Of flames and phones
One of the things about living in a small community such as this is that you get to see and hear things at both ends of the joy spectrum. Over the weekend, I saw several very different sights, two of which were at opposing ends of that scale of pleasantness. (There must be a better way to say that, but it is early on Sunday morning and we did have a couple of glasses at the Rainbow last night and, despite the two duvets and the quilt, I did wake a few times during the night trying to get warm, so there are my excuses.)

There was a house fire over the weekend, Saturday morning actually, and it was fully visible from all over the village and harbour, as you can see from my couple of photos. No one was hurt; the owner, I have been told, was away, and the house was not occupied at the time. I haven’t heard how it started but, as it was empty, I can only assume an electrical problem of some sort, perhaps rodents chewing through a cable. The building went up very quickly once the flames took hold, there was a certain amount of grey and then black smoke and even from where we are we could hear the glass breaking, the roof tiles cracking and eventually the roof falling in. A horrible thing for the owner to come back to and it does make you wonder, what if? The words house insurance comes to mind. I expect there are plenty of properties around here that are not insured, and it’s not just your possessions and un-replaceables that you would have to replace, there’s the building too. We’re just glad that no one was hurt and there was no wind so it didn’t spread to neighbouring houses.

But, on a happier note, also over the weekend (Friday actually). We were at Mandeio’s café for a couple of drinks, keeping an eye on godson number one who was playing with his friends after his English lesson and after spending the day with us. We had pizza and he invited his friends to come and share his with him. A little later a group of six thirteen-year-olds came and set up camp at the table next to us. I know their ages as they were with godson number two. I watched as they arrived, one by one, some greeting the others with hugs, and took up their places, and took out their mobile phones. ‘Uh hu,’ I thought, ‘it’s going to be a case of spending an hour reading Facebook and ignoring each other, just like we were doing at home earlier on.’ (Though I was actually reading on my Kindle ap.)

But no. I mean yes, they were checking things out on their phones and then comparing notes, showing each other photos, laughing about selfies and catching up with news from friends who weren’t there. The conversation was fast and fun-filled, there was a mix of English, Greek and Russian going on and they all switched between Greek and English with amazing alacrity.

I imagined… Myself at that age with my friends meeting up with our phones at our favourite meeting pace. The phones would, of course, have to have had very long leads to reach from the house to wherever we were, but we’d meet, wires trailing and sit around comparing phones. We’d have to sit staring at dials and handsets, the more up to date among us would have had push-buttons to show off, someone may have had a novelty number, a Snoopy perhaps, or a racing car, some would have a straight lead, some a curly one, the traditionalists might have had a black number, others a grey-green or ivory, we’d coo and ah over the latest ring tone (bell or trim) and possibly take a photo of it, rather than on it, using our Polaroid Instamatics for instant results.

But I am sure we would not have been so well behaved and certainly not so multi lingual as the group we saw on Friday. They eventually shared a couple of pizzas between them and we left them in their merry circle enjoining their evening. No great shakes maybe, but I just thought it was so good to see: a group of well-behaved teenagers having fun and, most of all, interacting about their phones, rather than wasting an evening being on them.

Ah well, a bit of a ramble there but it is Sunday morning and I am trying to put myself in the writing mood, so I shall cut along now and start putting other random thoughts to virtual paper in advance of a new book of stories and random thoughts. Hope you have a good week!

Share on Facebook

Bakaliaros Skordalia
We returned from our lunch at around 3.30 on Thursday afternoon, completely full up, warm (until we got home) and very happy. I took a few shots on the way up through the village, and down again, and then settled in for an evening with the godson, who was staying overnight as his mum was on the early boat to Rhodes on Friday. The boat, despite the winds, was on time, not that I saw it. I heard it through the wind and the closed shutters; the wind died away later in the morning leaving the day bright and clear, and cold. I know some places already have snow and minus degrees at night and we are hovering around 10 degrees out of the wind, but still, it feels cold here after a summer that reached 40 + degrees in the shade.

As for lunch: we were invited to Yianni and Katerina’s house where everything was already festive, the tree up and the discrete and charming decorations placed around the sitting room and kitchen. We were offered something of a feast. Katarina was next door finishing off the Bakaliaros when we arrived; she had cooked at a neighbour’s house so that our enjoyment wouldn’t be overshadowed by the smell of fried fish. The skordalia was already set out and there was a rather generous pot of moussaka each already and waiting, plus fresh beetroot and a salad, and bread. Needless to say, it was delicious and well received and no none went hungry.

The conversation flowed surprisingly well, with Yianni occasionally translating our Greek into real Greek for his wife, but generally we were able to keep the chat going beyond, ‘This is lovely; and ‘No more, thank you!’ and we talked about books, the weather, the house, friends in common and the wedding on Sunday.

If you are interested to make Bakaliaros yourself, it’s about as close to good old British ‘fish and chips’ as you’re likely to find around here and pretty simple. (Just replace curry sauce with garlic sauce, recipe included below.) Here’s a version I pulled off a website: http://www.kalofagas.ca/2009/03/25/bakaliaros-skordalia/

Bakaliaros Skordalia

Approx. 1lb. of salt cod fillets (soaked & water changed 3-4 times until salt is removed)
1 bottle of beer
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of corn starch
salt and pepper to taste
flour for dredging
sunflower oil for frying

Potato Skordalia

3 Russet (starchy) potatoes
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
approx. 1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
good wine vinegar to taste
sea salt to taste

Place your potatoes (skins on) in a pot of water that’s lightly salted. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover. Boil until the potatoes are fork tender. Allow the potatoes to cool or drain and replace the pot with cold water to speed the cooling process.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel with the back of your knife and pass through a ricer. Add your minced garlic and mix with a fork.  Pour a slow stream of olive oil while continuing to stir. Add sea salt and some wine vinegar and taste and adjust seasoning. Cover with cling wrap and set aside (or place in the fridge if making much ahead of time).

After you’ve sufficiently soaked your salt cod, pat dry and cut into small portions. Season with salt and pepper and dredge in flour and set aside.

Add all your dry ingredients in to a bowl and mix with a fork. Now while whisking, gradually add the beer to the flour until you get a thick batter (slightly thinner than pancake batter). Drink any remaining beer.

Heat your oil (about 2 inches deep) to about 360F and then dip your cod fillets in the batter then place carefully into the hot oil. Fry in batches until golden brown. Place the fried fillets on a platter covered in paper towels. Sprinkle some sea salt on them, serve with lemon wedges, Skordalia and some Vlita.

Share on Facebook

Keeping warm Symi style
Now that the wind is coming in from the north and it’s turning cold. Heating a Symi house in the winter can be a complicated affair. For us it means:

Closing certain shutters and thus shutting out the daylight. If the balcony shutters are left open, as they are on all but the windiest days (when they rattle, and cause neighbour annoyance I expect), then draft proofing measures must be taken. I was looking at our balcony doors once upon a winter and realised that the (looks up the correct term) threshold has a raised bit running across it (no technical term for that could be found) where the balcony doors rest against when shut; a kind of token draft protector. Except it wasn’t, as the doors didn’t quite meet it.

[A quick aside: this is my dodgy shot of the Blue Star leaving on Tuesday night, taken through the window on an underwater camera, as promised.]

This meant that the wind could rush in from the north, over the balcony floor, up and over the raised bit (new technical term there) and down the other side, under the doors that don’t quite reach the stone threshold and into the room. It could do this even when the shutters were shut as they too are not a perfect fit. So, one day, I went hunting around the bins up at the windmills (you would be surprised how many people do this bin-hunting thing, you can find all kinds of useful unwanteds there, from antiques to pieces of polystyrene the exact shape and size to act as a draft excluder) I found a piece of polystyrene the exact shape and size to act as a draft excluder. (see, I told you.) I have no idea what it was in its previous life but now it rests between door and ‘raised bit’ on the threshold and keeps out some of the wind.

That’s stage one. Stage two involves old towels to wedge in the reaming gap on the inside. Stage three involves taking the quilt from the bed (which mother supplied with handy hooks; the quilt I mean, not the bed, that would be too odd) and threading it through an extendable shower curtain pole which then gets extended in the recess within the casing (more technical words, I looked them up) so it stays there, most of the time. That done and all light blocked out even when the shutters are open, it’s on with the heater. There’s another curtain (Habitat) on a shower pole across the open doorway into the passage, directly on the right of which are the double front doors and their own variety of gaps and wind passes, and this curtain is also pulled across as best it can be.

Then it’s time to sit on the sofa, pull the thermal blanket over the knees and feet, and allow the cat to add itself for extra warmth. Then it’s time to realise you’ve not pulled the outside curtain (Jenine made us) over the outside door on its own extendable shower rail, so you get up to do that and let the heat out. Those shower poles are very useful as they don’t involve drilling and it’s easy to take the things down in the summer.

Anyway, there was a slight wind yesterday and so all that was going on. I’m now off to prepare for our lunch up at Yiannis’ house (we have already been though a checklist of things to talk about so conversation in what will be Greek-ish doesn’t come to a halt) which will see me try and put on my Crombie over the new woollen cardigan Neil brought me from England. I shall be waddling up the hill puffed out like an tyre advert, but I shall at least be warm.

Share on Facebook

Wednesday
A much brighter start to Wednesday, it looks like the storm has passed. The air is so clear you can see right across Turkey to the mountains, some of which will soon have snow on them, I expect. If you are reading this on Symi and fancy a film, there is a children’s film on Sunday at 17.30 at Mandeio’s, ‘Inside out.’ I’ve seen it, it works for grownups as well.

The diary has suddenly started to fill up, at least for this week. Today (Thursday) we have an invite to lunch at Yiannis and Katerina’s house in Horio, there’s a birthday meet on Friday, and a neighbour’s son’s wedding at Panormitis on Sunday, as long as we can get there. So far, and I am not holding my breath, Saturday looks free for some writing. Between all that we have to track down the accountant and do some post, but otherwise, it’s a case of staying warm and keeping the house dry.

I was just checking to see if the Wednesday boat came through, and it must have done as it’s now coming back from Karpathos to Rhodes. Luckily I can’t hear it come in at 5.00 in the morning but it’s a magical sight to see when it is leaving at night; I’ll see if I can get a photo sometime.

There was something of a ‘cyclone’ on Rhodes on Tuesday night and we caught the edge of it here. I don’t know if it was an actual cyclone, I need to look up the definition and I wasn’t there so I can’t comment, but that is how it was described in the local online newspaper. It was very wet here for a while, there was thunder and lightning coming closer, and heavy rain. I sent Michaelis a text and told him not to worry about the cat litter delivery, not in the dark in a storm, and he replied that he’d come the next day instead. I’d hate to think of someone driving up the hill in that weather just for the comfort of the Alarm Cat who has enough to see him through a few more days anyway.

He’s back to normal now though still very wary of us. He’s back to disturbing me at least three time each morning with a demand to be escorted to his bowl; the last week he’s just been sleeping all morning. Now he’s a bit dischuffed because there is nothing in his bowl except the dry biscuits the vet prescribed for him. Meat only once or twice per day is the regime now, until the meat has all gone, then he’s supposed to stay on the dry stuff; it’s to do with his age and his heart. We’ll see how that works out as he has always been a fan of Whiskers sachets.

Share on Facebook

Quick update
Yesterday: slightly interrupted work morning, down to Yialos to see the accountant (not there), and pick up post (Christmas crackers). Visited Pet Island (our pet shop) to order more cat litter. Michaels didn’t charge for the bag that was torn even though it and its contents were in another bag and very little was missing; said he’d bring it all up at 2pm. Raid the bank, have a beer, see Michaelis passing and ask him to come at five as we were having another beer, walk back up between showers, feed the strays, make some dinner (breakfast actually), do this and spend the evening watching things on the TV.

That’s me sorted, here is yesterday’s weather. (This blog is fast turning into a weather-watch.)

Share on Facebook