Milao ligo Hellenica ( I speak a little Greek )

 Saturday 3rd December 

We had yet another Serifos unusual moment last night. I noticed when I got into the car, that the petrol was low. While we had dinner last night with my friends, one of them suggested that the petrol station even though closed,  might let me  top the car up. As we were to pass it by, we gave it a shot. The first problem was to get the filler flap open. After a lot of fiddling around, that was sorted. My cat sitter friend checked out the filling facilities while I was doing this and confirmed we should be able to top the car up, but only with cash. Good job I went to the bank then. I only had a fifty euro note, I did not particularly want to put that amount of petrol in, but maybe I should have done. So I selected twenty euros worth, and filled the car up. When it got to twenty, the pump stopped filling. I went back to the machine and it printed a sort of receipt and that was it, no change! The pump had also printed its own receipt, but still no change. Darn it! I entered the cars registration details again, in case that would get my change, after  doing this five new receipts appeared! Still no change. I had a look at my handful of slips of paper, some were not my cars registration at all. I looked at one that was.

Google translate came to the rescue. Basically during open hours you turn up to the station with the car of course, and the slip and you then get given your change. It’s a great little system, apart from the fact it doesn’t allow the use of credit/debit cards. Result. It’s ironic actually that during the day the pumps are handled by staff, like they used to be in the UK, but after hours, it’s serve yourself. 

Photo interlude yet another lovely Hora sunrise and the cat tribe I am feeding, including the imposter.

The last couple of days, I have been having the dehumidifier on. The humidity is rising it’s mid eighties now. Things aren’t damp, but don’t have that dry feeling you get with clothes that have been dried outside in the sun or in a tumble dryer. It’s a bit of background noise, that’s a bit annoying, but you can get used to it I am sure. After feeding the cats, I saw some people topping up the cat feeding station in the car park, not the Swiss lady, who is back next week, but someone who clearly knew I was English and said hello. When I was in the taverna last night, there was a girl who used to serve in the taverna up here, she had gone back to Athens, but is now working in the one where we ate, until April, when the one here will reopen I guess. 

I am near the end of the first part of my audiobook Greek course, my friends have sent me a link to a course I am going to look at, I won’t be able to start the second part of the audiobook course until my next audible token appears anyway. The guitar is going ok, I am still on the two finger chords, doing the finger exercises, trying to get the chords sounding  better and speeding up the time, it takes to change between them. I can change between some of them without looking, which is good. I still enjoy it, that’s the main thing. 

Before we met our friends from Livadi, myself and the cat sitter  had a coffee in Marinos, his wife was there, she knows a fair bit of English and I asked her how long they had run the place. One hundred and twenty years. On the wall was a photo of his dad and another of his grandfather. Amazing. I just love finding out history like that. As we left the car park there was a guy scaling the rocks by the bus stop, and another one chatting to someone else. I asked what they were doing, and they were checking the overhanging rocks for loose bits, that might fall and injure someone.

On the way  to Livadi I got my change from the petrol station, so that’s all sorted. With our Livadi friends we had another look at the washhouse after all the rain. There were a lot of streams running down the rocks and with more rain I think might be even more impressive!

We then drove to the monastery known as TaxiArches. It’s wasn’t far and for the passengers there were lovely views of the island. Unfortunately it wasn’t open, I will try and get more information on when it might be from someone. 

After I had fed the cats for tonight I waited a bit and heard voices. A steady stream of people passed me by, most carrying loaves of bread. I knew a lot of them. Marinos and his wife appeared, and when he saw me, he broke a bit off  and gave it to me, making the sign of the cross. The father who goes to his coffee bar was there, I assume he ran the service. I will try and find out what it was about. Another piece of island life revealed to me. It’s what the tourists usually miss, which makes this place so special. Oh and the bread was tasty too!