I guess the first advertisement of the day is for the dance show on Sunday. Organised by the Women’s Association of Symi, this is Rhiannon Wheeler dance show which features ballet, jazz and tap from children aged from three to 52, if I include myself in the tap section. Which I do. That’s at the Opera House at 6.30 pm on Sunday evening. It usually runs for a couple of hours, with an interval, and the bar will be open. I hope.
Before that though, on Friday, we have Koukoumas up at Agios Athanasios in the usual way. The local celebration of May Day and Husband Naming, this is a chance to come and see traditional Symi dances, hear traditional island songs and watch the ceremony as the unmarried girls of the village discover the name of their future husbands. That usually starts around 5.30 pm.
And also on Friday we will (apparently) be having another of those Greek crisis days the media is so fond of. Well, I don’t know what’s going on, but I suspect our government will have to change its promises, the ones they were elected on – some of which we all knew were lovely dear, but not really feasible. We shall see. But I do wish the UK press (and possibly other countries’ press) would stop scaremongering. Telling holidaymakers to bring cash only on holiday as banks might run out of money. Doh! Just stay calm, bring your usual and you’ll be fine. Well, you could bring extra as long as you spend it on local businesses, no one will mind that, but I doubt you will find a lack of notes. And if you do, well, then you’ll experience what it’s really like to live in Greece and get some bonus holiday value.
And talking of a lack of notes, I took up the flute yesterday. I was brought up with a flute in the house, my brother played it from an early age, we used to do concerts together him on flute me on whisky, I mean piano. He was an orchestral player too, appearing with the Kent Youth Orchestra one year. (Berloiz’ Te Deum, I thought it was te-tedium; sorry, not a fan.) Through my vague musical career I have had a stab at: piano, organ (church), saxophone, recorder, violin, cello, clarinet, oboe, guitar (lead and acoustic), bass, accordion and a few teachers. The only thing I’ve never managed to get a note out of is a flute.
So, with my new, second hand Boosey and Hawkes, I sat down, or rather stood up, for an hour yesterday with a few online instruction manuals and made myself very dizzy. I took up the tip of taking the mouthpiece on its own, blocking the end with a hand and blowing, and that worked, no problem. Then I did exactly the same with the mouthpiece attached to the rest of the gubbins and, nope, just a lot of air, light-headedness and frustration. But perseverance is the key, so later today another attempt will be made to get a sound from this, the (apparently) easiest of instruments to play – after the ukulele, the spelling of which is not the easiest to explain.
