Doch Ihre Worte Frisst Der Wind...

Sometimes, there's just a point where you think 'enough, now'.

Sometimes nothing you can say will be interpreted the way you mean it and that's just part of the fact that language is affected by the emotions and intentions of listener as well as speaker. Certain words don't have fixed meanings, no matter how hard we try to pin them down. How can they? Language is fluid. Even to the same person, words will change their meanings frequently. How often is 'frequent'? Daily? Weekly? It thoroughly depends on context and the person. The refusal of our literature to allow its contents and images be defined through one agreed meaning is incredible. It's one of the most wonderful and exasperating things about our language. It's why Shakespeare never gets old and why some works are beautiful even on their twentieth reading. And why you can read the same text twenty plus times and still feel you are reading it for the first time.

This space is having a hiatus. I have my own domain which I use to host a few friends' blogs - I have my own blog established there too. It's less of a trivial events calendar and where I generally focus my writing. This blog is quite often neglected in favour of that one so it makes sense to condense things and write purely on one channel. I'm not closing this blog - I may come back to it if I ever want somewhere a bit more whimsical to post. But at this point there's really nothing to say.

Greece is *definitely* the word.

So last week - or the week before, I forget - A and I headed out to Greece for a while to celebrate the end of my course/the end a really tough stint at work for him (I'm sure you'd love more information, but I don't have it. He doesn't even tell me what all the code names mean. Sometimes I wonder whether he actually works for MI5).

Greece was hot, beautiful, exciting - just what we needed. Last time we went on a watersports holiday, I was only working towards a PADI qualification which meant that A and I were sent on different dives. This time, though, we got to dive together! Plus, with only us and the instructor (a friend, who made sure we got 'special' treatment and weren't sent on the diving company's official dive with ten other tourists) we got to really examine the scenery.



We sailed out to these rocks, which, close up, look like this:



This is where we spent our day diving and chilling out on the boat in between dives. The water was clear and really warm - it was great. Check out this beautiful little guy:



Even though I KNOW you shouldn't... We picked him up. He was really soft, and far more beautiful in real life. We also held sea urchins (dead) and some of the biggest shells I've ever seen; explored caves and tunnels formed by rocks; hovered and watched an octopus for a while... and plenty more.
Asthma means I use my air up quite quickly though, so after only about 40 minutes (it flew) we had to ascend to exchange my tank. On the second dive, I got so carried away watching the octopus that I didn't keep a close enough eye on my supply and had to share an air tank on the way back. Oops...! Still, that's what you do the drills for - it wasn't really a problem.

When we weren't diving, we spent our time sailing mostly - on separate boats, since we want different things out sea. I like to sail along merrily and watch the beach/waves/jellyfish/people and generally chill out/catch some sun. A likes to sail 'properly' and throw himself off the side of the boat - like this:



Too much like hard work for me! (Although so good for the abs...).

Evenings we relaxed and sampled the cocktails, working our way through the menu systematically. When we got back we went on a quick shopping trip (and I really do mean 'quick' - A makes sure we have a fully-stocked bar here at all times - fab!) to pick up a few extra bottles and we've been drinking cocktails non-stop* since.

We had a cocktail party at ours last night, which was great fun but especially amusing was looking at the queue of bleary-eyed, bed-headed boys shuffling around, zombie-like, waiting to use our showers this morning and trying to determine who was fit enough to drive them all to work. Meanwhile I just padded around in my PJs (no work = no rush to get up in the mornings, yay!) providing orange juice to those who looked like they might actually die and make a mess of my carpet.



*Clearly not quite non-stop. Last time I drank and drove I ended up with a lovely, terribly suspicious-looking stain on my driver's seat. It seems that drinking whilst stationary at traffic lights is actually more complicated than it seems... It was clear water, for crying out loud, but the stain sure is stubborn. The garage-men were a little concerned when I took the car in following my (pathetic) crash at Christmas!

Anyway, I have definitely rambled enough. I didn't set out to write an essay... Carried away, as usual!