Back to the desk after what feels like a weekend off. Saturday morning was spent preparing for Saturday afternoon: Transforming the sitting room into a dining room, hanging the floating candles, moving furniture, while, at the same time, making bread and putting together a prawn cocktail. The godboys came to assist, one cooking, the other rehearsing his piece and his song, and we four had time to sit in the sun in the courtyard before mother arrived for her birthday day. A great meal, entertainment from the piano pupil, then a slob out on the sofa watching Hamilton (the musical), an action film, a couple of episodes of Have I Got News For You, and the party came to an end. Except Neil and I carried on watching random YouTube videos until a late hour, which more or less wiped out Sunday.

This week, things are returning to normal, as in, no parties or social functions are planned after a week of lots of social things happening. The wind is down, the sky is streaked with morning cloud, gradually changing colour, and I have a book to improve and finish. We are still working on the courtyard shutters and windows, Neil’s heading down to the gym later, me, possibly up the hill before I get so over it I can’t manage it, and that’s about all until piano lesson and model building this afternoon. We could be in for a week of not much news, a few old photos and not a lot of chat, but that’s February for you.

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Here are some more photos to finish of the week. It’s been something of a social one for us, and will continue to be over the weekend. Apart from the trip to Rhodes, we’ve been to Rainbow to see Yiannis before he headed off on his short break, we’ve been to Lefteris next door, last night we went to Scena for our supper, and we may be meeting someone at the bar tonight. Tomorrow, it’s all hands on deck to prepare for Jenine’s birthday. There will be news about that next week, but as the details have been kept under wraps, I can’t go into them now. Next week, I’m staying in and locking the doors and not going out!

Instead, I’ll go into the weekend with a headache (the glue fumes from yesterday’s modelling session, and, probably, wine), and with a list of things to do today to prepare for tomorrow. We’ve also been redecorating the courtyard as the woodwork needed doing before it got ruined by the rain. I bought a tin of paint, the colour label of which closely matched what is already here, only to discover the actual colour is far more green in real life, it’s a kind of… well, I’m not sure if it’s turquoise or what, but you’ll get to see as soon as everything’s finished. So, there may be more painting happening on Sunday as well. That’s then, this is now, and I have to go and promote some books.

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Let’s stay in Rhodes a while longer. As we were there all day, we had to find somewhere for lunch, and out of season, that’s not as easy as it might sound, because many of the restaurants in the new and old town close for the winter. There are still places to go, though, including Pan and Vino, which is where we ended up.

If you like vague directions, this restaurant is situated near the taxi rank that’s not far from M&S, when you turn right at the top of MacDonald’s Street. (Not its real name, and MacDonald’s is currently closed, either for a refurb or for good. Good.) It’s opposite where the Hondas centre used to be, in a building that was once a noodle bar, and in the same parade as Jiz Steak. To be honest, I thought it was only the sign for that strangely named eatery that was still there and the place itself has come and gone, but no. ‘Cheese Steak’ is still there and open for business.

But back to Pan and Vino. A lovely place to eat. I’ve been there three times now, and it’s all great – food, staff, atmosphere and wine are all spot on, and we had a great meal and a nice long chat with the waitress. After, without waddling too much, we went a wandering, and later in the day, sat in the sun at the Yacht Club Café in Mandraki. That’s another place that sounds like it should be more expensive than it is, but it’s a very reasonable place to hang out while waiting for a boat.

There, just a couple of quick tips for what to do while boat-waiting in Rhodes. There are loads of other places, of course, and even more in the summer, and with the weather that day, it could quite easily have been summer.

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Let’s continue to wander the Old Town in Rhodes for a while. It’s so much calmer at this time of year, and if you’re lucky enough to be there on a warm, sunny day, so much the better. The monuments are open, i.e. the museum and the palace, but I’ve not seen the old mosque and library open for a while now, not even in summer. The Palace of the Grand Masters is a great visit and all you’re likely to encounter at this time of year are school parties, which, in my experience, always tend to be polite and well behaved. Once, when on Kos, visiting the Asklepeion, we encountered a couple of coachloads of teenagers arriving not long before we were leaving and had to walk through the flood to get to the gates. In some counties, that would be ‘head down and hope for the best,’ here, it was, ‘Good morning,’ ‘Kalimera,’ ‘Kostas, get out of the way of the gentlemen,’ ‘Have a good day, Sir,’ in both Greek and English as if we were royalty.

Apart from the monuments, you have the architecture to enjoy, and there are places where you can indulge your interest in architectural archaeology. For example, we found protrusions on the outer wall, or inner-outer wall, to be precise, and I was wondering what they were for. They look like they were once a matching pair holding up a balcony, but they were at an odd angle, there was nothing but a wall on one side, air on the other, and no signs of anything ever being attached to or supported by them. Just, roadside ornaments, perhaps? Hard to see in the photo, but if you have any ideas, leave a comment on our Facebook page.

The lanes themselves are remarkable pieces of engineering when you think someone had to collect every stone, bring it and plant it, and the lanes are never uniform. Some are walk-sideways narrow, others wide enough for cars, though there are few of them about once you are away from the main streets. You have to remember you’re walking through someone’s village and directly past their often open front doors, so try not to gawp. Instead, gawp at how well many of the area’s buildings and features are, and gasp at how others are managing to stay upright. For the intrepid, you can even find tunnels to explore.

You also get to see cats, of course, as this is Greece.

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How quickly things can change weatherwise. On Friday, we thought our trip to Rhodes might be rained off, but it turned out to be a warm and dry day over there. Yesterday, we popped out for a drink after music lessons and model making and got stuck in the bar because of a thunderstorm, the boat schedules are up the spout too, but should be back on track by Friday.

There were two cruise ships harboured in Rhodes for the day, we saw several coaches transporting people, the open-top bus was running and some of the tourist shops in the Old Town had opened. Not many, I have to say, but enough to give the few wandering tourists something to view and buy. Once we’d done what we went over there to do, we spent a couple of hours wandering the backstreets of the Old Town, which is a heritage site, and which, when devoid of tourists and the tatty shopfronts, is like walking around a private museum. I’m late to work today, so here are a few photos for you, to give you an idea.

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