Nice post today. I always look forward to the post here in Crete, whereas in England I used to dread its arrival as it usually consisted of enormous bills and demands usually without the wherewithal to settle them. That’s not to say utility bills etcetera don’t land on the mat here but they’re not as enormous as the British ones and one is usually in a position to pay although, as with everywhere else, the cost of living rises by the day. When there was one of the inevitable bank strikes that went on longer than expected leaving us with about six euro to last and we had to take one of the animals to the vet, “What are you worried about?” he asked. “What do you need money for?” (Well to pay him for a start though that obviously would have to wait and again to put things in perceptive or rather make comparisons even if odious, a visit to the vet in the UK is likely to set one back about £40 or more. Here the cost is 12 euro, roughly £9.50) “You live in a village,” he said, “you grow your own tomatoes, you grow potatoes, what do you need money for?” The Cretans are a wonderful people. When we ran out of heating oil with more’n a month of winter to go and had no money to pay for a refill, “Then berazi” says our friendly Haralambos at the garage, “No matter. Pay me when you’ve got it.” We told him it would more’n likely be a couple’ of months, possibly even more but it didn’t seem to matter. The next day the oil was delivered and indeed it did take a couple of months to pay him. The same thing happened with the local chemist when I was taken badly and desperately needed medicines we had no money for. “Take them.” Was the response. “It’s an emergency. Pay when you can.” Could you imagine for one moment that happening in England? Somehow I really doubt it. But back to the post. Order from Amazon arrived: two copies of DEAD ON TIME that a lady here asked us to get for her and two Kurasawa films, RAN and THRONE OF BLOOD, also contract from the BBC to turn DOCTOR WHO THE SPACE MUSEUM into an audiobook. Great!