Washing day

Friday 23rd September - Hora and Livadi

 So above is my washing line with the latest lot of washing drying out. The limit on the  washing that I do is down to this device, not the amount of washing I can cram into the machine. The sheets will require me to hook up, some kind of temporary line, using washing line that my friends from Sifnos are bringing over next week. They don’t have any ground that is part of their property as such, but there is ground around them which is not being used, so they have a washing line on that space, and a pile of wood waiting to be cut for their log burner. Opposite this house, is space used for cars, so it’s busy when the Taverna is open. Beyond that the ground drops down into a ravine, not ideal washing line territory! My temporary line will be on the roof somehow, but a sheet is going to act like a sail, and with the wind we get, it could easily blow away!

When my friends drop by with their dog next week, Mike hopes to be able to get VPN going, so, I can use iplayer and other UK catch-up, services. I did watch an old film on YouTube last night with James Mason playing Rommel, the Desert Fox. I had seen it before, it wasn’t as good as I remembered it. 

So when the Taverna closes the weekend, I am going to miss a friendly Kalimera from the lady who works in it she  starts at  eight am. I am usually sitting on the roof then having my breakfast. I am going there this evening.

So I decided to walk down to Livadi today after my long walk yesterday. As I passed the school the children were out playing, then a sort of bell rang and they charged into the school. Opposite them is a war memorial, I have often looked t it, there are pine trees in that area which provides some much needed shade. I passed a lady picking up some wood from a ruined building. She put it in her rucksack and then carried on down the Livadi path. She did not get much, I don’t think it would keep a fire going long.

I decided to go a different way into Livadi once I got to the bottom of the steps. There is a slip road that you are meant to take instead of the road I normally walk along, but it does not look like an official one way road! Along this road is the Thai restaurant, by which there is a forest of canes growing by the side of the road. You would never buy canes on this island. I had noticed when I was on the bus that there was artwork painted on the concrete wall, so I took a closer look. There was a Neptune, a fish mural, a boat with a working rudder and others. 

So by these pieces of art, was a wooden box. I opened it and there were books inside it. There was more English language  books than in the Medical Centre the other day.  

I carried on into Livadi, and went to the pharmacy and bought a few things. I then went to my favourite bakery and had a coffee and a muffin. I wanted to look at a couple of shops, that I have never been into. But to my surprise one of these had a sign saying Butchers on the side! I walked down the side of the building and looked in through the back door. There was a butchers wooden block with what looked like a lump of beef on it, the usual large fridges and freezers too. So armed with enthusiasm I went round the front entrance and went in. There were fridges with a few vegetables in, but no meat of any type. There was a fridge at the far end, again empty. Maybe you have to order meat or do they mainly serve the restaurants? One of the other shops I wanted to go in was closed, but I managed to get into the other one. This is probably the biggest store we have, much bigger than the one we have here in Hora. They had some mince, which I bought, I got chilli powder, kidney beans, another lot of tinned tomatoes and rice ( for a chilli) . The shop was selling eggs loose, but also in those boxes of six. I had run out of eggs, so I bought a box, I can use it again when I buy loose eggs.  I then decided to walk back up the mountain back to the house. 

On the slip road was this well with a sign on it.

It’s what they call a Maganese well. A donkey would walk around it to make it work, before electric pumps came along. I have seen these before, but it was nice seeing one preserved.

My bag was heavy and once I was on the steps, I took my t shirt off so the breeze would dry off the sweat! Half way up there is a house where the guy is usually sitting outside and says Kalimera, he was on the phone but he still greeted me and he said welcome too! My pronunciation must be so bad, he knew I was English. The children were out again when I walked past their school.  Near the top was a lady with a suitcase and bag. She was stopping several times. I offered to help her, even though I had a heavy bag of my own, she said thank you but she would be ok. She said because she had done this so often she had a bad back.

This afternoon I am going to do some crosswords and some Greek. The course I am using makes it clear that you should not  write down any of the words, just follow the audio. But I am going to write down the words I have been taught and their use in short sentences. I think I learn best by drumming things in my brain. Once is never enough! So I have a new telephone number and they way I learnt it was to repeat it again and again until it stuck. So that’s what I am going to do with the Greek.

Footnote. I used Google Translate to record a message for the Doctors number I was given and played it after ringing the number and getting the answerphone message. So far I have not had a reply or message!