Another beautiful day!

OddJob didn’t return in the night nor did he appear during the Early Walk. There was a lot of activity on the part of Luis and Fido in the ball retrieval department. Both kept going until they were fit to drop. The moon is down to 55% illumination; combined with the overcast sky, it was none too bright out.… Read the rest

Ursula does it again!

No unpleasant rude awakenings despite the extra hour. OddJob managed to remain silent possibly because he wasn’t confined to his house.

The walk was starry and moonlit even though there is only around 60% remaining. The moon was overhead so there were few shadows. The dogs mostly behaved well except for Oskar who decided to aim an unprovoked attack at OddJob who has been much less demanding than previously.… Read the rest

Ursula is baking!

OddJob was chased off during the walk yesterday evening but I didn’t see what happened. He didn’t come back at the end of the walk so I returned with the others as usual. Ursula had prepared their food so it was quick for me to put them to bed.

As the evening continued, I kept looking out to see if OddJob was at the gate to the field but I wanted to go to bed in good time due to the hour change.… Read the rest

Happy Οχι Day

Happy Birthday doggies! Heidi, Oskar, Charlie, Minnie, Millie, Malloy (AKA Benny) +1 are celebrating their third birthday today!

It is Οχι Day, to commemorate the day in 1940 when the Greek Government said ‘No’ to Mussolini when he wished to take over Greece. The Greeks pushed embarrassed Mussolini’s army back into Albania until Adolf came to his rescue.… Read the rest

My time has come…

OddJob got in a little bother this morning. He’d been winding up Fido for a long time: each walk where they were together. Yesterday, I helped to tip the balance by putting the two of them in the run together in the hope of progressing the eventual outcome. There was a bit of a punchup. Ursula and I stood by and looked on as this time, the odds were not stacked against OddJob and I know he can run pretty fast.… Read the rest

Never write your blog when you’re in bed!

Another riotous Friday evening at Grammeno Camping! I was moved to perform some culinary activity today so even took an Internet recipe and managed to purchase most of the ingredients. There were some substitutions as there were no cabbages at Petrakis. I could have gone elsewhere but decided to use spinach instead. I needed coriander but, for some reason, it’s rare in Greece so I used parsley.… Read the rest

A beautiful morning

After a slight false start of a few large drops of rain falling, we got underway. It was an almost cloudless sky with a nearly full moon, much higher in the sky than yesterday. It was possible to see without a torch once the initial clipping on had been completed. Luis was the star of the show as, despite a fatal injury to his right-hind leg, he forgot all about it in order to chase his ball around on the rocky surface of the lagoon. … Read the rest

A lovely sunset: as for the rest…

Rain started to fall just after midnight and I was not alerted to the fact until I heard it really pounding down on the metal roof above at around 02:00. I jumped out of bed to close the awning tent door but water had already been driven in by the southeasterly wind. There was a good display of thunder and lightning but I retired back to bed.… Read the rest

Drier today

Putting the dogs to bed last night was fun. There was no evening walk due to the rain and I held off feeding them in the hope that the rain might stop. I finally gave in as it got dark, so ventured out to distribute food as best I could. Luis and Charlie were in the wrong place but then who cares when it’s raining?… Read the rest

Thunder, lightning and rain

Despite familial obligations, Ursula arrived on the Promontory just ahead of me. I let OddJob and Charlie off and most of the others on the way up to the point. The sky was partly cloudy although it cleared as time passed. There was no rain at that point.

We returned and I ran while Ursula performed her pilates under Obi’s tutelage.… Read the rest

Winter mode is on

Fido was the culprit last night as he decided to wake me at 01:00 with some very noisy barking. Luis had already made a noise around 23:45, but shut up. Fido received the collar award and things remained quiet until 04:15 when OddJob decided it was his turn. Better than yesterday but still ended up with him receiving an early morning shower.… Read the rest

At least it’s warm

I was surprised when I went out of the van to tell OddJob off around 04:15. He has his own watch as he makes noise alway around 04:00 onwards. Fine if you’re an early riser which I figure I must be. He stopped yapping until I started to get the other ready to go out of the gate, then he barked.… Read the rest

There could be trouble ahead…

My slumbers were again disrupted by OddJob barking at 04:00. The trouble is, if he doesn’t respond to me going shhhhhh from my bed, by the time you’ve got up to tell him off face-to-face, you might just as well get up! He eventually shut up so I grabbed another ten minutes before my 04:30 alarm.… Read the rest

Promontory encounters

OddJob was getting noisy at 04:00 as he was keen to get out to exercise his new-found freedom. I finally gave in at 04:25 and set the Early Walk procedure in motion. There was a beautiful sky so we were able to enjoy the early morning stars and the odd planet. The dogs were not particularly active and all bar Obi and Princess were off and free.… Read the rest

End of the viruses?

OddJob was off the lead right from the start again today and we appear to have survived without serious incident. All except Fido having a bit of a go at Obi for some reason. Fido is a jealous dog and resents Obi being with me when he is confined to the pen with the others.

The walk out of the way, I ran but was back before 07:00 to enjoy a cold shower in the main bathrooms.… Read the rest

Integrated?

Another successful walk this morning although the level of activity was rather low. OddJob was loose all the time so we swapped others in and out being sure of the ratio of dogs to be sure of no untoward mishaps.

My run was a shade faster than yesterday’s but then that’s not saying much. Ursula says she’s bored with her pilates routine and needs to find new and interesting ways to stretch and twist her limbs.… Read the rest

Two weeks on

I arrived back at Grammeno around 00:35 and unpacked my cases before going to bed. Ursula had kindly left me some wonderful almond cookies which I felt might spoil if left overnight. It wasn’t long before I fell asleep.

The alarm went off at 04:30 but it took me a little while to get going. I rounded up all the dogs and staggered out to meet up with Ursula at the end of the Promontory.… Read the rest

Final Day

Eleanor got in late following a long evening with a client. I just remember the landing light going out. The next action was to go for my last UK autumn run for 2018. It was light, it had been raining so everything smelled of damp leaves. Not an unpleasant experience. No records again today.

I drove down to Greyfriars to collect mother to take her to St Pancras.… Read the rest

A ripping time!

Another run on the Autumnal carpet of Camus leaves. Today’s run was the quickest so far I think. Lewes in the autumn and Spring is most attractive.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of the day ripping CDs although I had time to drop in at Greyfriars to deliver a happy birthday pot of flowers and to exchange ripped CDs for unripped ones.… Read the rest

Mo’s UnBirthday

The carpet of autumn leaves was a pleasant start to a dry and bright day.

As Albert Camus said:

“Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower”

My 6.48km took me a whole 45:32 which is too long. It was light today as I woke up a lot later. I was able to admire the view from Jugg’s Road as I jogged past the windmill towards the houses which line the track down to the main road through Kingston.… Read the rest

Day 2 UK

I woke up somewhat later than usual so managed to run in daylight for a change. The children were not yet going to school, the grass was dry and there was no fog. Again, no records were broken.

Following a shower and some breakfast I went to Clive’s office as he’d called to say his phone lines had been disconnected.… Read the rest

Day 1 UK

I woke up early and decided to go for a run even though it seemed to be very dark outside and wholly uninviting. I ran the same route as last time which takes me up to Juggs Road via a steep hill. As I may have mentioned, it was very dark and I had about my person only a flashing armband and red flashing torch.… Read the rest

Back in the USSR

Not quite the USSR as that no longer exists, however I’m now back in UK.

I compressed the habitual morning routine to be ready to leave for the airport around 10:30. We pulled out of the camping at 10:45 but soon discovered there was no hurry as the flight had a 29 minute delay.

Eleanor took in the sights as we went through the mountains as she saw nothing other than darkness when she arrived.… Read the rest

Packing up

It was not an easy night as the dogs were restless. I heard there were some noisy motorcycles around which may have had something to do with it. Not that I was awake for long periods just that there seemed to be lots of wakeful moments with me going shhhhh to the dogs.

I had to get up to OddJob as he’d run out of water, however, he settled down once he had more.… Read the rest

Another Ursula culinary masterpiece!

This evening, I provided the venue, however, it was Ursula who provided the most scrumptious meal ever! Potato wedges prepared in the Air Fryer, wonderful large black beans in a most delicious sauce and artichokes with peas in the pan. So much food! Try as I might, I just could not do it justice. There was also a salad with fresh avocado courtesy of the German family in T3, who left around midday.… Read the rest

A busier weekend

The dogs were quiet last night when we went out to ThirdEye, or at least Erica doesn’t remember them being a problem. OddJob didn’t make a sound all night, however, Oskar thought I needed an early start to the day so did a big woof at 04:00. I decided it wasn’t worth going back to sleep until the alarm woke me at 04:30.… Read the rest

ThirdEye for a super supper!

Two Super Suppers in a row! Last night we had a lovely meal prepared by Ursula: mushroom stifado (stew – the Greek sounds more exotic maybe). Tonight we went to ThirdEye in Paleochora. As I may have mentioned before, the restaurant is run by a New Zealand/Greek family and is also employing Martin’s son James who has worked the season there and spared the Grammeno kitchen.… Read the rest

Don’t take your eye off the ball!

It was another fairly early night and I was asleep until I heard heavy drops of rain on the upper roof. I remembered that my metal detector was on the decking and that the dogs in the crates were not covered up. I ‘jumped’ out of bed at 04:00 to do the necessary. Going back to sleep was not an option so I made the most of the warmth and comfort of my bed for a further twenty-minutes.… Read the rest

More confident

Despite going to bed at 21:00, I was woken only by the alarm. More complicated because my phone was charging on the decking and my watch was on charge inside. Normally, the phone alarm plays on the watch and it can be turned off by the watch. Not so if it’s on charge.

The walk we fine.… Read the rest

Anydri Gorge

The early morning passed as normal with the Early Walk, run, Pilates and cycle to Paleochora which included a visit to the post office to collect a parcel. It was Ursula’s birthday present which arrived safe and sound. We had breakfast in the company of Luis and Other Dog who was tied up near Eleanor’s cabin.… Read the rest

Eight for tonight

Even though the flight was delayed, it arrived almost on time so I was not waiting long at the airport. Fido had time for a wander around the car park and that was about it. We waited a few minutes before Eleanor arrived and then started on the way back to Grammeno.

Fido settled down in the passenger footwell with Eleanor and we made our way slowly through the mountains.… Read the rest