Itisallgreek2me

Old Harbour, Spetses (Peloponneses mainland in the distance)

Following so many late nights out and our time away with Ray and Heather, life has taken on a more leisurely pace.  The weather patterns too have changed … although it is not yet cold and wintry as it was at the same time last year, a high percentage of the days have been overcast and every passing week sees the temperatures slowly dropping.  Our level of social activity has wained to a trickle, especially now that Ray and Heather have left the island, as they do every year, to return to Aberdeen for the winter. 

Sunday, a week ago, the day after we returned home from Galaxidi, Ray telephoned inviting us to lunch at their home.  Costas was over socialising and did not want to go, however, I went to enjoy the afternoon … late in which I hopped on the quad with Marilyn and together with Ray and Heather we headed down into the town for a couple of drinkies.  Costas joined us early evening, we played Pool, then just as the night before, we were in bed by 2230 hours.  The next day I cooked one of my special English breakfasts with everything … in the afternoon Costas walked with the boys whilst I decided wisely to stay at home and that evening, we lit our first fire for the season – lovely!  Our night together at home was interrupted at 2030 hours when Antonis from The Poseidonion telephoned … Costas went out to meet him, coming home with two black and white framed photographs of himself and Chris’s dog Surita running in the Spetses Mini Marathon.  It had taken place the first weekend that I was on Crete … next year I hope to be here so that I can also take part … from all accounts, this annual event is a lot of fun.

Tuesday afternoon we both decided that we would walk up in the mountains with Panayiotes, Christos and Dimitris … all younger than ourselves and each one over six feet tall.  It was to have been a walk of an hour and a half’s duration … ended up two and a half hours for us door-to-door.  The day was gloriously sunny and as we trapsed along what were often no more than steep goat trails, I was sweating profusely and at the same time, I could feel the cool breeze on my skin … a potential recipe I thought for a chill, however, I wished to believe otherwise.  That evening was to be our last opportunity to spend time with Ray and Heather before their departure on Thursday … again Costas did not want to go but I was feeling okay and so I met up with them and other friends in Votsalo Bar around 2000 hours – home by midnight.

Late the following day I had developed a sore throat and my body was aching.  Thursday morning Costas met Ray and Heather at Filippos to farewell them as we usually do.  I stayed in bed all day, being told if you want to get well, you must eat, that’s all there is to it!  My idea of what I should eat and Costas’ idea were not one and the same, however, I won on the day, being served chicken soup for lunch and rice pudding in the evening.  Friday, once again I stayed in bed all day … we had a lunch date with Antonis, I did not go, however, Costas went early to Spetsiotiko, bringing me a takeaway of my much loved Barbounakia (small red mullet) and Horta (edible wild greens).  In the evening Costas met up with Panayiotes for a few quiet drinks … by Saturday he was also full of a cold.  Feeling a need to leave the confines of the house, that night we walked to Paxni for dinner, home by 2200 hours in time to watch the movie “True Grit”.

On our walk on Tuesday, we passed Gorgoepikoou Monastery, one of two working monasteries on the island.  Here the nuns follow the Old Calendar – the slightly inaccurate “Julian Calendar” that the Western World ran on until the 16th and 17th Centuries and which is now 13 days out of alignment with the sun.  Nowadays it is only used by some parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in a few Berber tribes in North Africa.  The rest of us use the new “Gregorian Calendar” that was first introduced in 1582.  I now understand why most years, Easter (Pascha) in Greece is celebrated at a different time to the Western World … the Eastern Orthodox Church still use the “Julian Calendar” for calculating the dates of movable feasts.

I will finish this Blog with a reference to an article which appeared in the New York Times recently titled “The Island Where People Forget to Die”.  It is about the longevity of many of the residents of the Greek Island of Ikaria (I was there for a short stay in 2010), including a Greek War Veteran, now 97 years’ old, diagnosed in America in his mid 60’s with lung cancer.  He declined treatment, returning to Ikaria where funeral costs would be minimal as opposed to thousands of dollars in America, leaving more of his precious savings intact for his wife.  Initially confined to bed, slowly he became more active, planting a vegetable garden and surviving to harvest his produce.  Stress free living on an island where the elderly follow a simple diet of goat’s milk, wine, coffee, bread and honey for breakfast … pulses, wild greens and vegetables from their gardens at lunchtime cooked with lashings of local olive oil, goat’s milk and bread for their evening meal – meat consumed mainly on feast days and shared with family and friends.  A place where wearing a watch is not necessary, even their clocks tend not to show the correct time … they rise when they wake, work in their gardens, vineyards and olive groves, take naps in the afternoon and in the evening enjoy a little wine with family and friends.  Being a very mountainous island, by necessity they must walk a lot every day, breathing in clean air and drinking clean water.  When, after some 25 years, the Greek War Veteran decided to return to America to ask his doctors why his diagnosis of lung cancer had not taken his life within the nine months’ time span they had given him … there were to be no answers – the doctors were all dead.  If by now I have wetted your appetite, then I encourage you to Google this article to read much more.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2012 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.