldiers need to get some sleep! Kali-nichta!