The house was struck by lightning this morning. I vaguely heard
some thunder just before I dipped into slumber, but I turned over in my sleep confident
in the fact that we had unplugged the router and computer before going to
bed. On waking up, I couldn’t understand why my bedside light would not
work. Eventually it dawned on me and at 6.30 am, just as dawn was
beginning to break and the cocks were crowing, I got myself up to investigate.
To be honest, it is either the water off while workmen work on the
supply pipes or drains or electricity or WiFi and it is rare indeed to have all
the services working at once! The house is in a constant state of pickle
with buckets here, torches there, dust buckets, fireproof gloves and drying
washing all over the place. This is the down side of living in a Cretan
village but the kindly neighbours and safe environment make up for it. We also thanked our lucky stars that we weren't like many poor folk at home dealing with days of flooding or cooped up on a cruise liner wondering whether or not we had caught the "corona bug" or not.
Pulling on any warm clothes to hand, I trudged out into the rain and
cold to look at the electricity meter outside. The red button which often
pops out if we are trying to use too much power at once was in its proper
position, so it was not that. All the street lights were on, so it was
not our block. I went back in and hauled out the camping gas so we could,
at least, have a hot cup of tea while we waited for relief. While the
kettle was boiling, I rounded up the oil lamps and found a few torches.
Mr C examined the fuse board when he got up and discovered that the
trip switch had fired when a particularly bright shaft of lightning struck
which must have triggered it (an uncommon event) and we were soon back in
business. We tidied around as we were waiting for our fourth load of wood
to be delivered this winter. We are so grateful to Niko, our neighbour
who always has a good supply. Now that we have light, Kimon is doing his
daily chore of sweeping out the ashes and cleaning the stove glass door for
tonight’s fire.
Life has been non-stop bureaucracy lately either in getting forms back
to the UK confirming that we are alive, queuing at the IKA health insurance
office with passports and up to date tax paid forms from the Accountant to get
our books renewed, taking prescriptions from one doctor to another office for
K’s meds or battling with Greek websites to make sure our bills get paid.
This morning was spent at the phone company paying phone bills in torrential
rain. Just as I finished typing this paragraph, the Urologist’s Secretary
phoned to say that approval had been given for the next three months of Mr C’s
hideously expensive medication but I realised I needed to collect the prescription and gallop over to another office quickly so that it could be forwarded to Athens and the
pills sent over before the current supply runs out. It all keeps me busily
running about like a mad thing and trying not to worry.
Sunny days have been a bit few and far between, but come a bit of sunshine,
a portion of Spring Cleaning will get underway so that we can shake the dust out of
the carpets and see out of the windows!
On the way to Rethymnon yesterday, we were held up in a traffic jam. Amid a cacophony of car horns with a police car giving escort, a procession of school children and teachers all wearing weird costumes filed past pushing homemade "floats".
It’s a bit early for Carnival which is the weekend of 1st March, but with Lent
fasting on the horizon, the whole of Rethymnon was celebrating Tsiknopempti. (Greek: Τσικνοπέμπτη),
literally Smelly Thursday, or even Charred, Smoky, or Barbeque Thursday
"because of the smell of the grilled meat in the air", is part of the traditional celebrations for
Carnival (in Greek: Αποκριά) season
in Greece and Cyprus. (Lifted
straight from Wikipaedia!) The Carnival proper is a week away but statues from
previous years have started appearing around Rethymnon. The Thursday costumes
worn resembled hobgoblins or kitchen devils in smokey colours in contrast to
the bright colours of Carnival proper but the noise was just as raucous!
Best wishes from Crete!
