Run up to our Symi Christmas
A weekend of preparation for our Symi Christmas has just taken place at our house. Finding the tree and decorations up in the mousanrda, wrestling with the tree base that’s an imaginative piece of 1950s engineering (we bought the thing only a couple of years ago), getting covered in thin strips of silver plastic, finding half the baubles no longer have thread on them to hang with so substituting with paperclips (a handy tip, that one, just make sure the paperclips are a suitable colour and not too prominent), and then wrapping presents to put under the tree.

Meanwhile, the Symi Christmas Fayre continued, with a ‘German Christmas Market’ theme organised by some of the school teachers and their classes, and others, I am told. The boats came and went, including the new Blue Star run on Sunday morning. (I assume: I am writing this before it arrives but it’s showing on the Live Ships map as just leaving Nisyros and heading to Tilos and is due in here after 10.00.) There are two more sailings to Rhodes before Christmas, the usual Wednesday and Friday, and no talk of strikes that I have heard of yet. The weather has been cool and calm, the sea only slightly ruffled by a breeze and the island seems quiet.

Sotiris supermarket has been stocked up with Christmas items and chocolate, there’s fresh veg in the greengrocers, the ‘American’ supermarket has all you could need, from stuffing to five litre boxes of wine, I’ve been seeing news reports telling everyone when there will be fresh sprouts in what shop, and who is going to be bringing in parsnips. You can keep the parsnips but I’ll try a few sprouts – unlike Neil who is no longer allowed to eat them; not since a Christmas dare half way through lunch that resulted in… well, just don’t feed him any sprouts (messy), it’s all I’ll say and I will leave it at that.

And so, it looks like everything is geared up and ready apart from, in my case, the arrival of a few final gifts that were ordered some time ago and were probably held up in the boat strikes of last week/week before. The post office is closed (I am told) on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so the last search for deliveries must be made on other days, unless they have come with one of the couriers. Anything else will have to wait to be presented later (or presented if, to give a present, can be pronounced like that – presented, rather than presented… I know what I mean); New Year’s Day is much more of a local celebration day anyway, being the name day of Saint Vasilis.

As for the rest of this week, for me: I keep telling myself I will do some creative writing over this Christmas period, but then I tell myself that having written two books in the last 18 months, taken my scriptwriting course, and mapped out and almost-first-drafted another book, that I can probably afford to take a couple of weeks off and do some reading instead. I call it legitimised laziness; the writing can wait until early next year, meanwhile I’ll try and act like a normal person and do the housework, watch television, read some books, go for a walk, put the clothes away…

For this week, there’s nothing in the diary as yet apart from: Checking for last minute post, buying in the stock of Christmas ‘ale’ (the once-a-year stuff, you know: sherry, port, Baileys, Alka-Seltzer), vegetable peeling on Christmas Eve and a day with the godboys on Christmas day to look forward to – as always. I hope your run up to the festive weekend goes well – if you celebrate it, if not, I still wish you well. I’ll be around this week with my usual odd posts about… ‘whatever!’ and some photos that don’t really go with anything.

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Symi Saturday photos
Twas the Saturday before Christmas, when all through the house… There was dusting to do, floors to sweep or swifter, mops to be used, surfaces to be cleaned, a courtyard to sweep, a barbeque to put away, cat litter to be changed, clothes to be washed, beds to be made, decorations to disorganise and a tree to be put up. And so Saturday starts with a list of jobs that have needed doing for a while now. Ah well, there is always Sunday.

I’ll leave you for the week with the news that the Symi post office will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, so best get there on other days to collect all my deliveries. I’ll also leave you with a few recent photos from Symi and Rhodes in a collection of Symi Saturday photos. Have a good weekend.

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A few photos from yesterday
A lovely, calm, cold day yesterday had me digging out the thermals. I feel warmer already. Mind you, I do have the heater on right next to me, plus three layers of clothing. But, with no wind this morning, it doesn’t feel as cold as yesterday. Not that we should be complaining about the cold, but we do; no central heating, no carpets, the occasional gap at window and door, high roof, stone walls, no insulation… all perfect for summer, but it’s always a shock when the first real cold of the winter kicks in as it has over the last couple of days.

But enough of that! As you can see from today’s few photos, it was a lovely day all the same. There’s a children’s fairground set up in the town square, the children are preparing for Christmas school plays and church events – there was a priest and his group of children and parents rehearsing in Mandeio’s yesterday afternoon when we popped down there for a social hour or two. We were serenaded by a small choir rehearsing their chanting/singing and it was very pleasant.

Remember the Christmas Fayre that’s on at the sports centre this weekend – details in yesterday’s post – I think we are popping down there this afternoon to take a look around with the godboys, so there’s that to look forward to and then a weekend with nothing planned, apart from finding the tree and putting that up and then present wrapping. I think the writing will be on hold for a couple of weeks now and I’m looking forward to the break, not that I’ve done much these past couple of weeks either. It’s a slow wind-down to next weekend and the week off I have promised myself the week after. Hope you enjoy a few photos from yesterday.

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Symi Christmas market
If you are out and about on Symi this weekend, you might like to take a visit to the sports centre in Horio between 16:00 and 20:00 on Friday and Saturday and on Sunday between 11:00 and 15:00. There is a Christmas Fayre going on there at these times. There are posters up and about that you may see and I am sure there will be lots to see and pick up ahead of Christmas next weekend.

You might want to wrap up warm though as locals are reporting temperatures of four degrees inside the house and only eight outside. With the strong north wind that we have been having, things feel a lot colder. All our shutters are closed, I’ve not seen the sea all day though I might pop up onto the roof shortly just to make sure it’s still there (the sea I mean, the wind has not been that strong). Meanwhile, I have four layers on and a hat, the heater beside me as I try and type, and my fingers are quickly turning blue.

Windfinder.com is showing the wind dropping to Bft four today, after being at six, with clear (cold) skies for the next few days until some cloud and maybe rain at the weekend. I may have to take the quilt from the bed and put it up over the balcony doors as a third layer of protection after the shutters, doors and towels. I have to admit I have not been writing as much as I normally do, thanks to the cold. It’s much more tempting to stay on the sofa under a blanket after lunch than it is to head back into the workhouse and try and warm it up again. I’ll get back into it sometime, maybe after Christmas.

As for today’s photos, they are still from Rhodes and show what a warm and sunny day it was when we were out and about exploring the Old Town and the moat. The Old Town is a different place in the winter, with no one trying to drag you in for a boot full of warm beer, or a slogan T-shirt. You get to see the real side of things ‘behind the scenes’ of the tourist shops and, although there were a few visitors around and a few local places open, like cafes and supermarkets, you get a real, natural, feel for the place.

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Gone a bit loo-py today
Still wading through my Rhodes photos, such as they are, and I thought I’d share some again today. I found one of the inside of a public loo.

I have to admit, I don’t think I have ever taken a photo inside a public toilet before and I have not taken that many outside one, but I happened to have my camera in my pocket when the need arose. If you are in a café or eatery in the old fish market in Rhodes, you find that not many places have their own WC and you need to use the public ones under the bandstand (which is not a bandstand, though it looks like one). Years ago, these facilities were somewhere to the south of pleasant and were not well maintained at all. Nowadays though they are looked after, clean, they have locks and seats (unlike many WCs in this here part of the world) and they only coast you 50c for as long as you need. And now they come with entertainment.

By the way, I am speaking of the gents here, as I have not been into the ladies. I imagine that ladies’ loos are always much more civilised affairs. I imagine there is less avoiding eye contact to be done and they are much more sociable affairs. Whether you get a seat and a lock is another matter and please don’t drop me a line to let me know; some things are better left in the imagination. Anyway, in the gents now you can stand and do your business while watching small monitors at eye level. When I was there last I was treated to what are now called ‘fails’, those home videos you used to see on shown like ‘America’s Funniest Videos’ and ‘You’ve Been Framed.’ Which, from what I’ve seen, should be retitled ‘America’s Loudest Canned Laughter’ and ‘You’ve Been Superseded By Mildly Less-Trite Rubbish.’

A quick aside: I hate canned laugher. I recently tried to watch a British TV comedy show that I thought I would like as it was about a literary character. I turned it off after five minutes because of the ‘laughter.’ It’s not so much the sound, but the fact that I don’t understand what ‘people’ were laughing at. I mean, does the following dialogue make you howl?

‘What’s your name then?’ [Silent, expectant pause.]

‘They call me Will.’ [Mild laughter.]

‘Will what?’ [Taped sniggering.]

‘Will do anything.’ [Canned laughter at around 87% as that was soooo funny.]

‘I bet you will.’ [Screams of joyous mirth, people hysterical with humour being carried off fighting for breath…]

I mean, what’s funny about any of that?

Far funnier is standing in a public loo watching people crashing their skateboards and crushing their family jewels while trying to show off, falling face first into swimming pools, being knocked over by dogs and generally losing all self-respect by being utter twats. Now that’s what I call WC entertainment.

And I had no idea I was going to write that as I sat down to show you photos from Rhodes, but next time you are there, make sure you do the full Rhodes tour: the train, the bus the castle, the sites, the aquarium and the TVs in the men’s public toilets. As for the ladies, well, I know that the gents don’t have these screens on the back of their cubicle doors (if they did I would be there for hours with my giros and my frappe laughing my head off at other people’s misfortunes) but maybe they do in the ladies. Further investigation needed, perhaps.

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