New collar

I watched another episode of Broadchurch and spent time with Messrs Poldark and friends in Cornwall. I like to get about however the theme was West Country. I was heading towards the bedtime routine but then went outside to see how my server was getting on. So gripping was it that I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 23:30 which was a bad move as I was awake again but not in bed.

I ended up getting to sleep after midnight and then woken up by a pathetic whining from outside. Skinny had wrapped his line around one of the metal posts which holds up the roof over the van and was stuck. I released him so he went back to his preferred position under the chair. I returned to bed and went back to sleep. It was soon 04:30 so I’d been asleep probably not much more than four hours.

There were a couple of cars and FreeLoaders but we didn’t come across them. It’s getting darker in the mornings particularly as the moon is very lazy and stays in bed late. Even when it gets up, it’s nearly at the end of its cycle. We returned uneventfully to the camping where I left Luis and Charlie who would be partaking of the second walk with Skinny and Isabella by the gate. Fido and Oskar went into the van with Obi. I fed the cats, put collars and leads on dogs and off we went.

We headed down the road parallel to Alonáki Beach and continued on as far as Plakaki but not much further as I spied a camping setup further down the beach at one of the favourite locations. As Luis was with us and a little prone to announce himself, I chickened out and we went back before the campers spending time on the rocks and generally messing around. Skinny and Isabella had a lot of fun together enabling them both to expend excess energy. Isabella gets so excited and makes a lot of noise which is annoying early in the morning.

I went down to the beach around 07:25 to see Maria already there. This morning she recognised it was me so we passed the time of day and agreed the sea was very pleasant. She got out soon after but I continued a while longer before getting a shower and going for a bike ride. I often shop on a Monday as the new deliveries come in but now the season is upon us there are more frequent deliveries.

At Krios I found Gregor and his dogs so I petted the dogs and we chatted as he periodically went to move the hose watering the trees. Antonis arrived to fix a pane of glass over the door of a new building he’d constructed next to the little beach bar. We chatted as he worked. He’s working some nights at the hotel but only Friday – Sunday at present. We had a conversation about windows which I’m keen to continue at a later date. He says he’ll probably go to Chania on Wednesday so I might have a replacement fan if he does.

Back at the camping I let out Luis and Charlie who were in the houses then released the others before feeding them. I made breakfast for myself and then fell asleep which was hardly surprising. I may also have fallen asleep later in the day too.

The only support call was from Litsa about her camera. I passed on setting information as she’d gone into a shop in Chania to try to discover why she couldn’t see her camera on her phone when I could see it on mine. I suggested that many people had reliability problems with the Android app although the Apple version appears a lot more reliable. I suggested she might consider a different app rather than waste too much effort on that one.

The nice chap at DHL emailed to say my new SunBlocker had been passed to ACS for local delivery so I should expect it soon. I notified the office to expect a parcel for me.

Aris contacted me to say a parcel was waiting for me in the office. I went up to discover that Maria had conveniently left them for me on top of the fridge in the storeroom. I chatted to Aris until Maria returned. She tells me she’s off to Chania to wash her laundry so I won’t see her in the sea tomorrow morning. I feel certain I’ll survive.

I unpacked the new doggy training collar, charged it and paired it with the receiver. I can now remote control three dogs which would have been handy this morning.

Luis has just been banished inside the van for being barky and Oskar is heading that way if he makes more noise. The others are sleeping off their supper and Isabella is chewing one of her shoe collection. She’s a bit like Imelda Marcos but with fewer pairs. Fortunately, so far, Isabella is able to differentiate between her shoes which can be chewed and my shoes which cannot [yet] be chewed. Better shoes are incarcerated in the dog crate just in case of a malfunction.

I’m not sure quite what to eat as it’s been quite warm after a cooler start. It was 18.6℃ when we got up which is quite chilly for the season. Today’s top temperature is 33.9℃ which is sort of average.

I suppose I’d better go in and put together something to eat. I’m sure to have help as some of the dogs seem to have developed vegetarian tastes. Isabella loves tomato and Fido eats it too. Oskar tried a bit last night but the jury may still be out. I have a little posse of dogs waiting patiently whenever I prepare anything. They all appear to like sunflower seed kernels so it seems.