Just another lovely day..

 Friday 20th January 2023

So it is interesting to look at the read statistics on my post “Want to live on a Greek island”. It is nearly fifty. This isn’t just my usual reader population, seeing the title and reading it. I think the search engines have propelled it to people who are interested in reading about living on a Greek island, and they have looked at it. What will be interesting is if my regular posts are read by these people. At the moment it doesn’t look like it.

Today promised a band of rain, and sure enough it turned up. It was very heavy, made worse by the returning winds. I can’t believe I was on the roof yesterday sunning myself! My friend and myself are a bit worried about the cats I am feeding, as they don’t seem to be eating much. It is maybe the food we are serving, doesn’t suit them, my friend has some alternatives which we are trying in the different dishes they have up there. You would not think stray cats could be fussy, but they clearly can be. We are arranging another neutering session for the kitten I feed and a couple of others. It’s free, we just have to bring them down to Livadi, when the vet is in town. 

I noticed a pool of water in front of the fridge last night, I pulled it out, it had just done a defrost cycle. What is missing is the  drip tray. These modern fridges, defrost themselves and the water lands on the drip tray and the water evaporates from the heat of the compressor. This all happens without us realising of course. There is a hole, the water runs through, from the inside of the fridge to the tray. You need to make sure that is kept clear. I have a light bulb question for the landlord, that I need to ask him too.

A lesson in Greek hot water. I am lucky having the open roof, with good all day access to the sun. The photo shows it, on the top of the panel is the tank where the water is stored. Inside the tank like the hot water tanks you often get in the UK, there is a an electric heater, you can turn this on from inside the house when the sun doesn’t shine. Even in the winter, when the sun is not at its strongest, the water is very hot. My friends in Sifnos, have had problems with their cold water feed that ran along  the side of a path, to their house. It ended up with water as hot as the hot water and unusable, during that really hot summer. They have covered it up now , bits of it are now buried to protect it from the sun. 

My kind neighbour helped me out with my UK Tax yesterday afternoon. The problem I had was the security code you need, when you login to the Tax website, was being sent to our UK landline. So I ended up having to get him into the house, so when the phone rang he could tell  me the code, so I could type this in. Unfortunately I had to ask him to do it twice, as to change the phone number, to the UK mobile number on my old phone, required a repeat performance. All done now. I made this chicken Arrabbiata, while it chucked it down this morning. It’s from a jar, I don’t often use a sauce jar, but this is a good one. I added chicken, a red pepper, tin of tinned tomatoes and an onion to make four portions. One will be eaten tonight.

The rain having stopped I went down to Livadi via by friends shop, they wanted me to check their electricity meter reading. These are mostly in a metal box outside the building. Some people build a little box around them, or a concrete or brick surrounding. This gave me the opportunity to have a wander around Hora, being careful as the steps were still wet. I ended up seeing the Bougainvillea which has a water me sign by it, which I did. I ended up at the back end of Hora, I wasn’t sure I had been here before. I ought to get a map of the paths, and mark them with my purple marker like my walking map. 

Photo Interlude - I liked the shadow, the canes are making on the building.

The problem with a lot of these paths up here,  they are often dead ends, you then have to retrace your steps and go on another path. But there were definitely views I had not seen before over to the port and over stepped gardens. I did end up seeing a building I had seen before which has my exact first name on it, in blue. 

Eventually I came down to the old Spanish Consulate, what a pity, it lies in ruins. From here, it was down a path I knew, the alternative way up Hora, that I take when I am checking on my friends house. Before you get to the school, there are a load of fir trees, in a sheltered spot, so they are vertical. From here, it was straight down the donkey track. 

Photo Interlude - The Spanish Consulate.

 

The sea outside the port looked very rough, it was now very sunny, and I had my coat off. I went into Grans, having decided on my latest Greek effort, “I always buy this”. This is where google translate fails a bit, words like it, the and so on Is it Neuter, Masculine or Femine?  I had to be careful and slow to give them a chance with any dodgy pronunciation! But I probably got eight out of ten. We had a little chat about the confusion in Greek and English.  As it wasn’t super nice out there, I had the coffee in the cafe. The delivery guy was busy on a call, he had told me, he wears a helmet in the rain, so he can see where he is going.

Photo Interlude - Up in Hora 

I popped in the supermarket and got some of my favourite Granola, and walked back up to Hora. I got fairly hot, it was still very windy up here. If the forecast is to be believed in a weeks time it will be a lot colder and possibly a centimetre of rain on one day too.