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Published: September 11th 2023
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Today’s the last full day of the art tour, which is making us both feel very sad. But what’s even sadder is not being able to enjoy it with the rest of the Rembrandts. Issy’s almost back to 100%, but we’re still feeling just slightly nervous about passing on the dreaded virus to others in the group. We decide to stay put while they head off on a boat to produce yet more masterpieces at a small garden over on the other side of Telendos Island.
We spend the morning in the now familiar confines of our COVID isolation balcony. My itchy feet eventually need scratching so I head off for a wander. First up is the village harbour which is well populated with cute little fishing boats. The road around the waterfront is a tad on the narrow side so they’ve had to make it one way for the couple of kilometres through the village. If you're driving and you miss wherever it is you want to stop, you’d better hope you’re not in a hurry. You can’t backtrack. You instead need to go in a long one way loop up and along the side of the precipitously steep
hill behind the village and then back down to and along the waterfront. We’ve been here for nearly a week now, and the strangest thing about this whole arrangement is the apparent lack of any one way signs. Everyone just seems to know that that’s the way it is. And just as well. There’s more than the odd speed freak here, and there’d be unimaginable carnage if one of them got a bit confused after a big night out and turned the wrong way out of their driveway. I do the loop on foot. The views from up the hill across to Telendos and along to the steep, rocky, barren looking northern end of Kalymnos itself are spectacular.
The entire Rembrandt group convenes again for the last time for another session of show and tell, this time on the hotel’s roof terrace. Two of our number are still sick and contagious enough to be wearing masks. Issy’s been sick virtually the whole time we’ve been here and wasn’t going to show anything … until she had a scotch and coke; now there’s no stopping her. Most presentations conclude with compliments to Regina and Diana. Organising something like this must
be a logistical nightmare, but everything seems to have run like clockwork. I‘d have to confess to having been a bit nervous about the whole exercise at the start. I didn’t know anyone, or anything about art, but that doesn’t seem to have mattered - well I hope it hasn’t mattered. I suppose they all could have been laughing at me behind my back the whole time … I wasn’t aware COVID could make you paranoid … I hope that’s what’s causing it. Anyway, paranoia notwithstanding I think it’s been a fantastic group, and we all seem to have gotten along like a house on fire.
Issy and I still think we need to keep our distance, so we eat away from others at what’s supposed to be the pick of the local eateries, the Aegean Tavern. The food’s excellent, so why is it that my beloved seems to be having a fit of the giggles. Our plates were upside down when we got here, and I turned mine over to serve myself when the food arrived. It seems however that Issy’s forgotten that little step. She’s managed to serve herself entree with the plate still face down, and
now she’s trying to work out how to correct the situation before main course arrives and the waiter has us evicted. She keeps her arms folded tightly around the offending plate to try to hide it, and waits until someone at another table's served an order of flambéed saganaki. Flames light up the room, and she manages to surreptitiously eat what’s left on her upside down plate and flip it over while everyone’s sufficiently distracted. That was very entertaining.
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