Life in Mochos

Babies Birthday

2008-03-14T15:36:00.006+02:00

Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while will know that my cat - Ginger - had babies last year. They are now one year old so I thought I would update you with birthday pictures.

This is Jessica, who I kept.

This is Ossie, Who Kath and Alan took.

This is Bella, also with Kath and Alan.

This is Ariadne (left) and Persephone (right) who live with Jill in Sissi.
Happy birthday all you babies - I will have to stop calling you that now eh?

Malia Street Carnival - the first in 4 years!

2008-03-09T17:38:00.000+02:00

More from the night - courtesy of Liz

2008-03-05T10:18:00.000+02:00

A few photos from the night

2008-03-03T20:28:00.004+02:00

This is the gang from left to right at the back, Alan, Kath, Penny, Peter, Liz and Bob front row Sigrid and me (the fairy godmother in white)

This is Jackie....

The Raki drip stand. It has IV drips full of Raki for people to drink from.

For some strange reason I didnt manage to get many photos on the night, but Liz has some so I will try to get copies and post them later. (what do you mean...was I drunk?....how could you think that?)

More from the carnival

2008-03-01T17:25:00.010+02:00

Just one or two speakers.....

The childrens entertainers had everyone enthralled.....

Celia, her daughter and twin grandsons.

I am not sure of the names of two of the guys on the slovaki stall but second left is Yiannis (remember him from the olive picking?) and far right is his friend Dimitris.
This is Volande and Rafael from my local taverna - Rodamanthis.

Just a few twigs to keep us warm!

One of my neighbours and his granchild.
Peace for a while at least until it all starts.

Waiting for the bouncy slide....

Its Carnival day

2008-03-01T11:47:00.004+02:00

Well it is Carnival (Apokreas) day at last and the preparations are under way. There is a lot of work to do to convert the village square into a party venue. Here are some photos of the start of the work, which will continue until this afternoon. The childrens evens start at somewhere around 4pm (well it is Greece!) and then the Cretan music and dancing from 7 - 9 followed by music from the DJ until around 5 or 6 in the morning. I will take as many pictures as I can so that you can get a flavour of the events, but may not get too many tonight (I wonder why?)

The Raki stand and the hut which will be part of the carnival soup stand.

Manolis is helping as usual (remember him from the olive picking?)

The slovaki (kebab) stands start to go up. They will serve around 2000 tonight!

The sound system went in last night and was thoroughly tested (and is so loud you can probably hear it on the coast) before being wrapped up to protect it until this afternoon.
Look out for more later......

And it snowed!

2008-02-18T20:21:00.002+02:00

Well it does happen sometimes, and boy did it yesterday.....we had thunder and lightning, and then the heavens opened...with hail stones.....the sun came out.....then more thunder and lightning and BLIZZARD....lots and lots of snow.....force 10 winds........Oh Dear! Luckily the tavernas were open and we could get some Raki to keep us warm :-) And in the morning, what did this intelligent (!), organised and sometimes sensible woman do???? She locked herself out of the house for 2 hours in nothing but her dressing gown! Cold or what???? Its a good job I have friends who are good at breaking and entering and who will remain nameless...Alan....Ooops. I will leave you with just a few pictures so that you know I havent made it up.

Olive picking

2007-12-14T16:39:00.000+02:00

Its Olive harvest time here and everyone is working really hard to collect them in. It is a very heavy manual process still and so they are all very tired at the end of the day. The photographs show the Kritsotakis family collecting their olives.

All sorted and ready to start...

If only the generator would fire up......

At last...

Where did Manolis go? Oh...he's in the tree now! (look hard!)

Now there's a surprise, the woman has to do the tidying up....

The happy family, left to right - Manolis, Yiannis and Elleni.

The trees being harvested are some of the oldest in the village and the big one behind the family portrait estimated to be at least 400 years old. Yiannis tells me he has around 400 trees some of which he has had for about 25 years since his father gave him them. The average yield per tree is 30 to 40 kilos of olives, but in a good year could be as much as 100 kilos. 10 kilos of olives makes 1 kilo of olive oil.

Thanks to the family for their help.

Keep watching for the report from the olive oil factory.

And on the way home......

2007-11-09T19:53:00.000+02:00

On the way home from the Raki factory I bumped into two of my neighbours cooking the potato for their dinner on the little fire at the side of the road. It is normal for Maria - the lady on the right to cook here - usually with Katina who I think may be her mother (she wasn't there last night)

Its Raki time....

2007-11-09T19:21:00.000+02:00

This is my first experience of the Raki making, yes, I know I drink quite a bit of it, but that is very different to watching it being made! It was fascinating. They bring the leftovers from the winemaking and put them in a big vat with a dome shaped lid. The fire is lit and the Raki then comes out of the bottom of the still through a little spout. Everyone sits around eating raw green beans and jacket potatos cooked on the top of the fire box whilst tasting the Raki fresh from the still. I must admit the stuff they made was some of the nicest I have tasted. (for any interested brewers the specific gravity was 22) I wobbled home around 5.30 to try and cook my dinner.....

Ready for the Winter

2007-10-12T15:16:00.000+03:00

There we are then, ready for the cold weather to arrive. My Somba (wood burning stove) is cleaned and the wood has arrived and is stacked in the Yard. Lots of cosy nights in now.....

What is it?

2007-09-10T15:11:00.000+03:00

Did you get it right?
Its a tomato........a friend from Vrahassi Greek class brought some plants in and they were not tagged so she wasn't sure what kind they were....I have never seen a tomato like this before, they are only around one to one and a half inches long, but they taste delicious and are very sweet.

Cool for Cats.....

2007-08-29T15:05:00.000+03:00

You can tell how hot its getting here when the cat jumps in the fridge the minute its open!
p.s. no your eyes are not going funny, the picture is blurry.

New Doors

2007-07-21T14:37:00.000+03:00

At last...my lovely new doors are here and fitted.....complete with window to open when it is too warm inside, and I had the blessing of Papa Manolis who came to have a look at them and declared them "fantastico". He has also ordered some for his house remarkably like them - a result I think!!!!

A wedding in the village

2007-07-08T12:38:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was a special day in the village. The first summer wedding. Dimitri and Sofia had the most beautiful of weddings. It took place (unusually) in front of the church and was followed by music from a famous professional band and display dancing by the local Cretan dancing display team (including Dimitris' brother Niko who is not only a good dancer, but a talented musician) The bride naturally looked absolutely stunning, as did all the rest of the wedding party. Rafael (next to Dimitri on the photo) walked to the church with a little girl on each arm...a proper little gentleman! There are also photos of the wedding favours which are traditionally given to all guests. There is an almond macaroon, sugared almonds and honey and nuts (usually spooned in your mouth as you leave the church - this time in little jars with a D and S and a heart hand painted in between) The wedding was followed by fireworks and lots and lots of partying. Needless to say the village was very, very quiet on Sunday. Congratulations to the happy couple!!!

Heatwave and the fire engine.

2007-06-28T12:27:00.000+03:00

We have had a heatwave here now for over a week, with temperatures well into the mid 40's but also a wind from the south. Those of you in England will be familiar with a wind chill factor. This is the same in reverse. The temperature is 44 but it feels more like 54!!! This has a number of drawbacks:-
1) Its too hot and sticky to do ANYTHING!
2) The amount of extra electricity to power the air conditioning in the resorts blacks out the whole island as the grid cannot cope.
3) We get fires.....sometimes caused by idiots discarding fag ends without realising the risks at this time of year.....
Yesterday there were a number of local fires, the worst being in Elounda, consuming 700 Stremma (a Stremma is 1000 square metres) of land and houses, and taking two days to put out. Very scary! The photo above is of the local fire engine flying over my house on its way to deal with the fire. There are a number of planes and just the one helicopter, they pick up water from the sea and drop it on fires.
Well done all the men who worked so hard.....

End of Term

2007-06-15T12:21:00.000+03:00

Well it is end of term at the local schools and to celebrate they held a competition for art and poetry on the theme of Peace. Prizes were given for the best in each age group at a party in the square. Traditional Cretan music and dancing was provided and went on until around 12 o'clock (very early night here!)

Bored !!!!

2007-05-12T23:57:00.000+03:00

Well I just got back after a long day, to and fro from the hospital where my poor mum has ended up while she is here on holiday to find that sweet little Jessica obviously got bored while I was out. She managed to shred an entire toilet roll over the floor and looked really pleased with herself when I opened the door and found her !!!! I wonder if Andrex will pay me for the photo :-)

Back Home

2007-05-05T21:07:00.000+03:00

Well Ginger has had the op and is back home safe and well. She has also been re-united with Jessica, her lookalike kitten. At least now she has stopped crying and looking behind all the furniture for the babies!!! The only problem is she appears to have reverted to kitten herself and is leaping around playing as if she is Jessica's sister not her mum.......why can't Mums grow up and act their age eh? ;-)

May Day

2007-05-01T21:01:00.000+03:00

Well its May day and we all go picking flowers....Margarita's to be exact and as they have my name, all my neighbours made sure I knew what to do. Bunches appeared on the car, under the pipe from the electric meter and a garland of flower heads sown together has pride of place above the door to give good luck throughout the year. Chronia Polla !!!!!

Empty Nest !!!

2007-04-29T11:36:00.000+03:00

Well it is so quiet here, its wierd! The babies have all left home now. Gilly has taken the three coloured one and the tiny one (still waiting for an update on names for these two), Alan and Kath have taken the Pale ginger boy (Ozzie) and the dark grey girl (Jezebella or Bella), they have also taken Jessica (the one who looks like Ginger) for a holiday until Sunday as Ginger has to go into hospital to make sure we dont get babies every three months. Its good to be able to walk without looking what might be under your feet, but to be honest I am really missing them. Ginger is too, she is alternating between crying for them and looking under the kitchen cupboards, behind the wardrobe and bookself etc and tramping it with the guys all night.....good job the Op is on Thursday I think ;-)

Oh Yes what a match !!!!!

2007-04-15T20:14:00.000+03:00

The boys did it in style today. The annual grudge match between Mochos FC and Archanes took place and this time it was more critical than ever. If Mochos won they move up a league, lose and its all over for another year.......
In the 1st half Mochos did not play at their best and went in for the break 1 - 0 down.
In the 2nd half Mochos got a penalty in after 15 minutes...now it was 1 - 1 and you could feel and hear the tension. The noise from the football ground could be heard all over the village so no-one was in any doubt what was happening. 10 minutes later Archanes scored an own goal, which it is said would have been the best goal of the match if it had been at the other end! Now it was 2 - 1 to Mochos. At this point Mochos found their normal good form and scored another goal, 3 - 1 to Mochos. The noise was incredible and Manthos knew it was all over so went back to the taverna to get ready for the invasion......
Needless to say, car horns, air horns, goat bells, bangers, bombs, gun fire, chanting........what appeared to be around five hundred cars and pickup trucks full of men through the square....and big, big celebrations......Mochos will now be promoted from "A" local league to "D" National league......we ARE the champions!!!!!!!!!

Babies dinner

2007-04-12T19:11:00.000+03:00

The babies had their first taste of dinner today.....they followed mummy and the three coloured one accidentally stood in it. She then tried to lick her paws and promtly fell over.....April entertainment sorted then!!

The whole village breathes again!!

2007-04-09T19:09:00.000+03:00

The whole village is breathing again after a nightmare two days. Yesterday at 11am a 9 year old autistic boy, visiting from Heraklion for the Easter celebrations with his family, went missing in the countryside after slipping away from his mother whilst she was on the phone. The whole of the police and red cross resources as well as a massive number of villagers searched all afternoon, night and most of today. At around 1pm the police asked that everyone stayed within the village boundary as they were bringing in the helicopter with thermal camera to try to track him down. Shortly before 6pm it was announced by the church bells ringing that he had been found, cold and I believe slightly injured but otherwise unharmed. For a community which lives for its children as this one does this has been visibly devastating to everyone and I suspect the celebrations will continue for another night to mark the little ones safe return.

Its Beirut !!!!

2007-04-08T12:12:00.000+03:00

Well Easter arrived with a bang....or several hundred actually...The church service started around 11pm and as it continued the bells got more and more urgent and soon there was a big queue to get into the church. At midnight everyone came out and the bonfire with the effigy of Judas Iscariot was lit. Someone obviously used a bit of poetic licence when dressing him, as I don't think sunglasses and a glass of beer are the regulation accessories! As the bonfire went up (fed with what looked like whole bushes) the bangers and mortar bombs reached a level where you could no longer hear them, you felt them with your whole body. As a finale Manolis had saved the biggest bomb of the lot and even the locals nearly had heart attacks!!! You can maybe see on the (not very good) photos the smoke surrounding Judas is not from the fire, but from the mortar bombs.
After this the priest brings out a flame which has been passed along from one flown to Greece from Constantinople and everyone lights their candle from it. Some of the candles are plain and some are very ornately decorated, there are even childrens ones with Spongebob squarepants on. The trick now is to walk home, with your candle still lit and make a cross in the smoke above the entrance to your house. This is to bring good fortune for the next year.
I lit my candle, got it home and made a really big, strong cross in smoke over the door, so I am assured a wonderful year now!!!!