"And then they were gone!"

A month of two halves for Greyrocks! The first - Paleo - part being about ratcheting up the social scene and making a most unusual exit; and the second about travelling to, participating in, and leaving behind the Wedding of the Year! These last three days of the month form the opening stage of The Great Greyrocks Experiment and get into the October post/s

Flush Royale!

For the nth time we observed the sudden change in tourist demographics as the month began, and as predicted there was the first sunbed rage of the season on the naturist beach (we even had two incidents of tree invasion ourselves!), logjams in the "best" restaurants, and standing room only at the cantina. The YiaYiaGaGa club reached more or less full strength, so there were  a lot of loud Cosmo late nights and attending en masse some of the many music gigs. The two bands from Chania seemed to be around much more than earlier in the summer - and they are good! Greyrocks has developed a friendship with Maria - the keyboard player in both bands - and at each gig singles us out to dance to "Hotel California"! The music also included Chris and Jann playing at various venues in and out of the village, and they were there doing their own special thing at the special club party at The Wave, when we celebrated Ju's birthday, three close-by 70th birthdays of 2018 and a 25th wedding anniversary. There was fish, there was cake, there was a lot of wine and tsikoudia,  and there was silliness!

As if this was not enough Greyrocks had selected the following evening as optimal for catching the Paleo pals who had not been at the August wedding "do". The words "newly produced" do not do justice to Ruth's frustration in putting the oeuvre together in time as the internet speed in the apartment got slower and slower.(Annoyingly a "boy" arrived two or three days before we left to sort it all!) The event was well attended and jolly! We showed the two musical slide-shows, video of Adonis  and the PowerPoint. The links are repeated here:

Historic Paleochora

Mother of the Bride's presentation  (needs click to advance)

Slides from the party with soundtrack

Adonis singing a cappella

Linda's film was then shown, and Suzi's "modest" mezes were such that many dinner arrangements were shelved!

In the final week we had some dinner dates, We went by taxi with the four Oxford "girls" to To Gramenon, and Eoin and Ju treated us to dinner at the Small Garden. Both delightful meals!

It was odd to be leaving so early in September! In previous years we would be seeing friends leave and the nature of the village transform, but this time it was Greyrocks having a "last night" with a big crowd. But the weather had aspects of both August and October. A few days were perfect and very hot with calm sea, but from 4th to 9th things were shocking! It only rained for a few minutes in the village (although Chania suffered) but the wind and absence of sunshine was a disappointment for those on short holidays. As the conditions improved we had some good beach-based days and a last dip on 15th. We started to pack and when we uncovered Yvette she would not start, John W came to the rescue and we had our last lunch at Houmas. Another summer over!