Getting warmer!

 The full moon was on the 15th, and a beautiful "red" moon followed it for two evenings, but it was preceded by some dramatic wind! A few hardy souls continued to go down to the sea, using upturned sunbeds against the sandblasting, but for most it was "unbeachable" for five days:- not too good for Brits on a Tuesday transfer! Not too good either for our neighbour Yiannis and family down at the re-opened and extended cantina:- once there it offered quite good shelter, but the walk along the beach was rough!



Take a seat!



After the full moon the weather changed and we had a heatwave that lasted until our departure. Temperatures of 38C were regularly reported. The pace of life also started to heat up. We had a series of weddings, including that of Fani - youngest of the three brothers at the "crossroads" grill house. The place was closed (and chairless) for three nights and the boys still looked grim the next night. There has been a range of live music, too:- including a session with a French sitar player and his backing track. Greyrocks liked it, but it did not do much for Atoli's takings:- unlike our final Saturday when Angel Skordilis was there with his full band, and in steaming heat there was a mighty fine gig!

 Finally the quality of folk in town was much improved in the final week with the arrival of the Hamburg and Bremen chapters. Faithful blog-followers John and Barbara caught up with us on our final evening, as did YiaYia GaGa club member Eva. Gunter and friend Heidi had seen us a day or so earlier, and it is with G in mind that Greyrocks has used "unbeachable" earlier in the post. He teaches English and was kind about the text and vocabulary of the blog. We spent a silly amount of time discussing the provenance of the word, and its possible translation into German: possibly Unstrandgebar!

So after too much ouzo we returned home to prepare for our "holiday!"

Reasons to be Cheerful

July so far has been a series of delightful experiences!
First there was Anna's 50th birthday party. She had invited us personally when were at the Jetée on Ruth's 60th, when she said that husband Sifi (not short of a bob or two!) wanted to make it a big "do" and that quite a few of her Australian family would be there. We were surprised, though, when in the days before some posters went up, thus making it a very public affair. No price, no time, no mention of the catering, and even the bar staff seemed confused! It was a very hot day, with strange wave movements, so we were happy to leave the sunbeds early to investigate. There were huge speakers and a mixing desk. The music was unremarkable contemporary dance, and in a short time dozens of local young people turned up. We decided we had got the wrong end of the stick and took ourselves off for some food, from where we could hear the music very clearly. A bit before 9pm we went back to Zygos, had a chat to Olga and Stephen, and decided this was a no-no function, but whilst we were distracted something changed and we suddenly heard music much more to our taste, and and in response out traipsed the youth! We went back in and spent a very pleasant evening, with Anna and the Aussies having a boogie to a really well-selected playlist. We left at about 1pm, and understand the plug was pulled by the police a little later!

.. and the next evening there was more! We had seen small posters advertising a session with Carl Wyatt and Archie Lee Hooker at (of all places) Azogires. The mind boggled at the descent from there in the early hours! But it transpired that they would also be at the Atoli on Sunday 3rd.  And it was a stonker! Carl Wyatt from Ireland was on all evening with a keyboard player and percusssion, playing Delta Blues; and later they were joined by Archie Lee Hooker, who is the nephew of John Lee Hooker. This raised the level yet further. The place was heaving, and the consensus was that we would have paid good money for the performance. It seems they were on holiday and did just three gigs on Crete! What luck!

..and on the subject of "cooking on gas"

.. last Tuesday was the day of the big fish soup! The Kandonites have regularly organised pilafi meals of chicken or goat at their favourite tavernas. This time - in part as several of the guests don't eat meat - we partook of the traditional fish soup. This can be bought in some Paleochora restaurants, but is best cooked in quantity. This one was for ten, but would have served thirty! Three British couples went up to Kandanos on the noon bus, to join A&P and another French couple. We ate in shade in the plateia outside the taverna of Ilios - who was a ship's cook for 11 years. He serves the broth and rice in individual bowls, and then the fish (red snapper in this case) and many vegetables are added to taste by the punters, and it just keeps coming! Delicious - and great value!

A bit of Pathos - and other cats (some fat!)

Well, no! Not very!

When we got back in May it took only a matter of hours for Scaredy to find out and come up to tentatively visit. He/she has clearly had at least one other source of sustinence - no weight loss here in six months! - but this black cat has a certain charm, so we shared the balcony and put out odd bits of food. However things have changed! A couple of weeks ago a mother with two kittens arrived, hung around and soon disappeared. Then we were visited by what we think is a kitten from the same litter, but alone, too small to be away from its mother, hungry and wailing. We relented and fed it, knowing that we would soon be away in Matala for almost four days and the Spartan approach would have to be adopted. On our return it was back, so we are now reluctant foster-parents! We are not sure of its gender, and it still wails and does endearing things, so its name shall be Pathos. In Greek style it is not allowed in the apartment, and with upcoming absences it is going to have to fend for itself eventually, but we have given it a fighting chance. Scaredy has taken umbrage and has not been seen for some time. A pregnant thing so ugly only its own mother would love her has been dropping by.

And so what - you ask - of the Fat Cats and the Greek crisis? The effects in the village are not very great. There was a power cut of exactly 40 minutes one evening as scheduled during the electricity workers' strike, and some panic when the air traffic controllers were on strike on transfer day Tuesday last week. There was a window in the middle of the day for charter flights, so disruption to arriving and leaving Brits seems to have been minimal. What can you say? People are angry! We have watched the footage of demonstrations in Athens - modelled on the Arab Spring and Madrid, but with some Greek police heavy-handedness, and there is no easy answer! As foreigners we have a collection of examples of minor fiddles at worker and/or small business level, but this is in the context of major political corruption and self-delusion, not least over the entry into the Euro. Grrrr! There is some frank and rude dual language grafitti on the road to Kandanos, telling the IMF and EU what to do. It is painted on the new walls beside the new road - paid for by the - yes - EU!

.. and the most interesting ideas revolve around "doing a Hungary" - and refusing to play ball whereby assets are globalised and the ordinary Greeks suffer such austerity.

There is a very considered analysis by Robert Peston of the BBC

and also from the BBC's Now Show - our "Joke of the Week"

"Production of tsatsiki and taramasalata is to be regulated to avoid a double dip recession"

Siga, siga!