Warming Up

I discovered another rodent corpse whilst wandering around on other business during the evening. I put it with the first in the compost bin.

The wind died down as night fell providing a welcome quietness after the recent buffeting. I left all but Luis and Oskar outside but paid for it later with a doggy outburst. I got out of bed and brought them inside bar Isabella who usually knows what’s expected. Without the wind, the van became stuffier with additional dogs. At least they soon settled down and there was no further disturbance until getting up time.

For some reason, I didn’t wake up at 04:15 or the alarm didn’t go off. One or the other so we were out a little later today. There was a gentle breeze as we crossed the rocks and again on the way to Azzuro. It seemed a little lighter as it was a little later. The sky was clear and the sea reasonably calm. This is despite the wind forecast which suggested it would be windy all night and more so first thing in the morning.

As it turned out, we’d virtually finished walking when the wind started to strengthen making it more interesting at times when I rode to Anatoli and back for a quick swim. The wind became quite squally whilst I was in the sea which made it less enjoyable so much so, that I eventually got out and sat in the sun for a little while.

The dogs seemed quiet as I approached the fence although I could hear either Maya or Sasha on the other side and Luis from within the van. I let them out and fed them once I’d made some tea.

The day was starting to warm up so I turned on the floor fan in anticipation. Isabella was pleased and positioned herself accordingly. There were some small IT tasks to deal with but not a lot else so I turned my attention to looking for nitrogen in disposable containers. The only store [in Greece] that has it is still out of stock. I can buy larger bottles of cheaper gas but the containers are expensive and I’d be hard pushed to find a use for twenty or fifty litres unless I venture into the hospitality business. Nitrogen is used with some beers and for producing foamy cream toppings. It’s amazing the things you pick up trawling the Internet. If I could use it for gas welding it would be ok but carbon dioxide is the commonest gas used for MIG. Argon is used for TIG but I’ve no need to get into all of that either as there’s far too much air movement around here most of the time so stick or flux-core wins.

There are a couple of companies in UK but they don’t ship to Greece, it would take forever and cost a fortune in taxes anyway. There’s a brewing place in Germany but they’re selling food-quality nitrogen which is unnecessary and quite expensive. I just assume Greek HVAC installers don’t’ pressure test in Greece or there’s a secret organisation which supplies only to initiated members! Maybe they just let the refrigerant out to pollute the planet and bill their customers to recharge their systems.

The wind was quite strong at times and was blowing around 70.2km/h, 19.5m/s, 43.6mph, 8Bft. Wind Direction: ENE. Which is quite draughty. The southern sun blocker appears to survive well in its current position and the girls have yet to chew the elastics. I may have conveyed to them that I preferred them not to do that.

The wind kept the temperature down which was a bonus. I notice that it will get progressively warmer over the next few days with 39ºC forecast for Sunday. The actual temperature is likely to be warmer so we could be looking at over 40ºC for much of the weekend. It’s looking quite busy for the weekend and there is even a considerable group booking from this evening. From what I can see, they have booked for around twenty-five and some leaders. I wonder if it’s a group of young people? Some, I can see will be the other side of my fence. Good luck to those who rent the other tents nearby!

From what I’ve read, the hot weather will continue in Southern Europe until the end of the month and then into August. I wonder how long it will be before we start to run low on water. There was little rain in Crete during the winter, except in the mountains. What fell, was mostly gentle, so soaked in rather than ran off straight into the sea. A combination of extreme heat and water shortages could make life quite complicated.