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The drama of the day

The mystery of the missing throw!

After being Airbnb hosts for so many years it’s proving to be interesting, and occasionally slightly stressful living life on the other side of the fence, as full-time Airbnb guests.  The dilemma is that we are now always responsible for someone else’s property and belongings.  When at home, as invariably happens on occasions, something goes wrong, accidentally gets broken or breaks naturally due to age or natural wear and tear then you just curse your bad luck or clumsiness and dispose of said item repairing or replacing as you feel necessary.  However, when that item is not yours but belongs to someone else we feel so much more guilty, even when the damage or loss caused was not even strictly our fault!  A prime example of this happened yesterday and I thought I would share it with you.

On our veranda is a set of outside wicker furniture with throws to protect the cushions.  A couple of days ago the sky had started to darken and so, fearing a rainstorm, I brought the cushions and throws inside.  As is often the case with the weather in Greece, it was all a false alarm and an hour later the sun came out again and there was not a cloud in the sky so I promptly returned everything – no damage done.

Yesterday was quite a windy day so we did not use the veranda at all and the wind was still blowing quite strongly when I closed the window shutters in the evening.   This morning I was pleased to see that the wind had dropped and  I was once again able to sit outside to have my first coffee fix of the day.

 I’d been outside for about fifteen minutes when Karyo came to join me.  “Where is the throw?” he immediately asked.  I  glanced over and sure enough one of the throws had disappeared, I had sat there all this time and had not noticed it was missing – observation 0/10!

There it was – Gone!

We looked over the veranda to try to locate the throw thinking it would be on the veranda below or stuck high in a tree but no, it was nowhere to be found.  As we are five floors up we have a really good view all around the area, it was a real mystery.  Puzzled, we went to the balcony on the back of the building to see if we could see it anywhere from there, and there it was, on the roof terrace of the building opposite! – the only building around us that was not occupied meaning we could not ask anyone for access.  It could not have landed in a worse place, any chance of getting it back seemed really unlikely and it looked like I was going to have to call the host to tell him we had somehow managed to lose his throw – how embarrassing!

I felt really awful and responsible.   When I had put the throws back on the furniture when it had threatened to rain a couple of days before I must not have tucked them in enough and the wind had managed to whisk one away.  Now we found ourselves in the embarrassing position that we had lost one of our host’s throws, spoiling the set of three. The most annoying thing was that we could see it from our balcony but it was far too far away to get it back – plus due to lock down all the shops are closed so we could not even try to replace it.

I was so stressed.  Guilt was surging through my veins in a totally illogical way as if I had thrown the bloody thing away myself.  Would the host believe us?  How had it gone from the front of the building and come to rest around the back?  It is quite a large square of material 180cm x 180cm and not particularly light.  It must have risen like some sort of flying carpet, lifted high over the roof of our building ( there is another floor above us) then dropped on the other side – I don’t think I would believe it had I not known it to be true!  Any witness to the event would probably have blamed that night’s overindulgence of ouzo!

After staring at the throw for about an hour, failing miserably to levitate it with the power of my mind and not having a fishing rod to hand, I decided my only chance to rectify the situation would be to try to get access to the building – If the SAS could storm fully functioning Embassy buildings how difficult could it be to get onto the roof of an old dilapidated Athenian house?  Operation ‘Spiderman’ was put into action.

After a quick reccy of the place, it seemed that luck was on my side and there was a choice of gates that I needed to climb over to get access to the house, I decided not to go for the smaller one as the metal topping spikes looked decidedly like a Dean disaster waiting to happen.  Remembering the time when I fainted because I cut my fingernail too far back put the thought of getting impaled on a rusty spike in the ‘too high a risk to recover a second-hand throw’ bracket.

Too spikey for Spidey

Instead, I decided to clamber over the higher but less spikey option.  So up and over I went.   Up like Spiderman and over the other side like a sack of potatoes much to my only onlooker, Karyos amusement.  Next, how to access the building itself.?  There was no way I could scale the walls even with my new, imaginary Spidey powers so I needed to find a more human way to get inside.

The easier option

Everything seemed pretty secure at first sight but with a bit of rattling and gentle persuasion, I managed to loosen a window shutter revealing a broken window! I think I whooped in delight at how easy my illegal entry was becoming, I just had to smash the surrounding glass a bit more to create a larger hole and I was in!

I have to admit, I’m glad I was doing this on a sunny afternoon and not in the dead of night as the house was really spooky. It was dark inside with the only light coming from the window I had just climbed through. Thankfully everything inside seemed solid enough with no holes in the floors so I easily felt my way to the back of the building praying that I would not come across a dead body.  The house was partially furnished and the table that dominated the main room was inexplicably set as if someone had gone to the kitchen for the food and never come back!

When I reached the kitchen area I opened a window and its shutters climbed through and found myself in an overgrown yard area.  From here I could see there was a metal fire escape running up the side of the building that all seemed secure enough to hold my ever-increasing weight ( Don’t blame me, blame the spinach pies).  So up the rickety old stairway I went, opened the door at the top and to my delight, there it was – The flyaway culprit that started this crazy afternoon!  I swiftly grabbed it and headed back the way I came before someone called the police.

YAY!

Getting back out was much quicker as I knew the route and, except for the fact that I had to jam the front shutter shut with a brick, no one would ever know I had stepped foot in the place.  Ten minutes later, much to my delight, the wayward throw was back in its rightful place – tucked in securely as if nothing had happened.

A happy ending

Who doesn’t love a happy ending?  I put it down to just another day in the life of an above and beyond the call of duty Airbnb guest – no one ever said it was going to be boring!

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