Friday morning

Friday morning to-do list: Admin and emails, turn on mains water to fill tank, do some work, sort out laundry room, shopping, washing, have a shower, tidy study, turn off water, make lunch, get some book written. Saturday and Sunday are pretty much the same, but without all the annoying necessities, so the list just reads, ‘get a book written’, and around it all it says, ‘stay warm and dry.’

We’ve had our fair share of rain over the last couple of days as two storm fronts passed over. At least it warms the air slightly, but when the cloud goes, we’re back down to nine degrees (in the bathroom), with clear air so you can see across the tops of the Turkish mountains which are, apparently, many miles away – not sure how far exactly, but it’s a good distance, and usually around this time of year you can see snow on the peaks.

All this activity, as described above, means not much time or weather for being out and about. The weather is still thwarting my attempts to get back into a walk routine. I’ll go now… Or as soon as this deluge stops (it doesn’t), well, maybe I’ll try again tomorrow. Tomorrow dawns clear and cold, a bit chilly, I’ll go later, oh look, we’ve not yet finished the red Quality Street, better do that first. Strawberry centres must be the least popular of all, along with the orange ones, but we have to get through them all before Epiphany.

I do have one other thing to do today. Order the damn piano. I has one set up and ordered for a reasonable price form a British company with European branches, who offered free delivery. I found a decent Yamaha for a price I could afford, especially with free delivery, only to later be told that as it was over a certain weight, they would have to use a heavy haulage firm and the cost of delivery would be €400 or more, so that was that out of the window. I’ve found another (a Roland this time) from a company that has a store in Rhodes. They say that delivery to Symi is included, apart from a €25.00 fee C.O.D. to get the piano from the boat to the house, so I shall go with that. When I asked this shop last year, the said I would have to get it from the boat to the village on my own (simply not possible) so I shall wait and see what happens and put in an extra request on the order form to be kept informed. Don’t want a call at 5.30 one morning asking why I am not at the boat and taking off an upright digital piano which, unless I am there in ten minutes, will be on its way to another island. Watch this space.

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Upper Horio

I took some shots while walking through the village on New Year’s Day on our way to lunch in upper Horio. I don’t know if that’s its official name, but that’s’ what we tend to call it around here. It’s been a while since I’ve walked through the lanes after the rain, and as it turned out, through them in the rain, late at night, and you get a very different atmosphere up there in the winter than you do in the summer.

The rain leaves the paintwork looking fresher, and the stones smell damper than usual. You do have to watch out for slippery fallen fig leaves at this time of year, and they’ve not slipped off naked statues or anything, simply off the trees, and there are many wild fig trees around. At other times of the year, the paths are blackened and sticky with fallen fruit. At this time of year, it’s a case of being careful where you tread so as not to catch a large leaf on the edge of a step, go arni over titlos and injure yourself. (Arni is lamb, and titlos is title, but you can see what I was trying to do.) Luckily, we didn’t title our lamb and ended up at our destination safely. We managed to reach home without mishap, though I did get stuck in a lane when my umbrella caught on the walls either side; these lanes were not made for umbrellas, and many are narrow because of lack of space to build and also as a security measure, apparently, to make it more difficult for invaders to get from A to C while bashing the B out of people they met along the way.

Advice for exploring the village after dark is always to take a torch and, if you get lost, head downhill as you will eventually come to the sea and know where you are. Okay, so you may go the wrong way and end up in the wrong place, but on the way, you’ll find a landmark or view you recognise. Seriously, it’s fascinating, just walking around the lanes and ruins, houses and squares; just watch out for slippery fig leaves.

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Thank you

Just to say, thank you for all the Happy New Year and seasonal messages, shares, likes and all that, here and on our Facebook page. I’m dropping in a couple of photos taken over the last couple of days to keeps us going. It’s Wednesday morning, the ferry has just come and gone, it’s still raining a little, but not as cold as it has been, and I am dragging myself back to the desk to do some work. I’ll be more in tune with blogging tomorrow.

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Happy New Year

Hello, and a happy New Year to you. I’m back after my Christmas Week off and looking forward to the year ahead. I’m not one of those blogs that spends an entire two weeks looking back over what happened last year, although I think I did that the other day, so instead, let’s have a catch-up.

I’ve been very quiet over the last week, staying at home, having great times with the godboys and their mum, writing when not sitting on the sofa eating Quality Street or checking out the gifts I was given on Christmas Day. We’ve also been busy revamping our offices. Mine is getting there, I am waiting for the new computer desk and chair, and a cabinet and then, all I need to do if find decent curtains and perhaps a new light fitting and I can reveal it. Neil is also sorting out his room which is currently a bit bare and finding him a proper desk, and perhaps some carpet is next on the agenda. I ordered a tailor-made piece of carpet for my room from Christalo towards the back of the town square, and it arrived a few days later from Athens. Because it’s a bit plush (for me) I feel I can now call my office a study. I just need a slowly ticking clock, a drinks cabinet and some very worthy leather-back books on shelves and the fantasy will be complete.

I know you want a weather update, but there’s not a lot to update you with. Temperatures have been down to eight degrees inside and out, the little meter wheel is whizzing around when all three heaters are on, and I daren’t look when I also have the oven and kettle going, but we manage to stay warm enough, sometimes under blankets on the sofa. I do find I’m up and at my desk before it gets light and it’s often a surprise to emerge from the ‘study’ to find it’s daylight, sunny and almost warm in the sun. The shutters are closed, you see, to help keep the heat in. Today photos were taken the other morning, the first time I’d been on the balcony since before Christmas.

And as for the year ahead… Well, no trips are planned apart from our annual health-check MOT in Rhodes in March or April and a visit to Scotland for our son’s wedding in November. If I can, I will go to Tilos or somewhere equally as peaceful for a week to do my writing retreat, and I am spending a couple of days in Athens with mother in September when she is on her way to Symi. (Note: must check out the hotels in the village for prices before long.) We have, though, put down a deposit on a trip for early 2020 when we will be taking a train trip – you know how I am with train journeys. This one will be to Vancouver, via London. The train actually starts in Toronto, but we will fit in a couple of days either side in the yUK (if we are allowed in, being displaced migrants from that country with no rights to vote in it and so on, but let’s not get into all that so early in the year). Which means, plenty to look forward to, including the falling apart of the yUK, and that’s without the friends and family who will be returning for their Symi holidays and trips in the summer.

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Symi Christmas week

Pour yourself a sherry as this is a long post.
I’m shutting down for a week, as in, there may not be any posts here for a few days. I will see what mood I am in, but if you don’t hear from me here for a while, it’s because I’m having some time off, waiting for the cold water to trickle out of the tap, or still trying to get out of the house.

That was a joke. The guys have been getting on with the road really quickly and well, and strangely, with minimal noise, something of an achievement as they have to drill up the stones, pile them, level the ground beneath, replace the stones and cement around them, then scuff them down to make them less slippery and add some kind of grouting. Not much further to go. I imagine many residents are wondering if they will put the work on hold for a few days so the rubbish can be cleared from the collection points along the lane like they did before. The stray cats are no doubt loving the build-up and we’re lucky it’s not hot.

I’m not one for doing all that nostalgic ‘what a year it’s been’ stuff, but what a year it’s been, and I am talking personally here which I don’t mind doing as it’s only you reading this. Travel has been on the menu. Firstly with a trip to Split in Croatia for our honeymoon and my birthday back in March. That came with a few pre-trip days in Rhodes and was followed by a ‘cruise’ down from Athens on the Blue Star, something which I would be happy to do every other week just for the fun of it. In the early summer, I went back up the ferry route to Athens for a few days to collect a screenplay award at the London Greek Film Festival for ‘Girl Gone Greek’ with Rebecca Hall where I rather fell for the area of Thiseio, in Athens. I returned there in November to meet Neil who had been to see family in Vienna and Scotland, and another cruise back on the boat followed.

I’ve also released a few novels under my pen name, The Eastling under my real name, wrote a speech for a dear friend of mine to make when receiving his honorary doctorate in the arts and spent some time in London and Kent to meet an old school friend after 37 years. While I was there, I revisited my birthplace and caught up with other school friends still in the area and had a bit of a nostalgia event – plus my first ever cancelled flight event (sympathy to those currently stuck at Gatwick and elsewhere). If you followed that story and the compensation chase that followed, you’ll be as thrilled as me to learn that I received £50.00 from Easy Jet to compensate me for the £400.00 I’d spent on flights, pre-booked hotels, emergency hotels, feeding and taxis. Before you bombard me with helpful messages about entitlement, I’ve been through all of that several times with three different ‘we can do it for you’ companies and the airline itself all to no avail – apart from £50.00.

I didn’t mind. I was travelling and that’s the important thing. To travel is to experience adventure and difficult travel is a way to test yourself. We have only one travel plan for 2019, a wedding in Scotland in November, but who knows what might pop up in the meantime. This year, I also took up a private pension plan and took it early, and this has benefited me in various ways. Apart from having the rent and bills now covered with the income, it keeps me in the Greek tax system and, if necessary, I can prove I have a regular income. Not only that, but my investment is now out of the yUK and safely in Europe. (You might guess where I am heading with this.) I’ve also ensured my residency card is in order, my bank account profile is up to date, I have private health insurance and take no money from the state, and I am working on changing my driving license to a Greek one, or I will be in the new year. Yes, I’m heading towards mentioning the hideous Brexit fiasco that has forced me to refer to my home country as the yUK, rather than the UK.

I don’t mean the people I know or the scenery, there’s nothing yuk about them, but the state of the ‘union’ is now in peril, and the country has no idea where it’s going or what it’s doing. Actuality, not the country, but the politicians ‘in charge’ and on all sides. I’m not one for predictions, but I do reckon that woman will get what she wants as she always slimes her way out of things, and the yUK will become even more of a laughing stock and a difficult place to live. The worst things about all of this, in no particular order, are that: a) no-one knew what they were voting for, b) no-one researched what it would mean, c) the far right have seen it as a chance to get a foot in, c) future generations will not have the opportunities we currently have, d) everything else. But the worse thing is simply that no-one knows what will happen and if people were aware of the consequences before the cowardly referendum was called, they might have voted with knowledge rather than hatred. Whatever happens, we’ve done all we can to secure our security here, so hopefully, the Symi Dream blog will continue past March next year.

Enough of that. Back to the nice stuff. The office planning is underway, and the furniture has been ordered, the carpet may be here this weekend if not after Christmas, and I am on target to start my ‘renovations’ early in the New Year. There will be photos. I’ve booked flights for mother to visit next September and there’s a surprise trip in the planning for 2020 – though original plans have changed.

Okay, so as I write we have only a trickle of cold water in the house and no hot, so we’re doing the washing and taking showers in a house near The Olive Tree (with permission), but Symi Property Services are on the case. We nearly have a new road outside the front gate and Kevin’s on the case regards the fig tree which has breached the sterna which won’t be repaired until the summer, if at all… But hey! We’re on Symi, it’s clear and cold, chilled in more ways than one and we have a festive season a few days away and two wonderful godboys to share it with. (And their mum who, as many will know, is Actually Mother Christmas, the superhero.)

On which note, I will wish all my readers a peaceful Christmas if you celebrate it and a happy New Year to all. Check back over the next week, there may be more about our Symi Christmas if I have anything to share, and I’ll definitely be back around New Year to pick up and start a new year with random highlights, cheap publicity for my novels, photos from the phone and other nonsense. Xronia Polla!

And now a few more random images from the year.

If you were wondering about the pen name thing, it’s all niche writing (MM romance) and you will pick up on the author name if you follow my James Collins Author page on Facebook – which it would be good to have you visit, like and share the jingle bells out of.

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