I went to the supermarket after the morning walk, cup of tea, feeding and watering etc. Ursula came and looked after the dogs whilst I was away. Obi, who had taken himself off to play with Micky and Five at the end of the walk, had surrendered to her and so made use of the time to butter her up. There’s a dog who really knows which buttons to press to get what he wants. If Tony comes for tea, Obi goes straight to him as he knows Tony will pet him and have him on his lap.
Antonis called whilst I was at the supermarket to drop off the final items from the chemist and was driving out of the gate whilst I was chatting to Maria at reception. She was explaining that she needed to go back to Chania to teach and that there would be no one to cover reception whilst she was away. She has only a couple more days of lessons and then she can come back to Grammeno for the duration. I managed to have a quick word with Antonis but he was in a rush so I let him go.
The day was warming up nicely by this time. I’d picked up a docket from ELTA, kindly left by the postman. I’d ordered a new wireless access point from Amazon and the delivery via UPS had been handed off to ELTA, the Greek postal service. The aim of the new access point is to replace the router I have been using for some while which is not designed for outside use. The salt air does not improve the circuit boards and I didn’t want it to be destroyed. This new device is designed to be pole-mounted and used externally.
Fortunately Ursula and Tony were going into Paleochora on another important mission so kindly offered to go to ELTA to collect the parcel. Whilst they were out I spotted the update to the tracking information and sent a text to Ursula giving the time she’d collected it. She decided to further test my psychic powers by asking what they were doing at that moment. I guessed that they would probably go somewhere for an ice cream and my phone positioning map showed that they were in Vakakis. Easy really when one has the right technology.
I configured and mounted my new access point on top of the storeroom in the hope that it would provide sufficient coverage inside the compound as well as in the camping. The other device always had to remain inside the storeroom out of the weather so much of its signal was soaked up by the reinforced concrete.
It was quite easy to configure and the coverage outside the van appears to be pretty good. I have yet to see what it is like inside the van and around the camping. The reviews I read seemed to indicate they were quite efficient.
Matthew called and we had a chat about his weekend at the steam fair. Sadly, unlike last year, he was unable to sell any of this caravans. Fortunately the location provided a good backdrop for the many photographs he took. I now have to get them together and put them into his blog in some meaningful way. We chatted about some jobs he’s going to do for me over the weekend and ways in which he might broaden his product portfolio.
The Holiday Weekend begins today until Monday. We were lead to believe there was going to be a mad dash to the camping and that it would be a busy weekend. As of Friday I’m not sure that has quite materialised. But then it’s only 21:40 as I write so others may yet appear. The restaurant and bar areas were definitely busier as we saw when we came in and out for the evening walk. I was uncertain how busy it would be on the beach and the Promontory. It turned out to be quieter than I expected although we took the precaution of walking them on the lead, even Heidi and Pea. The whole operation took less time than normal as we left out the free time at the end of the Promontory.
The camping is noisier than it has been for quite a while and also the dog population was increased due to the staff and the customers. There has been a certain amount of barking from Five which has triggered responses from within this compound. I have been sitting outside so have jumped on the culprits immediately and they have now settled down. The whole territorial thing is very important for dogs. The camping is ‘owned’ by two rival groups and is now being invaded by strange dogs. Expecting them all to get on well, especially with Five on the loose, is unlikely at the very least.
Time for a little food methinks as it’s now 22:20