A Tanzanian Tango

Annie and Gideon arrived from Tanzania for their much-anticipated visit, ten days or so ago and we have been busily engaged showing them the sights, having fun and celebrating Sheila’s birthday in the meantime. Today they have all gone off for a two-day trip along the South Coast to Agia Galini, leaving me free to catch up on blog postings (which have been sadly lacking of late), cleaning the house and looking after Bonnie, although all I have done so far is to soak up the late summer sun on the terrace!

For the week or so before Annie and Gid’s arrival, Sheila had been busy arranging her trip to Argentina to see Rosie early in the New Year. For various reasons (mainly to do with Bonnie), I decided a while ago that I would not go, so Sheila is going out with our friend, Jane, from London. The itinerary has now expanded to include Chile (north and south) as well as Rio in Brazil, so I am beginning to regret my decision!

Also of course, it would have been good to see Rosie but it sounds like she may be back in Europe soon after anyway, so hopefully, I will see her either here or in London. It was her birthday last weekend and although we never did get to Skype, she sounds in good form, had a fine party by all accounts and is continuing to enjoy her job.

The weather held up very nicely for the first few days of A and G’s stay and we were able to enjoy a walk in the hills and trips to the beach and swimming in the still warm sea. The visit to the Green Beach at Makrigialos, followed by a late lunch at the taverna there, was particularly good.

However, it was a bit of a surprise to find that Gid does not like being out in the sun, which we pallid white folk might find a tad odd for a man from Africa!

So he took up residence under the shade of a strategically placed beachside tree, while the rest of us took in the rays!

In the evening, Walter, who is back from Germany for a short stay, came over for a drink with his friend Willi and the raki and gin bottles took a bit of a hammering!

Later in the week we went to Siteia to visit the archaeological museum which was surprisingly good, even though information is sadly lacking on a number of the exhibits and we took the opportunity to visit the local branch of Dixon’s to look at vacuum cleaners (!) and also took a tour round the Venetian Fortress before having lunch on the prom.

Sadly, the weather then took a turn for the worse with an unseasonal taste of winter accompanied by a cold, north wind, grey skies and with temperatures falling by about ten degrees! Still, it was good weather to visit Spinalonga, which we did last Friday and as usual, it was a moving experience. It was interesting to see how much refurbishment work has been carried out over the summer and whilst the toilets have now been opened (pretty necessary given the numbers who visit – thousands each day), the café is still not finished. It’s hard to fathom as this is bound to be a gold mine and would surely finance the rebuilding, without further assistance from the hard-pressed Greek Treasury. That’s Greece for you!

Fortunately, the weather has now returned to normal with wall to wall blue sky and wonderful warm sunshine just in time for Sheila’s birthday on Sunday. After a champagne breakfast, we went to Xerokambos for the day, taking A & G with us as well as Hans and Hanneke.

After a visit to the historic village of Etia on the way …..

we then had a walk to our favourite beach (no time to swim).

Then, it was off to the Dolphin taverna for goat roasted on a spit, which we had ordered specially in Gid’s honour.

As it turned out, Michali had only been able to get a lamb but that was fine and the meat was wonderful, served up with chips and beer. We ate with our fingers, Tanzanian style and a great time was had by all.

Eleni then served up ice cream and cake with some sparklers, to celebrate the great day and we wound our way back to Ferma, well-fed and happy after a day to remember.

But the celebrations did not end there because later in the evening, Walter and Brigitta (who had arrived from Germany with three more friends on Friday), came over for a celebratory drink with Walter and all the friends in tow as well, plus another bottle of champagne. It made nine in our small sitting room but we managed and again the gin and raki bottles took another hammering!

Yesterday, we took A & G over to see the house in Kavousi. Walter and Brigitta wanted to see it too, so they came as well with their guests. The purpose of the visit was also to show Manu (who is going to do some work on the house for us), what needed to be done. He duly turned up with his girlfriend, Heidi, so all together some eleven of us walked through the door, much to the surprise of the agent, Wanda! It looks as though we will take possession early in November but we will probably continue to rent here until December to give us time to have the place painted and for our belongings to arrive from Scotland.

Then we went to the plateia for a coffee where Sofia was very pleased to see us and made mezedes which sort of did for lunch. We then showed A & G ‘our’ new beach at Tholos and went on to the Minoan site at Gournia because we thought they had not had an archaeological ‘fix’ for a few days!

While all this has been going on, we have started our new Greek lessons. These are funded by the EU (so they are free to us) and we go twice a week for three hours per session. This being Greece, however, nothing is quite what it seems. The organiser, Manolis, did not have enough numbers to run both a beginners’ and an improvers’ course, so he has signed everyone up as improvers but split the class and the time between the two groups. This is good for us because our group of improvers is small (six) and we can more easily manage two sessions, what with visitors and house buying, to say nothing of tennis! We are part of the plot, so to speak because we have to sign that we have been to all the classes but it works for everyone, so who cares? Our teacher is a young Greek woman, Maria, who is taking us back through basic grammar whilst encouraging conversation and writing and so far it is meeting our needs and we are enjoying it.

So it continues to be a tough life here but we struggle on!

John