Four wheels off my wagon

 Friday 27th January 2023

As the day moved into the afternoon, the rain just did not appear. I fed the cats early, but I could have done it at the normal time. I bought a few things at Marcela’s, she and her husband were both there, he predicted the rain would start at eight. It got dark, still no rain. But at eight there was a thunderclap and then it started. It was hard to tell how hard the rain  was, but it did not really last long I don’t think. When I fed the cats this morning, the side of the track which can often shown signs of a river going down it in heavy downpours, wasn’t really evident. The cat food hoods, haven’t been blown away, so there wasn’t much wet cat food waste. I gave the juveniles some wet food today, as a treat as it can’t have been nice out there last night. Continuing on the weather front, Sunday week, the temperatures are going down to single figures and a wintry mix is forecast! But let’s see.

Photo Interlude- The start of the day.

The Guitar book is already helping me. I found that the pick was always slipping about which was a nuisance. The guy has a good technique for holding it, and it doesn’t move anymore. Most of the chords in his book, they are two finger chords, I can still practice my ones that use the four, as they are what he calls a pivot finger change, that is one or in my case two fingers stay put, which means the chord change is easier and faster. He has tunes and exercises that are clear and look easy to follow. . I would say the way he draws out the chords in what he calls chord boxes is different to what I am used to, but that’s not going to take long to adjust to.

There is a section in  Duolingo I had not looked at before. Unless you purchase the product, your lessons carry on  until you make a certain number of errors. You just continue if you proceed error free. I think this is good actually, as if you just keep going on,  you will start making errors, when you are  probably tired and it’s time to stop. The letters bit, seem to be a tutorial that just keeps going, so I think I need to be careful here. I did quite well with the letters, they start with the ones that look like our alphabet with the caveat that they are different in what they are. Then it moves onto the ones that look odd to us. You even get to practice drawing them. 

Photo Interlude - Montbrecia at the back of Koutalous Beach today

On the language front, I looked into the next sections of the course I am doing, this will be part five and six and I can get them from my one of my friends Audible account who lives on Sifnos. They also have part eight as well. My next Audible credit comes up in a weeks time, so I will buy section seven,and then I have all of the beginners course. After this, is the intermediate course, which you buy as one item. I think I will stop my audible account after this, they usually try and tempt you back with a bogof deal or similar. Today I will go over the last bits of the section four piece, which has the words for television, late, arriving and a few more, plus the revision pieces. The “Late” word  handily enough sounds a bit like the cast iron cooker/boiler that used to only be found in farm kitchens!

I have been trying to watch a few different things, a Welsh drama that will be in Netflix but is featuring on iplayer at the moment Dal Y Mellt and I also watched the Storyville program about three minutes of 

footage shot by an American tourist in Nasielsk in Poland in 1938. Its one of a trio of programs, the BBC have  to mark the holocaust anniversary.

I decided to go down to the coast and explore  two  beaches that I know,  Ganema and Koutalous. They are next to each other. I first had to drop into the hardware store and buy a couple of things. While I was paying I could hear the girl on the till chatting to the guy who helps in the store. I heard the word “cake” and a few others that made me think they had heard about my impromptu party at Marinos. The girl speaks quite good English, so I checked. Yes that was what they were chatting about! How did you find  out? They will never tell me of course! My friends on Sifnos have told me of a similar bush telegraph system in place on their island. I showed them the photo of the cake and I said sorry they missed a bit of it. As I got to the car, I met the guy who walks his dog, the dog is called Odin, and they both live in Hora, so the dog is getting some great exercise!

I then drove to Grans,  after a bit of food shopping for tomorrow. This time I bought a baguette there, with my usual coffee which was very nice. I then drove to Ganema. I was here last time with two friends, who tidied up the beach while I did the bank by the road. I still managed to collect a big bag full of rubbish and some bits I put under arm. It’s a lovely beach, sand at one end, stones at the other. I noticed some cat footprints on the sand alongside mine. The good news is our hard work from last time hasn’t been ruined yet.,

I then drove to Koutalas, noting the clutch on the car was slipping even more than usual. I got there and repeated the litter picking exercise. There were a lot of cats on the beach, my friend who I walk with told me today ( see later ) that someone is feeding them thank goodness. I got to the far end where there is a rocky face to the beach and realised it was very warm, it’s sheltered. So I sat on the beach, took my t shirt off and put it behind me, on the rock. There was a perfect bit of rock to lean my head against. I sat there in the sun for at least an hour.  Every so often I would feel sea droplets off the sea, when maybe the wind blew them in shore. The waves were amazing. I am laying in the sun in late January!

I then walked back to the car and emptied my bag. I looked at the map, and given the worsening state of the clutch, decided to take the shorter route, which also means I don’t have to go up the winding hill road to Hora. I then drove off, but it soon became clear I was going nowhere. Even the modest climb was too much for the clutch. I stopped by the side of the road for a think. I had sent a text message in Greek to the owner of the Hire company as he is in Athens. The delivery guy for Grans worked for him last year. Anyway I decided to send a message to my friend, the one I walk with, could they rescue me? Which is what they did. So they drove me back to Hora, we went over what I could do to remedy the situation, my friends suggested chatting to the delivery guy. They also mentioned some other ideas I could use if they were not on the island. As we passed the garage in Hora, the delivery guy was there with his wife. Result! 

So I had a chat with him and he is going to call the Hire company owner, we need to get the car 

 off the road. It’s not been a perfect day, with the cat problem,  but the way my friends here have rallied round, is the sort of thing I could have hoped for in Twyford which is great.