It was something of a lovely day yesterday. A little writing, a walk, a birthday dinner with the boys, much eating and making merry, perfect. And now, back to normal and onwards, except a few pounds heavier, and with a volume of Schubert sonatas to work through, to go along with the Chopin sonatas I collected in Rhodes recently. Plenty of piano work for me to be getting on with. Thank you everyone who sent birthday wishes, and thank you to my glorious husband for making a grand piano out of chocolate and putting it on a cake first made for Franz Joseph of Austria (who appears in one of my novels), and to Jenine and Sam for cooking me a pie that had mashed potato beneath the crust (no, honestly, and it was delish), and to Harry for the endless entertainment at my dinner last night.

Meanwhile, I’m, hearing more about who is getting ready to open for Easter (which isn’t until May 5th) and for the season, there are rumours that this might be happening and that definitely will, and she’s going to be doing this and he’s not going to be doing that this year, but will be doing the other instead, and so on and so forth. What I do know, because I read the sign on the door, is that up here in the village, Taverna Zoi is looking for staff, so if you fancy a summer job…

Mind you, you’d have to be from an EU country as Brits can no longer work in Greece without a specific and hard-to-get visa, and the days of working your summer in return for a party life when not at work are over. Makes you wonder how the clubs of Faliraki — and other places once popular with the late teen early twenties crowd who came to give out flyers all summer, drink cheap booze and cackle their way to a good vomit — will manage. Ah well, it must be that now they only employ casual staff from other EU countries. I have no idea how I got into this subject, but I’m getting off it now as I have some typing that needs to be done and it’s already a quarter to eight.

Share on Facebook

It’s a lovely day out there today, so I may well do some more of this…

That’s after I do some of this…

TWO

Delamere House
October 1892

William Reginal Merrit sat upright in his bed and made a decision. Today, for the first time in his life, he would put his left foot on the floor before his right.

Yesterday, we did some of this…

Followed by a couple of hours of this…

And now I’ve told you all that, I’m off to do some more of this…

If you’ve been following the series (plural), then you might like to know that this has just come out on Kindle and KU. Paperback to follow.

Share on Facebook

Today is Greek Independence Day, and a celebration of the start of the war of independence, 1821. It’s a bank holiday, and there will be services and celebrations because it is also the Feast of the Annunciation. Last night, Yialos and the road to Evangelismos were lined with flaming torches as part of those celebrations, and you can see great footage of this if you look at Symi TV, either on Facebook (link here) or on YouTube (link here).

This morning we woke up to cloudy skies and some light rain, but yesterday was a glorious day. I took myself off for a walk around the top of the Pedi Valley to admire the greenery and flowers, blossom and new leaves and had a lovely, quiet walk.

This was partly to recover from the fun and madness of Saturday night when our godsons came for dinner. Just us four, a curry Neil had cooked (I made the bread), and some homemade ice cream, lovely chats about all kinds of things, and a very naughty game of Cards Against Humanity. That raised even more laughs and some eyebrows. Since then, our oldest GB has secured himself his first long-term rental down in Harani, which will be close to his work at Pavone Café, which is just behind the police station. He is due to start his season at the beginning of May, while the other GB will start back at the Kali Strata Restaurant after his school exams, in June.

Before then, he’s got a Yamaha motorbike kit to finish building, a grade two music theory exam next week, and will start on his grade three theory, while continuing with his grade four piano. In our additional music lesson (we have two a week now) we’ve also been learning to play the clarinet (so much easier when you can already read music), and next month, we’re going to start looking at poetry, lyrics, and songwriting.

The last piece of news is that my next book is finally out on Kindle. It will be in paperback as soon as I get the full cover in the next couple of days. Click the cover to reach the Amazon.com page for more details.

Share on Facebook

Yesterday, not long after sharing that photo of the harbour in the sunshine, I went out for a walk, got so far along the edge of the hillside, and realised it was about to rain, so I came back. However, I managed to get this shot of two buzzards or eagles making lazy circles in the sky…

That’s probably not dust on your screen, but two tiny black dots which were, in fact, the massive birds above me.

… Sit alone and talk, and watch a hawk making lazy circles in the sky… (‘Oklahoma’) One of Oscar Hammerstein II’s better lines if you ask me because it’s exactly what hawks do; they circle above, riding the thermals and making lazy circles. The line makes sense, unlike some of his others. I mean, ‘To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray.’ (The Sound of Music.)

Say what? For a start, if you were in my nunnery and you sang all night, I’d have you thrown in a cell for disturbing the peace. Secondly, do birds pray? If they do, where do they learn to pray? And do they sing their way through the rehearsals?

Anyway, that’s the kind of mood I’m in today as I listen to the wind howling around the house, watch the white bits on the sea, and wonder if the boat will be on time tomorrow. Yes, I’m going back to Rhodes for the day to finish off my annual MOT, and to hang out with the godson after, to wander the streets, and maybe to go to the shops when my heart is lonely because I know I shall find what I’ve found before. The stores fill my heart with the sound of… cash registers, actually, and no, I shan’t be shopping.

Which has just reminded me, I need to send a thank you email to Fasma Models in Athens. www.fasmamodels.gr/  We had a disaster with a Porsche and got glue on the windscreen (I say ‘we’ when I mean a hormonal teen), so I emailed the shop and asked where I could find a replacement. They rang me back to get the serial number from the box- you may remember this, about six weeks ago – and said they’d be in touch. Yesterday, along with a Grade Three Theory of Music book, arrived a box inside of which was the frame holding all transparent ‘glass’ parts for the Porsche, with no charge and even the postage paid for. What wonderful service and what a lovely surprise. The hormonal teen is coming this afternoon to work on the Yamaha GPz 150 XRS Turbo 67P or whatever the F it’s called, so he will be pleased. (Maybe not about the grade three theory book, but…)

See you next week!

Share on Facebook

March 20th is suddenly upon me. Why is that important? It’s not, but today is one of those days when I woke up and thought I had nothing to do but edit my book. Then, I realised I’ve also got to do a piece of writing for someone else, plus this blog, my Jackson Marsh blog, and a newsletter, because I have another book appearing in a promotion starting today. Then, I also have to check some more chapters of the next book, arrange the layout files ready to send, buy boat tickets for Friday, transfer some money from my ever-dwindling savings account, go for a walk, and, later, play the piano. A day to keep me busy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Oh, if Neil goes to the gym, I’ll also have to cook lunch. On top of that, I promised my piano student that I would work for 20 minutes per day on one piece (as I have asked him to do this week) as a challenge, so I’ve got to find time to fit in some Mozart.

A good job, then, that it’s a lovely weather day and I can at least share the view with you even if I don’t have time to share much else.

Share on Facebook