Well, that’s ironic. I’m about to spend a small fortune each on Dodec Seaways tickets to Rhodes next Sunday, and a hotel for the night, so we can avoid getting up at 03.00 on Monday to get the 05.00 boat and hanging around Rhodes until 09.00 when we have our first MOT appointment, all without eating or drinking anything but water since the night before, and what do I notice yesterday? A barge of free doctors is visiting Symi over the weekend. I didn’t see the full list, it might have been someone’s Facebook memory, and the clinic wouldn’t have been able to run the full set of blood tests, and we like to see the same doctors year on year (I have my urologist on What’sApp), but still… That’s that, and this is a photo of Jack and the Beanstalk’s house in Upper Horio.
In more local news… There’s nothing to report, except we are starting to put dates on the calendar. Who’s arriving when, kind of dates, and that reminds me… I must thank Collette for the birthday card, which I opened early without thinking, and I’m glad I did. I was just about to open my box of ‘Sensations’ tea, and my mind, therefore, was on the incredibly bland experience I was about to have with a cup of hot water with a splash of milk, when Neil returned from foraging in Yialos and brought with him an envelope. He also brought news that there was no tea other than Lipton’s to be found in the harbour, not even for cash. Horror. I was trying not to be triggered by this blow when, distracted, I opened the card and lo! There was a message from the wild north of a far-flung land, which, among other things, said, ‘Have a drink on me,’ and attached was a single, proper teabag. It’s still going, even after ten reuses… No, it’s not, but it was a perfect gift at the perfect time. My sights are now set on the far left aisle of Pappou supermarket in Kanadas Street, where I can usually manage to find a box of Tetley. Meanwhile, while the foraging continues, we’ve found that if you put two bags of ‘Sensations’ together for one mug, you get slightly more flavour than the taste of desalinated water. Two sugars and a healthy snifter of whisky also helps.
Joking about that, but not about this. I have given myself a tight deadline for the latest MS to be ready for proofing, and as that’s Sunday morning, I need to knuckle down. Here’s the harbour as seen the other day.
