Wish you were here?

Wednesday 11th January 2023

So I managed to get out and feed my friend’s stray cats during a lull in the rain before it got dark last night. Only one showed up, it was a bit wet, which surprised me, as next door to my friends house is a really big porch and unless the cat has been in long grass, I don’t understand why it was soaked. Cats don’t like water right?

I was messing about with the guitar, I have ordered  online  a guitar chord and music book, it’s well recommended for beginners. But something had me look at the Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here track, and I found a video by a guy I had been looking at for guitar tutorials a while back. The three chords it uses are known to me, but I am still playing the two finger versions of them. The variants of these chords used by the song,  has the same two strings held down in the same fret position, in addition to the two strings for each chord. It’s not impossible for me but difficult. But I am going to work towards being able to play these three chords cleanly. The problem I have with my two smaller fingers, used to press these new strings down, is they do not have the hardened ends, my larger fingers have now, and they aren’t as naturally strong either. But this is a good excuse to build that up. The other problem which I haven’t really resolved is my first two fingers are still fouling the other strings. This becomes worse if you are using the other fingers too. I will persevere and see how I get on, but it might be time to look for a mentor or teacher on the island.

Thankfully the Thai Green Chicken curry tasted fine, which is just as well, as there are three portions in the freezer now. I am not sure I will test them on my friend who I cooked the one that ended in disaster…

Last night while watching television, there was a sound of drumming on the roof, so loud that I could barely hear the soundtrack, it was a sudden storm, with thunder and lightening thrown in for good measure. It did not last long, and by the looks of it, today is going to be a fine day, no rain. 

This morning, I got a lovely text from a friend in my UK village, good to hear from them, they are keeping busy despite the winter weather, and they had plenty of news for me to enjoy this morning. It’s a bit early to decide, but at some point in this new year, I will be going back to the UK, for a short visit, there will be a few things to do on the garden, house and of course visit friends.

Before going out today, I went shopping and good news! Marinos is back. So I had one of his lovely cold cappuccino’s, he does make the best on the island, closely followed by Grans, I got a little round biscuit, covered by a liberal amount of icing sugar. Time for another Good Year in Greek to him. When I walked in however, this lady approached me, yes another member of my burgeoning fan club  on the island. She has seen my posts on the Serifos Facebook page and no doubt seen me on the road too. We are to be Facebook friends, it appears, she does have a smattering of English. The priest was in the shop too and another guy I recognised.

I decided to go out in the car today and investigate a track I have not been on, I think paths might be a bit slippery at the moment, after all that rain. Before I went on my way, I decided to go and look at the Washhouse and see how well the water is running down there. The video is best played with the sound on!

After visiting that, I had to fill up with petrol, while the car was being filled, I asked the lady what her name was, using the Greek I got from the girl in the Pharmacy. I clearly made a mess of pronouncing it, she did not understand it, so I tried using different words, this time it worked. I then realised she had cut her finger opening my petrol cap, I asked her if she was ok, in Greek, she said she was. I then tried to say I know a little Greek, I find that when I try and speak Greek, I can get stressed and anxious and that blocks my ability to get the words I need! She helped me out, as she knew what I wanted to say. I then drove out to Panagia, but on my way the road was blocked by a huge number of sheep and goats. There were lambs and kids too, a lot just lying on the road, so I had to be super careful.

I parked by a church called Aghios Athanasios to go down a track by foot that goes to the Beach called Sykamia, but I did not go all the way down to it today. The church is said to be a Christian church, unusual for here.

The second was Aghia Sophia and has a graveyard associated with it. It also has a lot of fir trees around. By here is a ruined village on the tip of a nearby hill, opposite I could see the village of Galani. The track is going down, heading towards Sykamia.

There was no wind here, I could see some Anemones on the ground on the left, it’s funny because there aren’t any in Hora. On the way down the track, I could not see the path to the next church, but I found it on the way back. This was church Aghii Theodori.

The last church on the track, was not accessible and was quite small. I did not really get a decent photo of it. It doesn’t have a name on my paper map. I decided to carry on the path until I could see the beach of Sykamia. By this point I could see what looked like rain coming down over the sea and half a rainbow as well.

There was a nice view of the beach, there are a lot of deciduous trees near here. There were a few leaves left on the trees, brown of course and they have lost their shape. But the leaves looked oak shaped, but there was no sign of acorns. 

Amazingly, the fig trees here have just shed their leaves and already are in bud with this years leaves about to appear already. Probably driven by the recent rains. I also saw some broom shrubs, with the seeds having popped out of their pods. I was actually quite hot on my way up, as I was going uphill, quite steeply. I then met a lady, going the other way and she had her head covered. I said hello and she indicated that she thought it was going to rain. I agreed, that cloud that was over the sea, was heading this way! The last church I went to, was by the very small village, of Pyrgos, that I have seen on a walk I did last year, when I did visit the beach Sykamia. This little village, you get to by walking up steps, and the church is near the end of the village. This church is Agios Nikolaos. It has a lovely dome and inside the dome is painted blue, with golden stars. 

I got back in the car and drove back to Hora, I wanted to get back before the rain, as I had some washing out. I just made it, minutes after I got everything in, it started to rain. It’s not lasted long.

Today I have made some meatballs in tomato sauce. I bought them a little while ago, these are pork, not beef.  I cooked them on their own in a pan to start with, mainly to cook out any fat in them and drain it off. I then added onion, a yellow pepper and a tin of tomatoes and cooked them all together, with some herbs and seasoning.

The friend that I am feeding the stray cats for, has linked me up with another friend of theirs. The friend lives on Sifnos, for some of the year and Athens as well. I am friends on Facebook and am exchanging chats using messenger, using google translate as they prefer to communicate using Greek.