Years Are Like Horses: 22 April - 9 May 2022

Music Colours just because I feel like it! Probably a touch of nostalgia

Where are we?
From March 2020 until June 2021 we lived in the small village of Marediana. It’s quite different living here, in Kissamos, 5 minutes walk from the shops, the cardiologist, the  nearest cafe (The ‘Einstein’) practically at the end of our road. 

Actually we don’t go there because of it’s young, unmasked staff and clientele, although I am intrigued by it.  Marediana requires a car trip into the town, with no shops or cafes  nearer than a 45 minute walk, the return all uphill!  But Marediana, despite being in the country has a peace that the outskirts of Kissamos can’t match, with its scattered apartment blocks, broken up by small field, many with chickens and / or goats.

And yes, we can see the sea!

Getting Sorted
With a little help from an ex-bomb disposal handyman we now have some IKEA bookshelves and the box mountain is a little reduced on the lower slopes.  With a little help from Spiros and his son we have also netted the front balcony so it is safe for OurCat.  That gives us more space and ventilation now the weather is getting warmer.    Noticeboard, paintings and more bookshelves soon.  The aim is to gain a guest room / summer sleeping space in a room with A/C.  (There are two units, neither of them in the bedroom.)

 Stuff Revisited / Who Knows where the time goes? 
I have been here (this subject) before, when we packed up to leave Bristol.  The house had already been ‘de-cluttered’ by a lady called Judy, who did an amazing job of thinning out every room so that it looked a lot like a place you could move into and populate with your own ‘stuff’ whilst still looking like a real lived-in home.
Judy filled around 40 boxes that went into a medium sided storage unit in the local Safestore.  Now those boxes have come home to roost here in Crete, and since Judy hasn’t come with them, I am faced with the task of sorting them out - what to keep, what to try to sell….  Or leave by the bins - local method of Freecycling.

Memories are Made of This

Of course you can’t possibly sift through ‘stuff’ without encountering memories popping out of every corner like naughty Proustian ghosts..  The music track is about memory but more significant is the date of the Dean Martin recording - 1955.  This is one of the songs that has lodged in my brain from childhood.  Housewives Choice, 2-Way Family Favourites, Workers’ Playtime - thank you Lord Reith.   
 

I think I can now acknowledge that I am a hoarder.  Not quite pathological, given what we have seen on TV, but really, at least one box of cook books AND 5 folders of clipped recipes.  4 mini disc recorders - because I thought they would be like gold dust after the apocalypse, a lifetime supply of envelopes, and then some, given that in 2 years I have posted about 3 letters from Greece.  A lifetime’s supply of anything is a reminder that life is short.  Years are like horses that you have ridden to get to this place.  Or, if you prefer, the black bin bag and the skip await us all.
 

On a more positive note, Al’s Mexican EP for BMG is netting thousands of plays on Spotify 😃.  Probably earns the price of a ☕️ but that’s not the point.  You can give it a listen here.  Try Baja Sunset.

And how is Al?  
Still feeling the after effects of the op, of course, with but walking and working in a somewhat measured way, finishing up albums for Universal and the BBC.  The studio room is taking shape with some more of the acoustic material going up today and the new speakers doing a good job.  We are planning a major summer trip, so more about this next time.

Shopping in Kissamos (skip this if not interested in food)
Following on from ’stuff’ - we are still careful about going into shops -  it does put a brake on consuming.  One trip usually on a Tuesday morning to the greengrocer first (what a lovely word) then a 2 minute drive to my favourite supermarket (ΣΚΛΑΒΕΝΗΙΤΗΣ).  With any luck and an early start I can get there when there are only a very few cars in the carpark.  The staff are all familiar faces and I suppose they recognise me too.  In the summer shopkeepers assume we are tourists, and of course that’s always a bit annoying.  They speak in English and that makes me want to shout BUT I LIVE HERE!  
The greengrocers’ is a different experience.  He greets me, and his wife often chats to me a bit, in Greek, of course.  I don’t understand everything she says but I can get the general drift, I think.  Because of the Corona years, the opportunity for conversation with Greek people has been really limited.
What do I buy?  Greengrocer’s is easy - standard list of veg and fruit plus whatever looks good that week - horta (covers a variety of ‘wild’ greens, fresh off the farmer’s pick up, bundled into clear plastic sacks), cauliflowers, many varieties of green beans and spinach that looks like it’s just come out of your own allotment.  Organics tend to be few and expensive.  Most of the produce is from Crete, with the rest mainly Greek.  The Cretan organic lettuce is good - lettuces are large and come bundled up with bunches of rocket, fennel and a few spring onions.
The greengrocer’s wife (time I learned her name) treats my purchases tenderly, as if the soft fruits and tomatoes are precious babies.  She is careful to put the heavy stuff at the bottom before the softer things are laid gently on top.  
 
ΣΚΛΑΒΕΝΗΤΗΣ  (Sklavenitis) is a medium-sized supermarket  with a reasonable choice of food, reflecting the Cretan diet - a lot of pasta, pulses, rice, cheese, olives - and a large fruit and veg section, with fresh cheese, meat and fish at the rear of the store.  A few ‘international’ foods - Tabasco, baked beans, mayonnaise, Vegan cheese.   I sometimes pick up more organic veg or fruit at the supermarket - carrots, oranges, avocados, rocket mainly.  But they are usually overpackaged and not very fresh.  Each variety is weighed and bagged by a couple of assistants who  operate the scales and stick tickets on bags, between stacking shelves, putting pineapples through the peeling and cutting machine.  After a few weeks of ‘Οχι plastic’, I now get mine in paper bags or without bags at all, labels stuck to the items themselves.   

Normal Life? 

Maybe this blog is a bit boring because we have returned to 'normal'.  Of course nothing is normal.  Ever, or especially now.  Since we entered the Anthropocene, or at least, The Digitocene, nothing will ever be 'normal' in the sense of repeating the pattern of previous years, or previous generations.  Watching Indie Sage last Friday, one of the panel said wisely that 'normal' was what got us into the Pandemic in the first place.  Could say the same for the global human catastrophe of climate change.

Coming soon: planning the big trip