sweet treats

I have internet for once at my apartment so I’m taking advantage of the moment and writing another entry today!

It was quite a long day at work. I got to the golf course at 8:30 this morning to make my tee time. The Czech family that I met on my bike trek yesterday wanted to play with me today before they left for home. We had a competitive foursome: the two dads kept points for combined score totals and closest to the pin while the 17-yr-old son and I drove our buggy (finally got it right!) after our stray shots. They were excellent players and the round came down to the final hole.

We lost. I’m going to work on my putting a little bit more this week.

The rest of the day was busy; I had lessons to teach and tournaments to plan. You know, the usual. [Ack! My internet died. Completing this entry on Sunday.] I had a tennis lesson at nine, with Georgios and Sophia. My game is improving slightly. Georgios attempted to teach me how to slice the ball, but I had trouble performing the shot. I think my mind refuses to let my body purposely slice a ball (For the non-golfers out there, a “slice”, in golf, is when you send the ball curving dramatically to the right. It is not really a good thing to do). I finished rather unsatisfied with my game. But we were all tired… and rather hungry. I called Rima to see if she wanted to meet us for dinner in downtown Gialova. She said she would walk right over!

Sophia picked up one of the other tennis associates and we drove to a little souvlaki place in Gialova, right on the water. Dinner was nice. Rather lowkey for a Saturday night. Sophia was all set for us to go to a beach party, but none of us could hide our yawns well enough. Rima and I said goodnight to our friends and went to the Mini-Mart to get some house necessities (i.e. toilet paper. The cleaning people didn’t leave any for us this week!). Before we even got in the door, we were distracted by the giant fridge of ice cream out front. Rima and I constantly complain about the weight we’ve gained in Greece from all the good food. But… what’s one more amazing ice cream bar?

We took our delicious purchases outside and walked down the short pier (which is basically just used for parking). The ledge was empty, so we sat down, the length of tavernas and shoreline before us. Pylos lit up in the distance to our right. A starry sky overhead. Boats floating in the water at our feet. Ice cream melting in the humid night air.

I went to take my shoes off, thinking to protect them in advance from falling off. Splash! My left shoe fell right in.

“NO!” I yelled, a little too loudly. Rima laughed and laughed. The Mediterranean hardly has any wave movement, especially at night, so the flip-flop was floating right beneath us, about 6 feet down. I peered over the edge, wondering if I could hang by my arms and grab it with my toe. I handed Rima my ice cream before I swung a foot over the side of the stony wall, seeking a foothold among the joints. Totally useless.

My next thought was to just jump in. We could see the shallow bottom, reflecting the lights from the nearby restaurants. But I didn’t want to get soaked! Hmm… how about I fish it out? I went off to find some stort of stick, and managed to acquire a piece of bamboo (probably from one of the tiki huts) about 3 feet long. I laid down on the pavement and poked at the floating shoe. I caught it for a second, then lost it… and managed to send it speeding out away from my reach. Rima was still laughing at my ridiculous situation. I looked up at her from the ledge and said, “Give me that ice cream.”

After satisfying my sweet tooth, I made several more botched attempts. When I finally managed to snag the shoe with my stick, I flung it up next to my roomie. I stayed their, splayed out on the edge of the stone pier until our laughter subsided.

“You know what I think we need?” Rima asked me.

“More ice cream to celebrate?” I suggested.

“You read my mind!” Rima smiled. I hopped up, put on my wet shoe, and took off running back to the Mini-Mart for more sweets.

We’re now considering going on an “ice-cream diet”. Sounds like a good way to enjoy these last 10 days in Greece!