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escaping from the stress
Oct. 27th, 2021 08:00 pmOur last week at home was busy and stressful.
Some of it was lovely: my niece in France got in touch to announce the birth of her first child - a daughter, who makes me a great-aunt!
On the Friday, Mick and I went to visit his niece, who lives in Manchester with her husband and toddler son: she is about to give birth to a daughter, so Mick will be a great-uncle again! We had not met the little boy before, as he was born early in lockdown. He is very lively and full of smiles. The journey took me past places I knew well 50 and more years ago, all re-built, re-arranged and re-purposed. Only the names remain .
We enjoyed our visit but came home rather tired.
Then on the Saturday we had the long-delayed Mayor-making day. This never happened when I was Mayor of Todmorden because there was no safe and suitable time to arrange an event for a large number of people. So this Mayor-making included a proper handover from the Mayor who preceded me to me, and from me to the current Mayor (who is another Lib Dem, called Pat Taylor, representing the same ward as I do). We each got a short time for a personal speech about our hopes and achievements as Mayor. So now, in a sense, we have caught up, but it was a busy day filled with conversation and it utterly exhausted me.
On Sunday, Mick and I flew to Athens. As he has posted elsewhere, it was a day of late arrivals and fast changes and minimal assistance from the staff at Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris. I ended up running past about 50 gates in the last 15 minutes before our flight to Athens closed, while Mick took charge of our backpacks after security had emptied them out and examined everything minutely (although - or possibly because - we told them we had a really tight connection ). Thankfully, the staff at our gate were really good, very reassuring and made sure that we had everything and that we got onboard.
So I was delighted to have a couple of nights and a lazy day in a hotel not far from Athens Airport before we collected our hire car and set off for Stoupa. Since we got here, staying with our friend Voula as we did last year, we have slept and rested a lot, eaten wonderful food and have visited all the local estate agents and made appointments to view the houses that look like good prospects. We are being inundated with advice and offers of help so we will spend a bit of time viewing then visit the lawyer and the engineer we will need to assess any property we seriously think of buying.
Today we had a late tea in one of the many restaurants that will be closing for the winter after the coming weekend. We watched the sun sliding down into the sea while we finished our beer and chatted to the owner who is a friend of Mick's sister Sheila.
Stoupa is a great place for recovery and recuperation. People are friendly and encouraging and will offer to help with whatever you need. The scenery is great and the weather is warm. The accumulated stress is slowly melting away and I am starting to feel that I can cope with all the things I need to do.
Some of it was lovely: my niece in France got in touch to announce the birth of her first child - a daughter, who makes me a great-aunt!
On the Friday, Mick and I went to visit his niece, who lives in Manchester with her husband and toddler son: she is about to give birth to a daughter, so Mick will be a great-uncle again! We had not met the little boy before, as he was born early in lockdown. He is very lively and full of smiles. The journey took me past places I knew well 50 and more years ago, all re-built, re-arranged and re-purposed. Only the names remain .
We enjoyed our visit but came home rather tired.
Then on the Saturday we had the long-delayed Mayor-making day. This never happened when I was Mayor of Todmorden because there was no safe and suitable time to arrange an event for a large number of people. So this Mayor-making included a proper handover from the Mayor who preceded me to me, and from me to the current Mayor (who is another Lib Dem, called Pat Taylor, representing the same ward as I do). We each got a short time for a personal speech about our hopes and achievements as Mayor. So now, in a sense, we have caught up, but it was a busy day filled with conversation and it utterly exhausted me.
On Sunday, Mick and I flew to Athens. As he has posted elsewhere, it was a day of late arrivals and fast changes and minimal assistance from the staff at Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris. I ended up running past about 50 gates in the last 15 minutes before our flight to Athens closed, while Mick took charge of our backpacks after security had emptied them out and examined everything minutely (although - or possibly because - we told them we had a really tight connection ). Thankfully, the staff at our gate were really good, very reassuring and made sure that we had everything and that we got onboard.
So I was delighted to have a couple of nights and a lazy day in a hotel not far from Athens Airport before we collected our hire car and set off for Stoupa. Since we got here, staying with our friend Voula as we did last year, we have slept and rested a lot, eaten wonderful food and have visited all the local estate agents and made appointments to view the houses that look like good prospects. We are being inundated with advice and offers of help so we will spend a bit of time viewing then visit the lawyer and the engineer we will need to assess any property we seriously think of buying.
Today we had a late tea in one of the many restaurants that will be closing for the winter after the coming weekend. We watched the sun sliding down into the sea while we finished our beer and chatted to the owner who is a friend of Mick's sister Sheila.
Stoupa is a great place for recovery and recuperation. People are friendly and encouraging and will offer to help with whatever you need. The scenery is great and the weather is warm. The accumulated stress is slowly melting away and I am starting to feel that I can cope with all the things I need to do.
