Two cats arrived first thing presumably having been tipped off by their mate in Olymbia that Jane was a soft touch. She gave them stale biscuits and water that they turned their noses up at. Next she tried a bowl of milk which they loved, then she added some bread to the milk and the cats were in heaven.
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| Happy Cats |
We had decided we should
fit in more down time on this trip than last. The camping ground's wi-fi was accessible from our spot and had good line speed. After spending a while
publishing some more blog we walked down the hill to the village to spend a day
on the beach.
We picked a pair of
loungers at the water’s edge, opened up the umbrella and settled down for a
quiet day’s reading. I was hoping I could finish the fifth Roy Grace detective
novel. Those hopes were dashed when I found the battery in my Kindle was flat.
I had nothing else to read so I had to walk back to Mabel, put the Kindle on
charge and pick up a couple of paperbacks. It was already quite hot and my tee
shirt was wringing wet by the time I got back to Jane. She said she would go
back at lunchtime to collect my Kindle.
I settled down to read
Ken Follett’s ‘Triple’ but struggled to get into it. More people arrived and
took up loungers nearby. I noticed nearly everyone was speaking in
English with strong Lancashire accents. There were dozens of couples, most
looked past retirement age. Closing my eyes I could have been in Haslingdon for
a Sunday afternoon cricket match, except that it was about 25° warmer.
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| Stoupa Beach |
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| Seen From The Beach |
Jane decided to visit the
shops while I continued to struggle with my book. I started to wonder how all
the English got to what is a remote corner of Greece and what they all did.
Nearby was a large man who spent the whole morning asleep without the benefit
of an umbrella. He wore very large gold rings and I speculated he could be a
used car salesman. Next to him his partner lay in the sun topless. It wasn’t a
pretty sight. I recalled reading that women should only go topless if they
could hold a pencil under their boobs, this woman could accommodate a whole
pencil box.
I waiter from the taverna
came by and asked if I would like a drink. I didn’t in which case I would have
to pay for the loungers and umbrella. I said I would have something later, that
was OK. That was a good arrangement, free beach gear if you buy something from
the taverna. Looking around a bottle of water seemed to be the going rate.
Jane returned having
resisted the temptation to buy more clothes. She had bought me a present
instead – Today’s Sunday Times, so that meant there had to be an airport nearby
that the English visitors must fly into.
The Sunday Times was a
good read. It seems the lunatics have taken over the asylum in Britain. After
an 8 month trial costing more than £100 million Rebekah Brooks, the ex News of
the World editor, and four others have been found not guilty of phone hacking
that was apparently common practice by News of the World reporters. It seems
the prosecution case was weak.
The Sunday Times lead was
an article about a couple that took their children out of school for 6 days to
attend a memorial service for the mother’s grandfather in California. Under
recently introduced legislation they should have had the head teacher’s
approval but the government guidelines say this can only be done in exceptional
cases. The headmaster did not consider the case to be exceptional, but the
family went anyway. The result was that the local authority imposed a penalty
of £120. The family's appeal against this was turned down, they are now being
prosecuted and face a potential fine of £2,500, or even imprisonment. The
father, a high flying banker with J P Morgan, is now taking the local authority
to court alleging the local authority’s action is contrary to the European
Convention on Human Rights in that it interferes with private family life.
Meanwhile, the article goes on to cite the case of a headmaster who has been
given two weeks off during term time so that he can go to Brazil to watch the
World Cup! The education system in the UK is clearly off the rails!
The following articles
raised a titter:
The prison authorities took swift action when two convicts
were seen on the roof of Dartmoor prison a week or so back. Displaying the
ruthlessness for which our penal system is renowned, they immediately sent up a
bottle of sunscreen “for health and safety reasons”. “No I don’t know what factor
sun screen” a prison spokesman said, “we’ll have to wait for the lags to sue us
to find that out”.
and
Justice has been done – a pensioner in Lincolnshire named
Malcolm White put up a little sign politely asking people not to park on some
grass. Emma Grady stubbed her foot on the sign, tearing off a toenail. She took
White to court and now he must pay £2,500 compensation and court costs of
almost £25,000. The report continues - But is the
compensation enough? Emma revealed that having torn off her nail she has been
through “18 months of hell” and that her foot “will never be the same again”. The
report concludes with: But what doesn’t
kill us makes us stronger, Emma, so the saying goes. Why not appeal and take
his house off him?
It was time for lunch and
we walked across the road to the taverna whose loungers we had been using. We
ordered a half litre of Mythos for me and a half litre of red wine to share
with a large mezze. We took our time over the food and drink which was
excellent. Two English couples were at an adjacent table all speaking with
heavy northern English accents. I asked where they were from, one pair was from
Great Harwood, the other were originally from Clitheroe but now live in
Yorkshire. Harry had played teams from both these towns during his
time in England. The presence of all the Lancastrians in Stoupa was explained
by a weekly flight from Manchester to Kalamata that brought 260 people to the
sun. A couple at a nearby table piped up that they had arrived on a flight from
Gatwick. We talked for a while, one of the men was very knowledgeable about New
Zealand wines.
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| Lunchtime In The Taverna |
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| Our Mezze |
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| Mythos - Great Beer |
The afternoon was spent
on the beach. Jane had a swim, I had a dunk. The water was the warmest yet.
Late in the afternoon the waiter from the taverna came by and we ordered another
half litre of the red wine after which we both fell asleep. We woke to find it
was much cooler as the result of a high overcast. It was 17:30 and we decided
it was time to head back.
Unsurprisingly, we hadn’t been back long
when the two cats Jane had fed bread and milk in the morning were back for
more and Jane obliged them. Chris who had been parked next to us at Aginara
walked by. He and Anna had visited Olympia and, like us, they were disappointed
with the place.
Dinner was the remainder
of the chorizo (I think) and sun dried tomato risotto from the other night.
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