Thinking about it now, a lot happened in that first week of being here on a non-holiday. The first thing was to start looking for somewhere permanent to live, and how do you do that in a place you don’t know? Back then, it was a case of word of mouth, so the only way to find was to seek, and the only way to do that was to ask. So, we started asking around. We’d still not found anywhere by the end of the week, and ended up sitting on the steps opposite the Rainbow Bar with our rucksacks, wondering what was best to do, and who was best to ask.

Two years previously, we’d stayed at a holiday apartment, and it happened that I bumped into the owner in one of the shops and did that, ‘Hello! How are you…?’ conversation with the other person being polite and answering with little or no idea who I was, and that was that. So, after sitting on the steps, homeless and considering hotels, I found the same apartments, and there was the owner, and that time there was a little more recognition, and I explained the problem, ending with, ‘Do you have anywhere we could stay while we look…? The upshot was, she did have, temporarily, because she had someone coming to stay in it for the winter, but we could have a place until then, but we’d have to go as soon as she knew when the booking was to arrive. That was fine, as we’d want to move as soon as we found somewhere more permanent, and on those equal terms, she asked how much I wanted to pay. With that negotiated, we secured a small place for however long, and the search continued.

A few days later, we were offered the share of a house, using a spare bedroom until the occupier moved to a new house of her own, leaving us this one and its contract. That was a very kind offer, and it was what we did. It involved a visit to the landlord in Rhodes so we could take over the contract, and when the time came, we found ourselves with a two-building property that housed only us. All a stroke of luck and at the expected price of €300 a month in rent, plus bills. Now, after 24 years, we’re in our third rental house, and the rent is 60% of my pension, and that, these days, is something of a bargain.

Talking of changes, it was much easier to find decent housing then, though it is all arranged privately, as there’s no such thing as social housing around here. These days, there are more letting agencies, and there are online ways of searching, but as with everything else, the cost of renting has gone through the roof, and with many people greedily grabbing the Airbnb craze, fewer decently sized houses/homes to rent. I’ve seen adverts for what we’d call a bedsit going for €500 a month, and that’s just ridiculous. After living in the first house for a year, we decided to make our move permanent, and that meant finding another home on a longer lease, and while I went back to the UK to sort things out there, Neil went looking.

He’d found a place within a week or so, and it was a two-bedroom house with a garden and terrace and was also at €300 a month. There were other options too because there were long-term rentals available in those days, and at sensible rents. There still are some to be had, but not many, and that’s a constant worry, unless you are very rich. We stayed in that house, at that rent, for 11 years, until the daughter it was being kept for was heading for marriage and needed it back.

That might have made it all sound very easy, but there were difficult moments. Sitting on the steps homeless was one, but weren’t worried then, because we knew there were places, and it was only a case of finding one, or asking the right person. Now…? Well, now we’ve been lucky enough to have been in a third house for 11 years, but things here are changing; the price is going up while the condition of the property is going down, and we’re thinking about starting the same search over again. Gone are the days when you could turn up, find a long-term place to live and get on with life. You can still ask around, and that’s the best way if you want somewhere as secure as it can be. The trend for renting property while it waits to be sold is very helpful, and how we came to be in home number three, but that’s not secure, and when you have furnished a home with everything you own, and then have to transport it to somewhere else, that’s another matter entirely. You don’t want to be doing that every few months.

So, I guess the more the years go on, the luckier you have to be, because now the island is more about holiday rentals than it is about permanent residents (unless you own a house, and at these prices, forget it unless you’re very privileged). That’s one of the main changes I’ve seen: the cost. People say, ‘that’s cheap’ when you tell them you pay €500 a month, but then people on Symi aren’t earning comparable incomes. Nowhere near.

Anyway, let’s not get started on that, it’s far too serious. Let’s get on with Thursday instead.