Anyone who has strolled through Kamini in the past four decades will recognize the generous hat feeding cats. For those who do not, meet Valerie.

She feeds the local strays/street felines of our village daily, year in year out. Valerie however does not get the appreciation she deserves for her charitable efforts.

No, she is not some eccentric wealthy lady who has nothing better to do but make a hobby out of feeding the local herd of cats, but a person who does so purely for the well being and good of the community. Seeing sick and flu ridden cats on our local paths is a very sad thing to behold. Kind folk have donated to the cause but it doesn’t stretch. She needs help.

“I say to people,” she explains,”come on a feeding walk with me and see how much time, money and effort it takes to keep our cat population healthy. They need more than just kibble otherwise they will get sick and then trying to treat forty sick cats becomes a serious problem”

The Comet admires and salutes our kitty ‘mother Teresa’… thank you Valerie for all your kind trouble.

August  – or as the long term inmates and locals refer to it, the Silly Season, that month of the year when the island feels too hot, too busy, too stressed and patience wears thin for those at work. Two shifts, seven days a week, all summer long. Its also a time when we get asked silly questions, or at least they a seem silly  to those familiar with the Rock. These are innocent enough, and we all sometimes ask un-researched questions in the communities to which we are travelling. A couple of emails from this August for instance go something like this.

• Is the Hydra ferry departure lounge air conditioned and does it have WiFi?
• Can you send us the bus schedule to Kamini and how much does a cab cost?
• Some donkeys we noticed have beads in their foreheads does this have any traditional local significance?
• If we bring our own biodegradable toilet paper can we flush that down the loo?
• Can we play golf on the island?

One gets the feeling that while some have found the way to contact us, they haven’t glanced at even the home page, no mind, some people just don’t have the time to browse. So instead of the usual summer in the sun snap, I have decided to post one of my favourite off season photos, just to remind us what the “other” Kamini is like.

The “other” Kamini

I had been avoiding it on our trip, but I watched the news today….oh boy!!

What a bloody mess, too many angry people in too many places to mention, trouble and strife is rife, when are humans going to stop firing rockets and bombing the shit out of suburbs, murdering in the name of one god or another? So I surrender, give up in fact, and in the spirit of such; I decided to save a life tonight.

I spotted a Christmas beetle (so named because of its bright green exoskeleton) lying on its back slowly perishing on our doorstep without the strength to right itself. I pro-offered an index finger which it grabbed with great enthusiasm. I sat with my beetle all  through sunset, and it seemed determined to hang onto my finger for the rest of its dear life. It dawned on me that the poor thing might need something to drink so I dabbed a drop of wine from my glass onto the table and placed my patient in front of it.

Worst Beetle ‘Selfie’ Ever

Sure enough it relished the nourishment. And yes, it got drunk. Silly me and silly beetle who started doing weird things with its legs and little somersaults of a kind. Pissed as a parrot… er beetle. I sat with him on my finger through his binge until he was right enough to cling to our bougainvillea which I bequeathed to him.  All is well again in our Kamini valley… news forgotten.

Our special local, Pirofani, opened this year with a resounding thumbs up. Theo serving “the same old crap” (with a few experimental new dishes) and Roger’s poem was to say the least, right on the nose and to the point of our changing island, and for that matter world. Just about all the usual ‘surviving suspects’ were in attendance and it felt like our ‘clubhouse’ would be around for yet another season.  A grand reunion, thank you both !!

First edition of original poem to follow avrio (tomorrow), once scanning has happened. A must read…