Kefalonia Holiday

Kefalonia Holiday May 25th to June 1 Days 101 to 108

We spent seven nights in Kefalonia with Caspar, Melevlev, Cecily and Oriana.  The same crew and at the same house (Amongst The Olives) we settled in for the half term week in 2013, ’14 and ‘15.

In many ways and obviously time had passed but we did mostly the same things.  There is an eternal quality to a Greek island holiday. We swam in the sea.  We cooked, ate, cleared up and hung out at the house in the evenings.  We indulged in quantity, quality and sheer oily olive-ness at Odysseus’ vine shaded tables on Jerusalem beach.  We walked and talked and cruised the cafes and shops of Fiscardo Harbour.  We read and were read to and we drank the local wine and beer.

I am sitting down now, on June 2^nd at our new river side campsite in the mountains of Tsoumerka to write about it and honestly it seems like just one long day in the sun already.

I have in my mind many images of form and light and colour – a Mediterranean mix of startling sea blues and bougainvillea pinks and all shades of bleached stone and spring brush in between.  And the thrilling lift of sensation that plunging into a cool sea or bright view or shaded harbour side table offers.

And scraps of narrative:

The fact that when they arrived I was busy in my head with other tasks and regretted not rushing out to greet our old friends and Caspar’s father more warmly and immediately.  A moment lost and never quite retrieved.

The charm of an evening unfolding to end in watching the girls and Taran perform a song together with serious intent and focused musicality.  

Or frantically and in my case un-fruitfully scrambling to own the Kings in a game of Racing Demons.  A light breeze, starlight, a flickering flame and the day is gone again.

The bitter sweet evidence of the passing of childhood in our children with the cares, passions and contortions of a new era wide eyed and blinking round the corner at us all.

The business around booking Scuba Diving and arriving with mixed feelings and a strangely subdued son in a soaring underwater world of caves and chill; long views and few fishes.

We all enjoyed our walk around the villages and hills into Fiscardo and the cliff jumping was, I hear, a great success.

I had a sleepless night and Oxford seemed a long way away as we set out once more to continue on our journey. 

Taran very homesick.

But to my mind and in the holiday spirit the very best thing was the introduction of International Paddle Ball to Kefalonia.  Taran and I have invented this game that will no doubt soon be an Olympic sport and who knows but that the individuals that battled so vigorously here in the pool “Amongst The Olives” will in later days represent their nations. 

The Teams were:

The Pink Piglets

Cecily Romer, Orianna Romer

The Lobsters

Kelty Caston, Taran Caston

 

Let it be recorded that although close the matches were won by The Piglets despite excellent strategy from the Lobsters.  The larger lobster being especially guilty of poor passes at crucial moments to the despair of the smaller Lobster whose incredible outfield work would in other circumstance surely have earned victory.  

The Piglets were consistently impressive, their repeated interceptions all too often turning defence into deadly attack.