| This total disregard for safety and aesthetics is prevalent amongst some of the Greek/Cretan workers, whose idea of "recycling" is to dump a lorry load of waste materials off the side of a winding mountainside road, so that it tumbles down and blocks the road below. Of course I may be being unfair - they might be foreign workers. Whoever they are, the authorities turn a bind eye to it, so it continues. And the rain also continued. Luckily, it held off, mostly, while we wandered through the streets and redoubled its efforts after we returned to the car to drive home. My new desk lamp has just failed. I switched it on; there was a brief flash and a wisp of smoke. It's an energy-saver bulb and I guess it's saving lots of energy. Unfortunately, it's no longer producing light. Managed to watch "The X Factor".  The dead energy-saver bulb rolled off my desk and smashed on the floor so I can't take it back under warranty.  Sunday - Winter begins! October 18, 2009 The morning began with my having a cold shower, which wasn't through choice! Since there was no sunshine yesterday, I guess the solar heating system didn't. The sun is just rising above the horizon and the sky is relatively cloud-free so we may get a top-up today. We drove to "Our Yoopolly" and had an "English Breakfast" at Tito's café. Mine had real baked beans. A bus full of Greek tourists spilled into the bar just after we ordered. | We saw Eleni at the table-top sale in Sinatra's bar then took a walk around the town to see what places were still open. The town is already closing for winter. It'll be interesting to see what remains next week after the last holiday flight departs. | 
| | A fan spinning briskly in the minimal breeze turned out to be a home-made contraption of plastic bottles and wire. | 
| | So far the temperature has been high. Inside our house, with doors open, it's 22 degrees. Outside in the sun it must be 26 degrees or more. Jenny has assembled a bird-box kit outside. | 
| | Jenny found a big finger-size caterpillar eating leaves on a bush in our garden. When startled, it unfolds its skin to expose two bright blue patches that look like glaring eyes! | 
| | Jenny made fish and chips for dinner. Well, a close approximation - we can't find anywhere that sells mushy peas. Monday - Spring October 19, 2009 More battles with mosquitoes last night. Lord knows how they are getting in but I zapped another two. The temperature inside was over 20 degrees when we awoke. Jenny cooked breakfast then we walked to the shop to buy provisions. They didn't have any "Schuko" plugs left so as soon as we arrived home I got into the car and drove to the hardware store near Vamos and bought four. Meanwhile, Jenny started baking cakes. I dropped two off with Aspaseea in the shop in case other customers needed one before she could get more stock. | | I made an extension lead and slit the centre insulating sheath so I could pull out a loop of wire. I insulated it all to produce a cable with an insulated loop of wire that I could hook my test meter around. Now I have the ability to measure the power used by various appliances. | 
| | I would like to mention that the whole process of fitting plugs to cable was really painful. My arthritis is affecting tendons, not joints. Normally I don't notice it much but, when required to apply pressure to something, my fingers complain by triggering pain messages to my brain. Soon I'll have to get someone else to do mundane tasks. Well, my entire computer system consumes just 115 Watts when everything is running - excluding the scanner and printer. Jenny's computer system adds another 60 Watts, making 180 in total. I had assumed it was over 500 Watts, so that's excellent news. It makes it far more likely that we can run the whole lot from solar energy alone. Graeme arrived at about 1pm and installed two cables to our office from the dish and aerial. So now I can watch and record TV on my computer. Unfortunately, the choice of programmes is so limited that I probably won't use it much. I'm not that keen on QVC and Sky News. I have no plans to subscribe to Sky. Graeme installs solar energy systems so I've asked him to work out a price for me. We can't afford anything, yet, so I'm still collecting information. | | Shortly after Graeme arrived, the shop owner's son (one of them) arrived with a pickup truck full of wood (a tonne). He and I spent ten minutes heaving it onto the driveway then Jenny paid him 140 Euros. Jenny heaved a load of the wood to a sheltered location at the back of the house while I helped Graeme. | 
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Then I spent twenty minutes stacking the rest of the wood out of the way. We really need a shelter. Despite having doors opening all afternoon as Graeme and I went in and out, there were no mozzies. Tuesday - Sunny October 20, 2009 Today has been warm and we had to drive to the main town, Xania, (Hanya) to visit our two banks in order to register our change of address. We went to the first bank and withdrew some money. All the desk employees were busy so we did some shopping then went to the second bank. The girl asked for our documents and accessed our account on the computer. According to the information on the screen, Jenny was living with a Greek man in Xania, to whom our statements were being sent. It was not a name we recognised. We persuaded the girl to change it to my name and address instead. I can see why "Identity Theft" is rife. Everyone in Apokoronas has the same (Vamos) postcode so we go by name and telephone number. We looked for, and found, the office of Manolis, our car insurance agent. We paid him the outstanding amount and left. (I can't find our cover note. I have no idea where I put it. Luckily I had scanned it so I've printed a copy from my computer.) We had a snack at the "Clock" café, which overlooks the market. I had a turkey sandwich. The Greek word for that sort of turkey is "galopoola". If I type "turkey sandwich" into any translation program, it assures me that I mean a "sandwich from turkey". Lord knows what filling I'd get if I asked for that! These programs should contain health warnings. You could get yourself poisoned. We did more shopping* then went to the second bank. We had been asked to take the original copies of our Tax number confirmation letters. When we arrived, the bank employee also wanted Jenny's passport (which she always carries - thankfully) and a utility bill (which we had). He complained that we didn't have a real address. Not much we could do about that. At least the account was still in our names. The man in the bank gave us directions to the electricity company's office. We haven't had a bill, yet, so we need to visit soon to ask for one, otherwise I think the amount will be frightening. I expect the visit to be a nightmare because the electricity bill incorporates income and land tax as well. We'll have to take every document that we possess. I'm putting this visit off till "avrio". *Some plastic baskets, a kitchen timer (Chronometro), a Nokia phone charger for the car, a replacement energy-saver 7 Watt "bulb" for my desk lamp and an empty perfume spray to hold Raki for treating insect bites. The latter we couldn't find. I could probably have scrounged an empty "demonstrator" from the big cosmetics store but I didn't get a chance. In the electric goods store I asked if they had a bin for the broken bulb. Or I thought I asked for a bin. In fact I asked for a "katho", which aroused some amusement. I have no idea what it means but I should have pronounced it "katho" where the "th" is from "though" and not from "thought". There's a subtle difference, like asking in English for a shit instead of a chit. Through the laughter, I told anyone who was listening "matheno seega". (I'm learning slowly.) They appeared to agree with me. And - anticipating your next question - yes, I do know the Greek word for "shit" and, yes, it's remarkably similar to the word for noisy. No doubt I'll soon have an opportunity to ask someone to stop being noisy and get a punch in the face for using the wrong word. That brings up another point; whenever I return to a place I've already visited, they remember me. I have no idea why, although I do wear a cap emblazoned with the words "meno etho" (I live here). In contrast, I have trouble remembering what day it is or what I had for breakfast. In fact, sometimes I don't recall even having breakfast at all and have it again! They warned me that getting old was unpleasant but I hadn't realised how unpleasant, or how amusing it seemed to younger people. This afternoon I had a siesta and dreamed that it rained. When I awoke there was little sign of rain but, according to Jenny, it had rained so heavily that the down-pipe from the roof had flooded the driveway outside the kitchen door. Someone broke the toilet seat. I fixed it with superglue and Jenny broke it again. More expense! We've measured it. No doubt it will be a size that nobody stocks, so we'll have to get an entire new toilet suite installed. Am I pessimistic or realistic? At 6pm, by invitation, Eleni and Christos arrived for tea and cake. We chatted and ate. After they'd left, I needed real food so I made a sandwich. | 
