Everyone VS someone else (not what you expect to read here)

Where will it all end? A few years ago now I saw a film called ‘Alien Vs Predator’ where they took two film ideas and put the characters together, or the monsters in this case. It is a one hour 20-minute bit of fun, if you like that kind of thing, and I do. What with Batman now going mask to unmovable hair-do with Superman, I wondered what other films there were with something or someone Vs something else. I looked it up and was amazed and amused.

On the IMDB there are 127 currently listed and I won’t mention them all but some of the more interesting titles are: Wife Vs Secretary (Clarke Gable and Jean Harlow), this must be the original of the trend as it’s from 1936. In the rise of the science fiction B movie era we saw Atom Man Vs Superman (1950), and we’ve probably all heard of King Kong Vs Godzilla. Billy the Kid Vs Dracula sets the mind boggling, as does Lady Chatterley Vs Fanny Hill (1971). Meanwhile, Godzilla goes head to head with a lot of other creatures until we hit 1979 with Kramer Vs Kramer.

I wonder what Kramer Vs Godzilla would have looked like.

Moving into the next century and poor old Dracula is still Vs-ing against foes, my favourite being Killer Barbys Vs Dracula – must look out for that one. Our schlock horror guys muscle in with Freddie Vs Jason, Batman has a go at Dracula, as do Bonnie and Clyde (I am not making this up). Midgets and Mascots are there too (I don’t even want to think about it) and then things get really out of hand with the likes of Dinocroc Vs Supergator – oh Lord! Santa Clause has a battle with the Zombies in one release, as do Cockneys in one and humans in another, oh and then Strippers get involved with Zombies and later go at it with Werewolves; a common problem in some parts of the country I hear.

Ironically enough, in 2012, a film was released titled Bad Vs Worse and I couldn’t have put it better myself. There’s a rather confusing one where Alex Vs Alex, before the Zombies return and have a go at those poor little Pro Wrestlers (2014). A have to admit that I have seen Airplane Vs Volcano and pretty dreadful it was too. I’ve also seen Hansel Vs Gretel (ditto on the rate scale), but I simply must get a copy of the 2015 release, Hellen Keller Vs Nightwolves which is no doubt based on a true story. Chuck Norris VS Communism gives us all hope for the future (unless you are a Chuck Norris fan), and there’s another one from 2015 called Man Vs. – (I assume they let you fill in your own word there, Zombies probably, or Dracula, Godzilla or Lusty Cheerleaders – one title I didn’t point out earlier).

And where is this nonsense leading me? Well, away from political debate for one thing and towards the thought that, what if…? What if we took some of our favourite shows from our youth and made Vs films out of them?

Hammy the Hamster Vs Bagpuss – who would win that one? I think there probably is already a football based story called Trumpton Vs Camberwick Green (Camberwick Green won 3:1 despite Windy Miller being set off for a foul). I’d rather like to see The Woodentops Vs Pogles Wood and the Clangers Vs H.R. Pufnstuf is a must on anyone’s list.

Anyway – nothing to do with Symi of course and so today’s photographs are entirely inappropriate to the post, but I’m just in one of those moods. Normal semi-seriousness may return tomorrow. Now though, I have to go and decide what to cook for our lunch. Hmm, Chicken Vs Fish…

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Brexit, Symi, boats and books (again)
The boats are starting to thin out now as many were from Turkey, over here to celebrate the end of Ramadan. In my brief political news, there is a rising tide of opposition to the farce that was and is ‘Brexit’ and a new Facebook page has been set up for everyone living in Greece who wants to keep up to date with information, particularly considering our status as soon-to-be foreigners in Greece, or not, depending on what happens. The page is here BRIG Brits Remain In Greece, you will ned to have a Facebook account to access it of course. (I am sure views and contributions from other nationalities is also fine there.)

From what I can see it’s not a place for people to come and start fights over who is right or wrong in this on-going, coward-caused and fool-followed debacle. It is “a place where we can discuss the worries over our future in Greece. But also a place where can get together to make sure we have a voice that is listened to when negotiations begin over our future living in Greece.” There’s far too much overheated debate going on at the moment, so a more positive discussion group, like this one, is the place to check out if you have concerns and want to discuss what’s new in the potential disaster that is ‘Brexit.’ And that’s it for my political parish notices for today. On to something else.

Another book. I think it will be called something like ‘Symi, and other places’ as it’s going to be a collection of Symi tales and experience, anecdotes and observations, mixed in with other travel tales in the style of Bill Bryson (hero). I don’t mean I will be copying his style, though some people have likened me to him (blush) but in that it will be an anthology of travel moments, along the lines of ‘Notes From A Small Island’ and others. Actually it would be more akin to ‘Neither Here Nor There’ which is about his travels in Europe as most of my travel tales will be from other destinations in Europe, and maybe other places. And I am calling it ‘Symi… (something to be decided)’ as, to be honest, books with Symi in the title sell better than my other books, so hopefully that will attract custom. There will be enough Symi observations to justify it, hopefully.

That’s planned to get underway when I have finished the first draft of ‘The Saddling’ which is now up to 90,000 words and heading towards its crisis, climax and conclusion. Once that’s out of my system I will put it aside for a while, concentrate on getting ‘Remotely’ out there and then start on the new compilation.

That’s my writing news. Other recent activity has centred around spending quality time with visiting friends, mainly at the Rainbow and, on Tuesday night, at Georgio’s Taverna. I am sure many of my readers have already been there and know all about it, but if you haven’t and if you are planning a trip to Symi, it’s a must-visit place to eat. It’s all local and traditional dishes, with the barbeque on too so fresh local meat grilled just for you, there are loads of mezethe dishes (starters) and then main courses such as their famous beef in Metaxa and pork in honey. We often find it’s cheaper (and certainly a lot easier) to eat out there than it is to cook at home, the prices are good too.

So, boats, Brexit stuff, new book ideas and food, all you need in a blog post in one morning. Have a nice day y’all! As they say somewhere in the world, apparently.

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Boat central Symi
It has been boat central down in Yialos these past few days; a great sight to see. I reckon there were well over 100 boats in and about on Monday night, Tuesday morning, the bay was busy as the harbour looked full. I wonder how they are coping at the ‘Schengen Hut’ where the paperwork control is managed. Or the ‘Shenanigans Hut’ as Neil calls it. But, like I say, good to see.

It would be nice if some of the crews and owners came up to the village and didn’t just stay on their poops watching the world go by; everyone could do with an injection of business around here at the moment. I guess it’s the same story: a few places do well, others struggle and some may not be there next year. But if these numbers continue, there should be some hope for some business…

We’re having a busy Tuesday with shopping and work, cooking and singing, seeing people off this evening and then chilling for a couple of days ahead of our trip on the boat on Wednesday – looking forward to that very much. As you can see, I am trying to find nice things to write though I have to admit my head is full of nasty thoughts about recent events in Britain. You have to let it out every now and then but honestly, I still can’t get over it: to believe the lies, to vote the way some did and then for everyone who set it up to imshee off and leave others to pick up the pieces. Gives others a perfect opportunity to put things right but oh no, no-one is, so we’re all left in limbo for the next few years while the mess is sorted out one way or the other. At least we don’t have a business to worry about any more. I am thinking of looking at Thailand, seems like a nice place to live.

Anyway, I won’t go on, but please don’t wind me up about it and the stupidity of some people, some press, some political parties and the sheer ignorance of how to negotiate better deals without having to walk away from the table completely. I shall look out of the window at the many boats arriving and departing from Symi and see hundreds of people having a great time on holiday. Something you can still do, by the way. The Foreign Orifice recently let go some reassuring info: for the time being nothing has changed. Well, that’s good to know but hardly news. Now I must go and make another curry and see to lunch.

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Thanks and some photos (from the other day and night)
Busy Sunday evening in the harbour, loads of boats in. Not all of them were tied up properly by the sound of it. When the Dodecanese Pride came in and caused its usual wake there were two boats banging each other around something rotten. Luckily it didn’t last for long. We had a great dinner at To Spitiko courtesy of Steve and Liz – thank you!

People have been very generous of late and have said that it is to say thank you for the blog. This isn’t a hint to anyone else coming this way soon that enjoys the blog and who we may bump into. I enjoy witting the blog and do it for a couple of reasons. It was to help boost publicity for our own shop as well as the island; now it’s to boost publicity for Symi and also my books and Neil’s calendars – which is why some days there is talk about what I am writing and other days there is talk about where we’ve been and what we’ve seen, like the other day when talking about Tholos restaurant. It depends what we’ve been up to – most of the time, for me these days, it’s being at home working on things and trying to save money, so sometimes it’s not very exciting. Other times I think of something funny to say and other-other times I can’t think of anything to say so I tell you stuff like this.

But I can tell you: Thank You! To everyone who comes up and says they enjoy reading the blog. If you’ve also read any of the books and enjoyed them, the best thank you that you can give is leave a review on Amazon as the more reviews a book gets the more they publicise it. I think you need something daft like 50 reviews for a book before they do but I have already had emails from them about my own work. ‘Dear Mister – we thought you might enjoy reading…’ and there are my titles. Actually no, I don’t enjoy rereading them as I always want to change things, which is why I carry on with something new as soon as I feel happy with a final draft. But if you do want to write a review (please do) then you can find my author’s page here.

That is the Amazon.com site (USA) but the titles are all there and you can search for them in the Amazon store for your country and then add any reviews you might like to. Thank you!

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Tholos restaurant (and other things)
That was a very nice weekend, thank you very much. And thank you to everyone who made it so. The credits list includes: Jeanette who took us to Tholos restaurant on Friday night, Colette who came with us, the couple on the bus coming back up who chatted, the customers at the Rainbow bar afterwards, the Welsh football team, Louise and Steve who gave us the Indian spices that lead to the chicken jalfrezi I made on Saturday night, Steve and Liz who took us out on Sunday night, and everyone else who has been around the bar in the afternoon for chat and catch-ups. it’s been a very sociable time of late but, from today, I think we should slow down a little. Oh, but there’s the party on the Poseidon on Thursday night to attend, so maybe after that.

I’ve also been writing and have a couple more chapters of one book typed up and some proofs of the other read and back with the editor/designer; I think ‘Remotely;’ is about two weeks away from being edited, then we have to do some work on the layout (widows and orphans) and then we can see about when we are going to publish it. So work continues.

Meanwhile, back to Tholos which I am featuring today as we have been there recently, Friday in fact. This restaurant/taverna is on the far side of Harani, just before the town beach at Nos, ‘Paradise Beach’ as it is also called. You reach it by walking all the way around the harbour, past the other waterfront cafes and restaurants in Harani, and there are several and all attractive and great places to be. Our table was on the top level by the water’s edge and there are some lower down. I am not sure how that works when the wake from the Blue Star comes in, but I didn’t hear anyone complaining or getting wet so I am sure it’s fine.

The menu is a good size and offers lots of variety, with a blue cheese and lettuce salad as one of the salads on offer. There are Greek mezethes in the usual tradition and, like many places, the taverna has its own recipes and takes on the traditional. There are several mains, a lot of seafood choices too and some unusual dishes. I went for the chicken in wine sauce with almonds which was served with lemon potatoes, rice is also available, or chips. Neil had a spicy pork dish which he also enjoyed. The service is very good, the two waiters and the hostess very pleasant and always attentive, and really there’s nothing bad to say about the place at all. The price was good too, not that we were allowed to contribute to paying. A word of advice: reserve a table in advance as it is very popular.

After this treat we strolled back around the harbour to catch the last bus at 23:00 and headed up to the village while others went on to The Secret Garden for their Friday night jazz, rock and blues music. (They have Greek music there on a Monday night.) The bus will stop there if you ask the driver. Saturday was a slow and almost lazy day for me, getting some of my own writing done and so was Sunday when I finished off a couple of chapters for ‘The Saddling’, the Gothic horror that’s next on the typewriter and coming along nicely – in first draft form.

And that’s my weekend catch-up from up here in Horio. The weather is still warm, in the mid to low 30s, there have been breezes which help keep the humidity down and there’s no sign of any rain or anything like that. The boats have been coming and going according to their schedules, with day-trippers and regular visitors being delivered, new visitors have also come to check out Symi, which is always good to see and everything is ticking along nicely.

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