| Friday, August 4, 2023 Our son's family spent the morning in the villa pool. 
Our gardeners who had been booked to come today, came yesterday instead, while we were out, and did some tidying. We noticed especially because the pile of leaves in the yard had disappeared. Today they returned to work on the neighbours' garden. Iliana grabbed one and pointed out a few things that they'd missed, including an invasive creeper that had entwined itself in our hedge and then turned brown and died. It looked unsightly and she told the guy (in Greek) that she wanted it removed. After noon, we drove the two cars to Spili, south of Rethymno and had lunch there. Afterwards we drove back to our village. |
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| Iliana went round the back of our house to inspect the hedge and it had gone! Maybe something got lost in translation but all that was left was a couple of Oleander bushes (which we hate). Oh, well. The wall needs to be rebuilt properly so this will make that job easier. |
| Saturday, August 5, 2023 Iliana walked to the villa to have a swim. I remained at home to hang washing out and to do research. At 9 am the mains electricity went off for a few seconds. Billy phoned to say that his car has been overheating and he thinks that the radiator cooling fan might not be working. He asked me to make an appointment for him with Pantelis the mechanic, which I did. The mechanic replied to my text to say early Tuesday. No mention of my mobike but his brother Manos (who speaks English) is dealing with that. I brought in the dry washing at 11 am and Iliana returned shortly afterwards. We walked to the square at 1.30 pm to meet Sharon who makes and delivers pies every fortnight. Chris bought me a coffee as we waited at the Café for Sharon. When she arrived, Iliana collected the pies, gave some to me to take home and then took the rest to deliver to our son's family. Billy collected his pies but drove home immediately, since he can't bear the heat. On the way home, I called at the supermarket to buy milk, eggs (and potato crisps - not for me). I had remembered my date stamping machine so I stamped the new mail. The lady who owns the shop told me that a man had complained to her that his mail was missing. Nothing to do with me: I date stamp the envelopes and the postman takes the very old ones away. I had displayed a notice, which states this. Iliana returned at 3 pm and mentioned that the villa has no water pressure. Luckily, we'd anticipated this and had supplied several bottles of drinking water. Water from the swimming pool can be used for washing dishes. At 4 pm the mains electricity at home went off for a few seconds. I think that the power has been off all day in the Vamos area; this means that the water pumping station wouldn't be working. Our house is 100 m below the main village so we have pressure even when the rest of the village has none. We also have 1000 litres of water in the reserve tank on the roof. Iliana collected granddaughter #1 to sleep at our house. |
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| GD#1 offers to scratch granddad's bare back while he tries to concentrate on research. (Did I mention that it's HOT here?) GD#1 took my bedroom and I had to share the master bedroom with Iliana. Normally, we sleep separately because, invariably, one of us wakes the other by snoring loudly. |
| Sunday, August 6, 2023 This time it was Iliana's turn to snore so, at 12.30 am I awoke to the familiar sound of water buffalos grazing and made my way downstairs to sleep on the sofa. I awoke at 6.30 with a very stiff back and neck. GD#1 had slept soundly all night in my air-conditioned bedroom. We received a message from our son to say that GD#2 had diarrhoea so she and his wife would remain in the villa and he would accompany us to Georgioupoli for breakfast. We strapped GD#1 into the booster seat and collected son L from the villa. On arrival in Georgioupoli, after an admittedly unsettling journey because of numerous hairpin bends and crazy, fearless Greek drivers forcing me to brake and swerve, GD#1 deposited her stomach contents into her lap. I was just thankful that she'd done this before eating breakfast! |
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| So, after a hasty cleanup operation, we drove back to the villa to drop off L and GD#1, and then Iliana and I returned once again to Georgioupoli for breakfast at Stelios Café Bar. After that, we called at the butcher's shop, the grocer's shop, and then drove home. I had a nap in the afternoon and in the evening we drove to the villa to spend an hour chatting over glasses of wine (tea for me as I was driving). |
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| Monday, August 7, 2023 I drove to Kalyves to ask for my blood test results to be emailed as promised nearly a fortnight ago. After that, I drove to Koumos folly garden and ordered a Fredo Cappuccino while I waited for the others to arrive in the hire car. Admiring a prickly pear plant. |
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Panoramic view. The wall and tiled roof are actually straight but the smart phone can't figure that out. |
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| After visiting Koumos, we drove to Kalyves and parked near the sea wall, then walked to "Akrogiali" taverna where we had a very adequate lunch for six, costing less than forty Euros altogether. ("Akrogiali" means "seaside".) |
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| Tuesday, August 8, 2023 I ate a large bowl of porridge and then Iliana informed me that we were going to Georgioupoli for breakfast. So I drank orange juice while the family ate breakfast. Afterwards they went swimming and I drove back to collect Billy. |
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| Billy drove his car 200 metres to the mechanic and left it there for repair and service. The mechanic told me that my mobike was ready. It had had a fuel leak, not an oil leak! He had replaced the plastic pipe from the fuel tank to the filter. I drove Billy to the Café O Petros in Litsarda, where he ordered wine. |
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| There was lots of passing traffic. Dave the carpenter arrived on his scooter. He asked to use my workbench vise and file to modify a door catch striker plate. So I took Billy to his house and continued home. Dave rode to his rented house, swapped his scooter for his car and drove to our house, where he filed his metal plate. Then he drove me to the mechanics' workshop so that I could ride my mobike home. |
| Billy had told me that his wife had had a scan and had lesions on her lung. Consequently, she was arranging to go with a friend by bus and taxi to the hospital in Iraklio in order to see a specialist and, possibly, have a biopsy. Our son sent a message to say that they'd meet me in Georgioupoli for a pitta gyros meal. It took me fifteen minutes to drive there. We ate together and then our son drove me and the girls back to our village while his wife and Iliana went shopping. I forgot to mention: Iliana had left her phone at home so I'd taken it with me and handed it over. I've asked Dave to replace the silicone sealant around our bath because it's a mouldy mess. Back home, I arrived just in time for my weekly Skype conversation with my engineer friends. By the time I'd finished that, Iliana had arrived home with GD#2 who will stay overnight. I rode my mobike to the local supermarket to buy milk and to date stamp the newly arrived mail. There was a new pair of headphones for me as well as a used Canon camera from eBay Germany and a pair of leather welding gauntlets from China (without import duty!) |
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| Wednesday, August 9, 2023 Iliana slept on the sofa overnight while GD#2 slept in her bed. I slept in my bed until 8 am. At 10 am, Iliana and GD#2 left on foot to join her parents and GD#1 for a walk around the woods and to visit the "Stone Creations" garden of Vangelis the (former) Hermit. |
| Chris phoned to ask if I was going to the Café. I rode there on my mobike and several other expats joined us. In the evening, our son phoned to say that they'd had no water pressure for 24 hours so it was impossible to shower and difficult to wash dishes. |
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| I asked him to check the water tank and it was full. So there must be a problem with the pump. I told him to phone the rental company before the office closed at 9 pm, which he did. They said that they'd contact the owner of the villa. |
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| In the meantime, I asked him to check the consumer unit. All of the switches were in the on position. Two of the three phases were lit. The third might have blown the fuse, or the neon was dead, or there were only two phases connected. The office phoned back to say that there's a reset button on the pump so he went outside to find it. That fixed the problem! |
| Thursday, August 10, 2023 Our son sent a message to say that he'd had to press the reset button at least twenty times, so far, to keep the pump running. Something wasn't right. He'd phoned the office and they were sending someone to take a look. Someone arrived - we don't know whether it was a plumber or the property owner but he seemed to know what he was doing. He said that the swimming pool cleaning tank was empty and the pump had been overheating as it tried to fill it. (I assume that there was a blockage.) Anyway, the man bypassed the pump and filled the tank with a hosepipe. Everything seems to be working now. Iliana drove to the villa for a swim. Chris phoned me and I rode to the Café to meet him. Iliana sent a message to say that the taverna would be open for lunch at 1 pm. At around 2 pm we all drove to the taverna in Drapanos and ordered lunch. The girls ate adult portions of spaghetti Bolognese. (I had suggested that they share one portion but nobody else agreed with me.) During the drive back to the villa and for an hour afterwards, GD#1 misbehaved. Finally she calmed down and Iliana read a story. |
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| Meanwhile, the water had gone off yet again so I helped my son to fill the swimming pool tank again and then he pressed the reset button on the pump. The landlord had stated that he'll come back tomorrow with a new pump and take the existing pump to be refurbished. At 5 pm I set off for home on foot, leaving the car for Iliana. |
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| At 7 pm I rode to the village square to have a look at the bazaar that consisted of a row of tables in the churchyard. |
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| There were religious icons, biscuits, cake, soft drinks and a few toys and ornaments; nothing to interest me so I rode home. Iliana and the others arrived on foot from the villa shortly afterwards. |
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| Friday, August 11, 2023 We drove in both cars to Aptera, the site of the ancient city on top of a hill. In the first building we entered, I found some very interesting ancient technology that was installed in typical Greek style. |
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| The amphitheatre at Aptera was excavated less than ten years ago. |
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| The ruins of ancient Roman baths that had hypocaust to heat the water. |
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| Water cisterns that originally fed the baths. |
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Inside the cisterns. After our visit to Aptera, Iliana drove our son's wife to Souda in search of "pullups" (nappies) for GD#2 while our son drove me and the GDs to "Francoise" Café in Almyrida for lunch. In the evening, Iliana went to the villa to babysit while our son and his wife went out for a meal. Iliana remained there overnight. |
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| Saturday, August 12, 2023 Overnight, the outdoor temperature fell to a chilly 21°C. I put two eggs in the pan but one floated. So I added another egg and trashed the floater. Iliana phoned just before 10 am to say that they were ready to go out. |
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| We drove to Embrosneros to visit the old castle but the doors were locked so we couldn't go inside. |
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| We investigated a "chimney" in a wall by holding a phone inside to take a photo. The photo didn't show much but I suspect that the "chimney" was a garderobe exit. Yuk. |
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We drove back downhill to visit the amphitheatre, which was built a few years ago. |
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| The girls performed a dance, which they'd learned at school. Iliana located the spot from which she could project a whisper. |
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| We walked up the road to visit the cave churches. |
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| The inside of the largest of the two cave churches. |
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| We drove to Vrises and parked in the main car park, then crossed the road to "La Luna" cafe, where we had drinks in the rear garden in the shelter of a plane tree. The Café owner gave the girls free ice cream. |
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| We left the Café and walked across the river bridge and then re-crossed the river on two wooden bridges to amuse the girls. We drove to Litsarda for lunch at around 2 pm and then to the villa/home. The maximum temperature in the shade was 28°C but most of the time it was 27. The sky has been somewhat cloudy all day. |
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| Sunday, August 13, 2023 Iliana was up early, fed the cat and did the whites wash. I was up at 7.30 am, had a coffee and vitamins. At 9.30 am our son arrived and drove Iliana to Georgioupoli. I followed on my mobike. We had breakfast at Stelios Café Bar. At 10.50 am everything wobbled. Earthquake! |
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| It wasn't severe. In fact people in the kitchen didn't notice it. Nor did many walkers outside. After breakfast, I rode homewards while the rest of the family went to the beach. Afterwards, they told me that they'd rented three sunbeds at 10 Euros each! Recently, they cost 5 each. |
| I called at Billy's house to see how he was. He was speaking to his youngest son in the UK by telephone. He followed me in his car to the Café and we spent an hour chatting and watching the world go by. 
Iliana arrived home at about 3 pm. I was watching videos and falling asleep so I went to bed for a nap and woke at 6 pm. I think that the two shots of Raki had something to do with it! We've had quite a lot of cloud cover today and the weather hasn't been too hot. Winter is coming. |
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| Monday, August 14, 2023 It rained for a minute just before 8 am. I had a pre-cooked beef burger for breakfast. At 9.45 am our son arrived and followed us to Lake Kournas. We walked around the lake in search of turtles but the viewpoint near the pumping station was so overgrown that we couldn't even see the lake. The photo shows the turtle raft in 2010. |
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| He took the girls out on the lake in search of turtles. We stayed in a taverna and had cold drinks. They saw one turtle. We walked to a lakeside taverna and ordered lunch. Afterwards, we drove back to our village. Overnight there was loud music as the locals celebrated something to do with the Virgin Mary. Because of the Virgin Mary business, most shops and businesses are closed today |
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| Tuesday, August 15, 2023 Because of the Virgin Mary business, there's no postal delivery today. Our son's family had to be out of the villa by 10 am so they came to have breakfast with us. Before they arrived, Iliana drove to Vamos to buy a loaf of bread from the bakery. The family stayed with us until noon when we all drove to "Francoise" Café in Almyrida. I went on my mobike as parking spaces are limited. |
| We all chose our individual meals and the girls - already full of milk shakes - refused to eat what they'd chosen and had tantrums. I ate, paid and headed home on the mobike. I stopped to buy bananas at a supermarket and then stopped in Vamos to get cash from the ATM. The family arrived back shortly after I did. I'd already put the air conditioning on in the house because it's a hot day. They left for the airport at 4.30 pm. __ Wednesday, August 16, 2023 Iliana fed the cat, ate her own breakfast and then headed to Lidl supermarket with our neighbour. I rode to the supermarket to buy eggs for breakfast. After a breakfast of three eggs, three sausages and baked beans, I sat down at the computer until Iliana returned. At 1 pm I rode to the Café for a Fredo Cappuccino. It was hot but with intermittent breeze. I rode to Vamos to get petrol and then to the ATM. |
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| I rode to Georgioupoli for a cup of tea and chat at "Sentouki" Café next to the river bridge. |
| Back home, Iliana had gone across the road for a chat with the neighbour. I fed the cat and did more research. When she returned at 5 pm she started to cook dinner (mince). The gas cooker died so I had to go out in the heat to swap over the gas bottles. Then I drove with the empty bottle to the supermarket to swap it for a full bottle. However, the girl at the till couldn't find the key to the store room so I left empty-handed. By the time I reached home, dinner was ready. |
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| Thursday, August 17, 2023 I ate a working breakfast at the keyboard. Now that the visitors have left, I can concentrate on eating healthily. The hairdresser arrived at 10 am - not for me, obviously! While she dealt with Iliana, I drove to the supermarket to swap the empty gas bottle for a full one. This time the owner with the key was there. I checked but the mail hadn't been delivered. |
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| At 11 am our neighbour brought a package containing the repair kit of earmuffs for my DOQAUS headphones. Strange. The postman definitely didn't come today. I unclipped the old muffs, scraped the remains of the glue and foam from the oval moulding and then stuck the new muffs in place. www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B0B6HXBM1V Now I've ordered protective covers: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01MXL13G4 |
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| At 12.30 pm I rode to Vamos to buy petrol for the mobike. I continued on to Vrises to ask Giorgos, our car mechanic, where I might buy semi-synthetic oil for my mobike and he told me to go to Stelios at the filling station/hardware store opposite "La Luna Café". He was correct and Stelios was able to supply a 4.5 litre bottle of oil for 28 Euros. |
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| After that purchase, I rode along the side roads to Georgioupoli for a cup of tea and a chat at "Sentouki" (again). The tourists were out in force. In general, Cretan people don't like to see semi-naked people walking the streets. It's acceptable on the beach but not elsewhere. But clearly these women did no research and, therefore, show no respect for the locals. I arrived home at 2.45 pm as Iliana was going to visit the neighbours. |
| Friday, August 18, 2023 Iliana has had sickness and diarrhoea all night. I found her on the sofa this morning. "I didn't want to disturb you." She has gone back to bed with a bucket and cancelled plans to visit Maria in Rethymno. Last week I felt a bit sick and had a short session of diarrhoea for a few hours. It was gone by night time. I think there's a bug going round. |
