I’m writing this on Sunday so I can have a clear run at chapter 26 on Monday morning, assuming we’ve not been blasted away by a storm that’s meant to be coming this way. The Patmos ferry schedule has been changed, and the Spanos isn’t running at all. Right now (Sunday morning) the weather’s cloudy but calm, but it’s not looking so good for later. That’s one thing, and it hasn’t happened yet, so what has been going on since last Thursday?
Well, things have been going with a bang…
We went to Rhodes on Friday, and there will be more about that and some more images when I get around to it. The alarm was set for six, but I was awake at three listening to the rain and thunder, watching the lightning, and wondering what kind of day lay ahead. I need new shoes as my winter pair are finally falling apart (€20 from Sports Direct about four years ago, so I’m not complaining), and I didn’t fancy getting wet feet. Turned out to be a sunny day in the end, and we didn’t get wet at all. We had to go because we had medical checkups booked for our annual MOT. Again, more about that when I get around to it.
Saturday was our godson’s name day, and we were invited to his BBQ. I say ‘invited’… We were at the table building our model kits after piano lesson last Thursday, when he mentioned his name day and I asked if he was doing anything for it. (I knew he was planning a BBQ, as his mother had told us.) He said he was having a BBQ, and I asked if we were invited. ‘I don’t mind either way,’ was his reply, which made me laugh. What he meant was, yes, come if you want, and we did. I don’t know what your view of teenagers is, but if it’s one of rowdy, rude and raucous, you’d be off the mark when it comes to the Symi teens who came to the party.
There was a pack of nine of them at the BBQ, all boys, and they did everything; the cooking, the salads, the eating… In fact, once it was all ready, they did so much eating there was nothing left for the adults, me, Neil, mum and big brother Sam who’d come up from Yialos especially. Jenine dispatched herself to the harbour to buy us giros, while Sam turned his nose up at the English-style sausages we found in the freezer. (He’s done his chef’s training and has secured a great job on Symi for the summer. I will tell you about that another time). Oh, and of course, after the feeding frenzy, the lads all piled upstairs to play on the Xbox, have a laugh and swear a lot, while leaving the clearing up to the adults, but that’s par for the course around here.
What was also impressive was the amount of English being spoken. I’d say 80% of the boys were fluent in it, having been through the private English lessons system here on the island. Not only that, but they were also very polite, chatted to us about all kinds of things, and were a pleasure to be among.
And back to Sunday, where Neil is prepping something in the kitchen, I have written half a chapter and am about to set off into Somerset House in 1892 – but I can’t find a description of it from that time nor any images. I’m sending my characters to the records office to track down a few people. I know how the system worked with indexes and searches and so on, but not what the place looked like in the North Wing, where the GRO was. So, tomorrow will be research followed by making it up, if I can’t find any accounts written at the time. Back to the Victorian web for me, and my favourite site Dictionary of Victorian London. But that’s for tomorrow, for now, it’s time to go and play Sherlock and batten down the hatches.
