A trip to the local is never guaranteed to be a straightforward affair. We popped out last night to have a quick drink before supper, only to have supper turn up unexpectedly in the form of a chip omelette made and served by your friendly neighbourhood barman. Well, I’m not saying no, and very nice it was too.

Back home, I’ve wrapped everything that has so far arrived, and hope to have the last wrappables delivered this afternoon when pianissimo comes for his piano lesson and brings them with him. If I’m very lucky, my glasses will be among them, and I’ll have better vision. (Oddly, for a Thursday, I can hear the mains water coming in and filling our tank. Not complaining.) I’ve put my collection of oddments beneath the tree, or next to it, because it’s not a huge tree. We had to call in help when it came to putting the lights on, though.

While out in the street, the square remains mainly empty because it’s not really playing out time of the year for the youngsters. The lanes tend to be very quiet and sometimes even a little eerie at nighttime. It’s not particularly cold, so it’s not that that’s keeping everyone inside. In fact, many people are out and about, especially down in Yialos where the Christmas festivities continue in the main square. Up here, though, you can walk beneath the Christmas lights all the way to the supermarket and back and not see a soul.

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Just a brief chat this morning because I woke up late. Unheard of. I had such a good sleep, I feel like I’m still there, and it has nothing to do with calling into the Rainbow last night to deliver a card. Here are your season’s greetings from Yiannis Christmas.

I had a delivery arrive yesterday which included a couple of lights for under the kitchen cabinets. They’re the easy-to-place sort, with sticky pads to attach them, rather than screws. Trouble is, they wouldn’t stay there and fell off, so I repositioned them to my model shelf, where they seem happier.

And that’s all I have to tell you this morning.

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The weather’s being a little kinder to us today, with hardly a cloud in the sky and no wind.

Finally, the washing can go out, and we can move on down the pile. I can keep my shutters open, turn my head, and see the helipad across the harbour – why, I can even see Nimos, which vanishes when the rain is falling hard.

Yesterday, I started on the next new book because I have an idea for how the story is to go and how it is to end, but I need to do a fair amount of research along the way. That’s fine, as there’s no rush to do any of these things, and research is what I like to do as much as I like to invent stories. In this case, it’s all to do with Roman Catholic saints, feast days, and the way they met their end.

Yesterday’s music lesson went well, and the follow-on dinner was fab. Cooked by both godsons working together calmly, having fun and getting along in a small kitchen… Witnessing that harmony after so many years of brotherly infighting is like the calm after the storm. In a way, it’s a little like where my piano student is with his musical training. Gone are the hours of ‘You didn’t do your practice, did you?’, the stumbling and the fumbling around for the right notes. Now, we are able to analyse our playing, and we’re talking in musical terms that are understood, and most of all, the student is practising, and it shows. Anyway, as for today, for me… Some writing, some reading, and my ten minutes of self-debasement in front of my phone… say what? Doing my old person’s workout. Ah, okay. That’s all I’ve got planned but around here… Who knows what’s going to happen next?

Ps. I just realised that the link I gave you to the book list yesterday was wrong, so we’ll have another go, shall we?

Click the banner to find a list of thrillers, mysteries, and suspense novels to add to your reading list.

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Grey, warm and wet, just about sums up the weekend over here. Grey the skies, warm the air (between 10° and 16°), and wet everything else. Quiet the seas, in hiding the cats, sofa-bound was I, but some exercise was had.

I have this app that sets me the hideously embarrassing challenge of a ten-minute aerobic workout a day (rising to much longer over time). I stand in front of my phone as though it were a Roman house god, listening to an American woman encourage me while watching two ladies doing the steps. One clearly doesn’t need to, and the other is there to make me feel better. I do this standing at my office window, looking over the sea to Nimos, and hoping no-one comes in. No-one, so far, has, but then, there’s only Neil and he’s usually in the other room throwing heavy weights around his shoulders, so I get away with it.

Due to rain and lethargy, my step counter has fallen off somewhat since our trip to Rhodes the other week, when I was averaging around six miles walking per day. It’s so much easier over there because it’s flat.

So, this week, and the build up to Christmas, what’s happening? Well, the town council have organised plenty of events in Yialos, with island organisations joining in to present dances, concerts, markets and other fun things for us residents to enjoy, and, hopefully, the weather will dry off a little. Here, I am eagerly awaiting my new glasses which I hope will arrive today. Ditto some more things for Christmas which I know are tantalisingly close by. I have my piano student this afternoon, followed by dinner at his house and the turning on of the Christmas lights down there. Later in the week, I have a physio session, more piano, an online meeting I thought was last Thursday, and not much else. I have an idea for a new novel for my mystery series and should be getting the last one back from proofreading so I can finish that and set it free on the world. Thus… Onwards into the week.

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As you can see, a cloudy start to today.

For the first time since whenever, I have a day with nothing in my diary, nothing in the typewriter, and nothing much to do around the house. That’s because I’ve finished the latest MS and sent it off to be proofread, so I can’t work on that, there are no piano commitments, dinners planned, drink meet-ups or anything like that, and I don’t know what to do with myself. I think I shall do some research for the next book. I had an idea yesterday, and I need to look into whether it’s going to be viable as the basis for a story set sometime in 1893. So, there, that’s my morning organised.

I was hoping I might receive some ‘You have a parcel’ notifications, because, according to tracking, I have a couple of things which are nearly here, and the Blue Star you saw in the photo above is the first boat in what seems like ages. I had a message about one delivery a few days ago and it was the one that says, ‘Delivery failed.’ This usually means the thing has arrived at the hub in Rhodes, but as it’s a Symi address, it automatically registers as ‘unable to deliver’ because, I assume, the system only accounts for Rhodes addresses. They have street names there, where we have very few here. Usually, when ‘Delivery failed’ appears, it means the thing is on the next boat. I.e., this morning’s.

Delivery rarely fails here, and that’s thanks to the excellent postal system and workers, and the conscientious courier staff. Often, I’ll get an automated message from, say, ACS, saying I have a delivery, and then, a personal text message from the ACS pickup point in Yialos. I’ve been sat outside having a coffee before and one of the post office folk has come past and told me I just had a delivery come in. On one occasion, we were having lunch at Meraklis when the courier came past, waved hello, vanished, came back a minute later, and put my delivery on the table.

However, if the rain starts and is as bad as predicted, I shall be staying home where it is currently, permanently night. That’s because the shutters are closed and the heavy curtain up, and if I want to see daylight, I have to stand in the courtyard. So, now, locked inside my dark office, beneath the one lamp, because I need to change the main light fitting to a new one, and with one bar on the heater as a half-hour treat, I shall start investigating the facts behind my next possible work of fiction. have a good weekend!

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