Sunday

Good morning. I am writing this yesterday so as to have a blog post ready to launch on its own while I am doing other things on Monday. It’s been quite a busy weekend, and to intersperse the news, I’ve added some of Neil’s recent pictures taken on his island wanderings.

We had our first vaccinations on Friday. It was all very well organised and easy. The surgery rang the day before with an appointment time, only, they rang Neil while he was in Panormitis, the connection wasn’t wonderful, and he’d just found out that there was no bus that day and was wondering how he was to get home. Because of all that, I wasn’t sure if my time was 10:00, 11:00, 10-to-11:00 or 11:10, but it had something to do with the numbers ten and eleven. So, I was there at ten to ten just in case and found out my appointment was ten to eleven. I wandered to the bank to find both ATM machines being serviced, sat on a bench for a while, and appeared at the appropriate time for my jab. Lovely doctors and nurses, speaking English for me until I spoke Greek and then it all got a bit complicated, but we managed. I answered the questions and had my jab, waited until I was released and headed home. Neil was at the more definite time of 12.30, and he was done and home within the hour.

I must admit, my arm hurt like crazy on Saturday, and I sneezed and groaned my way through the day with what felt like a heavy cold while I finished my beta read of my next book. After that, I made a nest on the sofa for the rest of the day, and woke on Sunday feeling much better.

Sunday morning was taken up with bits and pieces of work, followed by the final gathering of paperwork for today and my biometric card interview/visit in Rhodes. This has involved arranging paperwork, chiefly, for me, my passport and two colour copies, four photos (thanks to Panormitis at Smart Symi) and their CD, two copies of my blue card (2008) and the original, five years’ tax returns (I have ten just in case), and the email to say I’ve paid the fee of $16.00. They are one set of documents, but to be safe, I have also included my house contract, my health insurance from AXA, proof of address from my UK banks, my Alpha bank books, my IKA stamps and book dating back to 2002, a copy of our civil partnership and the town hall registration of it/marriage, my bank books since 2002, and an affidavit to swear I am who I am and I live where I say I do as I don’t yet have a utility bill in my name/address. I am sure there are some other things in the folder which I’ve forgotten about, and I won’t need most of it (I hope), but just in case…

Oh, yes, I also have my permission to travel form from KEP. I have filled out my pre-boarding health questionnaire and one for the return journey and have spare copies of my last tax form and house contract in case the Rhodes police don’t believe I live on Symi. What could possibly go wrong?

And so, while you are reading this, I should be in Rhodes, as long as I woke up at 3.30, met the family at 4.30 and we made the boat at 5.00…

End of the week photos

Time for some end of the week photos, and I thought we’d have a spring theme today.
There will be more photos from Neil and his walks next week. Yesterday, he walked over to Panormitis, leaving here just after six and arriving there just before 10.00, which isn’t bad going. He sent me a message at around 10.30 telling me I have my first vaccination today (it’s amazing what you learn on these walks), so I am down to Yialos later to do that. On Monday, I am up early and off on the 5.00 a.m. boat to take my residency papers to the immigration office and swap my old blue card for a biometric permit, or at least start the process. And during the days between, i.e. the weekend, I have the last of my first draft to finish editing before I start on the third draft. So, a busy weekend ahead, which can now start with this random assortment of photos.

Wine. A Pressing Matter

Today, I thought I’d share some photos Neil took while on a recent walk. He went up to the area commonly known as ‘the wine presses’ because, strangely, there is a collection of ancient wine presses. As far as I am aware, there are other areas where wine was once made on Symi, but this area seems to be the most popular, thanks to the renovation works carried out by Sarantis Kritikos between 1994 and 1995 when he rebuilt 11 of the presses in six months

There is a book, ΤΑ ΠΕΤΡΙΝΑ ΠΑΤΗΤΗΡΙΑ ΣΥΜΗΣ (‘The Stone Wine Presses of Symi’), by Sarantis Kritikos, 1997, including a translation by Deborah Ball. I bought my copy for the bookshop years ago, but it may still be available. It includes photos, a history of the presses, their ‘discovery’ in the Kourkouniotis area, their architecture and rebuilding. Maybe have a look for it next time you are on Symi. The presses in question are just off the main road near Megalis Sotiris, halfway across the island and reachable by a path through the woods.

Do you hear what I hear?

Thanks to the recent warm weather, we can have the shutters and windows open again during the day. The other afternoon, I was sitting on the sofa in the living room listening to the silence, except there was none. Having had the sounds blocked out by the shutters for so long, it was pleasant to just sit there and listen, and I was surprised at how much there is to hear. There are not as many sounds as usual at this time of year, as no sailing boats are coming in, fewer people about, and no cruise ships, but there is still plenty to hear… (Pause for a random photo.)

The thing that made my ears prick up was the low, distant rumble of an anchor chain; the cargo ship coming into the new part of the harbour to unload cargo, or fuel, or whatever it carries. Then, I noticed the birdsong, which increases at this migration time of year. A blackbird chatting away, sparrows chirping, and other smaller feathered things flitting about and calling to each other. The high screech of the swallows catching bugs in mid-flight and the croak of ravens. The collared doves I mentioned the other day were doing their cooing thing, and then, of course, we have the ever-present cockerels in the background…

There were some manmade sounds. The Blue Star Patmos came in blasting its horn, and later, the Spanos heralded its arrival with its claxon as it always does. A concrete mixer was turning somewhere. There were a few distant voices, and the occasional closing of a door, and now and then, a car on the road. Motorbikes continue to roar past, while some chug, and there are several I can easily identify just by their engine. I know when Vasilis is heading home, for example, or when the boy next door has arrived back from work as that chug-chug clunk is always followed by footsteps on the path beneath the window. Cats feature largely in the soundtrack, particularly in mating season, which seems to run from January to December, and the ‘boys’ up the lane sometimes come out for a good old bark before leaning on the terrace and watching the world go by. One thing we don’t hear so much of these days is our doorbell, the ‘alarm’ as Neil calls it. We’ve turned that off now, thanks to some late-night, curfew-breaking idiot who thinks it funny to play ring-and-run at two in the morning. So if anyone wants to visit and chat through the gate, they have to send us a message first.

Anyway, the point is, there’s not much going on, but there’s plenty to hear if you sit there with the windows open and let your ears tune into the natural sounds of the passing world. As the day fades and the windows must be closed, the sounds are replaced by those from the television and me growling as I try to fit a model kit together, but the sounds from inside the house (water pump, fridge, oven fan) are a discussion for another day.

The Quiet Pace of Island Life

Grey skies but warm, up to 26 degrees yesterday afternoon, and no threat of rain, just one of those plain cloud covers that doesn’t seem to move. A calm, silvery sea, through which the Blue Star cut its way before dawn looking, as it always does at night, like an ocean liner off to cross the Atlantic, steaming west from Ireland like that one 109 years ago last week.

Collard doves cooing, the swallows and martens are back and flitting, smaller, more fidgety birds too, and the courtyard has become the sparrows’ playground. There, the chilli plant is coming back; that’s the one taken from Yianni Rainbow’s plant. The bougainvillaea is sprouting as is ‘Heavy Plant Crossing.’ That’s the one by the porch I don’t know the name of, which has pink flowers and sits in a heavy pot, and something has made its home in an empty pot of earth. It looks like a wild succulent, so we’ll leave that and see what happens.

The shutters are now open again (and the windows need cleaning), the washing dries in a few hours, and there is no need to turn on the electric heaters. Today, I must go down to the sea again, to Yialos, to get permission to go to Rhodes next week, and then all my papers and tickets will be in order for stage one of the biometric application. Apparently, the lady who will deal with us is very helpful and pleasant and has assured us that she can ‘do’ a ‘family’ of four in half an hour.

Meanwhile, at the desk, I continue to plough through my first draft to check the story and plot while thinking about what I can cut out, what is repetition, and ‘what the hell did I mean by that?’ If it doubt, cut it out, as our old family doctor used to say. So, the quiet pace of island life ticks on as we await more news of the lifting of restrictions and the opening up of tourism, hopefully, after Easter, which, by the way, starts next Monday with the beginning of Big or Great Week.