Hello from Crete. Kali
Kronia. Happy New Year! Luckily, we had a wonderful Autumn with
warm, bright sunshine most days until close to Christmas when we had
at least three huge storms blow themselves overhead for days at a
time, without much respite until today. Remembering the severity of
last year, we closed the shutters, I searched for my wellies, kept
checking the ceilings and floors for leaks and spent many a happy
hour switching the router on and off, whenever thunder and lightening
were in evidence … which was very frequent. We don't know why our
phone line is directed through the router, but of course no one can
reach us by phone or internet at these times. Fortunately our
woodpile lasted until today and we could keep ourselves reasonably
warm even when the electricity went off and the water went off ..
often .. and this began to get on my nerves. The most unnerving
thing is that I noticed that when the weather was horrible I was very
tempted to drive on the wrong side of the road! I can obviously cope
with left hand drive in the sunshine but bad weather reminds me of
the UK so much! I kept coaching myself with 'right is right' while
out and about. The seas have been very rough and pounding over the
harbours and car parks in Chania and Rethymnon and the winds have
been tossing tables and chairs around so that there are oddly
misplaced belongings on other people's roofs and gardens!
We had a lovely Christmas Day with our pal, Mary who cooked a lovely Christmas lunch. Since then we have sustained
ourselves with a good supply of mince pies, home made Christmas cake,
some amazing home made sweets made by a friend, crystallised ginger
and hot cups of tea, interlaced with something a bit stronger when
available. Life certainly isn't dull, but demands constant
vigilance! I have used up dozens and dozens of candles over this
holiday season and my candle powered bathroom radiator is doing very
well!!
Our Christmas post
arrived on 2 January and we were mighty glad to know that everyone
hadn't forgotten about us. Mrs C also had a panic before Christmas
that K's medication – a horribly expensive but very effective box
of horse pills did not materialise at the EOPPYY office in time to
last him over the Christmas period. We were told on 23 Dec on our
second visit to the office that all the boats had stopped due to poor
weather. So for 12 days, K had no pills to take and actually felt
much better for it! However, today is brilliant sunshine again, the
boats have started operating and I picked up the long awaited package
this morning. It's a bit like balancing on a knife edge, but Mr C
says, “Stop panicking!!” I don't know why things seem so
overpowering when the weather overhead resembles a thick, grey, damp
horse blanket! Venturing out today, the sunshine was so blinding and
the mountain tops shimmering in sparkling blue and white.. It just
lifted the heart.
Thinking that gifts
would be a bit thin on the ground this year, Mrs C spied a jigsaw
puzzle whilst touring Lidl's and thought that it would make a nice
gift to leave around at Christmas for Mr C who is really good at
geography. Unpacked, Mr C declared it impossible! In truth, it was
a demon which took a full three days to find edge pieces and then a
bit of strategy to work out how to proceed. The print was miniscule
for place names so we sought out various grades of magnifying
glasses, the example on the box had been defaced by advertising
matter over the whole of one corner, the light was not very good, the
side table was not nearly big enough and the pesky thing has taken up
the majority of the dining table for three weeks! Now it has been
completed, we have the added worry about what to do with it? Mrs C
is very tempted to put it all back in the box and pass it on to some
other unsuspecting person but Mr C wants to mount it on the wall!
All suggestions
gratefully accepted.
Mrs C has also been
worrying about the possibility of having an operation on her
arthritic hand and went to visit a couple of very reputable surgeons
hereabouts. Crete is not populous for there to be dedicated hand
surgeons closer than Athens and it would have been taking a bit of a
chance. Having found a recommended man and almost at the point of
having the operation, Ma Crozier backed out ... the recovery time
required was FOUR MONTHS. It would have been much too difficult to
sort things out for such a long time without transport and both of us
incapacitated. So Mrs C is relieved at having made the decision, is
taking collagen syrup and Omega 3 capsules for the time being and
looking forward to nice weather when trying to grip things and get by
every day with arthritic hands is not such a problem.
So, what are banana
wars all about? Each Friday, Zacharias the Fruit and Veg man arrives
close to our front door with his van and all the ladies of the block
bound up in warm, black clothes burst out of their houses and swarm
around with plastic bags to buy their stocks for the week. It is one
of Mr C's tasks to buy some goodies and normally some kind villager
brings the bags up the road for him and hangs them on our door
handle. But Bananas are always the first things to go and you have
to get in fast! Very often Mr C gets sidelined in the crush and
misses out so we end up getting them at the supermarket! And then
there are the Fridays when Pa Crozier waits for an hour or two and
Zacharias doesn't arrive at all!
Now we have a couple of
days of dry weather, we can get the washing done and clean the house
a bit. Otherwise it's hibernation! We hope you all have a very
happy, healthy and plentiful New Year without having to fight for
bananas!
