I came home in the end rather than hiding out in the big villa I mentioned in my last post.  I think I’d rather still be perfecting my snorkeling (who am I kidding? – getting to grips with a leaky mask and a continuous sense of slight panic), but it’s been great to see Norman, Sisters 1 and 2 and Little Pea.  Apologies for the state of the posts while I was on holiday.  My phone didn’t seem to like the heat, I have fat fingers which not designed for a keyboard that size and I was also sitting on a door step in near dark each time I wrote a post (I didn’t want the light on to attract the bugs).  But I rather liked the fact that I could hear the sea lapping on the beach as I typed.  Even if it meant I typed badly.

I thought I’d round up the holiday posts with a few bits that didn’t make it into the badly written posts.  It might also demonstrate where I get some of my Pogness from.  First though, I just want to mention that even though I went on holiday with my parents, I paid my way.  Almost everyone we met commented on the fact that ‘of course you’re here with your parents, with them paying for the whole thing.’  They didn’t and I wouldn’t – end of small rant.  So, back to the additional bits:

• People pack weird things when they go on holiday.  Dad took a thermometer. I took a bag of assorted wool and my crochet hooks.  We all took a block of cheddar cheese.
• Having a thermometer on holiday can make you more than a little obsessive about the temperature, but it’s useful when you come back from a long walk as it can explain why your insides feel like they are melting and why your finger tips feel like they might explode:

It was 53 degrees but I fumbled with the camera and missed that.

• Wool can be useful on holiday.  Courtesy of a lovely blogger called Janette at the Green Dragonfly I made myself a pair of crochet slippers.  Somehow I made one wider than the other, but it turned out to be good practice as I really wanted to get Little Pea some Greek slipper things, but there were no teeny tiny ones on the teeny tiny island…. Instead, I adjusted Janette’s pattern and made him some.  Mum and dad made the pom poms :o)

• Three blocks of cheddar cheese is too much for two weeks.  (Dad doesn’t like feta so he has that while mum and I concentrate on feta with the lovely tomatoes you only get abroad).  The four packets of crackers we took between us were not quite enough though…
• My mum does a great owl impression.
• My mum does a not quite so good moth impression.
• My dad will never let me drive a hire car again.  I drove him to the shops to prove I could be trusted.  Apparently reversing the car a considerable distance to avoid having to pass another driver was proof I was incompetent (I admit, it was a bit rubbish, but better safe than sorry).  In fact, after this episode, I wasn’t even allowed to hold the torch we needed to get from the taverna to the villa at night!
• Getting up at 5.15am to walk up a mountain and watch the sunrise is not necessary when the sun doesn’t rise until about 6.45am.  Sitting on the side of a mountain with your mum in the dark for around 45 minutes can be fun though.

• Crickets bite.
• My dad really does take a fly swat everywhere…although I am now almost immune to him waving it around in tavernas.
• I am now an international mad cat woman – when I saw a group of (English) kids throwing stones and firing a huge water pistol at the local cats I stood up and shouted at them despite being part way through dinner in a busy taverna.  They tried to out stare me.  They lost. :o)
• Costas won my heart with his home made cake I had on my last visit to see him (along with more kitchen roll provided to wide up my sweat!).

• The lovely waitress  – who cleans four villas every morning and waitresses every night with no day off over the entire summer so she can spend the winter with her daughter and husband in Romania – gave me this card on my last night.  I was really touched – not to mention really impressed with her writing in English!

And now I am home…and Norman seems happy.  Due to an amazing Sister 2 , he was well looked after while I was away.  She even had dinner at my house a few times so he didn’t get lonely.  What a star! :o)