Other things that happened during my week off and since… Let me see… I mentioned the birthday, and if you’re on the same social media as us, you will have seen pictures from Harry’s 18th, so that happened. He chose to go to lunch at the Kali Strata Restaurant, where he works in the evenings, so he had a chance to enjoy some of the fare he nightly delivers to other people, and the meal was as special as it always is there. Even more special for H as his brother was cooking for him and came to join us at the table for a present opening. H’s birthday is the same day as Sam’s name day, so we were able to sit with big bro for a short while between his shifts and do more present sharing.
There have been other kinds of celebrations and events taking place too, as today’s photos show. Thank you to Penny for letting me use them.
That was in Yialos late the other night. I think the concert was also last week?
The harbour has been busy with boats, which is always good to see, but the roads have been over-busy with visiting traffic, as you might have gleaned from my earlier photos. We got caught in this last Friday when we decided to take a taxi up to the village. We do this now when it’s too hot to walk up at midday, or when we have too much to carry, as we did last week. Hats off to our taxi drivers for their patience and good humour. It took roughly 10 minutes to get from the taxi rank to Petalo, that’s the bottom of the hill leading out of town.
First, he had to negotiate the tourists who’d just got off a Sebeco. The tavernas along the way were full, and the chairs were out almost to the road, so you can’t pull too far that way, and the quay is on the other side, so you can’t go that way. Visitors have a habit of standing in the middle of the road like a herd of ruminating cattle contemplating their bare navels and wondering where they left their brains, and no-one likes a horn blower (unless it’s Ioan Gruffedd, or perhaps Gregory Peck), and you can’t even nudge them out of the way. Next came the tour groups gathering in the road and in the bus stop parking bay waiting for the talk about the island, and then came oncoming traffic, including the bus, followed by another bus, followed by the line of people who’d come of the Panagia and who had walked around from the ‘new’ port, and then came a stream of cars…
Oh, first had come one car who though she owned the road and sat there waiting for the taxi to hitch up its skirts and sidestep into the sea so she could pass, and she had the bus behind her, and the only thing she could do was reverse, or try to. Our driver was laughing by this point. She did some farting about and managed to get herself wedged into the side of the road, with pedestrians streaming around her adding to the confusion, but finally, by the time we’d negotiated her back several yards, we were almost at Petalo, and the bus was halfway back up the hill, and the road to the ‘new’ port was closed to traffic because of building work, and still the herd was streaming from somewhere and inching between the cars, and finally…
Totally bonkers. Luckily, many of those visiting from the mainland will have returned there or are now on their way back there with their cars, so there may be a little more space on the roads. One day we’ll get to the point of a radio play I wrote b ack in the 90s, where it turned out there was more length of vehicle on (an island’s) roads than there was length of road, and everyone decided to go out for a drive at the same time leading to one of those square ‘nine’ puzzles where you have one space, and you have to slide tiles (vehicles) around to get home. Anyhow… That was last week, and now, it’s back to work.
