I’m a little out of kilter today, so I’ll not be staying long. My editing has been put back by two days because we got stuck in Rhodes due to gales, and I have promised to get the MS to the formatting team by Monday. So… Anyway… We got to Rhodes a little late but that wasn’t an issue for the health MOT test centre. We arrived at 8.00 and were out by 8.40 having done the biz under the insurance cover. The results were in our in boxes that afternoon, and we’ve made an appointment for the other part of the test, the full cardio, for next Friday. Neil also needed new glasses so after brunch at Kokoraki, he popped into Optical House next door, saw Orestes, had an eye test and ordered new glasses which will be here in a couple of weeks. No appointment, just a ‘Will you be able to see me today?’, followed by a cheery, ‘Yes, come in now…’ and there you go.

Kokoraki (the cockerel) is a brunch café in Rhodes where the sports shop used to be. That’s a very ‘around here’ way of describing a place, sorry. Come out of the Plaza, turn left, go to the end, and over the road, opposite the small park, kiosk and supermarket… It’s right there, and we were served by George from Neraida, Symi, who recognised us. Wonderful eggs and bacon on friend bread, coffee and a double mug of breakfast tea for me, for €20.00 Set us up nicely after being up since four and not having eaten. Right, here are some random photos to keep you going. I’m off.

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We’re keeping an eye on the weather today, the wind in particular. I don’t think it will be a problem, but it’s forecast to reach 7/8Bf tomorrow at around the time we’re due to come back from Rhodes. I don’t mind a rough crossing but what you don’t want is to be told at five that it might sail at nine, then to be told at nine that it might leave at midnight, and on into the night. If there’s a delay, we’ll check into the Castellum for the night and get the Thursday SAOS instead. Which is one way of saying, I shan’t be here to tomorrow as the boat leaves at 5.40 in the morning, but I should be here on Thursday.

We’re also watching the dust cloud forecast with interest. We’ve been under the Sahara Desert for a couple of days, though it looks like it’s now cleared. The grey mist in the following photo shows it yesterday afternoon, and enough remained in the evening to give us a vibrant sunset.

Meanwhile, in the shipyard, the Titanic is coming along well, and we’re getting to the stage where the decks can join the hull. Before that, we want to add some internal lighting, and I have some on order, but they may be delayed, which means the project might go over time incurring a day-by-day penalty imposed by the White Star Line…

After the piano lesson and model building session, we popped out for a glass, got hungry, and ordered some chips from the taverna, which duly arrived at no charge, because that kind of thing happens a lot around here, and that was our evening.

This morning, I am continuing with my final edit of the next book. That’s once I have prepared tomorrow’s blog post for my other blog, where I will be showing the full cover of the new book – so check www.jacksonmarsh.com tomorrow morning if you want to see what that looks like.

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I don’t know about you, but we passed a quiet weekend, mainly at home where I got some work done, watched some films, and put my back out. We popped out on Saturday and, for the first time this year, sat outside the café until after dark. It was a warm weekend with temperatures reported as being up to 27°, and, for sure, being 25° in our courtyard. On Saturday, I was tempted to sit out there and read in the sun, but a firm was repaving the lane, and the air was dusty with cement, not to mention the sounds of the concrete mixer and scraping. This was why, when we returned home on Saturday evening, Les Misérables sprang to mind. Not because we were miserable, nor were we singing, but because…

Beyond the barricade… is a brand-new lane. Smooth, neat, and hopefully, not to be dug up again for some time. I remember, it wasn’t long after the section by us was done that the added weight of the extra covering cracked a sewer pipe and had to be dug up and the pipe fixed. Hopefully, that won’t happen again. The road was open again by Sunday morning. I looked out on Saturday and saw the guys starting from up by the bins, which isn’t a huge distance, but still not close, and I thought, they might get it done by Tuesday. No. They were there from 7.00 to 17.30, about nine or ten of them, and they got it all done in one day.

I’ll aim to get a snap of it in daylight when I next venture that way, which may not be today. I have the final proof of my next book to start checking, a piano lesson and a model-building session today, so the hours are already booked.

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A few random photos to end the week, starting with one taken just now as the Friday Blue Star was coming in. The weather’s calmer today, after some wind and cloud yesterday, and apparently, it’s set to get colder again, having been warm for a while. Still dry though and there are already BBQ bans and fire warnings in effect in parts of the country.

As you’ll see, there’s a mix of images here, in that some were taken in the summer last year, and some towards the end of the year when the ground was dry and the hillsides brown. A contrast to what we have now, as there is still grass and greenery to be seen

I’m pleased to say I have nothing at all planned for the weekend apart from editing and old book and preparing it for a re-release. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, have a good one, and I’ll be back on Monday.

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News of the day? Not much, really. Last night, I made a cottage pie, as opposed to a shepherd’s pie because of the kind of meat involved. It’s interesting how a cottage pie is made with beef and in gay polari* a ‘cottage’ is a public toilet. Ponder that for a second. I don’t think shepherd has any meaning in polari, but a ‘looker’ might, and down on Romney Marsh, they call their shepherds, ‘lookers’, as they do in my mysteries set on the marsh, the Saddling series. (Any excuse for a plug, eh?) I have no idea where this thought is coming from, too much onion gravy, I imagine (which took over an hour to make, by the way). Here’s a photograph.

Today, I shall be sending the final draft of ‘Acts of Faith’ to my proofreader ahead of deadline, and will then return to the reading I was doing yesterday, which also had nothing to do with polari, but everything to do with the Police Illustrated News of 1893, a fascinating read if you’re into all things crime related from the late 19th century, and a lot easier to read than the hundreds of other publications in the National Newspaper Archive that I spend more and more time in each day when looking for the next story, or details to use in the current one.

If the mood grabs me, I may take myself out for a wander later, I’ll see what I feel like doing. One thing I know for sure, is that we have a heap of cottage pie left over, so lunch is taken care of.

* Polari (noun) a form of slang incorporating Italianate words, rhyming slang, and Romani, used originally as a kind of secret language in England by people in theatres, fairgrounds, markets, etc. and adopted by some gay people in the 20th century.

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