Winter in Symi?

Yes, I know it’s in the low 30s here today and August, but now might be the time to start thinking about your winter, and where better to spend it in than Symi? There is a list of question that you’ll want to ask, and I will get to some in a moment, but the reason I am mentioning this is because a friend has a house-sitting place available for two or three months over the winter period. It’s not a job, it’s simply looking after the house by being in it, keeping it running and so on. The house is in Nimborio, so perfectly quiet, and if you’re genuinely interested, email me (address right down at the bottom of the page), and I’ll send your message along to the home owner. The dates are to be finalised, but we’re looking at the start of December to sometime in February – you can discuss the details if you are interested.

So, questions. Well, the top one is always ‘What’s it like in the Winter?’ and to answer that fully you need to check out my Symi series of books: ‘Symi 85600’, ‘Carry on up the Kali Strata’, and ‘Village View’, all available on Amazon and Kindle. You can find them from my Author page here. But, in brief, it is (or can be) quiet, non-touristy, local, friendly, cold, wet, adventurous, sociable, peaceful and active, with festivals to attend and parties, dinners and so on. It’s what you make it, but don’t expect summer sun.

‘What is there to do?’ Again, the books will give you a better idea but, in another nutshell, walk, swim, read, watch TV, visit some tavernas, there’s kafenion life, there are dance classes and language classes, yoga, pilates, etc., other activities organised the Women’s Association, you can visit friends, invite them to you, write a book, paint paintings, hang out, and do just about everything you can in the summer, apart from jet skiing perhaps. You can also visit other islands.

‘How much money do you need?’ More than I have is the usual answer, but that’s just me. It depends on what you want to do. It’s not expensive to eat ‘like a local’, but, at times, you do have to adjust to using what you find in the shops rather than what you planned. There is no need to spend all day and all budget in the bars, and there is not the temptation of home delivery pizza and the like.

‘What about boats?’ Yes, you do have to be aware that we’re like a sea-locked village that’s not on the train line and has no road connection to the mainland or nearest large town. So, boat timetables become a fascination if you need to get to or from the island – in exactly the same way a bus timetable would if you were in a rural village with no car in any other country. The two days per week Blue Star has been reliable these past few years and will continue to be so, as long as it gets its commission or whatever it needs. There are the Dodekanisos boats, though on a reduced timetable, and all boats are subject to the weather. You get used to it.

I could go on, but I won’t just now. Remember, if you are interested in a few months rent-free in Nimborio from December to January/February and you can commit to it, drop me a line and I will pass your message along. If you need more detail, head to the author page and download or order one of the Symi series of books, you should find them helpful and fun.

By the way, all the photos today were taken in the winter months.

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Have you lost a ring?

Here’s a thing. A wedding band was found recently in the sea at Agia Marina. It would be good to reunite this with its owner. It has two names inscribed inside it and a date. It is written in Greek. If you know who it might belong to, or if it’s yours, please get in touch, and I will pass on your message to the person who currently has it.

Symi is not unknown for having things wash up on its shores. There have been many occasions when messages in bottles have arrived on the island. Quite recently I heard a story of some people who found a bottle at Nimborio. Inside, the message asked for the finder to light a candle at Panormitis. On other occasions, bottles have washed up at Panormitis itself, with messages to the church (and higher). These bottles have come from very far afield, or far a-sea, you might say. It’s amazing how many reach their destination one way or another.

People have also ‘washed up’ on the shores, though usually by boat and on purpose, luckily. Some, such as the refugees, have arrived here having been told they are arriving in Athens, such is/was the way of the unscrupulous people traffickers in Turkey who were last most active in 2015; the situation has quietened on that front in the last year or so.

As I look out of my window, I see more boats arriving with more visitors. Already today (Wednesday) we have had the Blue Star ferry, the Express, the day-trip boats and a few gulets, plus the white sail boats, and ‘gin palaces’ of the rich. We need these visitors and no-one is complaining. No-one complains either when they find a lost wedding ring or a bottle with a message. Here on Symi, the finder will put out messages on social media (and here if they as me) to try and find the owners of the jewellery. Or they will take the message to Panormitis and light a candle as requested, as happened recently. Things also become lost on the island. I once heard the town hall announcer telling us all that Mrs Someone had lost her purse with X amount of money in it and if anyone finds it can they take it to the police station. It was found and returned, fully intact, and another announcement was made to that effect.

If/when you come to Symi, try not to lose anything but feel free to lose yourself in the beauty, tranquility and mystique of the island. It is, after all, easily done.

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Symi, August

August is breaking out all over here on Symi. There have been rumours that the ‘Lucifer’ heatwave that’s been hanging across Europe is heading to Greece, but at the moment the temperature is quite bearable; 32 degrees in the shade in the courtyard at ten in the morning, for example. It has been humid though, which doesn’t help, and I have only been out walking at six the morning before it gets too hot. The forecast on Windfinder tells me we are heading for the same weather for the next few weeks with light winds.

The Symi Festival has been going well, with a concert on Monday night and a dance show on Tuesday, plus the church festivals and name days for Sotiris at the weekend. The taxi boats are heading out, and the day boats coming in packed with visitors. There are sailing boats in the harbour, but maybe not as many as we have seen in the past. But life ticks on by slowly and pleasantly.

Neil has now read ‘Symi, Stuff and Nonsense’ for me to give his valued opinion and has laughed out loud in all the right places. What he has said though, is that perhaps I should remove Symi from the title as there’s not actually that much about life on the island in the book. I think I agree with him. So, the next book, which does have some Symi in it, might end up being called ‘Stuff and Nonsense’, which is mainly what it is about. Travel tales from the past, a diary I kept when we first moved here, and some nonsense posts from this blog that have appeared here over the past several years. I will discuss with my editor at a later date (after the next draft) and see what he thinks. I don’t want to mislead readers into thinking they will be reading a Symi gossip and warts-and-all book of revelations.

And talking of Neil, he took today photos while on an early morning trip down to the harbour the other day.

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Tilos Photos

I was going through my files to see what photos I could share with you today and found some from Tilos. Nothing to do with Symi, but as they were there, I thought I’d use them.

It’s Monday as I write and the water is coming in. We only found the water feed open once last week, and that was on Friday for one hour only, maybe we missed it on the other days. It usually comes in from around eight in the morning and stays on until as late as twelve or one three days per week. At the moment it’s going into our neighbour’s sterna as he needs it more than we do. We share a meter, and although we pay the bill on line, he gives us something towards it when he’s taken some in. You have to be very careful with water on Symi, and other islands, especially at this time of year. Just a note.

Back to Tilos. I’ve not been able to get to Tilos this year, but I went there last year and the year before to have my writing retreat, as I call it. It’s an easy journey from Symi, but you can only go direct on a Friday evening on the Blue Star. It’s possible via Rhodes on other days. I have stayed at two very good places which I chose because they had large dining tables. Why? Because I like to spread things out. I have my notebooks on one side, the laptop in the middle, and papers all around where I can jot things down or look things up. I also place the table facing a window with little view, so there are not too many distractions. The header image at my author blog was taken in Tilos last year, with Paddington looking on.

When on my retreat I fall into a routine. Up early, usually at six, and straight out for a walk around the seafront at Lavidia, where I stay. This clears the head and allows me to plan out what I am working on for that day. Back to the apartment and coffee, and then I settle down to a couple of hours typing, sometimes with a break for breakfast. At the last place I stayed, the chambermaid would come to do the room every day and on the first day, I noticed she came at 10.30, so I upped and went out for a frappe in the square, returning 45 minutes later when she had finished. I then did that every day only to find out she varied her routine and no matter what time I went out and came back, she would just be arriving as I was coming back to work. Never mind, I still managed to get another two hours at the typing before lunch. After that, an afternoon session, usually longer, before finally putting down the pen and keyboard around six.

I managed to get 35,000 words done last year in that one week, which is actually only six days because the travel back is early in the morning on Friday. I also took one afternoon shift off to go for a walk because I thought I should. Last year I worked on ‘The Saddling’ and the year before on ‘Remotely’. This year, as I couldn’t go, it took me a bit longer to write what I was working on, doing it at home with all the home distractions around me. But, I have managed 80,000 words of ‘The Witchling’ and am now on the second draft; this is the follow up to ‘Saddling’ and, at this rate, might be ready before Christmas. We’ll see. I also have ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ on the go, Neil is reading the draft of that as I write. So, look out for the new books later in the year and meanwhile, tell all your friends about those available already (click the links above) and I’ll get back to my typing while you check out these other images from Tilos.

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Varied pieces of news

There are a couple of pieces of news today. First of all, next year’s Symi calendar is now available for everyone who likes to shop early. It will be available for the rest of the year. The thing is, you can only find it n Lulu.com, we don’t have any on Symi as it’s exclusive to Neil’s Lulu.com page which you can find if you follow this link. When you get there, you should see a preview link so you can check if your favourite view of Symi is featured. I notice that the 2017 calendar is still on Neil’s profile page so don’t buy that one by mistake. You can shop by country, and see the price in your own local currency. I took this image from the USA versions.

The second piece of news is that there is an interesting review of the film ‘The 13^th’ on this page, Cult Critic. Also, to one side, you will see that local lad Renos is featured on their monthly magazine cover. Renos was in the film, hence the image, and the local children who took part in the making of the film were given good reviews in this write-up. “You watch ‘The 13TH’, and you can feel the strong influences from modern classics, such as The Conjuring or Insidious, but it is also reminiscent of oldies – The Exorcist or even the all-time classic, Psycho. It is an excellent blend of horror genre, spiritualism and questions of morality.” Click the link to read the full review.

And, in more local news, we had rain on Saturday evening. Well, we had about four drops, so nothing to write home about. Sunday dawned bright and clear again, the temperature is up, and the festival is well under way with name day events, music, book discussions and other cultural happenings.

I will leave you with those pieces of news and wish you a happy week ahead.

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