There’s only so much you can do, right? I’m just back from half an hour on the DEH website, that’s the electricity company, where I’ve been unable to enter my home meter reading. It’s all very odd. Usually, they send me a message to say, ‘You can read your meter and enter the number’, and you have a few days where you can do this every couple of months, except I can’t. Each time I try, it tells me ‘An error occurred.’ Well, you don’t say! Yes, it does say, and it’s said it now for the third day in a row, so I went to their ‘send us a message’ department because I couldn’t find anything about a site error online. I crafted a succinctly worded message in two languages, filled out the form, hit send, and then got the message: Unable to perform the request, or similar.  Rather than show you a photo of this fascinatingly dull webpage, here’s a picture of the ANEK ferry that came in on Monday.

I looked at the DEH Facebook page, but it’s all adverts, so no news, but I did find an email address, so I have sent a message. I’m only wondering about the site because DEH phoned me on Monday to tell me about their ‘Green Pass’, and said they would send me an email with instructions to follow. However, what arrived was the email telling me I could enter my meter reading. I have seen the info on the Green Pass online, which I don’t fully understand. It’s €0.95 per month, in return for “The add-on service that guarantees that an equivalent amount of the electricity you consume is generated and reserved from renewable energy sources” I don’t want to start fiddling with my account if the site’s not working properly, so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Meantime, I’ll get an estimated bill based on their records, I guess. Ah well.

That is about the highlight of my day so far. That and receiving the first mock-ups for the new book cover, which are very much a first draft, so need work. I won’t show you those as they’re not ready, but I’ll show you a photo of the Blue Star 2 that came in on Tuesday. I know! All these big ferries, and day boats, and shuttle boats and… where will it all end?

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Things are gradually warming up. Yesterday, on the west-facing, shaded wall in our courtyard, the thermometer read 33 degrees with humidity at 40%. The rising temperature means the walking, if being done, needs to be done earlier in the day. On Saturday, I went up to the monastery overlooking Pedi, known locally as ‘To Vrisi’ because there’s a natural spring there, and a tap, so you can fill your water bottle. (To Vrisi means, the tap.) I went in the afternoon, and lovely though it was, it was probably too hot for the upward journey.

Lovely walk, nice views and all that, but what with things heating up, the walking’s not the problem, the problem is what my nephew calls chafage. A couple of years ago, a friend visiting from Denmark brought us something very handy called Klunke Voks, and I am still using it. (Thanks Millie.) I don’t intend to go into details about this product, but if you want to know the English translation, the Voks part means ‘wax’, and your Klunkes are what they sound like, so there you go. That reminds me of a conversation I had to have with the oldest godson after he’d spent a lot of time walking around Rhodes with his mates, aged 15, wearing boxer shorts (and other clothing). Not the best garment for keeping away the chafage, I told him, and explained why as we made our way to his English proficiency exam. No doubt, that gave him something to talk to the examiner about when he did his conversation test.

That aside, the walk was a pleasant one that involved goats at some point. It always involves at least ten ‘Kali mera’ along the way, to real people, not the goats, because these days, I’m more inclined to walk up through the village, and then down the road. Whichever way I go there’s always someone to say good morning to, and, plenty to see. I aim to go a wandering again later this morning before it gets too warm and I need to voks my klunke.

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“I’ll get my people to reach out to your people, and we’ll do brunch,” said someone in a film, probably in the 1980s. Do brunch is exactly what we did last Friday. Come this way, and I will tell you all about it…

Neil was at the gym, I walked down to Yialos to pick up some paperwork, we met up and wandered around to Pavone Café.

The café is currently the talk of the town. It is attached to the Anastasia Hotel, which is situated just behind the old post office/police station/big white building by the clock tower, at the top of these steps…

Actually, when you get to the top (and the handrail doesn’t go all the way), you need to carry on along the balcony/veranda straight ahead, and the café is on your left.

When you reach the courtyard, you’ll find plenty of seating outside, and the hotel reception inside, and you’ll also find the two fine gentlemen who run this establishment…

That’s Kostas, the proprietor on the right, and our eldest godson, Sam, on the left. Between them, they rustled up some very fine fare. In our case, eggs Benedict and a croque madame. I’ve never had either before, and never had such a perfect lunch-brunch.

Apart from being very tasty, organic, and inexpensive, it was also surprisingly filling, so when a plate of desserts arrived as a gift from the godson, it was a fair old match to get through it and do it all justice.

The desserts came along with the largest Greek coffee I’ve experienced to date, and a nice chat with the eldest before he had to deal with other customers. I’d highly recommend Pavone, and not only because Sam works there, that’s a bonus. It’s the food, style, presentation and menu that you’ll fall in love with.

Visit the hotel’s website and you’ll learn more about the café, click here: Pavone Café, Symi.

Ps. I looked up the meaning of the word, Pavone, and found it to be a) a now obsolete word for a peacock (a male peafowl), b) the word for peacock in Italian (?), c) a place in Italy (Pavone Canavese) near Turin. So, there you go.

Pps. Sam did say that people have been coming in and asking if he is Harry. No. Harry is the other one who does kit building with me after piano and music lessons. He’ll be working at the Kali Strata Restaurant any day now.

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The theme of today’s quick chat? Skyscapes, or at least images with some sky in them. Just a few pulled from my collection, including one of Rhodes, morning and evening views, and last night’s view which is what set off the idea.

This was after the final kit-building session of ‘modelling season.’ All kits are now built to our general satisfaction, the equipment, paint, pliers, brushes, and glue are all back in the boxes and will go into storage until the winter. Music lessons will continue until the end of music term on June 24th, to restart again after the heat of summer in September, and after the lessons, while time allows, we may watch a film for an hour, ‘Ford V Ferrari’ would be a good place to start as it’s about motor racing and cars. I’ve seen it, but don’t mind watching it again.

As for today and the weekend. First of all, I have a newsletter to prepare for my Jackson readers, as I have book in promotions during July and must promote the promotions to support other authors. After that, I must call into the KEP office. They rang yesterday to tell me I now have my AMKA insured under Neil’s national health insurance, which means, should I need medicines, I can get them on prescription at a much lower cost than otherwise, so that’s good news. So, picking up some papers there, a visit to the accountant, and then, to lunch at Pavone, where the oldest godson is now working. That’s today’s treat. After? Well, I have a couple of days to finalise the latest book and then I must send it off to be proofed. Have a good weekend.

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(And random photos.)

That was a strange night. I found myself unknowingly involved in the football celebrations at 00.50 hours, and all I was doing was going to the loo. I’d gone to bed around 21.30, and unusually, had to get up during the night, which I did. I didn’t put any lights on, because there’s no need. The Temu light in the WC pan comes on when you get too close, so you can see where you’re going. Climbing back into bed, I looked at the time out of interest and saw it was 00.50, and then I dozed back to sleep against the sound of three dynamite explosions and some fireworks. Apparently, the Greek team, Olympiakos beat someone else with a ball somewhere, and are now the best at their times tables or something.

Then, on waking up again at the more reasonable time of 5.30, the first thing on my mind was, I must give you my recipe for rice. Don’t ask me why, but here’s how I do it. A cup of rice, washed etc. Into a saucepan with a tightly fitting lid. Add salt if you want, Neil adds turmeric which turns everything a yellow colour, including the worktop. Then, add two cups of boiling water from the kettle. Pour that on, put a sheet of tin foil over the top, press on the lid, seal the foil around the edge, place on the stove. I put our ceramic hob on the low setting of 2.5 and leave the pan there for 20 minutes. Then, I take it off and let it stand for five minutes, no peeking, and that’s it. Saves a lot of steam which saves a lot of black mould on the walls in the winter.

Why I thought you should know that, I have no idea, but that was the kind of night that was last night/this morning, and I’m not sure I have yet recovered, because of the weird dream that went with it all… I’ll have to save that for another day and for a time when no-one is listening, just you and me…

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