Saturday saw Symi’s second international street party up in the village square. There were stalls from local residents from Greece, Croatia, Italy, UK and others selling homemade crafts, hot food, sweets biscuits and more with money raised going to various local groups. There was also music from the countries represented and a special treat later in the day when a scout troop from Rhodes joined in with dancing. We had a chat with the organisers afterwards (well done to you btw), and some rough figures showed what had been raised:
Symi Music School €256.00 (plus some which had not, by then, been counted)
AO Symi Football €467.00
The High School €150.00
Symi Animal Welfare €200.00
That’s over €1,000 made in one afternoon. I came away with a new AO Symi hoodie and a bit of a sugar rush after various sweets, and full up from chilli and souvlakies. A great morning/afternoon. Well done and thank you to everyone who joined in including the bars and taverna who lent tables, those who organised the music, helped set up and clear up and the rest.
Heading into the weekend with lovely warm weather but not a lot of news. Anyone following the waterworks debacle at our house will be interested to know that the leaking tank is now fixed thanks to Symi Property Services. I won’t summarise the water problems as they’ve been going on for nearly a year now, but this (hopefully) last one concerned the ‘temporary’ plastic tank the landlord’s ‘mastoras’ had put on the bathroom roof. He’d put it straight down over water pipes that were themselves over a concrete trough. The bottom of the tank had been pierced by one of the pipe’s connecting nuts, and the bottom of the tank was bowing under the weight of water. Anyway… SPS were here yesterday and sorted all of that out, and now, we are leak-free for the first time since sometime in the summer. I’ll celebrate with some random photos from the other day…
We had a bit of an odd internet outage yesterday. Many of us could only get into certain websites (Google and Fakebook) but no others. Of course, I suspected a global conspiracy, but it turned out to be something local. Still, it put me behind in my very vague schedule. Instead of a ramble today, here are a few photos from the harbour the other morning following the recent big storm.
Well, that was something of a wet day – Monday, I mean. Today (Tuesday as I write), there was still some rain around first thing, but now, at eight in the morning, the skies are clearing overhead, but only slightly. The force nine winds have gone, and the sea is calm again. It’s also back to a more natural colour after turning red/brown as the topsoil was washed down from the mountains and out to sea. If you are on Fakebook, you will be able to look around the Symi groups and Symi Dream page and find some videos taken by people who live in Yialos and Pedi where the storm had the most effect. I have very few pictures as it was a case of staying in, shutters closed, towels down, mop at the ready and the internet on and off as thunder and lightning joined the melee going on outside.
Monday as the storm was brewing
For more details on the storm, which brought tragedy and destructions in other parts of the country, you’ll need to look at news channels, for us, it was a case of staying in, trying to keep us and the house dry, and hoping that nothing leaked too much. I was rained upon as I did the washing up because there’s a gap in the storeroom door above the kitchen and the wind must have been from the east, blowing the rain under the door and through the floorboards which are our kitchen ceiling and the storeroom’s floor. A quick dash up to the bathroom roof with a large towel to block the gap stopped the waterfall, though I was only out in it for two minutes and came back soaked through. A rough day all round.
Tuesday, the train survived
Tuesday morning, the sea was calm, no white water breaking on Nimos (which I tried to capture through the camera before things got really bad, but in that light and at that distance, it’s not so good), and no rough waves attacking Tholos and the point as they were on Monday. While the internet was off, unable to write as the PC was unplugged, I turned my attention to another model kit in between checking windows and so on, so the kitchen table is once again some kind of art studio workbench, but this one will take a while as I need to order more paints. Meanwhile, I must get back to a book of some sort. We were going to Rhodes today, but after the destruction there on Monday, we decided to wait until next week as the visit isn’t urgent, but we still have to get to Yialos to collect the post. That will be done between tidying the house, waiting for a viewing by a potential buyer, possibly waiting for some minor repairs to be done (though I think the guys will have more on their plates today than a dripping water tank, so I am not expecting a visit), and playing the piano. Hey ho! Back to the routine…
