476

 The only village on Halki - population 478

 Some of the houses on sumptuous Symi.  

The bloke on the balcony of the green-shuttered house is...

...me

HALKI AND SYMI
Thankyou for the splendid comments you’ve made, both in the Comments box and via email, about my cats Halki and Symi, who played such an important part in the the last blogposting.

They are named after two of the most idyllically beautiful places I’ve ever been in my whole life.

Look at a map of the Greek Islands and home in on the Dodecanese group down in the south-east corner.  By far the largest island in this group is Rhodes.

Off the north-west coast of Rhodes lies the tiny island of Halki.  Its near neighbour to the east, lying in a claw of the Turkish coast and only marginally bigger, is Symi.  Both of them are breathtakingly pretty.  I visited them in the autumn of 2004 and will truly never, ever forget my time there.

Because they are both so photogenic, you can find lots of pictures of them on the internet.

When we acquired our two kittens - who are sisters - and were thinking of names for them, we scoured our wayward predilections for something appropriate.  Brahms and Liszt seemed disrespectful (not to say pretentious) and Hansel and Gretel seemed positively mawkish - and just as pretentious.  And then, almost simultaneously, we thought of Halki and Symi.

And I’m glad we did.  Each time I say their names, even if it’s out of frustration that Symi has been demanding attention by knocking my coffee clean out of my hands or Halki has tripped me up by weaving between my ankles, I remember those wonderful little islands - and sometimes even ask myself why I didn’t ‘do a Shirley Valentine’ and stay there.

They were oooh-aaah kittens then, of course.  Their names are hopelessly inapt now.  Such is their in-yer-face assertiveness that, if we’d adopted them only recently, we would have called them Corfu and Crete.

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AGM XLII
Our collective Grand Day Out at the Tanfield Railway this year will take place on Thursday 15 August, starting at 1030 (so that we can catch the 1100 train).

You need bring nothing but your sense of humour…

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

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KEITH AND LINDA’S INTELLIJOKE
Last night I went out with a synonym ...what the hell, that is what I met 'er for!!!!

(Think about it.)

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AND FINALLY…
...let’s pause to congratulate three of our most faithful truckshunters...

Vivienne has successfully moved into her lovely bungalow, which is good news enough.

But it doesn’t end there.  O my word no.

It's Sid's birthday this upcoming Friday...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sid!

And, to top it all...

Brenda has got married and is now a de facto respectable woman. 

Congratulations, Brenda, to you and Mick.  On behalf of us all - have a wonderfully happy, rewarding and fulfilled life together.

Much, much love from all of us.

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CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or email me:  truckshunters@googlemail.com