Now then, may I politely direct you the About page on this website… About. It’s there in the top menu and let’s face it, there aren’t that many menu items. Here’s a summary of the About page: The blog is here to serve my self-publicity as an author. (I sell very few books from here so, frankly, I don’t know why I say that.) I am not a news agency. I don’t purport to have a clue what’s going on and anything newsy you might read here is at least second hand. Nor am I a travel agent. If you want advice about getting here or leaving here or where to stay in between, research and find a travel agent/expert. (I am not an A to Z, a Kelly’s Directory, the Yellow Pages or Tourist Information.) What I do do is put up random photos such as this one:
Cats. Not the musical but the creatures. Last night, we watched ‘A Private Function’ in which Liz Smith says, ‘No pig here….’ Well, there are no cats here, not on this page nor in this house. Cats are something else I can’t help with. Recently the number of emails I receive about stray cats has been on the increase. I know visitors are upset when they see ill, dying or dead stray cats, but writing an email to a random website email address isn’t going to help. If you want to help them, do something while you are here, even if it’s only reporting it to a nearby shop or business. You’ll likely receive the same reply, ‘Thanks for telling me, what do you expect me to do about it?’ That’s kind of how I must respond when I receive one of those emails that makes it sound as if the stray cat population on the island is my personal fault. The only thing I can suggest is to contract either the town hall or the pet shop at the bottom of the Kali Strata, as I have no idea if there is any animal welfare organisation operating on the island now. I’ve asked on Symi Facebook groups but have no website link or email to give you. Sorry.
On which note, tourism is taking over the world. I just searched for ‘Symi Town Hall’ to get their website address, and what comes up first in the search engines? Boutique hotel guides, ‘The 10 best hotels in Symi’, Hotel Symi something in German, ‘Visiting Symi, everything you need to know…’ apart from who looks after the cats, and the Town Hall website link…
Ah, here it is, in my bookmarks from years ago (so may be out of date), The address is 85600 SYMI, DODEKANISSOS. The phone number is +30 22410 72444… And no, it’s not (yet) a boutique hotel. By the way, the website link I have is out of date and the page is not found so you’re on your own.
Anyway… That’s that, and my news is, piano lessons are now officially ended because a) it’s too hot and we always stopped in July and August anyway, and b) himself is now working, and when the season ends, is off to college in Rhodes. Yesterday, we had our last lesson, and he played Mozart for me to a standard well above what I’d call grade 4 under the ABRSM programme in the UK. So, along with the other pieces last week, the scales and arpeggios and so on, that’ll be a pass, so I must make up a certificate. Yay! And, moving on…
