A couple of weekend sunrise shots to show you today. One taken from the house, and one from further up in the village.

Meanwhile, at night, the Symi Festival continues with more concerts in Yialos, and one later this week in the village square where, on Friday, a young band of Symi musicians will be playing from 21.00 onwards. You can find the festival programme on the town hall website https://www.symi.gr/ — it’s under Current Affairs, but you might need to zoom in to read it (in Greek), or use the QR code to send it to your phone.

I’m sure I had something of interest to tell you this morning, but if I did, it’s now gone. Maybe it was about the festival, maybe not. I know I’ve not done much this weekend except write a blurb for the new book, finish my final edits, discuss the cover with my designer, commission an illustration, and do some publicity via those promos I take part in. There’s one at the bottom of the page for you today; pure romance with lots of bodice ripping and heavy breathing by the looks, but all available in Kindle Unlimited.

So, apart from that, we’re starting the week with no great news from up here. There may be something more exciting along in a day or so because I have to go to the post office to pay my insurance bill – yahoo, such thrills. I have been trying to do it online, but my bank won’t let me for some reason. All other bills, sure, no problem, but this one… And did you know, there’s an insurance tax too? So, if you’re sensible and lucky enough to be able to have private heath care, thereby removing some of the burden from the state, they bung on a 15% tax on the value/cost of your insurance? If you ask me, the government should give us 15% off the cost because I’m not costing them anything. Anyway…

And here’s that promo – have a click and a browse, it costs nothing, and you might find something to put on your kindle or in your beach bag for those lazy days by the sea. Go on, you know you want to.

Share on Facebook

Kalo mina! First of August and it’s 26° at 6.30, probably the coolest it’s been for ages. I may even have to put a shirt on as there’s a breeze, and it doesn’t feel like a hairdryer this time.

As per, there’s not a lot to share as I’ve not been doing much apart from finishing a book and paying bills, or trying to, but we don’t want to start our day on a downer, so let’s finish the week with some photos older and more recent and leave it at that. Neil is working on a Symi Dream calendar for 2026, and there will be more news about that before long, meanwhile, here’s a gallery of a few photos from various parts of the island.

Share on Facebook

Yesterday, a barge arrived, accompanied by a tug, and has ended up over in Petini where there is some major work going on along the quay. Such excitement.

There’s also work taking place at ‘Council Corner’ on the road up, where a treatment plant is being installed. Recently, we’ve had temperatures of 35° at 6.00 in the morning, which is when one of the diggers was starting work on the rocks and ‘road’ around the bottom of the headland, below the new treatment works. This caused some discussion and complaint on social media, and elsewhere, no doubt.

You know, you come on holiday only to be woken at 6.00 by an early start. Can’t be pleasant, not when it’s a repetitive, monotonal hammering from across the bay. Up here in the village, we have the all-night cockerels, the occasional random donkey, and the cat fights, and I can also hear the hammering, dynamite, dumping, crashing, and whatever else work is going on all year round anywhere in the natural amphitheatre below. There’s always something happening. I remember the motorbikes too, during the lockdown period when the island’s macho bikers were bored and so had a competition to see who could be the loudest (or so it seemed) and raced up and down through the village/island at all hours of the night. Until a special police unit came over to sort it out.

Life becomes quiet at three, usually, because, with the temperature higher than it was even at 6.00 in the morning, building work usually stops for safety reasons and many people head home for a siesta. Of course, some, must stay and work through it at the bars, tavernas and shops (our godson is lucky if he has an hour away from the kitchen between four and five pm). Others might head down to the sea to cool off and calm down, and that’s what we can do now with a shot of Pedi one quiet morning last week…

Share on Facebook

“When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is taboo’d by anxiety…” I had one of those nights last night, where you wake up for no reason and can’t get back to sleep. Or it may have been early this morning rather than late last night, but annoyingly, when I was awake and trying to get back to sleep, the thing that prevented me were those lyrics going around in my head. “I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in, without impropriety;” I just looked up the full lyrics and there are a lot of words in there, but I’m not going to read them, or they’ll get stuck in my head too, and then tonight…

Meanwhile… not a great deal to report. Met up with some friends yesterday evening and had a great time. Finished the first draft of the next book yesterday too, and I need to get that sent to my Kindle app so Neil can read it as he always does with my first drafts, poor thing. I still need to find a title then I can start thinking about a cover and set those wheels in motion. While that’s going on, the temperature has been more bearable which generally makes life easier, the harbour is busy during the day, the festival has started and, although I haven’t seen a programme yet, I imagine there is something on somewhere most evenings. The festival usually runs from about now until early September, so if you’re heading this way in August, particularly, you will be able to see and hear a performance of something at some time.

Share on Facebook

It’s certainly cooler this morning that it has been of late. The thing in the courtyard reads 27° and 70% humidity. That’s slightly different from last week when we reached 38° in the afternoon in the courtyard. Other people were posting different readings and I’ve seen numbers from 38 to 45, but it all depends where you put your thermometer I guess. Still, yesterday morning was a clear one…

As we are doing boats, I haven’t been on one for a couple of weeks now. The last time was a quick dash to Rhodes to get some glasses fixed, and I went over on the Panagia, which made for a very relaxing trip as it was a quiet boat. Knowing it was to take around 90 minutes, I took a book to read and settled in the lounge beneath a rather enthusiastic air conditioning unit which chilled me to the bone, so I had to move.

[If you want to read the book or know more about it, click here.]

I was grateful for it on the way back, mind you. After three and a half hours racing around Rhodes on foot, I became the witch from the Wizard of Oz, ‘I’m melting,’ and I sure was. Even more so after, having cooled and dried off on the journey back, I then walked up to the village via the Haritomeni restaurant road, and even with the short cut, it was something of a slog. But that was then, and this is now, and I have no intention of taking a day trip anyway right now. I can’t afford to; I just received my annual health insurance bill. Actually, on seeing how it’s increased, I might need to use it and get some treatment for shock. But that’s another story.

And so to the typowriter where I currently have a few very tiny ants scurrying around between the keys, along with a tiny baby spider, one of those that hops everywhere. I’m hoping they’re cleaning up inside the keyboard and not getting up to mischief.

Talking of which, I’ve been meaning to remind you about a free read over on my other site. If you fancy a read of a short ‘Miss P’ novella, it’s now available for free over there, and if you click this image, you will find the index page where the chapters are linked. After the first one, each chapter is then linked to the next…

Share on Facebook