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Poppi and her rowing team won the silver medal in the Balkan Rowing Championship's in Adrianopouli in Turkey. (know as Adirne in Turkish)

She was rowing this time in a four woman skiff

Rowing for Greece 

Poppi is 2nd on the left

She was honoured with a write-up in our local Saronic Magazine

'Lydia B brought great joy and pride to all of Poros, the Rowing Club and her family.

She is a shining example of a young athlete and shows the determination and hard work she has put in to achieve her goal. 

With athletes like Lydia the Poros Rowing Club can ensure that the name of Poros will be known all over Greece and the rest of the world. '

Or words to that effect. It's a very rough translation.

Poppi you are my shining star

Along with my other 4 grandchildren 

 

Friday 13th

 This is supposed to be a lucky day for the Kiwi family. 

Sometimes.

K got the coffees this morning. His coffee wasn't up to standard. Mine was fine. We sat on the balcony and watched the early morning strollers.

Then we moved from the balcony to the beach. Our usual spot on the beach had been emptied.

What the heck . All the chairs and half the sunbeds had been dragged away into storage. Εεε Όχι δα!

 No way!

There's still 3 weeks till the end of the season and close down.

The lifeguards told us to move down to one end of the beach where the remaining chairs and sunbeds had been put out. 

So we did, along with all the other bathers. It feels as though we are being corralled like a herd of goats.

And then it started blowing. And it blew, an annoying wind which didn't blow up sand storms but buffeted me and whirled around and exhausted me. I hightailed it for the cafeteria and blissful peace.

In the restaurant we were seated behind a group of ladies of a certain age that seem always to come at the same time as we do.

They're the chic brigade. Always beautifully coiffured, fingernails bright red and they invariably wear white. 

K goggled as they filled their beach bags with piles of paper napkins, sachets of salt and paper tablecloths. 

He started making snide remarks and I had to remove him from the vicinity before he had a public blow out.

But WTHell. How many paper napkins can you use. And the paper tablecloths? And salt???

 Γυφταριά. They're worse than gypsies.

These are, or so it seemed, ladies of a certain class. Now I'm not sure which class. 

Tonight is the Eve of the Holy Cross and the little church here is having a late night service. It's 'supposed' to celebrate the discovery of the true cross by St Helen in 326AD. Whatever. It's an important fiesta. K has been fasting for 2 days eating spinach and cuttlefish and mussels and rice. 

Unlike me.

Wet Day - No Ramble

 A storm system raced through Greece giving us a day of rain and thunderstorms

 You should have seen the rush at 1 oclock when the restaurant opened. There wasn't much else to do but drink  and eat. 

We were at the restaurant at 1.05 and so were 50 others. The queue snaked around the seating area. 

But they served us all quickly. You pick up your tray, your bread and your cutlery, slide it along in front of the giant dishes of food and point out what you want. 

The paypoint is at the end. Just as we reached the cash desk the lights went out. Blackout. No tills working.

Just our luck.

But this is the Greek Navy! In a few minutes they had generators up and running.

The rest of the day was spent reading or sitting on the balcony watching the lightening display.  Every few seconds the sky would be lit up by a brilliant flash. Fortunately the storm wasn't on top of us and the thunder wasn't ear splitting.

By morning the sun had come out and it was another swimming day.

I'm reading 3 books at the moment. 

One is written by an Englishman building a house in the Greek city of Nauplion in the 80s. He was married to Nina Bowden who is apparently a British author.

It's interesting because I know Nauplion well and Greece in the 80s.  He includes the politics back then and a little history.

The second book is a who-dun-it written by Frances Fyfield who is described as the best crime writer alive. Yeah, right.

And a book by Wilfred Thesinger an explorer from the early 1900s. His books are always well written and enjoyable even if a little old.

My red stemmed glass was given to me to enhance my summer drinking enjoyment by friend Jan. Thanks Jan.

Free Day - a Ramble

 We had an outing today away from the Navy. Up early, picked up our ID cards from check-point Charlie so we can show them on our return.

And off to the nearest big town. K has been checking out all the offers on satellite tv sport for the winter.

We stopped our satellite tv months ago. But winter is long and football games many.

At 9.50am the tv/phone shop was still not open and there were 7 people waiting outside. K was not put off and made sure no one jumped the queue. He got all the details and renewed his phone package. Everyone else waiting behind him tapped their feet and watched the clock as he asked every question under the sun. No detail is too small for him to investigate in depth. I shuffle, sorry for those waiting.

From there to coffee in a shady courtyard. Good Freddo espresso and fast internet . 

I need a cheat paper now when I request my coffee.

Freddo espresso decaf with medium saccharine . A mouthful in my broken Greek.  It's not saccharine but that's the word they use for all the sugar replacements.

Next door is the Chinese shop. I want some colourful earings and a good look around. The earings looked tatty but I bought a pair of light weight long-shorts to wear at the beach.

Then there's the electrical service place for the car. A strange light lit up on the dashboard and then disappeared on our way here. K goes into great detail again. Apparently something overheated a little. No problems there. We will have a couple of coffee/comfort stops on the way home.

Chemist for painkillers for K who has tendons or ligaments in one shoulder that should have been repaired years ago.  He gets a bit of pain when he overdoes the swimming or lifts a heavy object like the full wine carafe last night . 

And our way home Lidl for cheaper coke zero and some breakfast items.

Check Point Charlie again to give up our ID cards. The guard asked us a strange question. 

Were we coming from booking.com?

This place is on the booking site?

There was a large group of Ukrainians. We presumed they were on an exchange programme of some sort. But who knows?

We went down to the beach later. It was blowing so I say there and read a book. K braved the choppy seas. 

The weather is changing.

A Day in the Life

 A Day in the life of a holiday maker.

Sunshine, sand and sea. If we had decent wifi I would be an even happier holiday-er. It's slower than a wet week at the beach.

The sea is once again full of fish that bite. It's a no-fishing area and they know it.  But it's Ks legs they go for. They've already taken a few tasty bites.  Fast food on the hoof.

There are lots of people, weekenders who are still active Navy crew and their small children. Ha, schools open in 3 days and they'll all be gone. It will just be us of the older generation.

We sit on the balcony at night after dinner at the grill and listen to the endless call of the scops owl...with a drink of Jack Daniels. Thanks Elli ...and Kyriakos who passed a full bottle on to me.

The shrill excited voices of small children can be heard till well after midnight. But at a distance, from the children's playground down by the sea.

We take all we get from the Navy. They didn't provide much when K was on active service. 

It's slightly more expensive than last year. From 70 to 80 euros for a 12 night stay. The Greek salad has gone up from 1.80 to 1.90 euros.

Still within our budget ....big smile.

Photo Show

 I don't have the energy to sit down and write a blog about how wonderful life is here and how lucky we all are to live on this island, every day a holiday.

The weekend crowds have returned and it's busy.  We now go down for coffee at 7.30 in the morning.  It's cooler.  We drink our regular coffee, get the bread, do some essential shopping and go home.  

K complains because I eat meat every day and he doesn't want meat.  Of course I offer to cook him something else but he says I don't cook with love when I don't eat it myself.

We have the end of summer blues.  Beside this, the house is upside down and filled with bags of everything including the kitchen sink.  We are going to our Navy resort at the end of the week.  The rooms have 2 beds and little else.  We bring everything else.  It's very cheap.  I am not complaining.  We are very lucky to be able to have a holiday.

  There are bags of pillows, bags of kitchen items that we could do without but would miss like a knife, fork and a coffee shaker to make ice coffee.  Why do we need a shaker when ice coffee is 2 minutes away at the cafeteria for 90 cents.  Who knows?  We might need it, along with a tin of nescafe a jar of sugar, a teaspoon and an ice cube tray.  You can see how 'stuff' adds up.

The wild goat herd is back eating the scrub in the paddock next door.  Great horned beasts.  I don't mind them, except for the rank smell, but our car is parked under an olive tree there.  How easy it would be for those great horny hooves to clamber up on to the top of the car to reach more of the olive tree branches.  I have to go out and yell at them and throw stones.  Always some drama.

Life here is much more expensive.  We are really beginning to notice it.  Shopping is kept to essentials.  Mainly.  Chicken wings are cheap so I get to eat my meat.  K has chick peas for 2 days.  I must have cooked them with love because he's eating them and they don't upset his stomach either.  Another problem.  He solves this one with glasses of raki.  The best stomach medecine he says.

We had some rain.  Not much but enough to dampen the earth and see the leaves on the citrus trees perk up.

Here are a few photos to lighten the mood.  I shouldn't complain about anything really.  We live on a Greek island where the sun shines every day and our world is happy and friendly and peaceful.

A kiwi tattoo.  Both my daughters have one on their ankle

The bougainvillia growing across the road up in our old neighbourhood.  It loved the hot summer

Cooked food?  They have to advertise it?  Elsewhere the food is raw I presume.  A wee sign which made me smile

 Poros town from across the strait