Hottest day of the year so far

I can report that Princess is a little better today following yesterday’s operation. She declined to join us for a walk last night and this morning but managed some breakfast today. I brought her and her house into the van at bedtime yesterday as she seemed a little chilly. I have not seen much of her today as she has spent time in the shade under the decking however she managed a small amount of barking earlier.

More activity in the camping today as preparations continue for the weekend. A cleaner has been into the bathrooms however either she didn’t clean the men’s one or the Albanians have excelled in making it dirty again.

Stavros took all of the rubbish away this morning. He is making the camping look very presentable and working very hard. Mikhalis, who has been working in the camping on the new small cabin, is also painting the rooms at reception and it would appear that many of the Albanians have been evicted or moved elsewhere. There are still Albanians in the Small Cabins and T1 but I suspect this may be only for a little while longer.

Outside the supermarket yesterday morning, I encountered a small group of Moroccan men waiting to be picked for work. The supermarket is a favourite location for workers to gather hoping someone will hire them for the day. As I was about to get on my bike, one of them spoke to me in English so we had a chat for a few minutes. He told me he is finding it hard to find work and that his goal is to get to Italy. Unfortunately he does not have any papers so has to rely on traffickers to take him. He says he is trying to get €600 together to pay for this but finding it almost impossible. He told me they are living rough as they have no money for accommodation but that he has found a deserted house in Chania which is more comfortable than being on the beach. He seemed a very nice young man and it didn’t seem much of a life for a 24 year old. He and his friends were not waiting for work at the supermarket this morning so I can only assume they got work or decided to go back to Chania.

I spoke to my friend Jo, who lives in Hindhead this morning. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of months ago and has recently undergone surgery. She told me she would be going to see the surgeon yesterday afternoon to get her test results and seemed quite positive about the outcome. Now she is less so as the results were not back from the lab and the surgeon told her that further surgery was not out of the question. She understands that she is going to need radiotherapy but hopes to avoid chemotherapy as well. We had a good chat: she was in the bath at the time so I averted my eyes. She sounded more positive and is quite resistant to my flavour of black humour. Hopefully the test results will be available next week so that at least she knows where she is going.

Antonis is planning to come for me to fit the new battery to his iPhone this evening. I have told him that I go out with the dogs at 19:00 and then feed them afterwards. Hopefully he will appear before too long.

There is a small puppy lying in my chair behind me and seems very comfortable. That situation is about to end as I want to sit back and drink my tea. Watch out Pea as here I come.