There is never a free lunch, unless you are a cat…

 Saturday 4th February 2023

After feeding the car park cats, I walked to Marinos, and had my coffee. On the television, there were pictures of snow, somewhere in Greece. It is certainly going to get colder in the next few days, after a lot of rain tomorrow. I pointed to the television when my coffee came over, and Marinos said skiing tomorrow. I understood that. ( he actually said the Greek for tomorrow and pretended he was skiing ) I noticed when the younger donkey man left, his jacket has his name, a cartoon of a donkey and his telephone numbers on the back. I got a mandarin from Marinos, he said the Greek word for small, which it was, but very tasty. 


I then went for a wander around Hora to check the cat food I put out last night and met my friend who I am helping to feed the various cats, the food I put out  has been eaten.  I put more out this morning then I went to Markelas. I got five apples and pears and said the word for five but I have been doing my pronunciation on that completely wrong. It looks like “penta” but the way you say it is not like that. So I need to practice that one, or always but four or six things like apples or pears.

Photo Interlude - sunrise after sunrise 


Not long after getting back to the house I had a phone call from the Car Hire guy asking where I was so he could pick up the key for the broken car. I met him by Vasileas and handed it over. He said  the new car would be ready later.  As I walked down to Livadi someone honked their horn as a delivery truck was blocking the road. They do use their horns much here but not as much as the Italians! On the donkey track a  flock of sparrows flew in front of me, settled on a bush, then flew off when I got close to them again. It feels like February might be a lean month, with the cold weather approaching and the wind and rain. I tried my friends hot water bottle idea in the house last night while watching TV it did help!

I met this guy with his shopping on the path, I have seen him before and he mentioned something about my long trousers. I did not quite understand I thought he had used the Greek word for far away, but I must have misheard him. I must ask his name next time I see him. No money was found on the road today, but a perfectly usable onion!

I went into Grans  ( see the link!) I told the delivery guy the metal man story and he said he had spoken to him about my metal pile too. I bought a baguette and one for tomorrow. 

I then sat by the port looking out towards Sifnos, even though it’s cloudy I could see it clearly and Milos too. The ferry came in, no lorries today, just a few foot passengers and cars. I then sat down and did the next chapter on the Greek course, the Greek word for early is a F1 drivers surname, that should be easy to remember! Train is an easy one to remember too, that  wont be useful here! 

Photo Interlude - tap in Hora today


I got my new car, and when I got to the car park, I noticed someone had left some canes, tied together with wire, and an old electric blanket. A cat was lying on the blanket. It was raining lightly at this point. I thought about a solid wooden door I had got off the mountain and left on the scrap wood pile and the rusty remains of a truck, which is by the car park. I cleared the back of the truck and lay out the blanket on it. I then put the door on top, to cover it, slanted so the rain will run off hopefully. It’s a bit Heath Robinson, but it will do for now. Of course to do all this I had put my paper bag down with my sandwich in it. Now if you are a cat, a ham baguette is going to be very appealing, much more than dry food. So when I got back to it, I could see that it  had been nibbled away. I pulled the rest of the meat and cheese out, bunged it under a car, I am sure it will be found, so that’s gone down the tubes then!

Photo Interlude - looking into the shelter, the blanket is right at the back under the door. The canes provide partial shelter further along.


Tomorrow is not going to be a nice day, even with  car, so tomorrows entry might even be shorter. I checked the flights yesterday, the return flights to here are very expensive towards the end of March so I might move my trip to the early part of the month. There is also the house the clean..

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