Happy first of the month. Can’t believe it’s February already. The month is starting medically, in a way. I have a dentist appointment this morning, and I just had word that we’re down to have our annual health checks next Friday, so let’s hope the weather is good that day. The temperature is hovering around 10 to 12 degrees, and although we’ve not had to use as much heating as in previous winters, it’s still a case of watching TV from under a blanket, and only being able to work for a few hours in the office in the morning – without having to run too much heating.

This afternoon is piano/music lesson time, but it won’t be followed by a model session as H has finished his Toyota (below), and we’re awaiting the arrival of a Porsche. Unless that turns up today, I will be fixing the masts of the Cutty Sark on my own. While talking about things in the post. I am also waiting for a new keyboard as this one has seven letters missing. They’ve been wiped off over the last year, and although I have stickers to replace them, I already used the necessary ones on a previous keyboard.

Aside from all that, I have been researching Marie Lloyd for my next book, I think I might have told you this… I’ve certainly mentioned it on my other blog. Anyway, I found her addresses via a census search a friend of mine did for me, and I’ve looked them up on my 1888 maps of London, probably the most interesting book I’ve ever bought. It’s like an A to Z, though a large one, and it holds nine-inch and 12-inch scale maps of London published in 1888. Very useful for checking what street was where because so much of the layout changed over time. I have to be careful of things like ‘The Aldwych’, because it wasn’t The Aldwych as we now know it, not then. Similarly, The Strand isn’t actually The, it’s simply Strand or West Strand. I have some good online maps at https://maps.nls.uk/ but they are not always exact to my year, or they don’t have the details and street names as this A to Z does. It’s a more modern collection of maps from the time, rather than being an actual A to Z, because they didn’t come about until 1936, after Phyllis Pearsall walked every one of London’s 23,000 streets to map the project. Besides, if there was such a book from 1888, it would no doubt be so rare, I could never afford it. I’m not even sure how I am going to afford to get to Rhodes next week, but that’s another matter.

Meanwhile, I have some chapters to put right before I go for my appointment, so, it’s off to work.

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I only took one photo on my walk yesterday, but it’s a decent one and shows the view from slightly higher up the road than I’ve been so far this year. As you can see, a clear day, bright and sunny, but also cold. There’s a shipping ban in force further north so today’s ferry was cancelled, though it’s as calm as anything outside right now. That sometimes happens. We can’t go anywhere because bad weather elsewhere means all ships are grounded, yet here, you could be sunbathing on the shore. Well, you could if you were mad enough to go out in under ten degrees, and if you could find a sunbed, put it together, pay the fee and were able to chill out in the chill air.

Anyway. I’ve things to do, so I’ll not keep you or myself, I’ll just put up this photo taken yesterday and get on with writing about the past.

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We’re nearly at the end of January, so I’ve taken down the advertisement for this year’s Symi Dream calendar. If you still want one, you can find them by clicking here. As you can see, over there on the right, there’s a list of my Symi books. The first of these, Symi 85600, is getting so old now it’s almost an antique. It’s a simple book that describes our first impressions of living here back in 2002 onwards. People often ask what’s changed over the years, but it’s a hard one to answer because we live among whatever change is taking place, so don’t notice it as much as a returning visitor might.

More renovated buildings, I guess. More large houses done up by rich people to use as their summer homes, others done up by ordinary working people who intended to live in them after retiring, with some British being disappointed because they can’t now, thanks to Brexit. Many being done up for holidays lets, and very few being available for locals to buy or rent. That’s one big difference, and one which will become an issue if/when we have to move from this house. Also, there are more roads across parts of the hillside, more streetlights for sure, smoother roads, like the one to Nimborio, a new harbour for the larger ships, these kind of improvements have been going on over the last 21 years.

But some things remain the same. The ‘boys’ at the empty peripteron still call me Vasilis thanks to a misheard name back in 2002, you can still get expert dental and medical treatment, see a specialist within days and for a very reasonable fee, if paying privately, and you can still find yourself saying good morning ten times on the way to the nearest shop.

As the poet said, ‘Listen. Time passes.’ And talking time passing, it’s getting on and I must set about chapter 20 of ‘Follow the Van’, the next instalment of the Delamere Mysteries (which you can find here), and see how my main character is doing in 1892 at the Charing Cross Music Hall where he is interviewing Marie Lloyd and learning things about his old man he didn’t want to know.

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I managed something of an obstacle course on Friday. I was off to Yialos to pick up two deliveries at the courier, buy a tin of gloss paint, tea bags, and pay the post office box bill. Simple. Neil was in Rhodes to sort out his phone, and he’d taken all the money with him, so that was the first obstacle. I found an old card with a few pennies left on it, and I was able to extract them from a machine, so that was okay. That done, the first stop was the courier which has now moved to the back of the square.

It’s a much nicer office, and has a great view of the play park…

One of my packages had already been delivered, so that must have been the one that was rerouted to the Post Office, whose automated system had sent me a note saying it couldn’t be delivered because of an incorrect address. Usually, when we get this message it means it’s arrived at Symi. Don’t ask me why that happens. The package I collected on Friday was my music, as mentioned last week; a Mozart Fantasia for me and Fur Elise for Harry. I was so excited, I girded my loins, and with the sun shining, decided to walk back up the long way around. As you can see, the weather was spot on.

After admiring the harbour for a moment, I passed the empty taxi rank, and the closed bus, and decided I would come back up via the Haritomeni road rather than go on the main road. I was keen to get back and try my Mozart again after all these years. So keen, I only remembered I’d forgotten the paint once I had passed the taverna.

After that, I took the shortcut off the road and up the steps, and encountered my next obstacle. Someone was paving the path with wet cement and new tiles, so I had to do that Indian Jones thing where you can only step on certain tiles or else fall through the floor to the fiery pit beneath. I managed it, obviously, and continued up to steps above the high school, only then remembering that I’d forgotten to pay the post office bill. The next obstacle came at the top of the steps that lead to the road where the one-euro shop used to be (many moons ago) and where the pharmacy was for a while. There, some guys were doing building work on a raised level and had slung a plank across the top of the steps so they could push their wheelbarrow up it This left a three-foot gap and me with the choice of either returning to Kali Strat corner and up, or limbo dancing under. So, I limbo danced, or rather, lumbago crawled beneath, and was free.

No more traps, but I did remember I’d also forgotten to buy tea bags. Hey ho! The Mozart was lovely and such a nice surprise to see that with only a few practice runs, I can still play it after all these years, even the very fast runs and arpeggios, the shapes of which my fingers had remembered better after 43 years than I’d remembered that mornings to-do list.

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After some wind and rain yesterday, we’re back to calmer conditions today, though it still feels chilly. On my walk yesterday, I went up the hill, while today, I am planning to go down the hill to Yialos because I have two things waiting for me at ACS, the courier. I can’t think what the second one might be. I ordered two pieces of music from the same shop, so unless one has come from the same shop but in a different location, the second package will be a surprise.

Neil’s on the boat (below) and off to Rhodes for the day to sort out his mobile phone contract which has been playing up of late, leaving me with the house to myself, writing to do, the courier to visit and a quiet afternoon hopefully working on my new music, which is, by the way, Mozart’s Fantasia in D minor (K397). That will give me something else to think about other than the masts and rigging of the Cutty Sark which I am going to start next Monday. It looks horrendously complicated, but that’s the fun/challenge of building model kits, I guess.

With all that ahead, I will leave you for the weekend with some random photos from this week’s collection.

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