extension..

b just got extended in crete for another year!! yay!

so.. for all you guys who sad you'd visit - now you've got until summer of 2010 to visit... ;)

back to work.

.me

quick changes in life..

alrighty, it's been about 3 weeks since i last wrote.. and if you remember, that was right after we got our things from Cali.. It took about a week to get everything settled, unpacked and stored away, but MAN what a difference it made.. it actually feels like a home now.. and it was just in time, as yet another set of friends arrived on the 26th of july, and my dad on the 27th. :) it was awesome to have our couches, the tv, and a guestbed all setup. felt a little bit more civilized than when our other friends were out there...

so.. E&G stayed for a whoppin' day and a half, we barely had time to show them chania and a beach, and then they were off to the ferry to athens, for transport back to Cali, and dad and B-I got to enjoy town for at least a week.

and.. now i am in London. :) quick turns, here. got contact with a company out here only 4 weeks ago, had 3 interviews, and was offered a job pretty much right away. i left the morning of dad'd last day in Crete, arrived in a rainy London on sunday midday, and started working on monday..
it's been crazy busy, trying to deal with yet another new country in the past 3 months, learning yet another new company, a new town (a crazy one at that), and rain..

i think, for me personally, the transition from LA to Crete was less harsch than the transition from Crete to London.. it feels like living in an anthill here, there are people everywhere here.. running, always in a hurry, milling about.. but the city seems cool, otherwise.. just haven't had much time to explore yet, as i started off with working 6 days a week. :)

it's alright, tho.. i am used to it.

anyways, gotta run, yet again.

will post pics, later sometime.

b is still in crete, with the house and the dogs.. miss them.

.c

living in crete means...

getting used to nothing being done the way you're used to.. especially after living in Cali too long...

we're having cable installed today.. in Cali - someone from whatever cable company you're dealing with shows up with a van full of equipment, from tools, to whatever equipment you might need installed, even a ladder to get up on the roof - if that's where you need the disk installed.. today, 2 guys show up, in a little Honda. i walked outside when they arrived, and the first thing they asked for was a ladder.. Mind you, we live in a 2 story house... and there's no fire escape ladder, or any kind of roof access. and we sure don't have too many ladders laying around the house...

so.. they offered to mount the darn satellite dish on the side of the house, while saying that we might not get reception because the wall was facing the wrong direction... *rolls eyes* these ppl are nuts.

so.. off they went, to try to find a ladder, and we're expecting them back in a couple of hours. with a ladder? hopefully.

also.. when our furniture was delivered, they were supposed to cart off the loaner stuff we have had for the past couple of months.. and i don't know if I've updated the blog with the hassle of trying to get our stuff here? to make a long story short, our stuff is a little over a month delayed, it was missing for a while, and finally arrived. now.. we have A LOT of stuff.. and really no place for a double set of furniture.. so.. they were supposed to take away the loaner pieces when they delivered our stuff.. but noooooo. we were told by the housing office that we should've called 10 days in advance to have the loaner stuff picked up... but 10 days in advance, from the other day, we had no idea we were even getting our stuff today.. heck, the day before everything arrived, we weren't sure it was even getting here.. gotta love it.

more.. when you take the bus to town.. be prepared to wait up to 30 min after the set departure time.. and then when the bus arrives, if you don't pay attention and flag it down, it'll just drive straight past you, even tho there's only one line serving that bus stop.

but.. other than that, I've managed to open a Greek bank account.. that was - so far, almost the easiest thing to get done.

what else.. i am going to upload the pics from the move-in day one of these days to show the disaster in here. :) and the result. even tho we're not done by any means, at least this place is starting to feel like a home, and just not an empty house.


.c & b

we FINALLY got our furniture!!!

and it seems like most of it made the trip ok, including our tv and couches.. only thing that didn't make it, was the B and O stereo.. :( sucks balls, but.. fortunately it was fully insured, and we've already filed a claim for it...

cretan bugs....

okok, i KNOW i briefly mentioned this before, but.. this country - or rather - this ISLAND, have an interesting bug life.... there's not one single day when i don't see an instect/bug/unidentifiable nasty creature flying/crawling/whizzing past..

lastly - the cicadas. they started about a month ago.. at first i thought they were really loud birds.. you very rarely see them, but they sound like humongous flocks of birds in the trees around here.. but.. i very quickly found out that they're indeed, insects. and they're HUUUGE!!! check out the image above, and imagine an insect that looks like that, but is about 3/4 of your thumb lenght??? and they're not afraid of humans either, they rather come dive bomb you... NASTY creatures.

and not only that.. before they're fully developed, they look like a 10000% enlarged bed bug, they leave these nasty empty husks behind. i almost fell over and dropped a rock on my foot, as i was building up rocks around the dog kennel out back the first time i saw one of 'em.

gross!!!

and then we got the beetles, the ants, the centipeds aaand the various kinds of other critters.. :) oh, not to forget the fleas that attacked scoobs and tay the first couple of weeks here.. never seen anything like it. i don't even think they were fleas, nor ticks.. there's something else here, something right between them two, i had to use tweazers to pick them from the poor dogs, and they were bloody hard to pull loose. suuuper gross. :(


wonder if one ever gets used to 'em?

.c

happiness is..

to give our dogs a muuuch needed bath... to wrestle them in under the garden hose, and shampoo them up, and get soaked when they shake it off.. to enjoy them CLEAN for one minute, until they both ran off behind the house to roll in the red mud.

i swear they communicate, too... i started off with scoobs, and while i was working on tay he was laying on the back porch, just chillin', drying off in the shade. as soon as Tay was done, tay ran up to scoobs, and they both, as if on cue, took off around the corner.. then they both waited until i caught up with them, at the end of the porch, and then they both dove face first into the dirt. and then took off running around, leaving red mud prints ALL over. :) not only did i have to wash them again, i also got to scrub the yard and the neighbor house's patio, and our back porch.

scoobs, who once was white and brown is now a multi layered shade of red. and tay, who once was black, is a very matte black/red color.. good times.

at least they seemed to enjoy being in the water for a bit, as that day was a sweltering 42 degrees outside.. and that's CELSIUS, ladies and gents. not farenheit.

bloody hot.

note to self - next time, don't let them off leash after bath. :)

.c