I'm Dying - From The Heat

Yes, yes I know... most people would envy me being here in sunny Greece. The truth of the matter is, I am not good in the heat. I tend to want to stay in a cool air conditioned room and never move until after 7 at night when it does cool off a bit.

So here's what we've been up to. We bought a bed. Finally, after three years of sleeping on cots and an air bed we have the real thing. A nice king size bed with a memory foam mattress that comes in two pieces. That means when either of us turns around or gets up at night the other won't be disturbed. Real cool...



We also bought patio furniture, no more putting our coffee cups on cardboard boxes. We're stepping up in the world.



We've been out to dinner at a wonderful seaside taverna and pigged out on seafood. It was Sophia's birthday.





And then there was the sunset...

We're Here

So we have safely arrived in Athens and it's hot...man is it ever hot. I suppose that most people would envy me being here but the truth is that I do not tolerate heat very well. Most of the summer in T-dot was exceedingly hot as well and I rarely left my air conditioned house.

The trip was fairly uneventful in that nothing bad happened. The plane left late but arrived on time. We travelled with a charter company but in their first class section and I was expecting the seats to be a little larger than they actually were. On the other hand there was much more legroom and the seats did recline much further than in economy. The service was first class, the food amazing, there were real dishes and real cutlery and drinks were served freely in real glasses. There were two attendants for 20 passengers and they spent the night checking if we needed anything. The blankets we were given left blue fuzz all over my white pants and my steward went out of his way to give me his own defuzzer to clean myself up. I had a look at their economy section and I would never travel with this airline in economy. I also had a look at their foot trays and they were not impressive. Since this was a treat only because of my new hip it was probably a one time deal unless I win the lottery.

Overall if I had to rate this Air Transat I'd give them an 8 out of 10 but only for club class. On the other hand I'm told they are a cheap way to get to Europe and lots of students and young families on board.

I will update as I can. My lovely neighbour is sharing her mobile internet stick with me but I don't want to take advantage.

Where Has The Time Gone?

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote my last post and I was horrified today to realize how much time had actually passed. Well, there's not much I can do about that is there..

It has been a busy summer for us here in T-Dot, with the hip recovery that sent me to therapy three times a week, a wonderful visit from my offspring and family including of course, my granddaughter Elliotte. What a joy that little girl was.

Yesterday they went home and to my horror I now have two days in which to pack for two months away. Making decisions on what to take and what to leave behind is proving difficult this year. The airline has very severe weight restrictions with every overweight kilo costing ten bucks. Makes me think twice if I really need maple syrup or if I can live without it for two months. Those are my dilemmas and I'm sure to most people they are trivial. Yes well that's life, to me some things are important...
My biggest problem as always are shoes. Since the hip was measured as being 2 cm shorter I had all my shoes adjusted to 1.5 just in case there was a change. Well there has been a change since I started physio and now on the eve of leaving that figure has changed to 1 cm. It's too late to go back to the shoemaker so I spent a little time out in the garage with the grinder myself . I did mess up a bit and have a few gouges on a couple of heels but I'm working on it. I still have a couple of days left to get it right. If not I hope they have shoemakers in Greece.

The hip still hurts almost three months post surgery but I'm told that that is normal. I'm told that after six months I won't even know it's there. I wish I could remember how it was with the first one but I cant. Old brain I guess...

I will post some pictures and impressions from Greece as I always do but this time I will be more careful not to go negative on the country. Seems that from time to time I upset some Greeks with my observations as an outsider.

Later...