Here’s a photo of the house I was talking about yesterday. I took a few snaps coming up the steps that day, and this was the last one I took before turning right and entering Chickenland, never to be seen again…

It looks like today is going to be another sunny and calm day, though so far, I’ve only looked out of the window. I must pop up the road at some point and have a look at the state of play. We’ve got piles of cut stone along the side of the lane, ready to be put down as the lane is resurfaced. I think some of it up and around the corner has already been done, and I’m expecting the drills and mixers to start up down our end any day now. It looks like the lane will be paved in the way other paths were done years ago as the improvement schemes continue. The main road has, I am told, also been tarmacked all the way across the island now (?), which will be a great improvement on what was there before. The Kali Strata, of course, remains as it has remained for the last 100 + years.

Last thing today is a book push. The biography of my godfather, ‘Bobby, a life Worth living’ is being publicised in a promotion that covers historical fiction, time-travel, women’s literature, and memoirs, which is what Bobby kind of is, because I tried to keep the text in the style of his storytelling. The book’s done reasonably well since I launched it last year, though I’m still waiting to hear back from Shirley Bassey who is the only remaining-alive person from Bobby’s past and briefly mentioned in the book. I sent her a copy out of courtesy, but can only assume it arrived. There are plenty of other names and historical incidents mentioned in the book, and many other books in the promo, where most of the covers definitely have a ‘written for the enjoyment of women’ look to them. See for yourself by clicking the banner below:

Here’s a question many people ask when visiting in the summer: Does everywhere stay open in the winter? The answer is, no, not everywhere, because some businesses are summer enterprises only (beach tavernas, boat hire, water taxis, some souvenir shops, etc.). Essential businesses remain open, of course, banks, pharmacies, health clinic, town hall, etc., and some cafés, bars and tavernas also stay open. Some eateries, such as the Taj Mahal might only operate at weekends, while others, such as Scena, Niki’s Kitchen, and Georgio’s remain open throughout the winter, perhaps with a day off here and there for a holiday, repainting, Christmas… We were at Georgio’s the other night, actually, and the BBQ was on…

The menu may be limited at this time of the year, there were chops, chips, cheese fritters, salads, and what you might call staples, but a lot of the time, what’s available depends on what’s in the shops, or in some cases, what’s in the freezer. We manage, thank you, and there are places to eat out, socialise and sit and watch the world go by in both the village and the harbour.

While, at home, there’s plenty to keep us occupied. I finished my model locomotive yesterday, and the Titanic’s funnels are now complete and rigged. The next stage is to add the three deck levels together which should happen on Thursday. The following week, my piano student is away with his class for five days, so the ship and Chopin will have to wait, but I reckon, she’ll be seaworthy by mid-April. In fact, she might be ready to set off on her maiden voyage on April 10th, 113 years to the day after first leaving Southampton.

(‘The Ship and Chopin’ sounds like a great name for a pub. I’ll have to write that into one of my books.)

It was carnival weekend in Greece, and Symi held an all-day celebration in the harbour, with, it looked like, Disco as the theme. Lots of youngsters dressed as disco divas and John Travoltas, music from that era, belly dancing, and later, fireworks. There are some videos courtesy of Symi TV over on the Symi Dream Facebook page.

(I still have no idea who that was.)

Up in the village, we had the boys around for dinner to celebrate their mother’s recent birthday, Neil made a trifle in a handbag, of course, Harry played the piano for his mum (brilliantly, though I say so myself), Sam melted into the sofa after several non-stop days working in the café which has been packed, by all accounts, and we all had a jolly good laugh.

There was a trifle inside including jelly, cream, custard and cake. Bonkers.

It wasn’t so much of a fun weekend for this 36.2 kilo fish Manoli and his mates caught on Sunday, nor for the lobster or the eel-like creature that was also on display in the village square. We saw it while on our way to dinner at Georgio’s where the BBQ was alight, the tzatziki was the most garlicy I’ve even known, and the prices were more than reasonable.

Now, with the weather warming, it’s Clean Monday, the start of Lent, and the start of a new week. It’s already turning out to be a sociable one what with three piano sessions booked in and a dinner invite at the weekend, walking to do (starting tomorrow), and only three chapters left to go of my next first draft, I have plenty to be getting on with on this bank holiday.

Today, I can show you a couple of the photos I was talking about yesterday but couldn’t reach because of the internet thing. It’s fine today (150 Mbs), so I don’t know why it was so slow yesterday. However, the image you see here of the blue sky… well, you can’t actually see that this morning. All that’s outside the window is a wall of grey as the rain sweeps in across the bay from the north.

It’s a day for staying at home, keeping dry and cosy, and not going to the shops, as one of us must do later. Neil is doing things in the kitchen today, while I am writing. Yesterday, the bathroom ceiling was finished to perfection, and I’ll share some pics of that next week if I remember, and the afternoon was spent, again, in the kitchen with Neil cooking and us two working on the beast of a model. I have to say, H is doing this all himself except from when it comes to the rigging which is a two-man job, only because of having to tie tiny knots in short pieces of cotton.

Still, it’s coming on.

There’s nationwide strike action today to protest over the government’s handling of the fatal rail crash of two years ago, so if you are in Greece and were planning to visit particular offices or services, you might need to check if they will be open or running. Mind you, if you are in Greece, you won’t have failed to have noticed the news coverage of that terrible event nor the ensuing outcry which has been screaming on for two years and yet no-one seems satisfied, because nothing much has been done to ensure such a thing doesn’t happen again. Meanwhile, you’ve got seven planets lined up across the dusk sky tonight though you can’t see them all without binoculars, and with all this cloud around, you can’t even see the sky let along things millions of miles up. Whatever, it’s time to set my mind to 1893, the day ahead, and to look forward to sunnier days.