Kicking our heels in Agios Nikolaos

The day did not start well - a flat tyre argh!

Once that was sorted we were able to leave the car as planned for a thorough clean before we wrap it in it's "pajamas" for the 8 - 10 weeks we are in the UK.

This gave us four hours to wander around Agios Nikolaos to enjoy cold lemonade at one end and lunch at the other - a nice way to spend our last day.

Now, off to do ironing and cleaning to leave the house ready for us next time.......

Chronia Polla (Χρονια Πολλα) Rodanthe

Today is the name day for all women and girls named Rodanthe.  To "celebrate" we took a walk to the Secret Plateau and the site of the battle in which Rodanthe, the heroine of my story died.

I will soon need to write the key battle chapter at the end of the book so I wanted the area to be fresh in my mind before we set off for the UK.

Another way to celebrate this day is to show this photo of Nigel at work in his studio on a figure of a young girl sat working at her crochet - in my version of the story this scene occurs whilst Rodanthe was at school.

Legal driver

After our marathon at the car registration office our last instruction was to return a week later on Fri (31st May) to collect the registration document.  Erring on the side of caution we left it until after the weekend and went yesterday.  We were out of the office again in less than 15 mins - fantastic.  Mind you, after all of this we will never complain about the DVLA!!

The green card proudly held in the photo is the registration document.

Today I let Alan drive us to the bookshop in Elounda, where I had an exciting €40 credit to spend in return for the large box of books we took in last week.

My kindle charger was accidentally left behind in the UK so it is good to have real books in my hands again.

This is the good life!

Last night we enjoyed an evening on Hilary and Phil’s balcony with Phil’s Mum and his sister Rita the birthday girl, plus Ken.  After a good game of girl’s v boys Trivial Pursuits which the girls won (hooray) we had a BBQ supper.

So today we decided to walk off some calories in the foothills of the Thripti Mountains above Kavousi.  Looking out from our balcony we have a good view of this area so it was good to get close up.

We first did this walk on 5^th November 2003.  As this picture shows it was a wet start to the walk on that occasion.

This steep shale mountainside looks like it could landslide at any moment but the ancient path that crosses it is still intact.

A small church provided us shelter from the rain last time – today it was a place of welcome shade.  Last time when we exited the church I snapped this rainbow.

 Today's view was bright the sunny view.

Prompting us to decide we deserved a lazy afternoon on the beach.....

Hot Force 6 Gale

The hot south wind blew all night getting more violent towards dawn.  It was 30c on the balcony at 5.00 a.m.

It was not so bad down in Agios Nikolaos and the market was in full swing without too much trouble.  Back in Kritsa it was still gusting but is calming down.  The trouble is the air is now so full of sand and dust there is a grey smog blanketing everything.

From the balcony it looks like this:

It should look like this

We want our mountains back!!

Inspiring rock pools

I have had "writers block" regarding the penultimate chapter for the second part of the book for ages.  I have started and discarded it several times before abandoning it to start the re writing process.  My thoughts were that if I made significant alternations in the re write I would get an idea to overcome the "blockage!

The solution came yesterday when we went to Sitia further along the coast to the East.

The road side was so colourful with pink and white oleander, yellow broom and lots of fresh green trees and after a look around the shops and harbour we enjoyed a paddle the length of the very long sandy beach.

At the far end are many rock pools where the water was exceptionally warm and one was deep enough for a very pleasant swim.

After a picnic lunch Alan had a doze in the shade of tamerisk trees and I continued paddling.  Sat on a rock, thinking back over the story without really knowing I was doing so, I started to feed bread to small fish caught in the pools.  This reminded me of a clever seagull we had seen last year in Agios Nikolaos.  This bird did not greedily snatch up pieces of bread thrown to him as you would expect.  Instead he waited until several fish were nibbling the bread and then he struck, catching a fish.  This was no accident, he did it several times.

That little memory was a key - If I go back and fit it into the story I wont need the chapter I'm struggling with, yippee!

This picture of Sitia was taken in 2008 when accompanied by David we arrived by boat from Agios Nikolaos and then took the bus home.  Shame. the boat option is no longer available.

Good morning Sunday!

Awoke before 5.30 a.m. so made the most of the dawn.

I waited poised for ages to get the first chimes of the day at 6.00 a.m but missed the first chime by seconds

From pitch dark to daylight in 45 mins

Then after a full English listening to the church service via the tanoy and a couple of hours of cleanliness is next to godliness we went up to Kathero for a fabulous walk and picnic.

I had a lesson on how to drive down a zig zag mountain road - a white knuckle drive.  No, not me Alan - he thinks he will drive next time!