A Horse with no name

Sunday 29th January 2023

It seems this place is still constantly full of surprises. It’s more obvious to me here between the differences in the dawn and dusk times with the panoramic views I get of Hora and the mountains behind me. They provide a wonderful backdrop to the seemingly endless changes in the clouds, the sea and sunlight and how the interact with each other. When I fed the stray cats for the person who called me yesterday afternoon, I took a photo of a window in their house, where the shutters weren’t closed and the clouds, sea and landscape where in reflection in it. Wonderful. When I came back from feeding the other cats, I saw a door I had seen many times before. But this time I really looked at it. It’s carved, old and has a small goat bell to its right hand side. 

There is a group called Serifos Friends , I joined their newsletter last year, and later on they were looking for stewards for an event, but it was when I was back in the UK. Anyway they announced their AGM in an email and I got excited as it would be good to go. But inexplicably it’s to be held in a cafe in Athens! One of my friends in Athens would have liked to have gone but they are away. I must check the other guys over there.

Last night it was predicted we would have rain. I heard it on the roof, when I was in bed, but then came the thunder and lightening. As I could not sleep, I tried the counting thing after the lightening. I should have tried in Greek but I decided this would be a bad idea as I would be lying there spinning trying to remember the words! I must practice my “Good Week” for tomorrow. I had to put an extra blanket on the bed last night, I think the threshold to have the heater on has been met. The outside temperatures are still about ten, on a sunny day in the teens but nighttime ones are single digit now. The house holds its temperature well, it has been fifteen, but it’s a bit lower than that now. Meanwhile I gave the juveniles some wet food this morning, as it would not have been a nice evening out there for them, and scary to say the least. 

I watched the  second of the BBC’s Holocaust programs, and it was very interesting, I don’t like using the word good relating to programs about this terrible crime. I starting watching the third, but that’s three programs on its own, so will take more time to watch.

I have found Google translate does have a slow down setting for spoken words. However even with this, it’s still too fast for me! I have created a saved translation for the numbers one to ten. I have found putting a full stop after each number, this gives you a decent gap between each number. I have also created a note on my phone with the numbers and their Greek letter versions. I can get up to six so far.

1  enas  ένας

2 dyo  δύο

3 τρία τρία

4 tesseris           τέσσερις

5 pente  πέντε

6 exi  έξι

7  epta  επτά

8 octo  οκτώ

9 ennea          εννέα

10 deka δέκα

On the guitar front, I am using the book and trying my first song. It’s an excerpt out of the song by the band America, called “A Horse with no name”. The excerpt has two chords, one of which I know, the change between the chords, both of which are two finger chords, means only moving one finger. The strumming is a combination of several down strums then a few down and then ups. It’s a coordination thing and I need to listen to the track to get a feel for the section I am playing to get the tempo right. But it feels a bit more positive and a goal I think I should be able to reach quite quickly. Like, learning the Greek language, learning when you are tired is a waste of time.

Photo Interlude - Setting out on the walk

I decided to have a coffee first at Marinos, it was quite full and I squeezed in. I had my regular coffee, but no Mandarin, one of the guys pointed to my phone the torch was on! Someone left, so I sat opposite the donkey man, he knows a bit of English, so had said hello Paul to me. I asked him the animals names and he said how old they were. I knew his name. There is a slightly different crowd in there later on, or maybe because it was the Sunday? I left, and walked down towards the reservoir. I went past a house,  Marinos’s wife was hanging out the washing, she said hello and said wasn’t it cold, yes it was. A little further down, there was a tree with blossom on it, no idea what sort of tree. As I got to the reservoir I could see at a distance it is getting fuller than it was when I got here last year. The path is fairly secure, I was listening in and doing my Greek exercises. I had also been looking at the letters and numbers in Marinos. I reached the reservoir, I could hear birds singing and as I got to the first inlet, where water runs in  it, there was a sound of running water. But it was when I got to the second inlet , the sound of water increased. It was in full flow. 

I then walked into Livadi, the road to the beach wasn’t flooded thank goodness. I was going to the bakers, but they are all closed today. But Passaggios was open, the food there is great and the owner is really super friendly. So I popped in. It’s been ages since I have visited, I should come more often. The meatballs in a creamy sauce were a special that I could not resist and French fries, I haven’t had them for ages! While I waited for the meal, you get a bit of cake with your coffee ( which is very good ) I chatted to the owner. I knew the first bit of his name, I asked him to type it in in Greek on my phone, which he did, in our alphabet and theirs. I then asked him the origin of his name, and there was a very good story about it. It’s private, so I don’t want to tell it here. The meatballs were amazing, I used the bread to clean the plate up, he was impressed, well I had walked quite a way!

I then went to sit out and do some Duolingo Greek, but it chucked it down. So I hid in one of the cafes that have covered area with  chairs ( I could get in, here even when they are closed ). I then got a message from a friend in the UK, they were going out for a meal with one of their daughters and to toast me and my birthday. I had a phone call from a friend, who is living in Athens, who has the same name! It was looking a bit overcast when I started to walk back, but I got back without getting wet, this is the first time I have walked up the track with a fleece on and zipped up. But there was one more surprise, this crazy island had in store for me. I heard a bird noise and a flurry of feathers in mid air. It looked initially like two pigeons fighting, but one did not look like one. I bet it was some kind of hawk or similar having its lunch. It was too fast to get a photo. There are quite a few pigeons here, so maybe the hawk keeps the numbers down. Looking back I could see the ferry Adamantus Sophia rolling in.  Time for me to have a rest.