…is upon us. The day, at this end of the island, has started grey and chilly, a little damp, but calm and quiet. Hardly any boats down in the harbour (that I can see, but I can only see half of it), and the Blue Star isn’t in yet. That’s expected in about an hour, and when it comes in, I want to watch it unload. Some years, around the start of the festival and around Easter, the early boat comes in and disgorges a line of cars which snake from the port all the way up the hill and off into who knows where. In today’s case, to the limited amount of parking at Panormitis, I expect, and to family and holiday homes, some hotels, maybe, but any traffic in today will mainly be for the festival. If I see or take any images, I will post them.

Meanwhile, it’s the same old same old for me, though I have some things to set up via my online banking. I managed to pay the landlord this month’s rent and January’s rent at the same time with – I forgot to postdate the second one when I was setting them up – so that’s to be done. Housework (maybe), writing (definitely), and some other bits and pieces around the house to be seen to.

Here are a couple more shots of the harbour during the week. It was quiet up until a few minutes after we finished lunch, then, with two boats in, things really picked up. The Nikolaos X left for the winter yesterday (long, long blast on horn as leaving), and Neil’s final day at work today may or may not happen. Yiannis will ring him if needed – so if you were planning on coming down, Miss DJ, check with Neil first.

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Good news and not-yet good news yesterday. After finishing a short story, possibly for a new collection, we headed down to Yialos for an appointment. I was expecting a new office chair, and had a message from ACS saying I had a delivery. I only ordered it last Friday, so that was impressively fast. Except it wasn’t, because Skrouts sent an email telling me they had to cancel the order and were sending a refund. Oh. Right. I’ll start again when the refund comes in. (Which it did last night.)

For the past few weeks now, I have had a message on my Alpha online banking system telling me my new card is ready to authorise. I don’t have a new card. I’ve looked in the post office a couple of times in the past two or more weeks, but nothing there. Same yesterday. Odd. Ah well, off to ACS, and there, would you Adam and Eve it, I show my message, and the lady behind the counter has my delivery right there in her hands and was just about to phone me to tell me. It wasn’t an office chair. Nor a book I also ordered recently. It was a large, flat envelope. Ah! I thought. My Alpha card. No. A card, yes, but for the other bank, the one whose card I didn’t know had expired on the first of the month.

So, no chair, no Alpha card, no book, but I currently have my teeth.

Trip to the dentist for my appointment. Need two root canals. I had a long chat with my dentist, who’d seen my souvenir X-ray from Stavroulis, and who recommended I use the specialist root canal service in Rhodes as it would be easier for me. So, that’s to be arranged.

By way of celebration (if that’s the word), we stayed down for lunch at Trata before catching the bus back up. The harbour was busy enough later in the morning, once the Nikolaos X had come in, and it was a perfectly warm, sunny day.

Right, next job: arrange an appointment with the dentist in Rhodes. I have the name, address and phone number, but as I don’t make phone calls, I’ll look up the email address and fire one off later this morning. Oh, and Neil finishes his summer job on Friday. Now, back to something more interesting.

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Something of a disappointment today. Ordered a new chair for the desk last week, and found out today, from Skrouts, that they’ve had to cancel and refund. I was hoping it was the thing waiting for me at the courier this morning, but that’s going to be something else now, and not the new chair I need. Ah, well, as soon as the refund comes in, I’ll start hunting again. Meanwhile, I have a root canal job at the dentist today, so that’ll cheer me up.

The days are gradually changing, the air is tinted with a slight chill, which will increase in time, but you could still sunbathe in the sun yesterday, and people are still swimming as the sea is still warm. Allegedly. I have a long list of jobs to do about the house, including cleaning the windows (how do they get dirty when it’s not raining?), varnishing the balcony floor, preparing the house for winter, which means draft-excluding where possible, and all that malarky, so there’s plenty to keep us busy between work and writing and watching films.

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Things are definitely calming down now. The day boats have all but stopped, several businesses have closed for the winter, while others remain open until after next weekend, which is the Panormitis Festival. Pilgrims have already started arriving, and I expect the cells/rooms at the monastery have been booked up for months. We still see visitors wandering through the village of an afternoon, shorts are still being worn, and there are still private yachts in the harbour.

Meanwhile, the council contractors continue to work on the new marina at Petalo. I was told that the marina will stretch a fair way along that side of the harbour, and the work will include widening the road along the way, and putting in some kind of boardwalk so it’s safer/easier for people to walk into town. Yeah, all sounds very nice, and why not pamper the rich who can afford to sail into a marina? But, for my part, I only hope there are also plans afoot to improve the core services these new guests will use, and that there will be plenty of water for them, electricity supplied and all of that, and the roads will be properly maintained for them, and the street lighting, and I hope they pay well for it so it doesn’t fall to the islanders’ to pay for it under our local taxes. Hm? There was a brief debate during the summer about charging a tourist tax, but I am not sure where we’re at with that.

Anyway, that’s me blathering off the top of my head while I decide what I am going to do today. It is Tuesday, isn’t it? Good. Otherwise, I’ve got an appointment at 11, but that’s tomorrow, so plenty of time. With nothing else to report, I’ll sign off by thanking Miss P for today’s photos.

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We’ve had a couple of hazy, misty mornings over the weekend, which is caused by humidity, I guess. Today, you can’t see the coast of Turkey, but that should clear later in the day. We spent the weekend mostly at home, pottering around, doing some odd jobs, and preparing to have Jenine and Sam over for Sunday lunch. This involved some menu planning and water rationing, and not much writing on my part, but the end results were pretty impressive. No, I don’t have a photo, sadly. Well, I took some of my spotted dick, but they were slightly blurred. That was a shame as I wanted to show off my custard, which was very well received, and the first time I had ever made it.

Oh, go on then…

Neil has a mastery of the Yorkshire puddings, though, and his roast beef was perfect. I took a photo of the Yorkshires, but only to send to Harry, saying we were keeping a couple for him for when we next see him. (Hopefully over Panormitis weekend, this weekend.)

And now, before I head off, here is a photo of someone having a fun time on Halloween last week.

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