Grey skies and rams
Woke up on Monday morning to clouds and the aftermath of a thunderstorm, which I slept through thanks to my earplugs. I usually put them in for the cat, I mean so I don’t have to listen to his singing at night and alarm calls in the morning. He has a habit of using his litter tray and then shouting at it for five minutes, as if it had done him wrong. That’s all very well, but he likes to use it at Ungodly O’clock in the morning and I don’t need to listen to that.

So, I missed the rain pouring down on the roof, the overflow flowing over into the lane outside the bedroom window, and the thunder that was rattling around. I even missed the alarm clock. That is left out in the hallway so someone has to get out of bed to switch it off; you can only ignore it for so long. There had been no rain coming into the house which is a good thing, of course, and the plants had themselves a good watering. The sky in the morning still carried heavy clouds and a certain amount of rain, so I went up onto the roof to take a look at the view and found this chap watching me from up the lane.

It’s great at this time of year as you find yourself sitting there watching TV and then wonder what that sound is… A herd of sheep bleats it way past your window, even though we are not particularly rural where we are now. We all know, too, that the silence of the lambs will soon be upon us, around Big Friday in forty or so days’ time.

A quick mention of earthquakes as it came up the other day. Neil felt a tremor from the sitting room but I was in the kitchen and felt nothing. A couple of people have asked for a good site to check earthquakes up on and the one I use is here: http://www.geophysics.geol.uoa.gr/stations/maps/recent.html This site lists all recorded earth tremors and, if you look, you should see the one we had on Saturday at 15:44 (GMT). It was 4.1 and between Rhodes and Symi. But it’s nothing to be worried about, just our grumbling off-shore volcano I expect. Apparently there is something like that half way between Turkey and Rhodes and if it should ever surface, we are all expecting a great rush to see who claims it for their country. A few years ago now we had a November full of tremors, five or six noticeable ones in a day, at times. We probably have hundreds each day as old Mother Earth tries to get comfortable, but you don’t notice them unless they are very close to the surface, nearby, or big. Anyway, that site is run by the University of Athens Faculty of Geology, so it’s the one I trust most for local quake news. But, as I say, don’t worry about them; we’ve not had a biggie down here for many years. (2008 was the most recent fatal one, where one person died after they ran from their house and tripped over – this was not on Symi but further north in the Dodecanese chain. So, don’t panic!)

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Start of Lent in Greece
It’s the start of Lent today in Greece, and the day is usually marked with picnics and kite flying and clearing out the foods you’re not supposed to eat for the next 40 days. That’s why it’s called Clean Monday, I guess. I was chatting to an Orthodox lady on Saturday who told me that the first week of the fast was hard as it’s literally only vegetables and seafood (with no blood), not even oil. I like salads but having one without pickle or mayonnaise would be, for me, a step beyond the call of duty. The same regime applies to the end of the fast but the weeks in between, apparently are a little easier.

I am actually writing this on Sunday, as I do, so I have no idea what the state of weather-play is going to be tomorrow (today), though rain is forecast, which won’t be fun for the barbeques. But then, so it was today and, so far, there has been no sign of rain. The sky is a bit grey, the sea is a bit windswept by not white, so hopefully by the time you read this, any bad weather would have passed and everyone who is celebrating with a seafood barbie will be having a good time.

Also, at the weekend, the ‘cinema’ was showing an old favourite (see below). I wonder if anyone dressed up and got into the part? ‘Pan it, Janet!’ and all that. Sunday was also carnival day, the last blast before Lent starts. Children and some grown-up children have already been out and about in costume, scaring people with elaborate rubber face masks; old crones, warty women, politicians, you know the sort of thing.

Another piece of news for you is that later this year Neil will be bring out next year’s Symi calendar, as he does, but will also be bringing out a cat calendar, with images of local cats. This is a popular subject for calendars, there are hundreds of them every year, but hopefully this one will have some Symi appeal too. Here’s an example: a young cat camping out among the chains by the harbour anchors.

And as for me this week, well, I won’t be fasting or even giving up anything for Lent as that’s not what I do, but I will be working on the Donkeys book, my scriptwriting course and hopefully my typing as I try and advance from the first row of letters to the next. Apart from that, it looks like it is going to be a quiet week ahead. Famous last words?

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Symi! (Exclamation mark, why?)
Photos of some more plants in the courtyard, clouds and sun, calmer winds, cool breeze, just another ordinary day for me on Symi.

I spent a lot of Wednesday night watching ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and making notes. I then spent Thursday morning typing them up, a total of over 800 words, but I only need 500 for the assignment, which is about the script of a film. In this case SPR. After the note typing came the sifting and sorting and moving things around so that I had a structure to my piece, and then came some editing. As I pause to write this, I have 640 words. I need to hone it down to 500 or less without losing any of my main points. It’s been a while since I did anything remotely academic, even though this isn’t relay an academic exercise, and, so far I am quite enjoying it. I think. I’ll leave it for now though and come back to it later or tomorrow and see what I have written. Hopefully I will like it.

And talking of films. Is it me or does every film these days have to have someone throw up in it? Even some animated stories have someone doing something nasty with fluids from the head; spitting, hoiking, gobbing, vomiting, you name it they all seem to do it. The number of times I’ve watched a film and seen something like that going on seems to be on the increase. Yes, I know, ‘keep it visceral’ and ‘make it realistic’ and all that, so when someone sees a dead body there’s usually a stomach reaction. But in every single film? Okay, I’ve not seen it in Love Story and a quick up-chuck would be out of place in ‘Women In Love’ (perhaps not), but they are old films. These days it’s everywhere! Even in TV shows!

And I must apologise for the overzealous use of that exclamation mark! Oops, did it again. I hate them and think they should be banned which, as far as I can pick up, means I am close to being in agreement with someone in the British Government. You have to admit, though, that when someone writes Hi! It works and that’s fine, so we won’t outlaw the ! completely. Or when someone shouts, ‘OI! Come over here,’ it makes sense. But what I hate is when people write to you and say things like, How are you! (Should be a question mark.) Or, We’re coming to visit Symi in two months! As if were an announcement of ‘Quick, run for the hills!’ Or even worse, We have now taken delivery of three new kittens!!! (One for each mini-moggy, I guess.) In every novel of, say, 80,000 words, I say that there should be no more than four exclamation marks. They don’t give sentences any more weight, especially if overused. If you want to show surprise or joy, write ‘I am surprised, or joyful.’

I have no idea where that came from, but then I rarely have any idea where these morning posts come from. But still, it’s there now! (Stop it!) (No, really.)

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March on Symi
March marches on on Symi and we have more grey skies and fairly strong winds. The wind may have changed direction as it’s now noticeably colder in the house than it has been of late. We’ve had several days without having to put any heating or thermals on, but today it’s back to long-johns and the electric bar heater, much to Jack’s approval. And talking of Jack…

Old routines are falling back into place. Another walk on Wednesday morning at 6.40, only up to the second bend in the road after Periotisa; on Friday I will head up one more, and so on until I am back to regularly reaching the Kantina and getting home again within 40 minutes or so, three or maybe more times per week. Neil has now done two aerobics sessions in two days (mad fool) and has another one to attend this morning, making it three in a row.

Elsewhere in the village, the Olive Tree is now being prepared for the summer season, the Village Café has opened up again and Georgio’s has been hosting some events while staying open for the evenings. The Rainbow Bar is open in the afternoons again and, despite the cold weather, folk are out and about preparing their businesses for the months ahead. The Blue Star came in on Wednesday morning, only a little bit late, and the Frontex or navy boat is out in the bay on call and doing whatever it is that it does out there. The coastguard has also been patrolling but so far we’ve not seen any of the expected refugees boats turning up in mass numbers, as predicted by some media, due to the amount of NATO and other ships on their way to waters between Lesbos and other islands, and Turkey. No doubt things will change but the prediction is that there will be more attempted crossings from Marmaris to Greece. The nearest port of call from there would be Rhodes or Symi, so there could be busy times ahead.

Back at home, I have started on my new scriptwriting course and my first task is to write 500 words about the script of ‘Shaving Ryan’s Privates’, I mean ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (there are other options, but I happen to have this film and know it reasonably well). But only 500 words? I have no idea how I shall discuss the plot, action, dialogue and character development in only 500 words, I don’t usually get out of bed for less than 700, as regular readers will know. But I shall give it a good old go.

And as for the rest of this week, well, there’s nothing on the dance card apart from paying the Netflix subscription, the website host’s invoice and my annual Microsoft invoice which seems to have come around very quickly, oh, and that post office box rental bill I’ve had on the desk for a few weeks now, that’s due at the end of the month. Best go and find some way to see to all that before getting back to my typing exercises. I’m still not doing that well as I am only on the middle row and no matter how much I try and keep the fingers in the right place, I still use the wrong ones for the keys I’ve not yet rehearsed up. So I can write slag, glass and and, for example, without looking at my fingers and by using the correct fingers, but then when an E gets involved or a P (I usually get the symbol [ by mistake), I am still moving my hands into the wrong place and, usually, missing the right keys. Once I’ve mastered the first row though, I can start to expand. So, onwards and u[wards with the ty[ing [ractice and, without looking at my fingers, I will wiosh yout a bery food dat aheaf. (A very good day ahead.)

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A small pile of books
Yesterday was rather grey and a bit windy on Symi. The sea was grey, the sky too, the wind rattled the shutters a little and I stayed home; no early walk for me, though Neil did go to his aerobics class and then walk back up the road.

It looks like this could be another week of staying home for me, until I need to get to the bank or post office or something harbour-located. And so I am at my desk, wondering what I can tell you today and there happens to be a small pile of books waiting for me on one side. They are an interesting collection, the top one in particular might be of interest to you:

Your Eyes Fourteen by John Carr and Paul Anastasi – I am using this for Shocking the Donkeys (again) as it is a collection of Greek sayings or idiolects. In linguistics, an idiolect is an individual’s distinctive and unique use of language, including speech. This unique usage encompasses vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. The book is made up of phrases and their explanations. Such things as: ‘Eating moustaches’ (getting into an argument), or ‘Careful the chandelier’ which means ‘don’t make such a fuss.’ Then there is ‘Being an Englishman’ which could mean all kinds of odd things but actually is a phrase used for when someone is punctual. There are loads of others in the book but ‘Shocking the donkeys’ is not one of them. We made that one up for the story, it means to give the old guard a bit of shakeup.

[By the way, if you follow the link for that book you should get a page at Amazon where the book is being sold for a ridiculous price. Don’t do it! Check out other sources for it; I think I bought my copy from Athens News but it was a long while ago now.]

The next book on the pile is my ‘Elements of Style’ that I have been dipping into slightly of late, and beneath this is (oh! A bill for the post office box which I must get paid) a book that was a Christmas present, ‘501 Must-Visit Cities’ a guide to, well, 501 cities that everyone should visit. If only I had the time and money. I think I’ve seen around 25 of them, though I’ve not counted. Then we have ‘The Curios Lobster’ a 1940s children’s book that I read when I was younger (it belonged to my father) and which I keep meaning to send off to my friend who runs Krazy Kat Theatre Company as it might be of interest to him for one of his children’s shows for the deaf and hard of hearing.

And beneath that is a large and empty notebook which reminds me I should go and do some thinking or drafting or writing, or thinking about writing…

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