HEATWAVE

As is often the case, when the rain comes down and the weather is horrible in the UK, by some law of meteorology, the weather is the complete opposite in Greece. We are in the midst of a heatwave and trying to muddle along from day to day by doing anything energetic or necessary as early in the day as we can. In such a simple design of house, I am often reminded of advice from the Bible about how to do things. K twice dropped a screw from his specs on the stone floor and declared it 'lost for ever'. (The second time it jumped out of his hands as he tried to fix his glasses). Remembering a story about a woman who loses a coin, I promptly swept the whole area, moved everything, and cleaned every corner and found the microscopic article in the dustpan each time. Great advice, read, learned and inwardly digested! I could write an entire article about the difficulty of finding an efficient, matching dustpan and brush in Crete, but I digress .. the books of scripture did not specify what sort of broom the woman used. Kimon will tell you what a temper tantrum I threw when I saw what I thought was a nice matching shiny blue dustpan and brush in the local store – all neatly encased in cardboard to keep them together – only to unwrap them and find a dustpan and a broom head which was wider than the mouth of the dustpan. I was furious! There are many and diverse brooms and dustpans in the shops but none of them match or work as well as those we take for standard in the UK.

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By 2.00 p.m., we have done as much work around the house as we can and it is time to put up the Siesta sign and have a rest while the sun is at its hottest. At one point I took the silvered window shades out of the car and fixed them over the living room windows with clothes pegs to keep out the mid day sun as far as possible and took them down again at sunset to try and keep the temperature down. We cheer ourselves by reminding each other that this time last year we were restricted to life inside four walls at the University Hospital and are glad to be free this year to spend the day as we choose to without queuing in hot, dusty waiting rooms.

As for the Greek financial crisis, we have seen little evidence of it first hand in Crete. The beaches seem to be very packed locally and people have braved all the untruths printed in the media about having to walk about with masses of cash and none of the services working properly. From our point of view, everything is working much as ever and we hope that things will continue so that the tourist season is a good one. The tavernas are all still serving delicious food and local wines. We have talked to lots of the tourists and asked they if they are having good holidays and they all have replied that it has been no different than previous years. We do wish the foreign press would get their facts right before turning a bad situation even worse. Tourism is one of the few industries that Greece is geared up for at the moment and vital to keep families afloat and people in work. The only change we have seen is the increase in VAT, but this did not seem to be burdensome, especially to tourists from abroad.

Kostas and Angeliki and other neighbours were discussing things in the nearby Kafeneon. They all have gardens and land to keep goats and chickens. All the gardens have masses of extra produce right now and they so wish they could get all this great stuff to their compatriots in the cities on the main land who are feeling the pinch. I puzzled about the logistics of making masses and masses of jars of pasta sauce with some of the overload and how to find ways that it could be shared. Food in jars, packets and tins is very much more expensive here and also, the raw materials of glass jars and other containers. Getting all the stuff together, processed and transported needs a bit of expertise. It must be possible, but time is marching on and all the produce will be long past its best by the end of the week if this heatwave continues. None of my neighbours would dream of buying packaged or tinned food – it is all fresh from their plots and they plant to have food the year round with two or three growing seasons. Our neighbour, Niko the Wood has been setting off early each morning to his roadside booth where water melons, honey dew melons, tomatoes, potatoes and other garden produce are set out for cars to stop and buy. We hope he makes enough money to help get through the lean winter time. There must be good scriptural advice also somewhere about storing foodstuffs during years with good harvests for years of famine. I must check.

K and I had a great swim in the sea today. Granted, it takes a good deal more planning than it did before, but he loved the freedom of walking without sticks and being suspended by the lovely salt water. We realise that we will need to think about a car that can cope with rough tracks though because access to handy swimming places is never easy. Then after a wonderful swim, adjusting to being held up by the water and emerging at the edge of the waves to normal gravity again is a crunch point. We were touched that lots of people stopped and offered us help because my shoulder alone wasn't enough. He felt so good afterwards – and encouraged, we will keep trying.

If you are suffering with moody blues and grey skies in Northern Europe, help your European neighbours and book a holiday to Greece! You will help shore up the economy, have a great time and the local businesses will welcome you with even more enthusiasm and hospitality than ever!