Very new to all this bloggery lark but going to back track a little and post my recent musings, from the past month..living on a small Greek island, theres not something to say every day! Or not thats worth reading!

OK team...new approach this time, I've tried jotting down things as I think of them over the past week, so what's coming up is a proper meze of my thoughts, doings and observations...and it may well make no sense WHATSOEVER!

Wednesday was the first day of Greek lessons, good grief...can I lie down in a darkened room?????

I am too stupid/old/mutton headed to be doing this! I enjoyed it but I can't retain new information these days! She (nice Greek teacher lady) was thrilled and amazed at my ability to read Greek, and read out what I'm reading...but was clearly amazed also that despite telling me 12 times the words for page and exercise I still couldn't recall either by lessons end.....and nor can I now (although I THINK page may be selida)

Nails next. Found somewhere to go to have them done here. The good news is that its a reasonable 30 euro, bad news is that it took 2 visits and a total of 3 and a half hours!!!! I used to get them done in me lunch hour....the lady doing them was a sweetie but was constantly on the omni-present phone checking out how to do them! As you can image the result was not the best..a bit like I'd let a sausage fingered 5 year old have a crack at it.

Life here continues in its lazy fashion, eating out being our entertainment. Its funny that back in the Paros days I would spend hours and miles combing the island for places which did NOT have paper tablecloths (with a map of the particular island on it) and wine glasses with stems, not the little glass tumbler jobbies, like we used to get water in at school in the 70's.

I know some chums will be roaring with laughter at this quest and shouting 'we TOLD you so' at their various screens. Oh, how the τραπέζια have turned.

Now its the very opposite.... trying to find such traditional simple tavernas is ever harder...brunch has swept the islands on a tide of mashed avocado!

Another startling arrival , that I could easily live without..... horrible squirty orange cheese from a plastic bottle which graces many a pile of innocent fried potatoes! Bring back simple grated graviera...or just a sprinkle of salt & oregano.

Other things remain unchanged...some of the clothes shops here do remind me much of the Paros years...quite often its where surplus unsellable stock gets sent to die. Specially in winter. I wandered into one this week and first thought its must be a costume hire shop...the huge, hairy, dayglo coloured items on that rack over there MUST surely be Banana Splits fancy dress outfits.....just the thing..if I want to go out decked out like Drooper.

Travel plans. The naughty wisdom tooth has continued to niggle so I am now all set to head to the UK this week for a little of the pain/pleasure principle. No one wants a tooth extraction I am sure, but it does mean I get to see some friends (including the lovely Mr & Mrs Dentist) and do a smidge of shopping. Hoping to dodge the winter storms, high winds and ferry cancellations at this end, as well as the latest storms and trains strikes at the other. What joy. Honestly, the detail...planes, ferries, trains, hotels, taxis...its been like planning the D-Day landings.

More about that in the next update...at least it might give me something funny to report here...well, not the extraction/dentist bit, I mean, no one really wants a dentist unicycling into the surgery in a funny hat and a joke nose. But you know what I mean.

HH also has plans afoot of his own...he has now got the trip to return CJ to the UK and sell him on his drawing board, and this will enable us to buy a sensible island sized car and open Tinos up to us properly.

He's doing this late March, accompanied by his brother, who will fly out to Athens to meet him & Cj for a Boys Own Adventure Road Trip and I'm sure there will be lots more abut THAT in future updates as well.

Odd for me not to be in charge of travel plans! I feel like Jacks Mum must have felt when she sent him out that day to sell the family cow. I am hoping fervently for more than just handful of beans. Although I suppose if they WERE magic ones leading to a golden goose I'd be pretty darn chuffed. Fee fi fo fumble...I hear the sound of a motorhomes' rumble!

Thanks to the kind folk who have said I ought to 'do something' with my scribbling. Just wanted to say I have in the past tried submitting them here and there with no luck, but hey guys, if anyone gets an invite to be the next Mrs Rupert Murdoch I am happy to take on a column on the Sunday Times...put in a word.

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