Last night we saw something we’ve never seen before. No, it wasn’t the inside of my wallet, nor was it Neil in sensible clothing, not even was it me doing sit-ups, it was, in fact, two boats. I put this distant photo up on Fakebook so you may have seen it, but if you zoom in and look beneath the anrevat* sign, you can see what I’m on about.

Two Blue Star ferries in the harbour at the same time. Not something you see every day, or even every 22 years. There’s to be at least one per day for the rest of the week because of the festival at Panormitis (7^th, 8^th, 9^th).

Now, that has just annoyed me. Not the festival or the boats, but the way my Word programme changed the large th in 7th to 7^{th  (superscript)}. I’m annoyed because I changed that ‘autoformat as you type’ command some time ago because it looks better in book manuscripts to have 7th with a larger th, but the programme has taken on itself to change it back again. It’s like when you copy and paste from one program to another, it changes the font. Or, when you use a Microsoft template, it starts you off in some font that on-one in their right mind would use for anything, ever.

Deep breath…

Yesterday: we learnt the house is going to be back up for sale, but if/when it’s sold, we can move across the road if we want to (and if that property ever gets its own water supply, gets emptied, restored and cleaned up – it’s not been opened for at least four years). Also, yesterday’s piano lesson: fancy sight-reading this Bach prelude? (Another one, this time in C minor.) Ok. Off you go, and off he went. Blimey and bravo. It’s going to be a week of the two of them as the older one is coming today to clear up the area in front of the house, then the younger one’s back for piano on Thursday, and they’re both coming for a ‘boys’ night’ on Saturday. Neil suggested H and I do the cooking for that, to which H replied, ‘No, we’re the entertainment,’ which made us laugh.

And, as you might have seen from the photo above, there are few boats in the harbour now. We still had the Symi II come in yesterday, and it is Panormitis week, so we can expect it to be busy as the week goes on.

What be this?

It be one of these:

*Anrevat is Taverna backwards, and that’s how you see the sign when you are on one side of it.

We had a very nice weekend thank you, not that I much like the word, ‘nice,’ but you know what I mean. “You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice…” (‘Into the Woods’). We went into the valley, the Pedi Valley, with the family and friends and had a fabulous walk and explore, taking in the ancient fortification Drakos, Pedi, and later, lunch at Niki’s Kitchen. I’ll drop in more photos during the week, but here are a few from yesterday and one of just now.

Our walk started when we all met at Kampos and set off up the hill, dropping down to the left just past the famous Mediterranean oak tree. As we have had no rain to speak of since… May(?, I can’t remember) the ground, grass and scenery is very ochre in colour, with some trees still sporting greenery and others in the autumnal colours of red/brown. Grasses are spindly and have lost their flowers, and the ground is hard underfoot. Overhead, we have a collection of migrating and resident birds including ravens, warblers, and various hawks. We have a couple of robins in front of the house who always turn up at this time of year.

The company was lovely, of course, with some keen jokers among us, a teen interested in shotgun cartridges as well as history, an older brother interested in the plants and wildlife, and some middle-aged people interested in the archaeology, everything else, and the next beer stop. That happened when we reached Pedi and called into Kamaris where Neil went inside to use the loo, and where the owner came out to explain to the rest of us that they were actually closed, oops. So, we had a drink at the Blue Corner and then walked up to have lunch outside the Junior School at Niki’s Kitchen. This included a huge plate of pork reared and slaughtered locally, and served by family. A classic, Sunday afternoon in Greece home-cooked lunch, followed by too much wine with the squares in the bar, I mean at the bars in the square.

And so, a new week begins with writing work, a piano lesson and a quiet night in. I hope.

Yesterday was Halloween as I am sure you are aware. We don’t have so much of that trick or treating around here, although it sometimes takes place. There were a few younger people out and about in costume yesterday, maybe heading to a private party or just dressing up for fun, but no great big American style street decorations and all that spam. We did, however, have a treat and it concerned this piece of music…

My pupil came for his Thursday lesson at the appointed hour, and after the usual, Hi, how are you? Ola good. Sure? Yes. Any news? No… kind of overture that usually precedes an hour’s concentration, we got on with it. Scales: A major, A harmonic minor, A melodic minor, arpeggios of A major and A minor, and on to the next sex in the key of E flat… Then, a look through Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues to identify keys from the key signature and first/last notes of a piece. Then, on to the pieces. We started out five years ago by meeting once per week for around 15 minutes. Now, we meet twice a week for an hour at a time. One day we do the usual warm-up scales etc., followed by work from the course book, duets (for a Boxing Day concert we’re planning), and other random pieces for sight reading practice. The other day of the week, we start in the same way and then move on to the grade four examination pieces. Soon, we’ll concentrate more on the exam pieces and technical stuff, anyway…

After a quick break to admire that random photo… Yesterday we worked through a Chopin piece which focuses on playing in octaves, dexterity and speed, and then moved on to the exam pieces, blah blah, and after fifty-five minutes, I decided that was that, so we sat at the piano and chatted. Oh, then he played through the Bach prelude we’d opened on Monday (Neil had joined us by then) and which he’d played by himself for the fun of it (there’s your first result right there). We started chatting about Halloween, and it turned out H and his mates had recently watched the last Halloween film. In fact, he said, ‘We watched this…’

… and played the theme from the film score. It is in moments such as that one that you realise you have made a difference. It might look simple, but have you tried playing in five/four time? Have you heard and then transcribed a piece of music? I’d not taught him how to do this, there had been no music, he’d heard it and gone to his piano and worked it out. Heard it, replayed it, and (and this was the most stunning thing for me who can play nothing by ear not even Happy Birthday), he’d done it in the same key as the original. Hearing/playing is not something you can easily teach, and I don’t think I have, but needless to say, my gob was more than a little smacked. You might think it’s only one line of music, but it went on, the bass came in after the repeat, and that was accurate too.

Anyway… Enough about spooky Little Mozart, and back to the island. We’ve been promised a weekend with temperatures into the early 30s, it’s sunny out there, and I’m currently in here about to work on chapter 18 of the next release. Neil’s weighting next door before heading out, the washing machine is already churning, the water tank is filling, and we’re out to dinner with Miss P tonight, so there’s that to look forward to. Have a great weekend!

Here are a few more shots from a recent morning in Yialos. Boys fishing, fishing boats moored up after being washed down and having had their nets mended; those two things remind me of the age-old question, ‘What do you do in the winter?’ Although I don’t go fishing, it continues through the winter months, with professional fishermen on their boats, and amateurs with their rods. As long as you have a licence, I guess you’re good to go.

Random thought: Licence. Another of those English words that’s easy to confuse, as in ‘license or licence’? To put you out of my mystery, Licence is the noun, as in fishing licence, while License is the verb, as in to license someone to fish.

Of course, being an ‘English’ word, Licence is not English at all, but has arrived in our language from Latin, via Old French, to Middle English. License, however, derives from Licence, so that can be counted as being English, based on a word derived from Latin and Old French.

I think that’s right.

Meanwhile, Practice and practise work in the same in in that the noun has the C in it, Practice, while Practise, with an S is the verb. In this case, the verb came first, from Latin and Old French, and the noun, Practice, came from it.

I have no idea how or why I drifted into that, so here’s a fishing boat, and I’m drifting off to work.

Ps. A collective noun for a group of fishing boats? A drift.

It is starting to sound like the winter season, at our house at least. Today’s activities have already begun with a one-hour workout (Neil), and a cup of tea (me). After posting this blog, and my Jackson Marsh update blog, and after typing up half a chapter, and sweeping the floors, we’re having an ice cream workshop. That is, we have some friends coming later this morning to make ice cream with Neil. I’ll probably read, take a walk, or carry on writing. Later, I have some piano playing to do, which I am looking forward to, and this evening, the same friends are coming for dinner, part of which will be the ice cream. I’m on starters (tomato soup, homemade, of course), and laying the table. Meanwhile, outside, it’s still busy in the harbour during the day…

Also, to show that it’s finally calmer season-wise, we were able to get together with the family on Sunday and have a roast pork dinner, including gravy by Sam which is always a treat. Sitting in the courtyard under the shade of the umbrella because it was too hot in direct sunlight, chewing the cud or whatever, and catching up on news with all of us together for the first time in ages. we’ve also talked about our first ‘boys’ night’ maybe the weekend after next. The weather isn’t playing winter at all, which is both good and troublesome (some rain would be handy), and it’s still warm enough to sleep with the window slightly open and only one sheet on the bed. Looks like it’s going to stay that way for a while, too. Oh, and the train continues to run.