Great Week Monday
It’s Monday morning, and I’ve not yet opened the shutters, and I can’t hear the wind. I’m heading out for a stroll soon, aiming to be back by 7.30 or eight so I can cut my hair, go shopping and be back in time for a day doing battle with a story I am working on. We have started Great Week here in Greece, and have a long Easter holiday weekend coming up, one week after Western Easter.
At the house, our eldest godson came to do the cleaning on Sunday morning as he has been doing for a couple of years now. It’s all money towards his school trip to Santorini later this year, and if anyone needs a regular cleaner, odd-job chap, painter, whatever, I can heartily recommend him. The class from school have been raising money towards their trip and here on Symi, and elsewhere I dare say, the young people have a positive attitude to fund-raising, encouraged by their teachers. We have been at the taverna in the past when one of the classes has organised an event – others have done this in other cafes and tavernas too. The class arrange the evening, from booking and paying for the singers/musicians, to buying the supplies and then being on duty in the restaurant. Here, they assist in the kitchen or wait at the tables, take the money for the tickets, serve the first free drink and look after you. It’s wonderful to see the tavernas working with the schools and the teenagers working with the tavernas and, most importantly, each other. These events are usually around €10.00 for the ticket which covers the music and your first drink, and then you buy your dinner on top. A kind of fund-raiser dinner and dance like I remember going to back in the old days when my dad was running the local cricket club, only not quite as bawdy and a lot more Greek.
Okay, I’m off for a walk now, so expect more of these rural, green countryside images over the next few days. The island is very green right now, and I must remember to take a bag and fill up on free, organic herbs from the hillside.
