After the excesses of the holiday to Kos followed by Christmas and all that, I’ve started up my morning walks again. Last week I went out a couple of times and the aim is to go out at least three times this week. These aren’t lazy ambles down to the sea or anything, these are, usually, quite hard work, on purpose of course.
The usual route is out of the house and up past the museum to the top road, all in one go, no pausing until I arrive on the road by Periotisa where I stop for a slug of water by the new house that’s being built. After that it’s down to the main road and then up the zigzag to the cantina, and back again. After a few days of this at a fast pace I usually start running the second stage and go as far up the slope as I can before slowing down and walking the rest of the way up. This stage gets longer as the days get warmer.
The running back down is simple except that when I get back to the top road there’s an uphill slope again, like a final burn before the warm-down, which is the climbing back down the steps, past the museum. I give myself an extra distance to run for each time, the next bend, the next shrub, the shrine or the bulldozer (which is liable to move day by day) and so on. Hopefully by April we’ll be back to the full distance again and will be alternating the road route with To Vrisis and even Pedi.
On Monday, for example, I left the house at 6.30, it was still a bit dark as there was heavy cloud covering the sunrise, and it was cold, but not windy, so not unbearable. I went as quietly as I could down to Kampos where things suddenly got loud. There were some army guys waiting for their lift, a few workers waiting for their pickup, cars going past and soon after, the army truck. The officers living out and about can catch the pick-up truck at around 6.30 to go up to barracks, or drive to their base, and I am often passed by army men in cars at that time of day, plus farmers and agricultural workers heading out.
A little further up the road and the traffic died away and calm returned. And, once I was back on the top road I noticed that the church clock is back to telling the real time. On Monday it chimed seven at seven, rather than at twenty-two minutes past two, or whatever it had been doing for the last few weeks. Add in the sheep that were taking a stroll on the road, the goat bells, the many barking dogs and the cockerels, it was quite a noisy early morning. As it is most mornings when I (or we) head out at the time of day to blow the cobwebs away and get the brain into gear for another day.
Another day of packing (contract almost ready to be signed for new house – all being well we should have the keys in less than three weeks) and sorting things out.
Oh, here’s a quick ‘Symi’ thing to leave you with, one of those things that happens a lot around here. I mentioned we needed boxes or crates and could folk drop them off at the house if passing. Well, after a Sunday at home noticing nothing out of the ordinary, on Monday I noticed there were some new boxes and a couple of crates in the front room. Neither of us brought them in, and I have no idea who did, but they are very useful, so thank you whoever you were.
