My Daily Washing Routine

Before I can wash in the morning, my daily desk routine starts with a browse through my emails. I am always interested to see what spam has come in overnight. I use Mailwasher (look at mailwasher.net it’s free for one email address usage and an excellent programme). It opens automatically when I start the laptop, and loads up all my emails in one place, but keeps them online. So, I get to see what’s in each of my various inboxes up in Server-land, rather than risk downloading something nasty to the real world. I then browse the subject header and ‘from address’, and delete those I don’t want. The other nice thing about this is that I can bounce back any that particularly annoy me, mark others as spam for the good of the community (as they get reported) and befriend those I know to be safe. Out of about 60 emails this morning (Sunday), I have two I want to keep. But who have I ignored? More on this fascinating subject after a photo. Today, we’re off to St Nicholas for our photos.

Amazon thinks I will be interested in something I once accidentally browsed in one of their storms three years ago. A Canadian drugstore is still doing its best to sell me medicines at very cheap rates, and eBay asks, ‘Have you seen these, James?’ to which I answer, ‘None of your business.’ Top-rated generic and branded treatments are here, apparently, while, on Goodreads, I am now friends with someone I’ve never heard of. The UK GOV keep banging on about travel advice to Greece (I used to find it interesting, but now, don’t trust it, so I might mark it as spam just for fun), and Heidi at Better Than PPF is telling me to provide my customers’ financing, and I think, ‘No, they can pay for things themselves.’ Photo pause:

Info-at-mail has a beneficial deal, Lola has and ‘easy solution to…’ and there’s a sale on for ‘Ling’s family shirts’, whatever that means. The whole family wearing one shirt, perhaps? Bit awkward. Netflix has added a movie I might like, but I only watch films, I’ve got a customer invoice from a company I’ve never dealt with, and root-at-Vietnam has sent me a long list of squares, exclamation marks and the letter P. After being invited to meet new people in the Pet’s Game, whatever that is, I have a heap of Viagra offers to wade through, including one where my order is ready and one where I can get off for 80% off. Viagra offers are, amusingly, followed by Wish, which is always followed by a very persistent Lisa who sends me a daily message from YouPic no matter how many times I ignore, unsubscribe or bounce. Photo pause:

Then, finally, I come to those written in Greek script, and there I find confirmation from the electricity company that our household bill is now in my name. It’s only taken 18 years, but thanks to their online process, it’s now easy to do, and hey presto, I have proof of my address and more control over my own bill. So, with about 60 spam emails to automatically send back, get rid of or in some other way keep from entering my physical computer, and I finally ‘Wash’ with safety, and get on with my day.

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Friday Photos

Here are ten photos from various places around the island to give you something to look at over the weekend. This week started off chilly and windy and ended up warm and calm, almost spring-like with the promise of more of the same to come. While I am chained to my desk or heading up and down my usual hillside path, Neil is out and about wandering the far hills, so hopefully, there will be more of his photos next week to give us some other views of Symi in the winter.

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Warm, Bills, Cards

So what’s new? Well, not a lot. As you can see from the photo, the amphitheatre in the harbour is coming along. I’m not sure how long it’s been like this, as I’ve not seen it for a while, but this is how it looked the other day.

Yesterday, I woke up around 3.30 to find the temperature in the courtyard was at 14 degrees. I was able to pull back the curtain in my office and open the shutters, ready to see some daylight later in the morning, and I didn’t need to put on the heating. Hopefully, we’re saving a heap on electricity bills this winter. On which note, I have now applied twice to have the bill put into my name. You can do this online now, and the process was simple. I was told I’d hear back in two days, but didn’t, so left it a week, and asked what was happening. I had another email saying I would hear back in two days and didn’t, so sent a third email after two weeks, and still didn’t hear anything. So, on Monday, I had another go through the website, uploaded the required docs and info, pressed the buttons and found myself at a different place than before. Hm, interesting… Anyway, I continued down that route, everything was accepted, and I had an email saying I would hear in two days. We shall see.

On the biometric front – the cards we have to have to replace our residency permits now we are third-country nationals, not EU citizens – I have read some people saying they had to make three trips to the police station to sort their admin. This, for people who have to travel from one island to another and maybe stay overnight because of transport links, is obviously going to be a pain in the backside, not to mention costly and potentially dangerous. I also read, though, that for us on Symi, we will only have to make two trips. As I’ve not heard anyone’s first-hand experience yet and this is all conjecture, I can’t say for certain. I know, though, that the office in Rhodes has now fully booked all its appointments to the end of May. If you’ve still not got an appointment, from June 1^st, you’ll have to take potluck by turning up and joining whatever queue there may be that day. Luckily, we’re in before the end of April.

So, that’s my early morning ‘off the top of my head’ chat. I am now returning to edit chapter five of 23 with the whole book needing to be done by 14^th. It’s a slow process involving a lot of thought and cutting, but it pays off in the end.

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Arty

I don’t have much news for you today unless you really want to know that I’m now on my second round of trying to change our electricity bill into my name online, I’m searching around for a new home printer, and a stray cat sprayed in our porch this morning, none of which is earth-shattering news. Thus, instead of a ramble about nothing, here are some of Neil’s recent arty shots to keep you in touch with Symi.

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Biometric thoughts

Monday wasn’t a day for a walk, at least not early in the morning when the sky was gunmetal grey, and the wind was whipping the house from all sides. The forecast showed 7 and 8 Bf from the south-east, so at least it wasn’t biting cold, but the roof tiles where whistling, and the shutters rattled. The rest of the week looks calmer and colder, so I might get out onto the hillside to do some wandering and wondering.

The ‘buzz’ in the British immigrant world right now is all about biometric permits, and I’ve been reading posts on various fora (forums) with interest. A couple of things have stood out for me. One is how people living in different areas have had different experiences. Some, for example, have not been asked for the paperwork that others have. Some people have been refused help at KEP (like the CAB) because they don’t have a biometric card yet while seeking advice on how to get one. That’s actually against the rules, and they are being advised to report such breaches to the embassy in Athens. Others have said their cards came in two days, others, four weeks. Some people have only been able to make an appointment for the end of June, which is the cut-off date, while others are seen to the following week. It depends on where you are, I guess, and how busy your local office is. We have ours booked for late April, the earliest date we could get in Rhodes.

Another issue that concerns me is people seeking out the cheapest possible health insurance to have the minimum cover required when applying for their card. These are people like me who don’t fit into the IKA system, the national health service if you like. They live in Greece, and yet don’t have health cover, and many of them are in their late 50s and early 60s, so not covered by any existing reciprocal agreement for pensioners. What worries me is that these folks aren’t covered and haven’t been for some time and some are only thinking about it now they have to. What were they going to do if they were suddenly taken seriously ill? Jet off ‘home’ I guess, but here is home, and as I am not covered by IKA any longer, I have to struggle to pay for private insurance. While I am about it, I get the best, most comprehensive cover I can, just in case. It’s the ‘condom theory.’ I’d rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it. I suspect some of these people going for their residency cards are trying to slip through the net and get the best of both worlds: A home in both countries and the right to live in either for as long as they want, just as we could pre-Brexit. Now, if you’re resident in Greece, you’re resident in Greece. If you’re not paying tax here, you’re paying it there, thus not eligible to be resident here (with some exceptions, I believe). You can’t have the best of both, and come and go to your holiday home for as long as you want like you could do before. Whatever, when, as I read yesterday, someone needs an emergency operation and to go private costs €15,000, there’s no point relying on tourists’ insurance as some try to do, nor on your cheap, basic cover from the supermarket chain or bank. Do it properly and stop trying to cheat the system, I say, for what my thoughts are worth.

Amway… Back to the drafting of the next novel, battening down the hatches, and saving the pennies for my health insurance.

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