a rabbit's reflections

sadly my holiday in the sun ia now well and truly over and I have had to say goodbye not just to the fair isle of kalymnos in greece, but to old, new (and very particular) friends.

what a scrapbook of memories i have brought back to london with me: while brian was busy working on his various creative endeavours (which were, naturally, always accomplished with his eyes closed for the purposes of better concentration) i took long walks on the hills above emborios with roger, sheila and david...

with my cousin, buttons hippo, we visited some old ruins (which prompted bh to make an unnecessarily disparaging comment about hippolyta that led to my having to give him a good talking to about showing courtesy to the fairer sex)...

happily, we were always able to resolve our differences over a a glass or two of ouzo in a shady taverna –– you can't see the ouzo in the photo because (a) like the queen, i avoid being photographed with a drink in my paw and (b) we'd already drunk it...

but, of course, chiefest among my memories will be of the very happy times i spent in the company of one whom i think i may now truthfully describe as my own, dear, hippolyta...

ah, happy days –– and nights!

crowning moment

the perfect end to our holiday: h and i are granted a royal audience prior to our departure...

parting is such sweet sorrow...

...so wrote the bard and one knows just how he felt having spent a last evening with h before she departs for home...

i found her a tad overwrought by the sullen heat and being dutifully fanned by my cousin buttons hippo whilst recalling (at length) a catalogue of the hottest places of the world that he had either visited or heard of...

...but, as soon as i arrived, h quickly sent him off to entertain the local goats with his travel stories so we could share some last quality time together...

...this morning, over coffee, we had a full and frank discussion about the future--- our future...

i explained that i couldn't ever leave brian, after so many years because he'd simply go to pieces; and h said, for her part, that she really has to put her blossoming career as a diva extraordinaire above all hopes of personal happiness...

painful though it was, we have agreed to view the very special time we have shared during the last two weeks as simply a holiday romance of the kind that happens in musicals based on abba hits.

however, we will try to honour our affection for one another and hope that the future may possibly provide us with some further – less fleeting – opportunity to renew the bonds of true love...

* sniff *

stirred but not shaken

hippolyta relaxed last night and showed herself a hippo of great sophistication by ordering a piña colada. fortunately, i think it went onto sheila's bill.  

unfortunately, it came without a cherry, a wedge of pineapple and one of those little paper parasols: buttons hippo thought h would send for the head barman to complain, but – maybe due to the softening influence of what the greeks call agape – h's decorum never slipped, as can be seen from this delightful photo...

she is one sassy hippo, that girl!

the daily round

i could easily get used to this life: lazy days...

...the occasional explore...

...romantic, moonlit nights...

 

...and so to bed...

in other words

i have been trying to find words to adequately express my feelings for hippolyta and then i remembered the most requested song from her ever-popular cabaret set (who can forget her show-stopping performance at the hippodrome?) and decided that it says all that needs to be said..

fly me to the moon 
let me swing among those stars  
let me see what spring is like  
on jupiter and mars
in other words, hold my hand 
in other words, baby, kiss me
 
fill my heart with song  
let me sing forever more  
you are all i long for  
all i worship and adore
in other words
please be true   
in other words
i love you
why don't you fill my heart with song? 

let me swing forever more  
because you are all i long for  
all i worship and i adore
in other words, please be true  
in other words
in other words

i love you

good sports

hippolyta has spent the last two days resting up – basically she doesn't 'do sight-seeing'; but I think she is scared of being mobbed by her adoring fans which (she says) happens more or less wherever she goes in the world.

anyway, buttons hippo and i went off with david and brian and roger and sheila for a jaunt around the island ending up at a waterside taverna where we climbed tress...

 

...played footie...

...tried to play snooker...

...which is not as easy as it looks on the telly...

 

...and not quite as much fun!

fun and games

we have been having an action-packed couple of days... while hippolyta acclimatised herself to life on a greek island (an unavoidably exhausting process for a diva of distinction), my cousin, buttons hippo, and i had fun on the beach with a belated birthday present to brian from sheila and roger of (what else would you give a disney-nut on holiday?) a blow-up bambi!

then, when evening came around, another romantic sunset tryst with h...

...before she accepted my invitation for a sleep-over!

of course with buttons hippo playing gooseberry and recounting his oft-told yarns of the daily life up the limpopo, sleep (and anything else) was somewhat low on the agenda...