Sunday morning zoom
Never be afraid to ask, that’s the moto of the day. Here are two examples where it didn’t hurt to ask. First of all: when trying to get home after a late, long, lovely, lush and other L-word lunch in Harani and finding no taxi available and no bus for nearly an hour, don’t be afraid to stick your thumb out and flag down a passing car. ‘Can you give us a lift?’ ‘Certainly, hop in.’ And off you go. It doesn’t always work, but the chances are it will be someone you know and they will be happy to oblige if they can. At least, it works/worked here on Symi.

The other example is: I am/was looking for a new camera as a) mine is an underwater one that’s not so good on zoom, b) it’s a bit old now and c) I have no idea where it went – so I have no camera. (Apart from the two large Nikons and one large Cannon (that has never worked properly) that Neil uses.) So, I asked a friend what his camera was, knowing that I’d seen it in action and it was the kind of thing I was looking for. I asked the make and model so I could look it up with a view to buying one. Turns out, he’s had and upgrade and the old one is available. Not only that but I can borrow it for a test run and see what I think. So, today’s photos are taken from the roof this morning (Sunday) where I was testing out the zoom. I have to say, I am very impressed and I think there will be an offer in the offing soon.

As for the rest of the weekend… We were hanging on, waiting for a huge storm that was promised and that didn’t really arrive, though there have been some very windy moments and some heavy rain. As you can see, Sunday was bright and clear and cold in the morning. The wind, when there is some, is from the north-west and, looking at Windfinder.com, is set to change from NNW to N to NE to ESE to E to WSW to SSW to S… over the next few days. It seems the wind doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going, but it will be getting stronger, and is due to bring more rain during the week. I think we’ve already had more colder and rainier weather than we had last winter; the current air temp of 5 degrees is due to warm up during the week to a heady 13 or 14 by next weekend; that’ll be the cloud cover helping, I guess.

That’s the weather for the week ahead. The diary contains only a little piano playing, a games afternoon/evening, moving house (not us) and a lot of the usual typing. Neil is working hard on his course, I am pottering about with books, there are 101 household things to be done and maybe, if I can get into the mood, some walking. The aerobics classes also start again today (if you’re local, see Dawn for details) though they are not for me, and the children are back at school now for the long term and run up to Easter. That’ll be on us before we know with carnival and Clean Monday and all that comes with it.

But I am getting ahead of myself, so I will go back, post this blog and then check out what jobs I need to be doing today: Shopping, putting the clothes away, getting some washing dry between the rain, sweeping up the last of the vine leaves from the courtyard (must cut it back soon) and picking up leftover Christmas tinsel that seems to get everywhere and that is usually hanging around in unexpected places until summer. Have a good week.

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One way up the Kali Strata
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, they say, and I have to wonder who those nasty people are who discovered this fact. But, putting that aside, there’s also more than one way to climb from Yialos to Horio, on Symi. They all involve steps and I’ve mentioned a few of them before on the blog, but here’s another way that many of you will already know. If you do, share this post with others who may not.

When we lived high up in the village, and worked down in Yialos, I would set of to work first, as I started an hour before Neil did. This went on, day after day, every day for seven months and so, rather than head through the main village path and down the main Kali Strata, I would often go via this route (coming along in a moment) so that my journey to work would be varied, and also offer me great views – just to remind me why I was doing this commute every day, seven days a week, for seven months. It’s the route past the high school down the slope and via what are known as ‘the lazy steps.’ Wrongly known, I am told, because the ‘lazy steps’ were further along the harbour and so called because that’s where non-workers would go to rest out of the sun, or something.

People think they are called this as they are easier. Here’s a tip: there is no easy way to walk up from the harbour to the village. I find the main road is the gentlest slope, though the path does give you some foot massage due to its pointed paving rocks, and I find the main steps are the easiest for shade and pausing places, but the way they zigzag does take you across and to the left and then back to the right again, so it’s not the most direct. Here’s another way of coming up and it is the way I used to head down, in reverse. (It’s also not direct.)

Pass the taxi rank and Pandalis restaurant and the bus stop, and then you will see the slope heading up where the Sea Dreams day boat comes in. This is the start of the non-lazy ‘lazy steps’ and it’s a slope to start with. It zigzags a couple of times before you then have a choice of turning right to the main Kali Strata or heading up a steep set of steps towards the school. These come with a handrail, which is, well, handy. Head up there and turn right. Here’s another tip: the first step here is very high on the right, but there’s a helping-foot step on the left which makes it easier to hoist your leg up and plonk it down, usually accompanied by a big sigh, and then, as they say, you carry on carrying on up.

You will pass the Women’s Association building and then the high school, with the bins on one side. (You also pass the small car park area through which you can walk to find the road to Haritomeni Taverna overlooking the harbour.) Carry on up the slope past the school and you reach what is still known as the Kali Strata Bar corner, or viewpoint – though the bar has now gone. Here you can join the main Kali Strata and take the final ascent on the north face, or you can turn left and head up to the ‘main’ road and then double back. Once you’re up those steps you are, strangely, heading downhill which by then is a relief. This road will take you past the Windmill Restaurant and the hotels and bring you out at Georgio’s Taverna, which is where the other, north face, route will also bring you.

From there it’s only a few more steps to the village square where you are home and dry, or home and wet by that point if it’s the summer. Like I said, there are loads of other ways to get up to the village and the easiest way is to take a taxi or a bus. We’d missed both on Wednesday after stopping for a beer at Pacho’s and chatting to Hugo, but we did get a lunch invitation out of it and the exercise did someone some good I am sure.

So, next time on Symi, try the non-lazy, lazy steps as it’s just one way up the Kali Strata.

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Early morning activity
I shouldn’t ask this but, what happened to the storm we were expecting last night? I heard some rain for a short time during the evening and a bit of wind, but that was it. Unless I missed it during the night. Or unless it comes in today, or later tonight. I should keep quiet I guess don’t want to tempt fate.

This is one of those days when I can’t stay long. I didn’t get around to preparing anything interesting or amusing yesterday, so I am up and at it early today, posting a few words and pictures and then heading off to work. I heard the new alarm clock start playing its music at 6.30 (the same two bars of music as it plays every morning, I thought it was supposed to select a new song each day), and leapt out of bed, worried that my early readers would have no blog post to read. It took me 20 minutes to get to the keyboard: Finding clothes in the dark, letting the noisy cat in, feeding him, then getting dressed in the kitchen, putting the kettle on, finding the heater in the living room, taking it to the office, plugging back in all the things unplugged the night before in case we had a storm, changing clothes and putting on the right ones, starting up the computers and heater, making coffee…

So, I’m finally here and it’s time to go. In a moment. The photos are from yesterday when we went into Yialos to check the post office and for Neil to send off his Ancestry DNA sample -there’s a story there which I will get to another day. I’m rushing this morning as we have a lunch invitation for later (sounds very grand) and I’ve a lot to do before heading out again. I’ve not actually looked outside yet, but I can’t hear any bad weather; perhaps it will throw it down on me just as we are leaving for Harani later this morning. Hope not.

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Chit chat
More photos today of walking on the hillside the other day. We were going to go out on Tuesday but rain stopped play. In fact, it was a day for keeping the shutters shut, the internet unplugged (as there was thunder about) and for staying inside keeping warm. Yesterday was not so bad and I opened my office shutters for the first time in a few weeks, giving me the view of the sea, grey with clouds hanging above it, and the harbour where I can just see a cargo ship moored up on the other side. I must go down there soon – to the lonely sea and the sky – and I’d take more photos but I’ve put my camera down somewhere and now can’t find it. Ah well, age…

We’re still celebrating over here, not Christmas and so on, but the award for being one of the top 25 blogs about island life on the net. (Seems a bit of a small category, but actually it’s not, I just checked. There are hundreds of blogs about there about people living on islands.)

Talking of islands… The island, Symi, will be celebrating Epiphany on Friday, 6^th January, the official end to Christmas, I believe. This will be celebrated throughout Greece with church services and the diving for the cross in the cold waters, as the boats and seas are blessed. Check out previous posts about ‘Epiphany Symi’ on Google, or on our Symi Dream, search box. It’s in the right-hand column with all your other useful links. BTW. The links to the 2017 calendars will soon be going, so if you’re short of one, click through now before they do.

Here’s an aside: A friend of mine contacted me to ask about how to book tickets for the Blue Star ferries. She had been trying but was unable to find cabins to book. I thought this was odd so I looked online and sure enough, there’s no trouble and their schedule is up for well into this year. It turned out she was using a Blue Star app on her phone so, if you have the same trouble, try looking online on a PC, as that’s what I did. Just thought I’d mention that.

There’s no other great news to tell you. I’m doing that ‘on a diet thing’ (though I am not) where I say I will start on Monday and then when Monday comes say that I mean the next Monday – but I am talking about getting back to the books writing here. I really do mean to start next Monday. At the moment, after lunch and some housework, I am more tempted by the sofa, the heater, the blanket and six series of Downton Abbey (which I have seen before, but…) so I am being very lazy. In that respect.

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Symi blogs in the top 25
Here’s some news for you. Feedspot has announced its list of the top 25 island blogs and websites in the world – these are blogs written by people who live on islands and which are all about island life. There are two Symi blogs listed among the top 25 in the world, Symi Dream and Adriana’s Symi Blog from Symi Visitor. Bravo them/us and well done all the others considered among the top 25 in the world.

You can see the award over there on the right and click through it to find other blogs that were also in the list. It’s great that Symi features twice in one list of 25; let’s hope it brings the island some more publicity and tourism.

Meanwhile, we were out and about on Monday for an afternoon walk to the church at ‘To Vrisi’ along the side of the Pedi valley. It was a peaceful, cold and calm day with blue skies and a little warmth when you were in the sun. We set of after lunch for the stroll which our Fitbits measured at roughly two miles each way, from our house. Up there we met a local chap who runs in marathons doing his daily walk (he also does daily runs of some amazing length). We were also hoping to check out a friend’s new drone, but there was some connectivity problem and, after a long walk and sitting in the shade for a few minutes, it started to feel very cold, so we left them to it. Maybe next time. We filled up our water bottles from the tap while we were there. ‘To Vrisi’ is the nickname for the monastery which has a natural spring and literally means ‘the tap.’ (Real name of the monastery is Zoodochos Pigi Vrisi, the lifegiving spring – or similar.)

It was good to get out of the house again after what feels like weeks of staying in, keeping warm and eating everything in sight. We are planning more short walks as we build up to some longer ones, my legs are not used to the exercise, but there’s the promise of stormy weather ahead for the rest of this week, and especially over the weekend so that may hamper us. It may not happen of course as these things are not always accurate, but I definitely need to get out and about and away from the typing at least three times per week from now on.

The images you see today were taken by Neil as we were walking and there are many more to share with you. Lots of long shots of the Pedi valley now looking green and fertile after some rain – we could still do with more. Plenty of the view across to Turkey and the wind turbines there, the views from the hillside and along the road. Looking at the countryside at this time of year all I see is grey (rocks) and shades of green, sometimes the blue sky, and the brown roofs of the village houses. Up close of course they vary from stone to white to all kinds of blues and yellows and other more ambitious colours. Even in winter there is colour on Symi, perhaps more so than in the summer when the sun bleaches things out, turns the ground to dark red and earthy shades. But the colour of the sea and sky stay the same – only with less grey in the summer.

I won’t go rambling on today but I hope you enjoy the photos from Monday; there will be many more over time of course. Don’t forget to check to the other island blogs who were listed in the top 25 by following the link over in the right-hand column. It’s the gold medallion, the other link is to another of our top listings.

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