I’m writing this on Sunday so I can have a clear run at chapter 26 on Monday morning, assuming we’ve not been blasted away by a storm that’s meant to be coming this way. The Patmos ferry schedule has been changed, and the Spanos isn’t running at all. Right now (Sunday morning) the weather’s cloudy but calm, but it’s not looking so good for later. That’s one thing, and it hasn’t happened yet, so what has been going on since last Thursday?

Well, things have been going with a bang…

We went to Rhodes on Friday, and there will be more about that and some more images when I get around to it. The alarm was set for six, but I was awake at three listening to the rain and thunder, watching the lightning, and wondering what kind of day lay ahead. I need new shoes as my winter pair are finally falling apart (€20 from Sports Direct about four years ago, so I’m not complaining), and I didn’t fancy getting wet feet. Turned out to be a sunny day in the end, and we didn’t get wet at all. We had to go because we had medical checkups booked for our annual MOT. Again, more about that when I get around to it.

Saturday was our godson’s name day, and we were invited to his BBQ. I say ‘invited’… We were at the table building our model kits after piano lesson last Thursday, when he mentioned his name day and I asked if he was doing anything for it. (I knew he was planning a BBQ, as his mother had told us.) He said he was having a BBQ, and I asked if we were invited. ‘I don’t mind either way,’ was his reply, which made me laugh. What he meant was, yes, come if you want, and we did. I don’t know what your view of teenagers is, but if it’s one of rowdy, rude and raucous, you’d be off the mark when it comes to the Symi teens who came to the party.

There was a pack of nine of them at the BBQ, all boys, and they did everything; the cooking, the salads, the eating… In fact, once it was all ready, they did so much eating there was nothing left for the adults, me, Neil, mum and big brother Sam who’d come up from Yialos especially. Jenine dispatched herself to the harbour to buy us giros, while Sam turned his nose up at the English-style sausages we found in the freezer. (He’s done his chef’s training and has secured a great job on Symi for the summer. I will tell you about that another time). Oh, and of course, after the feeding frenzy, the lads all piled upstairs to play on the Xbox, have a laugh and swear a lot, while leaving the clearing up to the adults, but that’s par for the course around here.

What was also impressive was the amount of English being spoken. I’d say 80% of the boys were fluent in it, having been through the private English lessons system here on the island. Not only that, but they were also very polite, chatted to us about all kinds of things, and were a pleasure to be among.

And back to Sunday, where Neil is prepping something in the kitchen, I have written half a chapter and am about to set off into Somerset House in 1892 – but I can’t find a description of it from that time nor any images. I’m sending my characters to the records office to track down a few people. I know how the system worked with indexes and searches and so on, but not what the place looked like in the North Wing, where the GRO was. So, tomorrow will be research followed by making it up, if I can’t find any accounts written at the time. Back to the Victorian web for me, and my favourite site Dictionary of Victorian London. But that’s for tomorrow, for now, it’s time to go and play Sherlock and batten down the hatches.

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I once read a book by Paulo Coelho in which one character told another to always walk looking at the horizon, not at your feet. I expect there was some spiritual message behind that, or a good reason, and I tried it to see if it changed my outlook on life. It made me change my attitude towards people with dogs, and councils who didn’t fix their paving slabs. However, standing there scraping my shoes against a broken paving stone to get the dogdo off, I did have the chance to look up and admire what I could see of the horizon. Since then, I’ve always told people to stop now and then and look up, as I mentioned on the blog the other day. We tend to walk looking down, and in some places, that’s a necessity. I rounded a corner on my walk through the village yesterday and nearly trod in a stack of cat sh*t, and I mean a good three-inch high pile some animal had swept into one place. In other parts of the village, I found myself stepping over the remains of some dog’s yesterday’s dinner its owner had charitably left there for a small child to pick up, play with and eat. In other places, I was permanently looking down to avoid falling down steps or tripping over water pipes. The lesson here is to stop now and then and look around. Look up to see what’s above the standard Boots shopfront and you might see a Tudor building, or don’t gawp at the unaffordable price of houses in the estate agent’s window, but look to its second and third floors and you might see a stunning piece of Gothic revival architecture.

The point of all that was to say the opposite. Also, look down, especially when you’re on Symi. I was standing outside the taverna last night, waiting for Neil to join me, and I noticed a carving on the stone I was standing on.

There are many instances of this kind of historic graffiti dotted around the island, just as there’s a growing number of post-modern depictions of penises and some fundamental instructions on what to do with one’s fundament; people, it seems, will always want to leave their mark, just like dogs and lampposts. Some of these engravings depict boats, some are names in that classic “carve your initials in a tree” kind of thing, and others are patterns. What interests me are the dates that sometimes appear with them. In today’s case, not only did ΝΠΚ leave his/her initials, but he also left the date, 1939.

I’ve darkened the photo to try and bring out the letters and date more, and it’s not that easy to see, but you get the picture…?

I’ll keep my eye out for more of these when I remember and post them here. You can find this one at the top of the Kali Strata opposite the arched door into Georgio’s.

That’s me for the week. Off to Rhodes for the day tomorrow, so I’ll be back here on Monday.

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Just a few photos today as I don’t have any news to tell you, not unless you want to read that I have put an undercoat on the bathroom window ahead of painting it later today. That’s about as exciting as it got around our house yesterday, so here are a few shots of Yialos instead. If you’ve eaten at the Trata (Trawler) you might like to see what it looks like in winter. If you’ve ever walked on the road, you might have wondered if it will ever be repaired decently. And, if you have ever walked around the backstreets and alleyways, have you ever looked up to see what you are missing above?

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This is timely. Yesterday, I popped down to the harbour for a dentist appointment. A pleasant walk down the Kali Strata in the sunshine (it was warmer outside than it was in the house), taking some photos which I’ll share over the next few days, and off to the courier. Not to collect new teeth or anything, but to collect this new keyboard I am mistyping on. It will take me a while to get used to it, but at least I can see the letters. Anyway, off to the dentist for a clean. Last week was for a filling. Everything is back to normal now.

Then, this morning, I read in the paper about a new NHS dental practice opening in the UK, and hundreds of people, old and young, queuing up to register or get treatment, so many people that the police had to come and supervise the line, and many didn’t stand a chance of getting in. Sounds like things are in a dreadful state. Last evening, I was chatting to a friend in the yUK who had been quoted £10,000 for some work which here would cost €1,000. When I told her I paid €50 for a filling, her teeth nearly fell out in shock. So, my advice is, when you need something doing, pop over here and get it done during your holiday.

That’s that, and hopefully, I’ll be teeth-issue-free for a few more months, and I’ll go back for a clean and check in five. I celebrated my clean teeth by going to one of the hardware shops and buying the wrong kind of paint for our courtyard window (I can use it on the gate instead, as it’s metal paint), taking a taxi home, and plugging in my new keyboard. Later, my piano pupil presented me with a nearly complete piece of grade 4 music he’d started on only three lessons ago, so I was more than happy, and we took another look at Fur Elise, or Furry Fleas as it’s become known. That, too, is coming along very nicely, so nicely, we may even begin on the second, more complicated section in a week or so.

All that was topped off by a couple of hours at the model-making station with me wrestling with masts and booms, and across the table him putting together a sequential twin-turbo, flat-six, 2,849 cc engine. Very relaxing, especially with Neil pottering around the kitchen putting together a salad for tea. That was a stroke of foresight as Yiannis rang to invite us for a drink and as we hadn’t seen him for a while… At least we ate when we came home. So, quite a lot to fit into one day, including finishing off a draft chapter, feeding the stray cats, and half an hour playing ‘Sherlock’ on my tablet. Today, I fancy, may be less frenetic but no less ideal.

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We now have a transformed outside wall. I know. About as interesting as watching paint dry, which is kind of what this is. The bathroom, which is accessed from inside the house, is an extension into the courtyard, and for the last few years, the paint has been flaking off. The concrete was cracked, and the wall needed skimming and all those kinds of things beyond my ken, so we called in an expert. He worked on the two walls for two mornings and hey presto! Everything is gleaming white, sealed and safe again.

During the overnight pause, when the old was off and the new was waiting to go on, Neil was out there with his camera seeing faces in places that most of us don’t notice, and found a figure in the stripped and sanded wall, as only he can. I pointed out to sharp teeth and evil face (that I see) and he put it up on Facebook for anyone and everyone to comment on. Amazing how many people see many different things.

I’ll get you a view of the pristine white wall soon, but needless to say, it now makes the rest of the courtyard walls look dull in comparison, but they will have to wait for when we are working before repainting, as to paint involves buying things. What I do have for you though, is the same old view from the house. The shutters have been closed for a few days, to keep out drafts and chilly breezes, but they were open for a while at the weekend. As you can see, it remains calm and sunny, though around our north-facing house, the daytime temperature is struggling to get about 12 or 13, and it feels even colder inside.

Things to do today and this week: dentist again this morning, collect package from courier (new keyboard), piano lesson, maybe modelling after. I ordered Harry a new model last Monday and it was here by Friday. The joy of ordering from Athens rather than Amazon. Later in the week, we’ll be in Rhodes for a day, so there will probably be no blog on Friday. Other than that… I am 80k words into the next book and heading towards a thrilling last act.

Oh, on which note, if you fancy clicking the link at the end of this paragraph, or the image below, it will take you to a list of Historical novels (two by me) in a special promotion. They’re all on Kindle Unlimited, and you don’t have to buy anything, but the more clicks I get from my link, the higher ranking I get at a place called Book Funnel. It costs you nothing but looks good for me, that’s all. So if you fancy it click over to find some ideas for your next historical action, adventure and military history novels. Thank you!

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