Another day on Serifos

 Thursday 8th December


It’s not going to be a big photo or story day today, more tomorrow perhaps. We definitely had a shower sometime before I went out today, maybe overnight. I thought I did hear rain sometime last night. I started the day by sweeping a bit more of the road down to Hora, it’s what we would call a unadopted road in the UK, in other words the people who live on the road collectively look after it. It doesn’t go anywhere. But after the recent rains it’s covered with stones, that could have you fall over easily in the dark. I may have mentioned it before. So I swept a third of it yesterday, and did another third today. After this, I walked down to Marinos for a much needed coffee. I had my broom, he saw it and fished out his dustpan ! I put on Google translate to tell him what I was doing and he understood. I finished my coffee and walked home, cleaned myself up and walked down to have my haircut. On the way, I met the guy whose horses I fed with carrots yesterday and he greeted me, with him was the guy who was in Marinos’s yesterday and he told me his name. I also met a lady with her child, she did the hello and then the  “are you well”, and I remembered to return the compliment. It’s funny you would never ask a stranger  “are you well” in the UK ! I also met the metal man, he waved, he was in a bigger truck today. On the flat bit of the road I met Den, Markela’s husband. So many people, that I know!

While waiting to have my hair cut, the person whose stray cats I am now feeding, rang me to say the big bag of cat food is in the post office ready to be picked up. Meanwhile at the hairdressers my hair was  done really well, she used some hair thinning scissors on it for the first time to thin  my thick hair out a bit. I had a bit of time before my lunch date at Marina with the cat sitter and the person whose cats and house they has been looking after. I decided to walk  along Livadi beach, I found a bag and filled it easily with litter unfortunately. I met both my friends walking towards me, and we all set off back towards the Taverna. As we neared it a black cat was standing in the middle of the road, and it took a few hoots from a car to make it move. 

When we got there there was someone else we knew, so we had a chat with him, before going in to eat. We all had the meals, they have on display, I had delicious pork with spicy potatoes. It was a really nice meal and company. I was given a lovely T shirt from the cat owner, which will be for special occasions! We then waited for the ferry to arrive and it was time to say goodbye to the cat sitter. 


I decided to walk back up the hill to Hora, I was offered a lift, but thought I should walk off a few calories.  I did not know the cat owner before I looked after the stray cats, I hope we will be good friends in the future. I also hope to hear from the cat sitter too. As I walked along the road, my landlord turned up and beckoned me to have a lift. We managed to have a conversation, he is going to Athens for Christmas, I told him I was going to Sifnos. He wondered why I was not in my car, I tried to explain I liked to walk! 

It’s been a funny day, there were quite a few more people leaving this island, but for the rest of us who remain, there will be more of it to go around! The island is so quiet, I know it’s not always like this, but it’s so peaceful, just like the lockdown days in the UK.


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