Had one of those ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen’ moments yesterday. Went down to the post office around 11.30, left to come back up just before 12.00 and came up via the steep path and zig-zag as it is quicker. And yesterday the temperature in our courtyard in the shade was around 36 degrees, over 50 in the sun of course. On reaching home I kind of dripped for a while and then sat down to write the blog for tomorrow – which is today – while drying out.
I collected the draft copy of ‘Straight Swap’ from the post, this is only draft one, the one I was working on when I went to Tilos. I’ve mentioned some details about it before and won’t go on about it here, except to say I am thinking of changing the title to either ‘Remotely,’ or ‘So you think we’re remotely interested?’ as that’s the name of the dreadful live reality themed talent show TV show thing that the story is set against. Neil is going to read the draft and give me his opinion and then, when I’ve finished draft one of ‘The Saddling’ I shall go back and see what I think. I’m following the Stephen King school or novel writing at the moment and it seems to be working.
Meanwhile: today is Neil’s birthday so happy birthday to him! He’s already had his present, a long lens for his camera, but tonight we’re also going to the roof garden, Mythos, for dinner in a group of nine of us, so that should be fun. Well, it will also be a gastro-delight of course, so we are really looking forward to it. I told you, 2015 was not the year of the diet. But on that note, my new running shoes arrived yesterday and I’m intending to get them worn in as soon as I can find a suitably early morning. There will be one along soon.
Meanwhile, meanwhile, it was 13 years ago today that we landed on Symi to stay permanently. We’d come from Antiparos and Paros on an overnight boat to Rhodes and then switched and taken the hydrofoil across to Symi in the afternoon. Dumped our bags with Jane at the Sunflower, as was, wandered about, had some beers and then walked up to the village to meet Jean in the evening and book into the accommodation we’d booked for a week. A week later we were sat outside the Rainbow Bar with bags and nowhere to stay as the rental on that place had run out. We ended up knocking on Anastasia’s door and renting one of her new apartments for ‘as long as you need it but I may have a teacher coming to live there in three days or a week, or not, how much do you want to pay?’ It all worked out fine and here we are, 13 years on, in our latest rental still having a wonderful life.
That’s my news for today, a bit of everting and nothing really. And if you haven’t read the full story of moving here and what we encountered then you can find it in Symi 85600 (just click that link for the Amazon page).
