A full 10 days since the last blog - so what has happened? Here's today's atmospheric track HERE
To begin with, Summer is well underway with the vegetation changing day by day into a glorious backlit mass of creamy colours. We watch almost no Netflix, just France 24 for news. We have been swimming in the morning - chilly but deserted, and sometimes the evening, busier with Greek families on the beach and slightly warmer water. The air temperatures have been in the low 30s.
Apparently the weather is due to change again, with some rain tomorrow. But there's a bigger change, and harder to explain. We feel as though the protective wall has been stripped away, and that we are more vulnerable now. There are few masks to be seen in Kissamos, very few. The guy who pumps the gas handles the petrol cap cover, the credit card. We enter the bank using 2 stainless steel door handles etc. We wear 'face coverings', gel our hands when we get back into the car, wash them when we get home, but these trips out are still a bit nerve racking.
The summer vegetation has subtle, creamy colours, apart from the brilliant eye popping broom. Just when I think that the display has to come to an end, another phase begins. We should be here long enough to see figs, apricots, peaches, avocados, even almonds and walnuts.
In previous trips to Crete we have explored many beaches, but now the local beaches have been a real surprise, with mostly coarse sand and rocks that morph into rocky shelves and shallow reefs, good for snorkelling. They are 10-15 minutes away, so perfect for a quick hit.
On the Left of photo opposite, you can just see Kissamos main harbour, and our beaches are just to the far side of it. The profile of Gramvousa peninsular in the background of both.
Oh yes, the Bank. Clearly determined that Greece should live up to its reputation for pointless bureaucracy and a love of Government documents. Polite, patient but ultimately stonewalling. Yes, she can see we have a company VAT return, and from the bank statement she can see that we pay ourselves as employees of the company. But where is the official proof that it is our compnay? Cleo, our housesitter is searching for the right stuff. Thank you Cleo.
I am enjoying the New Stateman Podcast. No link. Just search! Also Guardian Politics Weekly & The Week in Westminster. Prefer these weekly somewhat opinionated round-ups to the BBC news.
1 comment:
This is Jacqueline Rose, writing about 'La Peste': One of the things 'The Plague' conveys is that, at the very moment we appear to be taking the grimmest reality on board, we might also be deluding ourselves. Counting is at once a scientific endeavor and a form of magical thinking. It can be a way of bracing ourselves for and confronting an onslaught, and at the same time a doomed attempt at omnipotence, a system for classifying the horror and bundling it away. What exactly are we being told each time the latest figures are announced, rising consistently, dropping slightly, increasing again? Other than that we cannot get a grip on what is happening. We take all the measures there are to be taken, adequate and inadequate according to where and who we are. And we wait.
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