Pretty much as predicted

Huge joy! The rain is rattling on the metal roof above me. The dogs are divided up between the two compounds so that each is guaranteed a house and no one is left orphaned outside in the rain. I suspect that Pea, Oskar and Fido are all in Château Boris as it’s large enough for all. The raindrops are plopping onto the already flooded decking and water droplets are dripping from the roof above. But it’s not all bad news. It was raining at 05:00 so I waited until it stopped before rounding up the dogs for the Early Walk. There was sufficient light considering the amount of cloud cover but the moon shone through the clouds making it unnecessary to use a torch. We walked 5.68km, not all with Princess and Obi in tow as I can walk twice as fast without those two. We walked over the rocks whereupon it started to rain lightly and continued until we were back in the camping. The dogs and I were only lightly damp. I considered what it must be like for the people parked in the Grammeno Beach car park. There are two [German registered ?] VW camper vans there at present. One I think with two occupants. In rainy conditions such as this, it cannot be much fun as the vans are not tall enough to stand up inside. Sleeping, living and cooking in such a confined space when it’s cold and wet outside must be hilarious. I remember our Scottish VW camper trip and the rainy night all four of us slept in the van!

The pregnant additional camping cat was pleased to see me as I wandered up to Olivia’s caravan which is parked at the top of the camping. I was given a bag of cat food to feed this unfortunate animal whilst Olivia is away. Maria is concerned that the cat might be undernourished as Olivia is on holiday until next Monday. I put the bowl under the van out of the rain and the cat sensibly was there too.

The leaves which I failed to sweep up yesterday were still present when I went for my shower. I decided to do something about it there and then – after the shower as I was getting cold. The men’s bathroom is now clean and tidy as is the women’s. There were no leaves in there anyway.

Following my previous porridge experience, I decided to make it using the pot-in-pot method where a pot is placed inside the Instant Pot. This has two advantages: the oats do not stick to the bottom and the cooking is more gentle. I also waited until all the pressure had self-released so as not to undergo another porridge event. I mixed some dried fruit, berries and nuts with the porridge and added some carob syrup as a sweetener. The syrup tastes a little like chocolate and not much is required to sweeten a bowl of porridge.

It seems that the USAF is playing with their equipment practicing flying up and down the coast at low level. Fortunately, the noise of the aircraft is almost drowned out be the sound of the sea on Grammeno Beach so the dogs are deprived of an opportunity to bark. They are tired and warm and dry inside their houses which might also have some bearing on the matter.

Other than a few IT jobs and a little personal admin, the afternoon was quiet. I have reduced my mobile phone tariff from £32 per month to £15. The more expensive tariff was part of my phone upgrade just over two years ago. I paid for my phone outright this time so can choose a more appropriate monthly spend: a saving of around £400 on a typical 24-month contract. Buying outright is much more attractive when you remove the hidden costs. Around £550 in total!

The Evening Walk has just completed amid some feeble sunshine as we crossed the beach on the outward leg. The remainder of the walk was without incident and Luis and Fido enjoyed themselves charging after the ball. 

The majority of the rain fell during the night and the morning but the weather is looking a little unsettled for the foreseeable future.

A total of 10.67mm has fallen so far today with a further 1.5mm before midnight last night. Tomorrow’s prospects show the bulk of the precipitation in the afternoon. The satellite image will tell a more detailed story as time goes by.