Cretan Diary - Chapter 33

We walked for several kilometers, visiting tiny churches on the way.

Another tiny church.

Inside a very old church. Some of the murals are still visible.

Inside a modern church.

The picnic spot was surrounded by ant nests!

Nearby was a wooden water tower. Since we were at such a high point, we had a panoramic view of the mountains.

Wonderful views everywhere.

By the time we returned to the car, our feet were quite sore so we drove straight home.

I drained the car radiator expansion bottle so I could add antifreeze. It doesn't usually get cold enough to need it here for that reason so the locals don't seem to use it. However, it contains a corrosion inhibitor, which is critical to engine life. In addition, the correct antifreeze raises the boiling point, making overheating, due to water loss, less likely.

I left it draining while I answered emails. Then I went upstairs to find out if Jenny was OK, since she'd "gone for a shower" an hour earlier and hadn't reappeared. She was lying on the bed, reading. I lay down and fell asleep!

When I awoke it was 5:30pm and almost dark. I ran outside and poured the antifreeze into the tank, then closed the bonnet. I'd have to drain off some water another day. I picked up the cardboard box that we'd collected from the Post Office (and left outside) and went indoors. It was chilly so I lit the somba.

"I thought we were eating out tonight?" asked Jenny. Aaagh! I'd forgotten.

I damped down the fire as much as I could and we donned our coats, grabbed torches, and headed uphill to the restaurant above the supermarket.

My memory of the rest of the evening is vague but I recall that it involved lamb chops, and lots of wine and conversation. Very pleasant.

Saturday - The Plumber

November 14th, 2009

Dawn broke and Jenny was ready for it with her new camera!

This morning we had to stay at home because Spiros, the plumber, had promised to come at 9am.

Bang on 9am, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and a young man I'd never seen before stood there.

"I am Manolis. Spiros had to go to an urgent job in Xaniá."

We went around the back of the house to the shed.

I showed him the water leaking from the tank inlet joint and the puddle on top of the tank.

"It's the floateur," he said. "I weel feet a new one."

He did so and, as he turned the water back on, the pump made that "whoomf whoomf" noise that we hear occasionally.

"Oh, dear!" said Manolis. "Eet should not do that." He unscrewed the top of the large metal cylinder next to the pump. Water spurted out.

"Oh, dear!" said Manolis. "Eet should not do that. I will feet a new one." He drove to Vamos and returned with a new one. (I got him to write down its name in Greek. The literal translation is "container of dilation pressing". I think we call it an "expansion vessel".) Apparently it has a rubber diaphragm which separates the water from an air pocket and acts as a damper to prevent "pipe hammer". The diaphragm was split.

When he'd finished that, I asked him to fit a water filter because our water is almost as white as milk right now. We heaved the old washing machine out of the way and he fitted the filter to the water inlet pipe.

It was nearly noon when Manolis left and I was feeling hungry. I needed a new pin for my watch strap so we drove to Vrises and bought one then headed for a nice café which overlooked the river.

We watched the ducks, and children feeding them, while we ate. Then we did some window shopping before driving to the cash machine at Almeritha.

On the way there we stopped at a "home and garden" shop that had adverts on all the main roads. It was much smaller than we expected and had a small selection of decorative items and imitation Christmas trees. The staff were very friendly. They told us that the price of a metre high tree was 14 Euros. We made a note of that for comparison.

From Almeritha we drove back to Apokoronas then turned right to visit Gavalahori. We wandered around this village before buying broccoli and returning home.

While it was still warm and light, I climbed onto the shed roof to inspect the seals.

As anticipated, they were not in a good state! The brown foam sealant was deteriorating and, as it had been applied to a painted wall, the paint was flaking and allowing water behind.

I scraped away the loose debris and applied flexible acrylic sealant. After that, I applied "Denso" tape to some joints which looked as if they might let water inside.

It's a little chilly again this evening so I lit the "somba".

Sunday - Late Breakfast

November 15th, 2009

We couldn't go for our Sunday breakfast at the usual time because Spiros, the plumber, had promised to come at 10am to check the feasibility of installing central heating.

I dealt with emails and swore at my Apple Mac Mini, which is "locking up" more and more frequently, while Jenny went for a walk. She hadn't returned when I went outside to inspect our doorbell button, which is on the outside garden wall, next to the gate. It had been very intermittent in operation during the rainy period.

As I took it apart, an English man came from our neighbour's house and greeted me. I replied and he said "oh, you are from my part of England!"

It transpired that he was born in Middlesbrough and was one of the first English people to buy a house here in Apokoronas.

Jenny returned as we were chatting and joined in the conversation. Then at 10am exactly, Spiros drove up in his pickup!

He looked at the pre-installed pipes and we discussed the possibilities (in Greek, since he speaks no English. I had prepared a phrase sheet in advance, which helped).

He left with a request that we phone his wife, Vagileea, at the shop tomorrow to get his estimate.

We drove to Georgioupolis via "seven bends road", which, according to the signs, was still closed. However, since the closure was due to a trench which was now filled in, we ignored the signs (like all the local drivers) and carried on regardless.

After breakfast we called at Eleni's house to collect her sewing machine for repair.

The rest of the day was spent doing not very much.

In the evening I piled the "somba" with logs and lit it, with the aid of firelighters that I'd found in the shed.

A gentle breeze turned to a gale and soon we were choking on the smoke that was coming out of the somba! I tried to make it burn quickly and fiercely to reverse the flow but to no avail. I put hot ashes into a plastic bucket, which promply melted and had to be thrown hurriedly outside! Eventually, I gave up and went to bed, with the door firmly closed.

Monday - I help a Friend

November 16th, 2009

Jenny decided to stay at home to sweep up the ashes and clean the dust from every surface in the house. I would return Eleni's sewing machine. I had cleaned and oiled it and the only fault was a loose live wire inside the plug.

I had a hasty meal of tinned mackerel sandwich then drove to the house of Eleni and Christos. Eleni has hurt her foot and is trying not to make it worse, so I had volunteered to take Christos to a workshop where they repair olive-harvesting equipment. Christos has a petrol-fuelled generator whose control unit had broken. I could see the fuse had melted but I didn't know if there was hidden damage to the circuit. In the event, only the fuse needed to be replaced, and Christos paid 20 cents for the fuse and 9 Euros 80 cents for labour. I bought a galvanised steel bucket for seven Euros and fifty cents. That seemed expensive but I didn't know anywhere else that sold them.

On the way back, we stopped at Christos' local caffeineeo, where we drank and chatted to some local men. A man pulled up in an overloaded pickup truck, filled with sacks of unkown knobbly things. He got out and proceeded to demonstrate the operation of a sphygmomanometer on a willing volunteer, whose blood pressure measured 180 over 80.

Having failed to sell one to the men at one table, he came to ours. Since Christos has a minor heart problem and visits the hospital regularly, he was understandably unimpressed.

Eventually, the would-be seller left and we left shortly afterwards.

Having dropped off Christos and his machinery, I drove directly home.

The Mac Mini's antics were really irritating me by now, so I copied the current files onto a backup drive then transferred them to my older Apple Mac G4 tower. It uses more power but it's a lot more reliable.

I watched a couple of recorded TV programmes, including "The X Factor".

I'm sitting here with a hot water bottle. I've had enough of the somba for now!

I phoned Vagileea at the plumbing/hardware store in Vamos but it seems that Spiros had forgotten to give her the estimate for installing central heating. So it will be "avrio", I guess. (By the way, I have discovered that, if they really want to be vague, they say "met'avrio". Metá means "after" and "ávrio" means "tomorrow".)

Sad news from England: Our 14 year old Norwegian Forest cat had to be put to sleep today. He suddenly stopped eating and wouldn't move.

Since Carl now has a job at "Asda" and Tim was visiting, Tim got the job of taking the cat to the vet. Kidney failure was diagnosed and they don't do dialysis for cats.

Unlike our other cat, this one loved human company. Here he is, helping to service the car. This is how we'll remember him.

Tuesday - Shopping

November 17th, 2009

After breakfast we drove to Kalives ("Kaleevess") so that Jenny could look for Christmas presents. While we were there, we found a small shop which stocks English foods such as custard powder, mincemeat, lemon curd, "Oxo" cubes, orange marmalade, pickled onions and other rarities. We also found a shop owned by an English lady who has lived here for 15 years. She sells mostly gifts. In another gift shop we chatted with a Cretan lady - partly in English. We stopped at a caffeineeo for drinks. The weather is quite warm. In fact it would be considered pretty darn hot if it were a summer's day in England!

On our return, we called at the plumbing/hardware shop at Vamos to discuss, with Vagileea and Spiros, the installation of oil-fired central heating. I'd prefer something more environmentally friendly but, at present, I have no alternative if we are to be warm this winter!

Tomorrow we will probably go, by invitation, on another scenic walk so we'll have to drive to the bank in Xaniá on Thursday to withdraw lots of money for the deposit. I'll have to transfer cash from the UK because our account here is going to be empty, soon.

We called at Apaseea's mini-market in Apokoronas and bought some provisions.

This evening the noise from the cooker hood fan annoyed me more than usual, so I got out my screwdriver ("katsaveethee") and removed it. Some of the fan blades are detached and centrtufugal force makes them expand outwards when they spin.

As a temporary repair I wrapped a length of steel wire around the fan and screwed it back in place. That's reduced the noise a lot but I'll have to buy a replacement.

This is yet another example of design stupidity. You need a fan to suck really hot air so what's the least suitable material? Let me put it another way: If you wanted a bucket for hot ashes, would you make it out of plastic?

In this case the manufacturers sensibly chose a plastic that doesn't melt at hgh temperature. Unfortunately, it becomes brittle and snaps instead.

Wednesday - Sunny

November 18th, 2009

I didn't awake till 9:30am.

We had forgotten that Eleni had arranged to bring her friend, Derick, so that I could sort out his Apple Mac computer problems. Having realised this, last night, we emailed Geoff to explain that we couldn't go on the scenic walk.

With only 30 minutes to spare, we walked briskly to the supermarket (actually, I was almost on my knees by the time we crested the brow of the hill), bought food, had a chat with Jill, then returned home with just enough time to cook and eat breakfast before our friends arrived.

I sorted out Derick's problems and gave Eleni some items for Christos. I spent some time working at my computer while Jenny did gardening and other stuff.

This afternoon we drove to the nearest wood seller to get shelves to replace the soggy ones in our "shed". Now that it's finally drying out, it would be nice to be able to put some things back in there. I explained (in Greek) that I needed to have three shelves cut from marine ply. No problem, but it would cost 55 Euros.

I said I'd have to go to the bank tomorrow and we headed for Georgioupolis for a drink.

On the way, we were delayed by roadworks. No pansy traffic control here! You wait for a gap then go for it!
At "Tito's" I had yoghurt with fruit and honey (my occasional special treat). Jenny had a chocolate pancake thing (a crepe). We both had a drink of hot chocolate.
By the time we'd paid, the shadows were lengthening, but it was still pleasantly warm in the sun.
We headed for the sea to watch the fishing boats go out. Jenny took photos of a wading bird with her new camera.
This wading bird. I have no idea what it is but it has a long bill - for poking in holes I guess.
The sun is sinking rapidly toward the mountains.
A boat coming in. If you could zoom in, you'd see a procession of goats ambling past that white church on the hill.
A boat going out.
This evening we ate reheated chicken stew and spoke to Terry & Liz via "Skype". Carl promised to contact us yesterday but so far we haven't heard from him. Expect he's depressed about the cat. But fourteen years isn't bad for a cat and he was deaf and arthritic. The average life expectancy for a cat, here, is 3 years.   Thursday - Partly Cloudy November 19th, 2009 We had to leave early to drive to Xaniá to withdraw the cash deposit for the central heating. Most transactions are made in cash, here. Few companies accept credit cards and almost none accept cheques. We did a bit of shopping while we were there. Both Eleni and I had run out of computer printer paper and Jenny wanted to buy Christmas presents and some cards. We also located a large store on "the Souda road" called "Alex Pak". I bought a "car kit" comprising the mandatory red triangle and a small fire extinguisher and First Aid box. We stopped at a carpenter's workshop, near the Souda road exit to the National Highway, and I explained that I needed three wooden shelves. He was a bit impatient with my attempts to speak Greek. He told me it would be very expensive and to call back tomorrow to speak to his children, who can speak English. I didn't argue but I won't be going back. We returned to Kefalás and bought provisions at Aspaseea's shop (she has a cold, bless her) then came home where Jenny made us sandwiches.