I took a whole day off yesterday and did nothing but play games on my tablet, read, watch a little TV, and straighten a photo in a frame that’s been wonky for at least two years. Neil went back to work in the evening because there was live music at the kafeneion, and, after watching a creepy episode of a drama/documentary series about the Enfield Poltergeist I decided to read some more. There was music coming up from the harbour, first opera and then Greek trad, and the 4/4 beat of the music from the village square set against it, making for an interesting mashup. I suffered about eight mosquito bites during four or five chapters, before finally turning in, only to be working by a further four or five four hours later. So, here I am at 4.20, having already been up and about for over an hour, getting on with things ahead of a siesta probably around breakfast time.

We went down to Yialos on Friday for a little shopping and something to eat, and that’s where today’s photos come from.

At this time of the year, it’s not only the mosquitoes which can creep up on you. I got into the shower on Saturday, turned on the water, and noticed something crawling up my arm. I must have disturbed a young Symi spider from wherever it had been lurking and wasn’t too happy to have it traversing across me, so I gave it a blast from the shower, and then called for the husband to come and remove it. Normal service was then resumed.

For the last couple of mornings, when I have been up before the dawn and have gone to the sitting room with my first cup of tea, I’ve caught another interloper creeping about. This one has lived with us a while now and has recently moved into the sofa. At least, that’s where I’ve found him nosing around before darting between the cushions to escape. I rustle them about before I sit so he knows to move away, and to make sure I don’t squash ‘Squiggle’, as we’ve called him. He’s a Mediterranean house gecko, and I need to have a word with him about eating more mosquitoes.

So, the week starts, and so far, there is nothing remarkable planned other than the usual writing.

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My intention was to finish the week with some more photos from the ‘Last Week in the Past’ collection on my One Drive. However, I discovered that I’d exhausted the past yesterday because there was no more past past 2020 and that photos of the goats. Instead, I hit on the bright idea of trawling the collection by hand, but then discovered that most of my images are of my book covers, artwork, mock-ups, research images and such like. Either that or they are pictures of friends and family on holiday, and showing you those would be akin to Douggie and Jeanette forcing you to watch the slides from their recent trip to Bognor Butlins where they met that lovely couple, oh, what was their name, Douggie? Was it Willy and Carmelle? No, it were Willie and Caramel. Don’t be silly, was it. Nay, I remember distinctly it were Caramel, as I remember thinking how nice she’d be to nibble on. Ooh, take no notice of Douggie, he’s got a hernia. Show them your hernia, Douggie, and I’ll fetch us all another glass of snowball…

So, here’s a photo of me and Neil on holiday in 1998. No prizes for guessing we were in the Jean and Tonic bar.

We met some interesting people in there and elsewhere on the island while on holiday. On one occasion, I met a chap who remembered me from a holiday in Skopolos back in 1988 or ’89. I was very impressed until his wife explained that before coming out to Symi he’d bored her ridged with his previous-trips-to-Greece photos on the back of which he’d written the names of every person he’d encountered, main players and extras like me included. I didn’t know him from Adam, and the whole thing was a bit scary.

Aye, we’ve met some odd ones in the past 22 years. The lady with no shoes who never paid for her drinks, and who lit a campfire in her hotel bedroom. The man who wanted to ship his entire family to Nimos so his unfortunate children could ride their 4x4s over the island, presumably for the rest of their lives. Then, there was the one who went to Rhodes and came back on a horse, the couple who did nothing but row all the time, the one who went to the town hall because she wanted to marry a rather bewildered man she’d met the day before, or something.

We didn’t meet them in the J&T bar, but when working, or socialising, but talking of that bar, we had some fun times there, including a few times when I played keyboards with Mike and Susan – and that reminds me of another old snap I found while trawling my One Drive. Now, this one goes back even further, to around 1986, I should think. I was asked to help out at some special 60s night thing in some obscure place like Walthamstow because the band didn’t have a keyboard player. Can you do it? Someone asked. Bung me the notes and I’ll have a go, was my reply. Two weeks later, there we go, ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ keyboard solo, natty outfit and everything (Thanks to Top Man, Oxford Street.)

Oh, now I’ve seen it enlarged, it must have been Steve’s birthday.

Anyway, you’ve had this odd ramble thanks to a sleepless night leading to an early morning, and I suppose, I’d better show you some Symi images before I get on with chapter seven or wherever I am. So, here are three random shots from my more recent collection. Have a nice weekend.

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Here’s a thing: the ‘Last week through the years’ feature on One Drive. With a lack of much else to tell you, I thought I’d put up a few shots from this last week from the last four years. The one with the goats is 2020. Maybe I’ll go back further tomorrow. Before then, though, in local news, we had a few drops of rain yesterday, not enough to water the plants but enough to cause conversation. The bar was busy in the evening, so Neil tells me, and the temperature hangs around 25 degrees. Others have reported that it is becoming increasingly necessary to book tables at restaurants, particularly if you want to eat later in the evening. I always advise it at this time of year anyway.

Now, some photos.

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Today’s view looks something like this.

I took this photo from the window because we closed the balcony doors last night as there was a chilly breeze blowing in. It seems as though things have cooled down very quickly, yet it’s still not cold. It just feels cold because we were so continually hot for three or four months. I will soon have to search out the top sheet for the bed, then the duvet cover and ultimately the duvet to fill it, plus the blankets. Meanwhile, my two summer shirts and one pair of shorts will soon end up in the suitcase under the bed for a few months.

As you can also see, there’s a cruise ship coming in. I don’t think the passengers will yet have to pay to set foot on Symi, but some other islands are introducing fees for cruise passengers. When you see shots of the horrors of Santorini, for example, you can see why. Thousands of people lining the streets to look over where a volcano once blew up, standing on people’s rooves, causing human traffic jams in the lanes locals can’t use until they’ve gone, leaving rubbish somewhere, increasing the wear and tear, all those things must add up to a poor quality of life for residents. So, some might be making money from it with their shops and bars, etc., but not everyone. Anyway, €20.00 per person could earn Santorini thousands each day. Some reports have said up to 15,000 cruise visitors per day some days, and I’ve seen higher figures. Even so, €300,000 per day going to… Where? If they do implement it, and it works, I hope island residents never have to pay council tax again.

I’m wittering now, so I’ll shut up and leave you with a snap I took the other day. Enjoy this piece of wood sticking out of a wall why don’t ya?

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Another quiet, typical-for-me day yesterday. This year, I’ve not been getting up in the middle of the night so much and starting work at three or four, but later. No idea why. I’m usually a very early morning person but this summer, five or six has been the norm. I’m pleased to report I still get as much done, only now, I do it later. It’s strange, looking at the clock and thinking, It’s nearly eleven, I should be playing Sherlock on the tablet, or, It’s one, I should get back to the desk. Strange, because it doesn’t actually matter. I don’t run to a timetable, but I think it’s ingrained. Up at this time, into the car at that time, arrive at the office, work until this time, then a break, then the afternoon, leave dead on five, home by six… I’ve not done anything like that for 24 years or so. Even when I worked for Hastings BC writing their five-year housing strategy I was my own boss and could keep my own hours, and that was the last desk job I did until I started this one which is also at my own pace, when and if I want to do it.

No idea why I’m blathering about that. Just emptying my head of mundanities before I set about filling it with creative thoughts. Actually, today might be a research day. I need to find out how the Congregationalist movement operated in the late 19th century, how their chapels were organised, who oversaw what, and so on. This is for the next mystery book, of course, and this time one of the main venues is Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington. That’s a place I used to know well, as it was, and still is, a nice place to walk, take a book, sit and find some peace, or simply watch men try to pick up other men and take them into the bushes, but that’s another story, never mind, anyway… I’ve been looking into its background as a non-denominational cemetery, one of the famous ‘London Seven’ graveyard parks, I suppose you could call them, and my book of 1888 London maps shows a chapel opposite one of the entrances. So, that, I decided, would be my starting point for a mystery that will have something to do with the camera and early(ish) photography.

This I how my cluttered mind works, you see, but behind it all is the need to do some simple, but informative research, so this morning, I think I will be mainly trawling newspapers of the time to see if I can find articles about the Congregationalist movement – is it a movement? There, that can be my first piece of research.

In the absence of anything else to tell you or show you, have this image to keep you going.

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