Getting ready for The Crew

Today felt like the longest day ever because I was awake at around 4.00am so got up and fed the cats - much to their surprise because they hadn't had to come and make a noise! and then a couple of hours later we were up and John went on a mega bike ride with Richard and I went to the doctors with Mum.  I had thought we were going for a review of her medication and care now that her sodium levels were, according to her, normal.  I had a whole load of questions I wanted to ask the doctor.  The surgery was rammed when we got there and when it was Mum's turn it transpired that she was, as the doctor had told her, having another infusion to boost her levels and not a review.  The infusion would take about an hour.  Fortunately even though Dr Mala was super busy she took time out to have a chat with me and we have agreed that once her levels are satisfactory we will have a review meeting and discuss how we can prevent this happening again.  So Mum got infused and I did some shopping.

John had got the key for his mum's holiday accommodation - Droushia Corner House and Roula had been in and cleaned so before going to do the holiday food shop he took me in to have a look around so that when he went to the airport I could get it all ready for their arrival.  I have to say that there are a million light switches in that house which I needed to sort out so that the outside lights are on when they arrived.

We had our first experience of the change machine in Papantoniou today.  We had sorted the change which is not necessary and weighed it to get an idea of how much we had because when you change it up you are issued with a voucher which you have to spend on the day and if you do not buy enough then you lose any unspent amount on the voucher.  Our idea was to try and tot up as we went round to ensure we had nothing left!!!

So actually its really brilliant.  You put your change on the pivoting shelf and tip it up on the left so the coins go inside.  Apparently slow and steady is the order of the day so you don't jam the machine.  It counts as it goes and will reject any coins it isn't happy with which, providing they are acceptable, you can pass through the machine again to see if they will be counted.  Although we had been careful we still several English pennies in amongst our haul.

We had around €109 which is exactly what we had weighed and from that the machine only took 3 euros something which was a bargain.  Armed with our voucher we went on a trolley dash.

We had bumped into Elena's mum Elizabeth at the entrance, she was sorting out her shopping and planned to return to Droushia on the bus but we said if she was happy to wait we would give her a lift back which is what we did.

John went off on the airport run.  The flight was due in just after 10.00pm and although it left late that time was made up but unfortunately it was absolute chaos when they landed along with other flights and had to wait over an hour for their bags so they didn't actually get to Droushia until really late.

In the meantime I was at the Corner House trying to work out which light switch did what and also checked the aircon worked.  We took our second TV box over so that they can watch UK TV if they want to and generally made sure that everything was as it should be.  There are bound to be a few things that they would want that the house does not have because it is not a home.  It's not a problem because if we can lend them stuff then we will.

It was with much relief that they arrived safe and sound.  We put the kettle on and sat around the kitchen table catching up.  A quiet day is planned for them tomorrow so they can unwind and unpack - we are just having a meal out in the evening in the village - somewhere we can walk to.  

It is good to have them back and we are really pleased that John's mum did not fall foul of the authorities with all the things she brought over for me - it will be like Christmas tomorrow.