The day started off quite reasonably but there were some unforeseen developments. The Early Walk was mostly uneventful other than Charlie taking his time at the end.
I rode into Paleochora just for the joy of it and forgot I needed tomatoes until I was halfway back to the camping.
Maria asked me to help her to scan some documents for the new employee taken on for the season. She needed to go to the horsepiddle later for her first Covid injection. She’s not a fan of injections so wasn’t looking forward to it. She asked me if I would person the office in her absence. She told me that Dimitris had had an accident the previous evening and was in hospital awaiting an operation on his leg. Apparently, although the story is particularly unclear, he tripped over [the dog] and landed awkwardly, breaking his lower leg. Naturally, this is very inconvenient for Georgia since the season is just beginning and now she has no bar/restaurant manager.
Whilst awaiting a call from Maria, I did a little more on the booking website and have since added a different theme which makes the whole thing look much more professional. I’d made bread dough which had risen more quickly than I’d anticipated and needed to go in the oven to bake. I decided I’d wait until Maria left and I was in the office to do this.
She left just after 16:00 so I was mostly in the office from then on. I used the opportunity to dismantle and take photos of the large TV from the old lady. Juergen is in Germany and called to say he’d located secondhand boards to replace those that are likely to be faulty. It’s a good TV and worth saving if economically viable.
I’d previously gone down to pick up a screwdriver and meter to check the TV. During my visit, I turned on the oven to heat up forgetting to remove the two trays and the neoprene oven gloves I’d put inside to prevent Isabella from eating. It was only as I was walking back down from the office a little later that it dawned on me. As a consequence, the inside of my lovely, new, pristine oven was covered in a layer of soot as one of the gloves had fallen onto the heating element below.
There wasn’t time to clean the oven so I put the dough, which had risen very nicely, into the fridge. I cleared up the bulk of the wreckage then went back to the office via the rubbish receptacle. Both of my new oven gloves destroyed, but not by Isabella.
A customer came to see me as he wanted to do some windsurfing but didn’t have a board so wished to rent one. His Chinese wife has gone to visit her parents in China leaving him alone in Germany where there was little to do. He decided to go on a road trip to Greece starting in Crete via Kithera. He and his wife wish to travel but have been prevented from doing so by the pandemic. Before retirement, he was in IT.
Maria returned from the horsepiddle and took over the office. I walked down with the German guy discussing possible restaurants for his evening meal. Meanwhile, I returned to the van to clean my oven.
I took the oven outside onto the decking and started off using water and detergent. Some of the soot was not coming off so I resorted to alcohol and lots of elbow grease to remove it. Even though I was outside, the fumes were overpowering but I eventually got the oven looking presentable. I then put it on low to evaporate any remaining water or alcohol and got on with feeding the dogs.
Luis decided to help himself to the bowls ranged on the table whilst I was in the van washing up the rice pan. He consumed most of the sauce from two of the bowls so found himself incarcerated in the van with Isabella without any further food. Neither of them was particularly pleased by this state of affairs. I fed the others with Luis looking on but presented him with his bowl later containing only one biscuit. He remained displeased.
I heated up the oven to maximum temperature to try to burn off any remaining contamination from the cremated oven gloves so was able to enjoy that smell for the rest of the evening. Fortunately, the oven is outside on the decking and the ceiling fan was working so the impact was restricted to that area. I was eating as it was already 22:00 which explains the late arrival of this post.
What remained of the day was uneventful.
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