| 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. |
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| I did the clothes wash and then rode to Vamos to get my monthly prescription. An English woman was asking if the pharmacy stocked something that sounded like "Diarolite" and received a blank stare. So I explained to the pharmacist, in Greek, that it was for diarrhoea. "Ah, you want electrolytes!" After that, I stopped at the Café in Litsarda and chatted with Greek visitors from Athens and locals. After drinking a Fredo Cappuccino and a glass of water with a drop of squeezed lemon juice, I felt a bit unwell, so I rode home. |
| I developed stomach ache and went to bed. I awoke after an hour or two and lay there for some time, still with stomach ache. Finally, I could bear it no longer and ate a teaspoon of "Gaviscon". That did the trick. Within a minute I was treating the toilet bowl to the entire contents of my stomach and, it seemed, my bowels, too. |
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| I'll spare you the gory details but I had to clean the bathroom with the shower hose. I felt somewhat better after that. In fact I felt well enough to feed the cat, which had been waiting for hours by its empty bowl. Now I'm feeling rumblings at the other end so I'll have to take a break. |
| Saturday, August 19, 2023 I slept till 8 am. The anticipated diarrhoea never materialised. I drank three glasses of water and took my vitamins with a small piece of cheese. Now I'm catching up on videos and reading that I couldn't do yesterday. Iliana hung out some washing and went back to bed. At 11.30 am, Chris phoned to ask if I'd be going to the Café. I told him that I'd been sick and Iliana was worried that we might be contagious. He said that he wasn't worried, so we met at the Café at 12.30. Dave arrived at 1 pm and Brian & Karen, just back from England, arrived shortly afterwards to order lunch. I had a cup of coffee, a piece of garlic toast and two tiny "paximadi" bread rusks. In the meantime, our neighbour had collected our pies from Sharon who delivers every fortnight. When I arrived home, just after 2 pm, Iliana was putting the pies in the 'fridge and then went back to bed. I brought the washing in, had a drink of cocoa and then went to bed, simply because I felt tired. At 6.30 pm I awoke with slight indigestion and came downstairs for a glass of water. Iliana came downstairs and suggested that we walk to the village square. There was supposed to be the annual children's race taking place but we must have got the wrong day as the square was empty. |
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| Sunday, August 20, 2023 We drove to Georgioupoli for breakfast at Stelios Café Bar. Gill had a boiled egg with buttered bread. I risked a full English breakfast. My stomach muscles still hurt when I cough but I'm not feeling as debilitated as Iliana, following the sickness bug. After breakfast, we crossed the square to the ATM and noticed a fallen lamp post. It looks like an extruded metal tube was simply pushed into a cast metal base with only a few centimetre-high protrusions holding it. |
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| At 1 pm I rode to Litsarda but there was no water supply in the village. The Café was limited to selling soft drinks from the 'fridge, so I returned home. I noticed that a hole had been dug in the road so maybe there's a repair job pending. Or maybe someone is hoping that the twigs will grow into trees. |
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| Around 8 pm, shortly before dark, my neighbour knocked on the door. "Your rear lights are on!" Sure enough, the car brake lights were on. When I investigated, I found that there was no adjuster to close the gap between the lever and the switch. So I pushed a hex-head bolt through the hole in the lever bracket and fitted a nut to keep it there. An easy solution but I couldn't find the original adjuster on the carpet! |
| I made that sound really easy, didn't I? Let me add more information. It was dusk and the light was failing. I had to kneel on the ground with my body twisted so that my head was next to the pedals, looking upwards. I held a torch with my teeth while I figured out how to unclip the cover that hid everything in the photo. With the cover finally out of the way, I managed to wedge the torch up inside the dashboard so that I could see to get one elbow up to push the pedal back while forcing the bolt into the hole. I was then able to thread a nut onto the bolt to hold it in place. By the time I'd clipped the cover back into place, it was dark. At that moment, Iliana decided that it was cool enough to go for a walk. |
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| Monday, August 21, 2023 We drove to Vrises to check the mail for Geoff & Derrick, now living in England. There was none. We adjourned to the "La Luna" Café for a drink. I bought a couple of empty bottles from a nearby shop to put milk in. back home, I took the bottles to our German neighbour, ordered a bread loaf and asked them to buy me two litres of sheep's milk when they visit the farmer. |
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| After lying in the car footwell last night I got absolutely filthy, so I removed the carpets, beat them and turned the hose pipe on them. I left them on the wall to dry and used the vacuum cleaner to suck out the rest of the fluff, soil and grit from the car footwells. |
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| I rode to the Café at Litsarda. The village still has no water supply! So I ordered sausages and sat down to type a note to the water authority on their Fakebook page. I drank bottled water with a squeeze of lemon juice. I ordered two portions of chicken souvlaki, which I brought home for our evening dinner, as Iliana is still not feeling 100%. |
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| Back home, Iliana had gone to "Knit & Natter" so I fetched the step ladders and tools so that I could fit a bracket to the ceiling, which would stabilise the sliding plastic panels that have been leaning against the Venetian blinds for years. |
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| When I went to put my tools away, I noticed an unusual brown preying mantis. most of them are green and choose a green background for disguise. This one clearly thinks that it's green. It won't last long. Iliana returned as I finished the job so I replaced the now dry mats in the car footwells. |
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| We opened the souvlaki take-aways and discovered that they included chips and bread, which we don't eat. So our neighbours' chickens will be happy. We ate the chicken souvlaki with salad. During the evening, I watched the first episode of Star Gate One (SG1). |
| Tuesday, August 22, 2023 Iliana took an early morning walk before I was even awake. I had a slice of pork pie for breakfast and settled down to do research. Chris phone at 11.30 to ask if I was going to the Café so I joined him there at noon. Billy and Cliff were already there. They'd stopped on the way back from a shopping trip. When they left, I followed on my mobike to help to unload the shopping. |
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| After that was done, I climbed onto Billy's roof to check the water tank. I had to set a second ladder on the tiles in order to see inside the tank. The water level was well above the float and was overflowing. The float valve seemed to be working so I'm wondering whether a connection to the inlet side of the valve was leaking. However, it was too far below the water level for me to see and the water was very hot due to the sunshine (30°C in the shade). |
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| Back in our village, I checked the mail and date-stamped every letter from today's delivery. I delivered a bunch of letters to our neighbour and then visited our German neighbours to collect a loaf of bread and two bottles of sheep's milk. I used it in my cocoa; it tastes like full-fat cow's milk. |
| Wednesday, August 23, 2023 I awoke at 5 am, lay awake for an hour then fell asleep till 8.20 am. I lay on the bed and performed my daily back stretching exercise. I made a cup of coffee and a bowl of porridge and then sat down at the computer to read the latest news. |
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| I couldn't read! I had a blind spot just to the right of my centre of vision and both eyes were the same. This is the beginning of a migraine episode for me. Darn! I could see the letter that I was looking at but I couldn't "read ahead" because the word to the right was invisible. |
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| I searched the Internet for pictorial representations of what I experience and there were plenty but none represented what I see. The pictures that I found all showed rainbow coloured flashing lines but, in my case, the blind spot gradually moves to the right and forms a curved, flickering line without obvious colour. |
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| The flickering arc continues to increase in diameter and move to the right, leaving my centre field of vision clear so that I can read again. After about fifteen minutes, the flickering moves completely out of sight and my vision is back to normal. Usually I'm left with a very slight headache but one one occasion, when I was young, the one-sided headache was so severe that I had to lie in a dark room and I ended up puking. |
| It's at least a year since I had the last episode and possibly longer. I found that taking magnesium virtually eliminates the problem. But the body doesn't store magnesium and, in my case, because I suffer from "leaky gut", I don't absorb magnesium very well. We recently had the puking shitting virus and that upset my gut, which might have caused toxins to get into my blood stream. I'm going to buy some probiotics, which might improve my gut biome. I rode to Vrises Post Office to post two cards to England. Iliana had but a one Euro stamp on one and two on the other. The Post Office had no other customers so I went inside and asked the Clerk if the stamps were correct. No, they weren't. It now costs 2 Euros for standard mail and 3 Euros for faster mail to the UK. I recall when it was 80 cents. I smiled nicely and handed over the cards with two Euro coins. Then I rode to the dentist who now has a female assistant! He checked the crown that he'd fitted some six months ago and pronounced it perfect. The gum has healed up nicely. However, a top tooth will require a filling in the near future. I rode to the usual Café but there were no expats there so I had a coffee and, after answering an elderly, local man "where are your friends?" (I don't know) I rode to Vamos to buy probiotics. The pharmacist accosted me and said "ah, you've come for the vaccination?" No, I hadn't. "But we've been trying to phone your wife to tell her it's ready." Eventually, after I explained that she had a shingles vax weeks ago, they checked the computer and determined that I was correct. |
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| Then I explained that I'd had the puking virus and needed probiotics to restore my gut microbiome. The pharmacist recommend the one in the photo so I paid for it, thanked her and left. Back home I ate a slice of German bread, followed by my afternoon vitamins and a probiotic capsule. |
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| I picked some figs, ate one, and put the rest in the freezer. |
| I sat down at the computer to do research. An email arrived with a new book for me to edit so I did the first chapter. Iliana went across the road to the neighbours. I took a break from work and walked to the supermarket to buy a spray for flies and mosquitos. I'd bought one in Vamos last week but it shoots out a jet. I don't know whether it's faulty or else intended for wasp nests. Iliana returned at 4.40 pm. She's decided that we'll drive to Likotinará for dinner this evening because she wants to put up some posters for her forthcoming quiz. |
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| I searched the Internet and discovered the part that vanished from my brake pedal. Apparently, this rubber stop crumbles into dust! Well it'll be a long time before the bolt crumbles but I'm thinking that I should grease it so that it doesn't wear away the switch button. |
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| Thursday, August 24, 2023 I awoke at 6.30 am, did my back exercise, showered, dressed and went downstairs to boil two eggs, which I ate with tuna. The frozen figs from yesterday were chewy, not hard, and tasted like ice cream. I ate two. I don't recommend eating more than three per day unless you have really bad constipation! |
| I rode to the Café and had sausages for lunch with my coffee. I bought a chunk of "graviera" cheese and returned home. I spent an hour editing the latest book and then did research until Iliana called me for dinner - sausages with vegetables. I returned to my research and then watched a StarGate One video. __ Friday, August 25, 2023 Dave the carpenter/handyman (who installed my office ceiling) arrived at 9 am to replace the sealant around our bath. Iliana left to drive to Rethymno. |
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| I left Dave to work and rode to Georgioupoli to have breakfast at Stelios Café Bar. Afterwards, I got cash from the ATM and then bought fruit and yoghurt from the grocer before riding home. Dave hadn't completed the job because the sealant was the wrong type. He'll exchange the cartridges and return tomorrow. |
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| I rode to Litsarda for coffee Dave arrived so I bought him a beer and then he left to ride to Kalyves paint shop to get the sealant before the shop closed at 3 pm. |
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| My mobike has been making buzzing noise and part of the reason is that a plastic cover has split. So I removed it and took it into the workshop. |
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| I mixed some epoxy resin and glued a strip of strong gauze across the crack, which I held closed with a Mole wrench. For the rest of the afternoon, I edited a book chapter and then returned to my research. |
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| Saturday, August 26, 2023 Dave arrived at 10.30 am to finish sealing the bath with silicone. I headed for Kalyves on the mobike. On the way out of our village I noticed a car parked on the wrong side of the road. |
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| Judging by the damage, it had collided with the wall on the corner and had then spun to the other side of the road. The front spoiler was hanging off and it looked as if a suspension arm was touching the road behind the wheel. |
| In Kalyves, I visited a few shops to buy a tile-cutting disk, Sauerkraut, Ghee butter and fruit. Back home, Dave was still working on the bath seal. Again he wasn't happy with the finish and refused to charge me. So I told him to pack up and follow me to the Café where I paid for our drinks and sausages. Dave also ate a plate of chips. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing research and editing the latest book. I told Iliana that I wouldn't need dinner. I ate yoghurt and banana at 6 pm. In the evening I scoured forums for news and then watched another episode of SG1. |
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| Sunday, August 27, 2023 Iliana set off to walk at 9 am. I set off in the car at 9.40 and collected her on the way to Almyrida, where we had breakfast at "Francoise" Café. |
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| Back home, I rode to Billy's on my mobike to collect the tiles that he wanted me to cut. I made three trips there and back because his dimensions weren't exactly right. After that, I edited a couple of book chapters and then watched DIY videos until 5 pm when I ate sheep's milk yoghurt with sliced banana and spices (black pepper, turmeric & cinnamon). In the evening I watched more videos. |
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| Monday, August 28, 2023 Iliana was up early, put clothes into the washing machine and then went for a walk. On her return she hung them out to dry. During the morning, a number of loads of gravel arrived for our neighbour, Pericles', garden. I cooked myself sausage & egg breakfast, which I ate with sauerkraut. Then I read the news and watched videos. |
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| 1 pm I visited our German neighbours to hand over kitchen scraps for their chickens. Pericles' gravel was being spread by a Bobcat or "skid steer". Iliana went out for lunch with friends. She pointed to a frozen package of Pollock with tomato topping from Lidl but I translated the ingredients list and decided against ingesting them. |
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| I rode to the Café for a coffee. There was nobody to talk to so I read a book on my iPad. I noticed a white bug on the table and tried to photograph it but it was scuttling too quickly to get a sharp photo. It's about the size and shape of an aphid and it gives a painful bite if it gets onto skin. |
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| This little fellow was also on the table, looking for lunch. Again, it was moving quickly and my camera couldn't focus. I rode home and had a nap until Iliana returned around 4 pm and tooted for me to open the gates. I went back to bed and slept till 6 pm. I ate yoghurt with banana and spices, followed by a fig, an apple and, later, a piece of cheese. After that, I read the paper about Scalar Energy, did more research and watched another episode of SG1. I forgot to edit the book. 7 pm the water pressure is zero. We have a trickle coming from the 1000 litre tank on the roof. |
| Tuesday, August 29, 2023 I was up early and took Iliana a pot of tea in bed. Then I watched videos. Around 10 am we drove to Vamos to do shopping and have a drink at "Nektar" patisserie. We returned home and called at the supermarket to buy bottled water, just in case. I returned to the supermarket at 11.30 to stamp and organise today's mail delivery (see "feedback", below). I rode to the Café in Litsarda for a quick coffee. 
I phoned Billy but there was no answer. Ditto his wife. So I paid and rode to Billy's house to check on him. He told me that Harry and Mandy had driven Jean to Iraklio hospital for her lung scan and he was waiting for a phone call. I informed him that his phone wasn't working and it probably needed charging. "It had 70% charge last time I looked!" It wouldn't turn on. He connected the charger and was then able to turn it on. He showed me his morning's work: he'd cooked meatballs with tomato and other stuff. This he'd divided into eight boxes - seven would go in the freezer. He hadn't got around to fixing the slates in place, which I'd cut yesterday. I rode home to edit another two book chapters before my weekly Skype call to my UK retired engineer friends. I had yoghurt and banana for evening "dinner" and picked some more figs from our tree, to freeze. In the evening I watched videos and another episode of SG1. |
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| Wednesday, August 30, 2023 I awoke late and ate two eggs with sauerkraut for breakfast. I phoned Billy to ask about his wife who has emphysema. The hospital told her to see her doctor about getting oxygen for home use. She's awaiting the result of her scan. At 1 pm I met researcher Bill at a local taverna to celebrate his birthday. |
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| I ordered Pork steak and Bill ordered pork schnitzel. |
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| Back home, I noticed a split in my saddle, which I've been meaning for weeks to repair. |
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| So, for now, I've applied a piece of duct tape, with rounded corners in the hope that it will stay there for a few weeks. I watched a video that Bill recommended and then edited another couple of book chapters. |
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| Thursday, August 31, 2023 We drove to Haniá, left the car in the "Apollon" car park and walked to the harbour to have breakfast at 10 am. It was slightly windy at home, which was nice, but the city was more sheltered and soon heated up. |
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| Iliana ordered a chocolate waffle. I ordered an English Breakfast but modified it so that I got eggs, bacon, tomato and mushrooms only. After that, we went in search of a camping equipment shop because I wanted to buy a sleeping bag ("sleep sack" in Greek: "ypnosackos"). We tried two shops that didn't stock them but were directed to a kind of "army & navy" store, which did. |
| (Our younger son, wife and baby plan to visit in October, so we will have to give up our master bedroom. Iliana will sleep in the spare room and I'll sleep on a spare mattress on the office floor. It will be cooler in October, hence the need for a sleeping bag, as our house - especially the office - is not insulated.) |
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| After that, we found a shop where Iliana could buy some really expensive sandals (groan). And then we walked to the Body Shop where she bought several bottles of smelly stuff. We returned to the car park, which now had a very long queue of cars at the front entrance/exit. Parking was free because we'd accumulated sufficient brownie points from previous visits. Because of the queue we had to exit onto another road, which meant a much longer drive to get back to the National Road. |
| Back home, I rode to the Café where I was joined by Chris, his niece and her partner. In the afternoon I edited another two book chapters, sent some comments to the publisher and then did research, including links from researcher Bill. I ate yoghurt and banana for evening dinner, followed by tatsiki and cheese. I watched an episode of SG1, did more research and then went to bed. The Weather Forecast 
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