HELTER SKELTER

 After a very busy ten days in England, Mrs Crozier is back in Crete and her feet still haven't touched the ground. Pa Crozier nursed his sore tummy and stayed behind, and we hope it will be over the worst very soon.

I wanted to catch up with my Dad. He has been well placed in a nice nursing home after all his falls and mishaps last winter, and is very looked after beautifully by the staff and family. It would not be his first choice, but he is beginning to get used to it and seems happier now that he has Sky Sport available in his own space. Waited on hand and foot with wall-to-wall golf – what could be better? Predictably, he would not agree.

wet wipes from the surface of the washing machine

If anyone wants to persuade a friend of relative to give up smoking, they could have paid a visit to our little house in England that had been rented out to a rogue tenant and had only been re-possessed in June. I could not sleep a wink the first night there because the smell in the house was so horrible. Every piece of fabric needed to be laundered, blankets, sheets, curtains and carpets. Every hard surface was stained yellow and had to be washed down with sugar soap or redecorated. And even after this mammoth effort and windows and doors open for 10 days, there was still the odd sniff of nicotine which we couldn't eradicate. It was a truly horrible job and heaven knows what the rogue tenant's lungs look like. Our son, who gained possession a few weeks ago did not waste any time and just threw away most of our household items at the tip because of the smell and grime. Even though the house was not directly trashed, it was ruined slowly and surely by indirect means and we left a warm and comfortable home but would never want to return to it after all this. We were not surprised that the Open Day arranged by the Estate Agents did not attract any buyers until after it had been completely cleaned up.

On the plus side, my brilliant friends turned up in good heart and got to work with industrial carpet cleaners for a second go at the carpets, sorted boxes, took things to the charity shop and the tip and invited me for lovely meals during the week, which put on some spectacular weather while I was there. We left the house clean and tidy, with an empty loft, a tidier shed and a garden which dear Liz had forked over, weeded and cut back in a startlingly short space of time. My brother and his wife worked tirelessly to clear and chuck things away and gave me lifts all over the place. As friends and family go, I think I have the best ever.

Art Class - Tuesday

Once back in Crete, the pressure was still on. First we needed to get the tyres fixed on the car because their service over bumpy tracks was taking its toll - they seemed to be going down each week and needed pumping up. Our Greek MOT was also due, so we needed the car to be shipshape in preparation for that. We steeled ourselves to cope with Wednesday which was exceptionally busy paying the water bill, visiting the bank, getting the tyres fixed and meeting friends at Vinzi's all by 11.00 a.m. Impressed? We were. We also were under pressure to get our house tax paid, because the Greek Electricity Board which used to collect it, did not wish to any more, and we needed to collect a form from our Accountant. Botheration, it was much simpler with the Lekky Bill! Our Jobs to do list has had “Find an Accountant” at the top of it for the last year or so, but other matters have got in the way, so on Wednesday evening, we were introduced to a lady accountant in Perama and her son, who translated into English for us, while we puzzled out how to make up for our tardiness. We have to go back on Monday with lots of papers and 150 euros. It seems as if we have been giving away sheaves of money all week. She also insisted that we keep a large sum of money in a Greek bank, which we have avoided for quite a while.

The next day, we took the car to IKTEO for its MOT and it passed with flying colours. So tick another job done. I have never imagined such a luxurious vehicle testing station. Leather armchairs, spotlessly clean floors and loos, colour TV, coffee machine and a sweetie bowl on the coffee table. Lovely and cool, it makes having your car MOT'd quite an experience. K and I read the paper, looked at the Aloe Vera plants growing outside for BioHerb products and had quite a nice morning until we had to hand over the next 50 euros!

Aloe Vera cultivation for beauty products

We stopped in Panormo on the way home, because it was a spectacularly lovely day, with sparkling sunshine, not too hot and a calm sea. I jumped in the harbour for a quiet swim – once round the buoys and back to the shore feeling much better for the exercise.

We have to go to Heraklion tomorrow for K's next injection. He has not really recovered from the radiotherapy and his tummy is still not working normally which means he is stuck at home feeling helpless still and a bit sorry for himself. I will keep on with the horrible low residue diet for a while longer and hope he gets over the worst of it soon. So an hour trip to Heraklion for an injection is not top of his “want to do” list. I really hope the Doctors can suggest something to help him over the tummy upset stage.

The weather is on the change and rains will soon be here

So, its back on the road again tomorrow! Kalo dromo!

Post script. Car behaving better with new tyres. Drove all the way to Heraklion and queued to see the Doctor while loud alarms were going off and I wondered why. We needed to get a prescription for the injection and then have the injection. The noise was due to a cut in the power and put paid to the computers printing a prescription, so we had to get the Doctor to call our Pharmacist in Panormo and on a promise (for very expensive medicines) the Pharmacist agreed to get the supplies so long as we drove back to Heraklion on Monday with the packs from him to have the injection and to return to the Pharmacy with the prescription paper, once it could be printed out at the Hospital. Exhausted, stressed out, broke through petrol wastage, queues and bad temper? Ggrrrr!

AUTUMN BLESSINGS

September is here at last! A few clouds have appeared in the mountains and foothills and the nights are cooler. All of us who have endured a very hot summer are beginning to come alive again after keeping out of the baking sun for many weeks. K and I are so glad to be back home and resting after the hospital regime and he really is looking very well now. A normal diet will resume as soon as possible! I am also reading up on reflexology, because quite by accident, I realised how much it helped us both over the past few months to wallow in herbal footbaths and give massage for the bad leg but even more for the good leg which now does twice as much work.  It seemed to promote a sense of well-being and relaxation;  I think I will study a bit further.

We are beginning to get back into the swing of things and although I had three trips to the Dentist this week, the car developed an electrical fault and needed to go into the garage and my polarised driving prescription glasses had been lost over the period of hospital journeys. All these costs on top of everything else were very unwelcome, but all is done and dusted now. Costa Costa our musical optician made up my specs from my English prescription in 24 hours, the garage obtained the teeny tiny switchy thing required by the diagnostic computer and plugged it back in to make the car run more smoothly and stop cutting out when hot, and the dentist completed his excavations on Friday. I even managed to get to the CIC coffee morning and Art Class this week, so I have done quite well really and K will venture further when his tum settles down a bit. If you would like to see some of the art work we are doing in Kastellos, there is a website entitled Cretan Visual Arts where our teachers post up our work from time to time.

I will be back in the UK for a short spell to catch up with family there, so it may be a while before I can post the blog which is almost impossible by Kindle! However, K thought that it was about time that he said a few words or two … so ….

OK – lighten up guys. This me talking.

I have rarely been short of words, as many may tell you. They are indeed food to the soul and the stuff of dreams. I can understand M's deep fears that our new life in Crete could be cut short, and that she may have had to face a “volte face” (poor grammatical construction) and miss out on the freedom and peace that we came here to find four years ago. By now you have probably gathered that there is no such thing as a quiet village life in Crete. The talk is constantly of grapes, melons, lemons and goats. The volume is up to “police” (11) level in the Kafeneon down the lane. Everybody has their own opinion of how much water, when to harvest /prune and “how much per kilo will “YOU” get for your produce?

I was surprised to be engaged in conversation in the village square cafe regarding the Scottish threat to disembark from the English ship. The Elgin Marbles are also a perennial topic, as well as, of course, the EU and their treatment of the Greeks – Angela Merkel is regarded locally as akin to Mrs. Borgia. A village of farmers? Certainly; but every Cretan is a politician and substantially better educated and well read than the majority of folk encountered in England. (They are just more talkative than Brits ../m)

Meanwhile, the weather grows kinder. The temperature has dropped by 10 degrees Celsius today – so it is now around 28 degrees with a touch of cloud cover. Good fishing weather is closer. To make the most of this period - for three months - the canoe will be going in the water. Maybe I cannot drive, but I can paddle since my arms and shoulders are strong after a year on crutches. The downside is, I can probably only swim in circles and I will need help getting the canoe on top of the car. I have not been blessed to get my body wet yet ( … song coming on). It is a year since I immersed myself in the blessed ocean and closed my mind to the dry unforgiving light. Swimming in a dark and moonless sea is perhaps the most healing of all sleeps.

The weddings and Baptisms continue across the valley. Last night it continued until 6.00 a.m. and although the music was soft, the gunfire was LOUD! This spooked next door's dog again and the poor creature barked until sun up.

We had earthquake a few mornings ago. It was weird. The house grumbled as if with indigestion (or it could have been mine or M's). It shifted fore and aft for some 7/8 seconds only and M thought something was moving about in the wardrobe! What I remember from another earth tremor years ago is that before the ground, my bed and my gin and tonic moved, the birds and cicada stopped and there was a eerie silence. There was no word from them until the earth stood still again. These things make you feel rather small and insignificant. I think that this is important for us to remember.

I was told a story a few days ago by a lady in the village. An uncle of hers was always complaining about the fact that he could not afford shoes and that he had none. In the churchyard one day he met a squatting man who had lost his legs in the war and thus had no need of shoes. The uncle was never heard to complain again and walked happily barefoot thereafter.

So – Look, Smell and Feel the Warmth around You.

Life is Good.

X \ K.