It was colder in Kefalonia!

We came back at about 1am today and fell into bed. Er...no, don't get excited, we were tired. Well, it was the equivalent of 3am in Greece. Kefalonia is a wonderful island, full of dramatic history and a beautiful, mountainous interior. The food is scrummy, too, as I found this morning when my trousers, slightly loose when I left, seemed to have shrunk just a little. The temperature was between about 22 and 27 degrees, so it was actually warmer in England, but that's no bad thing, if you're trying to explore.

So, we had a great time, but we were very tired after the journey back from Gatwick, and not looking forward to getting up for work at the normal time after about six hours sleep.

The house was extremely hot, because it had not had any windows opened for a week, so we threw our bedroom windows open as wide as we could.

At about 5am we were disturbed by loud birdsong. This isn't unusual, as we have sparrows nesting in the eaves near our bedroom, and they get up bloody early. This time, though, it didn't sound like sparrows.

There was a sudden crash, as an ornament was knocked from our window shelf, and we sat bolt upright, looking at a struggling shape between the glass and the curtain. A magpie had got itself caught inside the window, and was struggling to find its way out again.

Now, a little bird, you can cup your hands around it and put it out. It's quite sweet. A magpie at close quarters, however, is quite a big bird, and if you see its beak and claws flailing a few inches away, you don't want to get too close to it; you'd probably need stitches.

Eventually, by sort of patting it and shooing it over to the part of the window that was open, we released it. It had, in its panic, left bird poo all over the window shelf, which we had to wipe up.

There is an old saying about magpies: one for sorrow, two for joy. So if you see one, you should look out for a second for luck. Believe me, one caused us sorrow, but we certainly weren't hoping to see another in our room!