Last night was the most comfortable of our stay. We caught the southern edge of a front crossing Europe and had some clouds and a very nice breeze. Today dawned cool and breezy with clouds. The temperature in the sun, without cloud cover, is still brutal, however.
Charlie got up a bit earlier than ususal and I was able to get my swim in before Kathy and Don rose. Trish, Ivy and David drove to the market and David drove back with the groceries while the two ladies walked back for some exercise.
Don and I later walked to the market for exercise and to get some more milk, as we were about out — Di has to have some milk for her tea. We also picked up a newspaper and some soft drinks. The price came to €10.60 and I gave the cashier €15.00. She didn’t want to make change, however, so she only took the €10 note and I now owe her €0.60.
Charlie’s former student, Becka, is supposed to arrive some time before we go to dinner — she’s landed and we’re just waiting for her taxi to appear; our dinner reservation is for 7:30 pm and we’ll probably be a couple of hours. Ahhh . . . relaxing with good food and good friends.
Well, Becka showed up before we left for dinner and we showed her around the villa. She took a few minutes to rest in her room and then we talked a bit and went to dinner. David drove Di and I to the restaurant and found a place to park the car. The remainder of our party walked from the villa.
Di had wanted to browse at The Loom, the shop across from the taverna, but to the consternation of all it had closed early for the day. There weren’t many people in the taverna either nor at the beach. Ah hah, the winds had blown in seaweed and grass to the beach making it difficult to swim — I guess that accounted for the small crowd.
At any rate, we had our table for eleven in a beautiful spot and sat down. David and I had a beer, Di a Fanta lemonade; we also ordered water and wine. A few minutes later the walkers arrived, found seats (with Kathy sitting next to Di and Becka across the table from her). We talked for a while, took pictures, ordered starters and proceeded to enjoy the atmosphere and company.
Dinner consumed, the dessert course arrived: vanilla ice cream and espresso for four, chocolate and vanilla ice cream for the girls, ouzo for four and I had a brandy . . . ahhhh. The trip back to the villa was the reverse of the trip to the taverna. Soon after returning most of us went to bed, but Don and Kathy stayed up trying to get in sync with the local time zone.
This Sunday morning actually dawned cool and breezy. I had a nice swim and the coffee and . . . then it rained. Yes, it rained — for about ten minutes and then again a while later. David, Ivy and the girls left for the airport a bit before noon — they’ll next spend a week in Provence before heading back to the US. Kit leaves for the UK tonight.
Well . . . there is a definition of adventure which goes something like an event best experienced in the retelling rather than in the occurring — and, of course, you’d much rather hear from a friend who experienced it rather than your own experience from your own lips. . . well, today we had an adventure.
An hour or two after David, Ivy and the girls had left, we had lunch. Some salad, some leftovers, some bread and cheese. One of the leftover dishes was a lentil concoction . . . to some it tasted good, others, my wife, not so good. I’d had a cold spoonful from the fridge the night before and had some more of the re-heated remainder for lunch.
Of the seven of us at lunch five of us had the lentils — all five of us came down with “food poisoning.” Don, Kathy, Kit, Trish felt it early and I felt ill a couple of hours later. I barely made it to the throne room where the lentils went up and out. An hour later I again lost some more lentils. An hour later, again. This time it was mostly dry heaves, but no less painful and miserable. I crashed in bed and remained there for the next twelve hours or so.
During that time, Kit came in to find our Pepto supply Di had told him about. Someone also came in for Di’s night meds and I had to get out of bed and get these. Eventually Di came to bed, helped by Becka (who, like Di, hadn’t eaten any of the lentils).
(to be continued)