Sunday Morning Chat
A quick catch-up with what’s been going on with us over the weekend. I’m writing this yesterday morning when it’s sunny, warm and the sea is calm. The only sounds from below the balcony are the cockerels up the road and a cat scratching about in the abandoned garden next door. There are trees in there, an orange and a pomegranate, both of which are difficult for humans to access for their fruit, but easy for the wildlife. The Sparrows like to hide in the branches, and I sometimes see and hear rats scurrying up and down the trunk in the early hours. Don’t worry, they keep themselves to themselves, and we’ve only had one in our house once. It stayed for a while in our laundry room and spare bathroom, but it was reasonably house-proud. As well as finding its ‘evidence’ around the washing machine, I also found it in the spare bathroom, and, interestingly, actually in the WC. I was about to leave it a note on how to flush when it vanished.
We’re coming into tax season here, and my accountant was after the paperwork so she could put my return in for me. This, for me, involves a trip to the bank to get the ‘pink slips.’ That’s proof of money coming into the country from abroad on which one must pay tax – and that’s about as far as my knowledge of the system goes. It means, for me, that I have to make an annual trip to the bank and ask for the papers in person, and last Thursday was that day. I was slightly nervous, tbh. The last time I was in Yialos was in February, and I have only been into Sotiris’ supermarket a couple of times, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the bank. There’s a button outside for you to press and then you wait until you are called in; that’s been there for some time as a general security measure, and it’s really coming into its own now. I pressed the button and was admitted.
There were two members of staff working that morning, one at the manager’s desk on the phone, and one behind the counter. We were all distanced, separated by screens, and I’d sanitised and so on, and it didn’t take long to explain my business to the teller. When the assistant manager came off the phone, we all had a chat while the teller was doing his thing, and Neil came in to ask about his online banking, which was sorted out in seconds. All very civilised as usual, but quitter, obviously, and there was no waiting around, but more importantly, the attitude of everyone we encountered was positive and friendly.
The other day, while on a walk in the village, I came to a narrow lane. If you’ve wandered around the older parts of Horio you will know that some of these lanes get down to only a couple of feet wide, as was the case here, and houses are built right up to the edge of them. Well, I was taking one of them on my way home when another walker came around the corner. We stopped, looked at each other as if to say ‘How are we going to manage this?’ Faced the wall away from each other, and sidled sideways, back to back, while sniggering. The unavoidable closeness of being, or something.
There, that’s my Sunday morning ramble. I can’t promise to have anything interesting to tell you during the week, but I’ll try and find some photos at least.
