I didn’t wake up covered in sweat this morning so I assume it’s a bit cooler than yesterday. It’s a good job because the power was out for a while this morning – so no air-con. I finished reading Sharpe’s Havoc before joining Siggy at the pool. There was a much needed and very welcome breeze around the grounds of the hotel.
My annoyance at the three local kids having fun and being noisy in the pool this morning served as some kind of microcosmic analogy to the EU Referendum back home. I’m happy to enjoy Greece but get annoyed when they pipe up. Worst still though are those cheapskate holidaymakers from other hotels who think it’s okay to come and set up residence around our pool instead of the roach-lodge they’re staying at.
Given the noise at the pool I suggested to Siggy that we finally hit the beach after lunch (a cracker-based DIY job so poor it’s not worthy of mention). The beach was blissful. Not many people around, a cooling breeze and drinks brought to us more or less on demand by the sunbed attendant. It was a much more relaxed setting than the pool. I cracked on with Cocaine Nights by J G. Ballard – set in the Costa del Sol it seemed an appropriate book choice for holiday.
At around six o’clock we made our first stop at the bakery in town which did some great apple pie last year – but you have to get there before 11am for such sweet delights. We had a couple of vanilla milkshakes and then meandered back to the hotel via a supermarket for a white chocolate Dairy Crunch – as a substitute for the missing apple pie as if we need to justify chocolate consumption on holiday.
I spotted a lizard, perhaps the same one we had seen the day before, sadly squished on the road. Its scales were iridescent green/blue and it’s insides were like that of a fish. Poor squashed thing.
There was no football on tonight – the last sixteen having been decided last night. I was surprised to learn that Italy had lost 1-0 to the Republic of Ireland but not that the goal came late in the game. It seemed, on average, to be par for the course of the group stage matches.
We went to Vasillis Restaurant for tea – a great chicken pizza and a couple of large Alphas. Some girls sitting at a neighbouring table decided it would be a great idea to buy some cat food from Julia’s Supermarket (next door) and feed the three kittens and the mum cat that were begging around the tables. They put the open can (flat Sheeba style) on the wall near our table so we had to watch them tuck in and smell the food while we were eating our desserts, and also put up with the idiotic cooing of passing pedestrians (all women I might add). I don’t hate cats, but I’m not a big fan, and cat lovers are even worse. Surely if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all right. There’s just not the variation you see in dogs.
We spent the rest of the night getting pissed on cocktails and playing celebrity lookalikes. If there was a borderline case where we couldn’t agree then we would call ‘Madonna’ and move on (Borderline get it?).
We got lots of free shots in Memories and enough peanuts to keep the Gibraltar monkeys fed for a week. We wondered about the bar’s business model, but it seemed to be working as they were consistently the busiest of the bars we frequented. Getting free stuff seems to be a trend in the tavernas too – not something we experienced much in Skiathos.
couchmagpie 