Weather I will or not

You never know, I may venture out of the house today. I think this cold is finally on the way out, that’s a personal cold not cold weather, you understand. I was half-asleep all day Sunday, a quarter asleep on Monday and today, though it’s early, I might only be one-eighth down, and the rest feels a bit more lively. I need to get to the bank at some point over the next two days so today could be the day, and it will be the first in over a week. But I’m not counting my sleeping dogs before they’ve hatched, and other mixed metaphors. I’ll see how I feel later when the sun’s up and see what the weather looks like. Yesterday it looked like this…

I’ve been typing away while I’ve been in my confinement, some days more successfully than others, but I have written the first drafts of two parts of a series; 190,000 words in total since Christmas. I’m nearly at the end of the first read-through of it and then will attend to the editing stage. I also need to find titles before I can move on and finish them, but something will come to me. I’d like to write the fourth Saddling book this year and complete that series, but other ideas have stepped in the way, and the Saddling books are more of a summer project. It feels easier to write them then for some reason.

Anyway, enough waffling, it’s time to get on and see what’s in the email box before getting down to some work, maybe going for a longer distance walk than just to the supermarket and whether I will go out in this weather, whatever it turns out to be. Oh, and yes, I misspelt the word in the post title on purpose. Why? ‘Cos it’s half-five in the morning, and I can write what I want.

Signs of spring at home

There are signs of spring out there, and some are starting to appear in our sparse collection of plants in the courtyard. The chilli is still deciding what it’s going to do, the one I call Heavy (plant) Crossing has a few shoots and the new bougainvillaea will hopefully start to put on weight soon. There’s one of those big locust things hanging around somewhere eating the succulent that has red flowers, and I’ll catch it and evict it as soon as I can. The plant doing the best so far is that pretty weed with the yellow flowers that grows at the base of the vine.

The hills are already starting to look green again thanks to all the rain we’ve been having. The sea is calm, there’s no wind, and we may be in for some settled weather for a while… He says. Last week Neil went and put in his paperwork for his residency card. We’ve had these since 2002, but he’s changed his to put it under his Irish passport, rather than his yUK one, just in case, and he should be able to collect that later this week and then re-register to vote at the town hall. We’ve still not heard what Greece intends to do about British immigrants if the yUK doesn’t get its deal, does get its deal or sees sense at the 11^th hour, and I reckon they are waiting to see what happens, as are several other European countries. Lots of folk are confused and concerned as the British government (for want of a better word) seems to be more disturbed about preventing the rights of foreign immigrants to the yUK than securing the rights of its own people living in Europe, so it’s hard to predict what the situation might be in a few weeks. I reckon those here and registered, living in Greece with an income, health insurance and all the correct paperwork will be fine, but the point is, no-one knows yet, and it’s a very worrying time for many. The next few weeks may bring more news, until then, I’m just carrying on as normal.

Symi Saturday Photos

Here’s a collection for you, some taken by Neil (the good ones) and some by me. As you can see, it’s not been raining all the time, though today, Saturday, I’ve woken up to a wet coutyard again.

A night out

We were invited to a 70^th birthday last night which coincided with a fundraiser at Georgio’s taverna. One of the school years/classes are raising money for their school trip, and they’d done it in style. The entrance was €10.00 per head which covered your first drink (half a jug of wine) and the musicians who were playing live. After that, it was off the menu but with the class also selling alcohol for the tables – by the bottle. They were also waiting, taking orders, and playing host. It was a lively atmosphere, very well attended and, as usual, the food was fine. It was fun to be a part of it and here’s a thank you to our hosts and to the teenagers and their teachers who put it all together. Sorry, no photos of the event; always feel odd taking pictures of people at dinner.

Then, after a nightcap, it was home to bed for a good night’s sleep to get rid of this cold. Well, that hasn’t worked.

Random Dwarves

Morning. I’m being very random this morning and putting up a few photos chosen for no reason whatsoever. I’m still two of Snow White’s dwarves today, Sneezy and Dopey. I don’t think there as one called Fluy, which would have been more like it and should be written Fluey, I suppose, but then I’d look like part of a chimney, and that would make me even more Grumpy. I’m not going to the Doc as there’s no point wasting his/her time. Also, I’m a bit Bashful about going down there and saying, ‘I have a cold’ and hearing the doctor say, ‘Yes, and so what?’ So, instead, will stay inside warm with tissues and a typewriter and get on with work until I am too Sleepy to do any more, which recently has been around two in the afternoon. I want to save my strength as we are having dinner with friends tonight and I want to be able to stay awake past nine pm, if possible. So, here are a few random photos that have something to do with dining out (so aren’t really random at all) and I hope they make you Happy.

If you were wondering about my use of Dwarves rather than dwarfs, here’s an explanation: “Dwarfs is the standard plural of the noun dwarf. Dwarves is a newer variant popularized (though not invented) by English author J.R.R. Tolkien in his fantasy fiction works, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Tolkien spelling is appropriate when referring to little people in fantasy worlds.” I am a little person who lives mostly in a fantasy world, so there you are. And don’t get me started on Elves.