Cretan Diary - Chapter 30

Wednesday - Water Water Everywhere

"And all the boards did shrink"

October 28, 2009

The rain continues. Eleni, still in England, "Skyped" to say that her husband's TV was showing satellite programmes but no terrestrial. We drove down to his house to see if I could help. I commented to Jenny that most "lost signal" problems were attributable to the power supply that sends voltage up to the aerial amplifier.

It took me a while to find it. Upside down on the floor, it looked like an ordinary splitter. It was only after checking everything else and climbing on the roof to take a closer look at the aerial, that I turned it over and discovered what it was. And, of course, it was switched off!

Christos reckons that the puppy must have stood on it during the night. Anyway, he was so pleased that he wouldn't miss the football that he invited us to stay to lunch and cooked us a wonderful rabbit stifado.

Today is "Oxi" day or "no" day. Oxi Day observes Greece's refusal to allow Axis troops to invade Greece in 1940. The schoolchildren were supposed to be marching in a parade through Vamos so we hoped the rain had held off during that event.

While we were with Christos, the rainfall steadily increased but we took advantage of a brief cessation to bid goodbye and run to the car. The rain returned with renewed intensity and, as we began the ascent of "seven bends road", we could see the cloud base half way up the hill! Visibility decreased so I switched on the headlamps and drove cautiously - not that it's possible to drive any other way on a 1 in 4 hill with sharp bends!

Back home the rain continued to thrash our little house all afternoon. I worked at the computer with only a brief respite for dinner (last night's lovely shepherd's pie, nuked in the microwave oven).

Shortly after I sat down at the computer, again, I detected a strange smell. It was an acid odour which reminded me of the smell of a burning resistor. I sniffed my way around computers, monitors, Hard Disk Drives and EyeTV tuners, but the smell seemed to be coming from lower down.

As I glanced downwards, I saw that my feet were in a puddle which contained the remains of a "black stinkworm". These millipedes create this rather foul odor when crushed, as I had unwittingly done!

The water was coming underneath the front door and had brought the black stinkworm with it. I scooped up the remains with a piece of paper and hurled it outside. Then we mopped up the water and rolled a towel against the door to stem the flow of water.
I noticed a pool in the kitchen, too. This was dripping from the electricity RCB switch box. Jenny put a bowl on the floor to catch the drips. I removed the bezel from the wall to expose the wiring and breakers. There were three more stinkworms inside. I removed them, carefully, and threw them outside.
According to Rod, the rain is getting into the bedroom wall through a hole which carries the electricity cables for the roof-mounted air conditioning unit. Although the hole is capped with plastic trunking, the rain (and stinkworms) are getting into the conduit on the roof and draining all the way down to the kitchen electricity box.
Since I tightened the canopy bolts outside the kitchen door, the ingress of water there has been reduced to a tiny trickle. When we get a dry day I'll fit a lip to the top of the fly-screen door and that should stop the water altogether.
I stayed up till 1 am, blasting the electricity box with a hairdryer and stuffing polythene bags into it, in an attempt to stop the sizzling noises that were emanating. Eventually, I gave up and went to bed.

I think I'm developing a cold.

Thursday - B & Q

October 29, 2009

We awoke to bright sunshine - which quickly turned to grey clouds and drizzle. It's interesting to note that yesterday's forecast for today was "sunny". Today they've changed it to "sunny intervals". That's the problem with living on an island the size of Wales. The weather is totally unpredictable. But Saturday is promising to be another dreadful, stormy day, so I need to get these leaks sorted out!

I went to Vamos, then Kalives, in search of rubber strip and plastic channel. I took sketches and everyone knew what I wanted but nobody stocked it. So we're off to "B & Q" at the dreaded Rethymnon Junction.

I don't appear to have a cold, after all, by the way.

Rethymnon was sunny and warm. We bought provisions at Lidl and visited various hardware shops to get the strips. It proved impossible to obtain anything simple, such as a piece of aluminium or plastic angle or channel. However, I managed to find some bits that will do the job. Back home it was still cloudy but hadn't rained, so I got on with the jobs as quickly as possible!

 

This rubber strip should keep the worms and water out. I glued a plastic strip to the door as well, so that the rain drips onto the step side of the rubber.
The air-conditioning pipes and cables...
...are covered with foam rubber. The PVC tape had flaked away and the foam rubber acted as a sponge, taking the rain water right inside the house! I began to fix that.
I used self-amalgamating (rubber) tape to cover the exposed pipes and cables then sealed all gaps with black silicone rubber.
A sloping strip glued above the flyscreen outside the kitchen door should keep the water out.

I finished before dark so now we are waiting for rain...

Friday - Winter

October 30, 2009

Jenny did gardening for two hours while I worked at the computer.

We drove to Georgioupolis, parked, and wandered along the shoreline, noting how deserted it was. On the beach, two holidaymakers, trousers rolled up, were determined to enjoy themselves.
Everything was being taken away to put into storage. Beach parasols, chairs, tables.
It was a little sad to see the tourist businesses closing for the winter. The temperature is still a mild 20 degrees C but the sunshine is intermittent at best and rain is forecast.
The fishermen are unaffected, except that there will be less mouths to feed here.

Saturday - Bonging and rain

October 31, 2009

At 4am we awoke to the sound of rain and a deep, booming, gong-like sound, which at first I thought was thunder, then I thought it was a ship's gun at Souda Bay, then I decided it was something banging our stair banister rail, which is steel and "bongs" if you knock it with anything hard.

I tip-toed downstairs in socks and pyjamas but there was nothing to see, apart from rain leaking under the front door. Darn!

BONGGGGG!

The sound reverberated through the house but I couldn't see the cause. I asked Jenny where the towel was and she directed me to the arm of the sofa, where it was hanging. I rolled it up and placed it next to the door to contain the tiny flood. Then I returned to the bedroom and donned my shoes and coat.

I walked around the house but saw and heard nothing, apart from the rain.

The wind died down so I went back to bed, eventually falling asleep until 8am.

The rain had stopped so I opened the front door and dried the area with a hair dryer. I glued a piece of plastic tubing to the step in front of the door, then ripped off the plastic strip and glued it back in place, low down on the door.

There was no sign of water anywhere else. The electricity box was dry!

We ate breakfast as the wind and rain returned with a vengeance. Anyone fancy a holiday on sunny Crete? Well, avoid this time of year!

More water came under the front door. Frankly, I was becoming depressed. "It's nearly lunchtime. Let's go out and find somewhere warm!"

I went outside and stuck a piece of soggy cardboard across the bottom of the front door to keep the rain out temporarily. That seemed to work. We donned our coats and got into the car. Kalives seemed a good bet, since it's full of English people. There must be a nice warm restaurant there.

The journey was less than pleasant, with torrents of water streaming down and across the mountain roads. I drove even more slowly than usual. We entered the outskirts of Almeritha and Jenny spotted a likely looking restaurant with lights on and door firmly closed against the elements. I parked in the next gap, outside the door of a cafenio. We ran inside the restaurant and sat down, only to be followed by the cafenio owner who asked me to move the car. (We learn something new every day. It seems to be unacceptable to park directly in front of an entrance because it prevents people from easily being picked up and dropped off.) I braved the weather again and moved the car.

The menu had a good selection. I chose Mousaka, which I haven't eaten since we came here in September. Jenny chose spaghetti carbonara, which is presented on menus under "Cretan Cuisine". Both meals were excellent.

There was a Cretan family, apparently made up of three grandparents and a young boy and a girl, who noisily ate, joked and smoked (the ladies), their way through dinner. Apart from the smoke, it was a very pleasant atmosphere, and warm!

After the family paid and left, the owner, his son and a friend engaged us in conversation - or attempted to. We struggled to understand but we did succeed in communicating at a basic level of "where are you from, where do you live, how long, etc. plus jokes about it being "just like England" and having to swim back to the car.

As the river of water flowing down the street subsided to a mere stream, we paid the bill, promised to return (we will), and sploshed to the car.

Back home, it was dry but somewhat chilly (17 degrees) on the inside. I settled down to work at the computer and Jenny played a game on hers.

BONGGGGG!

There it was again! OK, it's still daylight. I grabbed my coat and ran outside. No sign of anything moving. I came back inside and went upstairs. The ladders on the balcony couldn't move, so it wasn't that. I climbed up to the roof, getting soaking wet, and looked around. No sign of anything.

Clonk.

The bedroom shutter door clonked on the balcony rail. I climbed back down the ladder and pushed it.

Clonk, followed by a slight "hmmm". Could this be it? Was it somehow reverberating in the house but almost silent outside?

I got Jenny to go upstairs and clonk the shutter door against the railing, while I waited inside.

BONGGGGG!

Mystery solved! We put a large rock against the shutter door and came back inside.

I was feeling cold so I lit the Somba. This time - lesson learned - I didn't bother with paper. I had stacked some sticks, wigwam-fashion, over a handful of wood shavings from Manolis. I have a small soldering iron that runs off cigarette lighter fuel. Without a "bit" in the end, it's a miniature gas torch. It got that fire going in less than 60 seconds! Woo hoo! (As Homer Simpson says.)

Chapter 31 - Storm Warning

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