I watched the first episode of Shetland. So far, two or three people have died in this murder-mystery set in, surprisingly, Shetland. The story so far includes goings-on from WWII and the Shetland Bus. It’s possible that one of the victims of this story died a long time ago. It seemed like a good story so I’ll see how it turns out.

Another peaceful night outside as some of the noisiest neighbours had left. A couple with a baby are nearby so there were a few nocturnal interruptions as one might expect.

A woman with some dogs was amongst the FreeLoaders currently occupying the Promontory. I think I counted seven cars and a couple of motorbikes in the car park. There was a bit of barking as we arrived but I pressed on so we made it to the end of the Promontory where I dropped off the four and continued with the others. I wasn’t up for exploring much to avoid falling over small tents and so on, we therefore took a rather truncated route but did more of them.

At the appointed time, I gathered up the others and we set off for the river bed route, without making the dogs we encountered on the way in bark. First of all we had to negotiate the vehicle along Alonáki Beach Road, of which one had a small, fluffy dog. I told my lot to be calm so the majority of the disturbance was from the fluffy dog. We continued on our way unmolested.

VGD was standing by the gate to the concrete lorry yard and we all had a meeting without any barking on the parts of Luis and Fido. The wind was starting to get up and the new SunBlocker was up and really needed taking down. We therefore generally hastened back promptly although we found time for a little sit-down and bathe by the sea. The fluffy Thing came out to defend his/her territory as we wandered past at a distance however none of the free dogs was particularly interested. That said, Luis and Fido were already back on the lead to avoid any disappearing tricks mostly on the part of Fido.

It was now even more windy so I took down the SunBlocker before the guy ropes were destroyed and it suffered any damage. I’d quite like to keep this one in good condition. The other one suffered as it was left up in high winds which is why it began to tear at either end. They’re intended to survive Beaufort 5/6 without detriment however we’ve been as far as 7.5 today.

I wasn’t sure what it would be like on the beach but went for a shorter swim anyway followed by a hot shower. The wind was whipping up the sand and creating wavelets in the water making swimming more difficult. Returning against the wind was entertaining as I was constantly being washed by the waves.

I picked up my remaining shopping bag, the other died on Saturday, and headed off for Paleochora for a quick spin around Petrakis. There was some spinach as well as fresh plums. I wanted more potatoes. and carrots for the Doggy Dinners. The trips to and from Paleochora required concentration due to the strong, gusting winds. At one point, I thought I might be going backwards!

It was 09:15 when I got back so I let out the dogs and got on with my breakfast.

Later in the morning, Aris alerted me to the arrival of some packages of which one was the new anti-bark collar recently acquired on eBay. I went up to the reception where Maria was wearing a particularly bright orange T-shirt. I made jokes asking Aris if he’d seen Maria at all. A customer arrived to pay so I took my leave.

The new anti-bark collar is very sophisticated as it detects the bark of the wearer and not of nearby dogs. It works by issuing a correction when the dog barks. The correction becomes more forceful if the dog ignores it but will return to a lower level once the dog stops barking and remains quiet. It is very similar in shape to the remote training collars so it will have a dual-use. The primary purpose will be able to stop any barking during my absence. Luis is the primary culprit here: it can also be used as a dummy when we’re out on walks as the dogs won’t know which collar is a remote and which is for barking. I might let Skinny have a go with it since he’s particularly annoying when we meet some people or other dogs as he has developed a habit of stupid barking. He didn’t bark at Kostas who really seems to like Skinny. Kostas told me he had a Cretan Hound once but he was no good so he gave him away. Anyway, the collar’s all charged up and Luis is giving it a try.

I have just fed the dogs which usually involves excited barking by Luis as I prepare the food for distribution. He started his usual routine but then the collar reminded him it wasn’t such a good idea. We had such a peaceful and calm evening meal!

There were some IT support calls today. Yesterday, I received a video of the battery backup at Inter Sport in Lewes from one of the guys who works there and I could hear a whistling alarm. Today, I asked him to photograph the front panel which showed no signs of an error. Later, someone else called to say the noise was coming from one of the servers. The old Server is not actually performing a useful function so I said it could be switched off. So he did and the noise stopped!

Today’s top temperature is 35.4℃ at 13:45 and the low 27.3℃ at 04:55 which was just as we left for our walk. The maximum wind gust was 59.8km/h at 07:55 which was about the time I was swimming and I’d taken down the SunBlocker. The wind should moderate this evening then we should have some calmer weather for a few days. It’s not a lot of fun sitting on the beach having your legs sandblasted which is why people tend to go home for some strange reason.

I’ve been feeding only two cats recently although the Fluffy Mummy cat has just this minute turned up! The other tabby male has not been around which is unlike him as he’s usually either in the pussy compound or close by. There are lots of punters in the camping so he may have had a better offer. The Fluffy cat is now sitting eating on top of the fence without being bothered by Luis who usually barks at her manically when he sees her. This creates more barking from the others. Without the chef de l’orchestre peace reigns. I like this technology!

My spinach is ready so I’m going to put together some food.