Facebook and Symi Dream
I’m not sure if it’s the same today (I will check in a moment) but yesterday we had a slight glitch with a widget. I think something had updated within the workings of the site but something else wasn’t able to keep up. If you see a link on Facebook and it doesn’t link back to the site, bear with me while we sort the new upgrade out.

Technical news out of the way, what else is there to tell you? Well, Thursday started grey and very overcast with heavy clouds keeping back the sun. The sea as all shades of gunmetal and grey with darker parts where the wind was blowing, but no white caps, and lighter parts where the clouds above were not quite as dark. Later, all view was extinguished by heavy rain and a thunderstorm. Still a pretty amazing site from the office window though, and one which an old school mate was jealous of when he rang me…

This Facebook thing has certainly brought me up to date with some old school friends and others from way back when, but this was the first time I’d actually spoken to someone from all that time ago, 34 years to be exact. But it was great and we fell into a conversation really easily. We had been in school shows together, though we weren’t in the same year, so we had things to talk about. Mainly some school revues, ‘Cox and Box’, ‘Trial by Jury’ and ‘the Sound of Music’ which we were both in. Pete is now living in New Zealand after doing a similar thing to me (leaving the UK when in our thirties), where he has a wife and a son. It seems like only yesterday we were duetting on ‘The Buttercup’ with all that Fiddle diddle dum. Great to catch up with my Mr Box, Pete.

Okay then, a little background for those who are interested. My old comprehensive school was very good at theatre and music and all of the old school friends I remember or am still in touch with were friends made during shows and concerts, of which there were many. In my time as a teenage thespian I played: The art teacher in ‘Unman, Wittering and Zigo’, Lord Paul Posthumous in ‘Free As Air’, Bolligrew in ‘The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew’, ‘Max in ‘The Sound of Music’, something in ‘The Mikado’, Cox in ‘Cox and Box’ and the Judge in ‘Trial by Jury.’ I was, outside of school, also in several other shows including playing Charles in ‘Blythe Spirit’ and Ali Hakim in ‘Oklahoma’ the finale of which always foxed me as I could never get the spelling right. There should be an ‘a’ in Oklahoma. (Oaklahoma. Yes, I know, but that’s how my mind works.)

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Quick Thursday post
Quiet days on Symi in the winter. Very quiet, actually. In fact, taking a walk yesterday afternoon we hardly saw anyone, even when we came back into the village square mid-afternoon. Rainbow is closed for a while but Lefteris’ is open, and the weather was warm, usually there would be someone outside the kafeneion, or inside, but no. It all feels very quiet indeed around here at the moment…

But that’s kind of standard for this time of year. Many people are away, or have gone away to work, while others are staying in, resting after the season and saving what little money they may have made and saved for the winter. There are some festivals happening through these winter months, like Epiphany yesterday, plus other church events and people will get to together there and meet up. Later in the winter there will be the carnival too, but with Easter being late this year in Greece (Great Sunday is May 1^st this year but 27^th March in the UK) carnival and Lent will also be late.

But still, we had a good short walk around the road behind our house. This road gives you views down to the back of Yialos and the hills on the other side. You can also see the back of the village when you round the corner by the second bin collection point, where other stray cats are being looked after. And then the road bleeds off into the village lanes, with an option to head down the Kateractis to Yialos if you want to.

It’s still a bit cloudy and grey around here at times, and more rain is promised for today, but at least it has warmed things up a bit. The Blue Star came and went on Wednesday, back to its usual timetable after the Christmas and New Year period, and the catamaran has also been doing its trips from and later back to Rhodes, though the island is still without a boat on certain days of the week and you can only really spend any time in Rhodes, if on a day trip, on a Friday, which often results in arriving back later than you hoped. But I don’t hear anyone complaining, at least not yet and I’m certainly not complaining. But then I am not intending to leave the island for a couple of months unless I absolutely have to. And on the subject of have to: back to work.

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A Brief History Ramble

I am reading a history book at the moment, it’s a really good one that I bought for Neil for Christmas. (Tip: always buy them something you can share, it feels like you are halving the price of the purchase.) The book has a rather in-depth title: “Great Tales From English History: Cheddar Man to DNA: A Treasury of True Stories of the Extraordinary People Who Made Britain Great” and was written by Robert Lacey. It’s informative, funny at times, easy to read and gives you some amazing little stories.

The stories are not as in-depth as the title, but they provide you with interesting outlines of things from English history. He also puts different spins on some of the tales, while showing up some as myths. Alfred and the cakes for example: not cakes and probably not a real event, but shush, don’t tell anyone. I’m back in the dark ages at the moment, in terms of where I am in history, and it’s all very interesting. Did you now the Vikings got as far as Spain and that Russia is named after a Viking settlement? Hmm, interesting. Each chapter or tale is only a couple of pages long making it a perfect ‘pick up and put down’ book. You can catch a story while waiting to use the loo (or while on it), or you can read a whole century’s worth while waiting for a bus. There are three volumes in total and you could probably read all three several times through while waiting for a hospital bed in certain parts of the kingdom, so there you go.

While thinking about history in general, and while taking a break from writing ‘Donkeys’, I had a quick check up of what else happened on this day in history, January 6^th – Epiphany in the church calendar, the day after the 12^th Day of Christmas and the day local men are, as we speak, throwing themselves in the cold grey sea to retrieve the cross, after the church service and blessing of the waters and boats, before parading said cross around the town and village and raising money for their church. (Search the blog for more detailed posts about Epiphany on Symi.) But before you do that, what else went on, on this day in history?

1066: Yesterday, Harold has his eye on becoming king. Today, January 6^th, 1066, Harold II was crowned king of England. He didn’t last very long in the post as someone else had their eye on the throne and, on October 16^th, Harold said, ‘No!’ and William said ‘Aye!’ And someone shouted, ‘Keep your eyes peeled for arrows.’ But Harold didn’t and the eyes had it. Allegedly.

The news didn’t travel very fast because Morse had not yet invented the telegraph (or any other national newspaper). He didn’t get around to demonstrating it until today in 1838, by which time we’d had a few more Williams on our throne and no more Harolds. In other disturbing news, it was on this day in 2001 that a Bush won the USA elections and, in 1975, 2,000 Led Zeppelin fans trashed a theatre in Boston. And finally, here’s one for Neil, though he probably knows it already: Superman made his debut in a comic strip on this day in 1939 – and although you won’t find that in Robert Lacey’s excellent book, you will find all kinds of other fascinating history. Check the book out here.

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New Year resolutions?
Not being one for New Year’s resolutions, I didn’t make any. But what I did make is a new Facebook page. Just what the world needs, another bloomin’ FB page, but this one: https://www.facebook.com/jamescollinsauthor/ is about my writing and my books. Rather than having several pages, one for each book, I am slowly getting rid of them and will have just this one about my work. Apart from the page for ‘The Thirteenth’ (which isn’t run by me but which I help administer from time to time) and the Symi Dream FB page, any other of my writings will be showcased and discussed on my new Author page. (Sounds a bit grand that, but am following the publicist’s advice.)

So, if you are a Facebook fan and user, you might like to pop over there and have a look and give a like and a share perhaps? Over time there will be more on it; I’m going to put up bits and pieces about the books and reviews every now and then, and also put up any news about them, such as new ones published, new reviews and then the occasional, ‘You can buy it here’ type posts. This page will be different to my personal FB page where I catch up with family, old school friends, my home town and all those folk I’ve never met but who are FB friends.

So, that ‘target’ has been met and the page is live. My second target of the year has also been met. (He goes to check his corporate action plan and marks off ‘Achieved’ against the task. This is going to go well at his appraisal.) Day four of the New Year and already I have finished ‘Straight Swap’, third draft, on target. All that remains to be done there is have my proof reader go through it, let the editor take his time (probably a few months) to go through it, work on any finals and then get the text ready for publication. More news to follow.

Symi news? Well, it finally rained again on Sunday evening and overnight. The hole by the rainwater-to-sterna feed in the roof that I thought I had fixed, leaked again but not as much as before and only into a corner of the utility room where there is existing evidence of water innage. (Innage is a word I like and may have just invented in this context. I know that ‘Inning’ (in Romney Marsh terms) means to irrigate, so yes, there was some water irrigation event happening during the night which we might call an ‘innage.’) Perhaps there is a problem with the roof at that point. Investigations will be forthcoming. [by the way: Innage (n) The quantity of goods remaining in a container when received after shipment. Aeronautics. The amount of fuel remaining in the fuel tanks of an aircraft following a flight. Thank you.]

There was a rainbow over Harani on Monday morning, though the morning was dry and cloudy. The house was not as cold, though still not exactly basking. As I write, Monday, midday, Neil has popped down to sea level to see his accountant and hopefully settle the, hopefully, final bill on the business, check the post office and stock up on Jack-cat food. I’ve been working on ‘Shocking the donkeys’ as there is no rest for the wicked and I have been slightly wicked over the Christmas period thanks to Sotiris and his stock of blue cheese, and Jenine’s cooking. But I have been avoiding the wine and keeping a clear head for my writing days, which are most days; and that was not a resolution, just a work thing.

So, the sea is grey, the sky too, there is some light over on ‘the red rocks’ and the catamaran has been and gone. After lunch I intend to do some wore work before attending a small party tonight. The new Year on Symi has gotten off to a good start without any resolutions but with a few tasks added to the action plan: Publish two new books this year, one again inspired by Symi (regulars will note characters and places when they read it), the other inspired by my home town and old school friends. And if there is a resolution to be admitted, then it is to use the word ‘gotten’ a few more times just to outrage the likes of Allan and others, for the fun of it. Snigger.

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Back to the routine

Sunday morning and cold, clear and sunny – no sign of the promised rain or clouds which may have served to warm us up a little. Six degrees in my office this morning (Sunday) and today I am wearing a fetching little ensemble from the ‘Nec’ collection. Nec being short for Necessary: Toasties, slippers, two pairs of jogging bottoms, t-shirt, jumper, hoodie with hood up, fingerless gloves and the whole thing topped off by the dressing gown, the heater is on two bars beside me, I’ve turned on Neil’s PC for when he wants it and also the heater in his office where the door is closed keeping the heat in.

It was a case of straight from the bed to the dressing gown to the shower this morning; well, almost straight there. First job is to let the cat in (who has been strangely quiet of late, none of this six a.m. nonsense recently, he’s not been up and shouting until after I am out of bed). Second job, feed the cat, third job, hang around near the cat so he thinks you are having breakfast with him, and then I can get to the shower. Only problem with this is that when the water is hot, which it is, thankfully, and the room is cold, which is very much is, the shower curtain starts to creep inwards towards the wet body by some kind of physics that I don’t understand. Doesn’t do it when it’s warm, only when it, and the curtain, are cold. So it’s a bit of a rush to get done before you get enshrouded in cold, synthetic material.

From there it’s a quick dry in the bathroom and then back to the kitchen, kettle on while getting dressed in the various layers. Then out to the porch to be greeted by the fresh smell of the cat’s yesterday’s meal, sweep up the spare litter he’s thrown out of his box while digging for somewhere better, and across to the office to start the heat-up process. PCs, on, kettle boiled and now I’m dressed so I can start to warm up while attempting to type in fingerless gloves.

Saturday we took a walk up to ‘To Vrisi’ as it was such a sunny day and we have been inside rather a lot of late. We walked up through the village and out on the top road, down and then along and up to the church. Just like the early morning walk/jog route. Which I will get back to when the weather is bearable again.

The rest of the first weekend of the year was spent ‘a la table’ (eating), ‘a la bureau’ (writing), and ‘a la boite’ (watching the TV, not a literal translation). Plans for the week ahead? More of the same I expect, though we have an invite out for Monday night, there’s still a health insurance bill to pay which needs sorting on Monday and we must go shopping at some point. Other than that, I’m looking out on a flat calm sea, with the sun bouncing off Nimos and Harani opposite, the houses are dazzlingly bright in the early, low sunlight and there’s not a breath of wind. Of course, this is Sunday still; it could have all changed by the time you read this.

One of the bus stops which isn’t on the usual bus route. Not, however, the famous bus stop mentioned in Bus Stop Symi by William Travis. Not sure if there are any copies still for sale, but worth a read if you’ve not found it before, if you can get a copy. Click here to see what’s available.

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