24th June, 2012
Busy week this week. We have to check with the Notary, Accountant, Architect, Woodman plus visit the Blood Testing Clinic.
Today is Sunday and we can do none of these things. It is hot but still very windy. It looks like it will be for another week. Even if the wind hasn’t gone down tomorrow, we will go swimming. We have been missing it.
Let’s hope the technology stands up to the strain. Well, better than England did this evening. They were rubbish. I wonder why they bothered to turn up. It was as if they didn’t want to win. I don’t think Rooney, Terry and Gerrard actually turned up. I just didn’t see them. The Greek team tried harder than this.
We’ve been on the island for eleven weeks and have thirteen left before be start our journey back through Europe’s Autumn.
25th June, 2012
Went up to the Clinic for my blood test. Saw the architect en route. Coffee and sweet pie in the cafe. It is so hot. It feels rather humid. We are going swimming in spite of the wind. Pauline will probably be blown out to sea if she wears her hat which will act like a sail.
My blood result turned out to be poor again. The nurse in Woking who I phoned said that I must be drinking too much wine. How she could know from that distance, I have no idea but she was right.
Dropped in on the woodman who, it turns out, fears he has kidney stones and is off to Athens for investigations. His wife thinks it is the hard water on the island that encourages it. Going off to Athens will be an expensive business in itself. The blood testing man’s daughter was going to the orthodontist in Athens on Monday because there isn’t one on the island and she has a brace. She is just going for a regular check up. This will take two days and will cost 100.00 for the ferry cost alone. It is expensive living on an island.
The new ferry timetable was released today:
26th June, 2012
Today it is blisteringly hot because the wind has gone down for the first time for at least a week. We were outside early, cleaning the car before the sun got up. It was lucky we did because the architect came by and gave us the second tranche of the fine we have to pay to legalise our garage and pergola. He told us our electricity paper was in Milos and would be with us in a week to ten days. We will believe it when we see it after six years of waiting. John Humphreys, writing in The Sunday Times last week talked about his son’s Greek wife inheriting a small piece of land on which to build a house. They applied for permission but haven’t heard anything yet. It has been nine years! This is the fine for our illegal pergola:
27th June, 2012
Went up to the Bank to pay our pergola fine this morning. On to the supermarket where I found an oregano plant for sale. Somebody in the queue questioned whether it was oregano and pieces were handed round the shop for customers to smell. It was decided on a 3-1 vote, excluding me, that it was oregano so I brought it home.
28th June, 2012
Got up extra early and went out for the post. Came back for breakfast and then Pauline finished sanding down the pergola while I watered all the olive trees. After days of extremely hot sun and very drying winds, the trees must have been loving it.
Wonderful swim this afternoon and then meal on our knee while we watched Wimbledon. Later on – much too late on – watched Italy destroy the Germans. Why can’t we do that? We could.
29th June, 2012
Cleaned the stripped pergola this morning and pressure washed all around. It will all be repainted tomorrow. Everything will be gleaming white. Going out tonight for a bite to eat.
Got a phone call this afternoon from our Dentist changing our appointment for October. Seemed rather strange. Forgotten our connection with Surrey.
Finding the early, Wimbledon rounds a bit boring. Missed the Nadal upset unfortunately.
30th June, 2012
It doesn’t matter where one spends one’s time, heaven or hell or somewhere in between, sometimes one longs for a change. Small, idyllic island, small number of small minded neighbours. Give us a rest! After three months on the island and with three months to go, we look forward to a change of scene, a change of people and a change of style. From quiet, slow paced rural we would like a few days of loud, brash city life. As they say, “You can have too much of a good thing.”. It will be nice to get away for a few days and to appreciate what we have even more when we return.
Watched Murray until 9.00 pm (11.00 pm here) and they closed the roof. Couldn’t take any more. Pleased to find he’d won on Sunday morning.
Sanders Blog 