NOT A BAD BIRTHDAY

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Yesterday a good birthday. Spent the day selfishly. Doing what I wanted. No wife, friend or foe to accommodate. Just Louis.

Some observations to begin.

This morning was the best yet in Amorgos. I sat outside on the terrace reading till I left for the internet store at noon. The sun warm. Comfortable. It was impossible to sit out early morning till today because of the cold winds.

The locals tell me the winds come three days at a time from the northwest. Then they are gone. This is my fourth day on Amorgos. The natives were correct.

Bikinis. I have never seen a woman in a bikini that I did not like. The thought recurred to me this morning as I was walking to the internet store. With such great winds, sailing boats frequent the area. There were nine docked this morning. Each with one or more women on board. All in bikinis. Whether tall, short, slender bodied, heavy or what have you, a woman in a bikini is a sight to behold. All lovely. All sexy.

I have been on this trip two weeks. I loaded six books into my tablet before I left. I figured it would take me two months to read them. I am on my sixth and last book today. I will need to reload.

I finished Jefferson this morning. Terrific! I started Burt Bacharach’s book thereafter. Bacharach is the famous composer. What a book! I am only about fifty pages into it and love it! This guy has a sense of humor! Read his book!

I spent 4.5 hours yesterday at the internet store. Two tasks confronted me. I had to do next week’s KONK Life column. I called it Reflections. Commented on some events world wide. Then the blog. It’s a good thing I enjoy all this writing!

Lunch was Mythos. The restaurant has become another favorite. On the port and water, also.

Mythos’ owner is Vangelis. His first name. He and his family run the place. Vangelis, his wife, 15 year old daughter, and 10 year old son. There is also a 14 month baby daughter who walks around. Yes, she walks. Toddles. To the entertainment of the customers. A hard working family!

Why, I do not know. I ordered a huge glass of draught beer! I hate beer! A gallon jug! Not really that big, however. Though almost quart size.

Felt a bit bloated afterwards. Decided to walk.

My health has been so so. My fault. Stopped exercising in any fashion ages ago. Have been trying to get back into shape.

I said Louis, you are 78 today. Lets see how good you can do.

I walked around the bay. Three miles. I have not walked three miles in years. Did it. And felt no anguish afterwards.

I was proud of myself.

Back to Mythos for a moment. The bread on Amorgos is great. Thick cut with a strong hard crust. Not crispy, however. I have difficulty biting and chewing the crust. So I have taken to breaking away the soft portion within the crust and leaving the crust.

Vangelis came by with the baby. He said excuse me and took a piece of crust from my table. He gave it to the baby . She chewed it easily with the few teeth she had. I thought I have $35,000 teeth and cannot do what the baby does.

I have noticed that people of all ages sit around tables at the cafes playing a game. Looked familiar. It was. They play backgammon! Call it tavli.

Backgammon was popular back in the 1970s. I can remember playing it all the time at the Jockey Club in Miami. I guess it took a while to reach Amorgos. The observation is consistent with my thought that Amorgos is from another time.

Ran into my British widow friend Alice. If you are doing nothing, join me, she said. She had rented a car and wanted to show me the goats.

We drove up a mountain. There were clouds. First, we were below the clouds. Then in the clouds. Then on top of the clouds. Just like in an airplane. The only other time I had this experience was last year in Courmier. My chalet was half way up Mont Blanc. I woke one morning to a cloud bed below me.

We came upon the goats. She was correct. Had to be at least 200 of them. All beautiful, short, brown and black, and short in stature.

I was back to the Mythos Restaurant at 7. I had reserved a table. The stage for the music festival was right in front of the restaurant.

A great show. Young people from adjoining islands singing, dancing and playing music. Violins were the primary instrument. Some guitars. A small drum or two.

Dancing was in native costumes.

The Greek Orthodox priest I had seen earlier in the day was on stage playing with the teenagers.

Music loud. Very loud. Big time amplification.

The show most enjoyable! A pleasant way to spend the evening. Eating, drinking and being entertained in that fashion.

Spyros Tsimelas owns the internet store I am working out of. He was there last night. He had an important role. Spyros is the computer/internet guru on the island. The entire festival was being ustreamed on the internet. His responsibility.

I ordered stuffed calamari for dinner. Not what grandmother made. Hers were small and thin stuffed with bread crumbs, eggs and what have you. This was one calamari. Huge. Four by three inches. Thick walled. Stuffed with feta cheese, tomatoes and peppers. Delicious! I could not finish it. I left half the meal on the plate.

Vangelis came over and asked if I did not like the food. I learned later that in Europe people clean their plates. Not to do so is considered an insult to the cook.

To my Italian readers, although the walls of the calamari were 1/4 inch thick, the meat was tender. As tender as if it were as thin as the calamari prepared in the United States.

Time for lunch. Then, I do not know.

Enjoy your day!

I AM 78 YEARS OLD!

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Happy birthday day to me. Seventy eight years!

I remember when my father was 40, I thought he was old. When he was 78, I thought he was really old!

A mistake. Now I feel badly that on occasion I treated my Dad as an old man. He probably never was. Even though he lived to 98.

The mind stays young. I peg mine at 35. The body is the problem. It breaks down. Hopefully, slowly. You keep seeing the doctors and fixing things. I worry about the day something may not be fixable.

The last time a birthday bothered me was when I turned 50. This 78th is bothering me. Why, I do not know.

Spent four hours yesterday in the internet store. Had two days to report on. There is only one internet store in Katopolis. Charges 3 euro an hour. Expensive. I was only paying 1 euro in Santorini. I suspect the differences in prices is that there was competition in Santorini. An internet store around every corner. Here there is only one internet store.

Lunch was interesting and enjoyable.

I was dying for ham and eggs. I settled for bacon and eggs. Every now and then I need a shot of American food.
I was at an outdoor cafe. Nearby were 8 men and a woman. By the time three hours had expired, there were at least 25 persons.

There is a festival here today or tomorrow. The group was from another island. They were here to sing and play music. All ages. Guitars and violins. Even a priest. A Greek Orthodox one. Gray robes, black tall hat and a long black beard. He sang, played the violin, smoked and drank beer. Good for him!

Occasionally, some would stand and start dancing. Other times merely sitting and waving their arms.

Happy people! Getting ready for their concert. It was obvious they enjoyed singing and playing. I doubt it was their lives. After work, perhaps. These were ordinary people.

A happy, exuberant bunch. They spent the afternoon eating and drinking, doing what they enjoyed best.

I plan on watching whatever type event they perform. It is right on the port where the boats come in. In front of my favorite restaurant.

It is windy! Day and night. Sun is hot. At night, another story. Cold! I need a sweat shirt. The outdoor cafes are all wrapped in plastic drapes to divert the wind.

I met a British woman yesterday. Her name is Alice. She lives in a place called St. Albans which she told me is just outside London. She has been visiting Amorgos for 27 years.

The conversation got into lamb chops. She said no, goat chops. I was right. The lamb chops are really goat chops. She said if I went to the northern point of the island and up the hill, I would see hundreds of goats. Short in stature. Long haired. Dark brown and black. Beauties.

I had dinner last night at my usual restaurant. Went for the egg plant, zucchini, tomato and potato in oil as a start. Delicious! Ate it with thick slices of bread. Cleaned the plate!

Dinner was veal. For some reason, I opted to avoid the lamb chops. The veal was terrific. Cooked in a red sauce. A cheap cut. However, boiled long enough that the meat fell apart as soon as my fork hit it.

Six of the men singing in the afternoon showed up for dinner.

Smelts are small fish deep fried. The fish are really tiny. You eat the whole fish. Head and all.

Someone two tables away was served a dish of smelts. I went crazy. Love them! My grandmother and mother made them. Even my former wife. I asked the waiter if they were smelts. He did not understand. The Greek gentleman who ordered them did. He spoke English. He walked over to my table with the plate of smelts in hand. He said, eat. And walked away. I filled a small plate and returned the dish to him. With a smiling thank you, of course.

The confusion was the name. What I know and call smelts in Greek are called aferina. I hope I spelled it correctly.

I was grossly disappointed this morning. I have not been able to find Google news on the computer the past few days. This morning, I found out why. It is no more. Google has discontinued the service. Facebook and Twitter took too much business from them. I feel bad. Used the Google news service everyday.

I have to get out of the internet store. It is close to 2, closing time. I have been here 4.5 hours. Did next week’s KONK Life column first: Reflections.

Enjoy your day!