Here I am back at the desk after a long weekend. It started on Thursday when Harry wired up my new Bluetooth speaker to the TV. Now, we have to rewatch every film we’ve ever watched because they all sound so different. Then, on Friday, we spent the day in Rhodes as did half of the island, it seems, because the boat was so busy.

I saw a couple of things over in Rhoes that made me smile. One of them was this, a five-aside football pitch built between the walls of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the moat of the Old Town. A perfectly peaceful and community use for something that was built to keep others out.

The other was found in Pappou, the supermarket on Kanadas, where we usually pop in to hunt for tea bags and things we didn’t know we couldn’t do without. We were lucky this time and found some decent ones, and while searching, came across Symi salt on sale. It’s good to see the expanded distribution.

The rest of the weekend was spent in contemplation of the weather, the rain we had off and on, but mainly off. Today, it’s grey and windy, and a day for staying home, writing, then teaching piano and building models.

Well, yesterday was a fun and busy day. I took the whole day off, as you may have noticed, and spent it firstly at home doing little but unwrapping a very special gift (a Bluetooth speaker) and signing up for Spotify so I can use it. Then, the afternoon with the boys and their mum on their terrace where the being spoilt continued with much fun and laughter, not to mention food and two cakes. Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes and for those who, on reading that, thought, ‘I didn’t know!’ And that was followed by an evening making travel arrangements for our trip at Christmas.

On the way there, we passed the bakery where, it seems, not everyone had been in time to collect their bread order, so it was left, named, on the door ready for collection. You can still do that kind of thing around here; no-one is going to take it.

I also celebrated yesterday, because I had my annual payment from the Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society, an organisation that, like the PRS, arranges payments to authors when their work is used on other people’s websites, in academic papers, and so on. I still don’t 100% understand how they do this wonderful work, but it slightly makes up for the intellectual theft of 14 of my books by Meta, who have used them (and millions of others) to inform and train their AI so a machine can write books, so humans don’t have to, and all without the permission of the authors. It actually makes me more than nauseous to think of people making money out of having a computer write something in their name, lay it out, bang up a cover and even upload it to Amazon, then generate sales from doing bugger all with no creativity or thought, but don’t get me started on that, because this genuine work of fiction has just come out in paperback…

The only other things to mention before I head off into the day is that we are again covered in dust from the Sahara, and it is meant to be raining on Saturday, which will bring it down and cover every, so bring your washing in… …and, to add, that I shan’t be here tomorrow as we are off to Rhodes again for the day. So, I’ll see you on Monday.

The harbour will look different today as the school and military parade to celebrate Independence Day. This will be happening across all of Greece of course. Last night was the celebration of Evangalismos, and the harbour was lined with lanterns – see the Symi Dream Facebook page or go direct to Symi TV to see the video.

Today’s photos were taken yesterday when we walked down the road to collect something from town, and then took a taxi back up because the thing was quite heavy. After lunch, we had a great time at the piano and then modelling – not in the wandering the catwalk wearing ridiculous outfits no-one would be seen dead in in public, you understand, but building ships and dioramas.

If you look closely at one of the photos, you can see the Sebeco is here. This doesn’t mean it’s running a service yet. There’s nothing on their itinerary, so I imagine it’s here for some other reason, perhaps to be present for Independence Day, I don’t know.  Now the wind has died away, all other ferry services are running as usual.

I was sitting here going through my emails and was delighted to see the final proof and layout of the next book is in, and I was thinking… ‘There’s something I should be doing…’ So, here I am, a little late because I completely forgot about doing this and have no idea what to put down. I have reverted to what I was doing yesterday, which was researching two subjects which may combine in my next book. I must admit, they are not what I would normally combine, and I have no idea how I might achieve it if I go on with the idea, because one is Holywell Street (London) and the second is hot air ballooning. How to get from the heart of subversive publication, erotica and so forth in the 1890s to a, er, climax in hot air balloons… We shall have to wait and see, but it’s the kind of challenge I like to set myself. Along the way, I found one of the earliest mentions in print of the word ‘Rozzer’, a British (East London mainly) slang word for a policeman.

Meanwhile, I have the next book to put up ahead of the 26th which is when I have promised the release date to be (Collette, take note), and a piano lesson to think about for later. I am currently at the kitchen table among the pieces of the Titanic and am hoping the internal lights arrive this morning so we can try putting them in this afternoon. We (mainly he) are/is at the stage of putting on the decks, but we can’t do that until we have at least tried putting in lights. They were sent from somewhere in North Greece on Wednesday on the promise of three to five working days, so we’re cutting it fine, but you never know.

Here, over the weekend, the wind died down, the sun came out again and preparations for Easter continue with houses prepped and primed for painting, business preparing chairs and tables, wares and forecourts, and works continuing on roads and other places ahead of the summer. We’ve had a day-trip boat in, too, apparently. And talking of day trips, I’ll be away again on Friday for another of our annual checks, and this time, hopefully, we won’t get stuck overnight.

I’m a little out of kilter today, so I’ll not be staying long. My editing has been put back by two days because we got stuck in Rhodes due to gales, and I have promised to get the MS to the formatting team by Monday. So… Anyway… We got to Rhodes a little late but that wasn’t an issue for the health MOT test centre. We arrived at 8.00 and were out by 8.40 having done the biz under the insurance cover. The results were in our in boxes that afternoon, and we’ve made an appointment for the other part of the test, the full cardio, for next Friday. Neil also needed new glasses so after brunch at Kokoraki, he popped into Optical House next door, saw Orestes, had an eye test and ordered new glasses which will be here in a couple of weeks. No appointment, just a ‘Will you be able to see me today?’, followed by a cheery, ‘Yes, come in now…’ and there you go.

Kokoraki (the cockerel) is a brunch café in Rhodes where the sports shop used to be. That’s a very ‘around here’ way of describing a place, sorry. Come out of the Plaza, turn left, go to the end, and over the road, opposite the small park, kiosk and supermarket… It’s right there, and we were served by George from Neraida, Symi, who recognised us. Wonderful eggs and bacon on friend bread, coffee and a double mug of breakfast tea for me, for €20.00 Set us up nicely after being up since four and not having eaten. Right, here are some random photos to keep you going. I’m off.