My girlfriend reckons that I can’t just chill and relax on my days off. I can relax. It’s not too often but I’m just like everyone else. So today I decided to just spend the whole day at the beach.
Breakfast was pretty much the same as yesterday’s, but with bigger pancakes and two Canadian women to talk to. They’d been on the bus from Naxos yesterday and were staying in my same hotel. I skipped the hot chocolate this time, saving that sugar intake for something else later in the day. The Canadians both worked in finance and I was telling them that I worked in the culture industry in London. They told me about their travels and asked me what it was like to holiday in India. One was particularly nice and happy. It’s always motivating to talk to people like that. I’m not really a fan of shrinking wallflowers.
Early morning walk to the beach straight after. The heat was really building today. I got to the edge of the beach where the boulders are and started climbing them. It was exciting, just like yesterday. These were even more of a challenge because they hadn’t been arranged by humans as a breakwater so the planning of the steps to take was more difficult. At one point, I got trapped and the sea started really rushing in, threatening to wet my trainers and socks do I had to put in a tactical retreat!
Relaxing on the sunbeds on the beach next. It was comfortable and a great view. I called my girlfriend when I sat down.
When lunchtine came, at Barbounis, I ate an enormous mixed grill with sausage, lamb chops, absolutely delicious pork, the most wonderful beefburger I’ve ever tasted with ripe and juicy tomatoes and a salad. They gave me a delicious pastry cream with honey at the end that was just thrown in for free. The beverage was water. One of the best mixed grills I’ve ever tasted.
I had an after lunch walk down the beach to work off the meal and passed the nudist side of the beach. The nudists are generally speaking of the older generation. Is it because they are less self conscious of their bodies? Are they more confident? I have a really muscular body but I only took off my top for about ten minutes today on the beach. Maybe that comes from having been born and raised in England.
Another sunbed session with a snooze and reading another chapter of ‘The House of Mirth’. When I woke up, even despite the colossal meal, I got a double caramel Magnum ice cream in the supermarket. One of my favourites, although I don’t indulge myself with it too much.
Afterwards I headed to the hotel where I watched a bit of TV in French, German and Spanish. I watched some Greek news. Which had a beautiful woman on it. They favour beautiful women everywhere but if you remark on it and favour beautiful women, you are the one with a problem. The hypocrisy of this world. Read news and diaries in German, French, Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Then I watched trailers of the new Sunny Deol movie Suryaa (my favourite actor exposing the corruption in Indian medical practice) and the Ramayana brought to live action and looking incredible. Two movies to see in November. Finished up by reading The New Scientist (how El Nino will cause chaos and suffering) and psychology articles, such as belonging across culture and why we want to belong, to be part of something greater than ourselves. Are we not enough? I believe I am enough for the world.
I watched the beautiful sunset for the last time here. And as I walked along the beach admiring it, I started talking to an American lady. They’d been sitting alongside me throughout the day on the sunbeds. It’s easy to talk to women. My women friends have noticed me talking to women when I’m with them and told me I’m really good at it. In any case, she was a psychologist from Cincinnati so I talked to her about my work and her work. It was a blue moment. She had blue eyes, a blue dress and a blue hat, all set against the blue sky and sea as she spoke to me. I excused myself after a while as I was keen to enjoy the sunset, even though she was a pleasant and interesting conversationalist.
Dinner at Nikos. Grilled shrimp with quinoa and vegetables. The beverage was a fresh orange juice and water. They threw in a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce for free. This was again one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The shrimp was seasoned perfectly and the sides were super refreshing. The dessert was absolutely perfect too. The restaurant had the traditional blue and white paint and they gave the receipt in a cute little wooden Naval chest.
I was just heading to the hotel when something caught my eye. An article I read was that lucky people are more focused, they don’t get distracted. In the experiment, it was about reading. Noticing big letters. But I had thought how can I create luck in the small village of Axios Prokopios. To prove me wrong, the universe intervened. I noticed a signboard. There was a Greek concert at the Art Cafe on my final day of my stay here. Amazing coincidence.
When I got there, a quick five minutes, this cat got into my lap and sat there. It fell asleep. And I was bursting to go. Eventually I had to wake the cat up and deposit it next to me on the sofa. The second time nature had try to trap me today, after the bouldering entrapment.
It was a fun concert with vocals, the bazouki, the guitar and dance. Me, two young couples and an older couple in the audience. A voluptuous Israeli lady in a shimmering and short white dress from the audience danced along with the men. It was good she did as otherwise it would have been just men. The host was a guy that had taught Greek dance to Hollywood. He was funny. He had a photo up when he was eighteen dancing. He was now 78. He said he had been the most modern guy in the place so all the ladies wanted to date him back then. He taught the audience dance and danced himself.
As I walked back home, I thought to myself what the holiday would have been like if I was single. I was completely alone out here, but what if I had actually come out to try and meet a woman? Would anything have happened? Take the concert. Yes, there were two pretty women. But both had boyfriends. It’s always like that. It would have been depressing if I had been single. But I wasn’t. My girlfriend messaged me when I got back to the hotel.
