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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Alarming
I read something the other day which sounded like a good piece of advice. Every day, write down something good that happened to you that day, or that you did for someone else, and put it in a jar. At the end of the year you can take them out and remember all the good things that happened during the year. I suppose I do a similar kind of thing with the blog, though not every day. Maybe I well keep a jar, or a diary, and jot things down once per week and see what I have at the end of the year. If I remember to do it.

Which reminds me, I must go and buy a diary. I was going to get myself one before Christmas but then thought, ‘No, last year I bought one in Prague and then received four for Christmas, so I will wait.’ Of course it was the one thing I was not presented with this year, so, next time I am in Yialos, I will see what’s available. I assume you are all set with yours and your Symi Dream calendar (see over there on the right).

New Year’s Day, the feast day of Saint Vasilis (and his mother, Emmeleia and others), was observed on Symi with people having their own family days. There was a party at Georgio’s and some fun and games afterwards at the Sunrise Café. We were with the godboys and family for fun and feasting, games and mayhem as usual, and wandered home in the very chilly air around nine in the evening. Morning came far too quickly. We have this new alarm clock that I’ve not yet figured out. The time was set for 6.30, the usual time for getting up when not on holiday, but it only went off once, before Christmas, and then with the snooze set to repeat three times at five minute intervals. I fiddled with it the other day and got it working again – I’d plugged the mains cable into the earphone socket and the batteries were starting to wear down. Yesterday it went off at 6.30 with some music from a memory card we’d plugged into it and that was fine, except it wasn’t. I’d wanted to get up at 7.30 for a kind of half-day, but no, at 6.30 there we go with a few bars of a song, turned it off, five minutes later it’s back again, three times until it silenced and I went back to sleep. An hour later my other alarm, set on my tablet, started up with its Vienna Boys’ Choir singing me a Good Morning very cheerily and the cat wishing we would let him in, very loudly. After two repeats of that one, I gave in and leapt from my bed into the eight degrees of the bedroom.

So, later today, I will find the alarm clock instructions and see how I make it work properly and prepare myself for ‘back to work’ time – 6.30, Monday to Friday. Even when you are self-employed, or especially when you are self-employed, a regular routine is the thing. It’s the only thing that keeps me on track; leaving it for later, with no boss wielding a big stick, is always a temptation. But no, from now onwards it’s back to 6.30, work, writing, blog, lunch, walk, writing and then chilling out (literally in our north-facing sitting room) for the evening. Let’s see how long I can keep that routine going.

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Symi Dream anagrams (‘Is my dream’ included)
We all have plans and hopes for the year ahead wherever we are: time for a change, new directions, new ideas, fresh starts, no more… promising to do this or that. All I know is that I plan to have a new novel out this year and a new book of travel stories and Symi anecdotes, all mixed together. Watch this space for developments.

New Years’ Eve was spent at home with the godboys who were visiting with their mum for dinner and some TV, some merriment and a quick stand on a cold roof at midnight to see the… Well, it was a quiet one. A few church bells, a couple of flares in the harbour, a solitary dynamite, a lone firework from somewhere over towards Pedi. Economic issues probably had something to do with it. In New Years of the past there have certainly been more bangs and boobs [that was a typo I left in for you, it was meant to read ‘booms’] and whistles and ships’ horns blaring; there were no commercial ships in the harbour last night, no Symi I staying overnight as in the old days, nothing like that, so it was peaceful and clear (loads of stars) and a little on the chilly side. But, inside it was warm and friendly and everyone everywhere is looking forward to a better year than 2016 brought the world.

Having said that…
Did you know that ‘President Trump’ is an anagram of “Red Mr Putin’s pet?”

It’s also an anagram of “Permitted Spurn”, so, as it’s clearly allowed, that’s what I am going to do, at least until the madness of the USA and the shambles that currently seems to be the UK start to get the better of the world. I’m not even sure if I can write ‘the UK’ anymore, maybe it should just be ‘the K’ as it doesn’t seem very united. Come to think of it, it’s not a kingdom either, it’s a queendom, so maybe we should just call it ‘the Q.’ And you can decide for yourself what that stands for.

Did you also know that ‘Theresa May’ is actually an anagram of ‘Smeary Hate’, ‘Ate my share’ and ‘Yea! Ms Hater’?

Well there you go; and there I’ve been and I aim not to return to the subject for a while at least. So, I will head off into 2017 with you, hoping that you will follow the simple rules of appreciating Symi Dream:

1. Enjoy and share
2. Ignore typos
3. Tell everyone to buy the books (listed on the right >>)
4. Click on the adverts if you want to help pay for the blog hosting.

(It doesn’t cost you anything, the random advertisers pay. I shouldn’t actually ask you, but as long as no-one is looking…)

I will leave you with a few choice anagrams of ‘Symi Dream’ to get your new week, year, diet, resolutions, off to a good start.

Symi Dream: Admires my… (blog posts?) Mad misery… (hope not) Die smarmy (probably will do, one day) May’s mired… (couldn’t resist that one) Is my dream… Re my maids… (been watching a lot of Downton Abbey since Christmas) and several others that are too rude to post here (as they all involved the word ‘rim’).

As you can see, I have a lot of time on my hands this morning but it is running out, so I must get on, get back to the routine and start finishing one of those promised books. Look out, this year, for ‘The Saddling’ (a kind of rural Gothic mystery/thriller – I do like to mix genres) and ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ (a selection of travel and Symi anecdotes).

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