Monday general chat
Neil has been busy over the past few weeks, walking to various places on the island that he wouldn’t usually get time to go to because of work. His summer job has often started by this time of the year, but not so this year. Still waiting to hear what’s happening on that front. The result of this anomaly is a batch of excellent photos from places like the wine presses, the hinterland and some of the less accessible parts of the island. Some of his photos feature today. These places are easier to reach if you have a car or moped, but we don’t drive, so that’s that.
I mean, I can drive, or at least, I could. The last time I drove was on Symi in about 2003 when I took a jeep along the seafront at Pedi while helping someone put a boat in the water. The year before, Nick Ps had lent us his car to drive to Marathounda for the evening after work, so at least I can say I have driven across the island… once. I always said, though, since I moved to London in 1985, that I wouldn’t own a car unless I needed one for work, which I did until 2002, but at least the thought was there. I calculate that even if I took a taxi from Yialos to Horio every time I went down there, I’d still not pay out as much money as it would cost me to own a car or even a moped. I prefer to walk anyway. Well, I say that, but after 50 steps going up the Kali Strata I often wonder why I am doing it, especially these days when I’ve not been doing it so regularly. Anyway…
We had high winds again at the start of the weekend, and the shutters had to be closed. Sunday though, it was 22 degrees in the courtyard at 5.00 in the morning, though the day promised to be cloudy. This time next week (Monday), I should be on the Blue Star heading to Rhodes to fill out my application to replace my residency permit with the new biometric card. I have everything I need apart from permission to leave the island, which I should be getting today, along with the boat tickets. I’m lucky that I was able to get an appointment so ‘soon’ after the start of the year. Some people in other parts of the country have to wait until October for an appointment, while others are unable to get one at all and must just turn up and hope for the best. With over 30,000 British living in Greece before the disastrous B work kicked in, there’s a lot of paperwork to be done by the immigration offices.
But that’s for next week. For this week, it’s a case of working on my recently completed 1st draft and doing a story edit. That is, going through it to make sure the skeleton of the story/plot/developments are consistent and all the times and dates and technical aspects tie up. Then, I will do a more creative draft, looking at my use of language, and after that, a grammatical one (with the help of two grammar plugins), before sending it off to be proofed. With the 1st draft running at 157,000 words, that’s all going to take some time.
