Symi weekend
We took one of those impromptu walks on Saturday. The kind of walk where you say, ‘Let’s go for a walk before lunch. Let’s go now.’ And, an hour later, you’re almost ready, and ten minutes after that, you set off.
After stopping briefly for a quick hello in the village, we headed out up the donkey path towards Ag Paraskevi, and on, following ‘the Wall’ to the top of the hills behind Yialos. From there you can see the other side of the island and Turkey (when it’s not so hazy) and the monastery at Roukouniotis. We followed the main road back to Xissos and then took the donkey path back down to the village. Two hours, including stops for photos and views. Along the way I saw lizards, a buzzard (?), a few chaffinches, blackbirds, sheep and lambs, goats, turkeys in mating season and other assorted wildlife, some of which I caught on camera, others were too fast. It was a warm morning, layers came off the higher we climbed, and my face was a little pink come evening.
The earlier part of the morning had been spent setting up another blog and twitter account. It’s still in its very early days, but it’s at this address if you want to follow it: www.jamescollinsauthor.com and there are links there to the new Twitter page and Facebook page. This doesn’t replace Symi Dream and that site’s Twits and Faces (or whatever), but it’s going to be about the writing side of things in more detail than I post here.
On Saturday evening we gave ‘Chess in Concert’ another viewing. If you’ve not seen it and you’re a fan of musicals, Time Rice lyrics or music by the Abba team, then you might be interested to see it. I saw the original show when it was in preview (rushes away to check the day of that…) It opened on May 14th, 1986, and so I guess I saw it on May 12th, 1986, or sometime around then. I then went back to see it again after it had opened, and when it was a little shorter. Little did I know that one of the dancers I was watching I would meet, in person, on Symi, some ten years later; Jane, who used to have the Sunflower café in Yialos. I also saw her in ‘West Side Story’ which I thought I’d seen at Her Majesty’s before ‘Phantom’ landed and stayed there. It was the last night of a run and must have been in the 1980s as well, but I can’t find a reference to the actual date. Anyway… That’s what we watched on Saturday, and very good it is too.
Sunday…? Well, I’m preparing this for Monday’s posting before we try and squeeze the cat into his box to take him down to Yialos to see the vet who is visiting from Rhodes. He needs a quick check up on his ears (the cat, not the vet) and his bits of missing fur. I’ve been putting athlete’s foot cream on the patches, as we have done before, and I think it is working, but as the vet is here and we need the exercise of carrying six kilos of cat up and down the steps, we thought it would be a good idea. He’s currently asleep at my feet by the heater and has no idea that in a couple of hours, he’s going to be going to the doctor. As long as we can get him in the box.
And that’s the weekend that was. I am checking the diary to see what lies ahead in the week to come and, so far, it’s one invite to tea only, so it looks nice and clear to work on pieces for the new blog. Don’t worry, I’m only going to use it when I have something interesting to say (and to publicise the novels), so Symi Dream will be here, as usual, Monday to Saturday unless I am away with my usual posts about nothing I particular and my photos.
