Street Life

August comes to an end with Ruth having been prevented from enjoying the delights of the warm Libyan sea throughout. The ins and outs and ups and down of the wrist saga can wait for a substantial literary outpouring when it is all over!
When not on buses to/from Chania or at the hospital daytime has - for her - been the weekly cards and Scrabble fests, and solo puzzles and Araucaria crosswords. This adds significance to Paleo evenings. August has seen a steady throughput of old friends too numerous to mention (Quite apart from data privacy issues!) Many have been the 3am departures from Cosmogonia!

What is the collective noun for accordionists?

 

 

There is no hiding place between 8.30 to 11pm in terms of street musicians! Throughout the season there have been two sets of talented young mainland Greeks on the circuit. One is pair of guys out every night playing and singing - sometimes in Irish style. The second is a larger troupe with a changing line-up which usually involves dancers of both genders. They all hang out at the campsite. The Greek repertoire becomes predictable, but there is skill, a worthwhile performance at each stop and some restraint in the cash collection process! The same cannot be said of the numerous accordionists, who have become a true annoyance. This hit a new low last night when their number was swelled by a solo nine-year old Roma girl with a toy accordion.

 

Normally, however there are three sets, each with at least one child. Every stop starts with about a quarter of "Never on a Sunday" played at too slow a tempo.

 

Q:Whats the difference between Terrorists and Accordion players?
A:Terrorists have sympathizers
 

However two exceptions must be noted! Last week the oldest of the players turned up with a "lady assistant":- a mature fiddler of Northern European looks! Together they played substantial sets in Viennese/Hungarian/old Parisian style looking like they were enjoying it and with good grace! She has now gone back whence she came and normality resumed.

 

Second was a big surprise early in the season when "British John from Azogires" appeared outside Akrogiali  with - yes - an accordion! Greyrocks has been seeing him and his family around the village for many years, and had no idea of his talent.  Now that he is living "down here" he has been playing several times a week in selected places. On the first occasion he did not even seek cash on the grounds (pre-referendum) that it would be in bad taste! His repertoire is vast! We have had long musical discussions and following one he was there next day having practised Fairport's "Matty Grove" He also introduced us to "Libertango"! He has of late been working with a guitar-playing female singer.

And so to the Latino connection! In July the village was once again graced by the Mexican stilt-walking fire-twirling clown! Greyrocks has nightly Spanish  interchanges with him when he is around! Just after Ruth's accident he was once again in the street but sans-stilts and limping! The best he could was balloon-modelling following his rapid unplanned descent, and Greyrocks speculates as to the fate of his fire accoutrements when it happened!

More Spanish conversation - of sorts - with Julian and Lorena, although not with dog Trico or eight-month old son! They are travelling the world with motor-bike and sidecar and selling things to finance it all! Most evenings they are on the seafront with a huge display of maps, photos and multi-lingual information. They have been in Greece since before the baby was born and their website does not yet reflect his arrival nor that of the sidecar, but is a delight to read! Now that's travelling!

Buena Suerte!

 

 

 



A Bit of a Break at Half-Time

Ruth is writing this post one-handed!


Greyrocks reached the halfway point in its Paleo stay on 12th August and on that day Ruth found herself pacing up and down the corridor of the Orthopaedic ward of Chania General Hospital in excruciating pain after an operation on her arm! The month had started so well!  The weather was somewhat bizarre, but on the evening of the 1st we went to the re-furbished Atoli bar to watch Flush Royale. This is what they do! There we met an interesting British couple from Vamos who know a lot about live music around Chania. It was a wonderful gig, and included Greyrocks dancing after midnight to "Hotel  California" after a public announcement that it was now our 30th Wedding Anniversary!

The day then passed off without much of interest happening - although the weather was nothing to write home about, being very windy! Then we had our party. The slide show says it all!

A commentary on local celebration cakes is promised therein, so before picking up on the arm saga here it is:

Prior to 2010 such cakes were best ordered from Michaelis' pastry shop, where a less sickly confection could be chosen and designs were faithfully followed; but the shop closed and Vakakis took over the role. Our first encounter was for our 25th anniversary. See here for the tale of that effort! Next year it was a tasteful birthday cake for Ruth's 60th for which some slippage had taken place in the transliteration and the name was spelt PUTH! and three years ago we ordered a cake for Duke's 70th - see what happened then!

For four days after the fall Ruth thought she could deal with the  injury with ice-packs, elevation, paracetemol and a bodged sling, but repeated nagging from several German medics, a Pilates teacher, a retired physiologist et al led to a trip to Kandanos for an X-ray and next day Greyrocks' first encounter with said public hospital bearing her EHIC card. The diagnosis - delivered in perfect English by a surgeon who had worked at the Royal London was a complicated fracture of radius with something nasty going on in the small bones of the wrist. Oh Dear!

Catharsis is a good Greek word for what we need to do in a couple of weeks' time, as it has all been so grim and there is more ahead! We have seen the best and the worst of a state health system in crisis! For the moment the headlines are:

• operation under a local anaesthetic to fix pins into the bones to hold a hinged contraption
• a night in a ward with three bed-ridden old ladies including a German alcoholic with dementia ("Carry On Nurse" it wasn't!)
• damage to nerves and tendons causing pain in the palm and finger-tips especially at night
• a severely reduced wardrobe
• no sea, contact lenses, fish on the bone, clapping, mending, unscrewing lids handstands........
• stitches out on Friday!

However, it really could have been so much worse!
Watch this space!