Not sure what that title means, but we did have a very pink sunrise yesterday – here are the photos to prove it. Window shots again but I was hurrying to get my work done before heading out to practice some carols. Which is why this post is mainly just a few images taken from up here in the village yesterday morning as the sun came up.
I hope you enjoy them, and I hope to have more words for your tomorrow.
I haven’t done this for a while. Transposing music. Winter Wonderland from Eb to C, it’s only down a minor third, so should only take me back to grade five or something. Should be able to manage that before lunch. Then I have to tackle Wenceslas, jingling bells and a little donkey, which shouldn’t take me too long. This is in preparation for the carol singing next week – to which you are invited if you are on Symi or can get here by then. 5pm at Lefteris’ kafeneion on Friday 22nd. Any and all funds raised will go to the Rhodes orphanage.
And talking of fundraising (again), you may remember that the Symi football field was destroyed in the storm on November 13th. There’s now a campaign to raise money to save it, thereby returning one of the most-used sports facilities on the island to its previous, or better, condition. If you are feeling generous – and I know so many have given so much to help the island since that terrible night – then you can find all the details at the Go Fund Me campaign page here, and/or their Facebook page. They will match-fund the money raised at $10,000. Let’s hope there’s good news before Christmas.
And talking of that… Tree done, presents wrapped, lists made and now only some deep and even snow to transpose down, and we’re nearly there.
Window shots today, the photos, which is why one of them is a bit blurred. Not that the windows need cleaning or anything… As you can see: blue skies, calm sea and a boat chugging out of the harbour. It’s currently 16 degrees outside in the shade and, up on the roof, it’s like a day in late spring.
That was an expression that always baffled me when doing am-dram years ago. All these (cheap to rent) plays were set in drawing rooms, ‘one afternoon in late spring.’ In fact, I think that might have been one of the stage directions in ‘The Real Inspector Hound’, by Tom Stoppard. I may have got that wrong, I’ve not read it for a long time. Anyway, that was just an aside in a post which is itself really as aside, as there’s not a lot to tell you. Except…
The fund-raising carol singing event this year will be held at Lefteris’ Kafeneion on 22nd December at 5pm. That’s the last I heard. I’ve offered my piano playing if it will help, though the poor old piano may not be making an appearance; it’s too unpredictable to be worth dragging even the short distance only to find it’s not working. But we will manage. The money raised, like last year, will be going to the Rhodes orphanage and everyone is welcome to come along, listen to the music and sing along if you want to. It was a great event last year, fun and also moving, and I think I might still have one photo left hanging around, let me look…
Ah yes. That was taken after the carols during young George’s rock set – very talented young man on his guitar. His audience is clearly appreciating his augmented fourths. I’ll leave you with that and turn my attention to herald angels and away managers, good kings and three ships and all that, and may see if I can slip some practice in between now and sunbathing up on the roof. (Not.)
Clear skies, 13 degrees at 6.30 in the morning, we’re doing well here. Sorry if you’re stuck in snow and having power-outs where you are. The yUK never seems to get the hang of its own famous weather. There’s always the wrong kind of snow or leaves or even the wrong kind of trains on the line, so the railways fail. There’s always a problem with gritting lorries being stuck in the garage because the roads haven’t been gritted, and no-one seems prepared to deal with snow when it comes, even though you get snow there every year. I don’t know. At least here on Symi, we don’t very often have to worry about snow and ice, though it has been known in the mountains and lower down on rare occasions.
Don’t know where that came from. I was going to tell you about a bit of Shakespeare. If you have anyone at school studying ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ then you might want to get hold of a new version of it on DVD. You may have already seen it. We saw it the other day, and it struck me that if we had adaptations like this when I was at school, I’d have understood what was going, and also probably managed higher marks in my exam. Mind you, we were studying Henry IV Part Two, so it probably wouldn’t have helped to know about where the wild thyme grows and all that fairy stuff, but you know what I mean.
Apart from the cast (including Maxine Peake and Matt Lucas) it’s a good adaptation and makes the story make sense, while still in the original language of the play. Not all of it, there have been cuts, but still… Anyway, I just thought it might be a good tip if anyone is ‘doing’ Shakespeare at school and this one in particular. Here’s a link: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Which has nothing to do with anything here on Symi except we are approaching a midwinter’s night, I guess. Clearly, there’s no other great news to tell you from up here in the village where I tend to only see the computer, the keyboard, the sea from the window and occasionally the TV in the Rainbow bar, and not much else at the moment. (Writing deadlines.) So, I’ll leave you wondering what the point of this post was (clue: there wasn’t one) and let you head off into the rest of your day.
Although it’s only Sunday morning as I write, we’ve had a very laddish weekend so far. We had the boys ’round for a lad’s night on Friday: That’s the godsons, bangers and mash, and a good film. Saturday was a day of writing for me and a couple of hours down the pub in the evening: That’s a couple of glasses of wine at the Rainbow Bar watching football with the regulars. Well, football on one screen and a very interesting Discovery Channel programme about Angor on the other.
We’ve had some rain (free water!) and there’s more happening every now and then this morning. All kinds of cloud activity is happening up there across the otherwise blue sky and the sea alternates between silvery blue and grey depending on where the clouds go. As you can see from the photos, Friday was a sunny day, but chilly.
The regular boats have been coming and going, the Express is just coming in as I write, and I’ve been down to Yialos to collect a few parcels. Still waiting for a few things to arrive, but hopefully they will be here in time for Christmas.
That’s my weekend so far, and after breakfast, and shopping and supervising godson 2 in his cleaning duties (earning pocket money) I hope to get back to my usual Sunday keyboard-tapping for the afternoon before settling in under a blanket on the sofa.
