Watching the Olives Grow

by Stavros Allanopolis

  He was breaking all the speed limits in a bid to get me to the airport in time to catch my flight. We slid around most corners and skidded to a halt at various road junctions. I am not usually a nervous passenger but I was quite frightened by the prospect of a crash, and so too were the others! “What have we let ourselves in for?” they were asking me.

  We covered the usual 45 minutes journey in 24 minutes flat! I’m not sure if I was more relieved to be at the airport with a chance to catch my flight or just to be still alive! I later discovered that two of the others were sick a few minutes after arriving!

  I hobbled as quickly as I could, and I got to the departure gate with just six minutes to spare. I commenced my return journey at 11.05am right on time, but as I sat there in my seat, I was still sweating!

  Was it exertion from the hobbling rush to the gate, or fear from the journey to the airport? I’ll never know, but at least I was on my way.

  Having left the hotel at 09.45am I arrived home at Meerkat Manor at around 10.45pm. It had been a long day of travelling; 13 hours, but “Gee, but it was great to be back home (great song too!)!”

  I had left -6 C and arrived to find it was 12 C and even though it was late evening, it was like a heat-wave as far as I was concerned!

  One of things that I notice most about being away from Meerkat Manor is the sound. When staying in a hotel all I can hear is ‘nothing’, or maybe the sound of traffic in the streets below. After living in the peace and quiet of the Olive tree groves, that is quite alien to me. Usually, when I wake up in the morning at Meerkat Manor, the things I can hear are the birds singing in the trees and the waves crashing on to the nearby Pantazi beach. Although 600 metres distant, the air is so clear it sometimes sounds as if the waves are washing up right outside the window and that the birds are singing inside the house!

  During the last few days of January, I spent a lot of time finishing my book entitled ‘It Started With An Ouzo’ for which this book is the sequel. I spent many hours proof reading, correcting, proof reading again, and doing the final checks before the book was ready for publication. When the job was finished,

  Author’s Note: Both books (It Started With An Ouzo and Watching The Olives Grow) were produced in a limited edition prior to being made available in The Kindle Bookstore.

  I then set about finding a publisher or printer, and many hours were spent on this task. I researched via the Internet and contacted ten organisations seeking quotes. Ultimately, I narrowed down the list and then finally selected one for the job.

  My final decision was based on a competitive price, true, but the deciding factor was the level of customer service I received from Novelize. www.novelize.co.uk . The people of Novelize actually read the outline of my book that I sent!

  They passed comments, and made helpful suggestions, and were genuinely interested in my story!

  One more task was to be undertaken before I could get back to my proper job of ‘Watching The Olives Grow’ and that was to do a mailer for ‘It Started With An Ouzo’ describing the book and offering it for sale. This didn’t take too long, so I was soon to be seen up on the terrace hard at work ‘Watching’ and of course complete with a glass of Ouzo in my hand! It really is terribly hard work!

  (For details of Stavros’ first International first book entitled ‘It Started With An Ouzo’ go to Amazon and visit The Kindle Bookstore and search for Stavros Allanopolis).

  FEBRUARY 2010

  The ‘Publishing Tasks’ completed and I was back at work; doing my job of ‘Watching The Olives Grow’ from my terrace at Meerkat Manor.

  The day was sunny, so it was a pleasure to be at ‘work’ on the terrace. At the end of my day’s work, the sunset was so beautiful that I decided that February’s picture should be of the Olive tree at sunset.

  Photo: Olive Tree As ‘Watched’ At Sunset On 1st February 2010.

  My son Peter is due to emigrate to Australia at the end of April or early May, so we decided to meet in Athens for a ‘goodbye’ dinner. I had an assignment booked for one day in Athens, so we decided that Valerie would come with me, Peter would fly in from the UK, and we would meet with Peter the night before to celebrate. The plan was for Valerie to go shopping the following day, for me to go to work and Peter to return home to the UK. Sorted!

  However, the best laid plans go wrong! The day before it was due to happen, Athens Air Traffic Controllers announced that they were going to take strike action (in protest at the Austerity Measures) and close the airport for 24 hours! So, Peter remained in the UK but Valerie came with me. What lady is going to miss out on a shopping trip and a bath! We only have a shower in Meerkat Manor, so it is nice for Valerie to soak in a deep bubble bath once in a while.

  We travelled early in the morning and included a visit to the new Acropolis Museum; it is amazing! The building is a state-of-the-art development spread over three floors. It is so good, we will visit it again. When in Athens, it is now as much of a ‘must see’ as the Acropolis itself. Some of the exhibits are over 3,000 years old and look in pristine condition!

  We returned to Meerkat Manor 48 hours later and all was well, although Owen and Minstrel were ‘sulking’ somewhat. It is as if they were saying, “How can you leave us like that? Sure, Elaine comes to feed us and fill our bowls with water, but where are the daily ‘treats?’”

  Spoiled? You decide!

  The following day, the telephone rang.

  “Good morning Stuart, fancy coming to Prague again? We want you to perform at another conference we have scheduled.”

  Despite the lengthy and tiring travel, how could I refuse? After all, I had the car insurance renewal to pay. ‘Needs must’ – once again! So, the next two weeks were spent on designing and writing materials that I would need for my work in Prague. My foot still wasn’t 100% so I set myself a target of being able to travel in shoes and to ‘be careful’ to ensure that I could get my proper shoes on; I was still in trainers!

  The days took on a kind of routine, and most mornings I would do some strimming; the grasses were getting taller both on the track up to the house and in the areas surrounding the house. Then I would have a shower, and then work on writing my materials for use in Prague. Most afternoons, I would walk to the village and I was amazed that the flowers were already coming into bloom.

  Photo: Red Anemone.

  The red Anemones are spectacular! Very bright red and they stand out, compared to the blue ones. The blue that does stand out is the blue miniature Iris; exquisite, singular blooms popping up everywhere!

  Photo: Blue Miniature Iris.

  I didn’t get too much ‘Watching’ in those two weeks!

  Soon it was time to leave for Prague again, and I did not fancy the Monday morning 3am check-in on the Czech Airlines direct flight again. Although this route is much quicker, it means that I arrive in the hotel at 6.30am and start work at 7.00am and work through the day to 8.00pm. Having had only three hours’ sleep, I found that too tiring last time, so this time I decided to fly on the Sunday.

  As Czech Airlines do not fly on Sundays, I chose to use Lufthansa and fly to Prague via Frankfurt.

  The two hour stop-over between flights meant that it would be a long journey, but it would get me to bed for a sleep before my first day’s work. So I made the booking for the Sunday, thinking that everything would be better this time.

  Wrong thought!

  They say disasters come in 3’s but for me they came in 5’s, and all in within the same week!

  Disaster number one:

  This was on the Friday afternoon before leaving for Prague. I was packing and checking my equipment for the assignment when Valerie called out,

  “Come quickly! We’ve got a water leak in the store under the stairs.”

  I immediately left what I was doing and went to look. Sure enough, there was a leak; water was pumping up from under the cases stored in the cupboard under the stairs! Closer investigation revealed that the water was rising from a pipe encased in cement
in the floor. I switched the water pump off and still the water leaked. I switched the water mains off and it stopped.

  So, was it the pumping system or the mains pressure?

  A call to Kyriakos (the plumber) was called for. I told him about the leak. It was 4.00pm Friday and he could come around 11.00am Saturday.

  “Kalla!” (Good).

  Kyriakos arrived at just after 11.00 am and got to work. It turned out that when the house was built, a water pipe had been ‘capped’ but using a plastic fitting into the metal pipe.

  Even I know that plastic and metal connections (under pressure) don’t go together! We were very lucky we were at home to spot the leak. It could have been serious if we had been away.

  OK, minor drama and not too much cost required to fix it.

  The rest of the day passed without drama and the following morning I left home around 7.00am and arrived at Athens airport right on time for check-in at 1.00pm. As I entered the airport and looked at the flight indicator screens, I discovered that my flight was delayed by 30 minutes. Good! There was enough time for something to eat and the delay was not so much of a disaster.

  Wrong!

  Disaster number two:

  I got some lunch, and sat close to the indicator screens in order to monitor my timing. As I was eating, it flashed a further delay; now one hour. Then, as I sat there in the cafe / bar, a further one hour’s delay was announced soon after that. Something was wrong!

  As I was travelling hand baggage only, and had my online Boarding Card, I went through the security check and to the check-in desk. The problem that was causing the delay was snow at Frankfurt airport! Apparently, it was snowing so heavily there that they could not clear it quickly enough to allow planes to take off or land safely.

  Time went by and it was clear that the problem was going to get worse, and it did.

  After some six hours of waiting, Lufthansa announced that Frankfurt airport was closed and that we would have to try again tomorrow. Who says travelling is glamorous? Not me!

  The airline started to make arrangements for hotel accommodation and book seats for tomorrow’s flight. The only problem for me was that if I waited for tomorrow then the first connecting flight would not get me to Prague until 2.00pm, and I needed to meet with the client at 8.00am to start rehearsals.

  There was only one option and that was to transfer to the Monday morning direct flight to Prague using Czech airlines, and this course of action meant the 3.00am check-in again, with an early morning call from the hotel Reception at 2.30am.

  This was just what I had been trying to avoid, and now it was happening to me in real time!

  I duly arrived in Prague and took a taxi to the hotel, met with my client, and started work at 8.00am.

  Whilst I was away in Prague, I was missing being at home for Valerie’s birthday; this was not good, however ‘needs must’ as the saying goes.

  To try and make up for it, our good friend Elaine took Valerie on a shopping expedition to the mountain town of Sparti.

  I had remembered to leave Valerie a birthday card, hidden in amongst the others that had previously arrived from her family and were left waiting to be opened on the day. I had also placed some money in the card for Valerie to buy herself a birthday present whilst on her shopping trip with Elaine. Not the best way for her to spend her birthday, but with me not around it was a good second best!

  During my stay in Prague, I spent a total of 81 hours in the hotel (from 8.00am Monday until 5.00am Thursday), and of those I worked for 57 of them!

  At the time, I reflected on this statistic and I decided that, although it is an all-day and full-time job ‘Watching The Olives Grow,’ overall, it is a better option!

  Once again, I also concluded that it is a hard job, but someone has to be strong enough to do it, and that person is me, and I couldn’t wait to get back to work!

  The return journey with Lufthansa was via Munich and I arrived home at Meerkat Manor around 10pm on the Thursday evening. I was so pleased to be home.

  Compared to Prague, at -2 C, the evening temperature of around 14 C was warm, so I strolled around the garden for a while listening to the waves rolling on to Pantazi beach and making a night inspection of the Olive trees to get up to speed on their growth since I had been away.

  As I came back inside to go to bed, I was reflecting on the fact that I had experienced two disasters in under a week. As I fell asleep, my last thoughts were that surely that was my quota for a while?

  Wrong!

  Another three disasters were awaiting me, but as I fell asleep I was totally oblivious to their happening in the near future!

  MARCH 2010

  The start of the month was to be a very busy one, because no sooner was I home than I was repacking to leave again. I was home for just two days before I had to leave for Athens. Remember when there was an Air Traffic Controller’s strike that closed Athens airport and prevented my son Peter from travelling to say ‘goodbye?’ Well, this was the weekend that we had re-arranged for him to meet with Valerie and me.

  So off we went to Athens on the Sunday to meet up; the last meeting for a long time to come. I knew that even if I won the Lottery that I would not be travelling to Australia to visit as I could not contemplate sitting on the ‘plane for 15+ hours. As I wasn’t sure whether Peter would visit at some time in the future, this was to be our last face to face meeting. Skype cameras are good, but you can’t have a ‘hug’ via the camera; it was a strange feeling thinking that it would be the last time we would see each other again!

  We met Peter at the airport and we had decided to park the car in the Long Term Car Park for security, and to travel into the city by Metro as we would return the following day to see him off. The Metro service is very efficient, clean and inexpensive and, as we thought, vandal and theft free.

  Wrong!

  Disaster number three:

  We were exiting the Metro station close to our hotel, and we were using the escalator up to street level when the third disaster struck.

  As Peter got to the top of the escalator stairs the man in front of him just stopped dead in his tracks, causing Peter to bump into him.

  Not surprisingly, Peter was irritated and annoyed, and told him so as he pushed him out of the way. Not that he might have understood English!

  Five minutes later, we discovered that it was not an accident and that it was clearly a clever manoeuvre for pickpockets.

  Out on the street, Peter went to get his wallet out of his pocket for some money to pay for a drink when he discovered it missing! The man had obviously been part of a team and another must have picked Peter’s pocket as he was remonstrating with the ‘offender’ at the top of the escalator. Fortunately, he only had 100 Euros in cash, one credit card, a driving licence and a scuba-diving PADI diving licence in it, and all could be cancelled quite easily. So he sent a text message to Mel asking her to ‘phone and cancel the credit card, advise the other authorities of the theft and apply for replacements.

  The following 24 hours were spent having a relaxing time; drinking, eating, walking and chatting, in what was to be our last ‘face to face’ time together for who knew how long.

  Valerie and I returned to Meerkat Manor the following day, having previously travelled back to the airport to say goodbye and to collect the car from the Long Term Car Park. As we travelled home, we reflected on the good time that we had had with Peter, the ‘event’ of his pick pocketing, and also just how lucky we had been by being at home when the water leak was discovered.

  Although we had had a good time with Peter in Athens, we couldn’t wait to get back to the peace and quiet that is living in The Mani. It was something to look forward to; going home.

  We arrived home around 7pm and both Owen and Minstrel were waiting to greet us at the front gate. We were tired from the journey, but never the less we were pleased to see them. Clearly they had ‘survived’ their 24 hours on their own, so we ‘rewarded’ them with some tinned Tuna which they see
med to decide was a fair reward for their cooperation of ‘surviving’ on their own for a day! Spoiled cats? You decide! We unpacked the car, went inside, made some dinner and went to bed, quite oblivious to the disaster that had struck us in our absence; Not just one but two disasters; numbers four and five!

  The following morning, I woke early as usual and, just as I was pouring my first cup of tea of the day, our friend Sally ‘phoned from the UK to share her latest news.

  So, as not to wake Valerie with my talking, I took the ‘roamer’ ‘phone with me up onto the upstairs terrace to continue the conversation. As we were talking, I was telling her that the day was bright and sunny and the sky was clear blue and not a cloud in sight. I did say however that the weather for the previous two days had not been so good. I explained that we had experienced high winds all over Greece, as well as some rain. The winds had been reported as being up to 49 kph (very strong!), and the rain had contained sand from the African Kalahari Desert which left every surface covered in dusty sand as it dried out. That was when I experienced disaster number four.

  Disaster number four:

  As I talked, I looked out over the garden and saw that one of our large Olive trees was lying on the ground! It had broken at the base and was lying, quite forlornly, across the shrubs. It had clearly been a victim of the force of the winds! This was indeed a disaster, and I rang off to go and investigate.

  Photo: Olive Tree; Down Over The Wall And Fig Tree!

  Photo: Olive Tree Snapped At The Base.

  Oh, what a sad sight. All the other trees were intact, as well as all of those in the surrounding Olive tree groves. The tree must have been diseased or weakened to have succumbed, but that didn’t make it any better.