Fabulous day yesterday. Did some editing, met H, walked down to Yialos, met up with Neil then Sam, had a pre-lunch drink (thank you, Cobi!), then to SeeMe, met Jenine, ordered burgers, opened presents (H), had a great laugh, said hello to Tina via video thing, plant delivery from Symi Flower, had post-lunch drink (‘What d’you want? A Coke? Small beer?’ And your 21-year-old godson orders an Amaretto some of which he later slips into his brother’s milkshake when he’s not looking), found a taxi after three in the afternoon, back to village, H to home with cakes for his work colleagues that evening, a couple more in the square (Rainbow still closed for another day or so), long chat about music and musical theatre, home, bed, day sorted. Only a few photos to share though, got to keep some family moments private.
Busy in the harbour again, mopeds everywhere, the tide was up because of the moon, slight flooding, lots of wobbly, bare flesh, boys with exposed boobs bigger than those of their GFs which were barely contained behind dental floss bikinis, eek, the boys should be made to wear bikini tops, ask me, great service from Aigalos café and SeeMe. That’s it. Off to work.
As you might know, I’m currently writing a series of mysteries set in London in 1893. One of my most helpful assistants in this task is a large set of road maps of the city from 1888. Apart from giving me routes and distances, it’s interesting to see how many places and streets have changed or changed names over time. I lived in London for over 12 years so know parts of it pretty well, and now you’re wondering where this is leading.
It’s leading to a couple of nights ago when we watched a comedy action film that was all about a reluctant hero being recruited as a spy/assassin/agent/etc. by his high school sweetheart. You know the kind of thing, with a mad plot, lots of CGI, and a fun way to waste 90 minutes. The thing is, part of it was set in London, and there was lots of outdoor filming giving me a good chance to bore Neil with comments such as, ‘I used to walk past there,’ and ‘I had dinner there once,’ and ‘That’s where we went to see Donald Sutherland in that play,’ and so on. It also gave me a chance to have a good laugh, not because of the script or acting, which were fine, but because of the editing.
There are quiet roads to be found on Symi, believe it or not.
I won’t be alone in this. In what? In being unable to ignore it when the story moves from location A to D without going through B and C. If you’ve ever watched ‘Pascali’s Island’ (1988, James Dearden), you will have noticed how Ben Kingsley enters his house on Symi, sees the sea out of the window, leaves his front door, and steps into Rhodes Old Town. Well, in the other night’s film, we had a similar thing, only it was a car chase.
We started off at the Savoy, ‘That’s where we saw that play with Donald Sutherland…’ Actually, I had a friend who worked in the box office there, so I saw loads of shows at the Savoy Theatre (‘It opened on your sister’s birthday but in 1881’) including ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ with Ernie Wise, Lulu, and a selection of endings the audience had to vote for. All very odd.
There are also lots of impromptu parking lots.
Anyway, our reluctant hero leaves the Savoy driving on the right. (The privately owned Savoy Court is the only road in the UK that I know of where you drive on the right. This is partly due to ladies of old usually sitting behind their carriage driver, and at the Savoy, they could step from the carriage and enter the hotel without having to walk around the vehicle.) Our hero, though, turns right and continues to drive on the right when he enters Strand because he is American. When his high-school sweetheart points out he’s on the wrong side of the road and he nearly takes down a black cab, he has to drive across the central thingy outside Couts Bank, which causes us great hilarity. They are heading for somewhere in West London, so why he is heading east is anyone’s guess. As is why he is, in the next shot, driving north across the Thames. Presumably, he’s done a very quick ‘round the block’ over Waterloo Bridge, and come north again via the Hungerford Bridge because he’s now coming up Northumberland Avenue to Trafalgar Square, some 0.4 miles from the Savoy had he turned left from the hotel and not gone on a tour of Southwark. Oh, and clearly, no-one told the director that the Hungerford Bridge is a rail and foot bridge only, but by now, we’ve not only suspended our disbelief, but we’ve had it hung, drawn and quartered.
And so it goes on. Up The Mall one way, down Pall Mall the other for no reason, past the Post Office tower, a quick glimpse of St Pancras Station, and just around the next corner and we’re in Lancaster Gate. If only travel in London was so fast and so picturesque.
And there are quiet roads on Rhodes (at the right time of the year).
Anyway… My travel today will be closer to home, as we have a lunch appointment in Yialos with a couple of grown-up godsons. Before then, there is the obligatory typing to be done and this post to post. Happy driving!
Just offering my weekend report as demanded, Ma’am. What can I tell you…?
Highlights? A visit to Panorama, the kantina on the road out of the village. We arranged to meet up with Jenine for supper, and enjoyed a very juicy beef burger, a great view and a good old chat as we’d not managed to get together for some time. We’ll be doing it all again tomorrow at Harry’s birthday lunch, though down in Yialos, which reminds me, I must wrap the presents. That’s a thing about being on Symi; wrapping paper is hard to come by. I have ordered some, but it’s not arrived in time, so, as he’s my music pupil, I dug out an ancient book of organ music I am never going to play again, and will use some of that as wrapping paper. Last Christmas, again in the absence of anything decent to use (because we’d run out of Jumbo’s finest), we ended up bunging some gifts in Temu delivery bags. Caused hilarity.
Early evening view from the Kantina
So, the kantina (Cantina? Café?) was lovely and is highly recommended. It’s not too far to walk up to. We went up through the village, past the museum and out onto the road and up, but you can also just follow the main road if you don’t want to do more steps.
Another semi-highlight was finishing draft one of the next book, and I say semi, because I still have a couple of pages to put in at the end to round it off, so that’s today’s job.
Later.
Sleep was an odd one. Following a mosquito attack, I was forced to take a ‘non-drowsy’ antihistamine tablet, one of the very mildest in the medicine drawer. These things usually lay me out for a night and a day at least, but not that night. Four hours sleep and I was awake with my nose so blocked and my mouth so dry I just couldn’t get back to dreamland. So I got up, pottered about, went to work, had a light siesta around eleven in the morning, but otherwise, no side effects from the tablet, and I carried on carrying on. Saturday night, however, I slept for eight hours solid, but on Sunday… Crikey! I’d slept well but had to have an hour’s doze in the morning followed by another hour after lunch, and was ‘out of it’ for most of the afternoon. Delayed side effects of a non-drowsy tablet. Still, at least I wasn’t itching.
Another weekend folly was trying to identify a plant that turned up in a pot and is growing like mad. Whatever it is, we didn’t plant it. It may well be a weed, but I don’t mind them as long as they have flowers at some point. I ran images of this one through various ‘identify this plant’ apps, and they came up with it being either a rare herb only found by moonlight on the lower slopes of the Himalayan mountain range, or something to do with capsicums. The leaves don’t taste of anything, and there are no buds or flowers yet. Maybe the mystery will be solved one day if and when it does something other than demand water.
Now, I really must get back to the final chapter and decide how this story is going to end…
Ps. Another thing I did on Saturday was put up a tour around my desk on my Jackson Marsh blog – click here to take a look.
Some views along the lane today taken a couple of mornings ago as I wandered lonely as a cloud. Well, not lonely, as I had the chickens, birds and cats for company, then a little further on, the chicks at the bins with more mother hens fussing around them.
There’s not a huge amount to report as this week ends. The festival at Alithini was well attended last night, with hundreds of souvlakia served after the ceremony, lots of dancing, and lots of attendees. The concerts in the town square continue, I’m told, both modern and classic music being served. We were at the kafeneion yesterday where there was some impromptu bouzouki playing and singing taking place, and a general party/holiday atmosphere pervades.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, I have my usual weekend planned, chapter twenty-something to chapter twenty-something-and-one, as I near the end of a first draft. There’s housework to do, always shopping to get in, and I have to do battle again with FilmOnTV because they charged me for a month’s subscription completely out of the blue, and their email support system is totally rubbish. So, I am going to completely delete my account and block them from taking anything further from my card. I think I can do that with my card… Anyway, that’s admin for the weekend and not at all exciting. I’ll leave you with a view…
Three early morning balcony shots today. The Blue Star on Wednesday morning when it came in at 5.30, then, the cruise ship a little later, and this morning as the younger set were making their way home at around six, following a night of happiness, following a concert in the town square. Tonight is the celebration of Panagia, so there will be more revelry after the religious side of things is taken care of, and then the heat of August will continue along with the festival events.
Wednesday morning
The temperature remains high, being 28° and 55% humidity at 5.50 this morning, and 37° at four yesterday afternoon – we’re bouncing between those two at the moment, at least, we are in our courtyard. The day boats continue to pour visitors into the harbour, with a few breaking off from the herd to find their way to the village, and the taxis were taken up with cruise passengers yesterday. So, summer life goes on through this, probably the busiest month of the year for the island, or the one that feels the busiest because it’s either the hottest, or feels like the hottest because it’s been hot since late May and we’re in August now, and… someone have a word.
But the mornings are a little cooler, and there’s some cloud out there today which will probably burn away by the time I set pen to paper and knuckle down to chapter 21 or whatever it is on the slate today. That and very little else, I think. Neil is out later for his swim and stuff, looks like the Rainbow will be closed as Yiannis has to be in Rhodes today, so Neil will have the afternoon off (unless the boss gets back in time), and I plan to enjoy a day at home, once I’ve been shopping, resting my tennis elbow, writing my books and watching Time Team on YouTube. There’s also a book to read, housework to do, and probably some weeding in the courtyard when it’s cooler. I may or may not do all or any of those things. We shall see.
