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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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!
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