Complete randomness this morning, after waking up with a song in my head that won’t go away. We watched a film last night and part of the musical soundtrack sounded a little like a couple of bars from a song in Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’, so guess what? I woke up at 4.45 with the whole song going around and around… Now, those two words will be going around and around in my head to music by Chris De Burgh as they feature in one of his old songs. There’s no escape. Perhaps a walk down the Kali Strata will clear the head…

A head which is currently filling up with information about 19th century dentistry. Don’t ask. It’s also a bit randomised by clues I have left myself. I used to map out my stories but found that too rigid a structure stifled creativity. Now, I often start with a beginning and an end and fill the rest in as I go, so I discover and know as much as my characters as they solve cases. In other words, the mystery is often a surprise for me too. This is currently being proved because I thought I had made and important note, and now I can’t find it, or I didn’t write it down. So, I have given my detectives a clue (which I did note down), but now I can’t find the answer, and as it was an historically correct fact, I need to ensure I get it right. It was to do with a convent school on Fulham Road in the late 1800s, and I am sure it was there but now I can find no reference to it, though there was one on Fulham Palace Road, but the note I made didn’t say the word ‘Palace’ and that one is at the wrong address… Perhaps another walk down the Kali Strata will help clear the mind…

What will help clear it is to get on with some work, which I must go and do before songs and mysteries take over completely. Just to show you how diverse the weather has been of late, the blue skies in the photo were from last week, and this one is from this week.

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Yesterday was a strange weather day; cloudy, a little cold when the breeze was up, sunny, warm, then repeat in uneven measures. We were also covered by a dust cloud, as we still are.

If you want to keep an eye on that and the weather over Greece, I recommend https://poseidon.hcmr.gr/

Click on the weather section and then choose if you want to see wind, rain, cloud etc. Fascinating.

Here’s the view yesterday morning…

And in the evening…

This was after we popped down town for dinner and were heading to the bus at eight. Apart from that pleasant couple of hours, I did very little yesterday – some writing and not much else, and I’m in that kind of mood again today. I think I am recovering from Monday when I tidied and dusted my office. It can take a long time to recover from that kind of madness.

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Well, I was going to share some photos of feasting, festivities and fun but for some reason, my photos haven’t uploaded to the place I usually find them, and I can’t get them off my phone and onto the laptop, so that will have to wait. Instead, I can tell you that, in our house, the past few days have been something of a festival of chocolate. I’m still finding it in the most unlikely places. Neil made some Easter eggs that wouldn’t come out of the moulds, so he made some Easter chocolate bombs, a cake, decorations and other things from half a hundred weight of the stuff, and the fridge is still rammed wit it.

This is one of the aftermaths (he didn’t stick that rabbit on it, someone else did that).

I made bread, which is what these two cake-like things are.

Over the weekend, from Friday until the stillness of Monday morning, there were church services, celebrations, solemn processions, bangers, fireworks, dynamite, dancing, you name it, it was a riot of sound and light. Apparently. We slept through the three nights of dynamite and majestic firework displays, being in bed by nine most nights. I know, I know…

However, we spent a glorious Easter Sunday with the family and friends feasting and laughing, and now we can settle into the season. As often happens when we have an early Easter, there may be a lull for a couple of weeks, but we have sailing boats coming in, the day trip boats are already doing a brisk trade, the Sebeco is running a few times a day, and the tavernas have been busy. It will be interesting to see how some businesses fare this year because, for the first time, everyone now has to clock in and clock out of work. This is, I assume, to protect worker’s rights and ensure people don’t end up doing what people have been doing for years and are still doing, which is working from nine in the morning until midnight without a break. How people who do flexible hours are supposed to manage is yet to be seen. I.e. those employed to meet guests from boats at all hours, or who only need to service properties for an hour here and there, rather than for eight hours a day in one block. We’ll have to wait and see.

Oh, I found this photograph of Limehouse, London taken in 1893, and it got transferred to the blog gallery by accident, so you may as well see it.

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I’m going to leave you until Tuesday, so here are a few photos to take you over the Easter weekend. Good Friday has started, as it always does, quietly, because no work is allowed (except at my desk where I have chapter eight to quietly type up). If I am awake for the celebrations over the next couple of nights, I will do my best to take some more photos for you, but I can’t promise. Happy Easter!

If you are looking for something to read this weekend, click here:

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It looks to be another warm and sunny day this Easter Thursday. In a rare moment of ‘could be bothered’, we called down to Yialos yesterday evening, so we were able to view the harbour in its own particular pre-sunset light. The buildings take on a warm glow at that time of day, and the hillside turns pink. The ferry came and went, as did the pedestrian traffic of locals and visitors alike. Later, after dinner in the village, we discovered that Neil might start his summer job today, or he might not, because we’re dealing with village life, so who knows, but we shall see.

Today, there’s not a lot planned on my side of the screen; some writing this morning, a piano lesson, maybe watching ‘Boiling Point’ with the shipbuilder now the ship has been launched, and an early night whether Neil is working or not. Tomorrow is Good Friday, as I am sure you know, and then we have the Easter Weekend, where the dynamite will go off, the fireworks will be lit, and that is on top of the church celebrations. We think the temporary garden shed in this photo has something to do with Easter Sunday, no-one down town was too sure.

Meanwhile, in the village square you can see nothing of any interest whatsoever.

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