Gloomy

I was surprised by the alarm as I was in the middle of something extremely complicated so I was glad to be woken up. Reality is complicated enough.

We were out in the gloom just after 06:30 to a very cloudy sky which has stuck with us for most of the day. Dawn was just about making an appearance but had to compete with the clouds. The little flashing lights out at sea were nowhere to be seen so I guess the fishermen have been busy during the night.

Our walk towards Plakaki included a brief diversion into a garden as the owner had left the gate open and the dogs were chasing a cat. A few presses on my controllers brought them all back onto the beach to follow me.

The shoreline was free of rubbish and the sea was gently lapping against the rocks. Dawn eventually struggled though so it was properly light as we walked back towards the lone van in the beach car park.

The second tour of the Promontory was brisker as I wanted to get into town for some groceries. I shut the dogs in the van before setting off towards Petrakis under a forbidding sky. The road was wet as there had been some gentle precipitation before and during the first part of our walk.

The workmen are constructing what appears to be a new culvert under the road so have reduced the width to a single carriageway as the vehicles cross over the trench. Large concrete culvert sections are to be seen nearby. It’s fortunate the work is being done before the road receives its final surface.

There were not many people on the supermarket so I was able to get around relatively speedily. I’d intended buying only a few items but seemed to have two heavy bags when I left. I stocked up on rice and found some brown tahini. I’d bought white as there was no brown. I must always remember to stay one pot ahead as the brown seems particularly popular.

I went to Manolis filling station to drop off Martha’s pyrex dish. She is staying in Chania with Georgia as Martha has addended a medical checkup. Manolis and I briefly discussed the state of the world and then I set off in the direction of Kountoura.

Back at the camping, the dogs were silent as I parked up outside the gate to unload my vegetable collection into the fridge in the customer kitchen. I fed the dogs, put away the remaining purchases and prepared my breakfast.

The weather had decided to remain cloudy and gloomy for much of the day. There was a brief sunny interval which helped to produce the 1.1kWh of electricity. By the time tonight is over, I”m going to be in a power deficit situation as tomorrow will also be quite cloudy according to the forecast. Sunday should be sunny though.

The remainder of the day was spent dealing with some small IT tasks, resetting the timer on the pathway lights as it’s lighter in the evenings now and petting the pussy which seems to have migrated to the top of the camping and no longer lurks waiting for me. His brother appears to have taken over that role.

There was a customer enquiry from a German chap with a motorhome who is waiting for his property purchase to complete. He said it was taking a long time but I didn’t wish to discourage him further.

I fiddled around with EG websites and did some backups. The main website has not recovered well from its downtime so it is likely to be replaced by something simple until a new site can be built.

I put together some food for my supper as well as the Doggy Rice before taking the dogs for their Evening Walk. The German van had been joined by another containing an English woman called Sophie with her Italian counterpart. The nice German lady showered the dogs with food until their own supper was declared ready and I took the dogs off around the Promontory.

The moon struggled between the clouds as we walked around. It was a pleasant walk and the dogs stayed close by. There was only the very smallest bark from Channel, their dog, as we traversed the car park. The four adults were inside the larger van noshing away. They are all refugees of the Paleochora Camping where the works appear to be still ongoing.