Woke up feeling cold this morning and had to put a shirt on for the first time in ages. It’s 24° outside (at 6.45) and there’s a breeze, which makes it feel cooler, and the humidity is at 60%, so now you know. There’s not a lot of harbour action going on yet, and it’s not a day for an early morning Blue Star. From up here, having my cup of tea and watching the harbour later in the morning, I often see large groups of people catching the Dodecanisos at 8.50 to head off up the island chain to Kos or Kalymnos, or wherever. Meanwhile, over to the right, the barge and crane were playing a game. One dredged beneath the sea, pulled up a load, and dumped it further along so the onshore digger could use its bucket to collect the same stuff and drop it back where it came from. At least, that’s what it looked like. I’m sure there’s a reason for it.
It’s later in the day when things start to really heat up down there. It starts with the arrival of the first day boat, or ferry, depending on which comes first, and it builds from there until we’re counting four or five large day trip boats on the far side of the harbour to add to however many have come into the side we can’t see. Then, having another cup of tea later in the morning (I drink a lot of tea), I can watch large groups of people being led around, gathered up, walked on, while the toy train tries to get through one way, and a tour bus tries to get through the other, and the group still sands in the middle of the road saying, ‘Oh, ain’t it pretty?’
There was some unusual action yesterday. First, I noticed the ambulance with its light on heading for the early Blue Star, and later in the day, heard its siren not long before the SAR helicopter came into the landing pad, and a patient was taken from ambulance to airlift. I hope whoever needed the services yesterday is now doing well. People often ask about the medical services on the island, and it can be a sore point (no pun intended) depending on your experience and what you need, but most of the time, you can’t fault them – considering what they have to work with. I’ll go into more detail one day. Today is for watching the harbour.
We’ll be down there again tomorrow, and this time I have a package to collect from the post office before we go to lunch. After, I might feel inclined to walk back up like I did last Monday. (‘Inclined’ means there were no taxis, but there was a queue, and I’d missed the bus.) Either way, it will get me away from the typowriter for a while. On which note, I will get to it now, as I am on chapter 20 of the next great masterwor,k and I’m having a thoroughly good time being a villain.
