Month: March 2018

They should have arrived around midnight Friday, however, their plane from Stockholm was cancelled. They were offered an alternative at an extra cost however this was delayed so they missed their connections. Their journey took them to Belgrade, Rome and then Athens where they spent an uncomfortable night in the airport lounge. The Crete flight…

Cool though it was on the morning walk, I discarded most of my garments to complete a 5km run. It seemed a little longer for some reason today. Perhaps I was concentrating too much on the running and not enough on the thinking. I find it quite useful to think about stuff whilst running as…

There was a bit of a storm last night and some rain after midnight but nothing really too drastic. Luckily really, as a German couple in a tent who’d been staying at another camping were besieged by a number of cats which made small holes in their tent. I said there was only one cat…

I didn’t change the time on the clock at the end of my bed last weekend so it was still one hour behind. I’m not sure what I was thinking about but was somehow surprised when my alarm didn’t go off as expected. I felt it seemed much darker than usual too. It was only…

For once it was calm in the morning. A relief following several days of strong winds. The sea was still fairly active but not breaking over the rocks. The dogs were still a bit potty this morning with lots of running about as well as lagging behind. I was well over the rocks before they…

The sea was still very agitated this morning but, with careful timing, we were able to get over the ’causeway’ without getting our feet wet. The sea has had a very confusing time recently as the wind has blown from east, west and then back again. I cycled to Paleochora to see Manolis to order…

The alarm woke me at 04:30 (old time) but I decided it was too early to be getting up so I reset it to 06:30 (new time). I don’t really want to be wandering around the Promontory for an hour in the dark when it’s winter. Summer is a different matter. We did all the…

Intermittent rain was the order of the night however it didn’t keep me up despite going to bed before 21:00! On a Friday night, what’s more. I was on the point of jumping out of bed when more rain came down. I finally pried myself out at 06:10. We walked and I ran my bit despite…

The wind turned to the southwest during the night and was a lot cooler than the previous day. I awoke to discover a lack of Internet when I tried to check the weather. Only my phone appeared to be connected. We got going and out on the Promontory. The sea was still stirred up due…

03:34 and the power went off. I’m reliably informed there was a huge [building] fire which, fanned by the strong winds, spread, engulfing a nearby electricity pylon. Power was restored around 10:00. The wind, fortunately, didn’t gust over 90km/h as WindFinder predicted, however, it managed a respectable 70.2km/h at 03:00. You might also notice that…

I was awake at 04:45 and didn’t bother to go back to sleep. I really needed to get up and sort out the washing as it was piling up and I had a good machine-full. If only I’d done it the evening before it would have been so much easier! Instead, I was rummaging around…

Ursula’s last walk went without incident and we ran and walked as usual. The plan was for them to be on the road by 10:30 so we didn’t hang about. I left Obi, Charlie, Oskar and Fido attached to the camping fence whilst I went in for Boris. He was lying next to the gate…

I remembered to set my alarm ten minutes earlier to be ahead of the game this morning. I was fast asleep when it sounded so needed a couple of minutes to work out which way up I was. I finally worked it out and got out of bed. Normally, Πέντε goes out of the compound…

The wind blew all night and was still going strong this morning. Not the 74km/h forecast but still gusting to 51km/h. I was a little tardy at rising this morning as I woke up in the night so slept soundly until the alarm sounded. Note to self: set alarm ten minutes earlier to be ahead…

It was getting light as I set off across the field towards the Promontory: we seem to have been a little later today. There was a fresh easterly wind which made it feel much cooler than the 15C reported by my watch. I even hung onto my fleece for the first few circuits of the…

A peaceful night punctuated only by Πέντε wishing to go out at 04:50. But as that’s nearly getting up time, there’s no point in going back to sleep. I’d slept more than enough by then anyway. The morning exercises went as anticipated followed by a trip to the supermarket. It was a calm morning so…

Πέντε decided she would go outside last night and declined my invitation to come back into the van at bedtime. She was flat out on the dog bed under the awning and it was not at all cold, so I didn’t press her. For some reason, only an hour or so later, Fido started barking so…

A somewhat disturbed night due to an alien invader. I was asleep before 22:00 but woken at 23:00 by Princess barking for some reason. Then again at 02:00 by Oskar joined shortly after by Pea. Very soon the reply came from the invader somewhere in the camping. I was not about to get out of…

  Princess and Pea celebrate one year living at the Grammeno Menagerie today. They were picked up on 13 March 2017 on the morning walk. Pea is a lot bigger and Princess a lot fuller in the frame. I was looking at the photos I took when they were picked up. My blissful slumbers were…

We’re only just back from the evening walk. There was a white car in the car park with a rental company logo on the door and a couple of women with packs walking north. We wondered if it might be theirs but guessed not as they were walking away from the car. We kept Luis,…

H A P P Y   M O T H E R ‘S   D A Y   Despite a rather pessimistic forecast, the weather has been lovely. I stretched out on one of the sun loungers after breakfast and didn’t move again until around 14:00 when Ursula went off for a swim. Having struggled into her…

Today’s high is 22.6C making it the hottest day of the year so far! This is what my weather website has to say: “The maximum temperature so far today is 22.6°C and minimum 9.8°C, with an average of 16.3°C. This is 1.4°C more than yesterday when the average was 14.9°C (max 20.5° and min 9.7°C).…

After all the excitement and activity yesterday, today was a little calmer. It started early, thanks to Luis, who woke me up at 05:00. I thought about going back to sleep but played with my iPad instead. I was up by 05:25 so the day got off to a good start. It gets lighter earlier every…

From the start of the day, the emphasis has been on managing to achieve the IWD AW Challenge. The aim is to double your Move Goal. Mine is 3,000KJ and Ursula’s is 179KJ more. Ursula spent most of the first part of the day explaining how impossible it would be for her to complete the challenge…

To celebrate International Women’s Day, it looks as though we are going to have a Royal Visit. I spoke to Olivia today who tells me she is here to tend to the needs of Georgia, who is likely to be in the camping tomorrow. The indications are that she may even stay here for a…

Not quite as warm as yesterday morning but 15C nevertheless. We had a good walk and run although it started off a little breezy. This morning I wore no socks and was also wearing thin, short shorts under my heavier shorts. I achieved my 4.2km so we went back to feed the others and get…

As Ursula popped her head around the storeroom door at 06:00, I thrust three dog leads into her hand. She set off through the camping towards the Promontory. I rounded up the other four leaving Boris to his lie-in as is his wont. Following yesterday’s barkathon, I felt it better to let off only a…

Stuffed with rice and spinach I returned last night to retire to bed shortly after. Out at 06:00 on the Promontory for a very pleasant walk and run. The weather was mild so I dispensed with my under fleece in exchange for a T-shirt for running purposes. I ran around my circuit in the usual…

Tony and Ursula enjoyed their wild night out in Paleochora and were back at about the expected time. We were out and about at 06:00 for a pleasant walk and run on the Promontory. I ended up running topless as it was too warm with my fleece on. Boris was next with Obi and Fido…

It was 04:00 UK time when Ursula came to pick up Oskar, Fido and Pea to take them on the morning walk. I’d been awake since my 05:40 (EET) watch alarm. But then this is my normal getting-up time. We had a pleasant walk. I took the dogs over the rocks, I ran, they ran…

Having completed my blog last night I was unable to upload it as the Internet connection was too slow for it to work correctly. I ended up connecting my MacBook to my iPhone to send data over the 3G public network. So slow was the camping network. Doing anything was so painfully slow I was…