Because I didn’t wake up until 6.30 today and am running late, I only have a few random photos from the past couple of days and a few comments on them. After this, I must get on with editing ‘Bobby, a life worth living.’ This is the biography/autobiography of my godfather, who died in 2007. Before he died, I recorded him telling the story of his life, and now, finally, I am doing what he wanted me to do with it, which is putting it into a book and publishing it. It starts in Tooting in 1919, and the story runs through the 20th century. There will be more about it in due course, but while I wait for ‘Where There’s a Will’ to come back from proofing, I have this to be getting on with. As the book (Bobby) is about my godfather, here’s a vaguely appropriate, random but action photo of our godson hard at work in the Kali Strata Restaurant.

It was good to see it busy last night. So busy in fact, I would suggest booking a table if you are planning to eat there. The bars in the square were also busy, and are set to become more so as the season really kicks in. We may even have Neil working double shifts at Rainbow before long. Of course, there are other places to eat in the village, and here’s a shot of one of them.

Scena, near the bus stop, is open for lunch and evenings and is right next to the play park, so it is a good place for families who want to chill while being able to watch their children play. There’s also Greek music at the weekend, a film night, and a great menu. As you can see from the next random, we had skies over the past few days too. The cloudy one was last week, actually, but the dawn photo was taken on Sunday when I was up at 5.15, just in time to catch the colour before it faded about five minutes later.

And then, a shot from higher up the road on my walk the other morning. One mile up the hill, one mile down the hill, all within 40 minutes. I was quite pleased with myself.

This week, I should be able to start the final proof of ‘Where There’s a Will’, I should be sent the cover for it, and I should be able to have it published in a week or so – good news for everyone following the Delamere Files series. Also this week, I have two music sessions with the godson in preparation for when he plays for his dad, more friends are arriving, as are my mother and nephew later in the week, and it looks like we may be hitting 40 + degrees again, with the chance of some more Sahara dust. Be prepared.

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I see Symi has been in the news these past couple of days, and maybe so again today. I’ve yet to hear if there is any more news on the missing visitor story. I don’t mean this to sound disparaging or rude, it’s meant to be polite, but this is my general reply to unsolicited enquiries on this matter: Yes, we know there’s a search and rescue underway, and it must be terrible for those involved and close to the missing person, but, no, sorry, I can’t help you with your enquiries, because all I would have is an opinion, and that’s no good to anyone. Let the authorities do their job, and wait and see.

For me, today’s to-do list includes more research into the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly circa 1893 and Maskelyne and Cooke’s mysterious entertainments, the magic circle, and magic tricks generally – all research for the next Victorian mystery.

By the way, if you want to know more about them, click to the Amazon series page for the first series. Here’s the link to Jackson Marsh’s best seller.

Now then, yesterday became a cloudy day by late afternoon, though was still hot. It reached over 40 in the harbour on Wednesday, according to the pharmacy thermometer, and it wasn’t much off that yesterday. Today has started with some of the cloud still hanging around, making things feel humid. It’s 6.45 now, and 30 degrees, cloudy and the humidity is at 42%, so there’s your weather report.

Things are set to become very busy over the next couple of weeks, with more and more people arriving, including nephew and mother. June has always been very popular with the Brits and northern Europeans, and the month usually becomes like a reunion party for so many people. We’re looking forward to that. In our little local family, everyone is now working flat out already, as chef, waiter, housekeeper, and bar person, and I am very glad I do the job I do: sitting on my backside typing, as it’s far too hot to be running around, even in the evenings. My piano student has his end-of-season recital in two weeks, then we’ll take July and August off because it really is too difficult to do anything much in those months. His recital will be for his visiting dad, and yesterday, I told him I was going to record his rehearsal of Fur Elise. If you put a camera on someone, it adds a little extra pressure to perform, so is the closest I can come to simulating an audience, if you see what I mean. It worked, and with that slight addition of pressure, the concentration level went up, and he played brilliantly. Which is more than I did because I forgot to press record. Hey ho. I’ll try again at Monday’s lesson, so he can, later, watch himself and see where his wrists are, and if his back is straight etc.

That’s enough early morning waffle from me.

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I had a Bitzer day yesterday. Bits a this, bits a that…

I’ve been working on two writing projects and both are now with proofreaders, so that’s got them out of my way, leaving me free to start the next one, but first, I have to decide what the next one will be about. I find once I have a hook (a gimmick, an ending or a twist, something to hook the story on), the rest comes pretty easily. So, yesterday morning, I did some research as the following couple of images will show you.

All fascinating, but I then got distracted by a rare book I found about the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, and Maskelyne and Cooke’s magical entertainment, and as that was not only online but fully downloadable in PDF, I spent the rest of the morning reading that.

Until it was time to knock off for my two-hour lunch break (the joy of being semi-retired). Lunch while watching MasterChef, followed by the Great Irish Bake Off, followed by washing up, and I had a short period of time to play Sherlock on my tablet, then it was piano hour. That passed very pleasantly, and after it, came a drink at the bar before visiting a friend who is here, but who doesn’t like to leave his accommodation much in this heat. So, a very relaxing day was rounded off with a glass on their terrace before home, some salad, a little more TV, and bed. Somewhere in there I also managed to start on a jigsaw that Harry bought me for Christmas. I shan’t be able to use my desk for a while, maybe a long while as I realised, yesterday, this one has 1,500 pieces. That’ll keep me busy.

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There’s only so much you can do, right? I’m just back from half an hour on the DEH website, that’s the electricity company, where I’ve been unable to enter my home meter reading. It’s all very odd. Usually, they send me a message to say, ‘You can read your meter and enter the number’, and you have a few days where you can do this every couple of months, except I can’t. Each time I try, it tells me ‘An error occurred.’ Well, you don’t say! Yes, it does say, and it’s said it now for the third day in a row, so I went to their ‘send us a message’ department because I couldn’t find anything about a site error online. I crafted a succinctly worded message in two languages, filled out the form, hit send, and then got the message: Unable to perform the request, or similar.  Rather than show you a photo of this fascinatingly dull webpage, here’s a picture of the ANEK ferry that came in on Monday.

I looked at the DEH Facebook page, but it’s all adverts, so no news, but I did find an email address, so I have sent a message. I’m only wondering about the site because DEH phoned me on Monday to tell me about their ‘Green Pass’, and said they would send me an email with instructions to follow. However, what arrived was the email telling me I could enter my meter reading. I have seen the info on the Green Pass online, which I don’t fully understand. It’s €0.95 per month, in return for “The add-on service that guarantees that an equivalent amount of the electricity you consume is generated and reserved from renewable energy sources” I don’t want to start fiddling with my account if the site’s not working properly, so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Meantime, I’ll get an estimated bill based on their records, I guess. Ah well.

That is about the highlight of my day so far. That and receiving the first mock-ups for the new book cover, which are very much a first draft, so need work. I won’t show you those as they’re not ready, but I’ll show you a photo of the Blue Star 2 that came in on Tuesday. I know! All these big ferries, and day boats, and shuttle boats and… where will it all end?

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Things are gradually warming up. Yesterday, on the west-facing, shaded wall in our courtyard, the thermometer read 33 degrees with humidity at 40%. The rising temperature means the walking, if being done, needs to be done earlier in the day. On Saturday, I went up to the monastery overlooking Pedi, known locally as ‘To Vrisi’ because there’s a natural spring there, and a tap, so you can fill your water bottle. (To Vrisi means, the tap.) I went in the afternoon, and lovely though it was, it was probably too hot for the upward journey.

Lovely walk, nice views and all that, but what with things heating up, the walking’s not the problem, the problem is what my nephew calls chafage. A couple of years ago, a friend visiting from Denmark brought us something very handy called Klunke Voks, and I am still using it. (Thanks Millie.) I don’t intend to go into details about this product, but if you want to know the English translation, the Voks part means ‘wax’, and your Klunkes are what they sound like, so there you go. That reminds me of a conversation I had to have with the oldest godson after he’d spent a lot of time walking around Rhodes with his mates, aged 15, wearing boxer shorts (and other clothing). Not the best garment for keeping away the chafage, I told him, and explained why as we made our way to his English proficiency exam. No doubt, that gave him something to talk to the examiner about when he did his conversation test.

That aside, the walk was a pleasant one that involved goats at some point. It always involves at least ten ‘Kali mera’ along the way, to real people, not the goats, because these days, I’m more inclined to walk up through the village, and then down the road. Whichever way I go there’s always someone to say good morning to, and, plenty to see. I aim to go a wandering again later this morning before it gets too warm and I need to voks my klunke.

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