Ursula, Tony and Heidi have just left for their visit to UK. They will be coming back to Grammeno on 4/5 September having survived the rigours of the (in)famous British Summer. It could be quite a shock to the system having recently spent so much time on Crete. They are catching the ferry from Souda to Piraeus tonight, spending one night in Rafina before the ferry from Patras to Ancona on Sunday.
Luis is very quiet today after a run-in with the other inmates this morning. He and Fido have recently taken to competing for the ball in the mornings. This is good news since Luis is not usually very athletic so his interest in ball-chasing has been encouraged. As always, the problem with Luis is that he has a much bigger ego than his physical stature. He became quite possessive of the ball and was certainly not planning to give it up to Fido of all people. They have had little disputes in the past, however, these end usually with only Fido and Luis participating. This morning, the whole gang joined in until I waded in to break it up. I could see that things were getting out of hand as the lynch-mob mentality was starting to take over. Luis took himself off to sulk on the rocks but managed to drag himself back to the camping at the end of the walk. He has taken some in-coming however, as I was explaining to Antonis, the greatest damage was done to his ego which, when you have an ego the size of Luis’, it can be far more painful than any physical injury!
Luis declined to come with me when I was getting ready to go down to Tony and Ursula for breakfast but changed his mind at the last moment. He spent most of the morning in the shade outside Ξ3 as Ursula was loading the car and sorting things out. She brought him back when we wandered down to the bar to say goodbye to Georgia and Maria.
Antonis appeared brandishing a huge electric drill which he recently acquired from a local store. It reminds me of the kind of drill I was struggling with at about the time I developed my hernia at Easter two years back. I will let him play with his toys when he comes to start work on Tuesday. He tells me he is going on a speedboat course this weekend. I’m not certain but this may be something to do with his job at Libyan Princess which is a posh hotel in Paleochora. He works the graveyard shift from 23:00 to 07:00 and then gets on with his other activities during the day. I believe his aim is to try to clear some of his debt but, like many others, he manages to spend it faster than he earns it, so I’m not sure how much progress he is making.
Whilst explaining that he was going on a course this weekend and not finding the word he wanted, I preemptively came up with a series of unhelpful suggestions, one of which was getting married. His immediate comment was that, should he be doing that, I would have been invited.
Another invitation today was from Xanthippos who celebrates his 51 birthday with a ‘banquet’ at the camping bar this evening. I have been invited to attend and I will probably show my face for a short while. I presented Xanthippos with a pastry from the Anatoli Bakery this morning as a token gift. He’s often to be seen wandering the camping munching on horrid confectionary purchased from the bar or the vending machines.
Boris joined us on the morning walk today. He waited eagerly at the gate of his run as I returned from the loo.
It’s Friday and the camping is busy with adults and children alike. I can hear shrill voices from the beach, a condition which will probably continue until Sunday afternoon. There is a family group camped under the trees opposite me. I suspect it might the be the doctor from Athens. He regularly comes at this time of year.
By this time point in the season, I have stopped doing evening walks due to the number of tourists on the beaches and the Promontory as well as the heat. Any walk is nearly always on the lead and consists of me dragging hot dogs over hot sand to the Small Beach which often still has people enjoying the dying rays of the evening sun. I have decided to continue with the evening wander for a while limiting it to a short traipse around the field, across the road, into the adjacent field and back to base. It’s not a very exciting walk but is intended to just give them an outing before bedtime.
Tomorrow will see a different morning routine. No more trysts with Ursula outside the toilets at 04:50. I shall have to take and manage all the dogs myself and manage them on my own. It really makes a difference to be able to share some of the load. Ursula will not be doing her pilates on the decking when I return from my run and I shall probably have to put the dogs in their houses whilst I’m out.
Never mind, only 74 days or two months and thirteen days and you’ll be back at Grammeno all set to enjoy the Cretan Autumn.
Leave a Reply