8th November, 2015
A hot and rather humid day. My cold is a little better but we decided to rest from exercise until tomorrow. It felt like a holiday but we both got restless towards the end. We read our iPad newspapers, watched The Sunday Politics, went for a short walk in the sunshine and then returned to our room where I watched a couple of Premier League matches and Pauline read and sent emails. – A typically quiet Sunday. – Home from Home!
9th November, 2015
I am feeling almost completely better from my head cold. I know you will have been worrying so I will reassure you from the outset. Unfortunately, this evening Pauline is showing some signs of picking up the baton but we hope she will wake feeling better tomorrow.
The day has been a lovely one – again. Hot and sunny peaking at 28C/83F. After fruit juice and coffee for breakfast, we went for a long walk as far as we could get before the path ran out. We took this picture on Pauline’s phone.
It shows the black, volcanic rock dropping steeply to the sea, the totally uninviting and tiny black silt beach and the safe mooring where ‘tourists’ go on ‘trips to see dolphins’ and such stuff.
We were back in time to watch The Daily Politics and then off to the gym followed by the pool. We were active for a couple of hours. We are just completing the first of four weeks here and we have fallen into an enjoyable and relaxing modus vivendi. The weather is very much better than we had expected. Although most of the people here spend every minute of every day glued to a sun bed acquiring an orange leather skin which the think will inure them against the British winter and impress the neighbours, that is not our style. Our time in Greece taught us not to take the sun tan too seriously. We have certainly not come here for a tan but the warmth is very welcome and the location is providing us with exactly what we need at the moment. To underline that, we have booked another month here for Jan/Feb.
10th November, 2015
We were up early although Pauline had a difficult night as her cold developed. She phoned her sister a couple of days ago and she was in bed with a heavy head cold as well. It looks like we brought the bug with us. Fortunately, if I am anything to go by, it doesn’t last long. When she is feeling better, she will benefit from a morning in the hotel’s Spa and Beauty Treatment area. I don’t think I would.
We lazed around after breakfast and read the papers, watched (you’ve guessed it) The Daily Politics and then went off to the gym. It is such a hot day again – 28C/83F – that a session on the treadmill here feels a totally different experience to one in Woking. I sweat as I exercise but, in this heat, I look as if I’ve just come out of the pool. Actually, we follow this exercise with 45 mins in the pool. We don’t cling to the pool edge discussing house prices or the latest beauty treatment. We swim solidly and hard throughout our time in the pool. I stop when my arms are aching and we then go back to our room for a shower. (I do sound holier than thou!)
Talking about the heat, I thought that the Canary Islands experienced an even 20C/68F – 24C/75F all year round and that now it should be averaging the middle of that range. A man we met in the lift observed how hot it was and said that these temperatures were very unusual for November. He had been coming here for twenty years or more and had not known it like this before.
11th November, 2015
A hot and utterly sinful day. Hot because we registered 28C/83F again but, with very high humidity, it felt much hotter. Sinful because we didn’t go in the gym or pool and we had a Pudding with Dinner. We did do a two hour walk most of which was solidly up steep hills to Puerto de Santiago which left me wetter than if I’d fallen into the swimming pool fully clothed. That is the only mitigating circumstance I can put forward.
The highlight of the trip was walking round a Lidl to see what Canarians expect to buy which shows you how sad we are. Actually, it put Greek supermarkets to shame for spread of stock and value for money.
12th November, 2015
Hot, Hot, Hot! Today was 29C/84F but not so humid. We did a really hard workout in the gym and followed that with an even harder swim in the salt water pool. Felt good after it.
Our room is huge, spacious, clean-lined, light and with a large balcony which is accessed by full-length, sliding glass doors.
I was struck, however, by the fact that, as soon as we move in, it is covered in electronic devices and trailing charger leads. We are here for a month so I needed my laptop. We both brought iPads. Pauline brought one of her Kindles and, of course, we both brought smartphones. That’s a lot of leads to be plugged in. To accommodate that, I pack a cube, multi-socket which means most things can be charged overnight on one plug socket.
How life has changed since we started travelling and had to queue up for the chance to use one of two international phone lines in the old OTE on Sifnos or for a ferry to deliver a copy of The Times to the Boomerang News Agency.
13th November, 2015
Friday the 13th! I wonder who that’ll be unlucky for. Here it is warm but hazy. Later on, we are going on a long, coastal walk. Hope I don’t fall over the edge. The tickertape header at the Pharmacy announces the temperature is 28C/83F. The app on my iPad tells me that temperature will be achieved every day until at least Wednesday next week. The locals are shaking their heads in disbelief.
Actually, we did a couple of hours walking along the coastline and back. Took this photo on my phone:
I just couldn’t bring myself to swim from what looks like a ‘coal dust’ beach even though I know it is nothing of the sort. We have these three pools at our hotel and the first of which is salt water. There is no comparison.
Joked about Friday 13th this morning. Who could predict the outrages in the centre of Paris this evening? Shocking doesn’t do it justice.
14th November, 2015
As the news of the carnage in Paris becomes a little clearer, it feels inappropriate to sit in the sun relaxing but what would it profit to do otherwise? What is certainly no surprise is the revelation that one of the attackers in Paris was registered as ‘refugee’ on the island of Leros on October 3rd 2015. The Greek Blog, Keep Talking Greece, speculates that: he had most likely arrived to Greece coming from Turkey.
We have had a quiet day reading the newspapers only punctuated by a spell in the gym and the pool. ~Met an interesting man in the gym who introduced himself as a mattress manufacturer from Belgium. He was skinny as a rake but ate three meals a day and said he needed pizzas between meals to keep going. Makes you sick! I never liked Belgians.