ELECTIONEERING

Passion Flower - Easter Sunday

  As far as the locals are concerned, there is no sense of irony whatsoever in two of the village men arriving on Saturday with a wheelbarrow full of whitewash and brushes to paint the fronts all the old stone houses and decrepit walls all around the oldest part of the village. K and I looked at one another and realised that election time is near. First of all a weeding and strimming party circled the lanes of the village for a tidy up and then the whitewash! This always seems to happen before the election takes place for the new Mayor and a community wash and brush up is always a good way to gauge community feeling. The paint mix was thin and the coating fairly rudimentary but it is so much more effective and useful than knocking on doors and doling out pamphlets! We notice that the kafeneon of our dear friends Kostas and Angeliki got special treatment with a large white circle painted around the mulberry tree on the roadway outside the kafeneon because that is where their little table and a few chairs live in the hot summer months.

Our scruffy decorator!

Meanwhile the swallows are all busy with their young in nests, tucked away under the eaves and in porches of the houses hereabouts. One nest is perched precariously on the junction box of an electricity cable on the house opposite and we spend quite a few moments watching the comings and goings of parent birds as they sit on their eggs and try to keep their strength up by taking off now and then to catch a few flying insects. Then they sit on the electric wires and chatter loudly. Just one bird seems to sound like a whole crowd of them.

Prayer requests in Panormo

Christos Anesti!  Aliethos Anesti!  After having to make do with the Sunday Service on Radio 4 for some time, I actually got to Church Proper last Sunday, the week following Easter. The door of the little church in Panormo usually open and can be visited for quiet time which is nice, but it is not like belonging to a church family. The English Church is about 40 miles away and not easy to find, so it was lovely that a bilingual friend, Martha wanted to visit the church and once she knew where it was, offered to drive a couple of us there. I picked up Ann and parked in the Marina Car Park in Rethymno. Martha met us there and drove to the Apokoronas. It was sunny and cloudy all the way there, thundered and lightening'd throughout the service, and was sunny all the way home in the car. The poor vicar had to shout to make his voice heard above the heavy rain as it beat down on the tented area. I was bemused to see that they were having their APCM after the service and, having given advice to many beleaguered PCC Secretaries in my former life about just such meetings, was very glad to make a rapid exit! If I had stayed, I would have probably have been tempted to interfere. I did take a free copy of the European Anglican though, which made interesting reading.

Easter meal out in the Arcouda Kipo = Bear Garden!

Back home, the terrace looks much better with some new soil and plants in the terracotta pots and a coat of paint on the front walls. The garden chairs have been given a wash down and we wait expectantly for some reliable sunshine, but it is a bit slow in arriving this year. The weather has been undecided for a few weeks now. After the success of the scream (screen) door (see blog for 2012 when we could have started a whole new business), K set about constructing a screen for the window so that we can keep out the insects in the summer but also use the quick release mechanism in case of violent summer storms which mean that the screen frame can be taken down and the windows closed to keep out the rain. All the methods we have tried so far (new each year) have not given us this option, so we are working on a new design for 2014. The shading canopy for the terrace had been soaked and washed after the neglect of last year but still looked terrible, so we need to work on a better scheme for the roof terrace and find a design which stands up to the strong winds and harsh sunlight. As there isn't much at the moment, it is not our first priority.

We had our first supper get-together for a long time on Wednesday and cooked a meal for Liz and her sister, Steph. Liz has come every morning to give K his heparin injection or to teach me how to do it when she is not available. Every morning for 5 months is a real gift of time and commitment and we were indebted to her. K's DVT seems to be better, at least, so that is something to be very grateful for. We await an appointment to see the Neurologist to see whether he is likely to get any improvement in the leg, which is dead from the knee downwards and will see the Professor of Urology at the Hospital next month to discuss radiotherapy. It was with great relief that I boxed up all the disinfectants, disposable gloves, Betadine, wound dressings and first aid stuff that we have been using for the past few months and put them away upstairs for the time being. All the supplies have been fairly costly, plus 75 euros every 20 days for the injections (this is 25% of the real cost) and which all mounts up in financial terms.

Last of the wayside flowers!

There have been various forms of admin to deal with as well. Social Security IKA books needed some sort of adjustment (we take them to the Doctor with us every time and it affects treatment and costs for prescriptions) and went back and forth between us and the office twice, the French Government are still wondering whether I am alive and writing to my father's address in England instead of our address here to find out. We have an issue over the phone bill which will mean a trip to OTE in Rethymnon to sort out and another trip to the Health Centre in Perama to sort out K's next lot of prescriptions. It takes a lot of juggling with diaries and calendars to keep on top of it all.

I still have not had a swim this year and I need the exercise badly, but it won't be long now, we hope.

Kalomina!