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.

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.

Symi-Rhodes-Symi
Here we are back on Symi after a successful shopping expedition to Rhodes. The weather was wonderful until this morning (Monday) and right now it looks like it’s about to rain on us here on Symi.

I took a few photos while ‘over the water’ and I’ll put some up over the next few days. We came back with a suitcase full of ‘Jumbo’ and a few new clothes. Highlights of the weekend included visiting various charity markets where people were selling homemade biscuits and cakes, decorations and ornaments in order to raise funds for local charities. There was one such event organised in our hotel (the Lydia) on Saturday that included singers and musicians. It was good to hear some old Greek Christmas songs played on a variety of instruments. Elsewhere the seasonal music was the same-old same-old, apart from Jumbo where in the space of 90 minutes they played their own Christmas ‘song’ about five times.

Lyrics included: ‘I will walk from darkness and love you for one thousand years,’ or some such cringe-along-a-lyric that sounded equally as ‘stalkish.’ Sorry to dampen things but it’s simply not possible for one person to love another for that length of time (without dying) and they should not state it in a song for the sake of a rhyme, as in this case (although it didn’t rhyme very well.) But there you are.

Our other highlights included a walk around the Old Town moat on Sunday morning in temperatures over 20 degrees (people were sunbathing and swimming – not in the moat as there is no water, but over on the beach where we walked later), a stop or two at the Symi bar in the old market, having parts of the Old Town to ourselves to walk around heckle- and haggle-free, and having a whole Sunday with nothing to do.

More updates during the week as usual. Off to finish unpacking now. I am finding all kinds of things and asking myself, ‘Who put that in the Jumbo basket?’

Long weekend
In a bit of a rush this morning; things to do, boat tickets to buy, packing to do, and off this afternoon (as long as we can get tickets) to Rhodes for the weekend; also cat things to arrange including babysitter, and as usual have left everything to the last minute.

I am sure we’ll be fine with the boat tickets though it could be a popular catamaran as there has been no Blue Star since last Friday and there’s not one today. This is because of a strike that has been extended. I did read somewhere that it might be coming on Monday night/Tuesday morning instead, but remember what I said about gossip the other day? I haven’t yet seen that on anything official but, even so, next Monday in the middle of the night isn’t helpful to us, but it will bring in supplies and fresh food, hopefully. And maybe some post – and it should also take the post off the island (passport application included).

I should be back on Monday and there may be a blog by Tuesday but, apart from that: I’ll leave you now for the long weekend with a few shots of Yialos looking sunny and warm in yesterday’s afternoon. It wasn’t. I mean, it was sunny, but it’s not warm. It was cosy inside Elpida’s kafeneion where I took a couple of shots through the winter plastic, I rather like that look, but otherwise… Well, at our house certainly, having a shower first thing is a bit like one of those saunas: warm bedroom, freezing cold bathroom, hot shower, cold bathroom and dashing around to keep warm – and it’s still up around ten degrees at the moment.

Anyway, have a good long weekend and I’ll be back online sometime next week.

On nothing in particular
Odd the things you find. I just found one of my earplugs in the toilet. No idea how it got there. I also discovered recently that, whereas clothing sizes in China are very often two or three sizes smaller that they are here, in Thailand they seem to be three or four times larger than expected. I once ordered something from China, a shirt, via eBay and ordered an L size. (I know, rather ambitious, but it was a while ago.) It turned out to be Large for a six-year-old, but X-small for an adult. So, when I recently thought I’d see what shopping in Thailand was like, I ordered and XXL size, assuming that the size differences would be similar. Not. The shirt would well house a family of six and have enough left over to cover a few sofa cushions. I’ll try ordering again at a more realistic size and see if that works. Nice shirt though, but where did they get all that material?

No idea why I am talking about this today, maybe because I have no other news of consequence (or photos), except to remind you that, if you are going to offer someone the stunning gift of a James Collins book this Christmas, now is the time to order it. You can find the links over on the right, where the Symi books are, and some of the others, and I will include a link to top-selling ‘Remotely’ at the bottom of this post.

You might also like to order your Symi calendar 2017 or the Greek Cats Calendar 2017 (some proceeds of which go to help us feed the bin cats up the road through the winter). Again, the links are on the left but I’ll also put them down at the bottom.

Advanced warning that there may not be a blog for the early part of next week and I am planning to go to Rhodes at the weekend for some shopping. Jumbo calls. I don’t know if they have Jumbo in other parts of the world but it’s like a glorified pound-shop where you can pick up almost anything. Last time I was there I picked up some must-have plastic items, things for the kitchen and a bit of a hangover thanks to the over generous lady in the snack truck outside who, apparently, had not had the pleasure of dispensing ouzo to anyone all season and made up for it with a couple of generous measures for me. What it will be like on a Saturday close to Christmas I dread to think; perhaps I will have the ouzo on the way in, to soften the blow. Maybe they have something that keeps earplugs out of toilet bowls, I’ll let you know.

And now, links:

Remotely: “There is more than one laugh on every page, so be prepared for helpless giggles.” (Amazon review.)

Symi Dream Calendar 2017

Greek Cats Calendar 2017