Late this evening, tenish or so, Di’s other sister, Helen, and her two daughters, Holly and Eleanor, are arriving. Sunday, her brother, David and his family, Ivy, Lola and Cara, are arriving. So, in forty-eight hours there’ll be ten of us here — so much for peace and quiet? Hmmmm . . .

Okay, so much for peace and quiet.

I’m sitting in the living room reading the OC Register’s on-line edition. Tricia says “Uh-oh, Joe . . .” Both kitchen sinks are stopped up. No plunger. Trish starts to disconnect the drain pipe — in what I think is the wrong place. I re-tighten that section and loosen the cap at the base of the U-trap. Water dribbles out. I stick various objects up the pipe to the sink. The water just continues to dribble out.

I re-cap the U-trap and work my way up to the next link. The water continues to dribble out. I stick a butter knife handle up the pipe . . . ahhhh . . . something is dislodged and the water flows freely into the bucket we had placed under the pipes. It appears to be a flower and stem — problem solved. Bucket is drained. Re-tighten all pipes. Run the tap to check and everything check out okay. Ta Da. . . .

A few minutes later there’s water running out onto the floor again. Hmmmmm . . . It turns out that the pipes from the sink are not screwed into the final outlet pipe . . . oops. While fixing the other problem I’d accidently pulled the sink pipes toward the front of the cabinet and they’d come loose from the final drain (dirty word, dirty word, dirty word).

Okay, push the pipe in . . . check all the other joins . . . run water from the tap . . . nothing runs into the pan we’ve got under the sink. Use towels to mop up water on the floor. Hope things are OK. Fingers crossed — will check back later.

Later and much later — no further problems with the sink.

Villa Andonis sleeps ten or eleven people in a half-dozen bedrooms with bathrooms on three levels. The bedrooms are air-conditioned — but windows and doors, interior and exterior, must be closed to turn the AC on. (Think of the magnetic switches/contacts on your doors and windows if you have a home security system.) There are two bedrooms on the ground floor; one has a double bed and the other twin beds pushed together. The first bedroom has a single step up to the loo and shower. The other room’s loo is level with the main floor — and the exterior doors open on the balcony to the east and sunrise — so we took that one.

The sisters who run the villa, Eirini and Dora, were there to greet us and show us around and, with the exception of the television, things were fine. We put away the groceries, cracked open the bottle of wine the ladies left us and began to relax. Tricia fixed a very tasty salad and pasta for dinner and later she and Di went swimming.

Charlie wore herself out, literally. When Tricia brought her into the bedroom, she immediately took to her bed and was asleep before Trish had left the room.

We slept until early Friday morning, a very refreshing night.

Trish walked down the hill to a nearby market with a shopping bag to do some more stocking up on food and other supplies. We had been told we could phone in an order and the market would deliver but Trish did the shopping and a gentleman from the market drove her back up to our villa. She then fixed Di a late breakfast of which I had a small portion having earlier enjoyed the cold pasta from the previous night’s dinner.

I read my newspapers on the computer and completed some old newspaper puzzles from my computer case that I keep on hand for doctor office visits and the like.

Di and Trish enjoyed more of the sun and spent a good deal of time in the pool. I spent most of the afternoon reading and listening to the music from my iPhone playing through the villa’s small music system. Having spent so much of my youth at the beach and in the sun, I’ve grown to rather enjoy the cool shade. And so, I waited until the day had progressed sufficiently for trees on the south and west to provide shade to the pool, and went for a short swim before finishing the book I’d started yesterday and a shower.

Today was the first day I felt like I was actually on vacation and could relax. Then . . .

The late afternoon was marred only by a telephone call from the (retired) police patrol checking our house and finding the front door unlocked. It appears that the person taking care of our cats had forgotten to lock the door on her way out, but she had remembered to set the alarm. Then Di gave them alarm code, and they checked the house. The police called Mike and he came over and re-set the alarm. No harm done — just a scary phone call from half a world away.

Went swimming for a bit in the pool — Di and Trish spent a few hours in and out of the pool and in the sun. I’ve spent so much of my life in the sun that I’ve had enough of it. I wait until the sun has gone behind the trees and the pool is mostly in shadow and then take a cool dip. Ahhhh . . .

Barbecued chicken for dinner tonight from Trish — YUM.

Googled a word tonight and got the result on Google Greece in Greek; of course, we’re in Greece on the Island of Corfu. There is a sentence on the page that asks if I want my results in English and I change to English. I also find it a bit ironic that the domain name is: www.google.gr and that the server location is Ireland.

(to be continued)