AUTUMN LEAVES

You can tell that Autumn has arrived at our village. The tree outside the house which had been completely pollarded on our arrival in March and burst forth into masses of long green boughs in the Spring to shade the front porch is now beginning to drop brown, dried up leaves on the roadway outside. The vociferous lady in the house next door is complaining loudly if I am not out there each morning with my broom! It seems that sweeping the front of one's house is the epitome of greek housewifely requirements and you are a very slack person if you leave it for a day or two (or even a week, I am ashamed to say) before getting out there with a besom, scoupithia (dustpan) and a garden hose on a daily basis to be able to show your face in society.

It is at these moments when I do not totally embrace village ideals and plead ignorance! However, this morning I was out there before the sun was too hot and doing my housewifely duty like a goodun'.

We tried to get to the beach without a motor today by catching the bus and walking down to the beach at Panormo for a lovely swim at the harbour beach. The way there was all down hill and we had a marvellous swim in lovely warm water. Later, we picked up a few items of shopping and made the long, hot climb back up the hill and flights of steps through the oleanders and tamarisk trees to the national road to wait for the 5.00 p.m. bus. Check out this view from the bus stop!

We had a half hour wait for the bus in blistering heat and a long trudge back up the track from the bus stop to the village, I thought that I did not want to be doing this very often! At some stage, having had to sell our English car, we will have to find some form of transport and sadly we do not have enough grazing land to install a donkey although, the prospect is enticing. However common sense prevails and we know that a donkey wouldn't get us down the road to Perama to pay our household bills.

Talking of bills, we are still doing regular battle with OTE the phone company who gave us a contract price for phone and broadband at 95 euros every two months (which we thought was expensive enough) and now continue to send us bills every two months for over 200 euros. What a total waste of time and petrol/bus fares/temper this all is! Every time they send a bill it provokes four visits to different phone shops and offices with a file of papers and noisy phone call arguments between all the people involved. Then there is the water bill - we are not sure how we seem to have inherited the two years of unpaid water bill from the people who owned the house before us so one way and another, K and I believe that we are going a long way to paying off the national debt from our fast diminishing bank account. There is still an extra tax to be added to the electricity bill in a “house” tax which every home in Greece will have to pay – so austerity measures are beginning to kick in – in a big way. On top of this, a hire car and the cost of petrol to make all the airport runs for recent visitors cost us dearly and we are on super-frugal rations for the next two months to try to balance the books.

It is just as well we had already laid in some stores laid in for the ensuing siege –and  our kindly friend Niko brought us some goodies this morning – olive oil, tomatoes, two kinds of cheese and 4 eggs – what a nice gift!

Greek children returned to school on 15 September and it is good to see the village school full of children and playground noise back again. The roads and beaches are also beginning to empty of the big crowds of tourists and it is getting much quieter and cooler in the mornings and evenings. The mountains and foothills are a lovely shade of pink and grey light at both ends of the day so K and I have just had a quiet after-dinner coffee and Metaxa on the roof where it is starting to get deliciously cool, come sundown. Yes, Autumn is certainly well on its way.

ROUND THE WORLD IN 60 DAYS

Picture of Hot Air Balloon ascent from Kate's balcony the day I left Melbourne

Finally free to sit down and put some thoughts on paper following my solo jaunt – round the world in 60 days! It was a bit of a whirlwind trying to take in parents and most of the children in one go but I have been very well looked after and am trying to wrestle with the strings of household duties now that I am back which K is reluctant to hand back to me!

Changing perceptions dictated that I was in observant mode wherever I went and was almost agog with the luxury of how our children live down under compared with the simplicity I have grown used to in the back waters of Crete. However, it was great to reacquaint myself with grandson number one who is asking 20 questions per hour and has very strong views about his world, to get to know grandson number two who is beginning to talk, chuckle, sing and pull himself up and around all the furniture and seems to be interested in all sorts of haunts hitherto unvisited by his older brother! I foresee challenging times ahead but lots of fun and jokes also.

As for newest grandson number three, he was still at the eating, sleeping, feeding all night stage so other than being cuddly and gorgeous and wishing I was closer, we can only revisit the many photos and video film I took whilst with them. However, I saw a reasonable amount of Melbourne in my ten days there and could see that it was a very cosmopolitan place where Kate and Grant are very comfortable until it is time to go home to New Zealand.

Driving to Piha Beach, New Zealand

The UK was quite sunny when I landed at Heathrow and I was glad to throw off my winter woollies and get back into cotton tee shirts again. It was good to spend time with my parents who are quite remarkable in the way they manage to carry on regardless of the difficulties life brings. It is hard being away from them and I hope that we manage to get the idea of using the computer to communicate better firmly established. It would be such a boon.

Panormo Beach in Crete

Back in Crete, the landscape had dried out over the hot two months I had been away; our two tomato seedlings planted out in April had taken over the entire garden and produced bags and bags of fruit – all ready for making preserves as soon as I got back. Various plants like jasmine and some creeper for the terrace had started to weave their way through the trellis giving us much needed shade and privacy which was good to see. We also had a houseful of visitors and more about to arrive and it meant that I had to put jet lag on the back burner for a few days. It was very nice to spend several very hot days on the beach and catch up on my aqua-therapy after two months of winter down under. Lazy lunches and happy conversations with our friends at our favourite taverna on the beach took up most of our time. However, now that our house guests have left, K and I have the place to ourselves and we are enjoying having a lazy Sunday breakfast of fried tomatoes on toast and being able to unwind without having to double think our routes around the house and the whereabouts of “too-hot-to-wear-really” dressing gowns!

Our kindly neighbours welcomed me back and mysterious melons and tomatoes appeared from nowhere by way of a welcome. We hired a car for a week to do all the airport runs involved and we plan to make the most of it and get all sorts of jobs done while we have it which are impossible without transport - so interesting outings like paying the water bill, buying an umbrella base and locating cream house paint await us. To think that we are missing out on cut-price OAP day at B & Q!

ROCK-A-BYE-LOCHIE

Sorry that the blog has been a bit neglected in recent weeks whilst Grandma pursuits were going on.  In short, we now have three lovely grandsons – two in Auckland and one born in Melbourne on 25 July.  I flew from Auckland to Melbourne for 10 days or so to see if I could help with Mummy Kate and the new baby just as her husband Grant was due to return to work.

I forgot how much work new babies are ... and Kate was on the go with the mid-night feeds and trying to catch up on sleep and meals as best she could.  Baby Lochie (Lachlan) is absolutely gorgeous.  Current practices for babycare seem to have changed dramatically since my children were babies, so my experience was a bit out of date but we enjoyed the time together and caught up with all our news whilst doing all the household stuff which seems to be doubled and multiplied by having a newborn in the house.  We were only able to take shortish excursions around Melbourne and the weather was a bit cloudy and cold but we certainly made the best of it and took a walk in the Botanical Gardens which gives the best view of the city centre and looked over the banks of the Yarra River which has to be the most pleasant walk to work ever. 

  We also got involved in Blockmania which is a tv programme made in Melbourne about 4 teams of people renovating 4 houses on the same block.   I missed the final auction but enjoyed looking at the architecture of the traditional Melbourne houses which were very appealing and had all the Edwardian features which I like.    Kate and I had an evening meal out while the new Dad minded the baby and other days we had some lovely meals cooked by one or other of us.  Old fashioned trams ran past the window at regular intervals which was rather charming but I never did get my camera out quickly enough to catch a photo.

Back in Auckland, after a bit of a tearful goodbye, the sun came out – and although the temperatures are a bit frosty, the scenery and days were very enjoyable.  We visited the Fish Market where a tramcar (imported from Melbourne) travelled round a loop near the waterfront and had a wonderful fish n chips lunch near the market itself.  Tuna Steaks Italienne followed for our evening meal – a lovely dish which I must replicate once I get back to Crete as all the ingredients grow locally! 

 

On Sunday we squished into the car to visit Motat – a transport exhibition – Cameron’s choice of good boy treat and looked at old steam engines, fire engines, steam and diesel trains along with other  exhibits such as the Victorian village and hands-on stuff reminiscent of the gallery at the Science Museum in London.  The earthquake simulator was very scary and we were too late for the moon rocket simulator but did catch an interesting exhibit about Sir Edmund Hillary’s 1950s polar expedition.  Lots of information was available about the resourceful Massey Ferguson tractor which they adapted to take with them.

Cameron has a new toy dolphin;  In New Zealand, the householders have a weekend every so often where non-biodegradable rubbish/old furniture/large broken or unwanted items are left outside their homes on the grass verge for a day or two.  There follows a time of recycling the items – should anyone want or need them – and lots of vans and trucks come round sifting through the items until finally what remains is taken by the local authority and as little deposited in landfill as possible.  Sounds like a brilliant scheme to me – but you need the space to do it properly.  Anyway, a hot wash in the washing machine and a tumble dry ensured that “Sydney” the new toy dolphin was nice to own and Cam was delighted.

GOODAyy!

New Zealand was lovely, as always, and the time spent with Kiwi grandsons busy and enjoyable. 

The new house in  Greenhithe on the North Shore of Auckland was big enough to house us in comfort and I did get my chance to use the hot tub which provided great back massage with lovely hot bubbly water. 

Cameron the older of the two grandsons is interested in animals and natural history – so one of his “good boy treats” was to pay a visit to Auckland Zoo.  I always love walking around the zoo because the surroundings are so beautiful and we made the most of freezing cold weather by stopping for hot chocolates half way round with marshmallows on the top (Cam’s favourites).  We checked out the monkeys, the aviary, the elephants and the big cats before our ears were about to fall off in the cold. 

Cam made a wonderful picture of a peacock with feathers and big eyes a day or so later and was able to imitate monkeys, elephants and cockerels with alarming accuracy several days later. 

Lachlan Paul Anthony – our third grandchild turned up at the end of July and we set to checking the cheap flight internet sites to book a short period in Melbourne a few days after he was born.   With a few days to spare before setting off from Auckland, we all visited a wonderful Farmers Market and my son-in-law was in his element checking out all the lovely artisan foods on sale and taking ALL the samples!  Meanwhile Cam and Hayden were having a good time at the children’s playground nearby at Hobsonville Point. 

We had a bit of a panic when we heard that the Australian authorities have adopted a cocoon strategy to vaccinate all people coming into contact with new babies to prevent the spread of whooping cough.  Having had all my pre-school injections, I assumed that these gave me life long immunity to these diseases but it seems that opinion now has it that boosters are needed for people reaching their forties or all professionals/family who spend time with very young children.  We made lots of enquiries of the Kiwi GP practice to find out whether I could have a whooping cough booster but – apparently these were not available without the tetanus and diphtheria vaccines also.  With a severe allergy to tetanus in past times, I did not really want to risk being very ill abroad – so we took the alternative strategy of washing, tumbledrying and disinfecting every minute content of my baggage and person to avoid bringing any bugs to Australia and avoiding all contact with all the bugs that were doing the rounds of kindergarten by spending one week at home in purdah.

It was a surprise to me that Cam was a bit upset after I caught the plane from Auckland when he had spent most of my time til then  ’playing it cool’ but my other son in law Grant met me at the airport in Melbourne and gave me a mini tour of the city skyline as we drove from the airport to their flat in South Yarra. It was hard to believe that I was now in Australia and I had heard that the shops in Chapel Street were wonderful.  Grant and Kate’s apartment was right on the corner of Chapel Street with tramcars passing on a regular basis.

The new baby was sleepy when we arrived but his Mum and Dad had had very little sleep since they had been home with baby waking for feeds all day and all night – so it was important for them to get a meal and some rest before they both konked out.  Lochie’s cot has a terrifying monitor fixed to it which registers breathing and heartbeat as well as crying!  There are all sorts of alarming beeps and buzzes which come from it if you forget to turn the switch when you get the baby out of the cot!  However after a day or two, his routine seemed to have settled down a bit and Kate was grabbing a bit more sleep so that we were able to take little outings to the Chinese Tea House and today a little trip out in the car with a sleeping baby to do a bit sightseeing around the city. 

Greetings and thanks to you all from Lachlan!

CHICKEN RUN

We have escaped from the UK summer of lots of rain to blistering heat in Crete and then to NZ winter with ...lots of rain plus hail and even some snow forecast for some parts of Auckland.

I was woken quite early on Monday morning by a loud humming noise as if someone was taking a spa bath as the sound was so loud.  On checking out of the window I saw a large delivery truck dropping off a huge stack of wood for the winter.  NZ like Crete uses log burners to heat houses rather than central heating.  As the weather had been wet and stormy with only intervals of sunshine during the week, Soph managed to fix a temporary rainproof cover over the wood (which was very damp before it got here despite being promised as dry stock!  The same thing happened to us in Crete a couple of months back .)   The family spent the main part of today (Saturday) moving an enormous pile of logs which had been dumped in the driveway to the house.  Darren  needed to retrieve the wheelbarrow and expend lots of muscle power to get the load shifted.

Greenhithe (yes, commuters from Kent it IS another Greenhithe) turns out to be a quiet suburb on the North Shore of Auckland – very green and pleasant.   I have seen Cameron’s new kindergarten, visited the local shops and met up with lots of Sophie’s friends at children’ parties and a baby shower – so it has been all go for a week or so.  I have also walked past the local Anglican/Methodist Church which I hope to go to tomorrow morning if I can rouse myself for a 9 a.m. start.   I have been amused to see the very British  names of some of the other suburbs – Sandringham, Balmoral, Newmarket, Epsom and so on ...

Lots of NZ homes (which are spacious and luxurious by my standards) have a hot tub Jacuzzi in the back garden and I am waiting for my turn when the sun comes out!!  We were all primed and swim suited a day or two ago, but a power switch had tripped out which meant that the water was cold and in need of cleaning and filtering so I am still hoping that my turn comes around soon.

I wish that I had brought my paints with me because this is a corner in Sophie’s garden which is quiet and peaceful. 

Still no news from Melbourne about grandchild number three!  We are watching our mobile phones for the all systems go text but know that Kate will be taken into hospital on Monday if nothing happens over the weekend. All the family in the UK, Crete and NZ are anxious for news; meanwhile Cameron and Hayden are waiting for their new cousin!  

JOIN THE CHIPMUNKS DOWN UNDER

Air New Zealand has changed the design of its aircraft so that travelling Premium Economy introduced me to a new form of seating which had been arranged so that the seats were on the slant.  In theory, this should have provided more leg room but I found myself feeling  twisted out of shape and struggling to find anywhere to fit a full sized pillow and thus had no way of supporting my head for the whole flight.  Consequently, the 2-3 hours sleep I usually managed in the 24 hour flight in a normal seat was reduced to no sleep at all and a very bad back. 

 Arrival at Auckland Airport on Thursday morning was a bit of an early start.  It was still dark – even  after the 30 minute car journey from the airport to our daughter and son-in-law’s new house in Greenhithe Village on the North Shore.  We arrived to a quiet house which began to come to life as the children woke up and came downstairs for their breakfast.  Several  Weetabix later, we were all ready to start the day and after a luxury spa bath and a change of clothes,  we went out into the garden to see to the chickens and feed the fish.  After this, we were ready to get Cameron to his kindergarten and then do some shopping in the afternoon.  It was great to hit the shops and good to be able to read all the labels easily and stock up on Branston Pickle and Cheddar Cheese – which I had not seen for a few months.  I was adjusting to the rapid alteration in outside temperature – heat, heat, heat in Crete, warm summer sunshine in Britain to heavy rain, dark clouds  and coolth in Auckland.  By 8.30 p.m., I was struggling to keep my eyes open any longer so I took off to stretch out flat and get some well needed sleep. 

  

Sophie apologised that the next day, they had booked for Cameron to go to the Chipmunks Centre for his birthday party which turned out to be a great time of playing inside (very useful as there was driving rain outside) and Cameron and his chums went climbing, bouncing and sliding down cool slides in what was basically a large warehouse painted and fitted out as a children’s indoor play centre.  After an hour or so, we were led into Party Room 1 where a feast was laid out and Cameron had a place of honour.  As kid’s parties go – it was a great idea and we had plenty of time to catch up with the other parents while the children took off and let off lots of steam.  It was the first children’s party that I had ever actually enjoyed and Cameron was having a spectacular day.  Still no news from Melbourne about the imminent arrival of grandchild no. 3.

                                                                                                                                                                  

I had been given an I-pod for Christmas and it had been wonderful for photos and playing Scrabble across the globe with other members of the Croziers Clan.  It took Sophie to show me how to access my hotmails on the I-pod which had eluded me since I had it.  This was a revolution and I rapidly managed to delete the spam which had built up over the previous few days

.

 

The new house is a wonderful space with lovely kitchen, bathrooms and garden with space for children, a hen house and a fishpond which is causing a bit of consternation to ensure that this area of the garden is closed off.  On Sunday morning,  we spent an hour or two blitzing the house and sorting out the toy box before heading off to the local pub in bright sunshine with family friends for Sunday lunch.

Darren had spent quite a lot of time on the internet browsing sites such as "Backyard Chickens" and "Urban Poultry" to learn how to care for the hens which came along with the new house.  Today, we had a hilarious half hour at supper and bath time because we had forgotten to gather up the chickens from the chicken run and put them in the henhouse before dark;  consequently Sophie and Cameron armed themselves with a torch  while supper was getting cold trying to get already roosting hens from one part of the garden to another.  They showed their displeasure by pecking their protectors a bit viciously ... I don't think we will forget them another time!

AROUND THE WORLD IN 59 DAYS

KIMON FILLING THE GAP.  Tuesday 12 July 2011.



OK, so Merope has gone off to U.K./ NZ / OZ / UK. (then hopefully back to Kriti). The poisoned chalice falls to me to keep you posted on progress with this blog - at least until M can get her hands on a downunder computer.  After many years of work and a deal of separation (me at sea and in London & M in Kent & London) it has been a steep learning curve to spend all our time together now for the last five months.  The good thing is that the kitchen here, unlike in the UK, is large. We can navigate around each other with fewer accidents with pots and kettles.
Also, here, we don't close doors or windows. So even at 110 deg f (44'ish celsius) we have a breeze of olive, tomato, lavender and jasmine air blowing through (beats diesel !)

Our pal Nikos - the olive and orange baron, as we call him (a dear man) brought me a plate of fish and lemon potatoes yesterday. YUM.
The people here think that, because M is away, I shall starve - BUT I COOK !! Very nice fish though I have to say.
I am therefore spending my time tending/watering our patch and other people’s.

It is the season for very small and very fast flies. The swallows and swifts doing their best to keep the, and the mozzies, at bay before they head back to Africa in a few months. i shall miss them - the swallows, not the flies.

There are times when we chat about what would life be like if we had not decided to move here to Kriti.  Certainly, life here is more simple, honest and healthy. But, of course there shall be pitfalls - are there not always !?

The village seems to have adopted us openly. Especially as M is making great progress with her spoken and written Greek language skills.When she returns I shall insist that only Greek   shall be spoken at home. Normally I can be 60/70% fluent within 2-3 weeks. It has taken me longer this time because we speaka da eengleesh all day. I am dreaming in Greek now - good sign but all greek to me.

I wish we could have afforded to both go to see the children and grandchildren - but might as well have barbecued the bank.  The up-side is that i can go fishing when i want. but M has left a list of "jobs to do" on the fridge. First job - paint the fridge ! HOHO   I must go and get the car now. It is in a body shop being repaired. M hit a wall that was not there. I hit one that was\1  Annoyingly, this all happened after we agreed to sell it to pals returning to the UK. Our car was taking on the beaten up look of a real Kriti motor. Now it will look English again. HiHo, right thing to do (at a cost).

Oh, Nikos the oil just delivered lamb chops and spuds. Plus another 1.5 ltrs of the best olive oil in the world.   Will i ever lose weight ?

Scent from the jasmine is over-powering and the shower scalding hot from the power of the sun.  We have tiny frogs and gekkos out front, so no no slugs/snails etc - great !

Finally, some thoughts of mine following the poetry workshop held recently by Roger McGough:

"SHORES"

Time has no measure

Time has no laws

When lying on your back

On far distant shores.

"CRETE"

Nothing is square

Nothing is straight

Were you too early?

or, was I too late?