All posts by James Collins

Day to day on Symi

Symi 85600

Last night, had a brilliant idea of what to write about this morning, and now I’ve forgotten what that was. So, instead, let me tell you this…

Recently, there has been a lot of interest in ‘Symi 85600’. I’ve had emails from people asking where they can find it, or is there a follow-up, and such like, so I thought I’d have a quick chat about it here.

First of all, the blurb reads thus:

A collection of writings that present an honest and often humorous account of two Ex-pat’s experiences of living on Symi, a small Greek island. This book also contains extracts from the symi dream website and the complete guide ‘How to move to a Greek island or other place in the sun.’

“Even if you are not thinking of moving abroad, this little collection will entertain and inform.”

Taking that apart, the collection of writings refers to various emails, letters, diaries and other notes I made during the first five years of living here, so the thing starts with us arriving on Symi. There are some extracts from this website, but from its very early days, and those pieces have otherwise gone into the great nowhere where old website pages go. The ‘how to move to a Greek island’ part is still relevant in places, but as it was written over 20 years ago, things have changed and moved on a little.

Because I, too, have moved on a little (certainly in terms of proofreading and style), I was going to do a re-edit and update of the book, get my cover designer to do me a better cover, but I now cannot find the original MS, so I have no text to work with. There’s no way I am going to copy it all out again, so we’re left with what’s there. I suppose that makes every copy a first edition.

You can read a sample of Symi 85600 on the Amazon page, and here is the universal link that should take you to your local Amazon store. https://mybook.to/symi85600

Symi 85600 covers our first five naïve years of living here, but there are then three more books which cover the years from 2007 to 2017. These are also articles written for the Symi Visitor, the website, and other places, and the order runs thus: Carry on up the Kali Strata, Village View, Symi Stuff & Nonsense. You can find them all on my Amazon page. https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/James-Collins/author/B005C7HWJI

All are available in Kindle, Paperback and Kindle Unlimited.

And finally, to answer the most popular question on this subject, “What does the 85600 mean?”

It’s the postcode.

Symi 85600

Day to day on Symi

Not Done Yet

I woke up slightly late this morning, and the first thing I had to do? Waterworks, obviously. Not mine, the ones on the bathroom roof. Long story, but I had to reattach the mains feed pipe because, late last night, we heard a strange sound coming from the bathroom, and traced it to the water tank, which was, at nine at night, taking in water. However, the join had sprung a small leak, but I wasn’t fiddling around with spanners at that time of night, so we turned it off (the tank was miraculously full), and I have just seen to it. I now know enough about plumbing to confidently wield two adjustable spanners at the same time, and I understand the use of the mysterious white tape, which seems to fix everything. I hope. The mains is due to come back on soon, so I will see if I have fixed the drip. If not, Laki is coming on Saturday to give me a price for some odd jobs, and I’ll ask him to do it properly. Anyway…

The second job of the day is to tell you where you can find my books. This is in response to an email I just had in, which I will reply to in a moment. Basically, the books are over there on the left where it says ‘order online now’, but you can find all of them on Amazon (Kindle, paperback and KU) if you follow this link: James Collins Symi Books.

That’s the Amazon UK author page; you can substitute the .co.uk for .com and find the USA one, and they are also available from other countries’ Amazon stores.

The third job of the day is to remind you about the unique Symi calendar that you can only order from Lulu.com. This link, Symi Dream Calendar will take you there. As the blurb says, The Symi Dream Calendar 2026 This exclusive Symi calendar gives you 12 photos of Symi, an island in the Dodecanese, Greece. Includes views of Yialos, Pedi, Nimborio, Ag. Vasilis, Horio and Panormitis.

Let’s go by bus.

We’ve had a fabulously wet couple of days, the plants are thriving, the courtyard is a mess of fallen leaves and some flowers, and will be swept when dry, and Neil is traipsing down to Yialos this morning to get me some tablets and collect something from ACS while I battle on with the next story. The square and village were fairly busy yesterday afternoon and early evening, which is good to see, and there are still several day trip boats coming in every day, so the season’s not done yet.

Day to day on Symi

Water, Water Everywhere

This great lump of raincloud has just dumped on us, and intends to return throughout the day, so I doubt there will be much beaching today.

I have to go out at midday, which, apparently, will be pretty wet too, but it’s only around the corner, and I have Neil’s flippers, or fins as they call them in the diving world. I’ve never been any good with a snorkel, so I’ll have to use the tank when I get to the Kali Strata and have to ford it to the other side. It’ll be a fun trip, but after it, I think I will probably stay home with some afternoon TV and a mug of Horlicks. At least, I would if I had any. It definitely feels like winter is on its way. Not the cold part of winter, that comes later, but the autumnal, wet part of it. Here’s my view at 07.00 this morning.

Still, I have more editing to do, it’s not cold, we have tea bags, and all is right with the world. We even have water, after Neil managed to hand pump the mains flow into the tank, a job which took him about an hour before the pressure built enough to allow a trickle, which eventually filled the thing. Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink, a classic line from Coleridge’s poem, the Rind of the Ancient Marmalade. Which reminds me, I might have breakfast today.

Day to day on Symi

Sunrises

You’ll be pleased to hear I am wearing trousers. I mention this because Saturday was the first day since May that I put any on. The shorts are consigned to storage for the winter, I’m having to go through the trauma of wearing socks and tying shoelaces instead of sandals, and I have a hoodie lying about somewhere. We are also planning to put the duvet back on the bed today. It’s not gone horribly cold or anything; it just feels it after that sweltering July and that September-like August. We’ve had rain too, and there’s more to come (Tuesday and Wednesday look to be a bit rough), but the clouds make for some spectacular sunrises. Here is one of the golden variety…

Summer now seems to have flown by, as the season always does, though it’s not over yet. We still have visitors to come, some arriving today, and everywhere is currently open. I counted five large day boats yesterday, and there were more on the side of the harbour I can’t see from my perch, so day trippers are still visiting, and there are plenty of sailors leaving their yachts and going in search of beer. As far as I know, the boat schedules haven’t yet changed, the taxi boats are running, and the beaches are open – maybe only for another week, as things tend to start winding down in mid-October, but with the weather now doing its own thing, who knows? The season may start to lengthen.

Ah, right, enough waffle, here’s one of the pink variety of sunrises we get now and then. The effect only lasts a few minutes, so it’s a case of right time right place, or just being up and about before dawn (who I believe gets up very early). I’ll leave you with that and will Carry on Editing — as the comedy film was never called.

Day to day on Symi

Wet and Wellness

Looks like we’re finishing off the week with rain. It’s still dark outside. I was woken at 5.20 by thunder, which has now stopped, but it’s certainly been raining. According to the Poseidon forecast, it’s going to hang around all day, but not be too severe. We shall see.

I had a fun day yesterday. Excuse the old person talk, but one of the reasons I’ve not done much walking of late is due to a bad hip. I had the osteopath click it all back into the right place back in February, but it’s currently playing up again. Basically, some nerve or other gets compressed and sends a hot pain through my left leg, making walking or standing up for any length of time a pain in the arras. Yesterday, I had to go to the dentist for which meant a walk down the steps, putting a brave face on things, and thankfully, lying down for a short while. I wasn’t in the best frame of mind afterwards, what with the lanes blocked by tour parties, the road blocked by bemused sheep, and lots of nice people wanting to say hello. Head down, no time or inclination for photos, ignore the bars in case you catch someone’s eye, straight towards the bus, and even better, because I was early, a taxi.

Anyway, got home fine and a couple of hours later, managed a pot noodle. Not had one for years. I’d forgotten how terrible they are, but at least it was edible. It’s funny, isn’t it? I’ve decided that no-one over the age of fifty can sit at a café table with anyone for longer than five minutes without mentioning ailments. I must hear something every day. ‘How are you?’ ‘Don’t ask…’ and off we go into a round of these hurts, and that needs seeing to, and I’d just got over that when this started, ‘Mustn’t grumble’ means there’s something to grumble about, ‘and on top of it all, I’ve now got to have my ears syringed.’ (Not me, my imaginary table companion.) I mean, do we all think that our ailments, of great interest to ourselves, are going to be of any kind of interest to others? Only if those others are the competitive sort, perhaps. ‘Oh, I had that…’ ‘Nothing to worry about, what you should do is…’ (It’s worse when they start comparing treatments and offering remedies.) We all do it, and maybe it helps, I don’t know. Maybe there’s nothing else to talk about around here, apart from rain and pain.

Whatever, I have a draft to finish this weekend, so I am getting on with that. Have a fun one. Oh, below is a small gallery of ‘Symi in rainy weather’ images, and beneath that, should be a video of the Kali Strata (outside our old shop) taken one evening when it was, er, raining slightly.