I managed something of an obstacle course on Friday. I was off to Yialos to pick up two deliveries at the courier, buy a tin of gloss paint, tea bags, and pay the post office box bill. Simple. Neil was in Rhodes to sort out his phone, and he’d taken all the money with him, so that was the first obstacle. I found an old card with a few pennies left on it, and I was able to extract them from a machine, so that was okay. That done, the first stop was the courier which has now moved to the back of the square.
It’s a much nicer office, and has a great view of the play park…
One of my packages had already been delivered, so that must have been the one that was rerouted to the Post Office, whose automated system had sent me a note saying it couldn’t be delivered because of an incorrect address. Usually, when we get this message it means it’s arrived at Symi. Don’t ask me why that happens. The package I collected on Friday was my music, as mentioned last week; a Mozart Fantasia for me and Fur Elise for Harry. I was so excited, I girded my loins, and with the sun shining, decided to walk back up the long way around. As you can see, the weather was spot on.
After admiring the harbour for a moment, I passed the empty taxi rank, and the closed bus, and decided I would come back up via the Haritomeni road rather than go on the main road. I was keen to get back and try my Mozart again after all these years. So keen, I only remembered I’d forgotten the paint once I had passed the taverna.
After that, I took the shortcut off the road and up the steps, and encountered my next obstacle. Someone was paving the path with wet cement and new tiles, so I had to do that Indian Jones thing where you can only step on certain tiles or else fall through the floor to the fiery pit beneath. I managed it, obviously, and continued up to steps above the high school, only then remembering that I’d forgotten to pay the post office bill. The next obstacle came at the top of the steps that lead to the road where the one-euro shop used to be (many moons ago) and where the pharmacy was for a while. There, some guys were doing building work on a raised level and had slung a plank across the top of the steps so they could push their wheelbarrow up it This left a three-foot gap and me with the choice of either returning to Kali Strat corner and up, or limbo dancing under. So, I limbo danced, or rather, lumbago crawled beneath, and was free.
No more traps, but I did remember I’d also forgotten to buy tea bags. Hey ho! The Mozart was lovely and such a nice surprise to see that with only a few practice runs, I can still play it after all these years, even the very fast runs and arpeggios, the shapes of which my fingers had remembered better after 43 years than I’d remembered that mornings to-do list.