More house/dog sitting!

So, we are now one week into our second (and last) bout of house/dog sitting for the year.  This time we are looking after a house in the Old Village at the top of the island.  It is a lovely house with panoramic views of the island.  We are looking after 3 dogs this time; Maisie, Zoe and Rupert.

From left: Maisie, Zoe & Rupert

They are lovely but have two "foibles!!", they bark at people indiscriminately depending on their mood and are afraid of thunderstorms! They are also used to being walked first thing as No.1 it is cooler and No.2 they meet less people and other dogs! Now, as you all know, I am not a morning person and since giving up the day job I don't like to think about opening my eyes before 9 😀. These guys are used to being walked around 8am! Now I know that isn't exactly the crack of dawn but when you factor in the greek way of life, up till ??? having imbibed ??? then 8am is EARLY!
Now, last year we didn't see rain until August...this year we have had several days of torrential rain and thunderstorms, which as I mentioned, these dogs are frightened of.  Day 3 of our stint saw 2 dogs quaking as the thunder started rolling around 6.30am and us both having to join them upstairs to comfort them, so there we are, me and Paul in our PJ's going back to sleep for an hour on the big sofa's in the lounge with 3 dogs at our feet!
All was well for a few days with days at the beach and nice walks around the village until a couple of nights ago. We had been to the fortnightly quiz night (which we won so 2  bottles of wine for the house 😁) we went to bed and an hour later the heavens opened and the crashing started!  There was frantic scrabbling at the gate at the top of the stairs (it's an upside down house so the bedrooms are downstairs) so we let the dogs downstairs to lie outside our bedroom door.  Unfortunately they had other ideas and made it obvious that they wanted to be inside the bedroom rather than outside, so a rather sleepless night was had by all until the storm died down at around 4am...bless!!!
We have since had a couple of lovely hot days but now there are more storms forecast.....joy!  Apart from that, all is well, we have fabulous scenery and have had plenty of socials with a friends 70th birthday bash planned for next week which apparently involves a boat, music, prosecco, food and dancing....should be fun 😎

Not a bad view for a drink or two!

A month already!

Well time has certainly flown by and we've done our first stint at house/dog/cat sitting for the year and are now enjoying a week to ourselves before embarking on the next one! We will be looking after a lovely house and 3 sweet dogs in the old village on the island for the next 3 weeks....should be fun!
A lot of friends from the UK but made in Alonissos are currently on the island so this week has been an endless round of nights out eating and drinking....it has to be done!  It was Pauls birthday yesterday which also coincided with the date for the Alonissos Challenge.  He took part in the 15k walk and was very pleased to come 4th....his best placing yet 😀.
We had a wander around the seafront the other day and came across these two making good use of someones tractorichi....yes, these are actually driven on the island, always by men and apparently you have to pass a driving test of sorts!!

From this mode of transport to the complete opposite end of the scale now.  This impressive piece of kit arrived in the harbour last week and is now moored in the next bay whilst its current inhabitants attend a homeopathy course on the island.....we have seen prices quoted for this yacht OURANOS from 210,000 euro per week to 210,000 per day.....some people have far too much money!!!