Symi To and Fro
Sunday morning on Symi… A whole day ahead with nothing much planned and so the questions is, what to do? I’ve been asked to write a piece for a new site that might be of interest to you, the Greek City Times. The site has several sections including news, lifestyle (travel) and Culture and I’ve been asked to write something about moving to Greece and what Symi has on offer. Not sure how many words yet, I mean, I could fill a book, as you know, but they probably don’t want that much. So, I am going to put my mind to that this week.

Also this week we have a small birthday gathering for Neil on Thursday, I say small, it did at least start small, now it’s up to 20 people on an evening out, down to Mythos in the harbour, so we are looking forward to that. There are, as yet, no other engagements in the diary for the week so I am looking forward to a few quiet days at home, for a change. I may even be able to get up and out for a dawn walk. Famous last words.

We were out twice over the weekend (so far). In Friday we walked down to Pedi with a friend and had a meal at Tolis, the taverna on the left hand side of the bay. This taverna serves traditional Greek food with a barbeque going, mezethes and oven dishes and is nicely priced. There was a breeze down there and it was the first time since May that I have worn a long sleeved shirt. The sleeves were soon rolled back up again later when the breeze died down. We caught the bus back up at 22.30 and joined people in the village square for a nightcap. On Saturday, after a blissful day of pottering around the house and doing very little, we went to Yialos and had dinner with other friends at Bella Napoli. This is an Italian restaurant with a wood over for pizzas, other interesting dishes based round seafood and chicken they also do steaks with sauces; I went for the chicken with gorgonzola and very nice it was too. We caught the 23.00 but up to the village afterwards and joined others in the square for… well, you know the routine.

It’s all rather quiet at the house at the moment as Jack, the Alarm Cat, is out on a field trip. You might have read last week that he went out on Wednesday night after an unsettled day at home. We think he is in the mood for a wander, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same time as last year when he went on an eight-day holiday and came back looking healthy and refreshed. We’re not unduly worried about him, he’s big enough to look after himself despite being deaf, and he knows where his home is should he want to come back. He might have gone back to his old house again but if so, he won’t recognise it as it’s now been, or is being, renovated. I am sure he’s fine so there’s no need to worry. The mornings are quieter without the alarm call, though the fan is still running in the bedroom, and the window is open so the sounds of the road filter in and we can’t hear him much in the mornings against those sounds anyway.

And so, here we go off into the week with only one engagement planned and a lot of writing to do as I start to work up ideas for the article and for a new book of travel tales. The working title for this one at the moment is ‘Symi, to and fro’ as it’s about travel stories as much as it is about living on Symi. I best get typing, have a good day.

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Symi Saturday Photos
Just giving you 10 random images today as a Saturday Photo collection. Have a good weekend and I should be back with you on Monday – hopefully with some news about something, or at least a bit of misinformed gossip about… well, anything really. If not, I will make it up. Have fun!

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Club Med 2

Yesterday we had the Club Med 2 visiting Symi. It sat around off Nos beach and shuttled its passengers back and forth to the harbour from around eight thirty in the morning. Apparently, this boat is a ‘five-masted computer-controlled sailing ship owned and operated by Club Med and operated as a cruise ship.’ I hope they are not running it on Windows 8.

It takes up to 368 passengers and has a crew of 200 and, according to its page on its own website, it has ‘free seating in the restaurant.’ Now then… What if it didn’t? What if you had to pay extra to sit down? Would you stay standing during your ‘most delicious cuisine’? Would you loiter at the back of the ‘Gourmet table status’ of two of its restaurants? Would you slouch against the buffet refusing to pay for a seat that is, after all, a basic necessity when booked onto a cruise offering ‘elegance and comfort.’ Non-free seats would not suggest either. I just thought it was a bit of a non-advert that, ‘free seating in the restaurant.’ it’s like calling out to your bar or taverna customers, ‘Free tables!’ or even, ‘We have toilets.’ Kind of goes without saying.

We very nearly had a free meal in Georgio’s the other night, so enthusiastic was the discount we were given. It still must be one of the cheapest places on the island to eat, though we always seem to score a big discount at Meraklis as well, one of our favoured lunch stops when on a shopping spree in Yialos. A ‘spree’ in most cases consisting of a bag of cat food, cat litter, and other cat related items. And talking of cats, he’s gone on walkabout again. At least he has as I write, which is actually Thursday morning. He slipped out while we were feeding the strays up the road on Wednesday night, leaving the gate open, and he’s not come back yet. He often does this and there is no cause for alarm, even though he is the Alarm Cat. He’s been out before, for up to eight nights and still come home when he was bored. That time he looked very well fed and looked after, so I expect he’s got another staff of servants somewhere in the neighbourhood. (Perhaps he was n the Club Med 2?) He was in a strange mood all Wednesday morning, not settling and being very noisy, but eating and attacking his dirt tray in the usual fashion, so he wasn’t ill or anything. No doubt he is causing mayhem among the local chicken community and will return when he’s ready.

Going back to the Club Med 2, as I am on their site, I thought I would see how much a jaunt on it costs. You select a date and then it asks how many adults (2) and there’s a drop-down for children which starts off at ‘No kid’ which I thought was rather abrupt. You then click on to get a quote. My selected date (next Monday) was not available so it suggested one for me. If I left after the 7^th September I could get a cruise for $5,432.82 (I assume the $.82 cover the cost of your chair in the dining room.) This was, by the way, a ‘special offer’ down from $5,964.90 and was for two adults with ‘no kid.’ I clicked on ‘Continue’.

Next you have to select your cabin and there are those with a woman sat on the bed waiting eagerly for a man with a tray of orange juice (these are the ‘cheap’ ones; I think the idea of breakfast in a room makes them more appealing) and then there are suites that are devoid of females and breakfasts but have a lot of space. I had the choice of a Club Cabin (might get a bit noisy), or ‘2 Separated Cabins’ which are, I assume, for those couples who like to go on holiday to argue. There was then the Deluxe Cabins (deck F) and what I thought said Amateur Suite for those of us who are not experienced in spending over $10.000 (special offer) on a holiday, but it turned out to be Armature Suite. This confused me even more when I checked the definition of ‘Armature.’ : armature ˈɑːmətʃə,-tj(ʊ)ə/ noun: armature; plural noun: armatures 1. the rotating coil or coils of a dynamo or electric motor. any moving part of an electrical machine in which a voltage is induced by a magnetic field. a piece of iron or other object acting as a keeper for a magnet. 2. an open framework on which a sculpture is moulded with clay or similar material.

At this point I stopped looking at the site just in case I hit the wrong button and committed myself to an expensive holiday in the ‘Rotating Coil Suite’ – even if it was a special offer – because apart from all else, they have a fitness centre on board and I don’t want to go there, I’m on holiday! But still. It looks lovely and it’s still sitting out there as I write. I just hope some of the guests are spending their ‘special offer’ savings on Symi.

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Seen on Symi – and other things
Happy first of the month!

That moment when someone gets the timing just right. One of our godsons wanted to watch our copy of Pitch Perfect 2 and was half way through it when the things refused to play any more. We ordered him a copy for his name day (including Pitch Perfect 1) but it wasn’t going to arrive in time. We told him he had a present and it was on its way, and that was fine. Yesterday it arrived at the house and I opened the box from Amazon to check; yes, there it was. Ten minutes later the doorbell rang and his brother turned up out of the blue asking if they could borrow the film again. We said no, because it wasn’t working… but here, he can have his own copy on DVD. A very smiley face left the house in a hurry bearing good news and a double DVD to his brother.

If you haven’t seen the film, it has nothing to do with Greece but it has a lot to do with a capella singing. Here’s the Amazon description and link.

Double bill of musical teen comedies following the fortunes of an all-girl a cappella singing group. In ‘Pitch Perfect’ (2012), Anna Kendrick stars as Beca, a freshman who is persuaded to join The Bellas, her university’s all-female singing group. Raising their energy and expanding their repertoire, The Bellas have soon taken their music to a whole new level, culminating in a sing-off against their male counterparts in a campus-wide competition. In ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ (2015) The Barden Bellas enter an international singing competition that a group from the US have yet to win. Can they impress the judges enough to beat their competitors?

It’s worth a look, honestly and teens old and young (from 13 to 80 I would say) will enjoy it. Click here.

Neil’s birthday present also arrived, at least the first part did. The second part is a dinner at Mythos with some friends on his birthday next week. [Note: must remember to book table.] Meanwhile here are a few things I’ve seen going on on Symi in the past few days:

Day boats arriving | Pleasure yachts coming and going | Three clouds | Blue sky | Sunrises | The man from the grocer’s shop dancing in the street as someone played a Middle Eastern drum rhythm | Returning visitors | A couple of menus | A couple of gin & tonics | The Alarm Cat being very noisy all morning for no apparent reason and not settling down until after three breakfasts, six trips to the bowl and a good look around every corner of the house | The piano keyboard | Some coal tits | some serins | other assorted birds | The typewriter keys.

And along with these pieces of no news are a few photos from the other day. Can’t stay long today, it’s the afternoon (Wednesday) and I am back at the piano again shortly for another singing rehearsal (not me).

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Trumpet blowing
Brief news today and I don’t mean news about underwear. I mean I’ve not been out and about much (as usual) and have been busy at home, but still, I’ve got some good news to share with you, personal though it is.

I have the results of my scriptwriting course, the one I started in March with the South Africa Writer’s College. It was Adriana who suggested I try a course with them, they are good courses and because of the exchange rates, affordable. So, I went for the scriptwriting one out of interest more than anything else. I started off in March and had to work through 10 sections in six months, with notes to read, background books to read (luckily I had, out of interest, read most of them in the past) and then writing exercises to do. The last part of the course, which was marked separately and then added to the coursework marks on the other nine modules, was to write a script. You may remember me telling you this before. I did that and sent it off – a quirky comedy set on a Greek island, as I do. Yesterday I received the results and final course verdict. Along with some very helpful feedback on backstory and other things from an ‘Industry, independent adjudicator’ and my tutor, were some other fun feedback and notes, including:

“Your characters come so vividly to life, the humour is quirky, and unpredictable, you play with stereotypes but never in a lazy way, there’s so much to enjoy here.
You have a wonderful sense of humour and great observational abilities, and the combination of those shines through in this script.”

And my favourite part from Chris McEvoy, the independent adjudictor:

“Wow, this was fun to read – I really enjoyed it. It’s weird and quite original, and pretty funny too, and your characters, although all at least slightly insane, are well developed.”

So, having blowed me own trumpet I’ll pop off now and think about writing a TV sitcom. Oh, btw, the overall score was 87% out of 100%.

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