Interlude in Meganisi

 So a holiday. Thank God.  I needed a complete break, so did not take my computer and did not blog.  Instead I took a new mould green notebook, a kindle, a volumes of poetry by Cavafy and Elyitis and my camera. I wrote was a couple of Greek inflected poems rewriting the drafts in my new notebook just as I did in the out of date diaries Gwen and Dave used to give me as a teenager that served as poetry notebooks.

The journey to Meganisi fine. A morning flight, Lorraine drove us to Gatwick. Everything looking sunbaked even in the morning. Passing an inferno of a car which had crashed into a tree and was gouting flames and a vertical line of smoke, and a fire in a field visible as we took off.  

The plane delayed an hour and a half on the runway, but the flight fairly comfortable, and after a judicious gin and tonic felt reasonably relaxed. A small boy sitting at the window seat and me in the middle. Lorraine made friends with him of course and he showed us a water drinking bottle that hand some sort of swappable ring on it which flavoured the water as you drank. I read a short book by Nora Ephron I feel bad about my neck. Short, mildly amusing, and an untaxing airplane read.

Getting out of the plane at Preveza airport was interesting. The Greek heat of course -- not seeming quite so shocking after Blazing Blighty. Wasn't expecting to feel such a surge of joy of setting foot in another country.  Lorraine and I then hung about in a taxi queue for some time before catching one to Nidri, a small harbour where we were in perfect time to catch the ferry across to Meganisi, our destination. 

We boarded the boat, and sat on the top deck. A flurry of messages, and we would be met at the port on Meganisi, as Micheal and Zena were arriving at the same time but in a different port. Soon our holiday company driver Lindy drove us to the villa where Tobs and Romy and Michael and Zena had just arrived. 

An infinity pool looking out onto the sea, islands and mountains. Each room beautiful, and a gorgeous communal space and of course all air conditioned. There was a giant chess set and stairs that led down through the cicada shrilling trees and bushes to a little rocky landing with stairs leading down from a rock, from which, with a bit of wriggling about, you could slide into the sea. Most of the time when not sleeping we were outside, lounging on loungers, sitting at a big tables or popping in and out of the pool.

Toby and Romy took a gamble putting people together who do not know each other that well. But everything worked out amazingly well. It was so lovely to be able to hang out with them in an unhurried way. It was the first time Lorraine and I had seen the Romster since we were all together in Sicily. She and Toby were already, having spent a week in Greece, fairly relaxed and chilled. 

Next day Danny, who has known Toby since they were little kids, and his wife Heidi turned up. I have known Danny almost as long as Toby, but never really got to know him. A lovely man, working as an environmental consultant and just about to set up his own business. Heidi, who was quite shy at first, is from Germany and teaches the language. She prefers not to eat in the evening and not to drink alcohol which she stuck to admirably despite the temptations of great quantities of gorgeous Greek food -- either in restaurants and Tavernas or cooked for us by cooks (the first one, Eleni, was the best and friendliest).  Plus the wine, beer and ouzo and fanta some of us, ah-hem, were lapping up. The more I got to know Heidi the more I liked her, and we shared a love of horror stories. Enjoyed sitting with Danny and Heidi looking up at the stars and seeing meteors. 

Michael I had met once for about ten minutes thirty years ago, so it was like I was meeting a new person. I liked Michael immediately. A man of great warmth and heart and we bantered endlessly. Zena meanwhile much taken with photography course she is taking remotely, and continued as we were there. The erratic and subjective opinions of the tutor, and the irritating fellow students were a subplot to the two weeks. She has been a lawyer in Russia, very intelligent and sweet and it was fascinating to hear about life in Russia from her, and from Mike who lived in Moscow for some years.  

I absolutely loved seeing Lorraine feeling so relaxed and happy. We chased each other around the pool on floating plastic noodles and I haven't heard her giggle so much for years.

Apart from all the socialising and lazing I settled into a habit of going for a snorkel for about an hour every day, sometimes with Lorraine. Just love seeing the familiar Ionian species, especially the orangey red Cardinal fish lurking in the mouths of caves and overhangs, the gorgeous Ornate wrasse with its blue and orange head and lime green body (Roger Dean type colours), Mediterranean rainbow wrasse, the Damsel fish, almost black with a forked tail, the black and white stripes of the perch-like Painted Comber,  and the shoals of chubby Salema Porgy with their horizontal yellow and blueish stripes, flathead grey mullet and shoals of little saddled sea bream that reminded me of aquarium tetra. 

Saw some interesting behaviours too. With a mullet offering itself to a sea bream to pick off a fish louse, a behaviour I saw replicated by a gilt head sea bream and a little rainbow wrasse. 

We all had a boat trip skippered by a man named Panos, a bear like man that Michael charmed discovering that his first wife was Russian. A dreamy day with all of us on board speeding between Meganisi and Lefkada next to out, along Meganisi's long panhandle and then zipping between islands such as Kastos and pausing to plop into the sea hear and there and have a heroic lunch in a taverna on a forested island of Kalamos we had been looking out on from our balcony.

I was mostly very relaxed, although I had a few preoccupations -- hoping Mum and Mas were doing okay now he was out of hospital. I also had three calls with the folks at the hospital -- blood and poo tests were negative, but the consultant suggested a precautionary endoscopy for when I returned. I also received a bite or sting which made my arm swell up in the last week. It may have been an infected mosquito bite, but I had several of those I did not react too badly too. I may have scraped against something in the sea, or fallen foul of some kind of malevolent insect/scorpion/snake hybrid unknown to science. Lorraine monitored it by drawing lines around the swelling, which progressed quite a while. It goes without saying that being a hypochondriac I could have done without this.

Sad for the fellowship to break up. Fond farewells spread over two days. Danny and Heidi left first and then on the last day the rest of us up early. Tobs and Romy set off to drive to Athens, Lorraine and I got a cab with Michael and Zena and we had a late breakfast in a taverna in Vathy, before we zoomed by water taxi across the water to Lefkada receiving an almighty spraying just before the end of the journey, and sent Zena bouncing off her seat. There another taxi there took us to Lefkada town where we hung out in a taverna owned by a Greek American woman who took a great shine to Michael. Then time for Michael and Zena to catch their cab to the airport, and Lorraine and I wandered about a bit, and sat under some trees and read until it was time for us to go the airport too. 

An agricultural spanokopita from the taverna opposite, and then we passed through security. Lorraine's knitting needles, which she had been using to knit Robyn the octopus, being confiscated. While we were waiting I managed to purchase a miniature ouzo and a small bottle of cloudy lemonade and we enjoyed a final ouzo and fanta. A horrible scramble onto the slightly delayed plane, which was smaller and more cramped. Someone coughing steadily in the row behind us. After circling around Gawick for ages we finally touched down. Escaping the airport and collecting the car really easy fortunately. And Lorraine drove us home. Cups of tea with Sam, hello to the cats, and off to bed rather exhausted.

The Meganisi crew Lorraine, me, Romy, Toby, Heidi, Danny, Zena and Michael. Zena took the shot using her tripod and timer. Lots of other photos to come....