A good Greek read

I mentioned that I might talk about books for a couple of days, while I am away. Well, I’ve been doing some searching around and I thought I would mention three Greece/book related items each day for the next three days. I will be starting with my own, of course – I mean, what else is the point of these pages? I know many regular readers have this already, or the kindle version, but for those who don’t, you might be interested in ‘Symi 85600.’

This is an honest account of our arriving on Symi back in 2002 and the five years following. it’s made up of actual diary entries and emails, letters and some articles that I wrote at that time.

I remember speaking to Faith Warn, who wrote ‘The Bitter Sea’ a book about sponge diving on Kalymnos and she asked if I was writing a diary about our experiences. This was within a few months of living here. I was, actually, and she told me that this (then) was the best time to do so as you are open and fresh and things are not clouded by experience as they might be later when you start to have opinions on what you see around you. So, Symi 85600 is just that. It’s also got a ‘How to’ guide at the end (How to move to a Greek island), there are some jottings from Neil and a few black and white doodles from me. You can find ‘Symi 85600’ here.

The Messenger Of Athens – Anne Zouroudi
You can’t talk about any ‘Symi based’ book without talking about this wonderfully evocative novel from Anne. Regular visitors to the island will recognise Symi places and people in the inspiration behind this book and anyone who loves Greece will love this book, and the others in the series. I mention this one particularly as it’s the first in the series and I know that it uses Symi as its backdrop. Follow this link, and then search around for other Anne Zouroudi titles, including her new short stories, here.

And the third item to consider is for Facebook users. A Good Greek Read is a group set up by John Manuel in Rhodes. John write the Ramblings From Rhodes blog where you can also find a link to his official author site. John writes novels as well as blog posts and on his Facebook group page he publicises the work of other writers who have set their novels in Greece, of which have a Greek theme. It’s a handy resource for finding good books and features on authors, and anyone who is a member can post their own thoughts and suggestions about, well, about good Greek reads.

There, there’s three or more ideas for you and I am sure you will find some extra holiday reading among the list of links above. I’ll be back tomorrow with three other Greek/Greece related ideas for summer (or winter) reading. I won’t actually be back, I’m writing this last Sunday as today I am not here; such is the wonder of time travel, or rather, scheduled blog posting. Enjoy your reading.

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Symi Weekend
We are certainly enjoying some great weather here; sorry, if you’re in the UK and it’s snowing where you are. It was 24 degrees in the shadiest part of the courtyard at the weekend as we were tidying up the plants and sweeping up, starting to do a bit of spring cleaning. Neil popped over the road to pay the rent and came back with a bottle of wine from our landlord. That went down well in the evening.

It felt like being on holiday on Saturday. After getting some work done and some odd jobs seen to around the house, we went down to Yialos to do a bit of shopping and ended up having lunch at Meralkis, for the first time this year. As usual we were very well looked after and had a great meal at a good price, and were just about to leave when a jug of wine appeared on the table from the house. It was clearly going to be a day of wine-gifts. Afterwards we went to Mediteraneo to sit and look at the sea, and watch the world go past. The music they were playing sounded like sublime soundtracks from films (it was ‘Emotions’ from the Compact Disc Club), in fact, it sounded like it was the soundtrack underscoring the film we were in right at that moment, not that we were, it just felt like we were. Flat sea, beautiful blue sky, boats on the water, life wandering lazily by…

Back up to the village and a quick pit-stop at the bar, a few people came and joined us, there was an attempt to press-gang us into staying for one more, but there comes a point when you know you that if you do have that ‘just one more’ you’ll be over the edge and the next thing you know you’ll be waking up on the floor, at home, with a traffic cone on your head and your toenails painted red. (Note: that’s never actually happened to me. Yet.)

Sunday dawned just as gloriously as Saturday had and, having a coffee on the balcony at 7.30, I could already tell it was going to be a hot day. It was good to see day-trippers in Yialos over the weekend, the train is running again, some bars and cafes are still finishing off their summer preparations and others are already open and attracting customers. It looks like the season has started up and hopefully it’s going to be a good one.

I’m off to Rhodes this afternoon on the Panagia Skiedani. Two nights in a hotel, another health check-up and some light shopping, and then back on Wednesday afternoon on the Blue Star. Meanwhile, Neil’s at home doing his college course and getting the house ready for our nephew who arrives on Wednesday, and I will get some blog posts ready in advance. They will probably be advertising my own work, which I know a lot of readers have already, but I’ll see if I can find some other Greece/book related ideas for you, perhaps to buy as summer holiday reading, or while you are sitting in the UK looking out at the snow.

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And back to Symi…
Well, we’ve been back here over a week, but what I mean is that the blog returns to the more usual Symi news, our news and general day-to-day on a Greek island, which is what the blog is partly about. So, what’s new?

Writing this on Friday, and I’ve seen four boats come in today, two went out again and two are staying, the other two will be calling back later and then the staying two will go. Things are picking up, summer-wise, and I just saw a large group of people get off the Dodekanisos Express. That came in not long after the Sea Dreams (the Symi) had arrived. That pulls in on this side of the harbour so I can’t see how many people came in on it. The Blue Star Paros came and went speedily and efficiently and early. The Diagoras, our usual Blue Star, is being worked on as it usually is this time of year, so we have the faster and more stable Paros. And the Dodekanisos Pride came in this morning from Rhodes on its run up to the other islands and back. So, Friday is a good day to get to Symi by boat at the moment.

We went down to Yialos on Thursday and I bought a ticket for Rhodes on Monday, as I am going back to see the cardiologist again and also meet my nephew who is coming to stay. Neil will be staying here working and looking after the Alarm Cat. He’s getting on a bit now and is having trouble with his leg (the cat, I mean, not Neil). He’s also losing a little fur in places but not enough for me to think it’s a mite or anything, not yet at least. He is in his 14^th year after all. He’s currently up on the roof finding shade and having his morning snooze. He’s also become rather fond of the red sofas, which is why there are towels and blankets down; it’s not incontinence, it’s moulting time now that the temperatures are up in the 20s. (I am wearing shorts for the first time in months, but you don’t want to picture that.)

We’ve also just come back from a shopping trip to the supermarket, always an adventure. We ordered a tray of cat food for the strays and that was delivered to the house while we were still in the shop meeting and greeting half the village. It’s all a bit mad in there at times, which makes shopping a laugh, but we came out with what we wanted, I think. You sometimes have to do your own bagging at the moment, not an issue, as Sotiris had another hand operation recently and must rest it. Meanwhile, George was slicing meat for some ladies, Sultana was weighing our vegetables (neither of which are euphemisms), Spiros was discussing his moustache with Neil and Habib was taking care of everything else. It’s like a sitcom at times and, as long as you don’t let yourself get stressed out over it, it’s great fun.

You may see, in small, local shops, the way that locals do their shopping. We go for the basket approach (we are basket cases, clearly) and gather things together in one and carry it around. Others go for the stack-’em at the till approach; heading off to pick up a can of this or a packet of that, bringing it back to the till desk and leaving it there while they then go off for other things, repeating the exercise until the table is awash with produce and no one is too sure what belongs to whom. ‘Whose is this salami?’ shouts Sotiris. ‘Diko mou einai,’ replies someone from behind the crispbreads. (It’s mine.) Someone else calls out something I shan’t repeat here, everyone has a good laugh and whoops there go the onions. It’s been that kind of a morning so far.

So I shall get on with the rest of the day which today means sweeping up the courtyard, tidying up the kitchen, making lunch, turning off the water intake as we are now full up, and then maybe later getting some more work done on ‘Remotely’ as more edits and typos have been found by my readers and we are keen to get the thing ‘put to bed.’

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My healthy heart is in Greece
(Thanks to lack of grease in my diet.)

Today’s ramble concerns the info on my recent cardio check-up in Rhodes, but first: Symi is starting to see more day-trippers, more business are ready or open, more boats are coming in and the temperature is waking up nicely. We’re now getting to the stage where we might have to come home from the shops via a circuitous route so as to avoid being called in for a free drink at the bar, or being invited to sit down with returning home owners, visitors and friends, more and more of whom are appearing on the island. Here comes summer.

But, back to the engaging story of my recent health holiday in Rhodes. On the Tuesday, my insurance company had arranged an appointment with a cardiologist as part of my annual MOT. The cardiologist in this case was situated opposite the Plaza Hotel so was easy to find and I went on my own five minutes early. The place was busy with local folk but the receptionist saw me hanging around at the door and invited me in, took my name, was expecting me, and showed me to the waiting room. There were three leather sofas, mainly occupied, but with a free space right next to the open window. I was grateful for that as I’d been for a walk around the headland to kill time and was a bit hot. One of my fellow patients leaped up as I sat down and closed the window, complaining of the cold and within a minute I was swimming around on the leather sofa, trying not to slide off it, hoping that the doctor would understand why I was so wet.

As the place was so busy/popular I expected to wait a while and turned my attention to watching the daytime TV show where I was taught how to make a lampshade out of a balloon and old string. Thankfully the receptionist cut that mind-numbing-number short by sitting with me a while and filling out a form with me. Strange looks from the others; why was this chap being seen to? A few minutes later she popped back and a few others got to their feet expecting to be the next in line. It soon became apparent that there was actually no queue as such, and I was invited to go in next. I believe a few knives were drawn, but then that’s the advantage of having an appointment booked rather than turning up on spec. Anyway, I was thoroughly checked over, heart-wise and the doctor and I had a quick chat. All was fine but a follow up, 24 hour, trace would be a good idea as the insurance company would cover it. I will pay 10% of the fee (€10.00) when I return next week for the day to be wired up like Frankenstein’s monster. I have to go back to collect the new glasses anyway, so that’s not an issue.

After this exam I was free from medical extravagance for the rest of the day, so did some more walking around. Neil (who had returned from his own appointment with his allergy doctor who declared his breathing to be the best she had seen from him in the last year) and I settled on lunch at George’s giros pace in the old fish market. They’d made fresh lasagne so a slice of that sufficed. More walking and then, as it was quiet and siesta time, we called into the Cosmote building to check out our often failing internet service. The very helpful guy there asked for our phone number, looked us up and declared that we could now get a 12Mb connection for €10.00 less than we were currently paying for our 2Mb one and here’s a new router; plug and play, Kominos, the OTE man on Symi will come and fix the phone line outside the house and then we just return the old outer. So, another good saving and you shouldn’t hear me complaining about our connection again. (It does still drop out occasionally but not to nothing, only down to five or six Mbs, which is still twice what we were getting.)

So, all good news there. In the evening we met a friend from Rhodes and dined at Kontiki, the floating restaurant in Mandraki. A great end to a good trip where we were treated like lords thanks to our health insurance with AXA.

And tomorrow, back to the more regular blogging about… well, something. I’ve not decided yet.

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