Quick post

I didn’t intend to go to watch the cup final on Sunday, but Yiannis asked Neil to come to work in case he was needed. He was, for a while. There was a crowd outside Lefteris kafeneion and a crowd inside the Rainbow Bar. One café has the TV outside, and the other has two of them inside. It was a good atmosphere with supporters of both teams together cheering their own and the opposition teams in appropriate places. Shame Croatia didn’t win. I’m not really bothered by the whole thing, but we were there in March and liked the place and people. Ah well, they did very well.

I’m not stopping long today, it’s rent day, so I have to fly to the bank and then get back to carry on with my next book. So, a couple of random photos will have to do.

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Sweeping Into The Wind

(I always thought that would be a good book title.)

I have a quieter week planned this week, but as you know, plans don’t always last for long around here. We were planning to have a farewell lunch in Yialos on Saturday, to see off Neil’s visiting brother, but that didn’t happen on account of said brother not visiting home until after 5.30 in the morning. That followed a successful (for him) night out at a drinks party on Friday night, then an evening of music at The Secret Garden, followed, so legend has it, by more drinks at The Jean & Tonic bar. He had just come home as I was getting up to start my day.

So, instead, I had a day at home to do some reading, and think about sweeping the courtyard. There was no point. It’s been windy of late, with the wind up to four or five on the Beaufort scale, and that’s blown off all the dead and dying leaves from the vine. I’ve got a potential bag full swirling around the courtyard and slowly finding their way into the house. I have set about sweeping up in the wind before, but it’s a bit pointless, like herding cats, as they say. It’s Sunday morning at the moment so I may have another go. The wind is still about but in less frequent gusts. It’s all nice and calm for a while, so the windows are open and the doors and a gentle breeze is… And then a sudden burst of enthusiasm from Boreas, Eurus or Apartcias, or whoever, and there’s a great slamming of doors and rattling of shutters, the paper light shades swing overhead, canvases fly from the walls and, although the wind is blowing through the house and out into the courtyard, the dead vine leaves somehow blow against it and into the hall.

As far as I know, the wind hasn’t affected the shipping, though some boats don’t run if there’s too big a swell. I’ve seen the larger ferries running in a force seven, and we’re nowhere near that – and there are no predictions of that in the forecasts. So, if you’re heading Symi-wards this week, you should have nothing to worry about. I’m heading in the opposite direction in two weeks, and I’ve printed my boarding passes. I’m running out of ink, so I hope EasyJet don’t mind that my boarding pass is puce rather than orange, and Jet2 are happy with pink rather than red. I reckon some of these companies are in cahoots with Hewlett Packard who make my printer. “Here, HP, we’ll do a deal with you to have our boarding passes plastered with unnecessary red ink if you give us back 50p on the pound for…” Or whatever. I mean, these swathes of blood red on a jet2 boarding pass, apart from being overly dramatic and not the most settling of colours, are completely unnecessary, and we the customer pay for our own printing now, so a simple black and white would do. (Could someone drop them a line for me and let them know? Ta.)

And off into the week I go. Well, I will tomorrow as it’s Sunday now, early, the soldiers haven’t yet sung the national anthem at the war memorial which they do at 8:00 every Sunday. Gosh, I am about my tasks early. Which means I’ve got plenty of time today to go and chase leaves around a courtyard.

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That was the week

It’s only Friday as I write, and it’s early in the day, but I’m making the most of the time as we’re going out later. Neil’s brother has been here all week, as I am sure anyone on Symi would have noticed. We’re planning a late morning and a lunch in Yialos later today, followed by a walk up the steps, maybe some time at the bar, and then we have a party to attend in the early evening. Neil has some friends coming from Rhodes too so it could be a busy day, one that requires pacing.

I’ve not done much work on ‘The Eastling’ this week, in fact, I’ve not done very much at all, apart from: lunch on Monday to welcome brother-in-law, a birthday party on the Poseidon on Tuesday evening, watch the football match on Wednesday so I could make inappropriate comments for two hours, and now Friday with another lunch and a party. It’s that time of year where all good intentions are hard to keep; I’ve even had an ice cream.

Meanwhile, the new Symi ferry ran into problems before it could really get started on its itinerary. I heard that they hoped to have it back on track this weekend. Keep an eye on Andy’s Symi Travel blog for details – the link is over there on the right. While you’re there, you will also see a link to Neil’s next year Symi calendar, and some of my more popular books, including the Symi quartet, if you’ve not already indulged.

I am also preparing for my holiday. I’m off on 28^th to the yUK for about ten days. Neil’s staying here as he has to work, but there won’t be a blog during that time. I have all kinds of traveling to do; Symi to Rhodes, docks to airport, flight to Gatwick, night in a hotel there, train to Brighton (on a Sunday, let’s hope it’s all working), train to London for a reunion with old school friend after 37 years, night there, train to Brighton, optician’s appointment, drive to Romney Marsh, lunch, walk, visit ‘Saddling’, three nights in New Romney. Dinner with friends we know from Symi (will be odd but fun seeing Symi folk ‘in the wild’ as it were and in my hometown), visit to old school deputy headmaster, brother, another old school chum on the marsh for a lunch, visit old houses I used to live in, pay respects at churchyard, visit to see nephew in Folkestone and another Sunday train to Stanstead, flight, taxi, hotel in Rhodes, boat and back to Symi on 6^th August. There, now you know what I’ll be up to, but not for a couple of weeks yet, so, I’m taking my camera with me when we go out later and will get more of the same old same old photos to use on the blog next week. Have a good weekend.

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Recent photos

Great atmosphere in the square on Wednesday night with both bars busy. There were some disgruntled faces afterwards, but that’s always going to happen. As I’d been to Croatia earlier this year and loved the place, I wasn’t worried who won or lost, and that’s the last to be said on that matter. Today, I’m just putting up a few random photos to keep you amused.

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Poseidon by night

I didn’t take many photos in the end, but last night (Tuesday) we were invited onto the Poseidon by Pat and Hazel to celebrate their birthdays. What can you say? Yiannis and his team are the perfect hosts, not only working an extra trip after their gruelling all-day work but remaining charming, professional, friendly and serving up a delicious buffet.

On this trip, we went to Taviri, the landing stage/bay at Nimos where Neil and I had our CP last year. There was a gulet boat in which moved its ropes for us and waved, and then the passengers spent the evening watching football. Our party was more of a party, with dancing, chatting, fun, food and, afterwards, a trip home in darkness so we could all ooh and ah at the display of stars and the Milky Way. [Note, must learn more constellations other than the usual three.]

We passed the new ANES boat which had just come in announcing its arrival with a blast of its horn, replied to by other boats doing the same. The last taxi boat of the day came back in at 18.30, but their work doesn’t stop there. There are then a good couple of hours of cleaning and tidying before the crew can go home, making their working day around 12 hours, I guess. The Poseidon crew must have worked at least 16 or 17, from preparing the boat in the morning to cleaning it up again at night – not that we left a mess, but getting all the salt off and that kind of maritime thing.

I have a bit more time to write today as the booze brothers are in the other room and are going out for the morning and probably the afternoon. We’re meeting up again this afternoon to prepare to go and watch some football match. I am only going for the atmosphere, and because Croatia are playing, and everyone I met there in March was so lovely I want to support them, but don’t tell the English or they’ll call me a traitor and take away my right to vote. Oh, they’ve already done that. Anyway…

Meanwhile… I’m wrestling with two pension companies to try and get my private arrangements sorted and paid and have to go and research a ‘protection certificate’ or something I think I don’t need, but best be sure. So, I’ll head off now and by the time you read this, people will either excitedly be ‘singing’ “Football’s coming home” or singing “England’s coming home” in a manner that suggests “Now shut the eff up about it, you lost, get over it.” Either way, I wish they’d stop doing it.

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