Saturday July 11, 1981

Rooftop view.

 _. Our pleasant little hotel manager gave us an alarm call at 7am and we took breakfast for the last time at the Armadoros. Boiled eggs and jam and bread. We went to the jetty in the harbour and sat on a sack of potatoes waiting for our ferry. Philip and Gill joined us and we said our goodbyes, promising to meet them in the White Cross soon. The Lemnos ferry came at 9 and we sailed off into the Aegean waving frantically at our friends. What followed was nine hours up on deck casting our critical eye over the other characters on board with us. I finished reading 'Eye of the Needle'. Ally nodded off but was awakened with a start by a fat Irish woman struggling past to buy her eighth ice cream. We arrived at Piraeus at 6:30 and took a taxi to the Hotel Aphrodite in the Plaka area of Athens. We dumped our things and made our way to the roof garden, six storeys up, to observe the distant Acropolis. Ally was unimpressed by the Greek panorama. She didn't like the scaffolding. I didn't help by making banal comments, like 'it'll be nice when it's finished', &c. Back on the ground we walked to the Parliament building and laughed at the guards doing their ludicrous prancing march. The presidential palace reminded me of Sainsbury's in Gloucester.  A meal followed in a street cafe in the Plaka. Sloppy moussaka. I bought a couple of paperbacks for the homeward flight. We were back in the hotel at 12.

Waiting for the ferry.

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Friday July 10, 1981

Blurred: the church

 _. A day on Koumbara beach with Philip and Gill. 'The Eye of the Needle' is a very absorbing book. Returned to the Armadoros at 6 and packed our suitcase. AAARGGHHH!!! Hideous to think we are saying goodbye to Ios tomorrow. I shall forever love this place.

The town tonight was more crowded than usual. A local told us that the last weeks in July are unbearable. We found a new and quiet bar, but Philip and Gill were snuggling in the corner, and so we joined them at a table. Phil says they'll come and bid us farewell in the morning.

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Thursday July 9, 1981

 _. Day at the beach. Philip and Gillian were in the bar. The poor beggars had been stranded in a tiny boat off Santorini since Sunday, with no money or change of clothing. It was day trip which turned into a nightmare. The weather prevented the boat from returning to Ios. We had thought of accompanying them. 

We met Philip and Gill again this evening, but after knocking back ouzo I returned to the hotel and was violenetly sick. I had been eating squid, and so you require little or no imagination to envisage the sight of the bathroom.

-=-

Wednesday July 8, 1981

 _. Back to it. To the beach. I have a funny, bloated tummy. No appetite. Why? We retired to bed early after a walk around the harbour. I could go on and on about the Irish tourists in the hotel, but I'm on honeymoon and aren't honeymooners supposed to be oblivious to everyone and everything but each other?

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Tuesday July 7, 1981

 _. Up at 10 for breakfast in the hotel. ___________.Exiting the restaurant Ally suddenly looked like death and she fainted on the stairs just as the manager was coming down carrying a bed. I carried her, out cold, to room 45 [our love nest], where we passed the remainder of the day. Tranquility. I went out this evening and bought a couple of paperbacks. 'The Inheritors' by Harold Robbins, and Ken Follet's 'The Eye of the Needle'. 

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Monday July 6, 1981

Koumbara beach.

 _. Up at 10. Feeling very hungover. Walked to the Koumbara beach and stayed there until 4:30. Very quiet, windy and delightful. We took a large bottle of fizzy orange and sprawled on our beach mats discussing the names we are going to call our numerous children. Joshua Lawrence Dixon Rhodes is a certainty - God willing. Clementine [not after Winston's Clementine though.], Lavinia, Harriet [sweet], and Amelia, &c.

Food tonight consisted of chicken and chips and a couple of bottles of Cambas. A few daft hours in a cocktail bar clowning with the English barmaid, Karen. Very pissed. Back down the mule track eating crab sandwiches....

-=-

Sunday July 5, 1981

 _. 3rd Sunday after Trinity

Up at 10:30 and just made breakfast. Ally needed the orange juice. We walked to the village this afternoon and both bought red Greek trousers [350 drachmas each]. The little man in the shop insisted that Ally should try on her trousers before purchasing, and so she stripped behind the bacon slicer. I cashed a £50 traveller's cheque and bought our ferry tickets for the homeward voyage.

There was a sandstorm on our usual beach and so we took a short walk over the cliffs to a secluded cove full of naughty nude bathers. We had melon and pizza in a beach bar and walked back to the Armadoros.

Out tonight in our matching Greek trousers. I became intoxicated. The owner of our favourite cocktail bar told me he has been married for forty days and is going on honeymoon to Holland in October when the season ends. We did numerous taverns and arrived back at the hotel at 2am.

No sign of Philip or Gillian. Have they gone home perhaps?

-=-

Saturday July 4, 1981

 _. Independence Day, USA

Philip & Gillian.

Spent the day on the nearest beach. Met Philip in the bar at lunchtime. He gave me his copy of last Thursday's Daily Express. Lady Diana will not say 'obey' on July 29.  In the sun until 5:30.

From 7-8:30 we sat in the open air at Club Ios listening to classical music and watching the sunset.

Out at 8 to a restaurant near the windmill. Chicken and chips washed down with Domestica. We were hounded by a horrible American child carrying a reptile. On to a cocktail bar. Ally had Pina Coladas and gin. I stuck to gin. The American tourists were making merry.

Back to the hotel at 12:30.

Friday July 3, 1981

Philip & Gillian.

 _. A windy day. We sat in a beach bar from 11:30 to 6:30. We bumped into Philip Knowles [from Yeadon] and his girlfriend, Gillian. Today is her birthday. We had two bottles of Cambas wine, beer, &c. We were in a collapsed state this evening. I had squid, Ally shish-kebabs. We met Philip and Gillian in a bar at 11pm and had cocktails for a couple of hours. We roared with laughter at a couple dancing in the bar as though they were John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.

We walked back down the mule path. Not easy.

-=-

Thursday July 2, 1981

 _. Took a bus to a different beach after breakfast and stayed there for the day. Lots of naked sunbathers. Things hanging everywhere. We did wonder why some of them bother. One guy arrived naked on his motor bike. That cannot have been comfortable.

Had spaghetti for lunch washed down with beer.

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Wednesday July 1, 1981

 _. Dominion Day, Canada. New Moon. 

The twentieth birthday of Lady Diana Spencer. 

We put in an appearance at breakfast in the hotel. Ally uncomfortable with mosquito bites.

Visited the nearest beach this morning. Ate hamburgers for lunch and drank tins of orange and grapefruit juice. Sunburned.

At the hotel this afternoon a good rub down with after-sun was required. I then slept as Ally pottered around.

Back to the village for dinner. Ally had tomatoes stuffed with egg, and I had a vegetable concoction in a greasy sauce. Home by bus. Bed at 11. Exhausted.

-=-