Dimitris called me to ask if I had any money for Georgia. It was eight on Friday evening and I’d just fed the dogs so I wasn’t delighted to have to go out again. Georgia explained that the meat man had called a few minutes previously to say he was on his way to the camping with the meat order. The order is significant and he needed cash on delivery. Georgia was about to phone Manolis to see if she could borrow money from the filling station but thought I might have some in the kitty. Fortunately, I had more than enough to save her the inconvenience.
The night was intermittently blustery so I woke up a few times but was fast asleep when the alarm went off at 04:40. Having popped open my eyes after the rude awakening I leapt out of bed to get the dogs out for their walk. The moon is overhead so there was plenty of light, the sky was clear and the planets were visible. Dawn seemed to arrive sooner as it was light enough as I stood on the beach near Plakaki.
There was one car in the beach car park so I rerouted the dogs as I guessed it might be Babis with the young Alsatian we met the other morning. The dogs romped around at the end of the Promontory and we eventually made it back around 06:45. I boiled loads of water as I had greasy washing up to do and wanted some tea. I fed cats, scooped the poop and then sat down with my brain for thirty minutes.
Isabella and Sasha took me for a walk where the former raced around madly after her ball. We’re at last understanding that it’s necessary to DROP the ball at or near me for me to be able to throw it! We returned, suitably tired and I left the girls outside whilst I rode into Paleochora to collect an order for Bona who’d called me earlier. She wanted two large sandwiches, one without mayonnaise and two spinach pies. I bought a loaf of rye bread as I had no more banana bread left. I rode back to find the boys in wait at the reception ready to transport the order back to their father at home. Bona was cleaning the bathrooms.
The lock on the toilet door had been annoying me for sometime and was loose again this morning so I did something about it before feeding the dogs and then collecting money around the camping. I spent a long time wandering the camping with Sasha who spent some time with Bona and quite a few others. We went to the reception to collect keys for the arrivals. There were only three so I left the keys in the door once I’d checked the accommodation. We ended up in the bar as I wanted to ask Dimitris some questions. One of which was concerning the old air conditioning unit left outside the reception. He affirmed that he’d asked Michalis for it to be removed a number of times but would confront him now. To cut a long story short, I saw Tony watering the flowers in the evening so went up to ask him to move it. He said he’d do it ’tomorrow’ but I insisted on ‘now’ so went to move the internal unit myself. I’d already decided the external part with the compressor was too heavy for me to shift comfortably. Tony was suitably embarrassed so came to remove the other part. Finally!
Much of the day was about new punters arriving, some booked, others walk-in. I started making banana bread but stopped as some ingredients were not ready. I sat and watched the reception camera for a while, played with the active booking site and generally fiddled about. No punters arrived so I got on with the banana bread. As soon as I did, the punters arrived so I was, from then on, back and forth. The score for the day was a couple with a motorhome and 2/3 of the booked accommodation. The no-show was a two-day booking. I guess they won’t be coming as it’s 21:45.
Today is Lena’s Name Day so there was a knees-up in the restaurant to celebrate the occasion. The restaurant is now officially open however, as I knew about the celebration, I delicately suggested to the customers they might dine out as the kitchen staff were part of the celebratory group.
I’d not fed the dogs so put on some rice and tidied up a little. I thought I saw the missing arrival so went back out into the camping ending up in the bar where I found Babis and his dog. We had a chat and I was able to tell Dimitris the air conditioner was no longer stuck outside the reception. An approaching figure turned into Juergen who’d come bearing 1.5 litres of high-grade olive oil as well as a jar of bitter or Arbutus Honey.
“Arbutus “bitter honey”, is a highly medicinal honey, also known as Strawberry Tree honey. It has a truly unusual bitter/sweet complex multi layered taste and is not for the unadventurous! The antioxidant and antibacterial qualities of this honey are truly exceptional and it is one of the most antioxidant as well as antibacterial honeys in the world. Anecdotal evidence we have heard also suggests this honey does not cause blood sugar to spike and is often used locally by diabetics.(This is not a medical claim- please consult your doctor if you are diabetic). It is also known to be beneficial for lung health. Arbutus honey is extremely rare and is harvested in limited quantities and not necessarily every year. We source our Arbutus honey from 2 different sources each of which are quite distinct in character. So the Arbutus honey you buy will vary in flavour and texture over time depending on which source it came from.Some are very bitter and some are sweeter. They are all wonderful and beneficial.” (Quote from a website selling the honey)
Babis was able to confirm the oil was of exceptional quality as was the honey which sells on some websites for around $100/kg! He said it should be eaten on an empty stomach, in very small quantities with a glass of water to chase it down.
I left Juergen with Babis, the dogs eventually received their supper and now I’m thinking about bed.
A very noisy motorbike is rushing headlong to destruction on the road towards Paleochora: I wonder how long it will be before the paramedics have to scrape another motorcyclist off the tarmac.
Some young people are having a noisy party nearby. Perhaps it’s one of their name day?
Janne and Erica should arrive sometime tonight.
Sasha has been busily trying to demolish a large bone for about an hour. She’s now fallen asleep at my feet.
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