We've been a wandering!
 
Ciao, you lickle minkies, How goes it with you and yours? It's been a while, what can I say I'm slacker than a pair of slacks! The upside for you lot is that you don't have to read me ‘Ole ramblings’ as often! Righty ho,lets get down to some ‘rambling’ business that’s if you’re game? We left Blighty in March to drive to Italy. Highlights of the trip were stopping for a spot of skiing near Alpe D'huez, it's been a while (9 years to be precise) but it was a bit like riding a bike! Although has to be said on some of the days it did feel like we'd been on quite a long bike ride! We both pretty much survived the week. I had a slight foot, ski boot bonding issue….as in they weren't! And M's coccyx took a bit of a bashing, well if he will insist on snowboarding! But other than that we had a great time and have vowed not to leave it so long next time. Another, but slightly less exciting highlight, was a 10 Euro, 3 course + vino meal (all the usual favourites and twas jolly tasty) in a small nautical themed restaurant in Salon Sur Chaone, it was right next door to the dodgy on route hotel we'd booked into! After our weeks ski/snowboarding we moved onto Italy and spent a couple of weeks in Bibbiena (Tuscany) doing our usual thing. A spot of pottering and a lot of eating, courtesy of my Aunt who is top notch in the Cucina department! The next stop was Crete, we'd arranged to do some house sitting (in Kavousi) for chums R, B and Heidi the pooch. We arrived to sunshine and a BBQ catch up with friends. From then on the weather went rapidly down hill, we had rain and even hail storms for what seemed like weeks. In between all this nonsense we were able to go on a few of the Marina walks/hikes, which gave us a chance to see some peeps from our previous sailing life! I got into the zone by getting back into Yoga with the help of those lovely Sfaka yogis! We love the life in Crete, the hillbilly's on the hill are a top bunch. Life is simple and the eating (do you notice a theme here?) is good. I'll give you a top tip, keep it under your hat. ‘Mochlos!’ I'll say no more than that. Go on, go ahead and Google it. Things started to improve on the weather front around Greek Easter and the sun shone for the Marina Easter BBQ! Just as well as there was Porky pig and Larry and Lenny the lambs on the spit roast! The sailing world is a small one mateys (even for those of us who no longer have a boat) we spent time catching up with Team TB who herald from a 'land down under' as well as some of the other salty sailors that we hadn't seen for a while! During our house sitting stint. The Senior Sea dogs popped over for a week, to stay in the big house on the hill and experience the road that leads up to it. It's a doozie, not for the feint hearted! Luckily the weather played ball and some of the braver souls ventured into the pool! It was a slightly tight turn around as R, B and Heidi the pooch returned to Kavousi the day after the Senior Sea dogs had left. There was a plan afoot: The challenge which we chose to accept, was to help them move out of the big house on the hill, down the doozie of a road to a lickle house in a grove. Just to add to the excitement. There were two weeks in which to move as the big house was being rented out. Papers of the ‘purchasing’ variety had to be sorted! Tiles, paint, solar panels, domestic appliances blah blah blah had to be purchased. The lickle house in the grove was having some fairly major works done by local workers. Are you familiar with GMT Greek Maybe Time? Various belongings had to be wrapped, packed and stored or prepared for the journey down the 'doozie of a road'. In the run up to 'move out day' we moved out of the big house on the hill and into a lovely lickle village house in Kavousi, courtesy of some Dutch friends. This gave us a chance to sample village life, which was very different from life on the hill! Oh, did I mention the Mini Whiteley's were popping over for a weeks visit. Luckily they were staying in Agios Nikolaos and not the big house on the hill that we had moved out of! So in the midst of the 'move' we sloped off and spent a couple of days in Agios Nikolaos staying at a friends apartment and had a great time with the mini Whiteley's, doing the touristy thang! Mission 'move' was a crazy, chaotic fun time, which we were glad to be part of. It all came together (even though there were times when we did wonder) the local workers pulled out all the stops and the house was ready, they had transformed it! The mission was accomplished! We moved back to the hill for our final couple of days (wish it could have been longer) courtesy of V and Sam the poochie! Then it was time to say 'Au revoir' for now! We're now back in Italy, doing a bit of pottering and a lot of eating! Filling up on all our Tuscan favourites. It's been a bit wet here, we're starting to get a reputation as the 'rain whisperers'. It does seem to follow us around! We're leaving here to drive back to Blighty, going to take the long way back along the French coast, then we'll hang a right! Hope that rain isn't following us as we're planning to camp along the way! So guess we'll be seeing some of you soon, looking forward to it mateys. In the meantime take care and be good munchkins xx
Wednesday, 24 June 2015