I decided to beat Siggy at her own game this morning, so after glancing out through the window to check it was worth the effort, I sprang out of bed, had breakfast, showered, mangled the washing and pegged it out, and started washing up my breakfast stuff before Siggy had even had a shower. Go me!
Our early descent onto the sun beds was only slightly delayed by the world dropping out of my arse courtesy of last night’s octopus. So much for it being well cooked. Or perhaps it was the peppery beans? We were the first ones to the pool and so secured our favoured spot where it is easiest to move the beds around to follow the arc of the sun.
The Premier has a very good rule about no one being allowed to put towels on sun beds prior to 9am. It’s something Aqua Blue in a Perissa should consider. It stops people creeping out in the early hours and reserving sunbeds only for them to get used around lunchtime when the sneakers have finally dragged themselves out of bed.
Lunch for me today consisted of the other half of the pot of cottage cheese, an apple, the rest of the turkey ham, some more of the bread thins and a Snickers ice cream bar. Siggy had some grapes, a sausage and cheese pastry, and some Haribo. Balanced diets all round.
I carried on reading Sharpe’s Battle by Bernard Cornwell. It seemed rude of me not to read one of his books while I was in Santorini earlier this year so I thought I’d make amends. It’s the usual blend of historical fact, derring-do and political machinations within the English ranks in the early 1800s. Its perfect poolside reading despite the fact I’m spotting somewhat of a pattern in the structure of these books.
A few people left today and some new people have arrived to take their place. We’ve had a bit of a chat and said hello to some but mostly kept a low profile. Perhaps we come across as a bit aloof but we chat with Rania and Roula the sisters who run the hotel and would have a chat if anyone initiated a conversation.
On the flip side, I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve blanked us when I’ve tried a cheery ‘hello!’ when we’ve been out and about. We assume they’re not British when they do it. I’ve started doing it on purpose just so I can slag them off to Siggy when they ignore me. It doesn’t happen around Troulos, just everywhere else it seems.
We hardly moved from our prime location today. I imagine one of those time-lapse films would show us static while everyone else scurried like ants around us. The babies and toddlers were reasonably well-behaved today, or perhaps I’ve just got used to tuning them out. Perhaps the most interesting thing that happened today was that a passing swallow did a little poo that landed on my arm at around six o’clock. Yesterday someone’s water bottle fell over. It’s been hectic, just hectic.
I killed my first mosquito in our bathroom today and also discovered I’d been bitten, perhaps by the same little tyke, on my finger. So that’s a 1:1 kill to bite ratio – much better than Kos but still rather annoying. I can’t recall any mosquito action at all in Santorini.
We went to the colourful and copyright infringing Ratatouille for dinner. They wouldn’t do me a mixed grill for one so I opted for a pork chop instead and Siggy chose the stuffed burger based on past experience. A couple a few tables away from us got the mixed grill for two – it looked enormous (but looked like there was less meat than there were chips and slices of pitta bread) and we saw some huge portions of moussaka being served up aswell.
Unfortunately, the pork chop wasn’t as big or tasty as Siggy had in Victoria – lacking crispy bits and possessing a big fatty rind. Siggy’s burger and the accompanying chips were very nice. The dressing on the salad was tasty and served with nice grilled vegetables. The service is quick too.
To compensate for lack of crispy bits on the chop, I ordered orange cake and ice cream. The cake wasn’t the usual raveni sponge but rather layers of filo pastry and syrupy orange more like a baklava – very nice. Some kind of peculiar syrupy cinnamon tasting dessert wine came with the bill.
We went back to hotel because I had forgotten to cover myself in insect repellent spray. So we had a very well made Mai Tai and Sex on the Beach. Then we went to the sports bar and both had a Black Irish (although it’s white so not sure why it had that name). Then we did the reverse of what we normally do and went down the back path around to Tiffany. There we had a couple of big Amstel Radlers and watched a bit of basketball.
Then we went to Victoria. On the way Ratatouille himself made a special guest appearance darting across the road in front of us. A big old rat. Said ‘evening’ to a couple of couples and got a 2:2 result so not everyone is as ignorant as those we’ve encountered outside of Troulos.
At Victoria I had a large Alpha and Siggy had a Diet Coke after proclaiming that she was a bit pissed. It’s our penultimate night so I wanted to stay on the beer. I might regret the decision in the morning but tomorrow is a different day.
Fun-tastic statistic – There are 106 steps plus a steep ramp to level 4 where our room is.
couchmagpie 