Administration day

 Wednesday 21st September - Hora and Livadi

A few more spring onions have poked their way above the soil overnight, they can be picky germinators, needing warmth and moisture, like all seeds do, but not appreciating any really cold spells or dry periods. The former won’t be a problem here, the latter could be, as it can in our ever drier springs in the UK. The unknown plant that is in the trough with them is looking a bit happier, but it’s some kind of succulent. I have an idea of growing one of those huge cactus that have the prickly pear fruit on them and in the summer when I am not here, they should survive. What might be a problem is the longevity of the plastic pots and troughs. Sunlight, especially strong will cause hard plastics to become brittle and crack. Terracotta is more expensive, I might see how much they cost when I get the compost. 

When Ronnie is here, I plan to make good use of his owners car! It’s an old Golf, and I am going to look at a map to see where I will take him. As Ronnie can’t go on the bus,  we will drive down. But there are lovely walking possibilities on both sides of the town on beaches. I had a look at the festivals coming up and  there are two, one I don’t know where that place is, the other looks to far to walk. I will see if a local can tell me where the unknown one is. Both are church based festivals, where one of the many churches will be opened up. 

So my first stop was the KEP, the lady remembered me from yesterday, I had my paperwork, and she started to fill in the forms. She had been on the phone and although I don’t understand any of it,  the word “neh” comes up a lot, which means yes, so you can sort of get and idea that they are agreeing with the person on the other end of the conversation! She was multitasking too, this guy came in and she served him while working on my AMKA. Then the young lad came in who I met in the bakery, he has finished working there for the summer, he is back to studying. The KEP is like the police station, loads of box files all over the place. So I got my number and I was good to go. On my way I saw some posters advertising something on an electric pole, back home I translated it and two were for the fortieth anniversary of the local church. The other was for a local whose death anniversary was also being celebrated. Both had happened last weekend.

Next stop the Medical Centre, I told them what I wanted to check up on. The Covid booster, the nurse said, she was expecting a low take up and after adding a Greek keyboard to my phone, she could find the local Serifos group, I am now following it, that is where they will announce the booster dates. It could have other useful announcements. As regards the medications, because they are relating to mental health, I need to meet their visiting psychiatrist, who is coming soon and I was given a number to ring to arrange an appointment. Next stop Livadi.

As I entered Livadi there were some prickly pear bits on the road, I have now popped them in my trough, in the hope they put down roots and grow. I went into the Post Office and checked the blue tray, no nothing for me. As I was going through them, it reminded me what Hazel said when she saw a letter for a guy who shares her surname, and how she met him. So I was sort of looking for English surnames, I think I saw a couple, I will ask Hazel what she did when she saw the letter! 

I walked into the sea front/harbour area and got some kitchen scissors to cut meat, and another usb power adapter. While buying the adapter, I saw a nice looking map of the island. This reminds me, when I looked on Google maps at the beach I got sunburnt on, it now says nudist beach. This must be an edit done by someone who saw what  I saw, it’s not an official nudist beach.

I decided as it did not seem to hot and had become overcast that I would try and walk back up instead of using the bus. It wasn’t too bad, I took my t shirt off though. I met a couple hoping to go in the museum on the path, I told them, I have never seen it open, and it wasn’t! I then met a couple with a sleeping toddler, they were asking about refreshments, I said it wasn’t far now. I saw a tree which I think is a quince, they look like shrunken apples. I also saw a blackberry vine with decent sized blackberries on them, but there was no way I could get to,it sadly.

I have this folder of photos of useful stuff on the cloud, I took a photo of the garage sign near Hora, in case Mike’s car breaks down! I also have photos of my passport, five year form, covid jabs and so on. I did se my car hire friend, on his motor cycle, I got a nice wave from him.  I don’t know loads of people here, but it does mean, if I go out, I can have some meaningful interactions. This afternoon more administrative work, looking at the Vodaphone site, some Greek and making that appointment.