Christmas is coming

 

I am not tempted to go out today and so it is a good opportunity to write a small contribution for the blog. The reason for the lack of movement here, is that the weather is pretty dull, a bit cold with some rain in the air. This has been the case for a few days.

It is not like this in the south of the island. Yesterday, John and I went to Ierapetra, only 15 kms away and there was a line across the sky, grey on one side, blue on the other. And so we walked along the fairly empty front in Ιεράπετρα in bright sunshine,

drank coffee with our friends Hans and Hanneke  and watched a lone swimmer in the sea.

I suspect there would a lot less chance of seeing such a person indulging in this activity on the north coast. The reason, I think, is do with the prevailing north wind. Cloud accumulates on the hills behind us while the south coast experiences more wind but bright sunshine. It appears rather unusually that this weather has got stuck! However, there is always a positive to be found and that came last night when the sun finally arrived here, still with a background of dark clouds but it did make for a dramatic picture!

And anyway, who wants to go out?  I love the tinsel, cards, presents, music etc that all go with Christmas. We put up the Christmas decorations on Wednesday.

Our house is small so it is not too big a task.

But then on Friday we went to see our friends, Shona and Rich. We had a great time,

but their house and its wonderful decorations (my camera does not do them justice)

 

made us think that we did need some coloured lights!  Now we haven’t had them all the time we have lived in Crete, so it is possible to live without them but suddenly I felt my life would be enriched by some!  So yesterday, John went to his favourite electrical shop in Ιεράπετρα where they have everything. And we are now the proud owners of 80 lights. John found the ideal, and possibly only location in the house, to put them – round the mirror.

We showed them off to friends last night at dinner!

Christmas here, as has been said before, has a quieter feel to it than in the UK. Many families are involved in November and December, in olive picking. The word ‘κουρασμένος’ meaning ‘tired’, is often heard at present when one asks how someone is. Our neighbours or their families have all been out in the fields and that is the priority for people’s livelihoods. But last week, our neighbour, Μαrία, had finished olive picking and brought over a colourful salt and pepper and a jolly, little tea pot as a gift

and I gave her a poinsettia plant so we were both very happy.

But I can’t stop myself getting excited a little by Christmas. So when our Greek teacher, Manolis, told us about a pantomime locally, that he was appearing in, John and I decided we had to go. The pantomime was ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and was organized by, as it says on its website, ‘The Cultural Organisation of the Foreign Residents of Άγιος Νικόλαος’ called in short ‘INCO’. It was held in α church hall in Neapoli and was a delight from beginning to end. It was a very British production and so funny from my perspective. All kinds of characters appeared, not just those related to Jack and the Beanstalk, such as Angela Merkel, dwarfs, fairies, Mr Bean, Rose and Jack from the Titanic, ‘Take That’ and dancers from ‘Grease’!  Μanolis was the Giant (see cover picture) and he was very good. I particularly enjoyed the scene where he was eating an enormous souvlaki. Below is the cast and Μαnolis receiving the applause, he deserves.

There was a raffle at half time, a solo performance by Βαλάντω Περάκης who has a beautiful voice and then singing some carols with the choir of INCO, led by the producer of the show, Carolyn Watson, who became the conductor! It was hugely enjoyable and congratulations to all those involved.

I sent most of the Christmas cards and presents from Ierapetra Post Office. This took some time, not because anybody else was sending Christmas presents and cards but because many people have bills to pay at this time of year. Inevitably I did not buy enough stamps for the number of cards I wanted to send.  I remembered later that someone had recommended giving letter and cards to our excellent postman, another Manolis, who comes to our door with our post and to pay him for the stamps, which he would send later. But I decided, instead, to go and buy a few stamps in the nearest Post Office at Pacchia Ammos.

It was closed to my surprise on a Tuesday at 10.30am. I was about to come back home and then decided to ask in the supermarket next door for times of opening. To my surprise, an old lady sitting near the till, got up very slowly and I was told that she would open the Post Office for me. We walked slowly to the Post office, she opened the door and I walked into what turned out to be her living room with a counter for the Post Office. I asked for 10 stamps at 90 cents. I ended up with 3 stamps because that was all she had, but we had a nice conversation about where I lived and I learned a little about her and her house. It was not such a good experience in terms of the service provided by the Post Office but I would love to go back and find out more about her life!

Our Greek classes continue and Manolis, not only delivers the lessons, but he sees his adult education remit as including letting us know about events in which he thinks we will be interested. We can’t go to everything but it is great to find out more about what is available. So one Friday in December, we went to a lecture in Agios Nikolaos with our friends Pauline and Chris, about the Minoan Civilisation, given by Αμαλία Γεναράκη (Amalia Generaki), lecturer in English language and Terminology from the University of Crete. The lecture was held in the Lyceum Club of Greek Women, which in itself, has an interesting history having been set up 100 years ago to promote and support traditional skills and crafts of women. You can see some of the exhibits in the pictures.  The club is still very active today.

The lecture was geared to English speakers like ourselves and there was a handout.  Amalia gave a fairly comprehensive overview of Minoan society and the contributions it made to later civilizations.

We felt we deserved a good meal afterwards and guided by Chris and Pauline, we went to the taverna, ‘Portes’ in Agios Nikolaos where the food and the ambience were fantastic.

The bookings for friends and family coming to visit next year are coming in now but first, Annie and Gideon arrive on Tuesday night for a stay of over two weeks, followed next week by our mutual friends, Kate and Dod. The work in the spare room is finished and it looks very nice.

John has booked a Christmas dinner of roast goat and duck at our local taverna, Zorbas, where he had his birthday party. And most important the Christmas cake is nearly finished.

Now, I do need to go out and feed our neighbour Christopher’s, cat. I thought I would feed her in his garden but found that most of the other cats in the area seem to think I was feeding them too! So she is now fed inside

but only once a day, which she is not so happy about and seems to think that meowing outside our door will make me change my mind. She has not been successful so far!!!

Merry Christmas, everybody

Sheila

The Party’s over, so ride on!

Many apologies to all those avid readers who must have been disappointed by the absence of any new postings over the last month or so. As you may recall, we were in the UK for two weeks in November with the sole purpose of having a good time celebrating my 70th birthday. And celebrate we did and more!

Many thanks to everyone who made the Party happen, particularly Jane, Mark and Sarah and to our children who took us out for a surprise birthday meal.

Thanks also to everyone who came to the Party, to those who provided accommodation and meals both in England and Scotland and to everyone else  who played a part. You really did make it a birthday to remember and here is the evidence to prove it – me dancing at a ceilidh in Aberdeenshire!

Before any of that happened however, there was a Party here in Crete at Pacchia Ammos where a number of local friends enjoyed a meal at Bobo’s. Many thanks to both Manolis (Bobo) and Maria and their family for making it such a wonderful occasion and for Rich’s brilliant video of the highlight:

Now we are safely back in Crete, enjoying late Autumn weather as all around us the olives are being picked. The fine weather has prompted a couple of cycle rides, which also gave me an excuse to make use of the cameras on my new smartphone so to all of you in the Northern hemisphere who are suffering under leaden skies, snow, wind and/or rain, eat your hearts out as you view the following!

Last week, Sheila and I took the high dirt road from the village towards the sea at Tholos and then dropped down to the beach where we lingered long enough to record the scene.

Then we cycled back up the road which passes the Olive Oil factory where we happened to meet our neighbours, Maria, Nikos and their elder son, Yiorgos who were delivering the fruits of their labours to be transformed into the best extra virgin olive oil in the world (or so we are told!).

It has been a tough time for them. Nikos has a potentially life-threatening blood condition, Maria has a bad back and poor Yiorgos has a business to run. We feel bad that we are no help but frankly we would probably only get in the way and in any event, my days of manual labour are long past.

Then today, the weather was warm and sunny again (after a weekend of rain it must be admitted) so after returning from our Greek lesson this morning, I decided to go for a ride – Sheila deciding to stay at home. Originally, I was going to pedal through the olive groves to the other side of the valley but as Sheila had decided not to come, I thought I would put my new bike through its paces and see if it would get me up to the ancient olive tree.

It might have been better if I had thought to charge the battery first however because although we started off well, it was clear after the second steep bit that the battery was not at its best. The advantage of going up first on an electric bike is that you can always turn round and free wheel down if the battery fails so I persevered and was glad that I did because we made it, even though I had to work somewhat harder than I was expecting!

I had the place to myself. There were a few distant voices of locals picking their olives but otherwise I was able to enjoy one of my favourite spots hereabouts without 4X4 safari tourist jeeps, burly hikers or dogs barking from the back of trucks. It was just wonderful.

The journey home was easy – just holding on to the brake levers and admiring the views and stopping every so often to take a picture. Just so lucky to be alive and living here!

John