Friday began just after five as I was slightly ahead of the alarm. I woke up warm in the night despite the fan but felt a little cooler later. Having a fan in ones bedchamber is a bit of an advantage.
The dogs were quickly saddled up so we were out on the Promontory under the bright light of the full moon, now slightly higher in the sky. It would have been higher had we been out the same time as the previous morning. No FreeLoaders were discovered despite a couple of cars in the car park. Only a couple in a van parked along the top of Alonaki Beach. Isabella went to visit and might have been surprised when the occupants raised their insect screen at the rear of the van to peer out. A well-nourished lady was talking to Isabella whilst stuffing what appeared to be bread or cake into her mouth. Our conversation would be difficult under normal circumstances however with a mouth-full, it’s even more difficult. I got round the problem by having a parallel conversation about things I knew about. Her male companion retired back to bed leaving her to amuse the dogs. We continued. It was around six by now.
There were no surprises at Plakaki so we had biscuits and made our way back. This time, I encouraged the dogs to stay down at the water’s edge to avoid disturbing anyone else. All in all, it was a beautiful morning so I felt sorry for those who chose to spend their time in bed.
Our circumnavigation of the Promontory was interrupted only by a biscuit stop on the rocks before returning to the camping. An Italian van has been stopping in the car park a few nights and the driver was taking on water as we passed. I waved cheerily, he seemed to ignore the numerous dogs and they him. We’d been out for ninety minutes as we recrossed the field back to the van. I took the girls out with the thrower so that Isabella could show off her swimming technique. The sea was very calm so it seemed like a good way to wear her out. The Italian was still preparing his van for departure, carefully brushing the sand from the driver’s footwell and from his feet. Once you’ve lived here a few years you stop bothering about a few kilos of sand, let alone dust!
Isabella and Sasha had lots of fun together. Sasha feigning an attempt to take the ball and Isabella ensuring there was no possibility of her doing so. It involved a lot of rushing about so both dogs have remained tranquil much of the day. Sasha is currently demolishing a large branch I recovered from the beach ages ago as she’s bored of shredding the piece of expanded polystyrene.
I went straight off on my bike up the mountain and over Panorama. The ferry had yet to leave so tourists were ambling casually towards it. I ask myself why it is that visitors, who normally cross the road with diligence when at home, simply amble along as if the world was their own. I’m trying to guess who is likely to walk where and weave my way around them. It must be a tourist thing.
I stopped at the periptero to pick up some cigarettes for Bona. She asked me to buy two packets of 1€ coffin nails. They must be the real ’one drag fag’ reminiscent of Park Drive which could be purchased in packs of five. Only when you were really desperate… I’m sure there are those who can still remember cigarettes sold singly. With my heavy load, I cycled back to Grammeno with a brief stop at the sea where I was not alone. The couple from the van were getting into the water and another swimmer was also in the dashing about. Afterwards, I sat in the sun for a while then retuned to the camping for some tea and to exercise my brain. Later, when I was awake, I fed the dogs and got on with what was left of the morning.
I’ve been busy with jobs for EG, trying to sort out a new licence for the mail filtering service which should be migrated over before year’s end and putting together the missing invoices from the Petrakis account. I now have nearly all of the invoice except for the most recent. I might have asked whilst at the kitchen and bar earlier. There’s always tomorrow and there are more important things than paying suppliers at present.
ACS brought a USB stick for the bar music so I went up to reception to collect it. I didn’t have to sign for it so he could have simply left it in reception for Maria to bring to me in a month or two. It was good of him to call me and bring it to me personally. I transferred all 15GB of music and gave it to Dimitris when I was down at the kitchen collecting my food. The bar will now benefit from the enormous repertoire so diligently collected by Dimitris.
Whilst at the office, a foreign couple were asking Maria if they could pitch their tent in the last-remaining motorhome bay. Naturally, she explained there are very few bays for motorhomes so they’d have to go where they’d been directed by Michaelis. I went down with them to jolly them along to discover they’d been allocated a very decent spot in the middle of the camping. I carefully explained that this was THE busiest weekend of the year, space was at a premium and that they were doing very well with the pitch allocated.
It has been mostly sunny and warm with a few overcast moments earlier due to passing clouds. Otherwise, a very warm but comfortable day.
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