Olympic Holiday rep job, interested? I was contacted by Olympic Holidays on Saturday asking if I could publicise their Symi rep job. Happy as always to oblige my friends and neighbours (as the Beadle says in Sweeny Todd) here’s their email and contact details:
Want to be a holiday rep?
I wondered if you may be able to help me. I’m looking to employ a full time rep for Olympic Holidays who lives on Symi for the 2016 summer season. The position would be 8 hours per day, 6 days per week and we would need someone to start at the beginning of May until the middle of October – the job role includes:
Providing excellent customer service to our customers on holiday
Liaising with hoteliers/accommodation owners and agent (Symi Tours) to ensure accommodation standards are as expected
Providing an informative welcome meeting to all arrivals on the island, taking excursion sales and booking them with the agent
Weekly accounts for all excursion sales taken
Visiting Rhodes on a Wednesday each week to escort departing guests and welcome and escort arrivals over to Symi
Completing company paperwork as per company procedures
Ensuring that company branding is in place on the island in all of our accommodations
Problem solving for guests, ensuring an appropriate solution is found
Possible other duties including: assisting when a guest may be ill or injured
Holidaying on Symi
The basic salary for this position would be: 410 GBP per month (must be paid into a UK bank account)
Commission: 6% of total excursion sales (paid monthly into UK account) + 2% held commission to be paid at the end of the season based on targets given and completion of the season.
A day trip from a visiting cruise ship
If you know anyone who may be interested or it would be a possibility to advertise on any of your social media, I would really appreciate your help.
Should you need any further details, please let me know and I will respond accordingly.
We would prefer the candidate to have their own accommodation however, that is negotiable so would be interested to speak to anyone interested in the first instance as we may be able to help out.
And back to Symi, again
I thought I would share the hundreds of images I took in Rhodes last week, and then realised I only took five, and two of them were on Symi. Ah well; here are five images I took earlier this week.
Waiting for the afternoon boat on Symi
And as for getting back to Symi: Since Wednesday night I’ve seen the harbour, as I walked around it, the village square and the inside of Georgio’s taverna, oh, and the supermarket. That’s about it. I have no idea what’s going on out there or down there but I can tell you that it’s still warm, though a little cloudy, and there is a wind from the northwest (I believe) that has a little bit of a bite to it. But only a kind of pre-teething bite, nothing that actually does any damage.
Looking towards Yialos towards the end of the day
There have been boats though; some more sailing boats and private yachts, you know, the large ones. The ones that no-one really admits to liking but secretly wants to be invited on, or even better, own. ‘I hate those super-yachts,’ says One. ‘That’s a shame,’ says the other. A look passes between the two, One questioning, Two half-smiling in the pre-glow of a good putdown. ‘I was going to invite you aboard for dinner.’ ‘Well,’ One counters, ‘I didn’t mean yours of course.’
Cruise ship leaving Rhodes
And so, into the weekend and what does that hold in store? Just writing for me, at the moment. Some housework no doubt and the thrill of some repotting in the courtyard perhaps. I am popping back to Rhodes on Wednesday for the day, so that will give me a day out. The Wednesday boat is popular for shoppers. You can save the price of your ticket by spending only one hour in Lidl and, if you spend two hours in Carrefour, you can also afford a hire car. It’s one of those eccentric mathematical figurings where they manage to make the term ‘the more you spend the more you save’ sound logical. Never works for me. If you wanted to save you wouldn’t spend at all. But you know what I mean.
The famous diving board
It’s not just for the savings though, the reason the boats are treated like a local bus on shopping day. On Wednesday, with the boat on time, you actually get the right amount of shopping time. Leave here at 8.00, arrive just after 9.00 (this is with the punctual and fast Paros) and then you have five hours to do your stuff before being safely back on board with half an hour to spare. You can do the same on Friday but you have an extra four hours there. Perfect for a shop and a very long lunch but you’re not always guaranteed to leave on time if the weather is bad, as the boat goes down to Kastelorizo after Rhodes.
But yes, we have been having more boats including the Sea Dreams trips and some extra Dodekanisos coming for the day. I still advise you check the boat sites before you make your travel plans though as it’s still possible to not get back and forth conveniently on some days, and over-nigh stays in Rhodes are still possible.
Mandraki harbour
There, that’s it from me. It’s been a busy week, what with work and wiring, beeps and books, arsenic and old lace. (No idea why, just came out; great film, must find it again.) And so I am off for a quiet weekend now, I hope. You never know what lies in store when you get back to Symi.
Off topic with no matching photos I hope you found the ideas for summer reading of interest. I am now back from a few fun days in Rhodes; I was over there to have another of my routine check-ups organised by my health insurance company, Axa. This was a follow on visit and involved a 24-hour blood pressure monitor. Actually, as I write, it’s still not finished as I am still in my hotel in Rhodes, on Wednesday morning, filling in time by getting this post ready in advance. I know I will be rushed when I get back so I thought it best to have some text noted down to save time later. (No appropriate photos today, though they were taken in Rhodes.)
Rhodes
Here’s the story so far: I turned up at the cardiologist at the appointed time, or ten minutes early as that’s how I am. I took a seat on the leather sofas, the place was much quieter this time, and very soon I was called in to be fitted out. The doctor wired me up with an arm band and digital recorder of some sort that hung around my neck and fixed across my ‘Empire Line’ with a belt. It did take a little getting used to but I was more concerned about what I looked like than how it felt. It went under my shirt but stuck out a little bit at chest level, giving me the appearance of being barrel chested; not a great look, especially when your shirt won’t tuck in. I felt a couple of feet deep, as it were, when in fact it hardly showed at all. Anyway, that set up, and with instruction’s like something out of Gremlins, ‘don’t get it wet,’ and a phone number in case I had any troubles, off I went.
The instructions, basically, were: when you hear two beeps, stand still and let your arm dangle if standing, or rest on a chair arm, or table, or at night, lie it flat. The arm band will then tighten and do its thing and then undo its thing and the box will beep again. If you’re moving and you miss it, it will try again after two minutes. And so on, every 20 minutes until around midnight when it would become once per hour until seven in the morning. Clever little thing. So, off I go and, as I pass the Plaza Hotel, staring in the windows to see what I look like, I think I hear a beep, but don’t realise what it is until my arm starts to be squeezed. Ah ha! That’s how it goes, but it was too late and the reading was not taken. Two minutes later, I am self-consciously crossing the foyer at the Lydia hotel when I hear the beep. What to do? I reach the lift in time and press the button and then stand stock still, hoping the doors won’t open until the thing is done. I read the notice about checkout times diligently for a full minute, and the lift doors open just as I get the confirmation beep and I’m okay.
Rhodes
Before my visit I had done the other things I needed to do, get new glasses, return the old Ote router, etc. and so, after viewing myself every which way but loose-fitting in the mirror, I decide that there’s nothing to be done except go for a wander. I was just passing a ladies’ fashion shop when the beeps went. I stopped and admired some startling gold creation, several pairs of kitten heels and some alarming underwear for a minute, hoping the shop assistant didn’t come out and move me on, and then the second beep gave the okay to move on. Sitting at the Plaza for a mineral water while deciding where to lunch, I wondered how noisy I was going to be; there were other people sitting quite close by. The machine not only beeps but then it vibrates and rumbles slightly and, as it lets the air out of its arm band, it makes a controlled farting noise in nine puffs. This was of some concern until I realised that everyone’s phones, tablets, computers, iThings and even the people themselves were also beeping and vibrating and, no doubt, silently parping along with my machine. Anyway, there was music was playing (some lift-music compilation with pop songs sung by the girl from Ipanema, it sounded like, – imagine Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ sung huskily by Astrud Gilberto to a bossa nova rhythm. Odd enough, but then try ‘Where the streets have no name.’)
Rhodes
So, off to the Chinese place up the road as a) it was hot and I didn’t want to walk too far with my halter-neck, low-cut accessory and b) I know I can get simple chicken and vegetables there and not have to have anything with chips. I beeped and vibrated my way through a basic dish and a beer, thinking ‘Ha! Take that you BP monitor,’ and then wandered back to my hotel, stopping here and there to spontaneously sit with dodgy looking old men on walls opposite the college and not move for a minute, apparently for no good reason. I am surprised no one threw small change at me, or called the authorities. Later, after a rest in my room, I did some more walking, impromptu menu studying, sudden arresting on traffic islands, some rather stalkish behaviour on the seafront, and the occasional pause to deeply admire a tree. It took me a long while to realise that, in order to look normal, all you need to do in this circumstance is to stand still anywhere and stare at your mobile phone. No one bats an eyelid at static strangers staring at screens, so that became my modus operandi for the rest of the day.
Rhodes
Night-time came, after a very pleasant and cheap dinner at the Plaza, and I put my ear plugs in to guard against the beeping and air-expulsion noises and tried to sleep on my back. I’m usually a sleep-on-front kind of guy but that was out of the question. How does Iron Man do it? I wondered. I fell asleep once the once-an-hour routine kicked in and that was fine. Didn’t hear the beeps at all. But I did wake up with the feeling that someone was gripping my arm; gave me a bit of a shock the first time round, then I got used to that too. But it was a bit of a rough night to say the least. I finally gave up and got up when my nephew sent me a message from Gatwick to let me know he was about to get on the plane. I wrote back. He replied, ‘You’re up early.’ I replied, ‘Well, I am now,’ and so the day started.
Blimey, that was a long post. It’s now nearly time for me to take my accessory back to the doctor for the verdict, after which I am meeting said Nephew and heading home.
Today’s it’s about films, and two titles from About Travel’s list of top 10 films filmed in the Greek islands. First though, I have to plug my own third book about life on Symi. Whereas ‘Symi 85600’ covers the first five years of us living here and ‘Carry on up the Kali Strata’ covers the next couple, this one covers all of 2013. It’s a collection of blog posts, edited, and photos from the year on Symi Dream. This was also the year of my 50th birthday, so there is a section where we are away in Transylvania (everyone should go there) and while we were away, Jenine and her son, Sam, put in some posts about cooking and what it is like to be a boy at school on Symi.
It’s a day-to-day account of island life seen through our eyes and brings the reader right up to the end of 2013, so if you have all three books you have 10 years on Symi detailed in the articles, posts, letters and some short stories, all included. Again, if you want to search out more books or films with a Symi or a Greek theme, then you can use our Amazon store page which you will find here.
Summer Lovers
Onto the films. I know I said I would be talking about holiday reading but then I thought, this might make a nice diversion. There are loads on the list that are well known and that you’ve probably seen; Mamma Mia! Zorba the Greek, Never on a Sunday and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin etc. But there are two that I had never heard of. I thought I would mention those so you could check them out, and here’s what I found.
Summer Lovers came in at number four and the write up I found says: A guilty pleasure, this light-on-substance movie is filled with Darryl Hannah and Peter Gallagher in swimsuits, slightly kinky sexual situations, an irresistibly perky soundtrack (“I’m So Excited!” is the theme song), and glorious shots of Greece. Only problem? They combine several locations in Greece into one “super-island.”
Sounds intriguing and might well go onto my wish list for another day along with this one I don’t know: High Season. About.com writes: A personal favourite, this light-hearted romantic comedy has an intriguing darker side, but all takes second place to the beautiful Greek setting. It stars Jacqueline Bisset and a young Kenneth Branagh has a small role.
Driving Aphrodite
I will also add, as it wasn’t in their top 10, ‘Driving Aphrodite’ a romantic comedy by and with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding – another huge hit though not filmed in Greece). ‘Driving Aphrodite’ is also titled ‘My Life in Ruins’ for the American audience, and is filmed around Athens. It’s good fun, light and silly, but with great humour and views.
I know those three were films and not books, but hopefully they will inspire you to check out some more Greek reads and you can do a search via this link. All being well, I shall be back to my usual ramblings tomorrow. I should be back on Symi by now and all set to settle in for the regular daily blogging. Oh, apart from next Wednesday when I am nipping back to Rhodes for the day. But that’s a story of another day, or perhaps even another book.
Starting off with my second instalment of Symi observations, stories and history, ‘Carry on up the Kali Strata’ is a collection of pieces, mostly first published in the Symi Visitor newspaper. Sadly, the newspaper is no more, but you can find my contributions, plus other things, in this second book about life on Symi. This one started out in landscape form because of the photos we included, photos by Neil of course. It then went to the more standard portrait size and layout to make it consistent with my other books, and the photos remain. The Kindle versions also has photos and you can find the Amazon page here: Carry on up the Kali Strata You should also find links to the Kindle versions from that page.
The Necklace of Goddess Athena
A few days ago I was thrilled to be interviewed by Effrosyni Moschoudi. Effrosyni was born in Crete and now lives in Athens. She has published several books and you can find links to them on her blog. Effrosyni’s debut novel, The Necklace of Goddess Athena, is a supernatural mystery of Greek myths and time travel, and a touching family story with a good measure of romance. The book is a #1 Amazon bestseller.
You can find more about Effrosyni, her writing, and her promotions of other authors’ work, on her blog Effrosyniwrites.com – the interview with me should be published there towards the end of May, and I will let you know when it appears.
My Family and other Animals
And for today’s third idea for summer holiday reading with a Greek connection, how about ‘My Family and other Animals‘ by Gerald Durrell? This classic account of a family moving to Corfu in the 1930s when Durrell was 10 was recently adapted for British television, proving how timeless it is. I remember reading it at school, and since, and it’s still worth a re-read now. I remember when we first moved to Symi, someone asked us what Symi was like. I said, then, that if you read My Family and other Animals, you will get a rough idea of how Symi is. Of course it’s a bit more advanced now but still, the characters, the events, the traditions and the fun are all still here, along with the wildlife and the heat. That’s my third recommendation for the day and I hope it gives you some inspiration to read Durrell again, or explore Effrosyni for the first time, or even just carry on (up the Kali Strata) with some James Collins humour.
