Sunday evening on Symi, and what started as a bright and chilly day has turned into a cloudy one, slightly warmer, and with a hint of rain in the air.

We’re just back from a walk through the valley to Pedi and back up the road. (You will see in the photos, it’s all sheep, lambs, goats and the river beds washed away by the recent rains.) After several days of being inside, escaping the worst of the rain, eating and chilling out, it was good to get out of the house. It might have been a relaxing few days watching films and reading books, but it has also been a productive one for me.

I set about ‘Straight Swap’ again on Saturday morning. This is a new comedy novel I have been cooking up for a couple of years now. It is a straightforward body-swap comedy that’s not so straightforward, as it seems to be greatly inspired by places I knew when growing up, and perhaps by a few people. Not that I am going to name names, and of course I never did swap bodies with anyone when younger, or even when older. But the question is, of course, what would happen if…? And in this case what would happen if two friends, who are no longer friends, swapped bodies and experienced each other’s lives?

Not a new concept but there is a twist or two with this one. So far I have reached 25,000 words of a first draft. First drafts are usually, for me, about getting the ideas of the story down. It’s a time when I write loads of words, many of which don’t make it to draft two but all of which are useful in getting the story out of my head and onto the paper. After that it’s a case of going back and forwards making alterations. For example: I describe a place or a person in one way in chapter one and later in chapter five have a better idea and so change a detail. I note this on a sheet of paper to remind me to change it back later on, and then I mislay that piece of paper.

It doesn’t matter though because by the time I get to chapter fifteen I change that detail yet again and then add in a new thought line which takes a character off somewhere else, and so make a note in a note book this time, so I remember to change the detail back later on. And then I can’t remember which notebook it went into.

And so, when I’ve finally got to the end, I have to go back to the start and reread and make notes and make sure I keep them, and then move bits around, and change many other things and hope that everything is consistent, while still keeping it interesting, readable, logical and in this case funny. Then, after draft two is done I get Neil and/or Jenine to read it for typos and input, and then do a draft three. By this time I’m into changing only minor details and typos. Then I send it to my editor man and he goes through it as he lays it out for printing. This can take several months as he is also checking for typos, spelling mistakes and often emails me with things such as ‘Are you really sure you meant to write…?’

And then, a few years after starting, or a few months in some cases, the thing is ready to put online line and then it’s up to the reader to point out all hose typos and spelling mistakes the team may have missed.

A

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I thought of something interesting to tell you just now and now I can’t remember what it was. Never mind, couldn’t have been that interesting.

It might have had something to do with going for a walk, which we’re hoping to do on Sunday if this rain ever lets up and goes away. Actually Friday morning wasn’t too bad at first, sunny and cold, though the clouds soon rolled in over the mountain. At least it gave us a chance to get some of the floor towels dry. Mind you, the washing remains inside the house just in case so my view from the desk is of Spiderman socks and Superman sweatshirts, the equivalent of ‘Christmas jumpers’ in our house.

I’m still merrily making my way through some of my Christmas books, I now have a large pile of real reading and the possibility of several Kindle books too, on the tablet. I am starting to see how addictive these tablets are, I mean the hand held device ones, not any other form of tablets. I keep picking mine up and wondering what ‘ap’ I can put on next and then thinking, ‘I don’t actually need any kind of ap at the moment’ and putting it down again. I have put on one of those star map ones so I can see what constellation is what, but since putting that on we’ve had nothing but cloudy skies.

I’ve not been out and about much though Neil has been to the harbour a couple of times in search of a missing parcel from the mysterious TNT lady in Rhodes who rang on Christmas Eve and told us that the delivery would be with ‘Vasilis.’ Perhaps she meant Agios Vasilis, whose name day it was on New Year’s Day, but if she did then he still hasn’t delivered this particular parcel. Perhaps it will turn up eventually, I heard that there were delivery issues (as the Americans might say) over in the UK around Christmas.

So, a short blog post today, my fingers are cold and the internet is playing up, someone is cooking something in the kitchen and I have a book I want to start reading before lunch so the I can perhaps start writing my own one after lunch. Have a good weekend and, if the next walk happens tomorrow, no doubt there will be endless photos of it next week.

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The madness and mayhem of New Year’s Eve has come and gone and it really is time to knuckle down to some more self-improvement. Well, maybe after this weekend.

I now have a creative writing course/workbook to investigate and follow. Can’t promise it will improve the spelling and I certainly won’t let it get in the way of my famous typos on the blog (and in the books), but it will help me with technical matters such as making grammar grimmer. I found an ‘ap’ for my tablet that’s supposed to help with grammar but they want money for it so it’ll have to wait.

Any-hoo, on New Year’s Eve we were invited to a birthday party in the afternoon in an old mansion house just of the Kali Strata – thank you for a lovely afternoon to all concerned. The boys were there, playing out in the school playground with their friends from up the road, grey clouds were rolling in over the windmills producing a rainbow, glimpsed through the ubiquitous cables, and the Blue Star came back in, much to the excitement of young Harry.

Later we headed back to the Harry house for a buffet (because you really can’t have enough food at this time of year) and a game of cards, the boys stayed up until midnight, Harry’s first time seeing in the New Year, and there was much merriment had.

But, and here’s one of those, ‘What is it about Symi that makes you want to stay?’ questions answered. On the way from birthday party to buffet, Neil went off to collect a package that had been left for him by the courier at The Sunrise – so there’s answer number one, courier services leaving your things with friends/neighbours/anyone who they know you know or else who speaks the same language, and said friends holding on to it for you until you can get there to collect it and not being inconvenienced; or if they are, then not saying so. And then part two of the answer: on arriving at Sotiris’ super market (sic) and (Jenine) being told that the join of pork she had requested from George had already been taken to her house and put in her downstairs freezer.

Now there’s service for you. But it goes further: as George had recently been in for a cataract operation he’d not been able to ‘process’ his own pig, so had procured this huge shoulder(?) of pork from elsewhere… and there was no charge, a gift for our St Vasilis Day celebrations. I mean, where else would that happen?

So, later today (I am writing this yesterday as Neil hoovers the house and the Alarm Cat), we are heading back to the Harry House for even more feasting and fun. It’s got to stop sometime surely?

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Well, here we are on the other side of New Year’s Eve and here’s wishing you a happy New Year!

I’m not much of a one for those ‘that was the year that was’ kind of posts, I always think, during the year, that I will make a note of particular events to mention in a year’s roundup and never get around to doing it, and by the time I come to try doing it, like today, I’ve forgotten, but actually 2014 was a pretty interesting year that included:

Publication of ‘Village View’ and ‘The Judas Inheritance.’ Work started on ‘Straight Swap’ and is on-going on ‘Stuff and nonsense.’ Despite a relatively good season Neil closed his shop – various reasons but mainly economic; it simply costs too much to run a small business in Greece these days and we were not prepared to go into debt and close down owing money as so often happens, so we wrapped up the shop, got everything paid up and signed off, though we still have things for sale online, which is a bit more of an affordable way to go about things.

We did some self-improvements, with morning walks and daily (almost) jogs and Zumba (Neil) tap dancing, workouts and diets, and I managed to reverse the onset of type two diabetes. Mind you, since our holiday in November, and what with the bad weather and the festive time of year, everything has slipped a little, but is due to start up against from next Monday. And that reminds me: we went on holiday to Kos. Okay, so not very far afield, but all we could afford and very pleasant it was too.

Other things that stand out in the (rather fuddled) memory this morning are: mother’s holiday on Symi; brother receiving an award for his and his team’s lifeboat rescues; the long walks with Lyndon and Justine, through the hills, to places I’ve not been before in my 19 year association with Symi; the parties and times with Harry, Sam and the family; working at the Rainbow Bar and meeting new visitors and seeing regular return visitors; sing-song around the piano on Boxing Day; my great-niece being born, not that I was there but you know… And now, to cap it all off rather wonderfully, Neil has ‘named’ a star after me. As soon as I find out where it is, or what constellation it is near, I will let you know.

Actually (an aside), if you’re clever at these things – and I have tried looking but not been able to find – perhaps you can locate the rough area of ‘my’ star. I know it’s a long way off, and not visible to the naked eye, and way off the naked eye visibility scale (at 13.6 magnitude) but it would be interesting to know what direction to look in, roughly, like: is it behind Orion, or Cassiopeia, or the one that’s all about a cat getting stuck in a tin of Whiskers, what’s it called? Oh yes, Canopus. If it’s possible to do this from the coordinates, please feel free to let me know via email. It’s got an ID of ‘AGASC_ID: 44439736 and then: RA: 15h 10m 1.82 & DEC: +3 (degrees) 16’ 1.5”

So, what will 2015 hold in store? Well, if I knew that I’d be able to make a fortune on the stock markets and at the bookies. But for us? We shall have to wait and see. Assuming all goes as normal, one of us will be working at the Rainbow Bar; having said that, Yiannis has had his operation and is now (finally) out of hospital, and I guess will be heading home before long. His operation was delayed due to him getting flu, but it was due to happen on 27th and we heard he was out by 29th so it looks like it all went well.

I intend to finish at least one of these book projects I have on the go and get a new title ‘out’ by the end of the year. I may also take up a creative writing course once we have bought the new fridge freezer and done a few other essential things to the house. And we may, if we can save enough, head to the UK for a couple of weeks at the end of the year to visit family. This will entail a lot of trains, I am pleased to report, as family are stretched as far apart as Dungeness (which you now know to be the only desert in the UK) to Penzance, and Edinburgh to Aberdeen.

And finally, to finish off this start to the year. One of the most oft asked questions of 2014 was ‘what news on the film?’ Well, you probably know as much as me. I’ve not seen a Kickstarter update for a long time and I too would love to see some return on my ‘investment’, or at least hear more regular news about it. The last I heard was that the editor was working on it, but was away for three weeks over Christmas, and the company were working towards a film festival early this year. But for more detail I can only suggest folk contact the company directly, and you should have their contact details via your last Kickstarter update. If not, then perhaps get in touch with Kickstarter themselves and ask them for advice. Wish I could say more and end more positively, but I only really know what I pick up from the limited updates that they release.

So, long New Year’s Day ramble there. Here’s wishing you a Happy New Year from Neil, Me, Jack the cat, Symi and Symi Dream.

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Can’t remember if we said ‘thank you’ to everyone for the Christmas messages and emails, but in case I didn’t get to reply, ‘thank you!’ to everyone who sent them in. And thanks for your Su, which we received yesterday:

“Just wanted to give you a big thank you for your blog which I read every day before breakfast!  I particularly love the descriptions of your walks this winter…” The walk episodes seem to be very popular, and we are aiming to try a walk every week, or roughly, with photos, so there should be more over the coming winter period, weather permitting. There are some more shots today taken last Sunday.

And thank you also to Gwenda and Pete for the survival box of cheese and onion crisps and wine; we are planning our own cheese and wine celebrations, though I suspect that at least one or two of the packets will be gone by the time this post gets online. Very kind of you!

And now for something completely διαφορετικό: Turkey. Well, it’s seasonal. One of our gifts this year was a book, ‘1,411 facts’ from Jenine – I mean the book was from Jenine, the facts are from all over the place. I stumbled upon the entries about Greece, after extensive searching in the index, and found it mentioned on a page bearing this rather amusing set of facts:

In Turkey the word for ‘turkey’ means ‘Indian bird.’ The Indian word for turkey means ‘Peruvian bird.’ While here in Greece the word for ‘turkey’ means ‘French bird.’ And in Malaysia it translates as Dutch chicken, just to confuse the issue. Oh, and the world’s largest chicken nugget is twice the size of the world’s largest chicken, which just goes to prove you should NEVER eat them as they are made out of all kinds of thing which clearly don’t come from a chicken.

Also from the same book, between 1920 and 1983, in Greece, leprosy was grounds for divorce, and Greece is the only country in the world whose name, ironically enough, does not contain any of the letters in the word ‘Olympiads.’

And Greece is the only country in the world where, to pass the equivalent of a GCSE at school, you only need to speak enough Greek to discuss football and politics. (I made that one up.) No doubt there will be more factual nonsense in the future as I dip in and out of this new book, such as: according to Julius Caesar the most civilised people of Britain lived in Kent. (I am a Man of Kent after all.) And the only desert in Britain is Dungeness nature reserve, in Kent, and where I used to play as a boy. Now you know you can get on with the rest of your day as I am heading off to do just that and prepare for New Year’s Eve, and that is a fact.

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