England

An interesting village view this month as I wasn’t in the village for most of January. I popped back to England to do some musical work for a theatre company. Actually my brief was to re-orchestrate Mozart’s The Magic Flute for deaf children under 7, and I’m not making that up.

As usual a trip to England in the winter requires planning. I’m pleased to say that, by booking in advance with both Aegean (Rhodes to Athens) and Easy Jet (Athens to Gatwick) I was able to secure tickets at a reasonable price. Even better is that you book and buy on line so you don’t have to wait for tickets to arrive – just print the details and show them at the airport. There was a bit of doubt over which day I would be leaving the island as it all depends on boats and wind, but in the end I only had to spend two nights in Rhodes in advance of my 7 a.m. flight to Athens.

So what do you do in Brighton between bouts of The Queen of the Night and Pa, pa pa, pa pa pa….? Well, firstly you adjust to the bathroom arrangements. Not having to hold the shower or stand in a bucket, being careful not to use the bathroom bin for used toilet paper and being able to shave with running water. And the shopping arrangements: a car, a car park, Sainsbury’s and a shopping trolley – what fun. And then, when settled in and once again used to central heating and dry clothes it’s time to go out.

A few things I’d not seen in the two years since I last visited England: Snow, you don’t get much on Symi. Traffic wardens. Chewing gum trodden into the street, yuk! Most of central Brighton is carpeted by Wrigley’s these days. Frost on car windows. Traffic lights. Theatre: Cirque de Solei – spelling? – at the Albert hall, in a box with Champers and everything! An amateur pantomime which reminded me that we should think about starting Symi Amateur Dramatics (SAD for short) but then there’s no need as you get real dramatics daily, and finally Jason Donovan playing Sweeny Todd (Sondheim’s version) at the Theatre Royal. Least said soonest forgotten. 

I’d also not had such fun in front of a television for a long time. Wall to wall docu-soaps and lifestyle shows. Celebrity Big Brother (Celebrity don’t bother if you ask me). A place in the sun, my place in the sun, a place in Greece, a place in the sun revisited, Honey I’m killing the kids (show us your lifestyle and we’ll scare you into eating carrots), fat club, fit club, Club Reps, buy a house, sell a house, auction family heirlooms for a new plasma TV… the list goes on, on 60 channels, 24 hours a day. Fabulous!

And then coming home again – always the best bit and made easier this time by a taxi. Unable to sleep I spent the night watching the last of the crap TV and eating the last of the English sausages before getting in a cab at 4 a.m. and being driven to the airport (usually get the last train at 11. p.m. and spend the night wandering the terminal like Tom Hanks). Check in immediately. A couple of coffees and onto a punctual plane. A bit of a doze and there’s Athens. More coffee and lunch then a short hop down to Rhodes (Warmth!) and another taxi to the hotel where the ideal receptionist arranged my ferry schedule for the next day. Before I know it I’m slipping back across the sea with a huge suitcase full of supplies. (Oxo cubes, gravy powder, four original paintings by mother, two pairs of headphones and a piano – I kid you not) and then it’s home at last. All as if nothing had ever happened.

And then I find that the Mail on Sunday has written about Symi, our shop and my guided walks – favourably I am pleased to say. The only down side on returning was the computer business. The old one blew up just after I left the island and Neil had spent three weeks trying to get it fixed – but that wasn’t possible – so as soon as I walk in the door it’s time to put the new one together, scramble about for the programmes and files I luckily back up regularly and start putting the website back together. All done now and it’s back to work.