Sun and Symi boats

As you can see, it was a bright and sunny day on Monday when the photo below was taken. I was on my way to the shop for essentials and snapped this outside The Olive Tree. The road from there to the Village Hotel is now repaved completely and is functional, there’s a new Ote box by Georgio’s and one further up the lane near the old pharmacy building, and elsewhere, improvements and preparations for summer are on-going.

It’s Tuesday as I write, and the sun is out again. It’s almost warming up too and very pleasant when in the sun. The first of our summer regulars that I know of is returning to Symi on Sunday/Monday, and others soon after. There are quite a few folks who come and stay for a whole season, six months, or who come and go but have a semi-permanent rental here and find it cheaper than renting a new place each time.

On the subject of travel, I saw somewhere the other day that the Dodecanese Seaways website has updated its schedule through until later in the year, though I haven’t looked myself. It might be an idea to check it out, and details will be on Andy’s travel blog (link over there to the right >>). When coming to Symi independently, as in, arranging your own flights etc., always check the boats before you commit to a flight in case you end up missing the connection and spending a night or two on Rhodes. Nothing wrong with that, but if you’ve only got a week or ten days, you might not want to miss a Symi night because of non-connecting flights and boats.

Share on Facebook

Symi Property Services

Sunday morning. Rain overnight, apparently a storm but I didn’t hear a thing. We enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing and fun Saturday afternoon with the godboys including sausage and mash in a giant Yorkshire pudding. We fed the cats on the way there.

Saturday brought a return of our water problems and an instant fix from Symi Property Services. For a while now, in fact, since before the sterna broke and we had the temporary tank installed, the water pump was taking it upon itself to go off every now and then. This usually means a leak somewhere, but I’d been unable to find one, so assumed it was just slowly filling pipes or cistern somewhere. However, when I noticed water dripping from the bathroom roof on Friday night and traced it, on Saturday morning, to the hot water tank in the storeroom above the kitchen, it became obvious. We were suffering from a rusty nipple, apparently, even though the tank is only about five years old. So… A quick call to SPS, the expert arrived, diagnosed our nipple and told me we also needed a new valve. That replaced, it’s now a case of ordering a new tank. The current one is fixed for now but because of the rust, won’t last, but hopefully a new tank will be in place in the coming days, and I won’t have to sit there listening to the pump and wondering why it’s doing what it’s doing. It’s already quieter because the tank is leaking less. Anyway, that’s the current instalment of our on-going water issues which I am confident will be fixed thanks to the experts.

You can contact Symi Property Services here, and this link leads to their Facebook page.

Share on Facebook

Symi Saturday Photos

Morning! Here are a few photos taken by the two of us recently. The eggs are from Sotiris’ chickens; so much nicer to hand pick your own from the bucket in the supermarket. The view is from the house yesterday, a fine, sunny and cold day. The others are from Neil’s collection from last week. It’s Saturday morning, I have some writing planned, we’ve been invited to lunch with the godboys, and after that, have nothing much going on until we go to Rhodes for our annual health checks later in the month. Neil starts work at the bar again in April which is suddenly not so far away, and I need to make a phone call and have our water pump looked at; it’s going off every half hour or so, and I still can’t find a leak. So, that’s my weekend planned, here are your photos.

Share on Facebook

Light

Happy March 1^st to you, and kalo mina, as they say in Greece on the first of the month. A few shadow photos for you today. You know, it’s odd. When I nip down to Yialos for something and take my phone/camera, I come back with one or two of the same kind of shots as always. When Neil pops down to pick something up or go to the bank, he comes back with all kinds of arty and interesting images on his camera.

It has been sunny this past couple of days, hence the shadows in the images today, but this morning the temperature in the courtyard was back down to 10 degrees, which is probably how it should be at this time of year. Heaters on, curtains drawn against the breeze which makes things feel colder, though so far today, there’s no wind so we might warm up a little later. Ah well, a couple more photos and then back to work.

Share on Facebook

A day for staying in

Wednesday, early, waking up to the wind which is cold, and a sky streaked with cloud, but at least there’s no rain. Also waking up to a handy post on Facebook directing me to the yUK Gov site where the latest info about what might happen to British foreigners in Greece, or coming on holiday to Greece. You can find it here.

Of course, it all depends on what happens next, and that’s as up in the air as it’s ever been. As I see it, and I’m usually wrong, if there’s a deal, everything (for us here) stays the same except we’ll have to change our paper residency cards to something else in time. If there’s no deal, the Greek government will reciprocate whatever the yUK does with Greeks there. If there’s neither, if a no deal isn’t allowed but a deal voted down, then there might be more time to prolong the agony, keep Her in power while she gets what she thinks is best for everyone, allow the other parties to shift around and settle on whatever green benches offer the best view of the car crash, and no-one will know what’s going on for another few months. So, that’s as strong and stable as mud then.

She has recently made her speech about protecting British immigrants now living in Europe (as that’s what we are). She says she is behind us (a hideous thought). But she’s doing it simply because there’s a bill going through committee to bring back the voting rights of UK nationals living abroad. Handily, that could be just in time for her extension so everyone will have time to forgive and forget the way She’s ignored us all this time and come around to her way of thinking. A masked attempt to add a few more potential voters to her failing armies. Or something equally as cynical. But that’s only me. And there my Big B thoughts will end for now. The photos today are from Neil and his walkabout yesterday (changing his tax details to reflect his Irish passport). Some Symi views and details to take our minds off the macabre car crash which is the current state of the yUK.

Share on Facebook