Symi football, under 12
I’ve had a few requests over the past few years to talk more about football. These people clearly don’t know me. It’s not a subject I know much about or take much of an interest in. Not until I hear stories of how a lad from Rhodes has been selected to play with a very big London football trainee camp, and also had several other offers and callings from other top teams and we aren’t talking Maidstone United here, we’re talking Arsenal or something. These kinds of stories spark my interest as it’s good to hear of local boys and girls getting a chance in life. And that’s what today’s post is all about (with unrelated images from the roof).

Symi has a few football teams. (For exact details talk to someone in the know, not me.) One of them is the under 12s team who regularly play against other islands here and on Rhodes and, I assume, on those other islands. Well now, they have an opportunity to take part in an international junior football competition in London (London, UK, for our American readers) later this year. The trouble is, of course, getting them there.

A page has been set up on Facebook to advertise the fundraising that the team are now doing. There is a specific organisation set up for this, so it’s all bone fide, and the money will go towards the boys’ flights and travel. Parents and other interested parties will have to pay for themselves, if they can and these days, in Greece, a lot of folk don’t have enough for heating, let along foreign travel. So, the news today is: you can help get our team there by making a donation either into a bank or via PayPal. The money will be accounted for and used for travel and the boys will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to play their game abroad, in London as it happens. An invaluable experience in all respects, I am sure you will agree.

For more information you can find the team’s fundraising info on this page: https://www.facebook.com/SYMIAOSTOLONDON/

If you are not a Facebook user, here is what that site says – in part –

If you would like to donate to this cause a bank account has been set up especially for this purpose under the name of our secretary at Alpha bank;
Dawn Stirrup-Karagiannis
IBAN: GR2401407910791002101045329 BIC: CRBAGRAA

And: A paypal account has also been created purely for fundraising purposes for this cause and is linked to the above account, for those of you perhaps out of the country. We sincerely appreciate all help received, however big or small. https://www.paypal.me/symiAOStolondon

That’s my news today and that’s the appeal. I don’t have any of my own photos of the team so I’ve pulled this one of the Facebook page, so you can see who you might be helping with their opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you.

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Another Symi walk (easy)
We’re certainly getting our fill of rain today (Tuesday). It started overnight and has been heavily on an off all day so far. At least it’s warmed things up a bit. So it was lucky we chose to go for an after lunch walk on Monday instead of waiting. Here’s another Symi walk idea for you and it’s a simple one.

We walked through the village along the main road. You must understand that the main road in this case is only wide enough for very slim vehicles and mopeds, walkers, shoppers and the mule train. It leads you past the new grocery shop where you can look up and out for the crest on the top of the building, and towards Taverna Zoi.  You pass the Jean & Tonic Bar, now open at 3pm every day and complete with coverings outside and over the courtyard so it’s now an all-year, all-weather bar as well as often being an all-night one in the summer; past the English language schools and taverna and left down towards the bus stop.

There’s a new shelter here now (just the other side of the barrier in the above photo), where the rubbish skip used to be, the rubbish is now collected form the lower car park which is itself being cleared of building debris as the cottage hospital takes shape. Opposite this, where once was a one story shed and a gaping hole, a new building is being set up and, beside this, there was a fruit and veg van selling its traveling produce. Walk on towards the new sport centre.

You are walking along the main, main road now, wide enough in most places for two cars, the bus and all the agricultural vehicles we have here on Symi, though not at the same time and it does narrow near the old surgery building. On this road you get good views down to Pedi and across the water to Turkey and a large white building where, so I am told, the largest, or most expensive, pleasure yacht is currently being built. Keep on up the road, it can be a bit of a slog if you are not used to hills but you go slowly, pausing here and there to admire the valley below. Turn a few bends in the road and carry on up towards the sign for Ag Triada, the top church in the village. I noticed that the trees along here have recently been enthusiastically pollarded.

You can of course, carry on up the main road and onto oblivion, well, Xissos and Panormitis and the hinterland of the island, or you can head back towards the village via the Triada path. Not long after the shrine to an accident victim (I assume) you cut down to the right on a rough path, or carry on towards the church and take the main steps, and from then on you are heading down through the upper village towards the museum. If you find yourself lost in the lanes, just keep heading downhill, you will find something you recognise before too long and will eventually meet the sea, if you go too far.

That’s the short walk we took the other day and it was a good day to be walking, until the cloud started coming over. I’m not heading out there today, not in this rain, but maybe tomorrow I shall attempt a downwards assault on the harbour as I need to visit the bank and a shop or two.

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Symi in the winter
People often ask, or always ask, ‘What’s it like in the winter?’ And I assume they are talking about Symi as that’s where we are when they pose the question. Well, this winter looks like it’s going to be one of the coldest for a long while. Last summer I remember telling people that the winter hadn’t been so bad; cold for a couple of weeks, but otherwise fine, not too wet either. So far this year we have seen storms one day and very cold weather the next. We are luckier than some islands further north which are currently under snow and declared disaster areas. We must feel for the refugees still in camps on Samos, Lesvos and other islands living in tents, some of which have no heating. I’ve heard of three refuges dying from the cold on other islands and, although we don’t have any here at the moment, Solidarity Symi is still doing its bit to support those further afield.

I was outside the corner shop the other day, the little shop on the village square, and Stelios had placed a thermometer by the door; it read four degrees at midday. He and his wife are to be found there all day and late into the night, huddled behind the counter with the doors open to welcome customers. The supermarkets have air-conditioning heating on and that warms you up as you go inside, but the boys are still delivering groceries to those who can’t get out, you still see them carrying four packs of water or more up and down the steps. The shops are still open and battling the cold and the boats are coming and going when the storms don’t stop them.

So, in the winter, life carries on and you make do. A few years ago I photographed icicles on the rosemary bush at our old house. It’s not that bad at the moment, but facing north and being exposed, it’s still pretty chilly around this place. I am wearing three layers, a fleece, fingerless gloves and a hat as I write, with my shutters closed against the cold (I’ve not seen the view for days, apart from when I went up on the roof the other morning) and I have a heater on full beside me. After lunch and the afternoon writing shift, I will try and warm up the sitting room which is large and open plan. The heater will go on, the hat and gloves will stay on, and the cat will be welcome on my lap as added insulation. I’ll sit there watching my breath ascend into the roof (which is not insulated, neither are the walls in these old houses) and pull the thermal blanket up over me as I read.

Bedtimes are not so bad as there’s an electric blanket to act as a bed warmer and, by the time I go to bed, the house has warmed up to around ten degrees (the thermals stay on for very cold nights and the socks I now have are Everest quality). The mornings are something of a trial, especially when taking a shower. Apart from the bathroom being cold, the shower curtain is attracted by the warm air and so gets sucked in, to cling cold to your body at unexpected moments. It’s like a shroud from the grave wrapping itself around you as you stand there not wanting to move from under the hot water. But you do because you must, and so another day starts. Yesterday, Neil was very brave and went out at eight in the morning to go to the gym for the aerobics class, and then walked back up the road. I was intending to also take a walk early in the morning but, at 6.30, it was dark, cold and not very inviting; so I shall wait for warmer and more settled weather before starting on that idea.

We, and many others, are doing what we can to look after the poor stray cats who rely on the bins for food and the ruins for shelter. We can’t take them into the house, but we can visit them every day or so and give them what we can when it’s not raining. Meanwhile, I am thinking about finding a large rug for the sitting room, to try and help warm things up, the smaller one, nice though it is, only covers a small area, and I should also find something to plug the two inch gap under the front door. Old towels usually work.

I’d love to turn the central heating up a notch but we don’t have any, or close the double glazing but there isn’t any, so instead I’ll go and  make lunch now and perhaps leave the cooker on a while to warm the kitchen and, while doing that, I – like everyone else in Greece these days – will have to save hard and extra to cover the increased cost/tax on electricity and try not to worry about the bill until it comes in.

That’s kind of what it’s like on Symi in the winter.

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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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