Late November on Spetses
By Helen Grubner. Filed in Uncategorized |
Us with Christina and Nikolas in Delfinia
Oh man, are we blessed or just lucky, or what? To be living on this beautiful island, where in the main, the days continue to be gloriously sunny, more like May or September/October … not the end of November. This past week, Costas has been busy painting and cleaning at the Bar … today like many others, I have been for a wonderful walk around the Old Harbour, through all the back streets of town … wherever my feet want to take me.
Last Monday we did have rain … a lot of rain and thunder in the distance. I made a Greek style Vegetable Soup using onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, beans, green and red peppers, aubergine, courgettes and broccoli … in Costas words, it was a killer! (as were the Fakes I made later in the week, adding red wine as I do and lots of finely chopped garlic). In the evening we ventured out in the pouring rain to have a couple of drinks at Mayo. Costas was worried that the Bar may have flooded as it has done several times before and so we decided we should go and see the situation firsthand. Fortunately, there was a large hole at a new building site across the road and the waters had all flowed into there … what a relief. Being close to Delfinia, we popped in for our last drinks of the night then home.
During evenings spent quietly by the fire, we have enjoyed several excellent movies … this past week “Colombiana” starring our very own Cliff Curtis, “Good Will Hunting” which only I had seen before and was more than happy to watch again and “We need to talk about Kevin”. Also, Costas has finished writing his many Christmas cards … they are ready for the post and so he is feeling quite pleased with himself. I too have finished reading “Attic In Greece” by Austen Kark … I had read it many years’ ago, however, it was even better the second time around.
The weekend has seen us, once again, very social … on Friday Christina telephoned Costas from Athens to say she and her boyfriend Nikolas were coming to Spetses for the weekend and it was arranged that we would meet them for dinner that evening at Paxni. The two families of “the kids” as Costas calls them, both have houses on the island. I had not met them before but their company was excellent and we all had a wonderful time. Christina lived in Paris for five years studying fashion until she graduated last year … her clothing winning her the International Award at the London Graduate Fashion Week. As always, the atmosphere, food and wine at Paxni was second to none, enhanced that night by live music. We then met up at Votsalo Bar with Costas and I ending our night once again in Boggi. Last night we met Christina and Nikolas at Nektarios for dinner … another superb meal. Then for us it was a walk back into town to meet “the kids” at Delfinia … plans to be home by 2255 hours to watch a selected movie failed miserably … we two were the last to leave the bar, arriving home at 0130 hours.
Tonight Costas has gone to meet John at Socrates Sports Bar to watch live the football game between his team Tottenham and John’s team West Ham. When it is over he will return to collect me from the house to go out for a quiet meal at Filippos then home to watch the movie “Philadelphia”. With only ten days remaining until once again I must say farewell to Costas and the island … it does not get any easier.