Brother-in-lore is here. Might get a bit scetchy on the blog for a few days. Keep an eye on the Symi Dream Facebook page for updates about what’s going on on Symi, and I’ll try and put up some photos when I can.
All posts by James Collins
New Boat, New Symi Calendar
New Boat, New Symi Calendar
Two pieces of news for you today to mix in with some random shots from last weekend. First, a reminder that Neil’s exclusive Symi Dream calendar for next year is now on sale, but only via this link. If you go to that page, you can see a preview of the included images, some of the best we’ve seen on any Symi calendar, even though I say so myself. There are images of many of your favourite places around the island. You can also change the currency of the shop when you get there, and make sure you order from your nearest Lulu.com outlet, so the postage is appropriate.
Secondly today, Andy’s Symi Travel Blog has the timetable and details of the new Symi passenger boat that’s starting service this week – 11th July to 9th September. Follow that link to see the timetable which apparently will be for every day of the week. That’s going to be excellent news for people who might otherwise have to stay in Rhodes overnight or leave Symi very early for a later flight. It looks like the Sebeco will be doing:
8.00 depart Symi for Rhodes
10.00 depart Rhodes for Symi
14.30 Symi to Panormitis for an hour, leaving there at 16.00 to come back to Yialos
16.45 Symi to Rhodes
18.30 Rhodes to Symi
So, you will be able to get from here to Rhodes every day at 8.00 and 16.45, and on some days also at 6.45, 7.30, 16.30 and 17.20 on the Blue Star and the Dodekanisos, depending on day – and those times are approximate because I can’t remember the exact times and days of departures, but you can easily look them up. The point being, we’ll be well connected for the summer in this direction. Landing at Rhodes airport after about 17.00 however may still mean a night in Rhodes depending on how quick you can make it to a port for 18.30, or on the afternoon Blue Stars on the days they run. My advice, as always, is to check the boats before you buy a plane ticket, so you know what you are doing.
Pedi and Ποδόσφαιρο
I managed to write another (short) chapter of ‘The Eastling’ on Saturday morning, which brings the first draft word count up to 46,000 and I’m roughly halfway through the story. Afterwards, we set off to walk down to Pedi to have a drink and a chat with a friend who has a house there by the sea. That’s a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours… Watching the world go by (the occasional visitor or local walking towards St Nicholas beech), catching up on news, discussing our writing, books, what’s going on in the world. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the village as Neil had to go to work.
We took the bus up, not wanting to arrive for work sweaty and panting. Here’s another good thing about the ‘Symi City Bus’ to go with the other good things about it: if you’re in Pedi, it will stop for you at the jetty, outside Katsaras and also at the far end where it turns around. You can flag Thanasis or Lakis down just about anywhere on the route, and they will stop and collect you. The fare for any journey is now €1.70, and I’m sure having the correct change is always welcome. The bus will also deliver you to the Blue Star at new jetty at certain times – ask your driver for details.
Back in the village, it was an afternoon at the Rainbow with football (Ποδόσφαιρο – pothosfairo, from the words for foot and ballsup). I don’t have much to say on that score, except all this ‘football’s coming home’ claptrap is already doing my head in. If football were going home it would be returning to China, ancient Greece, Central America or Rome, all of which claim to have invented or played the game over 2,000 years ago. Okay, so England is credited with being the first to record rules, rules which players seem to have taken to heart these days. Example: Rule 03.12a, from the 1867 ‘Book of Etiquette and Established Procedures for the Fair Playing of the Diversion of Football’ states: “When approached by an opposing player to within a distance of no closer than two feet, a player shall – on the instant of the approach – fall to the grass in such throws of agony as to warrant his removal from the field under the pressure of complaint.” Or, in other words, behave like a five-year-old diva because someone touched his ear.
But, many people enjoyed watching the debacle inside and outside Lefteris’ kafeneion, and Rainbow, and in many other places too, no doubt. There was a good atmosphere as young and old worked themselves up into a frenzy of disbelief that England managed to win another game. And there’s something else: all I see and hear is ‘England won’t get through,’ and ‘They’re rubbish’, and then I see posts where everyone’s taking a shot at their national team and making jokes about how they’re going to lose… Apart from such supporters not exactly being supportive, they’re also hypocritical because, as soon as the team do win a match, everyone goes mad and says, ‘Yes! Good old England!’ ‘Knew they’d do it,’ ‘Go the lads,’ and ‘Football’s coming home — despite the fact we’ve been telling them they’re crap since the thing started.’ Makes no sense to me. I’d rather misquote John Betjeman: “Come friendly bombs and fall on football,” but that’s just me. And, I must admit, I also enjoyed my afternoon, with my back to the television, chatting away, watching other people also having fun.
Ah well. On with the week that will be.
Sunny Saturday Photos
Sunny Saturday Photos
Here are your weekend snaps taken in the sunshine, you might even say heat, over the last few days. Have a good weekend and enjoy the photos.
Questions
Questions
Just trying to answer some of life’s more difficult questions today, such as, how did a quick meet at the Rainbow in the late afternoon stretch to ten pm? Ah, because friends arrived we’d not seen for four years, so that’s easily explainable. Then there’s the one: how come I wrestled with the Italian lady in my phone for hours and yet it took Panormitis two minutes to silence her and all other voices, PIN me in, set me up and hand it back? Ah, because he knows what he is doing, so that’s explained too.
Then there’s the, how did the temperature go from reasonably mild to incredibly hot overnight? And that will be because it always happens around this time of year. There’s usually one day of the summer when someone leans on the thermostat, and we’re hitting the high 30s and low 40s before you can say, ‘Hot, isn’t…?’ That thought led me to wonder if anyone has designed clothes that keep you cool, you know, like the opposite of cold weather gear? I don’t mean light cotton or nudity but a shirt, shorts or a suit, dress, whatever, made from a material that actually cools the skin. They probably have. I’ll have to have a look.
Other questions were knocking about inside my head this morning such as, why on earth do I wake up with two recitative lines from Phantom of the Opera in my head after a good night’s sleep? I mean, not even one of the more tuneful parts. And then a fairly serious one: who on earth can I vote for?
You see, after living away from B (that’s Britain, I simply can’t put ‘great’ in front of it anymore) for fifteen years I am no longer eligible to vote in British elections – not just me, but any citizen who has decided to live a better life elsewhere. That time has now passed so I can’t vote there which makes me feel kind of stateless. I’m not a Greek citizen, so I can’t vote in the Greek government elections, fair enough but odd. I mean, I have lived in Greece long enough to lose my right to vote in the yUK, but am also stateless in the country I live in. If/when the yUK Government appease the right-wing bigots who voted for Brexit because they believed lies and wanted all refugees to go home, or whatever their favourite ‘newspaper’ told them to think, I assume I will no longer be allowed to vote in European parliamentary elections. I am (sadly) British and will have been ostracized from Euro-democracy by Daily Mail readers et al. Which leaves me with only one vote, one chance to affect democracy, one opportunity every four years to ‘have my say’, and that is the local council election on Symi. I’m assuming we’ll still be able to do that even with a British passport after/if Br***t happens.
Anyway, that’s my world: Symi. It’s the only place where I will have a democratic right to vote (after you-know-what), so it’s all I’m worried about. I think there are elections here this year, so I have that to look forward to. Now, I’m going to potter off and wonder why on earth I wrote this. Ah, questions, questions…