Thank You!

Here’s a big thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes yesterday, both via email and via Neil’s Facebook page. (I’m still a bit too jet-lagged to think straight, so haven’t been using FB much as yet). Despite everything, I had a great day with messages and video calls from all over the place. The godboys and mum, just up the road, did a video call complete with happy birthday played on the piano by GS #1 (very proud), jokes, laughter and more than a little madness.

Now, as promised, let me introduce you to some of the plants in the courtyard. For lack of anything else much to show you, I thought we might follow their progress over the net few weeks now and then, to give me some images to add to the blog. As you can see, they’re not at their best after the winter. The cast list comprises:

Sharry-Louise Rose – a gift from the Godboys and their mum, thus it’s named after them.

Heavy Plant Crossing – so-called because it’s in a heavy pot and when bigger, should reach across the wall.

The bougainvillaea, still rather hail-damaged

The stick – which is actually a chilly plant that we had several chillies from last year. It started as a pod from Yianni-Rainbow’s plants and did well once we put it in the shade. It’s now been cut back to regrow bigger this year, hopefully. Still waiting.

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Independence Day

Yesterday was Independence Day in Greece, a day usually marked by church services, parades, marching bands and speeches. Here on Symi, the Town Hall played stirring music and the National Anthem through the town’s speakers so that everyone at home could hear. There was a fly-past of jets in Athens where the President and Prime minister were to attend the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Meanwhile, with a lack of new photos to show you and very few older ones on my new PC, here’s the best I can do. These are views from February.

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Back to work

Here I am back to work after a break. I’m afraid the blog might become rather mundane and more of a weather watch with limited photos – for obvious reasons. I’m not a news site, and I don’t go in for gossip and conjecture, so for the foreseeable future, the posts you see may only be about what we are doing at home which, for me, is mainly writing and, after my break, getting back to my books. Similarly, the images will probably only be of the same view, but I will try and vary them with updates about how our limited plant collection is going in the courtyard. With much writing to catch up on, I’ve decided not to spend so much time looking at Facebook and other social media. Far too much speculation for my comfort, though I’ll still check into the parts of it that I trust for reliable news updates, both international and local. I get my Greek news from http://www.ekathimerini.com/ as it is published in English and thus I can be more accurate in my reading than if I translated the Greek version and my world news from the Guardian. If anyone wants to stay in touch more personally, you can always use the symidream email which is right down at the bottom of this page. The only other thing to add right now is that we’re both fit and well and doing as we are told. Oh, and it’s good to have you back and reading!

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A break from the blog

Hello everyone. I am going to post a few pictures today and then leave the blog alone until the end of March, or start of April; there is a lot to do.

If you use Facebook, you can follow us on the Symi Dream page where we will no doubt put up a few posts of our travels along the way.

The boat is due on Monday afternoon, the first leg of the journey, but before then, I have at least four chapters of a first draft to finish, so the story is out of my head before I set off. Then there’s the packing and list checking, and all those around-the-house things we thought we’d do before we went that still haven’t been done… So, here are some recent shots and here’s us wishing you a happy month for March. I’ll be back online when we return.

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Bits and Pieces

I am once again running down my stock of January/February photos, most of which were taken by Neil when out on a few walks. We’ve not been doing so much of that recently, mainly due to laziness and weather, but as soon as we’re back and we can get out first thing in the morning, then I am sure we’ll be working off the holiday’s excess pounds. I’d much rather go out straight away before I sit down to start writing because otherwise, I feel like I am interrupting my concentration. In fact, the wandering up and down the hills for an hour each day gives me time to plan the next chapter and let my mind reorganise itself. I also feel more awake, mentally and physically. The trouble is, getting out of bed in the cold and dark and then having to wait an hour or two before the sun comes up, by which time the inclination has gone. But enough of excuses… What else is going on?

Well, I noticed in yesterday’s photos that the Panormitis Travel office is now situated beside the Dolphin Pizzeria. Work has begun on the road connecting the new harbour to the main road up the hill to the village. When you’re heading for the Blue Star boats, the café is now open, and the Blue Star ticket office is inside the café, which makes it much more comfortable for everyone. You can always book your tickets online, print off the reference number and then take that to collect your tickets from the office or the travel agents in town who deal with Blue Star. That’s what we just did, so now we have our passes to board the boat next Monday afternoon. They are in my folder along with confirmation of Aegean flights to London, tickets to see ‘Blythe Spirit’ one night and ‘Phantom’ the next, and all the hotel bookings, plus the tickets to see Tutankhamun on the way back.

The middle part of our trip is taken care of for us. All we have to do is meet our tour guide from Great Rail at Heathrow on a certain date by a certain time, and that’s it. Obviously, we are watching the news carefully (and mildly selfishly) and hoping here are no travel restrictions imposed before or during or trip. I’ve seen some people already asking if it’s safe to come to Greece (yes) and showing concern for the summer holidays. Well, it’s a bit early for that, and as far as I see it, at the moment you’ve got more chance of catching ordinary flu, statistically speaking, and, as there is nothing we can do about it, we’re heading off on our trip as planned. As I said yesterday, we will cross any bridges when we come to them. Meanwhile, lots of vitamins to boost the immune system, being sensible, hoping for the best while preparing for the worst, but mainly, accepting whatever comes, we’re starting on our packing and checking of lists.

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