Cretan Diary - Chapter 19 | |||||||
Tuesday - The WalkOctober 6, 2009 Today we arranged to go on a circular walk at 2pm. First, we had to go to Kalives (KalEEvess) to visit the bookshop that was closed last Sunday. Jenny drove and parked opposite the shop. I went into the Vodafone shop next door to see if it had a telephone extension cable with twin sockets. I had printed out a photo of one from eBay. The girl stared at it and shook her head. I went to another mobile phone shop 4 doors away. Again the girl shook her head but suggested I try the electrical shop 50 metres up the road. Off I trotted and, after 70 paces, popped into another shop to ask where the electrical shop was. "50 metres up the road", I was told. OK, another 50 metres. In fact I walked a good 300 paces before I found it. It was huge - hard to miss. They didn't have exactly what I wanted but a helpful assistant produced a 4m lead, a coupler and an adapter, which, together, would do the job. I paid, then walked briskly back to the car. As I approached, I saw a huge dent in the rear door and my heart sank. How could she damage it when we'd already parked? Luckily, it was someone else's silver Peugeot 307. Ours was two cars in front. I'm not used to having such a common model! I phoned Jenny and she eventually answered and told me she was still in the book shop. She came out and we drove to Vamos to post Jenny's letter to Tim, to get money from the ATM and to book an appointment with the hairdresser, tomorrow at 11.30am. (No prizes for guessing that the appointment wasn't for me!) Then we returned home and I got on with answering emails and checking Sales enquiries while Jenny made sandwiches for lunch. (I didn't take a photo - you know what cheese and tomato sandwiches look like!) I had just finished when the mains power went off. Darn! I picked up the UPS that had been on charge since yesterday and heaved it under my computer desk. I plugged it in to the mains adapter and plugged the computer and monitor into the UPS. I turned it on and my computer sprang to life. This had taken less than ten minutes. Then the power came back on! It took the router another five minutes to sort itself out and reconnect to the Internet. I need to make up an extension lead so that I can connect the Router to the UPS.
I opened the bonnet but that wasn't much help. The engine compartment is full of engine and other things with nuts. No bugle-shaped object in sight. I did a "Google" search and discovered that "the horn on the 307 is easy to reach. First remove the nearside wheel and plastic trim beneath the wing.." Hang on - I don't even have a car jack. Where's the RAC when you need them? What a bummer! OK, forget the horn. Let's find out what all the buttons and stalks do. I pulled out the manual, which is written in Greek. I flipped to the back, optimistically hoping I might find the German section. OK how about Italian or Russian? No such luck. I thumped the airbag in frustration and the horn sounded loudly. I pressed it again, more gently, and it gave an apologetic "pleep". Bloody technology! Back in the office, after much searching and dictionary bashing, I realised that the mysterious stalk controls were for the radio. I had tried the radio, briefly, but all stations seem to be Greek. No sign of Terry Wogan or Sarah Kennedy. Not much use, then. Back to answering emails from customers. One irate chappy was complaining that he'd waited three weeks for his order when our web site clearly states "8 working days". He demanded to know where our "Complaints Form" was. Uh, OK, so I spent the next hour making a damned "Complaints Form" so he could send me an email to complain about something he'd already complained about. I decided to make it plausible but to include a lot of fields to complete, with error messages if he got it wrong. I must be crazy. It's nearly my bedtime. Jenny's already in bed. Darn! I just realised that I missed my siesta today. | |||||||
