Living on Symi could be a general category for blog posts and here we have some thoughts on Symi living in a Sunday morning blog and news roundup. First the weather check (looks out of window): calm, flat sea, cool (low 20s) but not cold, sunny out there, a few clouds around, a couple of showers expected later, week ahead set for sun, declining temperatures, but soft winds. Inside the house conditions: generally dry, bit of dusting needed, slight leak from rain pipe into the laundry room. Now then, this was a conundrum.

After the heavy rains of the other day we had water in the workhouse. I assumed it had blown in there from the porch as it was warm enough to have the doors open and the porch is open to the courtyard and when the wind is in the wrong direction it blows rain in. But the water persisted after being mopped up and even when it wasn’t raining, so I blamed the washing machine which is over 12 years old. But on Sunday morning I noticed that the water was back, not a lot of it but still a mystery as it hadn’t rained, the doors were shut and the washing machine was off. It turns out to be something to do with the free water supply. There’s a pipe that has been designed into the roofing system to drain the rain from the roof and let it flow into the sterna and there must be a problem with one of the joints, and it looks like it’s the one I can’t get to. So we will have to put up with it or else take the whole thing apart and rebuild it. Note: keep mop handy.

The other news of the weekend is that the landlord dropped by with the electricity bill. Remember I told you we thought we’d been paying the wrong one? Well, we had and now we have the right one, and it covers the whole time we’ve been here which is eight months now. Luckily it was not as much as I expected and was just about the amount I had saved, so that’s all well and good and the reading is now accurate and up to date. Your electricity bill in Greece doesn’t just cover the power you’ve used, there are other things on it too: the use of the transmission network, the rather vague ‘Services of General Interest’ (I have a general interest in the Universal horror films of the 1930s, is that covered, I wonder?) and “the special duty of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction, destined to the development of green energy.” (Sounds fine by me.)

Plus: “charges resulting from selling generation power from photovoltaic systems”, (no idea) and “charges for works carried out on the network.” (Can I see the order sheets and specs before agreeing to pay for the work please?)

Plus: Excise duty, and “ΕΙΔ. ΤΕΛΟΣ 5‰ (SPECIAL DUTY 5‰) (L.2093/92): The estimated mean charge from the Special Duty 5‰ is up to 0.5 ευρώ per 1.000 kWh. It is noted that the Special Duty 5‰ is calculated in the Bills based on actual reading” (I’m not going to argue with that, I wouldn’t know where to start.)

Plus: VAT. And (we’re not done yet) charges for third parties (Municipal fees, Municipal tax, Real Estate Tax). And if you were wondering how those local taxes are calculated it’s by taking the square meterage of the property, multiplying it by the MF or MT coefficient, multiplying that by the number of billing days and dividing the whole kit and caboodle by 365. Then you take away the number you first thought of, add your paternal grandfather’s year of birth and divide that by the ASS coefficient (plus 18% VAT) and write down the first number that comes into your head. Bingo!

So that’s the water leak analysed and the electricity bill up to date and everything ready for a new week ahead during which I shall be working on draft three of ‘Straight Swap’ which is coming along nicely. It’s great to have a print copy of it that I can red pen all the way through, so much easier to do than on the screen (where the red pen gets in the way of other programmes and messes up my Facebook). Having a proof copy printed via Lulu.com was cheaper than using up paper and ink on home printing 130,000 words, double spaced, and the time it took to arrive, about six weeks, gave me enough time away from the story to come back to it with a more distant eye. So, that’s my week planed, that and wondering how to fix the water leak.

Oh, and by the way, the 100% duvet tracking is now showing that the duvet has been delivered, which is news to me as I’ve not seen it. What they mean, when they wash their hands of the delivery by saying it’s been delivered, is that it is now with another courier and probably somewhere between Derbyshire and Rhodes.

Your Greek electricity bill explained in English can be found at this link, but I am not sure how up to date the info is (percentages and VAT amounts etc.) https://www.dei.gr/en/oikiakoi-pelates/o-logariasmos-sas/entupo-logariasmou

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What day is it today? Oh yes, Saturday. We should be off to the old post office to see what we can do to help the refugees who might be here, or to help the project generally if not. After that, we have a guest coming for drinks tonight and then we are off out for dinner. And on Sunday we have friends coming to see the house before we go and see theirs, a kind of hospitality exchange.

Symi is very quiet now. Some of the folk who stay here for the entire summer have headed home and there are few pert time residents and visitors remaining. There are only a few yachts in the harbour, but there are also some winter residents returning. Others, who live here all year round, have gone off on holiday or have gone to find winter work elsewhere and so the seasons are changing. You can tell that from the weather of course and the vine leaves that are falling on a daily basis.

It’s still grey and wet and we’re hoping we’re not going to see a repeat of last winter when were hardly got any walking in due to weather and work. (I still do my five mornings per week at the desk, and Neil is still working at the bar, but that surely must end soon.) And now with Saturday morning as our volunteer time it only leaves us a full day on a Sunday to do a long-long walk, or afternoons to do a four or five hour walk, weather permitting. That’s on top of the morning walks which are what today’s photos are all about – though these are from Thursday morning. I couldn’t go out yesterday as it was raining at 6.45 and on and off during the day.

For those that know Horio, Zoi’s taverna has closed for the winter as has the Windmill and the Olive Tree, Syllogos is still open but inside seating only, and Georgio’s is still open with outside still a possibility. Soon enough they will scale down to inside only. The bars are all still open and there is live music at the Secret Garden regularly and special events at The Sunrise from time to time, the cinema event on a Sunday at Mandeios is on-going and Rainbow has its multiplex two screen TV extravaganza for football, politics and Animal Planet on demand.

Through the winter there will be dance classes for children and some for adults, there will be name day festivals and other church events and celebrations, the walking is good and there should hopefully be some social time as well, dinner parties and the like. I’ve got my trip coming up at the end of next month and a book to finish before then: draft three of ‘Straight Swap’ is now the item on the desk and I am already in talks with the editor over certain aspects of it, mainly my atrocious punctuation, rather extreme spelling errors and a little bit of structure.

So, lots to do but now I am off down town, with hat and coat on and a note to buy an umbrella or two. Have a good weekend!

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When it rains on Symi… But first: You’ll be on the edge of your seat to hear about the duvet delivery and I can tell you today that ‘my (own personal) Hermes’ tells me that the package is now collected (18.40 21^st) and at 01.37 on 22^nd, was on its way having been sorted at the National hub. I wonder where that might be? Where would the hub of Great Britain actually lie? Probably somewhere near Birmingham and I don’t know why I say that, it just feels right.

Anyway… Sometimes, when it rains on Symi it really rains on Symi. And the first real rain after a long hot summer results in the surface dust and soil being washed down the hills and into the sea. There’s always a certain amount of top soil washed away but when you get as much rain as we did on Wednesday, and after a long dry spell (one small storm aside) you can expect to see the sea change colour. So, today’s photos will give you an idea of how the sea changes when the rains hit. The sea in Yialos was, at one point, chocolate brown.

We did some mopping up after the storm. Half our towel supply was used to catch drips that came in under the windows before we managed to shut the shutters and, as we had the balcony doors open for photos, we also had some splashes come in there. The offices now smell a bit damp as we had to have the washing in there overnight and some rain had come in through the windows as the wind was driving in that direction, but compared to the old house, we got off lightly. Our landlord rushed across to see us after things died down to make sure we were okay and had remembered to unplug the flower pots from the hole in the wall that drains the courtyard. He’d not seen the water flowing out that way from his view across the road and was worried that we might have forgotten and thus had the house flooded (as would have happened had we been away and not unplugged the pots. Note: leave flower pots out of the hole in the wall when going away).

Another thing to remember to do, when you live around here, when you are going away – or when a storm is coming in – is to unplug everything else. On Wednesday we were constantly unplugging the phone line, the router, the PCs, the TV, just in case… It does interrupt work, though the laptops run for four hours on battery, but it must be done. Also when we go out and the weather looks doubtful, just in case. You don’t want to be under one of these when they come in to land:

I cut that from a video I made on my underwater camera during the storm. If you want to get a feel for how things can be on Symi in the winter, then take a look at this one too.

And a couple more photos…

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Duvets and Detectives (and photos of yesterday morning’s weather which was pretty rough – more about that another day as I’m still drying out towels (so much rain it came under the windows.))

I have some must share shipping news (not that kind of shipping news). I recently ordered a new duvet for the winter as it was easier (and cheaper) than buying one from Rhodes when I was last there. So the other day I was delighted to receive an update on my shopping via shipping news. Kind of shopping-shipping I suppose. More of that in a moment, first the backstory.

I searched eBay to find something suitable and sifted through all the duvet possibilities, bumbling around confused in bed linen hell, flopping over onto my back to wallow in either eider or manmade and laying down in down, throwing aside anything that might set off sneezing fits and being tempted by things that sounded like British pubs, ‘Down and Feather,’ and staying well away from a ‘Bargain brand new king size duvet lemon,’ as the thought of a ‘duvet lemon’ filled me with dread – imagine that at the Rainbow Bar. ‘A G & T please Yianni with a slice of that delicious, if ever expanding, duvet lemon…

And that’s not to mention the tog thing. I checked up on a website that told me 10.5 was good for winter and anything over 13 was kind of ‘Antarctic-ready’ and then found things on eBay such as ‘Cool 10.5 tog.’ Oh, I thought it was going to be fine for winter. And ‘Cozy warm 13.5 tog.’ Oh, if only Captain Scott had taken his ‘cozy warm 13.5 tog,’ or even the rather startling ‘Luxury Hollowfibre 15 Tog’ (I am sweating at the thought). I was almost tempted by the ‘Luxury Hotel Quality Scott Goose Feather and Down 13.5’ which might have suited Cpt Scott well, as it’s apparently named after him, or a place in the Falkland Islands, or some luxury hotel somewhere – at least I assume it’s the quality of a luxury hotel, or do they mean it’s a luxury that is ‘hotel quality’ in which case I hope it’s not the quality of some hotels I’ve stayed in. That one by King’s Cross railway station where the action taking place inside the mattress was noisier than the action taking place in the next room, but I digress as there was no duvet at that hotel, luxury or otherwise. Where was I…?

Ah yes. Well, I found one in the end, after several minutes romping through the ‘heavy winter’ and the ‘Polypropylene’ and ‘goose feather’ and ‘duck down’ and ‘hey dilly-dilly, dilly-on down nonny-no nonsense luxury flame proof double hotel feels like luxury’ stuff and the slightly more exciting ‘Corovin quilt’ which I can only assume was something stitched in Medieval France to celebrate the invention of the word ‘duvet’ in around 1750-60 (French: meaning down (plumage), Middle French, alteration of dumet, derivative of Old French dum) and don’t get me started on that pun. Finally I settled on a 10.5 thing simply because it offered cheaper postage than the others.

And so, to the afternoon email and the message which I immediately misread but which turned out to be from My Hermes and not My Herpes and which highlighted the fact that I had been completely drawn in by the titling of my new duvet: “Your parcel containing LUXURIOUS 100% SOFT SILKY MICROFIBRE FEELS LIKE DOWN DUVET QUILT [Double, 10.5] from Simon Barber will be delivered to you by myHermes.”

It was/is such a joyous email I felt like dancing and thanking Mr Barber personally for personally selecting, wrapping and posting my new Luxurious 100% soft silky etcetera. And then, more joy! I can track it via this web address using that tracking number and you know how much I like to track inanimate objects across Europe. Okay so the disclaimer is fair enough: “You will usually receive it 2-3 working days after you get this email, although it may take longer.” And I am pretty sure it will take longer as the tracking page showed me that it hadn’t actually moved yet. And then joy turned to scepticism when I read the end of the email: “It will be delivered to the following address: GSP Shipping Centre, 1 Langham Park, South Normanton.” Oh, not Symi then?

Having rushed to Google and discovered where South Normanton is, I then realised that I had been the lucky victim of a four stage author’s coincidence. 1) My Hermes – 2) South Normanton is in Derbyshire – 3) a certain author friend lives in Derbyshire – and 4) the hero of her books, the Greek Detective Series, is called Hermes. I am sure my ‘Luxury microfiber feels like a duvet 100%’ will be in safe hands and that this storage facility in Derbyshire is only stage one of its journey. Watch this space for more duvet nonsense when the tracking starts.

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As you can see from the picture below, the clouds are heading this way. There has been talk of storms in recent days and we are expecting bad weather on Symi and elsewhere in the very near future. We shall see…

Meanwhile, the Alarm Cat has been in a noisy mood since before dawn. I had my earplugs in but could still hear him out in the courtyard. And it’s not because he has nowhere to go, we leave the other kitchen window open for him so if it rains he has his own kitchens and bathroom to play in, and his dirt tray will be inside there when the weather turns, there’s water and places to sleep. He was just in a cantankerous mood I think. He’s been whingeing at me all day, sitting there staring up and me and telling me he is bored. It’s bloomin’ noisy.

But it did get me up and out before seven for a walk up the hills. The alarm clock was going off at the same time as the cat, but in the other room and I’d turned the volume down so couldn’t hear it – bit pointless setting it really. The walk was good, I managed the museum steps and up without stopping which isn’t bad as it’s the first time out in over three weeks. I then took it easy but at a decent pace up the road a way. The sun was up, behind the hills, and finally appeared around seven-thirty by which time I was heading back down, my new trainers rubbing on one heel where the ‘trainer sock’ had slipped down. Not sure about these ‘trainer socks’, I mean, I know how to wear socks, I don’t need training, they are really small and sometimes don’t fit over the heel, as in the case this morning.

Anyway, back to the blog. A good response from a few people about the idea of posting your own blog posts next month and into early December. A few people have said they will do it and I hope they all follow up on that as I think it will be good to see. I was asked when the deadline for submissions was and I’m saying November 22^nd as that’s the Sunday before I go away and I can spend the day getting the posts ready. If I don’t get any then I will have to put up posts about my own books again and do some advertising; so you have been warned.

And on that note, remember that Neil’s 2016 Symi calendar is on sale ONLY from Lulu.com at this link: http://www.lulu.com/shop/neil-gosling/symi-dream-calendar-2016/calendar/product-22165801.html and Christmas is fast approaching and the calendars can take a week or more to arrive. So, best get your skates on and plan ahead. And if you like Neil’s photography (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) you might like to follow his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NeilGoslingPhotography I’ll let you go and have a look, a like and a comment on that and get back to this noisy cat – who is still there staring at me like something from a Poe poem.

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