Kalo mina to you.
A random collection of images to look at over the weekend. Actually, not that random. I just looked through the pile and realised I had quite a few images of food, bars or drinks, so that’s today’s theme.
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Here are a few shots of the new look Lefteris kafeneion. It reopened on Wednesday morning, but we came down after lunch ahead of a birthday party at Rainbow. It’s all looking very neat and chic, the service is still as friendly and the atmosphere still the same but it’s all been done up, the outside too.
The other party started at Rainbow at three and went on until around seven when a few of us went to the taverna for dinner. I’ll just put a couple of shots here, so you get an idea. We started outside but moved inside when it started raining. Today, Thursday has started with some cloud, not cold, and so far, dry, though more rain is forecast – more good news for plants, reservoirs and sternas.
Someone has been making themselves at home in our laundry room. He’s there overnight though yesterday he stayed for the morning even though checkout time is usually 5.30 a.m. He’s not our cat, and we don’t want to encourage him, but when it’s pelting down as it was yesterday, then what can you do? He will have to vacate when I need to get to the washing machine though, and, as you can see, there’s a lot to get through.
Outside, apart from the rain, our road is now reopened. I’m not sure if that’s because they needed to clear the rubbish from the bins or because rain stopped play or if that’s all they’re doing, but the mixer and supplies are still in the square, so maybe they will return at some point. The new section looks great, with the old stones re-laid to be neat and safer. The slippery corner still exists, but hopefully, that will be seen to in time.
The fundraiser on Sunday raised €686 for the island’s football team, so that’s great news! The message from Jean was: “I raised 360 Euro, Eilish, Bev & Mary raised 220 Euro, Irene (Czech) and Marilyn (Philippines) raised a further 106 Euro – making a total amount of 686 Euro for the football team.” Excellent!
Lastly today, just a reminder about giving the gift of a good read for Christmas. I noticed Neil is reading ‘The Eastling’, good for him. You can find all my other books from my author page on any Amazon site. All of them are available in Kindle format, free on Kindle Unlimited and can be bought from any Amazon store as paperbacks. Here’s the link to Amazon UK. https://www.amazon.co.uk/James-Collins/e/B005C7HWJI/
The news so far this week is that Lefteris’ Kafeneion in Horio is due to reopen on Wednesday morning at 11.00. They have been working hard on it over long hours, and from what I’ve seen it’s going to look good but still keep its same friendly atmosphere. Meanwhile, we’ve been having rain and cloud though it’s not too cold as yet.
The roadworks continue as Ote upgrade lines, and the electricity company lay new cables. I did hear that all future cables will be put underground where possible, not an easy task with so many houses and lanes, stonework and non-tarmac roads, but it will be an interesting thing to follow. The road outside our house is coming on slowly. The guys told me the other day that they are going all the way up to the tarmac just past our house, so I expect another couple of weeks to go. I think, right now, it’s a case of rain stopped play so it could take longer if the wet weather persists.
I’ve also added a couple of photos of Agios Athanasios, one of the village parish churches which has been under renovations for the past few years. It looks to be finished now and includes a new restoration of the old icon over the south entrance. So, it’s all go in the village with building and repairing and getting on with winter work. I’m just glad that Sam painted our flat roof as we’ve not had water dripping into the bathroom since and the rain has been heavy at times.
It’s Monday morning as I write, we’ve had a glorious sunrise made so because of the cloud rolling in from the south. and around eight o’clock, it started drizzling. According to reports, this is going to continue for a few days and become a little worse. Good news for the plants and the sterna, not such good news for those of us looking forward to walks up the hill. It’s too drizzling and cold (well, 14 degrees) for me, though diehards might make the effort.
An event was organised for Sunday which was a dry day, luckily. The event was an international street party with tables set up offering food and wears from islanders from several different counties. These included Australia, Greece, Colombia, South Africa, England, Scotland and the Czech Republic. Symi is clearly international. I was keen to try one of the Colombian dishes out of interest and because money raised there was for the music school. Other funds were being raised for the Symi football team. What I hadn’t expected was to be given a massive plate for my donation, and it wasn’t until halfway through that Neil reminded me we were having lunch at Yiannis’ house an hour later. I managed (both).
The event was well attended. The Mayor and the Dimos gave wine and souvlaki which the mayor cooked on the barbeque. Lefteris’ kafeneion supplied the beer, and the whole thing went off swimmingly, though not literally, luckily. I’m not sure how much was raised but will let you know when I find out.
Afterwards, we headed up to upper Horio for lunch with Yiannis and feasted again, and then, after an hour off at home, popped out for a glass at Rainbow where we had been on Saturday night. Saturday was to watch a football match, and we wore our new AEK tops. Not the official strip (I’m not that much into the game) but sweatshirts with the team logo and colours which went down well. Sadly, it didn’t help the team who lost 2-1 to someone, but it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. And so, on with the rest of Monday which, so far, promises to be a ‘staying in and keeping warm’ day with plenty of hours ahead to think about a new book to write.
