Sunny Thursday chit-chat
Well, summer returned on Thursday; or at least, spring did. No wind to speak of, pure sunshine, warmth, heat even, and very calm. A lovely day all-round and it bodes well for the weeks to come.
Already some house owners and visitors have started arriving, thanks to Easter abroad I expect. Perfect weather for checking on your house after a winter that’s not been so wet; throw those windows open and dry the walls out, air the place and start sweeping up. I did some home work yesterday (as in work at home), finally getting around to varnishing the bedside cabinets. It’s only taken me a year. But it was such a nice morning that I was compelled to stroll to B&Q (the hardware shop) and search out a tub of varnish and a new brush, take them home and set about cleaning the cabinets and then painting them up with clear varnish.
Not long after this the cat threw a wobbly and wouldn’t stop shouting for a good half an hour. The varnishing was done outside and the stuff didn’t smell, so it wasn’t that. Neil had gone out to take some photos in the old Symi library and I think the cat was demanding to know where he was. He hadn’t a note for his absence. He went from room to room, then into the workhouse, and then up on the roof, and back again, twice, and all the time stopping to make a low meow-growl type noise that he usually uses after some other cat has been around the place. Or after he’s used his litter tray, like he was singing some kind of anthem to a well-covered hole. But there had been no other cats and his tray had not been used since first thing. Sometime I wish I knew what he was trying to communicate. He finally settled down up on the flat roof after I had opened the gate for him, in case he wanted to go further afield.
While the gate was open our landlord dropped in our water bill. We’d not had one for a year for some reason so we were expecting a fairly large one; it works out at around €10.00 per month – in case anyone was wondering how much the water costs around here. But then we have a large sterna that is usually at least half full with winter rain water, so we don’t have to take in too much ‘paid’ water. That comes on top of the phone bill, last month’s large electricity bill, a trip to Rhodes for health checks and all the expense that that entails. April could be a very quiet month on the spending front; Neil should be getting back to work at the bar, which will help, and once these bills are out of the way, they won’t come round again for a couple more months.
Anyway, it’s Thursday afternoon and still sunny so I am off to make the most of it.
