Definitely sizzling on Symi
Oh boy, it was a warm weekend. Sunday afternoon and the temperature is up in the mid to high thirties; 34 in the shade in our courtyard, with a gentle breeze doing its best to help out. We sat and watched a film last night, fan on, windows open, sweat pouring and I think I’ve been through six bottles of water in under two days. Perfect for holidaying as long as you are sensible. The cat’s a bit grumpy about it though we brush him and remove some of his fur for him. Accuweather and Windfinder are giving a very conservative estimate of the temperature in the high twenties, but the thermometers on Symi itself are definitely above 34.

We took a walk into Yialos on Saturday and ended up having lunch at Meraklis this time; a very nice chicken souvlaki and a chicken with mushrooms and cream, and all at a very good price. On Sunday I did some work on the next book after ‘Remotely’ which is to be called ‘The Saddling’, as you might have read before. It’s interesting to be writing a Gothic horror set in the marshes of Kent in December when it’s so hot outside; that’s where the imagination comes in I suppose. But I am getting on with it and had a very productive morning while Neil worked on his course and the cat mumbled about being hot.

One of our plants has flowered. We bought this from the garden store next to the town hall last year and this is the first time it has flowered. It’s called, so I am told, a Fruit Salad Frangipani, also known as a Pulmaria. The first sounds like a dessert and the second sounds like a character from a Vincent Price film. (See ‘The Abominable Dr Phibes, 1971, a camp horror directed by Robert Fuest, and the sequel, ‘Dr Phibes Rides Again’, 1972, same director, similar story, just different ways of killing off the cast. His great love was called ‘Vulnavia’ which I think doesn’t flower until the autumn. Joking.)

The donut was in use out in the bay on Sunday afternoon. Say what? The rubber ring that people sit in and get dragged around in and eventually fall off. There were several people having fun at Nos beach. From up here we saw water skiing, jet skiing, the donut and swimmers, plus some speedboats, sailing boats and the usual taxi boats. It’s all go down there and I often sit up here in weather like this wondering why I am not down there in the sea which is, at the moment, about the only place to keep cool. And it’s still only June.

After the delightful madness of last week and the several invitations, we only have one so far this week, which will give me lots of time to be at home and work on the various projects, I hope. Meanwhile, village events continue with live Greek music at Georgio’s on a Friday night, live Greek and Turkish music at Syllogos on a Friday night (and Thursday and Saturday, apparently, check the posters) and live jazz/rock/blues on a Friday night at The Secret Garden. Friday night is clearly music night in Horio. I am sure there are music events in Yialos as well and if I hear of any I’ll let you know so you can plan your eventing on Symi ready for when you arrive. I trust you are coming to Symi this year?

I’ll leave you now and get back to you tomorrow with any more non-news that I may have.

Symi nearly sizzling already
It’s certainly warming up here on Symi as a heatwave comes in over Greece. It was 32 degrees yesterday, according to the thermometer in the shadiest part of our courtyard, the porch. All three day boats came in with day-trippers; I hope everyone was wearing sun block and hats, and drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated. We seem to have had all kinds of weather in the past few weeks, with some rain, wind, cooler temperatures and now, at last, the heat of June.

The mornings are hazy as you will see from a couple of the photos today; they were taken on Wednesday morning and show the Panagia Skiadeni heading out at seven, followed by the Blue Star Paros coming in a little later. It looks like some evening boats from Rhodes have started up now. Looking at the Dodekanisos website I see you can now get from Rhodes to Symi on: Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning (with two boats, one direct and one via Panormitis), Tuesday with the Panagia Skiadeni direct, Wednesday (two boats), and Thursday with the Panagia again, direct.

And from Rhodes to Symi in the evening on the Panagia Skiadeni on Saturday 19:00, Sunday at 19.15, Monday at 16:30, Tuesday at 19:00, Wednesday at 19:00 (and Friday at 19:00 on the Blue Star Paros) – but check those times on the website in case they change. The Wednesday evening one may be of help to visitors arriving on the traditional British change-over day, as long as you’ve landed by, say 17:00, leaving just enough time for luggage collection and a taxi. So, hopefully some good news there.

As for our week this week, I think today is the first time I will have time to settle down to some writing and a day at home. We’ve been invited out two or three times by some very generous people, we’ve said goodbye to George and his friend with a dinner at Taverna Zoi, been to Georgios two nights in a row and spent a few hours with visitors at the Rainbow bar. That’s on top of the usual day-to-day at home, shopping, visits to the bank to get the rent money, feeding the stray cats, watering plants, doing the housework and writing the blog when I get a chance. It’s all go here – oh and also taking more showers now that the weather is warming up. We’re almost at that stage where you come out of a cool shower and try and dry off only to find you’re wet again from sweat straight away. Roll on Summer!

And so, off into the weekend with nothing planned except work on our college courses: Neil’s IGCSE in human rights and equality and my assignment eight (out of ten) in my scriptwriting course. I’ve got to come up with a title, logline, synopsis, scene breakdown, character outlines and treatment for a 15-minute film. So I shan’t get much time for the beach this weekend. Have a good one!

Taxiarchis apartments and studios, Symi
Today’s post is all about Taxiarchis, just one of the places you can stay when you visit Symi. We were invited here the other night for drinks on one of the terraces and, as Mother is staying here later in the year, I thought this would be a good opportunity for her to see some shots of the grounds.

The complex is made up of studios and apartments, all modern and well fitted out, very clean and very well looked after. I think rooms are cleaned every day apart from Sundays. The grounds are gorgeous and Frank, who runs/owns it with his family, is very personable. I’ve heard from visitors over the years about his offers to take them out on boats for the day, he is fully licensed, and I also heard he sometimes throws barbeques for guests. He’s very generous and no one has a bad word to say about him.

The complex is not far from Campos supermarket in Horio. You get off the bus at the main stop and walk down past the doctor’s surgery a little way and then turn right into a lane that leads to the apartments. It’s not a long walk and the walk back up to the village, though up a slope, is not a steep one. It’s possible to get from Taxiarchis to the Rainbow Bar, for example, with only a few steps involved, and it only takes a couple of minutes. But, when you are at the apartments, you hardly hear any traffic. You are more likely to be ‘disturbed’ by the mules braying and the cockerels calling, the birds and the nearby goats and sheep, if such things disturb you rather than lighten your mood. It’s right on the edge of the top of the valley with great views down to Pedi.

You can book accommodation there directly with the owner, or you can go through a number of travel agents, including: Symi Visitor, Kalodoukas Holidays, Olympic Holidays, and many others. There is a You Tube video from Hotelz.TV Greece which you can find here. (Shame about the music and the image quality, but it will give you some inside views that I was not able to take the other night.) The grounds also feature a terrace for guests and a large reception area and I know for a fact that the Dolphin Pizza restaurant in Yialos will deliver there.

Scroll down for the rest of the photos.

Greek cats calendar
Lets’ think ahead to next year. I know, it’s early, but I want to draw your attention to two new calendars to come out of Symi that are now ready. You could start to stock up ahead of the end of year rush and get them now in case the price goes up. Actually the Greek Cats calendar may go up in price as it’s currently on an introductory offer.

These are two calendars from Neil who has been producing a popular Symi calendar for a few years now. You will see links to them over on the right of this page, beneath the advert for Symi 85600, which remains my most popular book to date, but it’s not about me today it’s about Neil’s calendars for 2017. Click the links over there >> (I’ll also give them at the bottom of this post) and you will get to the Lulu page where they are sold from.

Now, listen very carefully as I will say this only once… These are ONLY available online, you can’t buy them on the island, you can only buy them from Lulu.com by following these links. You can, when there, share them via the myriad of social networking systems available these days and spread the news about to others who might like a calendar of Symi images and/or a calendar of Symi/Greek cats.

But I am not signed up to Lulu! You cry. Well, that is easily fixable. You simply go to the register/login link at the top of their page and then fill out your name, email address and make up a password. Accept the membership conditions, but uncheck the other box if you don’t want emails, and click on register. It’s easy and you’ll get access in moments. I know the page talks about how easy it is to publish books and things, but customers as well as authors sign up this way, so ignore that. Then, click the calendars’ links again or search for Neil Gosling and you will find them. You can change your store using the flag symbol next to ‘Login/Register’ at the top of the page and see the prices in your local currency – and your postage will also be local and thus cheaper than if you keep to the default, American store. I have mine set to Ireland so I can get the prices in Euros and still have the site language in English.

But I don’t like using online payments! You say. Well, I’ve been doing it for years and have had no hassles and, if you want one of these calendars you will have to buy it online as they are not available anywhere else. There I’ve said it again now.

Also, once you are on the calendars’ pages you can see a preview link beneath the calendar cover image; this lets you flick through the content online so you can see what treats you are in for before you buy.

There you go, that’s at least some of your Christmas shopping taken care of well in advance, now, while you’ve got the money (I start my collection of things early in the year and buy things bit by bit). Have a good day and enjoy your calendar when it arrives – you will have to add on VAT and postage of course, but do get them soon before the price goes up.

Cat Calendar 2017

Symi Dream Calendar 2017

Meanwhile, on Symi…
And back to normal broadcasting… Thank you for your comments on yesterday’s post.

Here is the latest news from Symi on Tuesday morning, yesterday as you read this. It’s blowing a bit of a gale but that’s due to calm down this afternoon, and the rain seems to have passed by, taking the early morning thunder with it. The sea is quite choppy but the boats are still running and that’s just as well as Nephew George and his friend are leaving today to head back to England on Wednesday afternoon. Could be a bit choppy on the way over and they may regret their late night at Harani and Vapori bars where, they tell me, they had a great time with friendly staff and customers.

In slightly connected-to-Symi news, some readers may have been at the Symi Dream gallery on a wine night when my friend and cabaret partner, Kinny Gardner, gave as an impromptu concert from the balcony. This was… years ago now. Kinny has been running a children’s theatre company in the UK for many years and since 2000 has been devising, writing and appearing in shows created specifically so that deaf and hard of hearing children can watch and enjoy alongside their hearing families and friends. I’ve written or arranged the music for a couple of these, ‘The Very Magic Flute’ is still touring in the UK with my arrangements of Mozart’s themes (grave and rolling in his, come to mind) and all of the Krazy Kat productions are well received and suitable for an included audience. Her Majesty the Queen acknowledged Kinny’s work in her birthday honours list last week and he has been awarded an BEM, a British Empire Medal, for his services to the arts and disability in the arts. Here’s a photo of one of the leading campaigners for inclusion in arts and media:

Meanwhile, back on Symi, what news do we have? Well, since being back from Tilos I’ve been trying to get back to the diet that was so successful during the early part of the year. Trouble is, there are so many lovely people coming back and visiting and wanting to meet up for a drink, or a meal, that one often has to keep a diary, or at least a dance card. I’ll get back to the semi-starvation and total denial as soon as I can, though there’s no promises as to when that might be, not at this rate!

At the Olive Tree fundraising afternoon on Sunday, where the girls arranged a Queen’s birthday celebration complete with guess the weight of the cake (made to the same recipe that the Queen has on her birthday), somewhere in the region of €500.00 was raised to help the high school with its basic needs. You can still donate when at the OT should you be coming this way soon and want to help with a local need. By the way, the cake was 3lbs 3oz so I was about one pound out and Neil about one stone out. ‘I put one stone six,’ he said. ‘One stone…!’ ‘I got mixed up with the pounds and ounces thing.’ Understandable; if I make a sponge cake it usually comes out weighing about a stone and half more than the weight of the things I put in it, but the ladies at the OT know what they are doing.

I am sure there is lots of other news to be aware of, but if there is, I don’t know it. So I’ll head of into the rest of my Tuesday, which will include seeing Nephew George off to the bus stop and then, hopefully, getting down to some reading. And on that subject, I picked up a copy of my own ‘The Judas Inheritance’ yesterday and thought I would have a look. I don’t often do this as, by the time the books are published, it’s usually too late to make any more edits and I am still thinking about edits on lyrics I wrote for shows nearly 20 years ago. But, I have to say, apart from a couple of times where I would have now taken out that word and replaced it with this, it’s not bad. Fast, atmospheric and I’d forgotten a lot of what’s in it, so I, like many readers, am finding it hard to put down. If you’ve not read it, you might like to take a look: The Judas Inheritance. (Still no news on the final cut of the film version, ‘The Thirteenth’.)