I feel a creative day coming on. I have just had some banners made for my other website, and my designer has done a great job. Here’s an example:

She’s also designed all my book covers for the last five years, and I am more than happy with what she does. While that was going on, I started looking at making short videos of the book covers so I could get them shared around social media. Later today, we have piano and model building followed by a quiz, so all that sounds pretty creative too.

The reason for the short video idea started in Athens… When I was laid up with the flu, I took to my phone and thought I might as well have a look at these ‘reels’ that pop up on Facebook. Well, I think I was hooked after about five minutes. All those ‘fails’, people having silly accidents, people doing daft things, cats, what it’s like to take a cruise, more cats, a couple of adverts to flick through but no hassle, then people doing extraordinary things, gymnasts doing unbelievable moves, a lot of college wrestling for some reason, more cats, random scenery, then a few more cats, building site mishaps and a few cats…

There is a darker side to it. I’ve caught a couple of videos that I didn’t want to see, like people having skateboard accidents which looked like they didn’t end well, but then if you’re going to do daft things on narrow railings, and you’re a boy, you have to be prepared for the inevitable nutcracker. Now and then a video will pop up of gym-fit young men showing off their bare chests, but also waggling their dangly bits in their shorts (what’s that all about?), and I can’t tell you how many Indian men I’ve seen swimming in muddy rivers for no reason, or playing practical jokes on each other in most alarming ways. But, among all that, are some short videos by creatives, like a quick blast of music or dance, and sometimes, book covers. These seem to be a more sedate kind of ‘reel’, just the cover, a few static words of text, and some background music, so that’s what I am going for. Whether it will help sales or not is another matter, but you can find them on my Jackson Marsh page on Facebook where I’ve so far put up two or three, and they are pretty dire, but I am still learning.

Meanwhile, back in the other real world, I’ve been up since four thanks to a blocked nose and an active mind. The medical helicopter has been in and was met by the ambulance (not for my nose). I don’t know if that was an exercise, it’s not really my business, but it was there for half an hour, so I’m assuming it wasn’t an emergency. Just an unusual time of day to arrive. Our emergency response volunteers are always doing training exercises and manoeuvres, so maybe they were having a practice.

Whatever, it’s a little blowy out there this morning and only ten degrees, mind you, it isn’t seven yet, so things should warm up later.

Share on Facebook

There’s a photo below looking towards the Vigla, the highest point on Symi. I don’t know how to take a photo so you get an idea of the height, but standing there and looking up the side of the hill, it’s easy to see why it’s known locally as the mountain. Here’s an interesting fact: The Vigla is 616m high. The highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, is 1,345m, which means our Symi mountain is half the height of Ben Nevis, give or take 113m, which in the wider scheme of things, is about as interesting as watching paint dry, so let’s move on.

We’ll continue on a gentle stroll along the side of the hills above the Pedi Valley where, thanks to my phone’s camera, you can’t really see how wonderfully green it all is in the sunshine, but at least you get an idea. The football pitch looks very green, of course, and the sea looks calm because it was. In the summer, the bay will be peppered with boats, but come wintertime, they are mainly moored up or out of the water. Fishing boats are about the only kind of vessel you’ll see around here at this time of year, apart from ferries, of course. We do have some intrepid winter sailors come and go when the weather allows, so you can still see white sails far out at sea, and then we have all the special patrols and official boats keeping our waters safe.

Meanwhile, on land, some of the tavernas and businesses are already starting to prepare for the summer. I know of one restaurant that’s currently redoing its kitchen, and I’ve heard of a few others and some cafes that are already asking around for staff, mainly cooks and kitchen workers. I remember last year there was a flurry of such adverts with some businesses not being able to open on time because of a lack of staff. Hopefully, this year, everyone will get their positions filled in plenty of time. And talking of time, it’s gone 7.30 and I need to get my Jackson Marsh blog updated before I settle down to serious typing, and I must investigate a new keyboard as I have four letters missing off this one.

Share on Facebook

The sunshine is back, calm has been restored, and my forecast isn’t showing any rain for the foreseeable future, so the view is something like this:

It’s also something like this:

Or at least, it was yesterday as we moved onto the spray-painting stage. That was after the music lesson during which we took on the scale of Ab major because the next piece to study in the book has a key signature of Ab, which is four flats in case you were wondering, and looks like this:

That’s not the next piece in the book, but it looks interesting, so I might see if I have it or if I can find it. I’ve just ordered two pieces from Nakas music store in Athens, Fur Elise for my pupil, and a Mozart Fantasia for me. Having just written that, I remembered I’d had an email from them this morning and on checking it, I see my order has been sent to the courier, so I should receive that in a few days.

It’s important to consider where orders are coming from. It always has been, but now more so, because some items from the UK come with additional post-Brexit charges, and I find deliveries from Amazon France and Germany are costly on postage. However, if you head directly to a Greek outlet, you often find free delivery (over a certain amount spent), or delivery via ACS or another courier, and for a very reasonable price. You can use the post office, of course, which is also cheap for deliveries within the country. Not only is that handy to know, but it’s also much quicker to have something sent down from Athens or Thessaloniki than it is to receive it from abroad. I guess the temptation for many is to use Something.co.uk because the site will be in English, or because you’ve always used that outlet, but a quick search for similar products in Greece via Skroutz and other online places usually reveals the same items at a lower cost and without the hassle of extra delivery charges.

I have no idea where that ramble came from. Thoughts from the top of my head as usual. On which note, I have just decided to take a short walk around the village while I set the next chapter of the next book in my head. Yesterday, my copy of the slim volume of short stories, ‘1892’ arrived from Amazon Germany where the postage was the same cost as the book. It’s fun to see your husband and a friend on the cover of a book, even if it was your idea to put them there.

Share on Facebook

Let’s start with some confusion:

Shenanigans. Although “shenanigan,” meaning trickery or mischief, is often attributed to the Irish Gaelic “sionnachuighim,” meaning “I play the fox,” others claim it derives from an American Indian word.

Or: Shenanigans. Earliest records of it are in California (San Francisco and Sacramento). Suggestions include Spanish chanada, a shortened form of charranada “trick, deceit;” or, less likely, German Schenigelei, peddler’s argot for “work, craft,” or the related German slang verb schinäglen.

Whatever, it’s the wrong word anyway because there was no trickery or deceit over the weekend. It started with us having the urge to scrub the bathroom walls. Having been away for only one week during this humid time, we returned to find the black mould had grown worse in places, and thought it was high time we did something about it. Here’s a handy tip: if you have a hob scraper for a ceramic hob, they’re also very good at scraping off limescale and dripped paint, as long as you’re scraping tiles, which are, after all, ceramic.

In the evening, we had dinner with the godboys which they cooked, followed by a game of cards with their mother that Neil won. (The cards, not the mother.) Saturday was a quieter, calmer day at home with me writing (of course) and Neil pottering around. I went for a short walk, I think, I can’t remember, and that reminds me that we’ve had some interesting coloured skies of late.

On Sunday, after more writing and so on, we popped out to the Rainbow to say hello to Yiannis who offered us an omelette, but we had a sandwich planned for later, and we sat there watching the news while listening to the radio, and planning a dinner party. One of those evenings.

And that leaves us free to wander into this week and see what will happen. There’s a shipping ban at the moment following bad weather yesterday, but Neil’s aiming to get to Rhodes on Friday to sort out his wayward phone contract. I’ve got a couple of piano lessons to give and some model to build, a few chapters to write and blogs to do, but otherwise, nothing major is planned. So, as things stand, you can expect a week of no-news news.

Share on Facebook

Here we are at the end of the week. Almost. The end of my blog week at any rate, and what a lovely week it’s been. Yesterday, after a very satisfactory hour at the piano with my more than satisfactory student, we sat and modelled for two hours; H building a Toyota Something-Flash and me wrestling with the delicate Cutty Sark. I managed to lose a wheel and another thing that goes somewhere in the bow simply by cutting the tiny pieces from the frames only to hear a ping and… Well, that was that. No amount of floor searching with torches and phones could reveal the whereabouts of these two pieces. All our search showed us was how much I need to clean the kitchen floor, which I will do once I have found my wheel and the other thing. If I ever do.

Still, it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours, talking about nothing, occasionally answering questions about colours, wheels and pipes, and whether that should be chrome or matt black, and me mumbling under my breath about having fat fingers and very small pieces of plastic to stick to the boat and not to myself.

I didn’t get out for a walk yesterday, because one can’t have too much fun in one go, but I’ll be going for a wander later today as long as it doesn’t rain. I need to set the next chapter in my head. The next chapter of the current book, not my life or anything; that’s already set. I’m halfway through a third novel in the new series, and because it’s been a bit novelus interruptus it’s been hard to get it back on track, but I’m getting there. I have a new detective searching for a missing (no spoilers) item, which takes him into the world of the West End and East End music halls of the late 19th century, and he’s just about to meet a very famous artiste who originally shared a name with a much loved, but much later, English comedienne. Without giving away the name, I’ll just say, ‘Is it on the trolley?’ You either know it or you don’t.

If you don’t, then I’ll tell you. Marie Lloyd was originally called Matilda Alice Victoria Wood, born in 1870 in Hoxton, not far from where I used to live, and who was a stage star by the age of 15/16 when she called herself Bella Delmere. Her first appearance outside of Hoxton was at the Collins Music Hall in Islington. So, there are a few coincidences to ponder there, one being the name of the series I am writing, ‘The Delamere Files’ and her first stage naming being Delmere, something I only discovered once I’d started writing the book.

None of which has anything to do with Symi, but there you are. Early morning thoughts after a not-so-good sleep, and with another day to look forward to because this afternoon/evening, our godsons are cooking us dinner, and that’s always something to look forward to.

For parish notices, I’ve heard that the weekend boat schedule might be up the waterspout again because of the weather. From the front window I can tell you the new road and water treatment plant plot of land is being worked on, and from my walk the other day, I can tell you the council men have started taking down the Christmas lights from the trees that lean across the village square. That’s about as local as my local news gets, so I’ll wish you a good weekend and carry on pottering.

Share on Facebook