Cretan Diary - Chapter 42

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Friday 15th - A Grey Day

January 15th, 2010

We awoke early but I had a "lie in" and didn't get dressed till almost 9am. Outside temperature was about 14'C. It was warm in the sunshine and we were able to walk to Aspaseea's shop without coats. Black clouds loomed all around and I expected rain at any minute. We didn't walk straight home but made a detour up through the village, for the exercise. The cloud cover thickened and Jenny brought her washing in. There was only very slight drizzle. The sky became very grey and the temperature dropped a degree.

I answered emails, made some web site changes, and listed every DVD that I'd brought from the UK. Jenny made more marmalade and took a jar to our neighbour across the road, who asked if we wanted a dog. Apparently the one we've seen hanging around the rubbish bins has been abandoned. (No we don't)

Jenny reminded me to check the water filter in the shed. I went in there, shifted some boxes, then bent down to unscrew the filter housing, which is like a very large jam jar. It was tight so I heaved really hard and felt a pain* in my back/shoulder, so I gave up.

Jenny returned and went upstairs, with her iPod, to iron the clothes. I watched the news with my headphones on.

At 3pm Jenny came downstairs and said she'd just seen the builder drive away. He'd left a note on our door. We hadn't heard him knock. I phoned him and he said they'd come on Tuesday afternoon to do some work.

We went out for a meal and a "quiz night" at 6:30pm and returned home around midnight. Jenny went to bed. I finished answering emails and went to bed after 1am, feeling very bruised* and having difficulty in choosing a position that didn't hurt the left side of my chest.

Our neighbour confirmed my worst fears: We hadn't been able to watch Channel 4 all week. Seems they switched off the transponder that beams this way. Admittedly, the choice of programmes was crap, but it was something to watch.

Saturday 16th - Only When I Laugh

January 16th, 2010

"The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and suddenly remembering where he was." - Life, the Universe and Everything. Douglas Adams.

I slept fitfully, finally waking around 6:45am with a terrific pain in my chest. Heart attack? No, just the chest muscles in spasm. I'd obviously done some damage yesterday. I poked Jenny awake.

"I'm in pain!"

It was raining. We dressed and went to the car. As she stopped it outside the gate, I noticed that one brake light wasn't working. She drove us to the Health Centre in Vamos where I explained my problem in my best Greek. "Pónee ethó," pointing under my left arm.

The nice lady clipped a pulse monitor to my right index finger. A hundred and twenty beats per minute. "You stress?" she enquired. "Most likely. I'm in bloody agony."

She pulled up a sphygmomanometer and wrapped the inflatable collar around my arm. The collar went tight as she pumped then relaxed. The mercury rose to 190 and fell. "Hmm, you wait."

She left the room and returned with another lady. "She speek Eengleesh," said the first.

We discussed my pain. "OK, I geev you pain killers."

"Thanks, but the usual NSAIDs give me stomach ache."

"Huh?"

"I have a problem with Ibuprofen and Brufen."

"OK, I geev you sometheeng else as well. You take thees pill first, wait ten minutes, then you take thee pain killer."

"After food?"

"Yes."

She filled out the prescription and waved me out, muttering something in Greekl I heard "Pharmakeeo .... eneeya." She could see I didn't understand. "Thee pharmacy weel open at nine." OK, gotcha. It was 8:30am.

We headed for Harees' petrol station. I pointed to the non-working brake light. He, in turn, pointed towards Kaleeves, and said "Electreeseean." OK, been there previously. Jenny drove us to Kaleeves and parked next to the Autoelectrician's shop.

"Boreete na alázete to globáki yia mena?" I asked. (Can you change the bulb for me?") He nodded and I showed him the offending lamp. He motioned for Jenny to reverse it towards the garage door where it was sheltered from the rain. It took him less than a minute to locate and swap the bulb.

"Tee ofeelo sas?" I asked, incorrectly transposing the words. (What do I you owe?)

"Tria evrá" he replied. Jenny and I between us scraped together three Euros and ten cents, which I handed to him. "Teepota," I said, holding my wallet upside down and shaking it for emphasis. All I had left now was a 50 Euro note. He grinned. "Efhareestó polee."

We went into a café to kill time. We ordered drinks and snacks. Jenny went round the corner to the pharmacy and returned to say that it opened at 9:30am. At the appointed time I limped there but it was still closed. The notice on the door definitely had "9:30" but I couldn't read the rest. I returned to the café where Jenny paid the bill, then we drove back to Vamos. Every bump in the road was now painful. The muscle spasms in my chest were much worse. Maybe I would die.

The pharmacy in Vamos bore the same notice but written legibly. Apparently the pharmacy was closed but the one at Neo Xoreeo (where we drove last night for the quiz) was open. Oh joy.

Jenny drove me home and I'm sitting typing this, with a hot water bottle wedged under my left arm, while she drives all the way to Neo Xoreeo to get the tablets, bless her. I hope they are worth the hassle!

7:30pm

I've spent a lot of time in bed. The first painkiller took "the edge off". I'm about to have another. As you might expect, the pharmacist's instructions were quite different from the doctor's! I can breathe a little more deeply now, as the muscle spasm has decreased.

We're in a blanket of fog. It's 11 degrees C. outside. I may watch some TV then go back to bed. Down with another tablet <gulp>. I need comfort food. I'll make some hot chocolate drink. I'm trying not to sneeze, cough or laugh, so NO funny jokes today, please!

Sunday 17th - Stormy Weather

January 17th, 2010

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." - Anne Bradstreet (1612 - 1672), 'Meditations Divine and Moral,' 1655

The wind increased during the evening. I slept fitfully, struggling to find a comfortable position. I recall being woken by a clap of thunder and Jenny saying "it's real lightning, not another electricity pole exploding".

I awoke to the sound of fierce wind. Very little was visible from the bedroom window. I showered and dressed - yesterday's pain having subsided considerably.

Jenny drove us to Georgioupolis, where we had breakfast as usual, and watched a church service on TV.

After breakfast we took a brief walk. Jenny insisted on walking by the sea but I headed back to the car through town, which was more sheltered.

So, winter is upon us, although I'm assured, by the locals, that we'll return to warm, sunny weather in a week or so. Meanwhile, as thunder rolls around us, I've left aerial and satellite dish disconnected, together with the phone line. The broadband was working only intermittently anyway, so I'm using my "wireless dongle" to connect to the Internet.

A quick look at the winter weather in Georgioupolis!

In the evening, the rain came down with a vengeance and it was soon pouring out of the electricity switch box. It was also dripping off the ceiling above it! The wall was also soaking wet.

I went upstairs to investigate and decided that it must be leaking through, somehow, from the balcony. I squirted the switch box innards with WD-40, pushed a plastic bag into it at the top to direct the flow away from the switches, and Jenny put a plastic bowl and a towel on the floor beneath. I reminded myself that the builder is coming on Tuesday.
Monday 18th - Jenny Can't See

January 18th, 2010

Jenny awoke during the night and realised that she coudn't see anything. No glow from the street lamps; no clock on the DVD player; no reassuring standby LED on the Sky Digibox. Total blackness. An awful realisation hit her.

The power had gone off.

It didn't come back on until 6:30am, by which time the UPS powering the computers had long given up. When I came downstairs everything in the office was dead. I checked the switch box and all the switches were up except the office feed. I flipped it up and the UPS lit up.

Outside it was light and I caught a glimpse of sky in the distance before the clouds closed ranks. I can see nearby Mount Drapanos but the other mountains are obscured by a dark blanket of cloud.

The temperature outside is in double figures - but only just.

The farmers on the island are planning a three week protest, starting on Tuesday. The olive harvest has been a disaster, the price of olive oil has plummeted, and the government can't afford to give them the promised compensation. They will block the National Highway in two places to show their discontent.

So, today, we will drive to Rethymnon to stock up on things we can't buy locally. After that, the only way out will be via narrow mountain roads, which will become one-way death traps as the police try to organise the passage of lorries. We know because we saw the reports from last year.

Of course none of this will affect the government's empty coffers one iota. In fact it's going to cost money. To me, it seems like a bad idea, but I do sympathise with the farmers who are suffering poverty. However, the island has been dependent on olives for too long. It needs to change. It will be a painful process.

Oh, yes. My chest and neck pain has gone. I can stop taking the pain killers. My lower back is still aching but that's not unusual. I need some exercise.

I'm sending a text to Eleni to ask if she wants us to buy anything while we are in Rethymnon. It occurrs to me that "do you want anything" takes a lot more button-pushing (even with "predictive text") than the familiar Yorkshire abbreviation "want owt?" Or maybe I should type the Greek: "theleis kati;"

Below: the notorious junction seen from Lidl car park at Rethymnon.

On the way back we stopped so Jenny could take photos.
We called at Eleni's house for a cup of tea and a chat, then back-tracked to Georgioupolis for lunch. We tried to eat at Naos, but although there was a man drinking coffee outside, there was no sign of any staff inside, so reluctantly we had to go to Tito's. A simple "omelette special" for me and a "club sandwich" for Jenny. (I ate most of her "French fries".) This afternoon the power has remained on but the broadband has been intermittent. 11:30pm. The outside temperature has fallen to 9'C, according to my brand new radio-controlled clock which has a battery-powered wireless sensor hanging on the fence outside our office window. The cheap alcohol thermometer from "The Euro Shop" also reads 9'C. (The other clock, which I've never trusted, is displaying 11'C and rain. The latter is correct - it's raining.) Indoors it's 19'C. The central heating has just switched off so I'll be going to bed soon! Tuesday 19th - The Dinner Party January 19th, 2010 Jenny has invited guests to dinner this evening for Toad in hole and to help us eat up the rich ice cream pudding that she had made at New Year. "Toad in the Hole" requires sausages - preferably English ones, not Greek "Loukanika" - so we had breakfast then headed for Kaleeves, stopping at Vamos so Jenny could go to the Post Office. It was raining slightly so I remained in the car. In Kaleeves, Jenny bought sausages from "the freezer shop" then we went to Almereetha to withdraw cash from the ATM.
The "white mountains" are really snow-covered now!
Back home it was chilly but the heating was off. I checked the oil level in the tank behind the shed. We have about 200 litres left. Barely a month's worth. So I climbed onto the roof and removed the plastic bag from the spinning chimney top. I lit the wood-burning "somba". This time it behaved itself and simmered gently. (In fact it continued to do so until early next morning.)
The building work continues, despite the poor weather. Jenny spent the afternoon preparing the meal and cleaning.
The builder, eventually turned up at 4pm, full of apologies. His job had taken longer than expected and his phone battery was flat. His son had gone home but he felt obliged to come because he'd promised. What a nice man! We discussed the various problems and he agreed that the water coming into the electricity switch box took top priority. He would return tomorrow to investigate and, hopefully, to fix the leak, wherever it is. My money is on the balcony drain. During the day we had asked various people whether the farmer's blockade had materialised but nobody knew.
Sunset brought a thunderstorm but it didn't affect us directly. We watched the cumulo-nimbus float majestically across the bay from Xaniá towards Rethymnon, flashing and banging as it went.
It was like a huge white galleon sailing by, with cannons blazing. This was followed by a hailstorm and the temperature plummetted. Our guests arrived so I was dragged away from the computer to participate. And a good time was had by all! Sue, who apparently has a propensity for setting fire to things, succeeded in accidentally lighting a paper napkin from a candle. The blazing paper was immediately grabbed and stamped upon. Thank goodness we have tiled floors! But what a mess it left. After they left, I washed up while Jenny cleaned the floor again. By now it was midnight so she headed for bed while I came back to my computer. There were flashes of lightning outside, followed quickly by rolls of thunder - too close for comfort. I switched off, disconnected everything and went to bed. The outside temperature was 4 degrees! Wednesday 20th - Cold! January 20th, 2010 The outside temperature is 6 degrees at 9am. Inside is relatively warm because the central heating is on. The sky is blue and it looks very pleasant outside. Not many clouds at present. I switch the computer on and check my emails. It's still too early for customer enquiries. Immediately I'd done that, the mains power went off and the UPS started to bleep, so I had less than 20 minutes left. I shut down my computers then the power came back on! So I switched the computer on again. As it sprang to life, I looked at the router and saw that the broadband had gone off, so I had to wait for that to re-establish connection. Never a dull moment! The planned walk for today has been cancelled, because rain is forecast, so we'll probably stay in and wait for the builder. Carl contacted me via "Skype". He needed help with the accounts, as my bookkeeper had arrived there. I spent some time sorting that out. Jenny wanted to "chat" with Tim but he'd gone out. 10am. We have a ticket from the supermarket saying there is a parcel to collect from Vamos Post Office. In addition, we have an electricity bill, which can be paid at the Post Office. Gotta go! Jenny has offered to remain at home in case the builder arrives. It's bitterly cold! Only 7 degrees. The town was full of cars - maybe an event is being held - so I parked up the hill outside the school and walked back down to the centre. The postal clerk was talking to an elderly man as I breezed in and said "Brrr! Kanee creeo. Einai opos Angleea!" (It's cold, like England.) The old fellow raised his eyebrows and said "ochee" then muttered something which, I assume, meant "you ain't felt nothing, yet!" I handed over my electricity bill, fifty five Euros, and the collection ticket. Our neighbour, Helen, came in and I said "Kalee mera". I wondered if she'd cycled here, as she often does. Surely it was too cold even for her! The clerk stamped my bill then rootled around in a filing cabinet until he found my packet. I thanked him and left. Back home, I had to open the gates myself. It transpired that Jenny had gone for a walk in the sunshine.
I unpacked the parcel, which contained a Hard Drive case kit. My not-very-old "MyBook" one terrabyte drive housing by "Western Digital" had died and this kit was its replacement.
I reassembled the parts and connected it to my computer. It worked fine. I tried to connect to my computer in the UK but couldn't get further than the router, so all I saw was a blank screen. I left a message for Carl on "Facebook" to see if he could fix it. He contacted me later to say that he hadn't touched it and was it working now? It was, so I felt happier about that. I set it to record the UK local news on "Freeview".
The weather has been sunny all day, but chilly. I lit the somba at 3pm and again at 3:20pm and again at 3:40pm. This time it remained alight and simmered gently. The central heating came on at 4pm to assist it.
At 7pm I stopped work and we drove back to Vamos to have dinner at the restaurant there. A kitten took a liking to us and jumped on Jenny's lap. Worryingly, she didn't protest much. No, you can't have a blooming cat!
Back home I had left the toilet window open so the somba had an air feed. A "stinkworm" had got in and was on its way down the wall. Ugh! I took a piece of card and flipped the tiny beast into the toilet pan, then flushed it away. One of the jobs planned for the builder is to staple mesh over that window. Apart from a few droplets, the promised rain never arrived. Nor did the builder. You can't rely on anything or anyone here! Midnight - my youngest brother accosts me via "Skype" and we chat for a while. Then he says it's late, and he has a long drive to Birmingham in the morning, so needs to get to bed. I have to agree. When it's late in England, it's two hours later, here. Thursday 21st January 21st, 2010 It's 10am and I've just crawled out of bed. It's a sunny day and the thermometer reads 10 degrees. A better start than yesterday. Jenny is bustling around collecting curtains to wash. The previous owners have chosen "silk, dry-clean only" material. "Who in their right minds.." mutters Jenny as she hauls the bundle outside towards the washing machine in the shed. She returns a few minutes later with a grin. "It has a 'silk' setting, so fingers crossed!" The curtains survived. Jenny stripped the bed and washed the sheets. The forecast is for no rain so it has to be done today! We took a walk around the village and called at the shop. Back home, Jenny cooked Greek sausages (lookaneeka) for lunch. Our two youngest sons called us on "Skype" so we chatted, while Jenny ran to and from the kitchen to keep an eye on the sausages. The builder and his son turned up at 4pm. Not bad; only a day late!
They took the hosepipe to the balcony and directed water down the drainage hole. No water came out of the switch box so they directed the water onto the balcony tiles. Still no drips.
They (at my suggestion) ripped the drainpipe off the wall. (I lent them my tools because they'd forgotten theirs.)
Behind the lowest part of the drainpipe was a gaping hole in the wall. "That's wore your stinkworms are getting in," said the builder, "but aye canna see wore the whatah's getting in." (He's a Geordie.)
It was cold and it had begun to rain (so much for the forecast) so they decided they would return another day with some coloured dyes. Pieces of drainpipe are scattered on the balcony and the garden.