Last Saturday the wondrous Mick - he of the icons - drove us once again to Azogires. We should have been more numerous - but there has been a nasty bug doing the rounds. (Not too much information on that one I think!). When we got there Lucky at the Alpha had descended to Paleohora, so it was "serve yourself and leave the money" at the kafenion until his return. He had also left his father's (untaxed?) veteran Lincoln out on view. Magnificent! Azogires is famous - not only for Lucky, his humour, the Lincoln and the special omelette - but for its long history, and a succession of Holy residents, Holy caves and Holy buildings, so this time Bob went with Mick to view a few of the more accessible ones. (Ruth stayed at the Alpha and consumed another Holy Mythos!)
Within a few days there was a fair amount of invoking "blessed", "holiness" and some prayers even by atheists as the fuel supply situation deteriorated! By Tuesday - the main UK charter transfer day - things were getting a bit tight, and tempers a bit frayed. Many hire cars have had to be abandonned and the occupants "rescued". but there is now no fuel on public sale in the village. The truth is that the "blame" is not easy to assign! The government seems to have handled the problem of changing the status of the tanker and truck drivers with complete incompetence under pressure from EU and IMF. There is an excellent account of the issue - as well as news on progress on the disruptions "sticky" on the Living in Crete Forum.
By this Saturday supplies were getting through, and on Sunday all industrial action was suspended. There is no actual settlement of the truckers' dilemma, but we now have fuel, and with a heatwave too the village is pretty full and double/triple-parking is back with us! Maybe it is time to go back up the mountain!