April 26: Naxos

I had brekkie on the balcony, then logged on for a work meeting at 10:30am. The good thing about being in Greece is that I am in a much more favourable time zone for meeting with my colleague Aditi in India. Back in Victoria we have to meet at 7:30am (my time) and 8:00pm (her time). That's a time difference of +12.5 hours. Here in Greece the time difference is only +2.5 hours.

After meeting with Aditi, I did about three hours of work. I sent the files to Aditi to review, had a sandwich and an apple in my room, and then hit the pool.

I had the pool largely to myself. There is a mother and two teen daugthers from the Netherlands staying at the hotel. It's the girls' school break so they decided to come to Greece for an quick, cheap holiday. (And that's the kind of European lifestyle statement that fills my North American heart with jealousy.) Anyway, the oldest teen daughter did what teens go, and sat on a lounger staring at her phone. The youngest teen daughter was in and out of the pool, asking her mother to watch her diving in (right beside the "No Diving" sign), and generally being a sweet kid. I just did my laps on the other half of the pool.

Carl and Anna, the older couple from Denmark, had moved into Cindy and Sandy's room - with its shaded poolside balcony - the day before. I chatted a bit with them. Anna worked a variety of jobs before retiring, including grave digger and lunch lady. Carl was in the army, serving for over 30 years. His most interesting - or dangerous - posting was as a Nato obsrever in Kosovo after the war ended in 1999.

I went back to Scirocco for dinner. I ordered the pita and tzatziki to start and the octopus stifado (stew) with pasta for my main. The pita and tzatziki were fucking amazing. The stifado was a bit of a disappointment. It was mosty onion. Also, they didn't warm the plate and the stew went cold very quickly. Oh, well. It was worth trying, anyway.

The wind had come up that afternoon so I was chilled. I went back to the hotel and got straight into my jam jams and into bed. From bed, I caught Diana up with the latest from the Greek TV drama:

"Well. Morose Middle Aged Man seems to have business problems."

"He may also have a troubled teenage son, because Cool Greek Fonzi - who has been talking to Troubled Pimply Teen - is now in MMAM's office 'talking straight' with him. You know that he's talking straight with him because he took his sunglasses off."

"Cool Greek Fonzi just stormed out! And now he's talking to the police!"

"Guy With Pony Tail is trying to hook up with Single Mom With Kid. Or Divorced / Widowed Mom With Kid."

"Oooooh, GWPT is now conferring with MMAM's boss / business partner."

"For some reason, Couple With Marital Problems just walked in on GWPT and MMAM's boss / business partner. I can't keep up!"