Weather watch service here – writing to you on Tuesday, so those heading out to Symi today might already have left and this is a bit behind, but there you go. Yes, we got some of the storm as promised, or at least we have so far. Rain on Monday night and a downpour on Tuesday, with heavy clouds and some wind getting up – that’s as of 11.30 yesterday morning.

I’m in the habit of writing a day behind, or rather a day in front and then having the post go live the next day, as you know, but the thing about the weather is that we get some kind of weather here all the time and what you see when you look out of your window is what you get. There’s nothing that can be done about it, so what can you do? Well, I can post some photos to show those who’ve not seen it before what the weather can be like on Symi through the year. And yesterday it was more like October/November, but that happens.

Anyway, enough of the weather, what else has been going on? Well, not a lot really – got a bad sore throat, first illness in many a month, possibly even a year or so, but it’s nothing that can’t be ignored so that’s okay. The plants have had a good watering, but no rain came into the house, apart from a little under a window but that was fine when I shut the shutters. And I’m back to the weather again.

Okay, how about this video instead. I found this via Solidarity Symi, the refugee (and local needy) charity that’s been set up, and I’ll include it down at the bottom so you can see the full thing. It’s about the refugee crisis. Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who says, ‘We’re full up,’ or ‘Not my problem,’ or anyone who fears an Islamic takeover of Europe, a breakdown in social infrastructure and so on. It explains everything and in a very clear way. Give it a watch and stay informed.

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I’ve got some of Neil’s photos today, taken on Sunday and in the last few days, there are a few great portraits coming up and some shots of Symi generally. I’ve also been asked to keep on top of the weather reports as people prepare to jet out to Symi on Wednesday/Thursday, so…

Monday was fine, cooler than it has been, slightly less humid but still quite warm. Warm enough for swimming for sure. I think the latest I’ve been in the sea here is November, at seven in the morning on Panormitis day, and it was still quite acceptable then. Mind you, I’ve not been in the sea at all this year so far, not like last year when we went swimming twice a week at six a.m., seem to have fallen out of that habit. Anyway, the weather looked fine on Monday though there is a storm expected Tuesday or Wednesday. [Does a quick check of a couple of sites…and yes, still thunder and rain expected for today/tomorrow but back to sun on Thursday and the temp in the mid 20s.]

Sunday we had a nice day off, went down to Yialos, had a wander around the shops after lunch and then caught the bus back up to the village. At home later we spent a good couple of hours watching episodes from Modern Family, an American comedy programme that’s done like a semi-documentary. We’re on series two now and it’s slightly funnier than series one. We bought the box set of series one to five as six had not come out by then.

The other things we’ve been watching of late are Broadchurch series one and two and a thing called The Jury, with Julie Walters – need to finish the last episode of that. And, when not watching TV, which we only do for half an hour after lunch and a couple of hours in the evening, I’ve been reading. I’ve just finished Alison Weir’s Henry VIII king and court, and I noticed there’s a Henry VIII series, from 2003, with Ray Winston that I’ve never seen. So, I might have to put that on my wish list. That’s an aside, I am also reading The Second Coming by John Niven while Mother is reading the first draft of Straight Swap, Neil is reading my You Wish! the mad comedy set in Brighton (‘rude, crude and totally nude’ or, as one review put it, ‘perfect poolside reading,’ thank you) while I am working on the Saddling when not enjoying time with the family.

Anyway, back to the real world and what’s going on? Well, Neil’s in Rhodes on Wednesday to see his allergy doctor, I’ll be at the bar, then we have a dinner invite and there’s another on Friday, but otherwise, we’re slowly slowing down as the weather cools; starting to have to wear a t-shirt in the mornings now, it’ll soon be cold and wet, with whistling north winds and… but that’s for later. There’s still plenty of summer to come yet. And, oh, apparently we had an election in Greece on Sunday but no one seems to have noticed.

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Sunday morning and the rain is holding off though there are clouds about, celebrating the latest election perhaps? It all seems very quiet out there, apart from the Sunday morning church bells, though the run up to the election has not been without its events. There was one in the village the other day when three Golden Dawn members were trying to canvas – they got told to Foxtrot Oscar in no uncertain terms by Evangalia who has the small craft shop opposite Georgio’s. Apparently she gave them a whole heap of what for and the best they could do in retaliation was kick some of her stock that was outside. Just the kind of people we want leading the country. Not.

It was also quiet at the refugee station on Saturday when we were there. This gave us the chance to carry out some of the jobs on the list of things that needed doing, one of which was cleaning out a donated fridge. Other volunteers have been sorting out the many generous donations that have been coming in, some of them arriving already sorted and labelled, which is very handy.

I was looking through Facebook the other day and realised that I had been following the BBC news page, there was an article about the refugee crisis and I thought I’d have a look at the comments people had left. Well, I say ‘people’, uneducated animals might be more to the point. I won’t bore you with them now but I did have to wonder how stupid these people actually were. Do they really believe that six year old children are I.S. terrorists coming to change the face or Europe forever and turn us all into followers of a different faith, or die? Do they really think that this is all some conspiracy to overthrow the EU? I mean, get a life! And a reasonable sense of what’s reasonable. So ‘outraged of Tunbridge Wells’ was I that I dispatched a letter to the BBC (well, a message on FB) to tell them that, as they seem incapable of moderating the right-wing skata that their other followers love to throw up in the comments area, and as they insist on calling refugees from war ‘immigrants’ and ‘migrants’ (no matter how correct it may be, it’s what the use of words implies, etc. etc.), because of these two things, I for one will no longer be following their posts.

I bet that got them quaking in their boots. What’s more, I found out at the weekend that they no longer run the omnibus of Eastenders on a Sunday – my mother’s kind of addicted to the real life goings-on in Albert Square and as we can’t get IPlayer here (no idea what that is), and as it’s awkward to watch it in real time during the week on Film On, she was hoping to catch up on a Sunday, but no. No more big four-parter, scarlet painted, London real life, diesel engine, ninety-seven minute (Eastenders) omnibus. So there we go, or rather, there it goes: the BBC off my friends list because it doesn’t know how to behave, in my book. I shall get my news from other sources now, sources less biased and less followed –and written – by idiots.

Actually, we’ve taken to listening to Euronews of a lunchtime. You turn on British TV and it’s all programs about antiques and selling your granny for a fiver, and ladies chatting about the importance of safely tupperwared leftovers and their effect on the Hang Seng Index. And as for the adverts for the latest TV reality show, ‘When celebrity enemas backfire’ or ‘The Great British snooze off‘ or whatever it is, well, don’t get me started on that. No, I’ll avoid that station and check into Euronews. The presenters’ accents may be hard to fathom at times, but at least you get a roundup of what all European countries are reporting, saying and doing rather than the latest reports on why ‘we’ can’t possibly take more than 20,000 refugees in five years (whereas Lebanon, which is about the size of Cornwall, has already taken in 2,000,000). Enough!

Here’s to the week ahead – I hope you have a good one.

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I have to report that cloud has been seen over Symi in recent days, that’s not Claudia you understand, though she has been sighted, it’s the cloudy stuff that produces high humidity and, at a push, rain. But the temperature stays high and no rain has fallen as yet. However, I thought I would carry out a quick survey of the weather stations online to see what they are predicting for the days ahead.

Randomly clicking through rainfall on Poseidon Systems http://poseidon.hcmr.gr shows me nothing until Sunday when a little cloud appears over Rhodes, over lots of the rest of the country but not us on Monday and shows the potential for a downpour here and elsewhere on Tuesday morning, early. It only goes up to Wednesday.

Windfinder http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/symi which, strangely enough, predicts the wind, shows me reasonably calm winds at one to three Beaufort only, with a slight nudge to four on Friday evening (25^th). The precipitation stays at 0 until Tuesday when it then ranges from 0.67 to 0.2 on Wednesday. Are you still awake?

Over on Accuweather http://www.accuweather.com/ it tells me that today is sunny, but then looking out of my window tells me that, but it also goes on to say that it’s going to be sunny all the way through the next couple of weeks, apart from Wednesday and Thursday next week when there will be ‘showers around.’ Temperatures will be in the mid-twenties they say, but remember that often these forecasts are from the weather station in Rhodes, so not always 100% accurate for Symi.

I also had a look at weather.com a site I’ve not used before. This brought me, without searching, the weather in Kolonaki (Athens) and told me that there is was ‘84f (feels like 84f)’ (bit of unnecessary info there) and the search box advised me to ‘search city, zip or place (Disney World)’ which confused me for a moment. I don’t live in a city, I found nothing in my zip or in my house, and what Micky Mouse has to do with anything… I typed in ‘Symi Greece’ (‘Symi’ comes up with ‘Symi Notio Agaio’, or ‘Symiz’ in Albania and then heads off into realms of ‘Symington UK’ etc.) where it was, apparently, ‘84f feels like 89f.’ The ten day forecast also showed rain over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hell, this is dull. Let’s move on. I think the main point is that it might rain next week. Yippee! Good for the flowers and it will wash the dust off everything, and then we can start saving water for the winter and topping up the sterna for free. Other than that, as you can tell, I’ve very little news to impart and so will get on with doing other things and leave you to your weekend.

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Just reporting in on my trip to Rhodes, Monday night, Tuesday, Wednesday. Back now safe and sound and had a good time. Mother here in her rental house for a month, nephew looking forward to his visit in three weeks.

The more I visit Rhodes the more I like it; not that I would particularly want to live in the main town unless I had to. I got there on Monday night and checked into the Lydia Hotel – was handed my key while others were checking in ahead of me, no need to show my passport, and they gave me a good room, one with a large bathroom and the bedroom facing the precinct so quiet. (Loyalty bonuses.) Room number 206 if you are interested. Then I headed out and thought I’d try somewhere new to eat so went to a place called Belmo Palace which was trad Greek. Starter, main, wine, water €19.00 – fine enough but nothing grand or particularly palatial.

On Tuesday I went out for a walk and, while heading around the headland, past the Aquarium and up to the roundabout at the bottom of the hill leading to the airport, I thought it would be a good idea to go back, get a notebook and find a shady spot to do some writing. So, I went back, bought a notebook from my favourite stationers and then walked around the headland, past the Aquarium to the roundabout by the hill, looking for a shady spot. There aren’t any. Well, you can hire a sunbed and brolly, or sit at one of the decomposing old beach bars, but I didn’t fancy either of those so walked around to Mandraki.

Severely sweating, I sat for a juice and wrote a few pages at one of the cafes by the old market, then went back to the room, had a second shower of the day and a change of clothes, bought a new shirt at HMV (I mean H&M) and went for lunch. This took place at Indigo in the old fish market – opposite the public loo but you don’t have to face that way. Here it was a case of homemade big beans, a foot long tuna salad (the plate measured 12” x 6” and was full of salad, including tuna, rocket, spring onions, sweetcorn and a dressing), plus one glass and some water, €16.00 – which I thought was pretty reasonable. They also do things like Iranian chicken (no idea, will try it next time) and each chair has a Greek island name painted on it. I discovered, after the meal, that I had been sitting on Tilos.

I went to Symi next, the Symi café next door, to see Maria and have a quick after lunch glass of ouzo (€2.00) and then wandered back to the hotel to rest up for the afternoon. After a G&T at the Plaza in the name of price research (€4.50) I took the airport bus in the evening. It only took 30 minutes (€2.20) as no one got off and it was pretty packed with tourists heading home from the beaches, but it is one tenth the cost of a taxi. A wander around at the airport, a read of my book, met Mother’s flight, which was on time, and then a taxi back to the Lydia (€23.00). And then (you’ll think all I do in Rhodes is eat, and you’d be right) a quick bite at Napoleon’s. Mother was after lamb chops, which she got and I had a tomato soup, we shared a Greek salad and some wine, and more water of course, and it came to around €30.00 (just under), in case you are keeping track of these things.

Next day: breakfast at the Lydia, taxi to the harbour, Kolona (€7.00 if you get the hotel to phone, saves getting there all sweaty), and onto the Express. Symi in 45 minutes, walk around the harbour, taxi to Horio (€3.50 I think, we always give €5.00 for some reason) and a hello at the Olive Tree, plus a second breakfast for mother (she’s already taking after the Alarm Cat) before moving into her new house. Today, Thursday, she’s still there feeling the effects of the change in climate, the travel and, I dare say, the feeding (welcome dinner at the Windmill including pudding – outrageously wonderful food as always and a very good price, can’t remember exactly but around €28.00 per head for five dishes, two half litres wine, a large water and three deserts), but she hopes to be up and about later, recovered and ready for Neil’s vegetarian surprise dinner tonight. The surprise being that it involves chicken.

That’s me caught up, the photos today are random ones from the trip and there are more to come as and when. Hope the sharing of prices was useful and have a good day!

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