There were no major disturbances in the night other than some loud talking by someone who though he was alone in the camping. The rental tent which Maria and I have been trying to get Michalis to move has at last moved around 5m away from the fence. That distance makes a lot of difference. If others care to plonk their tent next to my fence, it’s their lookout and they can always move away if they wish. Not so easy with a pre-pitched rental tent.
The wind was reasonably strong when we went out so I was wearing a polo shirt the whole time. A couple of cars were in the car park, one a very posh Mercedes SUV. The owners had pitched their tent off to the east side of the entrance well out of the way. The only other tent we found was the dome tent pitched in one of the preferred spots. We noticed a maggot had escaped from the tent which had fallen victim to the strong winds.
Walking towards Azzurro and Plakaki, there were several vehicles corralled just off the road. These I think I recognise as they visit often during the summer. I was sure Skinny was ahead of us on the way back but he’d disappeared. I found him in the van when we got back. I’d closed the gate to the field but it was open when I came back with the others. Or maybe I thought I did. The fact that Skinny was curled up asleep inside the van was all that mattered.
I had some server updates to install so made some tea and sat down to get started. These updates included an Exchange CU which takes more effort to install as you actually have to supervise the installation process. I finally left for a ride into Paleochora via Panorama around 08:10. Manolis’ EKO filling station was closed so it must be his turn to close on a Sunday. The plan is always to have one filling station open in Paleochora every day of the year. At Christmas, they each open for part of the day.
I went past the puppies and popped in to see how they were. Only three black puppies were present of which two-thirds were female. They were very cute and allowed me to tickle their tummies whilst they licked my hand. From there, Petrakis for some shopping as tomorrow I need to construct some Doggy Dinners although I probably might have had enough to scrape by.
It was still windy, the sea looked choppy and I didn’t much fancy riding from Alonaki to the camping wet and I’d had a good ride around anyway. Having not been in the sea, I smelt of puppies so got a good sniffing when I let the dogs out. It’s fun to give them some interesting smells occasionally.
I got on with feeding them after I’d put my shopping away. One important item was a new stock of olives. Can’t survive without olives!
The day has consisted of server updates and reading including making up some dough for tomorrow’s bread. I plan to leave the mix in the fridge overnight so it doesn’t go mad even though it’s cooler at night at the moment requiring a sheet occasionally.
The wind has been a dominant feature of the day and has changed direction a number of times. This was evident by the decking floor tiles blowing away when the wind adopted a more southerly direction. It’s moved from ENE to WSW during the course of the day and probably back again several times. If the forecast is correct, it will continue through the night running out of puff hopefully before midday on Monday.
As a consequence of the wind, I should imagine the beach has been difficult if the sand was blowing around as it was earlier. The sea is also a little chunky from what I can make out from here although I’ve not been to the sea since I came back this morning.
Another thrill was to prevent my boots from totally disintegrating. I’ve been conducting a number of life-extending repairs for several months but now the sole is wearing thin, sand finds its way between the sole and the upper and the sole has holes where small stones are embedded. They have been glued together one more and are pressed under a couple of heavy UPS’s
The shoes I’ve bought from the high street activity shops have lasted around five-six months but began to disintegrate after around two. This time, I’ve ordered shoes from a store in Attica and paid slightly more in the hope they last perhaps a little longer. In summer, they are on my feet for around two hours each day. This includes walking the shingle beach, the sandy bits and over the rocks. When it’s colder in winter, I tend to keep my boots on during the day but then I’m usually only walking around the camping or going shopping. The other difference is that in winter, there are two walks each day with a shorter one in the evening. This time, I’ve ordered some Nike shoes which had decent reviews so we’ll see how long they last.
The Doggy Rice has finished cooking so now just needs to depressurise and I can feed the dogs. Fido, Isabella and Skinny are with me on the decking, Charlie is on guard by the field gate leave Oskar and Luis in the van supervised by Obi who is an innocent bystander. It’s getting cooler now and the wind my require me to put on a shirt later. I’ve turned off the floor fan as I think we have enough wind at present. Fido and Isabella are playing together although Fido is not such a willing playmate as Luis. Those two are heading towards their ninth birthday in December and Oskar and Charlie will be six. Boris and Dave have been gone three years now.
Doesn’t time fly!
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