Here are some snippets of local Symi news I picked up on: If anyone (English speaking) needs a job for a few weeks or the rest of the summer, To Spitiko are looking for a waiter/waitress to start immediately. Go and see Jordana at the restaurant.

If anyone is looking for a place to rent in Yialos, long term, then there is a place going above Alegrito café. I didn’t know the name of the older man who called me over and told me, but if you ask at the café I am sure they will give you details.

If you would like to help the refugees who are landing on Symi, and you use Facebook, then you can go to this page and learn about the non-profit organisation that has been set up, and what you can do to help. Refugees continue to arrive on the island in their hundreds per week, and the hard-pressed authorities deal with their paperwork as quickly as they can. But there is still a waiting time and lack of facilities. I just passed a group on the south side of the harbour, eating bread, drinking water and siting on the floor. They wash in the sea, use the one WC at the port police office, or the police station and wait to be processed. They then have to book onto the Athens ferry and move on.

The photo (top one, above) was taken from the balcony yesterday morning and shows a group of new arrivals waiting at the police station. They would have been dumped on rocks somewhere, maybe Nimos, and then rescued by the coastguard. Or else they would have swum ashore and walked from Ag Marina, or the coast nearby. Some have arrived at Panormitis. You can just make out some of the children still wearing their life jackets.

The messages from ‘Solidarity Symi’ are currently: “HELP NEEDED TODAY (18th August) We’re creating a temporary storage area at the old post office building. In need of volunteers, particularly a handyman/women that can help whitewash some walls, fix some damaged doors etc. We’re there now. We’re needing chairs, tables and storage boxes. If you have anything, please bring down to the old post office next to the police station. Thank you!”

I’m sure that if you read this after the event (and you will as it won’t be posted until after the event) you will still be able to help and volunteer, send supplies, even from abroad. Just go to the page and get in touch. You can also help via http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info where you can donate money anonymously.

I don’t think I have any other Symi news today apart from the fact that I am going to Rhodes today for a drive around and mooch about and to have a day away from the desk. I have, as an aside, started work on ‘The Saddling’ which is to be the next novel after ‘Straight Swap’ (which I may retitle). The Saddling is a gothic mystery thriller – talk about mixing genres – let’s call it a mystiller or a thrillery.

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Some more photos from Neil today, taken on Symi over the past few days during which time we’ve had hot weather, concerts in the festival(s), and 168 drops of rain, roughly speaking.

Over the weekend we were out and about, down in Yialos twice, seeing health insurance lady and getting that finalised, visiting the post office to collect a couple of things (slug pellets for the slugs that come up out of nowhere and explore the kitchen – odd), some DVDs, a book, and to see various folk about various things at various times – it was a day of variations. Saturday was the festival at the Ilithini, the Panagia and name day of Mary and others so an important holiday and several shops were closed.

Sunday was a semi-working morning followed by a meeting about the health insurance, all now done and dusted and up and running though I have to be careful running for the next two years as my knees don’t kick in until after then. Some things are not covered for the initial periods of time, like back problems (one year) and knee problems (two). After that I should be fully done. Not that I’ve had much time for running this past week. It’s been crazy season for invites and there are more on the way.

Last night we visited neighbours, tomorrow I am visiting Rhodes, Thursday a certain godchild has a birthday and another has a name day, and so on… Let’s aim for a quiet weekend where I can stay home and work on the next book. Meanwhile, the sun is shining hot and there are the taxi boats are busy. Sunday was manic in the harbour; our person coming from Rhodes arrived at the Sea Dreams at 9.30 for the 10.00 departure and had trouble finding a seat. Let’s hope everyone who comes over spends a little of their hard-earned in a Symi shop.

So, no other earth-shattering news? Don’t think so, if anything occurs I will let you know. Oh, we were told by a taxi driver that the nice blue/grey and white boat that had been anchored in the bay for over a week beloved to the ‘boss’ of Olympiakos, the Greek football team thing. Clearly here to spy on our house or search out talent from the afternoon under 11s football game in the village square.

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If you like Symi, a spooky read and a creepy film, then this post might interest you. Below is the trailer for the film ‘The Thirteenth’ and some photos from the filming in 2013. This is not the theatrical release trailer, this is to attract distributors and sales agents.

The film is still not yet finished, but now, as I understand it, they have ‘locked’ the visuals. This means that the visual aspect of the film, the story telling, won’t be changed any more. It’s taken the new director a long time to get to this point as we know, but now the composer, Michael Bishop can complete his task and score the film.

While he is doing that, there will be some colour grading (enhancing or changing the colour of the film, lightening some places, darkening others) to give it a further visual depth. The start and end credits also need to be completed and the final sound mixed and layered over, in and out of the music. So, probably still a long way to go there; don’t put the popcorn on just yet.

What they (the production company) want us to do now is get as many people as possible to see this trailer on You Tube and to click the ‘like’ thumbs-up symbol so that when a potential distributor comes to see it they will see that it’s already popular and gathering interest. This will increase the likelihood of someone picking up the film and taking on board the job of getting it accepted for festivals, cinemas, TV, wherever they can get it sold. Then, once it starts to generate some income, all those people who were promised a small payment and a small % of the profits might actually start to see a little return on their time and investment. Mind you, they have to have all those folk signed up and under contract for that, so that’s going have to happen soon, presumably while the music is being added and the colour graded…

Anyway, that came in over the weekend so I thought I’d start the week off with the trailer, in case you have not already seen it. And, if you didn’t know: ‘The Thirteenth’ (which was originally called ‘The Judas Curse’, the title I gave the script when I wrote it) is based on my story ‘The Judas Inheritance’ though a much thinned down version of that story. ‘The Judas Inheritance’ is a spooky story told in first and third person, it’s a mystery thriller (with a few horror moments) and is completely set on a small Greek island in the time of economic crisis and rising suicide rates.

One of the underlying themes, for me, was to reflect the situation in Greece (the abandonment of the people by the government, the rise in suicides, etc.) in the story – each time the silver coins rise to the surface the surrounding community starts to die off – and it was all tied in with Symi history. (Though Symi is not mentioned as the island.) A lot of that is lost from the film as films always have to plane down the meat and subtleties of a novel in order to satisfy structure, runtimes, the actors, the producers, the director, the budget and even the makeup artist, it seems.

So, if you want the full story you need to read the book and you can find that here: The Judas Inheritance. Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer, see if you can spot anyone you know, anything you recognise and for more information, contact 1066 Productions.

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Friday morning and I am trying to make an international payment to cover my new health insurance. My agent from Rhodes, glad that I got such a good deal with her at AXA, is coming to Panormitis on Sunday to celebrate. We are going to meet up afterwards and sign the papers, this means I don’t have to go to Rhodes to do it, which is very thoughtful of her. But…

Meanwhile, I need to send AXA the money. This is coming from my UK account as I can do an online payment in Euros for only a small fee and it’s cheaper than taking the money out of the ATM in tranches. Except, the bank doesn’t recognise the SWIFT code. So, I try again, as you do, and then I contact the agent and she double checks it, and I try again. But still no joy. The IBAN code is correct though, so that’s all well and good. So, I notice that I can put in the bank’s address, rather than SWIFT, so I do it that way – after more messages to find the correct address and… Nope!

Now it’s not recognising the IBAN code which was correct before. So I try it without gaps, and then try again with gaps as it’s not having it. Now it’s telling me it’s wrong whichever way I enter it so I get onto Ranjit at Barclays UK help centre in Sangrur in the Punjab, or wherever UK headquarters are these days. He very quickly and eloquently tells me (we’re using live chat online so typing rather than chatting) that I am right, and there must be something wrong with his end. I stop myself from asking about ‘his end’ and suggest I’ve upset the system with my constantly getting it right, and he agrees. I should try again in a day or two or phone customer services. Nooooo! I decide to make a few trips to the ATM and take out the cash, even though it will add an extra cost. Anything is better than a customer disservice centre phone call.

So, I’m writing this now before I head down to the bank and start the process. I have three days in which to collect the right amount of cash and it is surprisingly little for a comprehensive health insurance (including annual M.O.T. affair) for a man of my age, so I should be okay. If not, my agent will have to say a special one at Panormitis and conjure up her payment from somewhere else. Perhaps Ranjit’s end which, I hope, is now working just fine.

I thought I should knock this up and put it ready to go now as, even though Neil has a dentist appointment at 12.00, I know what happens when we hit the town at lunchtime; it usually involves taverna food and a little wine, and I won’t feel like typing this later. So, there we have it. I’m off to buy health insurance this weekend, what are you up to?

Note: I actually finished this of after we got back, complete with Amazon delivery of a CD and two bathroom lights (small) in a big box (huge), but at least Jack enjoyed the box and I got to listen to Credence Clearwater Revival for the first time in X years.

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As you can see from the photos today, there are lots of boats around Symi at the moment. These pictures were taken on Wednesday evening from the house just in front of ours. Thank you for a lovely evening Alun and Andy!

The boats tend to thin out during the day as people go sailing, or motoring, though some do stay in for the day. There’s been a large motor yacht in Harani bay for several days now. It makes you wonder why, if someone had a huge expensive thing like that, they don’t use it more. But then you think they are probably too drawn to the island beauty to want to sail away. Either that or they are waiting for a spare part or something.

I see Kos has been on the news recently over the refugee crisis. In this case there was some frustration boiling over at the police station, and understandably too – from both sides I mean. Here on Symi we continue to receive refugees almost daily. Local people bring them water and donate food, the hard working police officers do what they can to process their paperwork and have them ready for the Wednesday afternoon and Friday evening onward boats to Athens.

Only a couple of days ago we received over 40 from one boat, men, women, children and pregnant mothers. Lifejackets can be seen on the rocks on the approach to the harbour, from the lucky ones who made it ashore. These people tend to arrive at night in calm weather (at the moment) and somehow find their way across the rocks to the village or Yialos where they politely ask for directions to the police station. Once there, they stay there, or nearby, while they wait to get their papers done and then, if they have money, they find a room for a night or two. Others have to sleep on the station veranda, or wait for up to five days for the next boat, outside at the police station. You might see wet clothes hanging from the railings at the clock tower as people try and get clean, but with only one WC at the police station and sometimes over 100 refugees waiting, it can’t be a very pleasant wait.

I have heard of some ignorant tourists complaining about this humanitarian crisis and wanting to be moved from their nearby hotels as they don’t want to look on dishevelled people fleeing for their lives, but, as I said, most of the people of Symi are compassionate and do what they can to help. The refugees, from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, usually don’t want to stay in Greece, a country not best placed, financially, to help out. They want to head further north to more economically viable countries where they already have friends and family. What happens to them in Athens and beyond is another matter of course.

Anyway, that’s what I was thinking about as I looked down to super yachts and sailing boats, pleasure craft and one or two impounded illegal people-smuggling boats that are dotted around in the harbour below.

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