Just another day

Early this morning, about 6am, Dolly, one of our cats, decided to check everything was in the right place in our apartment, problem was she forgot to take off her size 12 boots. I decided what she really wanted to do was take an early morning walk and gently sent her outside onto the veranda. Back to bed, great, another two hours of sleep ahead of me.

About twenty minutes later my hopes began to fade. Have you ever heard large stones or rubble being tipped from a lorry? If so, you have some idea what I’m talking about. I was puzzled and wide-awake, no chance of going back to sleep, I got up and went onto the veranda to see what was going on. As I looked over Stoupa in the pre-dawn light it only took me a few seconds to realise what the noise was. Just down the road some chickens are kept in a fenced area and their shed has a wonderful corrugated tin roof. A week ago about 5 or 6 goats arrived and were put in with the chickens and these clever little goats had obviously decided it was time they learnt to tap dance and the best place to do this? You guessed it, the corrugated tin roof.

After a whole week of very pleasant weather, today seemed a little disappointing. The sun disappeared behind a haze and there it remained, although it still felt warm. The sea was quite rough and as the waves broke on the seashore they threw up lots of spray. At first we thought the spray was the cause of the haze but as the day went on it became heavier and heavier. Then a little sprinkle of rain revealed the real cause, it was a present from North Africa, the remains of a sandstorm. As the rain dried everywhere was coated with a fine red dust, including our car.

We went to Olympia on Thursday, to the ancient Olympic stadium to watch the lighting of the Olympic flame. It was Independence Day and a public holiday so we expected the worst but the roads were clear. It took only about three and a quarter hours and that was after following a Greek bus driver who, we thought wrongly as it turned out, should know the way. But obviously like us it was his first trip and he took a wrong turn and had to ask for directions. Anyway it was a brilliant day, very exciting, not much chance of us witnessing this historic event again and we were really looking forward to it. The place was buzzing, press and TV cameras everywhere, the cafes were full and all the shops were open, the atmosphere was great. A cameraman stuck a microphone in Ashley’s face and asked “And where have you come from?” “From here” says Ashley “I live here in Greece” the reporters face showed it all, I bet he thought clever dick. I hope it didn’t go out live!

They tried to make the ceremony atmospheric by asking for quiet, but trying to keep a Greek crowd quiet is nigh on impossible. Nevertheless it was good to have experienced the event and we were glad we went. There are some pictures in the gallery.