Five thirty in the morning, I’m at the desk, and the fan is on. It’s 22 degrees, and 45% humidity in the corner of our courtyard, not that I am there, I’m in here, with both windows open, and a can of mosquito spray beside me which I blast beneath the desk at the slightest suspicion of unwanted attention. And so the day begins. A day in which I have much to do.

I suddenly find myself with three major projects on my hands, one I must start and finish in the next two days, and two which are nearing the end. Those two are editing; preparing my next Jackson Marsh book for release, hopefully, next week, and working on the biography of my late godfather, which I am hoping to release in July, but before then, an interview for Reader’s House literary magazine. I have the questions, all I need is suitable answers, so today, I will write a draft, and tomorrow, I will tidy it up and send. I hope they use it as it has a readership of 40k worldwide, and it’s a great opportunity. We shall see.

On the domestic front, there’s also much tidying up to do ahead of the nephew coming to stay on Saturday, and mother’s visit (she’s staying at Hotel Fiona this time, so won’t be far away). Of late, the laundry room has become a dumping ground for books and other things I must sort out, and to get to the washing machine at the moment requires an amount of breathing in, especially when the ironing board is up, as it is now. Ironing a shirt at four in the afternoon when it’s nearly 40 degrees outside… You never really get used to it.

After lunch, which these days consists of salad, I have some piano playing to do, and before that, Neil should be off to the gym. So, apart from the interview, it’s all set to be a normal day. (Famous last words.) If you were wondering, the photos today are from Neil’s collection that I was talking about yesterday. They are winter images, and I chose them in the hope they might help me feel cooler. Ha!

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I was wandering through my folders on the PC yesterday when I came across a large collection of photos taken by Neil. These are from a couple of years ago, but they are mainly landscapes, and as Symi’s landscape hasn’t changed much in thousands of years (sea, sky, rocks, plants), the age of the image makes no difference. So, today, I’ll start sharing some of these shots, and I’m starting with three that stood out for me because of the colours involved.

First of all, a dramatic sky.

This is early in the morning, and I’d say early in the year, spring possibly, because the sun is coming up to the left of Pedi, which faces east. Later in the year, from the same location, the sun would be coming up more to the right, behind the hills beyond St Nicholas Beach.

The next could be called some colours of the sea. This shot wasn’t taken on St Nick’s beach, because it’s sandy, and this is clearly pebbly. It’s here because there is an amount of grey, cream, and a slight green, which, strangely, reminded me of the hillside, which starts out green in spring and ends up a kind of light umber colour mixed with grey rocks, and red-brown vegetation.

This last one, though, you could call your classic Greek blue. The summer sky, the calm Aegean, a shot of white from the boat and some houses, the colours of the Greek flag.

And together, they go to show the variety you find on an island like Symi, and the spectacle it often is. There will be more of these in due course. Today, I will be mainly editing the two writing projects I currently have on the go, taking a short, early walk before keeping out of the sun, and reading about life in Victorian London which was very colourful indeed.

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Because I didn’t wake up until 6.30 today and am running late, I only have a few random photos from the past couple of days and a few comments on them. After this, I must get on with editing ‘Bobby, a life worth living.’ This is the biography/autobiography of my godfather, who died in 2007. Before he died, I recorded him telling the story of his life, and now, finally, I am doing what he wanted me to do with it, which is putting it into a book and publishing it. It starts in Tooting in 1919, and the story runs through the 20th century. There will be more about it in due course, but while I wait for ‘Where There’s a Will’ to come back from proofing, I have this to be getting on with. As the book (Bobby) is about my godfather, here’s a vaguely appropriate, random but action photo of our godson hard at work in the Kali Strata Restaurant.

It was good to see it busy last night. So busy in fact, I would suggest booking a table if you are planning to eat there. The bars in the square were also busy, and are set to become more so as the season really kicks in. We may even have Neil working double shifts at Rainbow before long. Of course, there are other places to eat in the village, and here’s a shot of one of them.

Scena, near the bus stop, is open for lunch and evenings and is right next to the play park, so it is a good place for families who want to chill while being able to watch their children play. There’s also Greek music at the weekend, a film night, and a great menu. As you can see from the next random, we had skies over the past few days too. The cloudy one was last week, actually, but the dawn photo was taken on Sunday when I was up at 5.15, just in time to catch the colour before it faded about five minutes later.

And then, a shot from higher up the road on my walk the other morning. One mile up the hill, one mile down the hill, all within 40 minutes. I was quite pleased with myself.

This week, I should be able to start the final proof of ‘Where There’s a Will’, I should be sent the cover for it, and I should be able to have it published in a week or so – good news for everyone following the Delamere Files series. Also this week, I have two music sessions with the godson in preparation for when he plays for his dad, more friends are arriving, as are my mother and nephew later in the week, and it looks like we may be hitting 40 + degrees again, with the chance of some more Sahara dust. Be prepared.

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I see Symi has been in the news these past couple of days, and maybe so again today. I’ve yet to hear if there is any more news on the missing visitor story. I don’t mean this to sound disparaging or rude, it’s meant to be polite, but this is my general reply to unsolicited enquiries on this matter: Yes, we know there’s a search and rescue underway, and it must be terrible for those involved and close to the missing person, but, no, sorry, I can’t help you with your enquiries, because all I would have is an opinion, and that’s no good to anyone. Let the authorities do their job, and wait and see.

For me, today’s to-do list includes more research into the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly circa 1893 and Maskelyne and Cooke’s mysterious entertainments, the magic circle, and magic tricks generally – all research for the next Victorian mystery.

By the way, if you want to know more about them, click to the Amazon series page for the first series. Here’s the link to Jackson Marsh’s best seller.

Now then, yesterday became a cloudy day by late afternoon, though was still hot. It reached over 40 in the harbour on Wednesday, according to the pharmacy thermometer, and it wasn’t much off that yesterday. Today has started with some of the cloud still hanging around, making things feel humid. It’s 6.45 now, and 30 degrees, cloudy and the humidity is at 42%, so there’s your weather report.

Things are set to become very busy over the next couple of weeks, with more and more people arriving, including nephew and mother. June has always been very popular with the Brits and northern Europeans, and the month usually becomes like a reunion party for so many people. We’re looking forward to that. In our little local family, everyone is now working flat out already, as chef, waiter, housekeeper, and bar person, and I am very glad I do the job I do: sitting on my backside typing, as it’s far too hot to be running around, even in the evenings. My piano student has his end-of-season recital in two weeks, then we’ll take July and August off because it really is too difficult to do anything much in those months. His recital will be for his visiting dad, and yesterday, I told him I was going to record his rehearsal of Fur Elise. If you put a camera on someone, it adds a little extra pressure to perform, so is the closest I can come to simulating an audience, if you see what I mean. It worked, and with that slight addition of pressure, the concentration level went up, and he played brilliantly. Which is more than I did because I forgot to press record. Hey ho. I’ll try again at Monday’s lesson, so he can, later, watch himself and see where his wrists are, and if his back is straight etc.

That’s enough early morning waffle from me.

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I had a Bitzer day yesterday. Bits a this, bits a that…

I’ve been working on two writing projects and both are now with proofreaders, so that’s got them out of my way, leaving me free to start the next one, but first, I have to decide what the next one will be about. I find once I have a hook (a gimmick, an ending or a twist, something to hook the story on), the rest comes pretty easily. So, yesterday morning, I did some research as the following couple of images will show you.

All fascinating, but I then got distracted by a rare book I found about the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, and Maskelyne and Cooke’s magical entertainment, and as that was not only online but fully downloadable in PDF, I spent the rest of the morning reading that.

Until it was time to knock off for my two-hour lunch break (the joy of being semi-retired). Lunch while watching MasterChef, followed by the Great Irish Bake Off, followed by washing up, and I had a short period of time to play Sherlock on my tablet, then it was piano hour. That passed very pleasantly, and after it, came a drink at the bar before visiting a friend who is here, but who doesn’t like to leave his accommodation much in this heat. So, a very relaxing day was rounded off with a glass on their terrace before home, some salad, a little more TV, and bed. Somewhere in there I also managed to start on a jigsaw that Harry bought me for Christmas. I shan’t be able to use my desk for a while, maybe a long while as I realised, yesterday, this one has 1,500 pieces. That’ll keep me busy.

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