My blissful slumbers were disturbed by annoying dog-noises around 01:40 so I levered myself from my pit. By the time I got into the SDC it was all too late and events has proceeded me. I let Minnie out first followed by Oskar. They scampered around the compound together and Minnie seemed relieved. I looked into Minnie’s part of the shared accommodation to assess the impact. The aroma which greeted me told me all I needed to know at which point I released Heidi from the other part of the house. All three wandered about for a while whilst I decided what to do with them. Minnie’s house needed cleaning and Heidi’s was contaminated by the unpleasant aroma. I decided to leave Minnie outside, as she is normally sensible, put Heidi in Oskar’s house, because she is rarely sensible, and take Oskar with me. I carried Oskar to the van and dumped him in with the Brown Dogs. He, and everyone else, eventually settled down and went to sleep.
The night was not without other disturbance as it is quite windy giving rise to much flapping and waving of awning and shading pieces. I have yet to determine how much wind the awning can survive with only the shading sections deployed. I know that it can endure winds around 75km/h with the tent sides up but am not sure with only the shading sides. I think so long as the awning legs are bolted firmly to the decking and the spring-loaded straps don’t give out, it can survive up to 80km/h (50mph) gusts. The current wind direction is mostly north or northeast, which is the unprotected side as there is no building, fence or trees to break the wind.
The morning walk was windy, we were on the Promontory before Kostas and I spent time mostly discovering locations out of the wind. The dogs were pretty active when we got to the beach for the final half-hour. They chased each other into and out of the water, made a lot of noise, but generally had a good time.
Back at Grammeno, Erica and Janne were both up and Janne was in the middle of constructing something which involved wood and screws. They told me they planned to leave about nine and hopefully they have anchored everything down.
Janne and Erica left just before 10:00 and I went off to the supermarket where I had a long conversation with Georgia, the owner’s wife who does the till. She was telling me about the problems she is having with her dogs. One of which eats only canned food. I made some suggestions about product she might wish to try and explained I had the same problems particularly with the two older dogs. Flies are a big nuisance around here. I was able to tell her that the vet comes to Paleochora on Mondays and Tuesdays.
I got a message from Georgia asking if I would like to join her in the bar for a coffee. I gave her more than the 20 minutes stipulated but I managed to string out my Freddo Espresso until she eventually arrived. At which point she became involved with a couple of blokes who had been waiting longer than me. Then there were the regular phone calls. I’m used to this so continued my conversation with Xanthipos who appears to spend more time in the bar drinking and smoking roll-ups, than anything else. Georgia gave me the money for all the Leisguard I had purchased, some 370€. We discussed the camera project situation, I explained I had been ready for a while but that we were waiting on some waterproof boxes to put the equipment in. Apparently, Sophie, the now previous bar person was having problems balancing the till at the end of her shift. This seems to be a common problem amongst bar staff. The till has now been relocated so that it is in line of sight of the, soon-to-be-installed camera. The only problem being that the back of the employee will block the view. Anyway, it’s the thought that counts and the deterrent effect of having a camera. We discussed various other dog-related problems concerning her younger dogs, Micky and Five. Apparently some customers have complained to having been annoyed by them at night time. I added that they could be annoying especially if they are running around the camping barking after dark. My dogs are perhaps all in their houses, can be set off by those two giving it some welly elsewhere. I suggested she might consider getting them houses where they can be locked in after dark as this will usually keep them quiet. I will suggest to Antonis that he contact her if he chooses. We also went through the dosing and administration of the Leisguard medication and I did my best to explain the regimen. I mentioned that I had explained everything to Maria but was told that she is having great problems with tiredness due to a B12 deficiency and possible hypothyroid. I explained that the condition must have been there for quite a while as B12 usually remains in the body for several years. She is receiving medication and the condition is not serious, only debilitating. We also talked about the fly problem and the wind. An ecological anti-fly spray has been applied around the camping on a couple of occasions with limited effect. I showed that the strong winds will probably continue for several days. At least that will disguise the problem to a certain extent. There was talk of more very hot weather in a few days time.
I received a call from Janne saying that Antonis is going to construct the trailer project differently so needs some money to order the materials so he can get on with it. Rather than delay until they return tomorrow Janne asked if I could give the money to Antonis to speed things up. Fortunately Georgia had just given back the 370€ for the Leisguard so I said it would not be a problem and so would contact Antonis directly. He said he would be along at 14:00 to collect it. He must have meant tomorrow as it’s 18:00 now and I’ve not seen him. Perhaps I got the day, week, month or year wrong?
The wind has been quite strong and is gusting to Bft 8. One of elastics on the eastern shading keeps breaking so I need to make a better effort to fix it. I am not in a hurry to take down the shading as they appear to be surviving the ordeal and it’s a bit of a fag taking them down and putting them up. Without them, the awning takes more punishment.
When it blows very hard, the hinged roof of Château Boris lifts up. I can see this could be a little disconcerting for Boris so I may place a large block on it to stop this from happening.
One of the [French] motorhome customers left this morning complaining of the wind. Let’s hope he doesn’t go north for less wind. Another customer’s tent has collapsed due to the ferocity of the wind and some of the camping’s tents have been moved or taken down. It’s quite windy. 73km/h so far
Ursula tells me they had a long crossing from France and an equally long wait in A&E in Winchester for Tony’s head to be examined. They finally got home around dawn. Tony is not feeling too bright today.
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