I had the best time with my daughters and grandchildren when I returned to Yorkshire for 10 days. I was at Emma’s for just over a week, whilst Ralph and Neve were off school for half term. I arrived Saturday night of the bank holiday weekend and so I had 2 whole days with Emma before she was back at work on the Tuesday. The rest of the time I had lots of fun with Ralph and Neve.
On the beach with Ralph & Neve at Saltburn-by-the-Sea
On Bank Holiday Monday we took a 45 minute drive to Saltburn-by-the-Sea and stayed there all day. We’d never been there before so it was a brand new place for us to explore. The weather wasn’t ideal to begin with.. just as we sat down outside to eat our fish and chip lunch, the wind picked up followed by some blustery showers too, making it a mission to hold on to our fish and chips, never mind eating them! But eat them we did.. and we managed. Luckily after lunch things calmed down considerably and it was good enough to go and explore the large beach. Here I am always in my element. It’s not often I get the chance to explore a beach in the UK, much less enjoy it with Ralph and Neve. Later on we went for a long walk by a stream and some wooded areas where there was lots of stuff for kids to enjoy along the way and we all agreed it was a really fun day.
At the ornate gardens in Saltburn-by-the Sea
On the days when it was just Ralph 9, Neve 6, and me – we just did as much as we could outside. We went for two bike rides all around the military base they live on. I was trying to teach Neve some basic road sense, which wasn’t easy… but what a safe and quiet place for younger children to ride their bikes! I absolutely loved riding a bike again, especially with Ralph and Neve. We visited all the local play parks, explored the woods and enjoyed the garden. We played lots of games, built lots of amazing things and stayed up late to watch a Harry Potter film (which they had already seen!) the night Emma and Ash were at a hotel spa to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Needless to say, all too soon it was time to leave and it was teary goodbyes from me, as it always is.
In the garden with Arthur
Emma dropped me off to meet Rich halfway on Sunday 1st June and it was Zoe’s birthday. It was lovely to be there with her on this special day. She and Rich had booked a spa for the afternoon and evening and I was more than happy to look after and play with Arthur 5, and Ava 18 months. We didn’t go out but played lots of games indoors and out in the garden. We packed our long day full of fun! I love and adore spending quality time with all my 4 grandchildren. I really do hope and plan to spend more time with them in the future. Sadly this summer though, neither families can afford to come out to Crete for their holidays.
Tea time with Ava!
On my last evening in the UK, whilst still at Zoe and Rich’s, I started to throw up.. and spent a sleepless night trying to cope with the nausea and sickness. Yuk! I was so poorly I thought I should cancel my flight home. I was leaving at 10am the following morning and facing a long and scary day of travelling whilst feeling like this!! But for so many different reasons I wanted to get that flight. Thankfully I wasn’t sick again but the continuous nausea I felt was awful. I ate nothing and felt unbelievably weak, but I survived! It’s sod’s law that the flight was delayed over 2 hours (what a surprise – not!) and I didn’t arrive home until 10pm, where I just fell into bed! I was well out of action for the next 3 to 4 days until I could start eating normally again.
Baby Turtles design, sold well in June – Seashell Mosaic Collage Painting – 10x30cms
I have no idea whether this sickness was the result of food poisoning from a café Zoe and I had lunch in, when we went shopping for a new laptop for me, or a bug I picked up. Either way it set me back almost a week so that I started my beach selling later than I intended to. Also I needed to spend time prepping up some artworks to work mosaic on whilst I am selling. I am happy to report good sales for the rest of June. I sold lots of Baby Turtles Artworks and now I hope I have enough shells to meet demand for this particular design.
It wasn’t until the morning after I arrived home on 3rd June that I saw all the baked-on red Sahara sand, delivered in huge volumes (I was told) by the ‘sandstorm from hell’! Crete’s worst for 40 years. Because I was in the UK when it happened, I didn’t see the orange daytime skies or all the red dust carried in the strong and hot Southerly winds. I was glad I didn’t experience this, but bore the unfortunate consequences of how to scrub it all off after being baked into the concrete by the intense sun. I was so fortunate that Rob spent a couple of mornings jet spraying the outside areas of mine and Mary’s balconies. However I still had my car to clean before I started selling again. Mary had hosed off the heavy after the sand first fell, but it was still dull orange! I’d just had it valeted before I left for the UK and it had been all clean and shiny then!
Dining at Elpis in Plaka with Jill & Rick
I am delighted to write that my dear and close friends Jill and Rick returned on 17th June for another holiday this year. This time they stayed with me for 10 days. The weather was comfortable for them (last year was so much hotter!) right up until the last couple of days when it got a few degrees warmer and reached around 33. We enjoyed some scrumptious meals at Elpis and the Italian in Plaka and ate some delicious lunches on the cool sea terrace at Surreal, Sips n’ Dips in Almyrida. It was nice to spend a day in Georgioupoli and we had lunch in the square there, after we’d browsed the shops. We had some totally chilling evenings on my balcony, eating restaurant leftovers, drinking wine and playing cards. Because of my work commitments, I only managed to spend two afternoons on the beach at Almyrida with Jill and Rick but we had every evening to catch up on our respective lives and enjoy some real quality time together.
Beautiful sunset as seen from my balcony whilst playing cards with Jill & Rick
Jill and Rick left on Friday and I had a couple of social events to go to that evening. Firstly, Jeff and Shanna were celebrating their 10th Wedding anniversary from 6pm at Vangeli’s. I was at their wedding in 2015 and even wrote about it in this blog! Then at around 9.30pm I went to a birthday Party held at Nikita’s in Almyrida and featuring 3 or 4 separate bands playing. But I was more than ready to make my way home at around midnight. It’s been a particularly hectic few weeks!
Writing up this post from the comfort of my balcony sofa
On Sunday afternoon I noticed how much cooler it felt on my balcony, with the lower temperature of around 28 degrees and a most refreshing breeze. So I took full advantage of a rare afternoon in the summer, writing up this post whilst sitting on my comfy sofa on the balcony. We even had clouds! All I could hear was the roar of the ocean waves crashing onto Almyrida’s shorelines. All this because a severe ‘Heat Dome’ arrived in Western and Central Europe. When the UK gets unusually hot weather, it has an opposite effect over here on Crete and we get weather that is a little seasonally out of character. However I still can’t help feeling grateful that unlike last year – we didn’t really get any severe heatwaves in June.
