Symi Christmas week, Wednesday
As you can see from today’s photos, it’s still bearing up with sunshine down here. Yesterday on the far side of the harbour it felt more like a day in late spring rather than the winter solstice. I wore my new, warm coat down there but had to take it off after crossing the bridge, and I didn’t put it back on until much later in the day.

I think we’ve finally gathered everything in ready for a couple of days off over Christmas; last presents organised, paper bought, special things bought for Christmas Day and the drinks cabinet, that kind of thing. All that remains to do now is to get some shopping in for the house and Boxing Day and we’re done.

The shops are open on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day around here, things don’t clam up the way they used to back in the UK many years ago. The days when there was no shop open on a Sunday, and Wednesday was early closing day for some reason. When you would stock up your larder for Christmas sometime around November 20^th and start hording as you couldn’t possibly risk running out of anything over the Christmas period or else you would completely ruin the festivities for everyone. I don’t suppose it’s the same now that you can do Tesco at four in the morning, or have a wiz around Sainsbury’s at dawn. Not now the shops put up signs to say ‘Terribly sorry, we will be closed today between 10.00 and 10.05 for staff training, this is the first time we’ve closed since 1997, and we really are awfully sorry for the slightest inconvenience this heinous act may cause you (please don’t sue us, thank you ever so)’ because people are used to their shops being open 24/7. It’s like 7/11 – I always thought that would be a cool place to work, only doing four hours a day. Then I figured it out.

So, our own 7/11, that I prefer to call Fortnum’s (Sotiris’ supermarket) is open today, tomorrow and probably Saturday, though not Christmas Day – that’s the only day Sotiris gets to rest. That is, after he’s been up to the farm and mucked out, seen to the goats, planted a field of potatoes, milked the chickens, swept the pig and fed the yard. Then, sometimes around 2pm he can put his feet up and watch an episode of ‘Στέψη Δρόμος’ (Coronation Street) before getting back to work.

And talking of going back to work. I don’t think I will do that until Monday, thank you very much. I will put up a blog tomorrow, Christmas Eve, but then you will have to be on your own until Monday.

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Symi Christmas week update
The last big boat before Christmas comes and goes tomorrow and the last leavers will be leaving on it. They will be leaving behind a quiet island that’s currently in the mid-teens for temperatures and calm.

We are in the ‘Halcyon’ days, as someone pointed out to me the other days; the period of a week either side of the winter solstice (from today the days start growing longer as we head towards summer). Halycion: “From Latin Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus and wife of Ceyx. When her husband died in a shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the sea whereupon the gods transformed them both into halcyon birds (kingfishers). When Alcyone made her nest on the beach, waves threatened to destroy it. Aeolus restrained his winds and kept them calm during seven days in each year, so she could lay her eggs. These became known as the “halcyon days,” when storms do not occur.”

Another source states: “Fourteen days of calm weather were to be expected when the Halcyon was nesting – around the winter solstice, usually 21st or 22nd of December. The Halcyon days are generally regarded as beginning on the 14th or 15th of December.”

Either way, it’s still pretty calm and it looks like we are going to have a warm Christmas Day, which somehow doesn’t seem right. It also means that, without rain, there will be problems in the fields and the wells, and we can only hope that we get a lot of rain in order to catch up, sometimes in the depths on New Year. Until then, though, it’s still cold in the house and damp in the mornings and the washing is not getting dry; just like a good old fashioned Symi winter.

We attended the first of the weeks’ events last night (thank you for the evening and you know who you are). Tonight there’s a Christmas Quiz going on at the Sunrise, but before that we have another trip to Yialos to collect things and sort a few odd jobs out. Wednesday is so far stacking up as a quiet day at home until the evening when there is a mulled wine and carols evening in the offing, and Thursday will be filled with housework ready for our own party on Saturday and then shopping and peeling, delivering gifts and singing carols as we go.

So, I’ll leave you with today’s photos and briefly report that the Yialos road by the bus stop is open again and the bus is running and so are the taxis. So, Symi transport is back to normal, apart from the rail service which is suspended until the late spring early summer.

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Symi by night
Saturday night in Yialos. Quiet. There, you wanted to know what Symi was like in the winter, well, last Saturday it was quiet.

One of the reasons for this was the fact that the road was closed from To Spitiko to the bus stop as new concrete had been poured and was drying, or ‘going off’ as they say in the trade. Going off to where I have no idea as it was still there when we inched past it to Pandelis and then had to take a detour up and around the back of the restaurant to get to the bus stop.

Where there were loads of cars parked all the way along the quayside towards the gym, as that was as close as you could drive to Yialos on Saturday afternoon/evening. We were heading for the bus but were early so we sat on the bench for a while watching the sea. Nothing was happening there either. After a while Lakis, the bus driver, came over and told us that if we were getting on the bus, don’t, as it’s not working. So we were just debating walking up when Thanasis turned up in a taxi and the day was saved.

So, a quiet Saturday night in town looking at the shop that was open. Actually there was more than one shop open: The Emporium, Taxas, the other supermarkets, Chrystalo, the book shop, the Lotto shop, the two in the corner of Trawler Square, the butchers and a few bars and souvlaki shops. Oh, and the two pharmacies. That was about it. Oh, and the jewellery stores.But whatever is open offers a cheery welcome.

While up in Horio, everything was open, including Syllogos and the toy shop ‘Jumbo’, with the exception of the Olive Tree and Village Café, closed for winter. Plenty to see and do up here. But not so much to see and do at night. (Rainbow is currently also closed as Yiannis is away.)

And that, and some pottering around at home and working on the book version of ‘Shocking the Donkeys’, and generally preparing for Christmas Day, was all I got up to. Some presents are wrapped and under the tree, but there are still a few more things to get hold of and sort out. The week ahead looks good weather-wise with Accuweather showing the temperature at 16 or 17 for Christmas day (some rain expected on 28^th).

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Symi in the News
It seems that Symi was in the British news yesterday; a passing reference in a robbery case. Both The Mirror and the BBC carried the story.

The story is about a group of men (one of whom is called Collins, no relation) who pulled of a £10 million + robbery in Hatton Garden, London. You won’t get much detail from the coverage at the Mirror website but the BBC gives us the line that’s of interest to us. ‘Mr Lincoln [one of the defendants] admitted leaving the country two days after the raid, saying he travelled to the Greek island of Symi where he “went fishing”.’

I’m not exactly sure of the timeline, but presumably the summer. A UK observer wrote: ‘One of those accused flew to Symi two days after the heist on a supposed fishing trip – the court heard today. One theory is that he was carrying the missing £10 million worth of jewellery and may have hidden it on Symi or got someone to hide it and keep it safe.’

So I’d like to ask the real jewellery heist hoarder to step forward and share the spoils with your Symi mates. No one around here will say anything. Lips are sealed and you know there’s no such thing as a wagging tongue on a Greek island. Just share around the wealth and it will be like ‘Whisky Galore’, or ‘Waking Ned,’ we’ll all carry the burden of guilt and lesson the load. And it is just before Christmas. Go on. I’m not going to look my fellow islanders at the same way again, wondering who might be the friend of the Hatton Garden Mob who is currently safeguarding part of the hoard. (They stole over £100 million worth, I heard.)

Anyway, while we are all looking at each other suspiciously from now on, I have been getting on with a small winter project which I will tell you more about in due course. For now though, it’s Saturday and so here are a few more images from Symi taken in the past few months (as I’ve not been out and about to get any new ones.) Have a good weekend and I will see you in Christmas week soon.

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Friday morning and we’re waiting for the boat to Rhodes. At least, Neil is, so I’m keeping an eye on Marine Traffic to see where the Diagoras is (currently about one hour behind schedule and still on Tilos) while also updating my Mailwasher programme and writing the blog.

There are more decorations up on houses on Symi now as we prepare for Christmas week. When we first arrived here, thirteen years ago, we would hardly see any Christmas lights on houses and I remember the first season here as being rather dark and dull because of that. It was a change after the madness of Great Britain where neighbours compete to be the most American in their Christmas gaudiness. But over the years more and more lights have appeared, and some now even stay up for the whole year. Our neighbour here has a big star on the house and it’s very close to ours so we can pretended we have one on our house too. Inside the house it’s a simple tree (with half its lights not working), that will do for now.

I expect Rhodes and certain shops in particular are going to be busy today. Reports from Jumbo last week were that it was manic and mad enough so now, with only one week to go before Christmas, I suspect it will be busier than a one-armed violinist with fleas. Not that I have ever knowingly met one. But still, the trip must be made, the tickets are bought (€8.00 each way on the Blue Star, in case you were wondering) and the appointments made – not at Jumbo of course, you don’t need an appointment there.

And as for me, well, today I shall be mainly at the desk typing and catching up on some work and maybe some writing. I may get back to ‘Shocking the Donkeys’ as a book of some sort. The Greek government are soon to vote on allowing civil partnerships for same sex couples, or not, and that would make ‘Donkeys’ timely, though it’s never going to get made as a film, so a book that people can buy to read the story might do instead. But for that to happen I have to convert the script into some kind of readable book format. And I reckon I should try and do that while ‘Straight Swap’ is in edit and pre-publishing mode, as it now is. Anyway, that’s what I plan for the day and I really ought to go and make a start. But I’ll just check the boat position first… Ah, it’s left Tilos now and should be about another hour and a half. No rush.

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