Symi summer season has started! (Or maybe not)
We have a couple of yachts in the bay this morning marking the start of the Symi summer season. They are not the kind of vessel you usually see around here in the winter. They came in last night, after dark and are still there today. I can’t see their names and they don’t show up on ‘Live Ships’ so I can’t be nosey and see who they might belong to. Perhaps they are very early season holiday-makers acting on yesterday’s blog and getting their Symi holiday in early. (Unlikely.)
In the bay this morning
Perhaps they are something to do with the military activity I saw the other day; the helicopter coming in and setting down some importantly looking men in uniform who were met by solders from the training camp and driven away. Perhaps it’s a rich someone trying to find out how much it would cost to buy Symi and soon we will find ourselves a subsidiary of the king of Al Kaleffa and his lands. (How exciting.) Or maybe it’s old Stephen Spielberg back again for another recce of the island as he’s thinking about filming another war film here like he was a hundred years ago, or whenever it was.
Maybe just taking shelter
Or maybe it’s just too early in the morning to think about it. I am, once again, rattling off a post before settling down to work as I didn’t get it together to get one together yesterday. And yesterday was another day for staying at home and enjoying the full day to myself. Today I keep threatening myself with a walk to Yialos and back to see if the new thermals have arrived as cold weather is due to set in again next week. We’ll see how the morning goes; but if I do go down I may find out who the boats belong to, I expect the whole harbour is talking about them. (Not.)
Symi Holidays 2016
We received the good news yesterday that Mother has found a good deal on a Symi holiday and this made me wonder what other deals might be out there. Not that I need a Symi holiday you understand, as most days are holidays around here in the winter. But you might be wondering where to head to this summer and might be put off by gloomy ‘Grexit’ news, worrying ‘Brexit’ news, or ridiculous ‘Bung an exit on the end and pretend it’s actually something dramaticexit’ news, as I am sure what you see on the telly and read in the papers is only the worst of the news. There is no reason at all not to come to Greece, especially Symi and, when you’ve holidayed here and it comes time to leave, why, you can Say Sayonara Symi as you make your Sexit. Maybe not, and that’s enough talk about exits.
Today’s images are from last summer on Symi
Here’s a very quick and random look at one holiday company’s deals for two people, two weeks in July and two in September/October, staying at a very well-respected and lush apartment complex in the village, flights and transfers included.
£530 per person on a Wednesday transfer and £493 on a Saturday one – early July, Gatwick to Rhodes – this is on an overnight flight each way (actually cheaper if you are a single traveller – no supplement it seems)
£383 per person on a Wednesday transfer and £414 on a Saturday one – last week of September, Gatwick to Rhodes – this is with a 09.00 take off in London and 15.55 from Rhodes, which are not bad times to fly, as long as you can get to Gatwick by seven in the morning. (The Wednesday offer there is slightly more if you are single, but the same price if you are single on a Saturday. How odd.)
Ah yes, the summer train
I only looked briefly, there are loads of other deals out there, there are also the local travel agents to try and the local Symi holiday tour operators. You can find details of holiday companies operating on Symi on Symi Best (www.symibest.gr) which is still pretty up to date.
And the usual harbour chain-snag game
There, a quick post to plant the seed of your next Symi holiday and a couple of very quick, internet search examples from a British holiday company. And if you were to ask me seriously about my holiday this year, I would have to say, ‘Wait and see.’ As that is what I am doing. It’s going to depend on all kinds of things but I would like to get another week of writing in somewhere along the line, perhaps even two as I seem to have some much needing to come out and find its home on paper these days and so many distractions at home. A getaway might be the only solution. Perhaps Kalymnos for a week, or further afield; Patmos perhaps… Time will tell.
Tuesday morning Symi Just a few words this morning as I’m already running late. It’s on mornings like this that you don’t want to be out in a small boat doing your fishing at seven in the morning. It’s not particularly cold, though it’s not warm, it’s not windy, but it is rather overcast and it looks like there could be rain on the way today. And down below, in the bay, there is one small, lone fishing boat; the rest of the sea is clear, lonely.
All rather dramatic this morning
This is the first time in ages I’ve written a post actually on the day of the post, as I usually do them in advance now, but I got caught up in things yesterday and never got around to it. So, straight from bed, straight to the roof for some photos and then straight to the desk and no idea what to tell you. There has been no earth-shattering news from Symi that I am aware of, everything ticks over rather quietly. We have had no refugees arrive for a couple of weeks, the scheduled boats have been coming and going and the Christmas decorations are still up in certain parts of the island, but that’s all par for the course at this time of year. The bins get emptied…
The guys are at work early
Things continue to run as usual and also rather smoothly and I continue to do my thing. I did do some work on another writing project over the weekend, leaving the Donkeys to fend for themselves for a day or two. I started work on another story idea that’s been floating around for a while now, as stories tend to do. It’s slowly developing in my mind as I work on several other projects (must sit down and finish one at some point) but the weekend was a turning point in ‘getting it out’ (of the imagination and onto paper). At least, the rough structure is down, the timeline, the outline of characters, the logline, synopsis and basic structure questions: who, where, what, why, how, will, whether, and many others starting with W and ending with a ?
Not a lot happening out there
So -that’s at least some good, creative news from over the weekend. That and the fact that Neil bought some drops for the cat’s eye and we’ve administered the proper stuff twice now and, later this morning, I shall do battle with him again (the cat) and see how his poorly eye is doing.
Symi in the winter
This time Monday feels like the first Monday back to work after Christmas. Even though I did do some work last week, it still felt too festive to settle right back into it. But today is the day.
All quiet in town
I am not sure how many people are working down in Yialos though, as Symi in the winter continues to feel very quiet – more so than I have noticed in other year’s. We were down there on Friday and had a walk around and, as you will see from some of the photos, there was hardly a soul about. The ferry had been in so no doubt some of the population was over on Rhodes getting things done, others staying indoors, others away still for the festive period. There would be no trouble finding a table at this time of year, unlike the busy days of summer, but the trouble isn’t so much finding a table but finding an open taverna. But that’s how it is on Symi in the winter.
It looks very different in the summer
I imagine it is very similar on other island or even quieter on some; I wonder what Tilos is like at this time of year. It would be possible to go and find out though I’d have to stay for a week, or else travel via Rhodes as our only direct connection is on a Friday night. You can get up and down the islands without too much hassle during the winter, there are three trips up from Rhodes to the other Dodecanese islands via Symi, though not all to the same destinations; you can reach Patmos only on a Sunday, but on a Monday and Saturday you can reach Agathonisi, should you wish to pop in there for five minutes (it doesn’t stop, just turns right around and heads back down the line of islands again).
Quiet lanes
But I’ve got no plans to go anywhere until March when the annual MOT becomes due – the health insurance covers me for a round of annual check-ups courtesy of AXA. I’m saving up to invest in new glasses too, so might get the full package this year. I usually do this in March every year, or April, as the resulting telling off by the doctors usually inspires me on to get back out on my early walk regime… something I will do when the weather is warmer. Meanwhile, walking up the Kali Strata once or twice a week will have to do and it’s still more exercise than I used to get in car-obsessed Blighty in a month.
New benches in Yialos
Anyway, I didn’t sit down here to ramble and yet I can’t help myself. I should now sign off and get on with some work as this is, after all, the first real day back at work after Christmas. But maybe I’ll just go and get the binoculars out and see what’s going on out at sea first, or put some ointment in the cat’s eye – actually I need to go the pharmacist and get some first, I am running him on weekend-make-do treatments at the moment. He’s got a touch of conjunctivitis (as diagnosed by a private word with the Royal Personal Physician (thank you again for the advice)) which needs some antibiotic drops. As often happens on Symi, the cat needs something but there is no ferry to Rhodes for five days (as he went down with this on Friday morning) so you improvise and visit the pharmacy, both of which are very good at helping with animal medicine when they can. So, after those distractions are dealt with I might get down to some work at last.
The fiction farm
A busy day at the fiction farm yesterday. We’ve started to put the first chapter of ‘Straight Swap’ into the layout and editing process. It’s all about font size and gutters, margins and layout for the moment. We arrange the chapters in a template that the editor makes up in a thing called In Design, but we need to decide on that template first.
A walk in the sun
We’re going with the same size and layout at ‘Lonely House’ and ‘The Judas Inheritance’ as this next one is also being published via RC Publications, so it’s a ‘house’ style thing. We’ve dropped the font size down to 12 from 14, as it was for the others, because ‘Straight Swap’ is around 120,000 words in length and I want to keep the number of pages down. The more pages, the more it costs to print a copy, but it is still easy enough to read. When we finally get the Kindle version out you will be able to select your own font size, so that’s not an issue.
I’ve seen the first chapter layout, though nothing has been edited yet, and it looks fine. A bold heading, the quote – each chapter starts with a quote – and then the main text in a standard way. All I need do now is make any last edits and send each chapter up as a separate file. Meanwhile, I’ve been doing the Donkey work on ‘Donkeys.’ The story, for those who don’t know it:
Some shoes on a ledge
A few years ago two of us set about wringing a screenplay about the first gay marriage in Greece. (Imaginary, in our case, though there was a ceremony carried out on Tilos several years ago now.) Even civil partnerships were illegal then, and they are only now just coming into being, or were about to just before Christmas, I’m not sure where the legislation is right now. The script caught the attention of a South African producer who found a director and started looking into funding but, as is the case in 99% of film projects, no funds were forthcoming, despite alleged interest from some ‘names’ and Elton John. The script hung around on the professional script-selling sites for a while and the moment passed. But during all the time it’s sat there, people have been urging me to write the novel version and that’s what I’ve started doing.
More walking in the sun
Only this isn’t your average novel, it’s very fast, the points of view change constantly and there is minimal lengthy backstory. It’s a story written from a screenplay, literally; I’ve copied the text and dialogue across and am basically filling out the gaps and allowing myself a little space to expand on things, which a film script doesn’t give you space or time for. So it’s not going to be my usual style, but it is coming on.
And sometimes under the cloud
And that’s what I have been doing these past few days as the festivities of Christmas slowly fade and bit by bit one returns to the usual routine. Up until yesterday I was still in sofa mode, settling in in the late afternoon with some films, while the wind battered the shutters and the sea swelled, while the cat made vain attempts to sit on my head and puncture my anatomy and the Christmas lights taken from the tree lit up the hall windowsill and I made my way through the last of the chocolates, blue cheese and other goodies which lose some of their sparkle and attractiveness by January 7th onwards. Back to the working grind and back to the quiet winter on Symi.
View from the Castro, you can see Taverna Zoi’s roof terrace and the roof of the new hospital
