We finally got together with a few friends last night, after keeping ourselves to the house for three weeks owing to this ‘orrible cold we’ve both had. Turns out, talking to a few, that several people have had what we’ve had and they confirmed that the irritating tickly cough that we both still have tends to hang around for up to a month. I’ve just passed the three weeks and two days mark and Yvonne’s about three days behind me. So another four or five days then. Ah well.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining. Owing to our having to do a lot of thumb-twiddling, I set to and wrote a 12.5k word short story, which meant putting the current book on hold for a little while. The book I’m actually writing is the saga of how we came to move islands from Rhodes to Crete back in 2019. I’ve written four chapters so far and it’s going OK. It was just that, not long after I first came down with this cold, we had a fairly long power cut (outage, to use ‘young people speak’) that lasted from around 8.00am until just after 3.00pm. It was scheduled, as I discovered when checking the website of the Greek electricity infrastructure company (ΔΕΔΔΗΕ), due to some routine maintenance to the cables that was needed in the area. It was while we were experiencing internet/Viber/WhatsApp/Messenger deprivation syndrome, that I began to wonder quite what would happen to us all if the entire planet’s electricity supply were to suddenly go off permanently. What if some freak electromagnetic wave or something were to sweep across the planet and fundamentally change how molecules in cables (whether they be steel, copper or fibre-optic) behaved, in effect, causing electricity as we know it to no longer work.

Before I knew it I was furiously typing away at this dystopian tale, imagining how society would collapse as the days went on once there was no longer any electricity, and hence no computers, no internet, no telecommunications. I mean, let’s face it, our world today has become totally reliant on the vast majority of its citizens using electricity for just about everything they do on a daily basis. Anyway, I had to leave “Moving Islands” on the back burner for just long enough to get this tale out of my system. It’s done now and it’s out there. I’ve purged it from my head, as it were. If you think you may like to give it a go, it’s only £1.99 (UK price) as a Kindle download on Amazon. Since it’s not full novel-length, but rather a short story, it is unlikely to see the light of day in paperback format. Should I ever write a bunch more short stories (and who knows, I’m still just about young enough that it’s a possibility!), then maybe they’ll then be a feasible proposition as a book all together. But don’t hold your breath just now. I’m soon going to be hammering away at the keyboard getting on with the “Moving Islands” project once more. If you like the story, then you can thank the current cold virus that it even exists at all. If you don’t like it, then blame the cold anyway! If you just want to read a little more info about it, then it now has a page on my website.

The photo at the top of this post was taken on Tuesday March 14th in Agios Nikolaos. We went there for a stroll around, since we love it off-season, when it’s wonderfully devoid of the summertime hordes, and eventually took coffee upstairs in the Café du Lac, from where I took this one below…

The weather’s been a bit topsy turvy of late to be honest. Most of February and the first week of March were totally spring-like and it was easily warm enough to sit outside for your morning coffee. This past few days, however, the temperatures have been more akin to what you expect in January, and, although we’d stopped using any heating in the house for a couple of weeks during the evenings and nights, this past few days it’s gone back on again, albeit only set quite low. That explains why the outdoor terrace shown in that photo above was deserted on Tuesday, as it was a bit cool for sitting out there comfortably. Never mind, it was a bright, sunny day and walking around we were just right, not too hot and not too cold. Here’s just one more from Ag. Nik before we return to Ierapetra…

Back in Ierapetra, here are two that I took on March 8th at around 12.30pm, both near the fishing harbour and fortress…

The first of those two above is interesting, in that there are a few old cottages set just behind the harbour and slightly higher than the quayside by about two metres or so. If you walk the road behind the cottages, which is parallel to the quayside, you can look down the alleys between them and, as in this case, stare straight on to the deck of a boat that’s in dry dock. That’s to say, standing on huge wooden stilts while the owners renovate the hull. So, if you look closely (maybe blow the shot up a little) you can see that what you’re looking at down the other end, and it’s blocking the view of the harbour from here, is an old fishing boat that’s well in need of some TLC.

The second shot above looks towards the Venetian fortress ‘of Kales’ that stands sentry at the harbour entrance and has been under renovation for several years. The fortress is due to open again to the public this year, although close inspection reveals that they still have a bit of work to do within the walls. The job they’ve done on the walls themselves is superb though, and I for one can’t wait to be allowed back inside. The last time we went inside was in November of 2015, when we were visiting Ierapetra from Rhodes and staying with our friends for a week. It was after that visit when we’d gone home to Rhodes so wishing that we could live here, we liked the place so much. See? Dreams really can come true.

Finally, the raised bed that I built on our terrace still has a wonderful array of red flowers from that plant that usually flowers in April. I posted a photo on my Facebook page back on 25th January of these plants already flowering, and those flowers are still blooming. Look closely at the close-up and you’ll spot a honey bee slightly left of centre, as he creeps upside down into a bloom to get at the nectar and pollen. We’re still blown away by this marvellous display that we can sit and wonder at while we sip our morning coffee…

There you go, hope you’re keeping well. If you don’t live in Greece, maybe you’ll be paying us a visit this season. If so, do have a fabulous visit, won’t you.

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