Random Photos and Updates

I have some random photos from my collection today, and I thought I would explain what they are. To start with, there’s one of the usual ‘sunrise over Pedi shots’ taken when I was walking the other morning. The camera never quite gets the colour right, the sky is often more coral than it shows here, where it looks orange. Still, it’s always a pleasant sight to see.

Then, a pre-dawn picture taken at the harbour as the Blue Star was coming in. This was from when I went to Rhodes to start my biometric card application. I’m now waiting to be called to go back again to have my fingerprint done for stage two of the process, and I hope to hear about that in a couple of weeks.

The church tower of St John in Yialos. I was waiting outside the surgery for my vaccination the other week and thought I’d just take a snap while I was there. The vaccinations have been well organised. You arrive, the nurse is at the window and checks you off, asks you to wait, and at your time, you are called in, monitored, asked a few questions and painlessly jabbed. Then there’s a waiting period (inside) in case you suffer any immediate effects, and when all is well, you can go. I expect it is like this all over the world, though not everyone will have this view while they are waiting.

And, again, from a few days ago, the guys preparing the Kali Strata for painting. This is done every spring. The weeds are removed, and paint is slapped on the risers, brightening up the steps, ready for summer. A lot of the time, it rains a few days later, and the pristine white becomes discoloured by the dust and mud washed down, or someone empties a washing machine on the steps and leaves a stain, but for a while, the steps dazzle in the sunlight. We’ve not had much rain this spring, so maybe they will stay whiter than usual this year.

And finally, the old shop. I notice it’s having an external electric meter box put in. I assume that’s what’s going on here. The box is/was inside the storeroom on the other side of this wall. It’s the first sign of activity at the building since 2015. I don’t know if it means there will soon be a new shop or not, but I can tell you that now the cafes and tavernas can open, some already have, and others are preparing for summer as they usually do. All good and hopeful signs – though I just heard Kalymnos, after being ‘freed’ like the rest of us, is now back on a strict 5-day lockdown. Must go and investigate that…

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Monday Evening

There was something of a party atmosphere in the square on Monday night as the cafes and tavernas were able to reopen. We popped down for ‘one’ in the afternoon and ended up getting home in the evening. There were people to see and talk to, and after so many months of not being able to sit at a table and chat, it was hard to leave. Neil nipped up the hill to collect the rest of the Easter cake he’d made and passed slices around everyone outside the café. Other people were celebrating their name day (St George, celebrated after Easter because the day fell within Lent), and others were just happy to be in the fresh air. You’re allowed to do this now as long as there are no more than six at a table, and it’s outside seating only, with a closing time/curfew of eleven at night.

Monday night also saw the traditional ‘burning of Judas’ ceremony/celebration, and the end of Easter was marked with a firework display set off on the main road so it could be seen from everywhere in the harbour and from most places in the village. (Sorry for the blurred images; they were taken on my phone.) After all that, we went home and listened to 78s on the wind-up gramophone because we’re right up to date with our technology.

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Monday morning

Here we are on the other side of Easter with a few photos from the weekend. The weather has been warm. It was 30 degrees the other evening, so we were able to sit with the windows open for the first time in many months. That helps when the dynamite goes off, and the house shakes, as the shockwaves enter via the balcony, shimmy you along the sofa a little and disappear through the open front door. There was plenty of dynamite and, apparently, lots of fireworks on Saturday night. We tried to stay up for it, but being early to bed, early to rise folk, we slept through it. Hard to believe there was any noise at all when you look at the morning view from the same, still open windows.

Neil was busy baking a cake for two days. I was at work on my manuscript (and will be for a while), taking a couple of short walks up steep hills and doing very little else, and woke up late on Tuesday to another quiet morning.

I also had one of those advice emails from some Greek government website that might interest you. From 15 May, the government will allow any tourist to visit the country if they have been vaccinated or can provide a negative coronavirus test. However, restrictions are still in place for the Orthodox Easter on 2 May – travelling to another prefecture is not allowed, and a curfew is in place. From 3 May restaurants will be allowed to seat people outside. Schools will reopen on 10 May.

I’ve not been out yet, and it’s 7.30 on Monday as I write, so I am not sure if Lefteris kafeneion will be open from today, but its chairs and tables were out and being prepared at the weekend, so I assume it will be open later today. Yiannis is still away, so the Rainbow won’t be opening just yet, but Neil’s ready to go back to work as soon as he is needed. We have four ferries operating now at various times, so travel to Rhodes is much easier, although I’m not 100% sure what restrictions are in place for that. I shouldn’t need to go over for another couple of weeks, by when I should know more, but restrictions are being eased, and vaccinations are continuing.

That’s my catchup news this quiet Monday morning, and the rest of my day will be spent working on the manuscript, popping up the hill to collect the remainder of a cake, and probably slobbing on the sofa again ahead of starting the new-season routine on Tuesday.

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Happy Easter

It is Easter weekend in Greece, so I shall take Monday off and be back with you on Tuesday. The bangers and dynamite have started, there’s a donkey tied up beneath our front window, and Neil is planning a cake. After Easter, the tavernas and bars that serve food are preparing to open again with several restrictions in place. The Sebeco ferry service has started again, as has the Stavros larger ferry; we continue to have Dodecanese Seaways catamarans and the Blue Star ferries. We’re well supplied for on/off island transport right now, but I am still unsure what restrictions of movement are in place. One week on from my first vaccination, and I am gradually starting to feel ‘normal’ again, the weather’s definitely perking up, and… I can’t think of any other news to leave you with, so here are some of Neil’s recent photos with which to wish you a Happy (Orthodox) Easter.

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A Little Stroll

I took a little stroll yesterday morning – just part way up the hill in a head-clearing exercise before I settled down to edit and improve the current MS. It was something of a landmark day as it was the first time I went out in shorts (at six in the morning). Today has started cloudy and windy, but it’s still warm. That kind of weather bodes well for next week when cafes and bars can reopen and people will, I hope, be sitting outside watching the limited world go by. That’s the first sign of ‘getting back to normal’, and let’s hope it continues.

Today, for me, is about editing and improving the MS. In fact, the next three weeks will be taken up with that because I have a deadline and a lot of MS to edit. Hopefully, within that time, I shall also be called back to Rhodes for stage two of my biometric card process, have my second vaccination (date booked), and Neil will have started work (next week, all being well). My informal piano student will have started on his grade one pieces, I will have finished a ten-book series, and started on another. Things seem to be looking up, and there are many reasons to be positive.

Just as an aside. I saw this boat in Akandia harbour on Monday, and here it was following me home yesterday. I’ve not seen a Blue Star cargo ship before. I assume that’s what it is. It was followed later by the usual Blue Star ferry.

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