Birthday boy

 Thursday 26th January 2023

So all this covert stuff is about my birthday. I am sixty three today. I did tell Marinos and the folks at Grans. I have bought a cake from the local bakers. I don’t have any other plans, it’s not going to be nice out there, so I will go about in the car.

Photo Interlude - The Cake 

 

I like the guitar book. It’s very well structured, he takes you from the basics, how to hold the instrument, the pick and so on. He seems to have chords that are even simpler than the ones I have been trying. The strumming is important and he has a good section on that. He then builds lessons, based on the content of the book, a bit like you would have if you had a face to face experience. He even offers an online tutorial which is good. I have bought a metal nail file, to keep my nails on my chord hand really short, as the shape of my fingers mean the nail can cause problems.

 

I did get a fairly good moon shot, but I did not manage to change the exposure settings to get the rest of the moon visible in the photo, even though my eyes could see the rest of the  moon.

In the late afternoon, while cooking dinner, I heard this sort of siren noise and sure enough my phone has been sent an alert. What a good idea? Why not do this in the UK?

So back to the big day. I had arranged with Marinos to go into his coffee shop on my birthday and bring a cake. Before then I had my breakfast. His orange was amazing. I dropped the cake off at the the coffee shop, told him I had to feed the cats and did that and returned. I put the “63” candles in and someone with a lighter lit them. They all sang me “Happy Birthday” in Greek. It sounded lovely. I blew the candles out, forgot to make a wish, and gave everyone a slice of cake. My friend, who I do walks with came in, by arrangement and had a slice and treated me to a coffee too. I told Marinos his orange was good, in Greek, but I have forgotten the word for it already. There was an enough cake to take to Markelas, for her and her husband, he was there, it’s a bit early for her. As people left, I got the Greek hand shake. I saw my landlord, so he is back.

I drove down to Livadi, picked up my lightbulbs, these are now fitted. As the cake was all eaten and as I had told Grans about my birthday, I went in and bought a few small one person cakes. I went into Grans and gave them their cakes, they wished me “Happy Birthday” and I got a lovely free coffee. On the way out, I met the delivery guy, I got a birthday greeting from him. He will have a cake too. He said, over here, they wish you to live to be a hundred! 

Ww

There was a ship in port, it was unloading bags of cement or similar, as I sat in the ferry terminal a guy and his little dog got off the ship. He told me the dog is like their mascot. It was a bit timid. They soon finished unloading, so we’re packing up to leave I did a chapter of the Greek revision, but it was a bit chilly. I had one more stop, with a couple more single cakes, for my friends at the Medical Centre. I dropped them off, got more greetings. It is getting windier, I am staying inside, I got another weather alert, on my phone. 

I have done a few chores in the house, a little more mould has appeared, that has been treated. I will do the second revision chapter. No doubt Duolingo will want me to attend to it. I think it will be raining for tonight, so I might not go to Vasileas until tomorrow and see him then. I have sent off my next copy for the Twyford Horticultural Society Newsletter. I should not forget to mention, I got two electronic cards, from my friends in Sifnos and a committee member of the Horticultural Society, with a lovely dog and pub video and a Tatty Teddy card. I have also had numerous messages, videos of people singing, voicemails on WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger from my friends near and far, I feel very humble!