Sunday’s walk

Sunday 30th October - Hora and Livadi 

I accidentally found a good guitar resource while looking for specific chords. What I wanted to do is find a web page with two finger chords that I can learn. The trouble with the YouTube stuff is you have to watch a video, in which adverts are maybe inserted and it’s a lot of fluff for not much. I am also aware that there is some music theory I am  going to have to learn. Anyway I found this site and it has the chords, and loads of theory,  it does have some videos which is good. The adverts which pay for the site, are product placements, so when they give advice on buying something, they recommend something on Amazon. They are very upfront about this.  My only criticism so far is the unhelpful comment that if you have fingers that aren’t straight, you might end up having the nasty buzzing noise as you straddle other strings. Maybe people with wonky fingers should not play guitar! The thing I need to start doing is practice and learn the so called easy chords, ones that only hold down two strings. It’s a bit like learning Greek! The strings have names, I think they go from E to E. They are also numbered, the 1st is the lowest, the thinnest string. The website warns again learning more than one chord at a time. It can take a thousand goes to be able to play a chord properly! If you are learning more than one at the same time, you can make life difficult for yourself it says. So I am going to try that strategy,  with a bit of the theory stuff, scales and so on. All these sites call the chords, shapes. 

I found this Facebook site called Serifos. Mostly it’s photos. I have posted several of my own, and got lots of likes, but it’s interesting to see what others post. I posted the photo of Panagia Flevariatisa yesterday, it’s an unusual shot as it’s taken from a sunken path, I don’t think many people will have seen the church and graveyard from that angle. Someone added a comment which I translated, which asked where the photo was taken from. So I explained how I got there, offering to show the person. I hope I get a reply. Tonight I am having one of the Spanish omelettes, with onion, courgette and Greek sausage, all which get cooked in the frying pan before covering with the egg and milk ( seasoned ) mixture. 

Photo interlude, near the start of todays walk.

Todays walk then had me go towards the Flevariatisa church  and after it, go a bit further before taking a left hand track up towards farm buildings. I did see yet another flock of chickens, running loose, wary of me of course. By the farm buildings, there are meant to be two paths to the right, I have only found one, the one that is furthest away. It drops down to go over  one of those concrete bridges like I saw yesterday. After this the path goes back up, and then we meet the ruined building, which has a plaque by it, saying it was a town hall for an old village. I am going to post the photo on the Serifos site, to see if anyone knows anything about it. From here the enclosed path continues between low walls, with various little fields either side. There was a donkey or horse in a field, it had one front and rear leg tied together, I think this is cruel, it’s meant to stop them running away I think. 

While I was walking I was trying to remember the string names on the guitar in order. It’s EADGBE. It is quite important! We meet another farm, go left then follow another path which curves round so you see the reservoir, but we are at the far end, opposite from the dam wall. There was a strange stone on a hill, which looked very odd, it appeared that  it was looking out to sea. 

Eventually you drop down to be on one side of the reservoir, here there was a big group of goats, with kids, very big now, and the mums looked pregnant. I then joined the road to Livadi, and I could see the path I take when I walk to Livadi from the dam wall. From here, you carry onto Livadi beach and walk towards the town centre. 

Photo interlude, view of Hora just before I got to the beach.

There were children playing football on the new artificial pitch. I decided to go to Gran’s they are doing their best to encourage me to improve my Greek, by telling me what to say for example when I don’t want sugar, it’s a sort “that’s it” type saying, it’s afto einai. ( you say it after ordering something)  One of the girls who is serving, we had a nice discussion about our two languages. They have four words for love she said. I took my coffee to the shelter to do the infamous Greek  Chapter four. I then saw this photo opportunity.

It  was time to buy a few things from the bigger supermarket, a polish for the guitar wood for example. I then walked up the steps to Hora, I saw a plastic bag on the ground, I thought it was litter, but someone had left a big bag of cat food, and cut a hole in it! I am not sure that’s the best way to feed them!