Take me to civilisation

 Last night was the last night.

The rain finally came yesterday and it rained steadily all day. In the evening, we found ourselves huddled in the farm kitchen while the electricity variously went on and off. The one tiny tea light we had wasn't really enough to light our evening meal so we were glad when the lights popped back on.
In the scarcely converted barn that's been my room here, I discovered that the roof isn't totally waterproof. Perhaps no surprise when you consider that it hasn't rained seriously here for maybe 10 months. The buckets I use to feed the animals came into my service in a whole new way.
With the rain also came the first insects I've really seen here. My room is full of flies this morning, and there were two fat luscious millipedes worming their way along the wall in the room I brush my teeth in.

But last night was also the last night for Daphne, our resident Greek language expert and my partner in evenings of speaking English and playing the guitar. She's off to other parts of the country for activities too exotic for me to even get my head around (a week-long festival of a special type of contemporary dancing) and I'm leaving myself tomorrow to receive visitors from England. So we celebrated by getting into Daphne's car and driving to Yodfat, the nearest community, where we were surprised to discover a that not only was the cafe/bar/restaurant open but people were in there dining and drinking as if heating, lighting, normal height tables and debit card machines were the most normal things in the world.

We had two beers, tried to work out the paths of our lives as the farm-themed part of the adventure ends, then we drove a little way up the mountain to sing the songs we've been practising for one last time.
She's considering giving up her flat in Tel Aviv for a return to the Greek island of her childhood, where they bring the water in on ships, and I'm considering how to make a return to London and full-time work not feel like this whole crazy adventure never happened.