So hot, so hot – 42C / 108F – activity is impossible. The only exception is in the sea where it is a little cooler. The day is spent reading the paper, listening to the Test Match and watching the Grand Prix. Well done Button.
1st August, 2011
Happy August.
I wrote last week about the Pitsos service man’s uncharacteristic efficiency. He phoned again today to quote us a price for the replacement motherboard for our oven. It will be 100.00. He has ordered it and should be available to fit it in about a week.
We went outside to clear a bit more land of weeds around the house but it was so hot – 35C/95F that one hour was all we could manage. We had a glorious hour swimming in the sea. Apart from that, I was listening to England destroying India in the Test Match. Well done Broad & Bresnan. I’ve got to wait until a week on Wednesday for the next Test. What will I do?
2nd August, 2011
Pauline’s sister, Phyllis, and her husband, Colin, are leaving today for Santorini. They are attending a wedding and it is their first time in Greece. We have been worried about them landing in a heatwave. If you can believe it, we have seen our first cloud for over two months today, the Meltemi has arrived and the temperatures have gone down by at least 3C. By coincidence, I received a text from Ruth asking about the Test Result. She is on holiday in Slovenia. Should be lovely and sunny and screaming hot but the area has been hit by an unseasonally static wet patch. How do these things happen on holidays. I believe blizzards are forecast for the Dolomites soon. Below is a picture of Sunny Scarborough.
3rd August, 2011
Because it was a little cooler, I worked so hard outside (I must have done an hour and a half) that I felt exhausted all day. We still did our full swim but little else. Well we did sit, riveted, like the Egyptian people, to see ex-Dictator and current con. man, Mubarak being arraigned in court. How low can he stoop to avoid conviction?
4th August, 2011
Decided to have a day off today. We went up to Apollonia to walk through the streets. Apollonia is the capital of Sifnos. I have not walked around it for several years. I was quite shocked to see so many unused shops and such a shortage of tourists. We are in August and it was quiet. We had a beer and a soda in a cafe, went to the Post Office to look for letters – there were none – and then went to the woodman. The woodman’s wife left us believing the work would be done soon. We gave her our email address but won’t hold our breath!
Something very strange has happened with our cats. They were very late arriving last night. They argued this morning and, tonight, they haven’t turned up at all. We rather miss them.
5th August, 2011
Cats are back and shouting for food this morning. Father is paying too much attention to Mother but she is trying hard to fend him off. I shouted at him this morning and Little Ginge seemed wide-eyed with amazement that anyone could speak to Father like that.
Must be getting fitter because we did two and a half continuous hours of hard labour outside. It was a little bit cooler but had reached 30C/88F. After a bowl of fresh fruit and a cup of coffee, we went for our swim. It was our 60th swim and the 40 minutes continuous swimming went by so quickly.
Something is happening to me. We were having roast leg of lamb with new potatoes for our meal. Pauline suggested a Rocket, Basil, Tomato and Parmesan Salad as a starter. By the time I’d finished the salad, I was full. Something is seriously going wrong.
6th August, 2011
Mother cat is definitely being stressed by Father’s attention and it is putting the family under strain. We have decided to drive Father off for a while to give Mother and kittens chance to fulfil their relationship. ………. You can see we’re getting too involved can’t you?
We have just ten weeks left in Greece this year and eleven until we get back to Woking. I have enough wine left for four weeks so we are going to be struggling through on Greek. It is expensive and pretty raw. Unfortunately, they think it is designer and wonder why people buy French and Italian. We buy large bottles of inoffensive white wine and drink it with soda. It is palatable and thirst quenching.
Really enjoyed Test Match Special on the Internet Radio and F1 Motor Racing on Greek television today. We had a long and tiring swim but a sunny Sunday with sport is ideal. Lovely to find England grinding the Indians down and Lewis Hamilton behaving like a grown-up for once.
25th July, 2011
I have struggled with my weight since the early 1970s. Leaving school, giving up athletics and rugby led to me putting on the pounds. Since then, I have had spells of being slim but only by not eating. In 1976-7 I lost 7 stones by not eating for two months and running five miles a day. By 1981, the weight was beginning to come back and I ended up heavier than I’d started. I gave up smoking in 1985 and the weight ratchetted up again. Another massive starvation got the weight down again but, over the next three or four years it came back with interest so that I was at my heaviest ever. Over the past twenty years, I’ve rather tended to accept my weight. I was working very hard and ignoring other things. During this period, my weight has drifted up but not massively. I blamed my work for my weight problem and not being able to address it. It was made even harder by my wife being so slim and beautiful and really not having to try too hard to stay that way. To add to that, she is a brilliant cook.
Because of my weight, I have been unable to face my family. I even found it hard letting Mum see me. I tried to compensate by phoning her all the time. However much I tried to push the problem to the back of my mind, it was always there. I have felt as if I am trapped within my body. Of course it has led to my being diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I take more pills than food these days. I know people who don’t have and have never had this problem think I am lazy and greedy and self indulgent. All of that may be true but in forty years, I have never solved the problem for any length of time. As I say, I have always tended to link my weight problem to my work so, now I am retired, I should be able to deal with it. After being in Greece for just over three months and, without any attempt at dieting at all, I have lost two stones in weight.
I must have lost even more weight today. It was too hot to eat and I bowled every ball in England’s thrashing of India.
26th July, 2011
Nice cartoon in the paper today. Old fashioned but, sometimes, the old ones are the best ones:
The heatwave continues here. We are going to try doing a bit of work outside before it gets too hot.
27th July, 2011
Wednesday already. This week seems to be flying past. Today is one for business.
Three months ago, we went up to Kostas, the woodman, to ask him to replace the temporary, cane covering for our patio pergola with a solid, waterproof covering. It is not a massive job but it will bring him 1000.00 which, in these days, is not to be sneezed at. When we went up to see him at the beginning of May, he was in his workshop and so was his wife, Maria. This was lucky because Kostas speaks no English and Maria speaks it perfectly. We had gone up at around 1.00 pm and within minutes, Kostas had whipped out a paper packing which he opened on his dusty bench to reveal a big hunk of cheese. He cut it up and gave us some to try. It was made by his family and delicious. He sent his son out to buy a loaf, got a bottle of ouzo out of his bag and a carton of taramasalata. Soon he was urging us to eat a full lunch from amid the shavings of his bench. It was all typically Greek. We left with our heads fuzzy from the ouzo and Maria’s words ringing in our ears. The work will be done in ten days.
It is all typically Greek. Ten days has stretched to three months. Inspite of us going to see them at least once a week, the work doesn’t seem much nearer being done. Kostas was ‘upset’ when the wood he ordered for us from Athens didn’t arrive. He was ‘frustrated’ that he couldn’t do the job. Eventually, two weeks ago, the wood arrived on Sifnos by ferry but we heard nothing more. Each time we went up for a progress report, no one was there. Today, we will try again.
This process might seem frustrating but it is mirrored by a much more intransigent one. As I have written before, when one is building a house, one is provided with ‘building electricity’ which is good enough to run building equipment but can become overloaded if one is running a full house of machinery. The cost is slightly cheaper too when building. Our house was finished six years ago and the paperwork submitted to the office in Milos for the electricity supply being formalised. We are still waiting. Last year, our accountant went to Milos to investigate and returned to report that our paperwork was ‘near the top of the pile’. Twelve months later, we have heard nothing.
When our ‘full electricity is approved, it could mean disconnection, a new meter, re-connection whether we are on Sifnos or not. We know young man who works for the electricity company, ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ ΕΠΙΧΕΙΡΗΣΗ ΗΛΕΚΤΡΙΣΜΟΥ Α.Ε
Today, we are going to see the Accountant and the Woodman but, because we are becoming Greek ourselves, we will first go to the cafe in Apollonia for a drink and to watch the world. At 11.00 am, I order a Frappé for me and a Soda for Pauline. We spend a delightful half hour chatting and listening to the goings-on. It is hot and we are sitting under the bougainvillea covered roof. Then off to the Accountant. One of his many assistants is running the office. She speaks good English. She is able to explain that we have taken one step forward and two back. The form sent off is intended for Greek Nationals not other EU members. They have a totally different application form. Someone from the Office would be going to Milos soon to sort it all out. We feel a little more clear but we won’t hold our breath. We have to call again in a couple of weeks. On to the Woodman. No one other than his son is there. He doesn’t speak English but we manage enough in Greek to understand that he has gone to the island of Folegandros. We will be back on tomorrow.
28th July, 2011
We bought a built in cooker, a ceramic hob and a dishwasher from Adonis Karavos Electrical Equipment shop. We chose that shop because it is well stocked and because the serving girl, Flora, speaks perfect English. The make of the kitchen equipment was Pitsos. It sounds fairly dodgy but it is excellent. It was founded in Greece in the 1880s but eventually sold out and is part of a group including Bosch, Gaggenau & Neff. Pitsos is rebadged Bosch. Just over a month ago, we replaced our little fridge-freezer with a large Pitsos one. The digital clock on the cooker went haywire a year ago. It doesn’t affect the cooking but it is a bit annoying flashing in your face. We had little belief that it would ever get fixed so we have put up with it but Pauline has been a little concerned about the vacuum on the door of the new freezer so she is going up to see Flora today. While we are in Apollonia, we will call on the Woodman again.
Pauline leaves me in the cafe with a Frappé again. She comes back with unbelievable news. There is a Pitsos service engineer on Sifnos and he will phone us TOMORROW to make an appointment to visit.
I then go on for my blood test. The reading has gone wildly out of kilter. So wild, the clinician runs the test twice. When I phone the result through to Huddersfield Royal (a hospital I have no connection with anymore) they take it in their stride and advise me of my revised dosage of warfarin.
29th July, 2011
Actually remembered to send Jane BG birthday greetings this morning. I don’t know if she is on holiday. We went outside to do a bit of work but it was so hot, we only managed an hour. We had a rest and gallons of iced water. Pauline read and I listened to Test Match Special. We went for our 54th sea swim of the year and then returned for more TMS and our meal. Pauline had made a delicious ham, onion and tomato pizza. She had used Italian flour to make the pizza base and it tasted wonderful.
5.00 pm – Pauline’s mobile goes and it is the Pitsos service engineer looking for our house. We are amazed when his van drives into our grounds a few minutes later. He starts to take the motherboard out of the oven. That’s where the problem is, he says in perfect English. His name is Adonis which he pronounces as Anthony. Why? I ask. My best friend in Athens is Welsh, he says, as if that explains everything. He looks at the fridge-freezer and he pronounces it in perfect working order. He will order a new motherboard for the oven clock. It will take a week. We are still pinching ourselves at this most un-Greek-like service. We will see.
30th July, 2011
A very hot day again – 36C/97F – which saps the will to complete any task. We have declared it a rest day. I am doing my Blog and web pages while listening to Test Match Special. Pauline is making bread, doing some cleaning and reading her book. At 2.00 pm., we go down for a swim. Our friends are there to meet us as soon as we walk in to the warm water. The more cultured of you will know about the fish treatment – in which people have the dead skin sucked from them by little fish. Particularly, people have their feet descaled in this way.
Known as Piranha Pedicure, it costs about £30.00 for half an hour. In the Kamares sea we get the therapy for free. The most beautiful metallic silver fish with orange underbellies and black heads suck the dead skin from our bodies as we stand in the crystal, clear sea. After our Piranha Pedicure, we did our 40 min. swim across the bay and back and then came home to cook roast ribs of lamb with fresh mint dipping sauce, home grown roast potatoes and a fresh salad.
The Greek media is obsessed by the Heatwave hitting us. In Athens unprecedented innovations are being introduced. Around the capital, state-sponsored Cool Refuges are being set up so that poor people who can’t afford to have or run air conditioning can go to get respite from the 40C – 44C. It is truly debilitating and the heat can lead to many deaths amongst the elderly. Help!
Really enjoyed watching the British Open today and I was genuinely delighted to see Darren Clarke come out on top. I’ve no idea why. I don’t particularly like golf and I’ve never met Darren Clarke.
18th July, 2011
We have had a strangely, unsatisfactory day. Yesterday I fell headlong while clearing some rough land. I scraped my elbow, nothing worse but, this morning, my sciatica was back with a vengeance and I couldn’t walk never mind work. At times like this, one understands the true vulnerability of living in a foreign country. Pauline was all for selling up and returning ‘home’ although neither of us knows where ‘home’ is. We held anguished conversations for an hour or two but, by the middle of the afternoon, my pain was diminishing, we ate lunch with a nice bottle of wine and all was back on an even keel.
19th July, 2011
The Greeks are really beginning to shoot themselves in the foot. In previous years, they have been careful not to allow strikes to affect tourism – much. Now, they are just letting go completely. One of the tasks the Greek Government is trying to achieve is to open up ‘closed’ shop professions to free up the market and increase competition. Taxi services is one of those ‘professions’. Taxi drivers are furious. Not only now are they being forced to declare their earnings and to pay tax on it but, having paid tens of thousands of euros for a licence to run a taxi and passed it on through their family, they now see outsiders potentially coming in and taking business away from them.
The taxi drivers are on strike in tourist season. They have blockaded Piraeus, the airport and areas of Athens, seriously inconveniencing tourists.
We watched about six or seven hours of live coverage of the Parliamentary Committee grilling the Murdochs this afternoon/evening. Rupert did a brilliant job of pretending to be gaga. James did a less impressive job of looking as if he is on top of the situation. Plucky little Rebekah had to wait all afternoon but then put in an excellent performance in the evening. Star of the show, of course, was Murdoch’s wife, Wendy Deng, giving some joker a real slap while a British Bobby tiptoed across the screen to apprehend him. What sort of security was that? It makes us a laughing stock across the world.
20th July, 2011
This heatwave is really sapping our energy. We really have come to a standstill. Essential jobs are done grudgingly. Inessential jobs are left undone. Yesterday, we went down for our swim and a French lady who we have seen on the beach with her young son for a couple of weeks walked in to the sea obviously quite intent on speaking to us. We struck up a conversation and it turned out that she spoke perfect English having done a Business Degree in Sheffield. She lives and works as Marketing Director of a software company in Bordeaux. I immediately asked for a job but it wasn’t forthcoming. It turned out, she wants to be us. She and her husband have come to Sifnos for two weeks every year for ten or so years and long to build a house here. I was tempted to offer a house swap but it didn’t seem appropriate as we’d only just met and were standing in the sea.
21st July, 2011
We have really got to enjoy our adopted cat family and have been amazed by their intense togetherness. They have started to chide us by 7.00 pm (just after the sun has gone down around our house), if we haven’t begun to move on the evening meal. Usually, Mother comes and shouts through the back door or Dad, the boldest, might sit on the window sill looking in. Occasionally, they send Little Ginge because they know she is the most appealing. Little Tabs is rarely around in time for the start of evening meal. Pauline fills two bowls with a mixture of tinned and dried cat food and a third bowl with a mixture of milk and water. She puts the bowls out and does her customary call ‘Pu-uss’ to alert them. This is wholly unnecessary for all but Little Tabs. The other three faces have already appeared eagerly from under the rosemary bush although they don’t venture out until Pauline has gone.
As you will see from the photographs, the kittens have grown quickly. I’m not surprised with all the food they’re getting. We think Little Tabs is a boy and Little Ginge is a girl. In the last few days, we have caught both still feeding from Mum but we think they are largely going through the motions. The kittens are spending most of the day away from Mum now. She sleeps in the garage or behind the house most of the day. Little Ginge is back with Mum long before we feed them and Father, who spends most of his time away (out at work probably) is usually on time for food but Little Tabs has really started to assert his independence and comes back very late – often missing the evening meal.
The cats all eat together and there is no fighting or hogging the food. They are incredibly careful that all get enough. Children happily eat from the same bowl as Father. Mother is happy to sit back and let the kids eat before eating her own meal. When Little Tabs came home half an hour after the food had all been eaten, the other three members of the family set up a demand for food, which we eventually gave in to, and then they didn’t touch it until Tabs had eaten his fill. On another occasion when he was late back, Mother marched him round to the bowls which had a few morcels left and made him eat them and, then when Pauline put out more, she sat and ensured that he ate it before helping herself.
There are a few sparks between Dad & Mum. Dad has tried to mate with Mum but she soon fended him off. After supper, they all go on the field. Mother and Father doze while the kids do toy fighting or stalk moths and beetles. Occasionally, Little Ginge attacks Mum’s tail and she indulges it. Occasionally Little Ginge gets carried away and attacks Dad’s tail. He gets annoyed and takes a swipe at Little Ginge at which point Mother really gives Father what for and he slinks off in to the night not to be seen again for a while. Sometimes he will be at breakfast but, more often than not, he doesn’t reappear until the next evening.
When we get up in the morning, Mum, Little Tabs & Little Ginge can be found asleep on the outdoor dining chairs. They would sleep on the cushions so Pauline has sewn ties on the cushion tops to tie them up at night. When they hear us get up, they start to stretch and wonder about breakfast. It is not an elaborate affair – cat biscuits and watery milk but it seems enough and the kids are soon off learning to be cats while Mum dreams of times when she didn’t have such responsibilities.
22nd July, 2011
Incredibly hot and windless today. The road surface is melting outside. Pauline is reading a book under the pergola. I’m writing up the Blog, listening to England v India on Test Match Special while thinking about upgrading my website. I am aware that it doesn’t appear as well in some Browsers as it does in mine and I want to establish a little more control. During the winter, I want take a course in CSS design to improve everything I do. I will be looking around the Woking area for something like that.
Meanwhile the Greeks are saying to each other, I told you so. It was all a game. They were bound to give us the money in the end. The taxi drivers haven’t blinked. They’ve carried on blocking airports and ports in support of retaining their closed shop practice. I wonder why there are so few tourists?
I have just stood and applauded Pieterson’s Century against India. It’s 4.50 pm and we are just about to eat Lunch-Dinner. Ian Bell has just been caught behind taking us to 270 for 4 wickets.
23rd July, 2011
It is so hot we have got in to a strange ritual. Tea and toast for Breakfast at 7.30 am. We listen to the BBC Today programme for an hour or so while reading The Telegraph on-line with a cup of coffee. We then try to get a bit of physical work done. Today, we are cleaning the patio tiles which get filthy easily with mountain dust, insects, flying birds and general traffic. It is a huge job. The tiling surrounds the house completely and it takes us about four hours to do together. We do it about once a month and spend a couple of hours on Saturday and the same on Sunday. I use a pressure washer and Pauline follows up with a mop. By mid day, we have a huge bowl of fruit salad – peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes, strawberries (now available on the island) and pears.
Today, I have been allowed time to do my web pages and complete my Blog with a cup of coffee and Test Match Special. Just before 3.00 pm, we think about swimming but, before we go out, we ask each other, What shall we eat today? Usually, we agree on that quite easily but the heatwave has made it an impossible question. Neither of us can even think about food. Maybe later.
Great swim. An hour in crystal clear water. We swim solidly from side to side of the bay for 45 mins and then tiredly back to the car just off the beach and back up to the house. The temperature has come in this afternoon at 38C – just under 100F but the air conditioned atmosphere of the car has persuaded us to choose pork chops with potatoes, onions and green beans from the garden. Greek white wine moderated with Club Soda will oil the wheels.
We were woken at 6.30 am by a bleeping noise of the ceiling fan being switched on automatically. As the fan had been left on all night, that was strange. The answer was that we had had a power cut while we slept and as it was switched on, so was the fan. Power is provided on Sifnos by a rickety, old power plant which was designed to supply the homes of the 2000 permanent residents. Of course, in the summer, the demands increase as visitors arrive and, with the increasing proliferation of air-conditioning, the demand for electricity increases exponentially. When demand exceeds supply, the power plant just shuts down. Islanders take it for granted. Unfortunately, as more sophisticated electronic instruments, computers, televisions, satellite boxes, fridge-freezers, etc., are introduced, the sharp stop-start of power supplies can be very damaging. Fortunately, the power generating unit has been improved and power cuts reduced. This is our first this year.
We got up a little earlier than usual because of this but went through our normal routine. The windows are opened and insect nets pulled down while the kettle is boiling. The television is switched on for BBC News because it is too early for Radio 4’s Today programme. Not today. The television switched on but the satellite box produced gobbledy-gook in Greek. We’d had strong winds over night so we went out and checked the satellite dish. Still there. The Nova card was taken out, wiped for static, the box disconnected and reconnected with the card reinserted. Nothing. The last time this happened we waited a week for someone to be bothered to come and look at the system. I had visions of a week without television. I tried the menu button. It gave me: Wipe – reinstall factory defaults. I gritted my teeth and did it. The box searched, found and reinstalled all the channels. Up popped BBC News and Pauline delivered the toast with homemade marmalade. I preened myself.
11th July, 2011
We are going through a blustery but very hot period. We went outside to do land clearing but it was too hot. We decided to go swimming. There are a few signs of arriving tourists now but it is still very low key. We have increased our swim so that it now takes nearly one hour to complete. The day after the first session of this new swim I could hardly walk. Today, it was much easier. We eat our main meal at about 4.30 pm. Today it was a lovely Greek Salad made by Pauline followed by chicken, home grown potatoes and onions cooked by me along with our first home grown green beans. Delicious.
My only concern is that we have 82 days left on the island and only 42 bottles of wine left. I will have start buying Greek wine. What we will do – with all this very hot weather – is to buy very basic, Greek white wine and drink it as spritzer with soda. We have a particularly nice soda here marketed by Tuborg. It is softer on the palette than the one we can normally buy in England and is very refreshing.
Is it only me or are others captivated by the gorgeous, pre-Raphaelite, Rebekah Brooks?
12th July, 2011
Strong winds today helped to moderate the very hot temperatures. It allowed us to go outside and get on with land clearance. We worked for about three hours by which time Pauline looked like a beetroot. We called it a day. I watered the olive trees and we prepared for a swim. The water was warm, crystal clear and wonderful. We swam for 45 minutes and then drove back to the house to prepare our meal. Pauline prepared ham & green pepper pizza plus a tomato, rocket and basil salad.
13th July, 2011
We didn’t sleep well because of the booming winds. Pauline had bought another Euro Lottery ticket last night for the roll over of £166 million. Once again we won but only £2.90 this time. At least we have a 100% record – 2 plays & 2 wins. Not life changing amounts but we weren’t looking to change our lives. We are told we have a major heatwave coming at the end of the week – 40C/104F – so we are girding our loins for the onslaught.
14th July, 2011
One of the huge differences in our lives between UK and Greece is our use of the car. Usually, in UK, we would use a full tank of petrol each week and the cost of refilling had risen to nearly £60.00. Here, on Sifnos, nowhere is very far away. In thirteen weeks on the island, I’ve filled the tank up three times – less than once a month – and I’ve still got 200 miles left in the tank. I smiled to myself this morning when I sprayed the windscreen from the car’s reservoir bottle because I was using water that had come from the Shoebox in Huddersfield.
The front of the house is shady in the morning. We took advantage of that to clean the car for only the second time since arriving in Greece. In the UK, I would go to a car wash at least once a week. The car looked as good as new when we’d finished but we were shattered. We then had to go for our long swim.
15th July, 2011
Felt quite lost today with no BBC Today programme. The Greek media is dominated by the coming five days of Heatwave – Saturday to Wednesday. We went back up to see the Woodman but without much hope. Miraculously, we were told that the materials for our pergola roof will leave Piraeus for Sifnos on Monday. They didn’t say which Monday. Anyway, we are inching towards a solution. Unfortunately, I came away very depressed. The woodman has fields of vegetables around his shop. He grows tomatoes, beans, aubergines, cucumbers, melons, etc. and he does it brilliantly successfully. I have been so pleased with mine but he makes me look amateur. We went on to the butchers for pork chops (the size of houses), a pork joint, and minced beef for making Bolognese. On to the Post Office but no mail.
As we drove to Apollonia, a journey of five kilometres, we had a horrible experience when a young lad pulled off in his car, out on us, without looking and almost forced us into a wall. Only incredible driving skill by me saved us from disaster. On the way home, two young tourists in a hire car belted round a bend, both pointing to something they had seen up the mountain and only just saw us at the last minute and swerved to avoid us. This is exactly what happens as the tourist season hots up. It is better to avoid the roads apart from early in the morning while they are sleeping off their late nights.
16th July, 2011
The heatwave will get under way in earnest today. We may need two swims. We are not planning too much work. The Open Golf, on the other hand, is expecting heavy rain. Oh, to be in England!
The temperatures are rising. We may be on our way to the first heatwave of the season. This is the time when you wake up wet from sweat, fall into a refreshing shower but, before you manage to get dry, you need another shower. Long, cooling dips in the sea assuage the feeling temporarily but its effects are soon forgotten. Evenings on the terrace with cool drinks provide welcome interludes but sleeping in bed is fitful. The quilt has long since been stored in a cupboard until next April but now I can’t even bear a top sheet over me.
At least the evening skies at this time are magical:
4th July, 2011
It was too hot to work today. We did a bit of shopping, had an extra long swim and relaxed. You can see why Greeks come across as lazy. They want to work but it’s just too hot!
Took some more Posterity Pictures of Pauline:
5th July, 2011
For weeks I have been suffering with a trapped sciatic nerve which I have suffered from for an hour or so in the morning almost immediately after I get up. The pain starts at the base of my spine which feels like I’ve been hit in the back by a sledge hammer, travels as a sharp pain through my right buttock and goes down to the area behind my right knee, leaving my right leg numb. Sometimes the pain is so acute that it is impossible to live with. It is screamingly painful. I can’t sit, stand or lie. I can’t think, read, eat or drink. I feel sick and start to sweat. I try not to take painkillers but I’ve had to today. It has been so excruciating. It will stop at some time this morning (if it fits the pattern) but I can’t wait.
By 3.0o pm the pain is like a nagging toothache in my right leg. We go down for a long swim and by the time we set off home, the pain has gone completely. A pain free evening is followed by an experiment. I think the problem is caused by my sleeping position so I decide to try to sleep on my back. I have a very fitful night, regularly waking up and reisting the urge to turn on my side.
6th July, 2011
Just after 7.00 am, I get out of bed. There is no pain. I clean my teeth, go into the lounge and sit down for a cup of tea and I am immediately hit by excruciating pain. It is unbearable. I take two Paracetamol. For one and a half hours, I walk the house trying to get relief. I’ve tried sitting down on every different chair in the house without success. Even the table has proved impossible. By 9.00 am, exhausted and sweating with the pain, I go and lie down on the bed. It is the only way to relieve the pain – stretching out. I take two more Paracetamol. I fall asleep for two hours.
When I wake, the pain is still there but controlled enough to be able to sit in the car and drive down to the beach. We have a good swim but this time it doesn’t remove the pain. I take two more Paracetamol. I have now had six and the problem with that is that it impacts on the effects of the Warfarin I am taking. I phone the Path. Lab. at Huddersfield Royal and ask advice. I’m told to go for an earlier Anti-Coag. test if it continues.
7th July, 2011
Woke up in agony but found a sitting position that was tolerable. My back relaxed and, over a two hour period, I was able to get up and move around. I walked round the house shouting to Pauline, “Look, I’m doing normal things. Look I’m sitting at the computer.” Eventually, I was able to go out and water the vegetables. My green beans are almost ready to pick as are the salad onions. I have beautiful, glossy purple aubergines forming. I can’t believe that something I find so hard to eat could look so beautiful. The flowers are beautiful but the fruits are gorgeous.
Pauline had a phone call with Phyllis this evening and told her about my trapped sciatic nerve. Of course, Phyllis, being as old as she is, has had experience of most afflictions from flu to scrofula so she had suffered from sciatica. One of the solutions she found successful was to sleep with a pillow between her legs to keep the posture right. I plan to try it.
8th July, 2011
Tried the pillow test and have got up feeling much better today. I have twinges but have been able to go out and garden this morning. We worked for two hours but it is so hot – about 32C/90F – that it was difficult to go on and Pauline ended up red as a beetroot. After a shower, we are going up to see the woodman and then on to a fishing village, called Vathi, for lunch.
Vathy was delightful. We went to Ockeanida (The Wave) and sat by the shore as the sea gently lapped within feet of our feet. We first went there twenty five years ago and the girl who came to serve us was the daughter of the owner. She told us that she was nineteen and that she was home from College in Athens where she is doing a ‘Tourism’ course. Most 18+ teenagers do a ‘Tourism’ course in Athens for two or three years after Senior School. It is something of a Right of Passage. They then come back to their homes on islands where they serve their apprenticeship in the restaurant kitchen or the rooms, the hotel, the car hire business, etc. until it is their turn to take over. What is interesting is that nothing much changes as a result of these courses. What they do is occupy the children of the Greek middle classes at a time when youth unemployment is standing at more than 40%.
I’ve lost a stone and a half because we have not been eating a lot recently and, although we ordered a fairly understated Greek meal, we struggled to eat it:
RevithiaKeftedes – Chickpea Balls
Kotopoulo Kroketts – Chicken Croquettes
Skordalia – Garlic Sauce
Kaneli Fournos – Roast Rabbit in tomato sauce
Psomi – Bread
Kilo Krassi Aspro – Litre White Wine
The whole thing came to just £30.00. I would have paid that for the view alone.
9th July, 2011
The weekend and beyond is forecast to become hot – near heatwave but not quite – at 35C/95F. This little spell could go on until Wednesday or Thursday next week. It may persuade some Athenians that it is worth paying the extortionate ferry prices to leave the city and holiday on a cooler island.
The cat family who have adopted us have been giving us lots of enjoyment recently. The kittens must be two months old or more now and are becoming quite brave. They have graduated from stalking the flapping cushion ties on our outdoor dining chairs to considering taking on the guinea fowl that roam around the area. More worryingly, it looks like Mother and Father are already moving on from just kissing and some loud squawking has been heard from under the patio furniture. Perhaps we are feeding them too well.
Strong winds dominated the night and continue this morning. One of our bougainvilleas has blown down from its mooring on the pergola. No other damage. Swimming was out today and gardening wasn’t easy so it was a day of reading the Sunday paper and catching up on correspondence.
27th June, 2011
The wind is down but it is only about 74F/23C. We actually have one or two clouds at the back of the house. We went up to see the woodman about our new pergola but he is waiting for some new fastenings from Athens. This could last all Summer. We went on to the supermarket to buy cat food for our new friends because it is cheaper than prime ham & chicken. On to the Post Office to find a miracle had taken place. A new manager had been drafted in and he had totally reorganised the place. It was neat and tidy. There were no long queues. We were told that they had started deliveries to Kamares again. They are obviously preparing for privatisation.
The Greek unions have announced their next General Strike will be Tuesday & Wednesday of this week. It will involve all Public Service workers so there will be no public health, education (although it is already school holidays), no Post Offices, no refuse collection, no museums or other tourist sites open. There will be electricity strikes, etc.. It will involve all transport workers so there will be no ferries or air travel, no trains or buses. Basically, Greece is closed for business. It really will continue like this until these services are sold off.
28th June, 2011
A quiet day – no ferries because of the strike – in which we tidied the garden, swam in a surprisingly cold sea, watched Wimbledon followed by acres of Greek television coverage of rioting in Athens. Actually, there were quite a few Trades Unions members protesting peacefully and a couple of hundred young anarchists tearing up the streets. As someone pointed out, unemployment amongst young people in Greece has reached 40%.
We went to the pottery shop to buy cheap bowls for the cats. The cats responded by turning up late for tea. Typically Greek!
29th June, 2011
The penultimate day of June. A lovely morning although the raspberry jam is running out on the island and Pauline is preparing to make marmalde to substitute. This morning, we are going back to the electrical shop to see if the new fridge-freezers have come in. We will probably be told that the strike has held them up but we go in hope.
We return in triumph – well, having bought a new fridge-freezer. It will be delivered ……… today between 2.00 – 3.00 pm! Can you believe that? We didn’t but, at 3.15 pm, a lorry driver opened the gate and drove up to the steps. One man on his own tied rope around the middle of the fridge-freezer, looped the rope like a harness around his shoulders and waist and proceeded to lift this extremely heavy item off the lorry and then he climbed the eight stone steps – which I find bad enough with a bag of shopping – to the house. A few minutes later, he had loaded our old machine on to his back and taken it back down the steps to the lorry. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were in Greece. Admittedly, this fairly modest appliance had just cost us 850.00 or just over £750.00 and the maker was someone called Pitsos but the speed of the process was amazing.
The other irony of the day, of course, was sitting in our Greek home, watching Wimbledon, watching Federer lose to Tsonga and Murray-mint beat Lopez and then turning over to the Greek news and watching hooded thugs tearing up the streets of Athens and throwing the contents back at the police in Syndagma Square.
30th June, 2011
A story in the Greek Press this morning illustrates the rituals being played out in Athens:
A stun grenade exploded in the hand of a Greek riot policeman, severing a finger. Police and demonstrators ceased combat and scoured the debris-strewn street, uniting in a frantic search for the missing digit. They found it. The finger was rushed off in a wet towel to a hospital, where doctors reattached it to the injured man.
After Greek News and breakfast, Radio 4’s Today Programme for an hour with a cup of coffee, we got outside by 10.30 am (8.30 am UK). We worked for four straight hours cleaning the tiled patio and, even then, only finished the front. Tomorrow will be the back. After a brief rest, we went swimming for an hour and returned at 4.00 pm.. We showered and made lunch/dinner. We only eat one, main meal each day and it is around this time. Usually, we would eat it outside but, with Wimbledon on, we have been eating inside for over a week with all the windows open and the fans on. We had new potatoes from the garden; courgettes from the garden deep fried in beer batter; Greek salad with rocket and olives from our garden. It was lovely. A bottle of chilled Rosso Conero made us fall asleep during the second semi-final.
This lovely, ruby wine is made in Jesi just outside Ancona. It sells in America for $12.5; in UK for £8.50 and I bought 24 bottles in an Ancona supermarket for 2.50 each.
1st July, 2011
Happy July.
A glorious morning. A light breeze and, at 8.00 am, just 27C (81F). We found the cats asleep on the patio furniture and had to shift them off. We will have to teach them some boundaries. We left England twelve weeks ago and will land back in thirteen more. This is the pivotal week of our time here. We had a much more relaxing day with a wonderful, long swim and then a bottle of wine and some nibbles while we watched Wimbledon.
Our cat family which plays and hunts and sleeps in the garden during the day, really comes to life in the evening. The sun goes down behind the mountain at 7.00 pm precisely although it is not dark until 9.00 pm. The hour and a half between these two events is played out against the theatrically back-lit light of sky and sea which gradually darkens from yellow to red, from crimson to violet to indigo and then black. The cats call for their food – We’ve given in and started buying cat food and extra milk already. – at about 8.00 pm. Mother cat is first. Three bowls are put out. Tinned cat food mixed with dry cat food in two bowls. The middle bowl is milk & water. Mother eats for a while and then disappears. The two little kittens appear – one at each bowl. When they have had enough, they turn to the milk and father appears for his share. Mother comes back and the whole family clean the bowls. There is no fighting or pushing. It is completely shared. The parents go off and snooze under a huge rosemary bush while the youngsters lark about. They have chosen our garage roof patio as their play ground and we are fighting a losing battle to keep them off the furniture.
I can show you a picture of the patio and the furniture but not the cats. They won’t stand still long enough.
2nd July, 2011
Wonderful day. Hot and still. Swimming, gardening, lunch in the sun, Wimbledon. How lucky I am. I have been receiving emails and messages on Facebook all week from or about people from my old school who are being sacked, made redundant with years to go until an ever-diminishing retirement. As the government has pulled the funding from a project they insisted on in the first place, savage cuts are being made to staffing. Pauline & I are so grateful to have gone on our own terms.
The Euro Lottery was a roll over with a first prize of £135, 000,000.00. Pauline bought a ticket and we’ve just been emailed to tell us that we’ve won………………£4.75.
A warm and sticky day with little breeze. We worked hard in the vegetable garden all morning. Yesterday, we ate a delicious bowl of home grown new potatoes tossed in melted butter and flavoured with home grown mint leaves. That accompanied char grilled chicken and char grilled, home grown courgettes. Today we are eating our own radishes although the salad leaves are not quite ready. The pepper plants are proving a real success. They are becoming heavy with fruit and may need support soon.
Swimming was wonderful. The air was hot; the sea was warm and the beach was quiet especially for a Sunday. After a morning gardening in full sun and then a big swim at about 2.00 pm, I was almost too tired to eat although I managed to force a bit down. We had Briam with home made sausages and salad.
20th June, 2011
A hot and sultry day reaching 29C/85F with absolutely no breeze. Gardening was hard. We only managed a couple of hours before collapsing in the shade and watching highlights of Rory McIlroy winning the US Open. The sea was positively hot today and we spent about an hour swimming and relaxing before going home for a very late lunch at 4.00 pm. After that, we watched a bit of Wimbledon which we get live. Dozy Murray dominated the evening match. I actually thought we might get Murray Mania over in the first round defeat but no such luck.
21st June, 2011
We worked hard outside this morning as the temperature rose to 31C/89F. I dug beautiful, new potatoes and cut green peppers and courgettes to eat with chicken for our meal this afternoon. As the temperature rises, the number of insects increases as well. Phyllis gave Pauline a great hat that she bought in Australia and it is perfect for sweaty work without being plagued by flies. I must get one.
22nd June, 2011
A very breezy day. The first this year. When we say ‘breezy’ on Sifnos we mean 8 Beaufort or, as they say in Greece, Octo Befor. Some gusts can be so strong, we have to be careful of our patio furniture or we might find it over the road and down the next field. When we first moved to Sifnos, we bought some ‘teak’, reclining sun beds. They were balsa wood light and, in the first strong wind, we found both smashed to bits against the front gate twenty metres from the house. We have learnt our lesson. We buy heavy furniture and secure it in extremis. We are not quite in Meltemi season but these are the first signs.
Something quite interesting has happened. There are three, main Ferry companies plying their trade between Ancona-Patras-Ancona. Two of the three are totally Greek the third is Greek but Italian supported. Superfast Ferries has been the most go ahead in our times of travelling. We first travelled on it over ten years ago. Anek is the ferry company we have used for the past couple of years mainly because it has offered excellent value for money. Since we started travelling in ‘low season’, the prices have been wonderful. A Luxury cabin has become so cheap. Anek was started in Crete 45 years ago and still based there. The third company is Minoan which is essentially Greek but backed by the Italian, Grimaldi Group. The economic conditions are probably near their lowest for many years. Up-take for tourist travel and business traffic is at a depressing low.
In Piraeus, a couple of weeks ago, we were shocked to see the boat – Anek’s Olympic Champion – that we were supposed to be travelling back to Italy on. On the web, I was amazed to find that Superfast & Anek had amalgamated one month before without telling their booked passengers. Our ferry will now leave three hours earlier than originally booked and they can’t tell us which boat it will be yet. This is a clear sign of the chaos Greek industry is in and just a start of worse if they fall out of the Euro.
23rd June, 2011
A windy day today. The things we bought in Athens were delivered. The delivery cost is worked out, crudely, to be 10% of the cost of the goods. The cost of the goods was 600.00. The delivery charge was 60.00. In this way, everything one buys on an island is inflated in price immediately. We spent a great deal of money on goods for Greece in UK and posted or transported them because of this. For example, Pauline found her ordinary sun tan lotion which she uses for swimming. Ambre Solaire Factor 30 which she bought in UK for £5.00 (5.60) is being sold in the island shops for 17.50. In six months, Pauline will get through a lot of bottles and potentially save a lot of money.
The items delivered today were relatively cheap because we went to Athens ourselves and bought them. We paid delivery charge but the basic price wasn’t hiked a couple of hundred percent before that. We had bought a teak patio set of two arm chairs, a two-seater bench and a coffee table plus a heavy duty strimmer (brush cutter) plus cushions for our outdoor dining chairs and some plant food.
24th June, 2011
Nice day. A bit breezy but quite warm at 27C/81F. We went up to the Electrical shop to look at Fridge-Freezers. Ours was bought when we were doing six weeks a year. Now we want something more substantial. Flora, the serving girl, told us that three new models would be in on Wednesday so we will go back. The maker’s name isn’t very reassuring. It is Pitsos but it is also badged Bosch and our experience has been good.
Just read the Oldham Chronicle to find that an old friend, Dave Leach, who started teaching at my school as a woodwork teacher and whose wife was my secretary has died aged 70. It seems so young nowadays. Dave left education and trained to become an accountant but missed children and came back in to education, becoming Headteacher of our Special Needs school. He was a lovely bloke who told the dirtiest jokes I have ever heard.
25th June, 2011
Another beautiful day, cloudless with a little breeze. It is the strangest feeling. Two or so years ago Saturday morning would be filled with a current of relaxed and indulgent pleasure. I could choose to do anything. I always chose to shop at Sainsburys and the read the newspaper before settling in to an afternoon of football, rugby or cricket. I wouldn’t think about school until Sunday. Thoughts of it would occasionally bleed in to the back of my mind but I would quite deliberately push it back in its compartment until I was ready to face it. Sunday would be Sunday papers for a couple of hours and then in to the Study to face that school work nagging away, spoiling the relaxation and sense of choice.
Now, every day is Saturday. I get up shortly after 7.000 am and open the shutters looking down to the sea. The sky is always cloudless; the sun is always shining; the sea is always blue; the landscape of the day is always clear and waiting for me to define it. I choose what to do and if I get fed up of it, I stop and do something else. Today, I choose to do landscaping of my property followed watering of my vegetable garden, swimming for an hour and then a late lunch while watching Wimbledon. This evening, we will sit out under the stars with our coffee looking at the lights of Kamares twinkling on the water in the bay and discussing the past, and planning the future. What ever we plan, it will be our choice and we may change tomorrow.
Today, as we went down to swim, we saw a plant that would grace the front of our property. We don’t know what it is called but we will take a photo up to the garden centre to ask. This is the plant:
Because we had the camera with us, Pauline couldn’t resist taking a photo of her hero. This is the best portrait of me for some years.
A quiet day I won’t bore you with. Newspaper delivered on time. Breakfast, gardening, a wonderful swim for nearly an hour. Salad for lunch outside with apple cake for ‘afters’ made by Pauline in no time at all. This wasn’t made for me. It was made for Stavros’ mother, Margarita, who appeared outside our house, pipping away in her car at about 11.30 am. When Pauline went down to see her, she had two dishes covered with foil. One contained Fasolia (bean soup) and the other contained Banzari y skordalia (beetroot with garlic sauce). To repay her kindness, Pauline quickly knocked up an apple upsidedown cake and took her some on the way to swimming.
The wine we had with salad sent me to sleep in the afternoon. To be honest, I would have fallen asleep without it. The pills I take for my blood pressure make me feel tired. I woke up to find Pauline had cleaned the windows and got her sewing machine out to turn up her trousers. Like her Mum, she must be shrinking. We had to have chicken for dinner in the evening to make sure there were scraps for the cats. I must say, they seem to love tarragon.
We have sixteen weeks left on the island.
13th June, 2011
A little cooler today – 25C/77F – and it felt quite chilly. It didn’t stop us going swimming though. We haven’t missed a day since June 1st. Another incentive came when I, unexpectedly, weighed myself in the middle of the morning and found I had lost one stone in weight over the past two months.
To those of you who have followed my nonsense over the past 129 weeks, you will be aware that I love to be forward-planned. Yesterday, I thought I would count how many weeks we had been on the island – 8 – and how many we had left this year – 16. I woke in the night thinking, I’ve only got sixteen weeks to book hotels for our return journey. This afternoon, I started to look for a couple of hotels for the return journey. I found one just outside Lake Como:
The next hotel will be in the Champagne region of France so I’m going to spend time and do that one at the weekend. We are off to Athens for a shopping trip tomorrow. We will return on Thursday evening after Pauline’s hair appointment.
14th June, 2011
A very hot day. We are up early and, after breakfast, I spend two hours watering all the plants so that they can get through nearly three days without me. At 1.30 pm, we drive down to the port, park our car and walk to the already docking Speedrunner.
By 5.30 pm, we were off the boat and spilling in to the turmoil of Piraeus. We took a taxi to Athens. We had a brilliant, Romanian, woman driver who got us there quickly and cheaply. We bought a carton of milk from the periptero near by and Pauline made a cup of tea.
Peripteros are open all day long and sell most everyday needs from cigarettes & postcards to bottled water and chewing gum.
Later we went out to eat at a roadside taverna in the backstreets. Five or six tables scattered across the pavement next to an open air car park, a building renovation and a cross roads is not somewhere most visitors to Athens would choose but after twenty five years, we know it is a top restaurant. As we are sitting there eating Kolokithokeftethes (courgette balls with mint and oregano), tstasiki (yoghurt, garlic & mint), bakalaros y skordalia (salt cod with garlic sauce), cars and bikes screech past, tourist arrive with guide books in hand – Yes, this is the restaurant – and Greeks walk home from work. I wish I had carried my camera to show you. We walked home via our favourite chocolatiers and bought a selection for the evening.
15th June, 2011
We got up at 7.00 am and, after a shower and cup of tea, went down to the most huge buffet breakfast of fresh orange juice and a pot of coffee, bacon, sausage and scambled eggs, fresh fruit and yoghurt and croissants & jam. This was the last normal act of the day.
We went down to the Hotel Lobby and asked them get us a taxi to Piraeus Street – the Leroy Merlin store (a French/Greek B&Q). The taxi driver said he could get us there but he wasn’t sure we could get back to our hotel because the protesters would be encircling Syndagma where our hotel is because they were trying to prevent MPs getting to Parliament to pass the austerity budget. In the event, he was nearly right.
At Leroy Merlin, we bought a garden strimmer, a garden furniture set of coffee table, two chairs, a two seat bench, some plant food and other small items which will be delivered in the next few days.
We tried to buy a new fridge freezer from Kotsovolos (owned by Dixons) but the model we really wanted with an iced drinks dispenser was out of stock so we decided to wait. We went outside and hailed a cab. The driver told us he couldn’t take us to our hotel because the rioters/police had closed the roads. He took us to the nearest Metro where we spent an hour or two fighting with hundreds of others trying to get on the tube to Monastiraki station from where we walked up Ermou Street to our Hotel. As we got closer to Syndagma we could smell and then see the smoke from the Finance Ministry which had been set alight. Fighting was openly going on between protestors and police. Protestors (probably professional anarchists) had come equipped with crow bars to lever up the centuries old paving stones to smash into pieces big enough to hurl at the police. As we drank cool white wine and watched from our balcony, hot and harassed police ducked bricks and fists hour upon hour in the name of democracy.
16th June, 2011
All is unravelling here. Papandreou is attempting to form a new cabinet and to carry on in Government. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the support of the people and this will prove fatal.
Meanwhile to the important things of life. We have had another huge breakfast and Pauline has gone off to have her hair cut. I am relaxing with the Greek news and my Blog. At 12,00 pm we will check out and get a taxi down to Piraeus where we will get on Zante Ferries Korais bound fo home (sorry, Sifnos).
Unfortunately, being a ferry, The Korais will take five and a half hours and we will arrive on Sifnos just after 8.00 pm but that doesn’t matter.
17th June, 2011
Actually, the journey was delightful. I read the newspaper and kept an eye on the televisions scattered around the walls of the ship’s lounge. The Greek government was unravelling in front of our very eyes and Papandreou, having offered to resign, decided he was essential but he would sacrifice his cabinet – particularly, Papacontantinou, the Finance Minister – and would build a new one immediately. Unfortunately, the preferred candidate, the former Deputy of the European Bank, declined to take part so Papandreou appointed his rival, Evangelos Venizelos, who has no financial experience. This looks disastrous but France and Germany are so desperate for the Euro region not to unravel that they can make anything work.
We have felt tired all day today. We put it down to the travelling over the previous three days. The temperature is 27C/81F. The sea was pleasant and we had a good swim. I picked a handful of courgettes and of radishes which we had with our salad. I watered everything and then collapsed like an old man to rest.
The cat family which has adopted us left us a present in the Garage today. As we drove back from swimming and into the garage, the male cat ran out. As Pauline got out of the car, she found an irridescent length of rope with blood dripping from either end. It was a headless and tailess snake. Not just a snake but one of the most dangerous types found in the Greek countryside. I had to move it before it became too smelly.
6th June, 2011
The temperature is a humid, mid-80s. I’m doing lots of watering of the veg. garden but it is beginning to pay dividends. The First Early potatoes are already flowering. The courgettes are fruiting energetically. I even picked some small, sweet ones with deliciously big flowers this morning.
Went up to the Germanos shop to increase my Cosmote internet contract from 5Gb to 10Gb. The increase only costs about 10.00 per month but allows me to leave the internet on non-stop without worrying about additional charges. We then went on to the supermarket and, while we were there, we asked about transportation of goods from Athens/Piraeus to the island in readiness for our shopping trip to Athens next week. We have been given the contacts for a company called METAFORIKI SIFNOU AGGELAS .
We went on to have a wonderful swim from an almost deserted beach and then I cooked Lamb Kleftiko for lunch/dinner at about 4.00 pm. We have got into the routine, now, of tea & toast at 7.30 am, swimming at 1.30 pm – 2.30 pm, eating our main meal at around 4.00 pm and then just fruit salad and coffee in the evening.
7th June, 2011
People often ask us if we get bored on our Greek island. Why would we not prefer to spend our money visiting different places? That is usually because they have a totally different view of what we are doing compared with us. We never consider that we are ‘on holiday’ and haven’t done so for quite a long time. We live in Greece. We are part of a community with whom we share a life. We are as much ‘on holiday’ when we visit England as when we are in Greece. When you own a property, land in another country, your view of it is totally different to the here today, gone tomorrow, tourist.
8th June, 2011
Yesterday we went shopping. We went to the Hardware shop. It is a posh, new outfit with most things one could want. We bought teak oil for the patio furniture. It needs to be done twice a year in this sun. We bought varnish for the garden benches. We went on to the garden centre. This is a bit more home spun but very useful just the same. We bought an expensive huge pot and another geranium to put in it. I bought some more grow bags of potting compost and, although I have grown my own sage, tarragon, rosemary and thyme, I hadn’t got any mint. We eat a lot of lamb and wanted to make mint sauce. The garden centre had three different types of mint including the standard one we see most commonly in England. The owner was very keen to point out his knowledge of mint so I had to indulge him before I bought our plant.
As we went down to swim today, the car showed 31C/88F.
9th June, 2011
This morning we went for a drive over the island. For the first time ever, Pauline did some driving. She has NEVER, in all our time in Greece, driven in Greece. I have been suffering with my sciatic nerve and the pain is particularly prevalent when I am driving. We have been talking about Pauline getting her confidence up driving on the right just in case she is required to take charge at some time. Pauline is a better driver than me and certainly more careful. That’s why I don’t let her drive normally.
Fantastic swim today. The air temperature was 28C/83F. We had lovely waves and warm, crystal clear water. We came back and cooked pork chop, peppers, onions and potatoes. It was delicious. It was so delicious that our adopted cats appeared on the scene and, eventually, were given the scraps along with a carton of milk and water.
10th June, 2011
This morning has dawned beautifully again. We now have a routine which serves me well. We get up between 7.00 – 7.30 am. Pauline makes the tea while I open up all the bedroom shutters, nets and windows to air the bedroom and let the sun lick its way round the walls. Tea and toast from homemade bread and raspberry jam while we watch the BBC News. At 8.00 am, I put on the Radio 4 Today programme which is just starting at 6.00 am in UK. By 8.30 am Greece / 6.30 am UK, The Daily Telegraph has arrived on the Kindle and I read and listen for about an hour. Long before I’ve finished, Pauline is itching to get on with the day. Today, for example, she was outside varnishing the garden benches while I was reading. By 10.30 am I try to have the vegetables watered and we are ready to go out. Today, we went to visit the Transport company – Aggelas & Sons – which we had been advised of earlier.
The old man with the grey beard had the same beard but jet black when we first came to Sifnos more than 25 years ago. He is retired now and his sons run the company. They don’t speak a word of English but I had anticipated that and done directions to our house in English, in Greek and in pictures. It was the pictures that swung it I think. The family have five or six huge lorries and a depot in Piraeus. We will shop in Leroy Merlin for furniture and garden equipment, at Kotsovolos for electrical goods and they will be delivered by the stores to the depot in Piraeus. Aggelas & Sons will pick it all up from the depot and deliver it to our house on the island. This is why everything is so much more expensive on an island. The transportation cost are quite high.
11th June, 2011
Wonderful swimming in warm water. A few more people on the beach because it’s the weekend. Phoned Ruth tonight and had a nice conversation. Ruth sounds really happy with her new apartment although she hasn’t managed to sell her house yet. They will just have to sit tight and not give in to the Estate Agents’ demands to lower their price. It will happen in the end.
Although I am in deep mourning after last night, it cannot last for long. The long, hot days of Summer have begun. The weather here looks settled for some time to come. We will not now see rain until October. Every morning, for the next four months I will open the bedroom shutters at 7.30 am to clear blue skies, hot sun and the smell of thyme and oregano drifting on the air. Noticeably, the tourists began to arrive this weekend. Today, people are in the sea and sunbathing on the beach. We have set Wednesday – June 1st – for our start to swimming.
Those of you still working and, particularly, in white collar jobs will recognise very clearly the next observations. It is over two years since Pauline & I felt stress. Before that, we were permanently stressed. At the end of a school day, our heads were exhausted with stress. At the end of a school week, we would go to Pauline’s Mum’s flat and sit immobilised with the tiredness of stress. Particularly in the last few years as the school got harder and more uncomfortable to work in, we would go to her flat on a Friday evening and just slum, not talking. The tiredness of this type of stress is so different from physical tiredness. Working hard in the garden and feeling shattered at the end, muscles aching on a Saturday night was a delight compared with mental stress fatigue.
Today, stress-free for two years, we ate a delighful lunch of fish and salad washed down with chilled Italian white wine outside in the sunshine and, after coffee, took a drive up from our house over the mountain and right across the island, leaving the port of Kamares far behind.
30th May, 2011
It is a hot day and we spent the rest of it reading the Sunday paper, cleaning outside the house and chilling out. We were going to have a barbecue but couldn’t be bothered. The stress of these decisions!
31st May, 2011
Although I said I wouldn’t talk about it any more, the temperatures are ratcheting up each day. Today we are around 27C/80F. Pauline was making bread and then we had a barbecue both of which raised the temperature.
Talking about raised temperatures, the Greeks are still occupying the public squares in Athens (Syndagma), Thessaloniki and Patras after the examples of the ‘Arab Spring’ and the Spanish protests. They are infuriated that ‘their property’ is being sold off. It all sounds very 80s England.
1st June, 2011
Can you believe it? June already!
A glorious day. We went for our first swim. At first we thought the water was too cold but, within minutes, we didn’t want to get out. Fortunately, the temperature had decided it was swimming day and raised the temperature to 31C/90F. Swimming was absolutely delightful. We drove home the 650 metres from the beach to our house, showered and then shared crab & tuna salad with Italian white wine. We ate this under the pergola in wonderful warmth with a light, cooling breeze playing on our faces.
I don’t know if it was the swimming, the wine or the fresh air but I fell asleep in my chair after and woke up at 5.00 pm. We had a cup of tea and then walked up our land to inspect the peach trees which are doing remarkably well thanks to the recent rains. In the past couple of days, a cat which has just had babies seems to have adopted us. We can’t eat enough chicken to satisfy it. Pauline has been reduced to cutting down large yoghurt pots to fill with milk and water. We haven’t had a cat for years.
I’m not thinking of having a heart attack but I’ve given to worrying about what to do if I was. We have a Medical Centre staffed by very young doctors and it is about 6 kilometres away. In the event of a heart attack, I would have to be flown to Athens by helicopter which takes 20 minutes each way and then have to be driven to the hospital through Athens traffic. We have created an ‘In the Event of an Emergency’ sheet and it will be displayed in the study along with copies in our bags and the car.
2nd June, 2011
Gorgeously enjoyable day. Pauline is painting the balcony railings because that is what she enjoys doing. I’m watering plants, pricking out seedlings and sowing new ones because that is what I enjoy doing. We have now been officially adopted by an island cat which has just given birth to two little ones somewhere in our garden.
Only left our property to swim at 1.30 pm today. Water was wonderful today and we really enjoyed a good swim – only half way across the bay and back today. We’ll try the full thing tomorrow.
3rd June, 2011
Temperature reaches 33C/91F today. When we went to swim, the tide had turned and refreshed the water in the bay which meant it was rather colder to get in but, when we got going, the swimming was great and we managed right across the bay and back which is what we were doing throughout last year.
The Greek ‘Settlement’ has been announced which suggests the money will be there for the next 2-3 years. The problem is that the population are becoming increasingly strident in their opposition. Every day, 100 – 15,000 Greeks protest in Syndagma Square shouting “OKI” – NO – to the austerity measures and definitely “OKI” to the sell off of State Services – trains, ports, electricity, telephones, banks, etc.
4th June, 2011
We’ve woken up to a hot and sultry day. We have had almost no breeze all week. It was as if someone flicked the SUMMER switch last weekend. The weather changed to settled, hot and cloudless. The tourists started to arrive. Each day there are one or two on the beach when we go down to swim. Pauline has gone out early at the front of the house before the sun gets high enough to make painting impossible. I’m at the back of the house in the sun watering my courgettes. I know I have a raw deal but I suffer in silence.
