I have a quiet weekend planned. That is, a weekend where, apart from a few odd jobs, I have nothing to do. Next week is a little busier, and I will report on that as and when. Today, there’s not a lot to tell you. The Blue Star has just come in on its way to Rhodes, the sea is flat calm, as is the weather, and it looks like we are going to have a pleasant weather day. It was 16° yesterday, though it’s still humid, so the windows are misted in the morning, and the dehumidifier has come into play.

Yesterday, having previously laid down the hull of Titanic, we painted it, along with the decks, some mooring bollards, and other parts ahead of the build. We also started to rework Chopin’s Prelude in E minor and another piece, and had a good old chat about college, the summer, and what ‘beach pants’ to order online. That’s kind of how Thursday afternoons go in our kitchen. Meanwhile, outside, the plants are doing well, though this lot is boosted by the addition of Penny’s purples which we’re fostering for the winter. So far, everything is holding up well. Neil’s cut back the chillies and the rose, and the other ones aren’t doing much yet, so things look a bit baren out there, but hopefully, that will start to change as spring creeps in.

Right now, I shall be creeping off to do some work. After that, some reading, and I must get out for a walk. I woke up the other day with my lower back refusing to work properly, but that’s calming down now, and a stroll will help it, now that I can get from A to B without a fuss. Next week’s job is to order a new mattress.

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An early night led to a very early morning made more confusing because, when I gave in and got up at around 3.00, I sat in the living room reading for what I thought was an hour, only to discover it was still only 3.15. Then, I come in here to get this done and start the day because I may as well, and I discover it’s 4.30 and the clock on the piano stopped not long after I started. Then, I remember, I’ve got a fair old day ahead, what with needing to pick something up from the post office, a piano lesson and a couple of hours on the model building, and that’s on top of this morning’s typing. Maybe I’ll have a siesta before lunch and set things right again. This image makes me smile:

That was Boxing Day when both ‘boys’ were here for lunch, a film, and making a mess of our sitting room. There’s something homely about the way they both kick off their shoes as soon as they arrive and dive straight into bro talk on the sofa. Later that day, we had a piano recital with H and I performing a simple duet, followed by him playing two pieces by Burgmüller, one, a high-end grade three piece and the other, a grade four piece (mainly because the left hand is constantly playing back and forth over the right). We finished with both of us playing Fur Elise as a ‘takeover duet.’ (Where one starts, then the other takes the next section, and you swap back halfway through a chromatic run while keeping the temp and swapping places.) An afternoon film followed with much hilarity throughout the day.

And now, a village detail:

Incense, usually Frankincense if I am not mistaken, burning outside the super market (sic) on a Sunday morning – just before Christmas.

To finish this early morning nothingness, here’s a view which was taken a day after Boxing Day when the grey clouds and rain had moved on. The bright, clear view doesn’t tell the whole story; it’s been very damp so far this winter, and that’s starting to cause issues with mould in the bathroom for the first time in ten years. Having the ceiling redone in there is the next job on the list, and to see to that, I need to visit the Indian restaurant, but that’s another story.

Talking of stories, if you are into mystery and thriller novels, there are loads on this list to check out – and they’re all on Kindle Unlimited.

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We had a productive day up here yesterday. The other day I rashly suggested I might make some spicy beef patties if Neil would make the pastry because he’s good at that and I’m not. So, yesterday, he reminded me of this and after the morning’s work was over, we took to the kitchen for a rare event: both of us cooking in the same room at the same time. It was a surprisingly successful adventure, the patties were perfect, and I then went on to make lentil soup while Neil baked a cake – well, the oven was on for the first and only time this month, so we made the most of it. I tried baking a cake in the new air fryer the other day and it was a disaster, I think, because it was set to ‘juicy’ and not ‘crisp.’ I don’t know, too many choices.

Meanwhile, outside…

Actually, that was from a few weeks ago now, one of the ‘over the Christmas period’ photos, I think. Can’t remember. Anyway, it’s typical of the winter skies we see, the brief, pink sunsets and the chill in the breeze. The typical winter sky might be this one…

Which was taken outside Scena when I went to get some money from the medical clinic. No, it wasn’t a holdup. It just happens to be where the first ATM in the village ever was situated towards the end of last year. I’ve used it a few times recently, and it’s not let me down. It’s not even charged me for the service, which is a rare thing from a vending machine these days.

And this one is a rare treat for anyone who likes to look at the inside of a village super market (sic). No trolleys, of course, but we do have two aisles and a deli counter manned by finches who go by the names of Tina and Jenine, and you’re always guaranteed a laugh when you go in for sugar and gossip.

As for today, I feel a writing morning followed by a lazy afternoon working on my ‘side quest’ as the godson calls such things. While not rebuilding the Titanic, which is a two-man job, I am building a locomotive out of wood. This is a Christmas present that failed to arrive on time, so Neil told me what it was to be, and I went and ordered myself a similar thing from Amazon, and then the present did arrive and so I’ve started on it before the second one comes along. I shall be privatised by Easter.

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It was on that date (31st March 1909) that the Titanic’s keel was laid down in the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast (slip 3). Monday, 6th January 2025, the same thing happened in our kitchen. The winter build project has begun.

Yesterday afternoon was great fun. A piano lesson where we started on two new pieces, one from the course book, and another from a separate collection that’s also grade four standard, and that second piece is one my student must prepare on his own. At the Thursday lesson, we’re going to return to a Chopin piece (prelude in E minor) that he played a year ago, and we’re going to shift it up a level. After that hour, we spent two in the kitchen getting to grips with the huge 1/400 scale Titanic, doing what we can while we wait for the paints to arrive. (We could at least start an undercoat.)

Yesterday was also Epiphany, and it’s traditional for the one who rescued the cross from the sea to parade it around town and village where people are free to drop a donation to that person’s church. We just happened to be in the bar when the triumphant party arrived last night, but they were on such a whistle stop tour, I didn’t have time for a decent photo.

Today, I’ve woken up to a clear crisp sky, no breeze, a flat sea and a great view, but it’s not always like that. This, for example, was Christmas week.

Mind you, so was this cosy scene…

And now, on with the day. Writing, of course, maybe a trip to Yialos for one or both of us, and some more editing this afternoon. It’s Yiannis’ name day today, and we’ve been invited to go for a drink with him at the bar later, which we will, but it will have to be the last time this week. That, so far, is what today holds in store.

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By the time you read this, it will be Epiphany, and the New Year will be well underway. Today, young men will be diving into the waters to retrieve the cross, there will be church services, and the waters will be blessed according to tradition. Meanwhile, up here, I shall be working on a new novel, tidying up an old one, promoting existing publications and later, giving a piano lesson. Everything will then be back to normal. Kind of. Thanks to the generosity of Santa, I may well be spending the next three months building the Titanic and learning to play the guitar.

To tell you about the last two weeks in detail would take pages, but I will let some images out now and then. This may mean that Christmas lasts until February, but so what? I’m already planning for this year (not). I have a wealth of images of us and the logical family spending time together, but they aren’t always the right images to share – some moments must be kept private, for example, when I dressed entirely in Temu clothes on Christmas Day and avoided naked flames. However, a list of keywords to take us through our Symi Christmas might be this:

Last ‘Boys’ Night’ of the year involved a spotted dick, there were carols at Scena, Christmas Eve prep at the kitchen table, Gremlins, memories, feasting, an air fryer, guitars (both broken and fixed), silliness, feasting, new coats, old jokes, rain, a microwave, massage machines, other orthopaedic contraptions for the elderly, sunny views, more rain, shopping, pink skies, piano recitals, curry, late-arrival presents, fireworks, jollity, and feasting.

Let me start the year off with three separate incidents. First, the incident of the spotted dick. Thanks to Neil bringing some suet back from Scotland, I was able to feed our boys a large bowl of mild chilli with dumplings (because they’d never had one), followed by a highly successful first go at a suet pudding, a ‘spotted dick’ because the boys had never had one (as far as we know).

The next was an evening at Scena with Jenine and Terri, plus lots of other folk, for Christmas Carol singing and fundraising for the Rhodes orphanage. Well done, Dawn, George and everyone else involved.

Then, there were some good-weather days that gave us the usual view.

I’ll fish out some more images for tomorrow. Welcome to 2025!

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