Moon shot
Tuesday 1st November - Hora and Livadi
One thing that I have noted is something quite remarkable. Before I came here, I would often need an afternoon nap. Around lunchtime I would have this feeling of tiredness and by four o’clock, I would flop and have an hour of sleep. I had all sorts of tests in the UK, but nothing could be found. Eventually one doctor repeated my blood test and it was decided I had a vitamin D deficiency. Now given I spent most of my day outside in the UK, that seemed surprising but we are talking about the UK here! I tried supplementing my vitamin D levels with tablets, there are all sorts and I hoped I picked the best, but after two months I felt no different. When I got here I was still having naps, but now I don’t have that same urge or need to have a nap. It takes about two months to get those levels up wether supplements or hard core sunlight. Fingers crossed!
I had a bit of a good idea with the camera and night shots. Outside the front door is a level concrete platform, just wide enough for the camera tripod. With the tripod positioned on the concrete, the front door opened, I can easily see the camera controls. The camera needs to be on the tripod, because the images are being zoomed in ( the moon for example ) at such a high degree, that any camera movement will cause the image to be blurred. What I found, as the wind has picked up, was that you could see the wind was causing the camera to move and thus create a blurting image. So I had to pick my time carefully. I read that Saturn is in the sky at the moment, I can see it, but you can’t really get a good photo of it, I can try again, as we often get clear skies here!
After the success with the camera, I decided to walk down to Vasileas’s bar. As I got down there, it looked a bit dark, it was shut. It was only just after seven, so maybe he had overslept after his nap? But there was a lady at the front door. Luckily she spoke English and I was able to establish that he had gone to Athens, a well deserved break like Marinos, who is still not back yet. That’s it then, we don’t have any places to get a drink, food up here until they both return.
So I went to the medical Centre and saw Merope and Irene today. I explained about my eye and they said they could see if they could lance it, and get the horrible stuff out. I was given a local anaesthetic on the eyelid. But no no avail, nothing came out. I will have to go to Syros or preferably Athens, to get it sorted. It was kind of them to have a go at it, the place was empty, I was the only patient. My first months tracking my expenses over here is complete, as it’s the new month, and I can see what I am spending. It will be interesting to see how it compares with this month, as there have been a few one off purchases.
Irene suggested I look at car.gr for cars.
Photo interlude - a photo of the Ragwort flowers, that I have talked about before
On the guitar, I am doing my first scale, using the B string. The idea is you need to know the notes on the fretboard, you start by learning one octave, C to C. You would think each fret would mark the next note, if you pluck the B string you get a B note, and if you hold it on the first fret, you get a C. So far so good. But the next note, the D is another two frets away! This pattern doesn’t continue as you would expect. I imagine the fret in the middle is a sharp or flat? I have no idea yet! You are meant to be able to
do Twinkle Twinkle little star using that octave. This one is called a C major Scale. One thing that has happened to me that I have been expecting, and that is a lost pick. It can be easily dropped inside the guitar, and it can be a devil to get out. So far this has only happened once.
On the Greek, I have decided as I can do chapter two word perfect, is to leave it for now, the course uses a lot of the words you have learnt in subsequent chapters, and I want to make a proper effort on chapter four and keep practising chapter three. Otherwise three chapters is a long session of Greek, especially at the end where the real learning happens!
On my walk down to Livadi, some kind person has dumped a fridge by the side of the road, trouble is it’s not at a dumpster station, so I am not sure if it will be picked up. At the bottom of the path, I walked straight on instead of the slip road. On the left there is a small field of grapes, they look like they have been left to their own devices, there were no grapes on them, but a vine by the side of the road had some small ones on it. They do make wine here, I have not been to the winery yet.
I carried on and decided to pop into the other estate agent, where a young guy who worked there was very helpful. Outside was the yellow Labrador who is a bit of a menace when he goes wandering around. (Named Selfie)
I then walked to Grans’s bought a coffee and saw Chris again. I sat on a bench and enjoyed the coffee, a friend dropped by and we had a nice chat. We might do a walk Thursday. I then retraced my steps, back up the steps to Hora and then topped up my Vitamin D ! Last photo, have a look at the bow of the boat, there is a photo of two children.
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