Whilst all our friends
and family basked in wonderful February weather in the UK, the shift
in weather patterns brought two weather systems to Crete with dire
consequences. The ground already waterlogged by weeks of rain (on
and off since November) came under a very cold snap first and then
the most vicious cyclone on Monday and Tuesday this week which caused
widespread damage over the whole island to roads, bridges, water
services (to add insult to injury). Inside our house, the noise of
thunder and lightning kept us awake for two days and nights while we
tried to keep the force of water cascading into the house around the
window frames and through the kitchen and bathroom ceilings at bay.
The tiled terrace above the kitchen was a paddling pool and swooshing
the floodwaters with a pool bungee mop towards the drain holes had no
effect whatsoever since the rain was cascading down faster than I
could sweep and even a few seconds in the open air soaked us to the
skin. We kept thinking that it was too heavy and severe to last, but
it just kept on going! We have layers of plastic, old towels and
plastic bowls and containers lining the trouble spots.
Our friendly builder
was overwhelmed with requests for help, but he hasn't been able to
get to us yet and we have had the mops out and the dehumidifier going
to help dry out the ceilings and floorboards. It was bliss when the
sun came out this morning even though the snow is thick on the
mountains and the air is icy cold. We find out that our village –
neither too high up nor too low down or on the sea front fared a lot
better than other places. Lots of people were without power, phones and water for 3 or
4 days and the Municipality of Rethymno are working hard to sort out
the pumping stations. All the valleys and gorges from the mountains
couldn't cope with the torrents and the sea was brown with dislodged
earth nearly to the horizon.
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| Weather Map from local paper! |
Dodging the rain, we
spent a morning at the Police Station locally where we had to
exchange our residence permits for others which denote settled
status. We needed to collect information from our Accountant, Bank
and take a Greek person with us. In the event, it all worked easily
enough and our Greek friend smoothed the way for us with
explanations. We just thought that we had had enough of bureaucracy
for the time being when the Urology Specialist needed us to get a
form signed at the Microbiology Clinic and then asked for all the
reference numbers from passports, resident cards and health insurance
books. Then the UK needed us to post back DWP forms to say that we
were still alive, so we needed the Pharmacist to witness our
signatures and queue up at the Post Office to send them back by
registered post. However did we find time to go to work?
It is Carnival time and
the beginning of Lent. I was surprised to see a young girl in
Rethymnon with zombie make-up and a blood stains dripping from the
side of her mouth! Not the harlequin colours, jolly coloured masks
and fancy dress of past years. We were very shocked to open our
front door after a loud banging while we were getting ready for bed
last night. On the door step were two ghouls dressed entirely in
black with face masks resembling 'the scream'. K completely freaked
out and told them to leave in no uncertain terms and I had to remind
him that it was Carnival time but in the past we have always gone to
the carnival … it has never come to us before like trick or
treating. I don't think the bods involved will ever come to our
house again and we are a bit embarrassed that they may have been
children of somebody we know. Oh dear! Sorry everybody!
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| Carnival Fancy dress shop |
Today was the first
fine Saturday for months and a good day to catch up with mounds of
washing and housework which have been impossible to do while the
storms were overhead. The vegetable van came for the first time
since before Christmas and disgorged lovely greens, broccoli,
beetroot and mushrooms for Lenten veggie fare. We are studying
weather forecasts and can see another crop of rain tomorrow but after
that the sunshine should prevail for a while. It will make the
building work and mopping up operations much easier. The roads still show signs of stones and boulders which have been dislodged by the deluge but the hedgerows are carpets of yellow flowers looking wonderful when the sun is
out. Although all our flower pots are waterlogged and need to be emptied, the rainwater has brought many plants back to life and washed the house and car paintwork squeaky clean. It won't be long before the beaches will be cleared for the next tourist season of all the flotsam and jetsam. We have our work cut out!
Kalomina … the first-day-of-the-month greeting to wish everyone a happy March 2019!
