Cheerio

I’m travelling home for Xmas.

Jamie not in Crete coming soon….

The best… small party in the world…ever

Turn out for my first games and pizza night wasn’t high, but the competition was fierce.
In the Train Game, Mariza would have won if she’d remembered to stop in Edinburgh and my sabotage derailed Danae, who was presented with the wooden spoon
I’ve never experienced an adrenaline rush in Taboo before. The girls were out for revenge. Dimitris and I could taste victory but choked on the final square letting the girls limp over the line and collect the Dora the Explorer Trophy. A devastating blow.

The Winter Collection

Here’s Popi dozing and wearing her new winter jumper.

Cuddly little sausage!

She loved it and didn’t want to take it off, so we’re going to get her leg-warmers for her birthday.

Loose Ends

To tie a few things up.

My detox lasted until the 7th December when I couldn’t refuse the hospitality Raki from the hunters. There’s been no looking back.

Both pictures were from the weekend in Hania! Trick question.

My top score in the Train Game is now 158.

Tripiti on Sunday.

A plan isn’t a plan unless it’s completely changed at the last moment. So instead of picking Horta in the mountains we found ourselves on a dirt-track road heading to a remote bay to meet Harry, Florian and Sophie. We’d expected to eat in a taverna, and were getting worried our 2 oranges and small bottle of water might not be enough in the wilderness.

Thankfully there was a tiny hamlet, not even on the map and without electricity.  With amazing hospitality a family were already feeding the guys when we arrived, and it wasn’t till I’d finished two platefuls that I was told that we were going elsewhere for lunch!? And so we went to Giannis’ caravan, isolated on a cliff, to bbq steaks and finish another weekend of continuous eating.

Last weekend another family had been similarly generous. Obviously hunters, they invited us to join their feast, where I ate grouse, rabbit and steak. My appetite always pleases our hosts and after I polished off the walnut cake as well, the big mama went outside to fire off a round on her shotgun in joy.

Xmas Boats

Traditionally boats are decorated here rather than trees. I’m not sure if this is a Cretan or Greek custom. They’re magical.

outside the cathedral

Xmas Decorations

Look who I found hiding in the Christmas Tree!

kermy

?

Extreme Ticketing

…is the solution – and thank God for it. I would never have the willpower to fight Grannies for very long. So the alternative is that you take your ‘cheese’ ticket and wait. And wait. Last week I took one from the bank – number 862 – and the counter was on 289. That’s a queue of 500 people. (There were hundreds of people waiting – it was the day the seasonal workers stopped for winter and started to collect benefit)

It’s like the scene from Beteljuice when they are waiting in line for 1000s of  people to see God(?), Beteljuice steals the ticket from the voodoo man and gets his head shrunk in return.

Then today I had a 2hr / 100 people wait at the Post Office. Watching the gypsy kids mess with the ticket dispenser to the annoyance of the Grannies helped me pass the time.

Orderly Queuing

… is a principle that hasn’t reached Greece yet. The Grannies are the worst and regularly shoulder barge to the front. I counter with legs astride and Popi positioned a meter to my right creating a trip wire.

It’s in the Greek psyche to attain any advantage possible by fair means or natural ‘cunning’ = barging + bribery + nepotism

Anyway there is a solution…

Don’t step on her toe.

Like a true Cretan, Danae showed her instincts for vendetta, when in a fiery mood she revealed:

“Do you know what I do to people who step on my toe? I kick them in the FACE!”.

Be warned, she might be cuddly on the outside – but don’t cross her.