THE WRONG SORT OF CRACKERS

Greetings from chilled and wintry Crete. It had to happen eventually and the rains which had evaded us all year arrived a few days before Christmas with a vengeance along with violent crashes of thunder and lightning turning to sleet and snow over the past 48 hours! Fortunately, we had all our winter stores in and a good supply of logs, so we were as well prepared as possible. The biggest problem from our point of view is the power supply which cuts out very frequently during cold weather and needs someone to go out to the electricity meter and push a small red button to switch it all back on again. Through some antiquated rearrangement of our house and the one next door, our meter is on our wall which borders their garden, so we need to get into next door's garden to access the red button. Since that house has been empty, the gate has been locked shut, so we need to release the lower bolt and … sort of … break in two or three times a week, usually in driving rain. This is all highly inconvenient, so we made enquiries to get the meter moved. The electrician would charge us 100-200 euros for doing the work; the electricity company would charge us 500 euros for connecting it all back up again and doing next to no work. Such are the ways of living here and we are used to it. I could get into the whys and wherefores of getting a house that was legal five years ago, legalised due to a change in the law of property in the meantime, but it is all too expensive and depressing at the moment and Greece is too much in debt to worry about insignificant details like the passing of retrospective laws.

We had tried to think of something new to do over Christmas and, as previous Christmases had been reasonably warm and sunny, a short trip to the South of Crete seemed like an adventurous plan. We booked an apartment and tried to contact various tavernas in advance of our trip to see if we could book a table for our Christmas lunch and got no reply (which should have warned us) but the lady renting out the villas said that there would be a few places open. Short answer, there were not. Not on Christmas day, which would be spent with families (who can blame them?) The apartments we had booked were very nice, the owner turned up with a small Christmas tree for each of us on arrival and was very sweet. We had all sorts of bother trying to get the door locks to work and, as the weather closed in, we sat rather grimly in front of a radiant fire watching Greek TV, wondering what we were doing there. By some fluke of second sight, I had taken a scratch meal with us in foil containers which we put in the landlady's oven and cooked for 45 minutes after a bowl of mushroom soup and by some miracle it turned out OK. We had bubbles, we had loads to eat and mince pies to follow. It was OK but not really Christmas as we know it, although the discussion over crackers caused a bit of hilarity. We had crackers, but not the exploding kind.

Boxing Day was a bit brighter and we set off to the Youth Hostel in Plakias.  This has the accolade of being the best in Europe … and I can see why. It is in a lovely spot in amongst ancient olive trees which look like characters from “Lord of the Rings”. We were amused to see one of the notices attached to a tree which said “Please do not smoke in the hammocks!” (obviously put away for the winter as all we could see were olive trees.) The Plakias Lending Library were having a Boxing Day Party at the Youth Hostel and we met up with a goodly number of ex-pats who were in the mood for celebrating. Loads of buffet food and glasses of wine later, and armed with our raffle prize, we enjoyed our morning and scouted around to see one or two places open. Our saving grace was the Bakery Cafe on the corner with wonderful views of the snow covered mountains on one side and the sea at the other fringed with Tamarisk trees bent double in the cold winds. The kindly Baker opened every morning and we shared space with the elderly gents, all well wrapped in scarves and coats, who turned up early each day to drink their little “elleniko” coffees and yarn away for an hour or two. A large farm 4x4 truck pulled up to give one of the fellows a lift home and after a quick discussion, the Baker went out with a plastic bag and gathered armfuls of mandarins from the back of the truck to fill the bag. Returning to the cafe he put one orange in front of each person sitting. It made my Christmas because the fruit was straight from the tree smelling and tasting gorgeous. The Cretan version of a Christmas stocking!

Christmas goodies arrived in time for the New Year!

As there was a fine weather window on 27^th Jan, we decided to head for home early. All the forecasts were for the temperatures to go very low and for lots of snow, so we thanked and paid the lady, packed up our Christmas stuff and left earlyish to get home just after lunchtime. We were so glad we did this because back at home, the early thunderstorms had tripped the main fuse box in the house and as soon as we turned everything back on, there was an ominous bleeping from the freezer!

However, all was not lost as everything defrosted was lovely and cool and has been cooked between Christmas and New Year.    2017 will begin with a fresh start. 

Chronia Polla … Happy New Year to you all.

YEAR END

Just last week we were puttering along through the olive groves in the sunshine weaving around large 4x4 trucks parked on either side of the road where the terraces of olives grow right down to the road-side. Indeed, this is a new road cut through prime olive growing land, so we are travelling through the thick of Milopotamos Olives. The open backed trucks sported all the trappings of the olive picking season: plastic crates, frayed baskets, big black nets, sacks and barrels, generators and long sticky whizzing things stacked in the corner along with trident like forks for hooking the leaves and branches and disgorging the olives. To be honest, the weather had been so dry that the olive crop looked to be very small this year, but everyone was out while the weather was fine to gather in what there was. Up until 30 November, we were surprised each day that the weather was blissfully sunny and fine. 

 Not until the last day of November did things change. The winter storm clouds gathered and the rains came with a vengeance with crashes of thunder and lightning flashes to cut out all the electrics momentarily before cutting back in again. It does havoc with the internet and anything happening on the laptop! However, we are masters at quickly unplugging everything we can reach because we have heard of households who have lost every piece of electrical equipment after a lightning strike! Scary!

Sleep is always very disturbed while the deluge is on. Water spouts from the flat roofs cascade into the alley ways below and pipes gush rivers of water down the hill. It’s a jumbo version of Japanese water torture. Driving the car, even on the National Road is a bit of an adventure with large lakes and rivers plunging down from the escarpments, washing rocks, mud and other slippery debris across the road. Usually police cars patrol up and down to slow the traffic to a reasonable speed but there are still lots of mad drivers going way too fast. Using a slower moving car as a pilot is a good way to deal with the conditions. In this way, you get a preview where rivers and plumes of water are likely to cause problems before you reach them. The rain has cooled the temperatures down rapidly and the mountains have disappeared between their grey cloud blanket for a goodly while. Boo Winter!

Cold weather means lighting the fire and doing stay-at-home things. Making Christmas cards and putting a new sewing machine through its paces. We have been doing a lot of home cooking and baking and have been busy round the house to keep the circulation going. It is amazing how quickly we turn from sandal weather to double socks and crocks attire!

Since many of our number are returning to Blighty for the Christmas season, many groups will organise early Christmas parties to catch people before they fly home. Therefore next week will be Christmas Party Fest with something happening nearly every day! I am soundly ignoring 2^nd December which is supposed to be my “Name Day” in Greece, because it is much too close to the festive season to get attached to.

Each time K visits the little kafeneon … nearly next door, he arrives home with a pocketful of oranges or mandarins. These are a free gift from Kostas, who must have orange trees somewhere, although we have never really found out where his trees and “zoa” (animals) live. We had a great afternoon last week pollarding the tree outside the house and, as Tassos (who is painting the house next door before his family move in) had borrowed our step ladder, we needed help from other people. Niko the Wood backed his ancient 4x4 Toyota (30 years old but still going strong) directly under the tree and started sawing bits of branches off. Then Tassos appeared with the step ladder and climbed further up the tree to do a bit of lopping under Niko’s loud, shouted instructions while we picked up the twigs as they rained down on our heads. Our friend Steph and I stripped all the leaves from the branches and put them in buckets for Angeliki’s goats. Finally, all the wood and sawdust was swept up and thrown in the back of the truck to be taken to the garbage bins at the edge of the village. It was great to have got that job out of the way and not have loads of dead leaves to sweep up every morning. By next Spring, the tree will have grown back as strong as ever and will make a handy umbrella of shade outside the gate.

Local produce!

This morning is the first time I have woken up to a cold start and realise that the woolly hat and bedsocks need to be sorted out. We are so glad for a good supply of logs this year and our trusty log burner. Kalomina! Keep warm in December!

CHANGING SEASONS

 Now is the time to look out fleecy dressing gowns and winter clothes because after a long, hot, dry summer we are now feeling the change of temperature in the mornings and evenings – even if the days are still remarkably warm for late October. Our vine has confused us completely by dropping all its dry and dusty leaves and sprouting new growth at the end of the old wood at the same time.

One morning during the week, I was woken by a pneumatic drill outside the house and wondered why the electricity company was excavating the foundations of the telegraph pole outside the house. As the water supply and the electricity seem to go on and off without the slightest warning at frequent intervals, we are used to the utility companies doing strange stuff at will. Anyway, for some reason, they have done this to all the telegraph poles in the village, I'm not sure that anyone really knows why. By co-incidence, there was an enormous explosive crash immediately overhead later the same morning and, convinced that the telegraph pole had crashed down on the house, I raced up to the roof … only to find a clear blue sky, fluffy white clouds and all well with the world. We think it was either a supersonic boom or some sort of air force manoeuvre going on. Every one we know, wherever they were, thought that the sound came from immediately overhead. It was deafening.

Some lovely friends arrived for a holiday in Crete during October and admonished us for saying that the weather was so much cooler since they had weighed down their luggage with lots of warm jumpers! It was hard to explain that the weather (still in the high summer values of the UK) was cold by comparison with the summer just past and that, after a few years of healthy Cretan diet that our blood was much thinner and we felt the cold more easily! I think, however, that there were a still few times when they were glad of some extra layers. Steve and Liz were last here when K was stuck in hospital and we felt forever grateful for all the help they gave us then right in the middle of their holiday. It is wonderful to have such good friends. As our old car was still available, they managed to get out and about, as well as travelling down to Kato Zachros and round the South Coast of the island for a week or so and had a great time. It was fun for us to have some laughs and catch up with all the news from home.

 Our Greek conversation class at Achlade, a nearby village, is progressing well with Dimitra, our teacher. She is so patient with us and I am trying to learn by heart the phrases which we are writing and practising every week. I think my brain is just not as retentive as it used to be, because I seem to forget stuff so quickly and have to revise a lot. We have been bringing questions with us to the class about buying zips, getting coats dry cleaned and waterproofed, paying phone bills and asking for help and directions. Progress is horribly slow. Marina at Vinzi's Coffee Bar in Panormo always looks so amused when she wishes me a good afternoon and after a long pause for brain cudgeling, I eventually respond with “επισεs” (and the same to you!) It's pathetic when foreigners learn English so easily.

We have been partying in the village and the arrival of a new English lady living close by and her relentless energy meant that we had a street party in the small square outside the kafeneon of Kosta and Angeliki last Sunday. Lots of people were galvanised into action: one family brought the village trestle tables and chairs (a collection of hundreds - usually used for village parties and weddings) delivered to the right place the day before the event and collected the day after. A great village resource, which we wished we had known about when we moved here. However, you live and you learn! Five of us gathered round a collection of work tops and prepared salads, the men from the local Albanian families produced two huge barbecues and a lively meal of meat, bread salads wine, raki and cake ensued so that Steph could thank the locals for their kindly welcome. It was lovely. The little girls of the families jumped up when some Cretan music was put on the turntable and put on a performance, the barbecue went well and we all enjoyed ourselves.

After bitter experience with all-night festivities of Greek weddings at the local Kentro where traditional music keeps us awake and we resort to sleeping with ear plugs, we realise that our choice in music varies considerably! We had to share our amusement at differing taste across the nations. Aegean Greek music, much enjoyed by the “Brits” with its beat and melody left our Cretan neighbours completely cold, but some Cretan lyra music woke them all up with sighs of appreciation and the move to stand up and dance. As there was a friendly Scottish lady in our number, we tried out the Scottish Country Dancing CD a bit later on and did a few rounds of the 'Gay Gordons' (or whatever they call it these days) for good measure, but it seemed to produce the movement for all the villagers to rise from their seats, clear tables and get ready to leave. It is not the first time across our years in Greece we have noted that Scottish dance music has had this unfortunate effect!!! However, we all had a great time.

A few of us did the trek to Church in the new car last Sunday. The weather was still very hot and it was good to catch up with our fellow parishioners (albeit so far away) and hear about the plans they have for Christmas. The car made the journey really comfortably and it was a great opportunity to have long 'putting the world to rights' chats on the journeys to and from Kefala.

There are still loads of tourists in the big towns but things are slowing down and cooling down week by week. The hot weather lasted just until 28^th October, Oxi Day – long enough for the village school children to march to the memorial in the big Square and since then we have battened down the hatches for some very welcome rain. All the farmers and gardeners are delighted and we have excavated our wellies for the forthcoming torrents!   Let Winter commence!

SMOKEY SEPTEMBER

On 23^rd September, Pa and Ma Crozier had been married 44 years and considering all the adventures of recent years, each new year is given over to celebrating just being here. We decided to backtrack to The Emerald Hotel in Plaka which we had visited briefly in June and rebooked for a few more days over a long weekend.

In addition, we took delivery of a new (to us) car which came our way almost by accident but which was being offered by an English couple returning to the UK and being sold at a reasonable cost. We thought we would have a problem selling our little faithful run-about but there have been two or three interested parties, so things may work out happily all round. Anyway, we took the new car through its paces to Plaka – across a couple of mountains and down lots of hairpin bends to the coast and it performed beautifully. We were alarmed to hear that the original owners had it cleaned and valeted every two weeks and felt obliged to clean it on our arrival home in case it had been splashed by sea spray. We will try to keep it up, but life being what it is …..

Until last week the hot, dry days had continued and we were roused one afternoon by the sound of a helicopter zooming back and forth carrying a telltale bucket of water to deal with brush fires on the mountains. Four or five trips by the helicopter fire service banished the fire which we could see from the terrace on the distant hills disappearing into smoke and steam, but the following night, a larger and more serious fire took hold near to Rik the Builders house, but it was put out after an hour or so by two helicopters working flat out. The following day, everyone was relieved to welcome the first shower of rain for months to cool everything down a bit.

So now the weather is much cooler, which is rather nice. The second visit to Plaka at the end of the year meant that the gardens were less flowery, the hotel staff much more exhausted and the morning croissants slightly less crispy (!) we are getting a bit too fussy in our old age, but we had a wonderful rest and were glad to escape from the village where there seems to be massive amounts of activity now that the weather is on the change. When we arrived home, Kostas and Angeliki from the kafeneon had been hacking leaves off the lower branches of our tree outside so that the goats could get some fresh stuff to eat and most of the branches had been reduced to bare sticks. In a few days, we will need to set about pollarding all the branches and gathering up everything for disposal. Sadly the wood does not burn at all! Yianni the Painter finished waterproofing the roofs over one weekend, just before it rained and we felt to be ahead of the game for this year at least.

Sister in law Anna is beginning to get really fed up with being held up at home until the hardware is retrieved from her broken ankle and can only manage limited hopping on the “good” leg, whose knee is barely recovered from the last breakage. It is all very frustrating and in many ways a waste of the best part of a year. We hope that physiotherapy gets her up and moving as soon as the Doctor gives the go ahead and Anna is back up to speed again.

Our Makers Group meets at the Kimolia Cafe in a secluded little square in Rethymnon every Thursday at 11.00 am.  Makers and other friends have come up trumps with all the drawstring bags which we wanted to make for the children at the Autistic School when we next buy supplies for them. My old manual sewing machine inherited from my grandmother has developed a loud squeak from its hard work and I am wondering whether there is still anyone who would be able to service it for me in this age of electricity! K suggested WD40, but I have my doubts. Anyway, I now calculate that we have thirty (either made or on their way), so bravo to everybody who helped.

Uta, Carole, Femke, Anne, Steph and Trish busy making ...

Crete has two growing seasons, so after the long, hot summer and a few refreshing September showers many plants which have sizzled in the hot sun send up shoots and start to grow as if it is Spring again. In consequence, the garden and the outside stretches of the house all need a good “Autumn” cleaning to get rid of the Summer dirt and dust and changeover of furniture. The porch table and chairs are folded away and the pallets arranged ready for winter logs. All the dead leaves from the tree outside have to be swept into huge bags and retrieved from behind the big flower pots and dark corners where the wind lodges them. A few pots will need fresh plants and just cleaning the upstairs and downstairs terraces takes the whole of the day.

The tourist clientelle has changed now that all the schools are back, so that most of the tourists are our age (= over 60s) and enjoying the chance to enjoy less crowded beaches, set off on lovely country walks and take things in a leisurely way. We are vastly amused to see hired cars negotiate the very narrow alley ways as far as the small kafeneon and try to get any further. Whichever way they turn from the little plateia (tiny square), there is no way through, so watching them speed past along a narrow track always means that we nod to each other with knowing grins and, lo and behold three minutes later they reappear, very flustered trying to reverse their way out again. We really do need to put some “No Through Road” signs up but it would spoil all the fun. Very occasionally, the occupants ease out of the car bringing their maps with them and stop for refreshment before summoning up the energy to find their way out of the maze! When I first set off by car, I was heartily embarrassed and intimidated at directions given by at least three people seated around the little square all shouting at once. It reminds me of the day we bought the chairs, but that is another story and how much has changed since then.

Kalo dromo! Go to the good!

SCORCHIO!

A couple of nights this week have cooled down with breezes through the open windows and we unearthed thin woollen blankets for the early hours when a single sheet is just not quite warm enough. Although the days are lovely, the hillsides are now the colour of burnt earth. What a relief that it will be getting cool enough to get some exterior painting on the go without the poor person on the ladder burning to a crisp and the paint drying on the brush.

Yianni the painter just dropped by the house and asked; did we want to have the roof painted on Sunday (his day off!). A resounding reply, “Yes, please!” from us came back without hesitation as the Autumn rains can't be far off, the swallows have already left and we noted long lines of geese flying in formation this week from East to West on their migration. We have the paint supplies all ready and Yianni has helped us this year paint both upstairs and downstairs so that we look half way respectable at last. Yianni has been taught, by my earstwhile husband, a few words in English which he greets us with every time he sees us. “Hello baby, are you with anybody, do you drink red wine?” This greeting is always followed by a quick smack from me in the direction of earstwhile husband and the query, “why on earth couldn't you teach him something a bit more useful?” Anyway, we have been made over a bit; disposed of some clutter and the walls look good – albeit temporarily – until the coatings catch a load of winter dampness and slide off the walls again. It all makes work for the working man to do! K is negotiating already (even while the daytime temperatures are scorching) for the winter wood supply. We're well in the groove now!

All in all it has been a bit of a week. Our feet haven't touched the ground and long, lazy days on the beach are almost a distant memory back to our first summer here. Last weekend, our friends Mike and Felicity celebrated their Ruby Wedding with a huge barbecue and instead of gifts requested donations to the Red Cross. Their village priest is a Red Cross volunteer and initiated a great round of Greek dancing and with many of their friends over from England, we had a wonderful evening.

Unbelievably, sister in law Anna fell down at home for the second time and having just recovered from a broken knee and gaining a bit of confidence to get out and about again broke her other ankle in two places. She has been in hospital for 12 days, bolted and plated and the hospital has been good, but its terribly boring. Thank heavens Rik the Builder was working nearby and able to come to her rescue when it happened.

There must be an EU Plum Mountain somewhere which landed in the middle of our village last week. An overwhelming supply of dessert plums arrived in crates and were stacked outside the taverna in the Square. Apostoli, the Mayor, urged everyone to take one or two crates and we have all been bottling plums and devising (in my case) some DELICIOUS plum sauce. Bring on the crispy duck! We still haven't finished all the bottled peaches from last summer, but it has reminded me to get them out of the cupboard and use them before it is too late.

Then we have a new arrival in the village, Liz's sister Steph, who can turn her hand to anything and is trying to earn a bit here and there by decorating, tiling and furniture construction. We have been trying to help her settle in a bit and find her way about. By some miracle, she has two decent jobs already - painting the school and helping paint another large house. Quite an achievement for a newcomer in this village.

If this wasn't enough excitement (for a small, sleepy village) a new car for us turned up unexpectedly as some people we know are returning to the UK and need to sell their motor. The bureaucracy will take us most of the day on Monday with photocopies of all our ID and car documents which are entered into the system and then getting each other back to their respective homes once it is all complete. Steph is very interested in our old runabout, which would be a very practical motor for her and solve quite a number of problems in sourcing and getting supplies for work. RESULT!

K and I had just realised that it had been AGES since we had spent a day on the beach and were tentatively making plans when a phone call came to scotch that idea and I had to jump in the car and drive to Rethymnon. However, I stopped off on the way back at Panormo and K took his trusty quad bike down the steep slopes to the Limni beach. Kostas who runs the taverna there was so glad to see us after months of absence that he sent over an extra bottle of Retsina as a free gift. So nice of him, but we really had had enough already and it made getting home a bit worrisome. It meant spilling some accidentally on purpose to drive home in one piece.

Near Georgopolis - not Panormo!

The beaches are still full, mostly retired tourists at this time of year. I was mightily amused by Grigoris, our taxi driver, when he said that the elderly folk who came early and late in the season were easily the best customers as they usually gave generous tips! Basking in such appreciation and September sunshine, we leave you to your September pursuits and wish you a very Happy Autumn!

FAST TROT

Greetings. What a long time it has been since the last blog. In that time, we have tried to do all sorts of exciting things but have been a bit hampered by a few bugs and nasties. But enough of all that for now.

Crete has been hot, hot, hot for the summer holiday period and water is beginning to run a little short because the supply is diverted to the hotels and complexes nearby the beaches to ensure visitors' holidays go well. This means that villages in the interior can have unexpected water cuts at any time. There are plenty of alerts for forest fires and the hillsides are crackling and desiccated in the long hot days. After five years of living here, we are now used to this and always have at least 4 great containers of water for emergencies at any given time and the hosepipes on standby (for fires anyway). The small bridge over the stream where the bamboo used to grow has been completely bulldozed and a new bridge built. This must have accounted for some of the water cuts and we wonder if the job will ever get finished as the road surface is extremely bumpy still. However, as Pa and Ma Crozier have had long term tummy bugs during this period, things have been a bit dicey and we are in the process of getting ourselves checked out, in case it is something out of the ordinary. Five weeks and counting is over the top for these sorts of complaints. Ma Crozier spent two of the five weeks in the UK and had a miserable time formulating an appendix to the Lonely Planet Guide to the loos of Devon and Staffordshire, whilst on the move.

Here in Crete, Panormo is ultra full and busy, our village is full and busy. The square is full of newish cars with top boxes which means that people are staying in the village for August holidays. We have just returned from a meal at the big kafeneon in the Square, where Christina, the Mayor's wife and Vasso, her daughter in law have cooked us a lovely meal of chicken, fried potatoes and salad and explained that she had been up early this morning cooking a variety of breakfast for 18 people simultaneously. Everybody wanted something different. Busy, busy, busy but good for getting the bills paid! By contrast, Perama was practically deserted this morning because all the locals were at the Monastery in Margarites for Panagyri.

We braved Rethymno on Thursday because K needed to have his big three monthly hormone jab (eeeek!) and I attempted to attend Makers Group which seemed to have been shouldered aside by some other display of crafts meaning that our table was not available and people kept turning up and leaving again as there was nowhere to sit. Several weeks back, the Makers had agreed to put together some brightly coloured drawstring bags with patchwork pockets so that the next time the CIC makes a presentation to the Autistic School, we can present the personal items/toiletries/art materials wrapped in items to make the gifts a bit more individual and special. I have made eight so far and I think we need about 30. Early in the morning, we met up with long term friends Dimitri and Michelle and their daughter Kiki – not having seen them for 12 years since their move to Luxembourg. It was great to catch up. Later on Thursday evening, we were honoured to be invited by the family of Geoff Hope to the committal of ashes down at the sea's edge in Bali at sun down. It was the most beautiful evening with shadows over the hills and a light breeze. Sad times, with a family and loads of friends who will miss him for a long time to come. The evening went well and livened up with a beautiful meal for many guests and Greek dancing at the village taverna in Exantas later on that evening.

As for the UK, it was interesting to spend time in Staffordshire and Devon. I had three magnificently sunny days staying with a good friend in Totnes and going to talks at Dartington at Ways With Words. The shopping in Totnes was brilliant with very few chain stores and lots of independent traders – a full array of tea shops, coffee shops and arts/crafts/sewing stores. I was in my element, apart from the tummy situation and we even managed to squeeze in a visit to a wonderful pottery in the back of beyond and an amazingly attractive lady artist – who was once the model for Picasso! Meanwhile, poor K was stuck at home doing very little at all.

Once back in Stone, I took myself off to the Pottery Museum in Stoke on Trent to see what the UK had to offer to compare with all the marvellous museums in Greece. The train journey from Stone was a bit of an adventure and I seemed to get embroiled in the adventures of two people delivering vehicles for a living, who has missed a vital train and wondering whether they would get home before midnight.  Not wishing to share taxis or delay any longer I raced to the taxi rank to get a ride from the station to the Museum and spent 20 minutes trying to get the driver to identify which Museum I wanted to go to as there are an array of museums to choose from.  When I got there, I hoofed around murky rooms full of a quantity of highly embellished stuff in dark sticky looking glazes. Literally thousands of cow creamers and ugly vases. Crinoline ladies, shepherdesses lined up in their dozens, teapots and plant stands filled every corner. Venturing into another room to see the Staffordshire Hoard was enticing but this surely could not possibly have been the full collection of the Hoard. What I saw was miniscule and needed magnifying glasses to examine the pieces properly. At the risk of being labelled an 'Archaeology Snob', I will say no more than it was a bit disappointing. Note to Self: Try the Wedgewood Museum next time.

On my return to Crete, the deadline to download Windows 10 caused consternation. Our perfectly good computer was whirring all night and downloaded 99% refusing to go any further. So we are still running on the 'old' system. If it all goes quiet for a lengthy period, it is because we are both still scratching our heads and trying to decipher advice from the “Help Community”. All this unnecessary stuff is keeping us at full stretch!

Wishing you a very good Summer wherever you are.

NOT OUR FINEST HOUR

Welcome to Crete. I expect you will be sick of Brexit fall out or speculation about the future of our nation, our currency, our international relationships while politicians in London grapple about for words or plans for the outcome of the referendum - which, it seems, was totally unexpected. Needless to say, people living here who regard themselves as British and European hoped to remain in the EU and never expected that everything would turn inside out at this stage of their lives.

For the first few days, we went through all the emotions of 48% of those back home .. disbelief, anger, bereavement over the spirit of Britain and eventually thanked God that we were living in austerity burdened Greece. In spite of living through desperate and increasing poverty here (pensions are now one third of what they were five years ago), Greek people have never stopped looking after each other or the thousands of refugees arriving on their shores to the best of their ability. The danger of this journey and the camps where refugees are housed convince them that no one would attempt it unless they were absolutely desperate. They have not stopped reaching out. When we first arrived in Crete and went to pay our first Water Bill, the clerk listened as K explained that we had bought an old stone house in need of renovation and planned to settle here forever. The young man stretched out his hand and said “Congratulations and welcome!” Though born and educated in England, this sense of welcome had never been extended to K in his life before. It puts the blinkers of many Brits into sharp comparison. All the expert advice about Brexit was soundly ignored. A campaign based on big fat lies won a very hollow victory by a vote backed by a political leadership, no more stable than a house of cards. The worst result is that racism and bullying are now deemed to be acceptable among those people who believe that they have won “their country back”. The cosy Miss Marple idea of their 'Britain' has nothing to do with reality; Britain has been invaded by waves of incomers before the times of the Romans and Vikings for millennia and the illusion is blinding them to the value of communities made up of all their parts, no matter who or from where. So many of the real issues of concern like oversubscribed schools and getting medical appointments in these hard times will not be helped in any way by leaving Europe and needed to be sorted out by national and local government. The best we can say is that Britain scored a home goal, but let's not talk about the football either!

Meanwhile there are many Greeks who are openly envious of the Brits' escape and wish they had left Europe five years ago, so it is good to have given them a bit of a lift!

Anyway, we cannot do anything and are having to leave exchange rate changes and health care worries on the back burner. We need to stay positive at the moment because Crete is welcoming lots of tourists this year and it is the growing season. All the shops and wayside stalls are full of wonderful greek salad fare, melons, fruits and the grape vine clinging to the front fence has done us proud with pounds and pounds of lovely grapes.

We are also delighted to have had a visit from our son and girlfriend, which means we can go out and about a lot to see the sights and enjoy the very hot weather. We have been travelling about more widely recently, visiting folk at more distant parts of the island. Fathers Day in Plakas, near Vamos; shopping at the English shop at Litsarda called Greengibble for tea bags and my first visit to the Open Air Cinema in Rethymno to see the film “The Dressmaker”. It was one of Anna's first outings since the fractured leg and thoroughly enjoyed by us all.

So we have been consoling ourselves and overeating, enjoying the sunshine and trying to do as little cooking as possible in this fierce heat. Our plan is to visit Rethymnon and for the youngsters to mooch about the medieval town with its shady alley ways and pretty garden restaurants. Trips to Margeritas for ceramics and Lake Kournas as well as a bus trip to Chania are planned and all of these holiday jaunts are followed up by falling into the sea at teatime each evening to cool us down a bit. We thank our lucky stars that there are compensations to all this uncertainty.

For the UK, this has not been 'our finest hour', but hours pass and we resignedly wait for the next chapter of the drama.

BUSY GETTING NOWHERE

I wish someone could tell me how we ever found time to go to work. We have had our hands full each day this week, but seem to have achieved next to nothing, however we have had a lot of catching up to do after a few absences and the weather has been against us.

Of course, there is cleaning after rain storms or wind storms which leave either layers or streaks of dust all round the house and outside. When we first arrived in Crete, we were amused that the locals scuttled inside and closed all the doors and windows for a seemingly insignificant shower of rain or a few gusts of wind.  Now we know why and do just the same, as the dust blown in from Africa has made a few of us ill with nasty coughs and allergies this year.   Watering the plants, warding off insects and teaching snails to fly on top of all the day to day stuff all takes time. We groan each time another windy day brings thick clouds of dust our way over the mountains;  it means that everything will need cleaning again.

Mostly we find ourselves doing irritating admin jobs and queuing up in different places to pay bills. Now that Greek Easter has come and gone, the tourists are all here, masses of hire cars are on the roads (driving slowly right in the middle so no one can overtake them) and parking outside the supermarket is no longer possible. In addition, a new Police Chief has arrived from Athens and put up urban clearway signs and no parking instructions all round Panormo. There are also speed limit signs along the main road and more cameras. So we think that a fee generating exercise is underway to go with the reduced pensions and increased taxes. Bus stops along the main road are all crowded with large, lobster pink people wearing (or nearly wearing) very brightly coloured holiday clothes and, compared with all our neighbours who dress entirely in black, look odd by comparison. The little trains of all colours are chugging along the highways and byways taking holiday makers on tours into town or off the beaten track. All the trappings of high Summer are here!

Easter was spent at a traditional family kafeneon nearby. I had followed the flower covered bier with the big church cross and candles around Panormo with the large Good Friday procession.  On Easter Sunday, our lovely hosts cooked us traditional Easter dishes followed by music and dancing. It was lovely that they made such an effort to make it a special day for their guests. We started by playing “conkers” with hard boiled eggs dyed red and went on to eat and drink our way through a large variety of dishes. A young relative played lyra for us and the daughters of the family danced Cretan style.

The next week, we were supposed to be going on an Archaeological jaunt, but it all got too difficult to organise, so the main event had to be cancelled. A few of us decided to keep our hotel bookings and spent a jolly weekend away in the East of Crete at Sitea. It is smaller and not so busy as further West, and the place is great for us with a hotel right on the promenade with flat, easy access for tavernas, shops and cafes. Absolutely great for K who could stump along checking out the fishing, the boats in the harbour and enjoy the sunshine or the wind or the rain. We spent half an hour or so at the museum until a cross Irishman gave us a good telling off for being noisy! Oops, we felt like naughty second formers! Last visit, I climbed up hundreds of steps to the Church (which was closed) and this time I climbed even more steps to the castle (which was also closed) but it was good exercise. I gathered photos of artefacts and a few photo-plans for making furniture out of old pallets somehow knowing that we would never do it!

Ongoing projects: K getting his Greek driving licence renewed to drive his quad bike. He visited the Citizens Advice office KEP and they gave him a printed list of doctors to visit to get his eyesight checked and a general doctor to check his health otherwise. All these doctors are in Rethymnon in the centre of the busiest part of town, so we drove to the outskirts twice this week and Kimon jumped in a taxi which would be better able to brave the crowded city streets than I could (Gunga Din). He needs two medical reports, three cheques for different amounts made to codes which he hasn't been notified about, various photocopies, and some extra blood tests. It has taken four full days so far and he is still not finished. I want to ensure that I keep my Driving Licence for the UK and managed to renew it on line. So, as long as the internet behaves, that at least is much easier.

Last Saturday was spent baking all day in preparation for the Red Cross Coffee morning and on Sunday morning, armed with boxes of goodies we set off in good time. Half way along the road to Camping Elizabeth, I registered (with not quite good enough glasses) that the car's water temperature gauge had jumped well over the boiling point mark and great puffs of steam were coming out of the bonnet. Yoiks! We stopped at one of the petrol stations and telephoned a friend to see if we could get a lift. Monday was spent trying to get ourselves back to the car so that we could telephone a breakdown truck to get it taken to our local garage. The truck would not help us get to the car – so we had to phone our friend, yet again. That was another day gone but the car problem was not too serious after all. Yiorgos at the garage climbed about under the car and replaced a tiny hose at not too much expense. Praise God that the car is running perfectly again. We are relieved, but we know it is time to start looking for a new one.

Meanwhile, sister in law Anna is still laid up with a broken leg and not able to put any weight on it which means that she has missed Santorini, Sitea and Easter so far. All our mates have been good about dropping by, doing errands, bringing treats and stopping to chat, but it has been a long haul and after her second check up to the hospital on Tuesday, nobody could believe that the doctor had advised two MORE weeks of the same, after six weeks lying in state. Nightmare. We realise that between Anna and Kimon, the family seem to have acquired three sets of crutches and a wheelchair – which is almost the entirety of the CIC health equipment reserves. We need to replace at least one pair of crutches asap in case anyone else needs them.

Then in addition to Doctors, Dentists and Kosta Kosta our Optician (not Costapacket the UK Coffee Shop), we have had to make lots of repeat visits to shops to look for things. After the ship, port and ferry strikes of recent weeks, many of the big stores and supermarkets have had very bare shelves and Lidl was a ghost town. I have dropped into the one supplier in Rethymnon three times now to buy English tea bags, but the stock has run dry and we are stuck with Liptons Sawdust Specials for the time being.  Keeping up with whoever is on strike at the moment is also an issue; it was Lawyers and Accountants this week.

Ridiculous that such boring things keep us occupied for days on end. Busy, busy, busy getting nowhere. I expect you are too! Happy Days.

THERA, FIRA AND VOLCANIC DUST AND ASHES

I achieved a life long ambition when I visited Santorini with friends last week and saw for myself the black volcanic sand on the beaches and the picturesque domes and steeples built into the volcanic rock of the island. My tablet, camera and phone were all full of pictures which I will have a struggle to download successfully.

We had tickets for the high speed ferry which left Heraklion at about 9.00 a.m and reached Fira Old Harbour a couple of hours later. A transfer bus took us to our hotel, which through some fluke of good luck had been upgraded and we were delighted to be staying at a super place, with rooms around a lovely swimming pool serving good breakfasts and having the most helpful of staff. We couldn't recommend it enough. It was just far enough out of town along a flat, well paved road to give us a pleasant walk each morning looking over the Caldera.

Fira was a pleasant, but very busy place. Most of the up-market hotels and jewellery shops were there and obviously catered for cruise tourists who were there for a very short time and had no real concept of how much a euro was worth. Forsaking the gold shops offering items “For you, I make a special price” (!!!) and other clothes shops selling jewel encrusted flip flops at eye popping cost, we pressed on to find the bus station and work out how to get to the various spots we needed around the island.

Consequently, we found ourselves queuing for the 10.00 bus the following morning so that we could be at the Akrotiri Archeological site for 11.00 where Eugenia our lovely guide was waiting for us. It was a brilliant morning; the site covered a few acres – well roofed with firm walkways just above all the escavations. Real two storey houses, identifiable public buildings, streets, workshops, houses with furniture all preserved by tons and tons and tons and tons of volcanic ash. We walked through the town, it had indoor plumbing, it had a bank, of sorts – all amazingly cosmopolitan and sophisticated for 1700 BC. Remains of trees had been carbon dated to pin down the date of the immense earthquake and volcanic eruption which disrupted and had a detrimental effect on many of the civilisations and communities around the Mediterranean. No portable, valuable items were found or human remains. It appears that the inhabitants had managed to pack their valuables and get away from the town. There were several layers of buildings on top of each other indicating that there had been minor earthquakes and rebuilding prior to the big catastrophe which caused so much destruction.

We met up with some friends after our tour for lunch by the sea and had a marvellous meal of sea food spaghetti with conversation and discussion about the highs and lows of living in Santorini. Our hosts had bought a cave house at Red Beach and had worked and fitted out the interior with modern technology and coatings to a very high standard. I am ashamed to admit that this is the day that I forgot my camera and am also a bit worried that photos might be infringing some kind of publishing/copyright laws particularly of the artifacts in the museum.  

The next day we visited the Museum in Fira which was a jewel. It had enough wonderful and beautifully conceived ceramics, frescos (showing all the lovely colours of the various earth colours from round and about) – no jewellery in evidence. Well preserved furniture, beds, chairs, cooking utensils and metal working tools were displayed and labelled perfectly. The museum was just the right size with enough to see without being overwhelming. I would like to revisit some day!

A few of us jumped on a bus after this and made our way to Kamari – taking a trip down memory lane since my friends had first visited there 30 years earlier and were agog to see that it had changed so radically and they had problems recognising anything. We had a splendid walk along the water side looking at all the plush hotels being fitted up ready for the new season and picking up pumice stones from the beach of black sand. A cursory check later confirmed that we could not easily afford to stay in any the hotels for more than a day or two!  We thought that the 26 euros was money well spent the next day on a boat trip to see the Volcano, swim in hot pools and have a sea food lunch in a fishing village on the far side of the Caldera lake.

A trip to Oia is compulsory! We discovered that the bus service was brilliant and very good value to get about the island. The bus drivers seemed to cope with the narrow roads, obstructions and manoeuvring very skillfully and we were all amused when a young American tourist had parked her hired beach buggy on a corner which had jammed up the entire town. Hooting, shouting and general chaos reined! Most people go to Oia at sunset to take photographs of the sun setting, but we decided that we had masses of photos of Greek sunsets, so we went there on our last morning in Santorini (having packed our cases and paid our hotel bill) to eat Lolita's ice creams. I haven't eaten ice cream for a few months since gastric problems and ate two cartons in one morning! It was fabulous. Incidentally, Demitri who works there is looking for a wife – or so the notice on the wall says – so we paid for our indulgent fare and hoped that he would find one soon!

A rocky ferry trip home – in stormy seas and inhaling strong fumes of diesel - was a bit gruesome, or it might have been the ice cream, but we managed to get back on dry land and feel immediately OK for the drive back home.

Back in the village, there is more dust to clear up and Easter to prepare for. The villagers are all on a very strict fast during their Holy Week. No milk, no fat, no meat, - possibly vegetables and sea food are all that is allowed. They will certainly be ready to enjoy their Easter feast on Sunday.

Kallo Pascha!