Busman’s holiday

 October 1st PM -  Hora and Livadi 

It’s so interesting when you dog sit a dog for the first time. You might think you know the dog well, but when you are looking after them twenty four hours a day, you really start to understand what makes them tick. One thing, is the fur with Ronnie. It comes out  in spadefuls, it then joins up with other bits and you end up with those balls that you see running down streets in old US Western towns! When we are not walking or playing with his toys ( too hot for that now) he is usually lying down. He just loves being rubbed on his tummy, or anywhere really. You can’t stop, as when you do, he looks at you with those lovely eyes he has. We think we know what dogs are thinking, to some degree we do, but a lot of it is a mystery, which is great I think. But so far so good, I have looked after dogs at both end of the behavioural spectrum and Ronnie is on the easy side, as long as you are prepared for him wanting to say hello to any wildlife that makes an appearance. He climbs like a mountain goat, he loves going on walls, which is a bit scary. He is always on a lead, which is how it should be.

The washing line worked a treat, there is a sort of aerial post in the corner of the roof, one end of it goes there, in a permanent fashion, the other end to the huge umbrella  that is over the table on the roof. I will untie it when I am done. All my goodies are unpacked, I have lots of clothes now. Some of my t shirts are very scruffy. I might throw those. 

We went for a very short walk lunchtime in case Ronnie wanted to go to the toilet, we did the mini walk, I did with him on Friday morning. When we got back, he went in the second bedroom, I think that’s the coolest room in the house.  Before we did the walk we went into Vasileas bar and had a coke a cola. The young girl Mariaella was there, she did remember me, she goes back in a month. When we got back we both had a nap.

All my admin and other jobs are finished, I have also created a spreadsheet for recording expenditures which I have started today as it’s the first of the month.

One of the things I was interested in was what creatures one might find on this island. We have seen frogs and terrapins, but mammals seemed to be restricted to those on farms. I found this page and it’s very detailed but it does look like we might see hedgehogs, mice and rats, but nothing much else. Rabbit does appear on the menu, but I have not seen any trademark holes such as you see in the UK. I am also interested in birds, and other amphibious creatures, do they get newts? I have not seen any in pools.

I drove Ronnie down to Livadi, we parked at the far end of the beach as I wanted to walk back to the main part of town and back after we had eaten. The trees that grow in the sand on these beaches, they are a bit like fir trees and Ronnie loves to sniff around their trunks. This means I get dragged in as well and I realised that when this occurred, I was getting wet. Sure enough, their leaves had little drops on them, I don’t think it’s sap.

We saw Vanya where we had the lunch before my friends went off on their holiday and the language tutor waiter. We went to a grill, I ordered salted chicken and Falafel starters. The waiter was worried about Ronnie, is he friendly? Well to humans, but not cats,  and not long afterwards, he did his lunge trick. Anyway the chicken came and Ronnie made sure it was edible. This guy sat on the next table to us, we got chatting, he was on the last leg of his island hopping, he was Dutch. His dog and wife were at home. Of course his food arrived, he said can I give Ronnie a bit, I said yes, but he won’t leave you in peace. But I think he enjoyed that, I am  sure he is missing his dog. At least it distracted Ronnie from cat patrol. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes, and I walked back with Ronnie. We were having a nice walk and I heard this clip clop sound. Someone walking  their horse along the beachfront? Suddenly two horses, no one on them, were just trotting along the road. Very strange. I drove us home, and up here it was very windy.  

Ronnie doesn’t like the wind, even after closing the windows he could still hear it, so he has hopped off to the bedroom. We will see how the weather is tomorrow before making our plans.