I have been out and about taking photos in the rain recently though yesterday was remarkably dry, though cold. So, lots of photos to come over the next few days, and possibly some non-blog days, particularly in the week of 16th, which is the week we are planning to move house.

The contract is signed, we’re secure for the next three years, with a proviso that we have six months’ notice should the property be sold. And a very nice property it is too. I won’t put up photos, I know you are interested to see the inside but we only took a couple to remind ourselves of the layout so we can plan what is going to go where; and we are not in the house yet so it doesn’t look ready. But there are some details I can share with you, I guess.

We have a fairly large courtyard that has steps leading up to two flat roofs, not that I will be going near them very often, only one has railings around it and there is a huge drop at the front of the house, and one on the side. And the other side is a pretty decent drop from the courtyard wall, the fourth side would be into the neighbour’s courtyard, though they are also slightly down a hill, so we don’t really attach to anyone – not in the traditional way.

The property is really two properties joined together by a common, open porch, and on one side we will have our office and guest rooms, and on the other our main living area. This is made up of a nice saloni which looks towards the harbour – there are a couple of shots on yesterday’s blog. There are windows on two sides here, good for summer. The bedroom is, like in the current house, in the middle of the property with a moussandra above. This comes part way across the sitting room as well. This room also has a window, handy for the summer and at a height where the cats can’t leap in.

The kitchen is large and fitted, though we may have to rethink where the cooker goes; there’s a nice extractor fan, standard size, sitting over a 45 cm gap, which is a bit slim line for a cooker. But that’s a consideration for another day. The bathroom is off the kitchen, which means it’s an inside bathroom. You’d be surprised (or not) how many are still outside on Symi, some are even across the street from the houses they serve.

That’s a basic rundown. Currently, the landlord is making a good job of removing everything bar the fixtures and he even told us he would have someone in to clean the place first. Our current house is slowly stacking up with boxes, so much so that I now need to move my desk and rearrange the front room so that I can carry on doing what I do while making more room for more boxes. I’ve had a word with Habib and he is going to organise us some strong guys to carry the heavy stuff when we are ready, and some very kind folk have already volunteered to help us on the day.

So, I’d best get on and get back to more packing.

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Yesterday we signed the contract for the new house. Today I can give you a shot or two of what will be our new view. A week on Monday we can collect the keys, take the inventory and start moving things across.

On the way back we stopped off for a few supplies at one of the village supermarkets (see photo) and it’s a question of ‘What shall we have for lunch today?’ As you’ll see, supplies have become a bit scarce. But not to fear! The Blue Star came through in the morning and, all being well and calm, should have come back last night. (I will be able to give more accurate details once we move as we’ll be able to see and hear it arrive and depart from the comfort of the living room.) So, Thursday morning will probably see a scrum at the vegetable department, so might give that a wide berth.

But it’s also good news for empty boxes, and we still need a heap more, with only about 60% of the house packed up. The more we pack the less we can use, obviously, so the house will probably stay mainly as it is until only a few days before we actually start moving things. Then it will be open season.

Meanwhile, the nights and mornings have ben wet, everything is feeling damp and it’s also cold; standard February weather here. I’ve not been able to get out for much ‘jalking’ at my preferred time of day, but have been trying to get out for your more standard kind of walking in the afternoon. Neil’s not been 100%, having had a bad tummy, but is on the mend now.

So, off into Thursday, with plenty to do and plenty to look forward to.

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First of all, thanks to everyone who has so far sent in notes and tips, and things about the pension topic mentioned yesterday. I’m hoping to distil all the info for a future blog, but it sounds like things are due to change in April. So, watch this space.

So, it’s Wednesday (well, actually it’s Tuesday as I write this) and today we are going to sign the contract for the new house – day 24 of ‘moving house on Symi,’ so we’re looking forward to that. I walked past it yesterday (Monday – do keep up!) on my way back from Yialos and saw the landlord heading back and forth to his house opposite, so that bodes well. I went down to sort out a few things, check the post and get the deposit out of the bank, all done successfully, and took some grey, winter photos while I was on route.

Funnily enough, I took one of the sea coming onto the road by the customs house and it was more or less the exact same photo as Adriana put on her blog on Monday. http://adrianas-symi.blogspot.gr/ Check it out, ‘Surf’s Up Symi Style.’

I also almost took the same shot of the dog in the tree, and got some shots of stones and… well, great minds obviously think alike. Adriana also has some info about the recent Sunday Times piece about Symi, and links to the ferry schedules, which are kind of all over the shop at the moment.

I also noticed on my way past that the old Symi Dream shop is now up for rent, so that’s not gone to anyone new as yet. If you fancy having a small business on Symi and need a shop, this could be the place for you! Down in the harbour there was the navy boat in (or is a customs boat? Looks more military to me, must examine closer next time), but no other ships coming or going. We’ve not had many recently, not for some time now due to the bad weather. You can tell by looking at the empty vegetable racks in the shops.

Monday is a busy day though, down there, with folk doing their admin things like banks, post office, catching up on shopping; a bit like I was doing. Heading back up the Kali Strata I decided to go in a different direction and went up almost vertically past Villa Papanikola, the recently done up accommodation that overlooks Yialos. Then it was back to the house to find Neil ill with the tummy big that’s been going around the village/island, and, after lunch and some pottering about, a tap class that was mind-meltingly hard work but good fun.

And then Tuesday morning and… Another night disturbed by the sound of rain on the shutter-less window and wondering if there was going to be thunder, and did I need to get up and unplug things? I heard the clock strike five, drifted off a bit and then my alarm started signing ‘Good morning, good morning!’ to me at 6.30 as it does. I dragged myself out of bed, was not impressed to see it had stopped raining, so fed the cat, put on my trainers and headed off up the steps and to the quarry for a bracing, early morning job/walk. (I could call that a ‘jalk’ as I mix jogging with walking, but that sounds like too silly a word to use, and the alternative is not PC at all. After all, I can’t call my early morning exercise a ‘wog.’)

Managing to dodge the rain, until the last few steps, I was back and at my desk by 7.30 ready for a morning of, yes you guessed it, more rain. Ah well, at least we’ve had some time away from it, off and on, recently so the towels are dry.

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Going slightly off piste today and wondering about pensions. As far as I can remember, I’ve still got a few years before my private one kicks in, I think it was 67 at the last count. Age that is, not years to go.

No idea what age I might be able to delve into any UK pension (or Greek one) that I may have paid/be paying into, 97 probably, if there is such a thing as a pension by the time I reach any kind of claiming age; if indeed I reach any kind of age.

But I have been seeing a lot of adverts recently for a company that tells me that, as an Ex-pat, I can claim my (private) pensions early, or move it overseas, or do something wonderfully handy with it – as long as I use their company of course, and I have never heard of them, so I shan’t even fill out an enquiry as I know it will only lead to hours of boring phone calls trying to sell me a product I don’t really want. But, maybe someone reading this knows about what ‘deals’ (for want of a better word) might be available to UK ‘ex-pats’ living abroad, in Europe, who have private or other pensions that that can become better off by doing things with them. And perhaps there’s also someone who can put those words in the correct order and make sense of them.

If so, feel free to email me and I’ll share the info. Please do not phone me about it. There are two reasons I ask that. 1) I hate speaking on the phone, and 2) the phone is currently unplugged so it won’t get answered anyway. Oh, three reasons… 3) My mobile is also playing up and turns itself off when I try and answer it, it apparently hates phone calls more than I do. Oh, four reasons… 4) I don’t want to talk about pension advice, I’m just interested to read about it and share reputable links with the blog readers. So, any ideas via email with handy links would be great. Thank you.

And talking of unwanted phone calls, I’ve already had a few from my mobile provider since I cancelled my mobile contract the other week. I went to the Wind shop in Yialos and Mr Wind there took me through the whole process, and my contract ends in March. He was very intrigued to see my sim card which is now nearly 13 years old and still working. I have a temporary one now and will change that for the new pay as you go one in March. But the call centre somewhere rang me out of the blue to find out why I was leaving my contract, so I told them: I was paying them more than I use, and they magically come up with a better offer. But I still wasn’t interested. So they came up with one that sounded like they would pay me to use their network. But I still wasn’t interested. If I’d wanted a new deal I would have asked for one thanks, so please get off the phone.

All this does mean that all my old numbers are on the card that is now out of the phone. I could out it back in and transfer them mover via the PC but I have packed the lead, so that’s not going to happen. So, if you text me and I reply asking ‘who are you?’ that’s the reason. If you want to text me saying who you are, I will save the number to the phone. But then again, the phone screen is playing up and I will need a new phone soon, so… oh forget it! Forget phones. Lets’ stick with emails and face to face shall we?

There, that’s my Tuesday morning ramble. Off to get on with the rest of the day now, though I have no idea what’s in store…

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Feeling a bit wintery in the house today, down to 13 degrees in the front room at 7.30, been kept awake during the night by the strong winds, the shutters at the front were rattling a bit but I can’t get to them now as the room is full of boxes, so I put the earplugs in and tried to get back to sleep.

Didn’t get out for a walk this morning at 6.30; far too cold and windy to make myself feel any more unpleasant than I feel at that time of day after a rough night’s sleep, so sat for half an hour while I had my hot water and lemon, and played with the new tablet – LG V400, not any other kind of tablet.

I like this thing, it’s got some funny habits. For example, when I use it to check things on Facebook and make a post, I write my pot, and then click share, or done or whatever it is, up pops my post and the tablet tells me ‘You posted this’ or ‘You just shared this’ and I say, I know, I told you to, I am in charge, actually. I mean, how thick does it think I am? I expect there will come a day soon when we won’t even have to like or post our own things, our devices will know what we would like or post and do it for us.

Anyway, meanwhile, what next, where are we? Ah yes. We’re heading off into another winter week on Symi and this one contains all the usual ingredients: tap, aerobics, walks, Pilates (for Neil) and so on, plus a couple of extra ones: signing the contract for the new house (the new furniture has been ordered) and collecting a new laptop. I am getting ahead of myself with this, I’ve found a new one as I want to upgrade before this one goes wrong suddenly, not that it looks like it is going to. Then everything shuffles down: Neil gets this one and his becomes the spare for emergencies. Might sound extravagant, but I’ve been saving up. Thought I should get it now and give myself time to transfer everything across and get used to Windows 8, as that seems unavoidable now.

So, that’s’ me for a Monday morning. Jack has just wandered in from his place on the sofa and decided that the big square box fill of kitchen things is this morning’s favoured bath and sleep place. So, he’s happy.

Have a good week ahead.

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