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.

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.

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!

… because I won’t be saying it then. I’m taking some time off from the blog(s) and books to put my feet up more than usual and have a fun Christmas time. This fun will start on Monday, if not sooner, as on Monday, we’re going to the Christmas carols and sing-a-long at Scena. Dawn organises this most years and all money raised goes to the orphanage in Rhodes. That’s Monday, on Tuesday I will be peeling vegetables and making ‘pigs in blankets’ with Harry while Neil makes stuffing with Sam, and Jenine organises and makes a lot of noise. This has become a tradition over the last 22 years, 20 of which have been spent with the boys. Actually, as I said yesterday, I can’t really call them boys any longer, because they are men (or are just about to be), so, as it’s the time of year, I shall call them snowmen with no S. In other words, they are nowmen. Get it? How about this instead:

Christmas Day will be spent at their house, and Boxing Day at ours. Here, the usual form is I make a big pot of something with lots of fibre (lentil soup), and everyone brings leftovers, and we chill, veg, talk, laugh, eat, watch a film, and then the nowmen slip away to their real friends in the early evening having stayed a polite enough amount of time, and us adults watch another film and, probably, drink too much. Here’s another one:

For the past two years, we’ve all trotted off to Athens for New Year but not so this year. Money is the issue, and the sense of ‘done that, where next?’ This year, nowhere but home, but that’s fine too. I intend to start on my next project at some point over this festive break. I have a new novel mapped out, and an idea for another set of short stories set in the late 19th century, so we shall see what comes out. And another.

In fact, the images are coming thick and fast now, so I think I’ll leave you to get on with Christmas or simply a holiday if you don’t celebrate the mass itself, and wish you a pleasant time and hope all goes well for you. I’ll be back in the New Year, but keep an eye on the Symi Dream Facebook page. You never know what might turn up there. Meanwhile, here’s the last of what’s turning up here this year:

Have a happy Christmas and New Year!

At last, I have some out-and-about photos to share with you today and tomorrow. After that, I shall be taking some days off over Christmas, though I might pop in to share some of the festivities before returning in the New Year. Before putting those images up, I need to let you know that the next mystery is now available in paperback and Kindle. So, if you are interested, follow this link and it should take you to your nearest Amazon store:

https://mybook.to/GraveDevelopments

And so, to yesterday, when we walked down the steps to Yialos to do some shopping. First, at the ‘new’ supermarket, aka, ‘Sam’s Supermarket’ because he worked there once. Then, to the post office, wine shop, other shops, anywhere you could legally part with money, and then a pit stop at the café on the corner, where Sam is now working for the winter, so that will soon be called ‘Sam’s Café’, no doubt. After a very nice cup of coffee there, we took a taxi back up with Konstantinos, and were home by eleven. Talking of the godboys as I half was just then, they are coming for supper this evening. Rather, H is stopping after his piano lesson to cook with me, and big bro is turning up later for some totally inappropriate banter, maybe a game of cards, and a general ‘let your hair down while you’ve still got some’ evening. In preparation for that, I should go and prepare to do some more shopping, this time up in the village, and leave you with some shots of yesterday.