The lack of normal seasons is the rule

(source)

Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Ah... How nice it would be if you were not so temperamental and you all lasted the same amount of time during the year....

Up until last year, I stood firmly in the camp of people who refused to believe that there is such a thing as seasons on the island of Crete. It's either winter, or summer. Nothing in between, except maybe for a few days in between, which in no way can someone say correspond to WHOLE seasons!

For as long as I can remember, we've had seriously hot summers and pretty mild winters. The thing is, that we never really had much of an "in-between" period. The weather went from being far too hot to being cold and vice versa. Mild temperatures and the such that accompany spring and autumn seemed to elude Greece.

But last year something happened. Something I really cannot explain. After a pretty hot summer, we actually had an "in-between" situation, where it was cool-ish and rainy and lovely and autumn-y! Then we had a lovely and rather cold (for Cretan standards) winter, which has now given place to a pretty mild spring! Delightful, let me tell you! It certainly makes a difference, when you can actually tell when one season gives way to the next!

The thing is that when we have particularly cold winters, they're usually followed by particularly hot summers.... Uh-oh. (Definitely NOT looking forward to that one...) We might not go below 0 degrees Celcius in the winter, but it's pretty much standard procedure that the temperature will be in the really high 30's and often over 40 for quite a few days. Yaaaaaaaaaay.   :-(

And, just like Anne, I belong in british weather, too... You always want what you can't have, as the saying goes. So let's see what the Brit of the group has to say on Friday!

Shakey shakey!

As you will have seen from Anne's post on Monday, it was me who chose the theme for this week's discussion: natural disasters. There actually was a pretty good reason I came up with that idea, though at first it might seem pretty random.

The reason being that in this last week we have had over 40 smaller earthquakes, as well as 5 pretty big ones. Well, not "pee your pants" big, but ones that you could definitely feel and which shakey shakied you.

As you also might remember from my first ever post on this blog, I live on an island called Crete, which just so happens to be on the edge of two tectonic plates: the European one and the African one. Essentially, what that means is that we get earthquakes all the time (though we don't necessarily feel them all). It's not even really much of a problem with the ones we do feel. They shake around for a little while and then, they stop. Granted, sometimes they shake around for just a little longer than they should, or they shake in an up-down motion, which is much scarier than the left-right one for some reason, but they're still manageable. You just stick yourself under a table or a desk for a few seconds and you're all right.

Just so that you don't get the wrong sort-of feel, earthquakes here DO NOT resemble all those very scary, very, very, very powerful earthquakes that happen in Japan. No. Fortunately no.

There is a tad of a problem though. We have a volcano in Greece and it's on a small island pretty close to Crete. If you've ever heard of the Minoan civilisation, you might also be aware of the fact that the Minoan civilisation was destroyed when the volcano on the island of Santorini erupted and brought an tsunami-like wave splashing onto the north coast of Crete. Now, let's get back to modern day Greece. After all those earthquakes, we started hearing things on the television and the radio about the volcano "awakening" from its relatively dormant state and possibly leading to the formation of large waves (that would of course just head straight to Crete). Fortunately, no such thing has happened and I do hope it won't happen. It sounds too scary...

So there you have it. That's what you get when you live in one of the most seismogenic areas in the world (excluding Japan, of course). No fancy tornadoes (though I do think I once saw something that looked like a mini-tornado in the sea - not sure what to call it) and definitely no blizzards, but we do get more than our fair share of earthquakes.

I always find it weird though, how my Mum even manages to cope at the level she does (which is not much, to tell the truth). She grew up in England (where earthquakes happen maybe once every decade or even more) and she decided to move right on the verge of two tectonic plates, with earthquakes once every 4 months (when things are normal). Weird.

PS: Do you realise it's actually the 1st of February??? Time seems to be flying by....!

American's are Different

So, I have this theory that American's are 'different'. In interviews, films and TV shows, they all seem to be able to recall memories from early childhood so easily. Like Phanee, I hardly remember anything - though I don't think I'm quite as bad.

My memory is just really bad. I can't remember much of what happened last week unless I think really hard, but I have smatterings of strong memories - usually aided by a photo or some significant event, or else I will remember pointless things like when I watched Friends whilst eating toast in my bedroom. I am brilliant with faces though, if I have seen you once I will recognise you years later as long as your face hasn't changed too dramatically. 

Now, because I can't pinpoint one happy memory (because I am not American and therefore have a truly rubbish memory), I will just let you know some random memories. 

Phanee's sleep dust reminded me of two events when my dad tried to swap my teeth for money (once they had fallen out already, of course). One of the times I was sleeping at his house and woke up as I flew through the air because he accidently tossed me out of bed, and the other time we were in Greece and I woke up to find the equivalent of £5 under my pillow the next morning because he struggled with the exchange rate. 

Also, when we were in Greece - probably the same time -, my cousin and I pretended to be statues and would stand on the hotel's hallway balconies and would jump out at passing strangers. The nice part is that everybody acted scared as though they actually believed we were statues who then sprung to life. 

An unpleasant memory I have is of going to Florida just after The Grinch came out and when I saw old Grinchy at Universal Studios, I scaled up my mum's back whilst she tried to film the parade because I was so scared. Even now when I settle down to watch The Grinch my heart races a beat too fast for the first few minutes because he scared me so much when I was little. 

And to end on a happy note... well now I genuinely can't think of anything. Most of my memories are from the last four or five years and I hope these memories don't just disappear into the abyss because I really quite enjoy them.