Perfect Day

 Saturday 14th January 2023

Photo Interlude Livadi this morning

A lovely crisp sunny day beckons. I had a bit of shopping to do before my walk and lunch with my friend, so I popped down to Livadi to do that. I am determined to try and do better with my Greek language interactions and given that I am usually buying one item in cafes like a coffee or my favourite pie, I have tried to fix in my mind the word for one, which is not that difficult to remember, or should not be! Enas as it is. So I am going to have one of my favourite pies for dinner, as I am having a large lunch so when I bought one, I asked for one of them, mentioning it’s proper name as well. When I ordered my coffee, they know what I want at most places, so I just added the extra no sugar in Greek. I met my friend who I am walking with later on, who happened to be doing what I was doing, shopping beforehand! Up here in Hora they don’t sell the Granola I like, the one which doesn’t have chocolate in it, but thankfully they do in Livadi. I find the alternative sort of corn flake cereals just don’t fill you up in the same way, so after them I am still hungry.

Photo Interlude - wonderful cakes on sale at the bakery too!

There is a couple of Greek words, that I am stumbling with, in our alphabet they both have the letter x, which in English would be a soft letter I think, but in Greek it’s very different, and the sound it makes I find hard to pronounce and I also have trouble remembering the word. In my Greek course, I had got a bit stuck here, but I decided to carry on despite this, and luckily I am on an easier section, which relates to day words, like Good day, which most people know, Kali Mera, which is used as a greeting but also a general, have a good day, which is literally what it says! There are other “mera” words like every day, today and so on. There is a lovely word literally pronounced “panda”, which means always. How cute is that! I am still continuing with the duolingo too, there is a section where you get a line of Greek, that you can listen to as well, they want to you translate it, they offer a list of possible words that might be in play. It’s good practice to hear the words being said, as that’s what’s happening to me here.

Photo interlude- Another shot of Livadi

I met up with my friend for our walk, but before the walk,  we had to drop off some cat food ( in bulk ) to feed more stray cats at another feeding station. We then started our walk from this house at a  place called Ramos ( outside Livadi ). As we set out there we a great view of the Ferry coming in. It did its all too familiar toot as it approached Livadi. 

Our path was heading out towards the Lighthouse and on the gravelly bit of the path, there was some very small pretty flowers growing in it, it’s lucky there are not many walkers around at the moment…

The Fennel which until recently was looking a bit brown and spindly is at last shooting up from the ground. I crumpled a little bit of a leaf and smelt it, a wonderful aniseed smell issued from my hand. We were doing a loop around Ramos and then climbed up one of those long slow burn hills you get here, that you think will never end. Good cardio workout though! Although this walk wasn’t long, it was a nice snippet of a path I did not know of before, which is what you often get when you walk with someone else. We then drove down to the taverna by the beach of Livadakia, which is where we have been several times together before. Our other friend was there, they informed us both that the scrummy Greek dish of Pastichio was in the oven, so like them, we ordered some with a Greek salad. We had a lovely relaxed lunch,  and after eating this we were treated to a, on the house, wafer thin cheese pie with honey drizzled on top. It was shaped like a pizza in size and thickness. It wasn’t too cheesy. We were also given some Raki, with the honey and spices in it. 

This little monkey, a stray cat of course, was eying up our friends main course, as they had left a bit. Like a flash, it jumped on the table and nabbed a bit and was off in seconds. Meanwhile another friend was walking along the beach, we welcomed them to join us, they were given a gratis glass of wine. I would love to go into the details of the ensuing conversation, but the result of the main part of it is still an unknown quantity, if it works out, I may describe it, suitably anonymously edited. It’s a pity because it’s a tale of generosity, kindness and helping your fellow man, who might need a kindness offered to them. I mean no offence to the kind people of England, who do kind deeds every day, but on this little island, with its small population, it seems these things are more of a regular occurrence. But either way it was just nice to sit there with these three people and just have a lovely chat. Greek isn’t the first language of any of us. In fact the person who joined us last has the nearest proficiency of the language to me, but they are streets ahead of my attempts. But the good news for me, is they speak a lot slower and thus give my clockwork brain a half decent chance to digest each word before the next one appears!

Photo Interlude - view over to the sea at dusk from my house

  

Then it was time to go home, and rest up, ready for another day on this amazing island.