It was a quick trip to the harbour yesterday. It’s always hard to know what to wear, not because of any fashion concerns, there’s a distinct lack of that around here in the winter, but because of the heating situation.

What I mean is, it’s okay walking down the Kali Strata in a jumper and jacket, but once you get to the bottom and head over the bridge you’re sweating, even at this time of year. It wasn’t particularly cold yesterday, but felt it coming from the warm-ish house with only a t-shirt and a light jacket on. But then, by the time I reached the National Bank, I was feeling slightly moist, by the time I’d done my chores I was sweating, by the time I’d bumped into the accountant and got a few hundred euros worth of bills handed to me I was dripping (could have been tears) and by the time I reached Horio again I looked like an unwrapped mummy and needed a bottle of water or two, and was very wet on the inside. So, consider your layers when heading out and about on Symi this winter.

While I was out and about yesterday I noticed that Pacho’s kafeneion was open again and that the International is also still open for meals. That’s handy to know as we may be having our Symi Dream Christmas party later this week or early next and it would make a nice change to go there; a nice change from a gyros that is. I also learned that the Blue Star is due to run as usual this Wednesday, Friday and next Wednesday, but won’t then be back until the 27th December heading to Rhodes and back, due to the fact that, to complete its usual run, it would have to leave Piraeus on Christmas Day, so that’s not going to happen. So, limited fresh supplies for a while after this Friday; unless some things arrive on the ‘Spanos.’ Time to knuckle down for the real winter months!

I also picked up a few Christmas deliveries while at the post office and a card – thank you to Alun and Andy for that, and wishing you a good upcoming trip in February. And I took a couple of photos, quickly, one of the boats on a very flat sea and the other of the crib on the town’s main stage. And that was about the highlight of my daytime yesterday, that and some Christmas present wrapping that is.

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It seems like ages since I have written a blog post at this time of the day; it’s Tuesday morning, 6.45 and I’m just sitting down at the desk. The last couple of weeks I’ve had the weeks’ posts ready to go by a Monday evening, because we’ve been out on long walks and I’ve had plenty to talk about, in advance. This Sunday we had a Sunday lunch at the Harry House instead, so I’ve not been able to move much since then and it’s put my schedule out of sync.

But here we are, with the sun not yet up, the temperature outside chilly, a few clouds in the dark grey sky, and even the Alarm Cat still asleep on his outside bench. What’s the day got in store?

A wander to Yialos to see if there is anything at the post office. Apparently Friday’s delivery (via the big boat) has been unpacked and people have started to find things they were waiting for. Let’s hope the 101 things we ordered are waiting for me as there is only one more boat before Christmas. That’s on Friday of this week, if ordered items are not on that boat they won’t be in until after Christmas Day as the post comes on the Blue Star and that only comes on Wednesday and Friday. Fingers crossed.

We still have our local Christmas Shopping to do, but that’s about it. Mind you, I don’t know when Neil is going to find the time to fit it in what with his Pilates, Zumba and tap dancing classes. We went to tap last night and had a good thrash-o-the-feet for an hour and a half or so. We’re half way through learning one routine for a show in April, but nowhere near up to speed on it, at least I’m not, but we are pretty hopeful that we will be by the time we get there.

And after Yialos? A game of golf is in order tonight I think, we’ve started up our Symi golf challenge for the 2014/15 season, we’ve played four courses so far and Neil is first on the leader board by one stroke.

If you were wondering where the course (let alone courses) is on Symi, it’s in our sitting room inside the Xbox; it’s a winter tradition us boys have set up, the Tiger Woods challenge, it keeps us off the streets. So the week currently runs as: Monday, tap, Tuesday, Pilates, Zumba and golf, Wednesday (possibly aerobics – can you imagine!), Thursday Pilates and Zumba, Friday, card school, Saturday (and relax) and Sunday long walks. Ah the winter life on Symi!

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Neil has just discovered that the parachuting Santa his bought from Haroula on Friday evening (after a very long lunch) is voice activated. He started singing along to the loudspeakered Sunday morning liturgy (!) and it went off right beside him, giving him a shock, but waking him up. There will now be no peace on earth in our house. As I try and work in the front room I keep hearing, ‘Boo!’ followed by ‘You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout or I’ll spit in your eye,’ or something similar.

The first Christmas presents are under the tree, all the way from Penzance in a box that also included a t-shirt for padding; very practical my mum. The T-shirt has a slogan on the front, in French, and Neil has already claimed it for his own, the slogan reads: ‘I don’t have a minute to myself, I’m retired.’ I know the feeling. I keep trying to get on with ‘Straight Swap’ my comedy novel, but keep getting side-tracked by other things, mainly checking the post and eating.

Neil’s upstairs in his new office right now and has just shouted down, ‘There’s no blog today then?’ like it was some kind of accusation. I reply: ‘It’s a Sunday,’ to which he counters with a rather grudging, ‘Oh, okay then.’ I mean, I’m actually writing tomorrow’s post now, and it IS a Sunday morning! As my nephew would say ‘FFS.’ (Wasn’t that a furniture store?) I should be out doing the garden or feeding the cat or something, I don’t have a minute to myself and I am not even retired yet. Apparently you can’t do that these days unless you are 95 because the average life expectancy of a normal person is 123, assuming they never eat at McDonald’s and strictly avoid polyester. I mean, DFS! (That was it.)

And so I move on to tell you that after last week’s deluge, the weather has perked up and Saturday was and Sunday so far is, rather sunny and lovely. We decided not to go out on a walk today because we wanted to do nothing at home instead. Actually, I have planned to wrap some presents and put them under the tree, but I am currently waiting for a wagon load to arrive in the post. My box to mother took about ten days to get to Cornwall, but other things coming in the other direction seem to be taking weeks. It’s one of those strange Star Trek time-warp (just a step to the left) things where posted items move more quickly heading up and to the left than they do down and to the right. (I put that in just for you, Terri.) But there could be a reason for that as my tame journalist in the UK wrote to me the other day:

“Meanwhile, just heard that Christmas in the UK is descending into chaos. You may have heard there was a major airports computer failure yesterday that brought loads of airports to a complete standstill. And of course James (1) found himself stuck in a plane at Heathrow going nowhere when he was heading off to Berlin for an important shoot today. Don’t know if he’s made it.

But the biggest mess is the complete collapse of the UK’s online delivery services. So many people have ordered their Christmas online – not just presents, but the food orders as well – that the online retailers and their delivery companies are in melt-down, unable to cope. Warnings are now going out that many deliveries will not now be made in time for Christmas. So I expect a lot of people will be having a “Margot Christmas”. Remember that episode? (2) When Margot’s bought in Christmas failed to arrive? Christmas at the Leadbetters had to be cancelled but they ended up having a great time with Tom and Jerry next door and their homemade Christmas.”

I hope your Christmas arranging hasn’t fallen into chaos, and I am very much looking forward to our dress rehearsal this afternoon, where Jenine has invited us and a couple of others for a roast dinner. I am currently making up some proper Christmas music CDs to play (carols, not songs about parachuting Coke advertisements) and am even going as far as to consider going to Yialos to buy some horseradish sauce. I’ll keep you posted on that scintillating adventure in due course. Meanwhile, have a good week ahead.

Notes:
(1)    James. Not me, my friend’s nephew who is the current Hugo Boss model.
(2)    ‘The Good Life’ 70s TV series in the UK.

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We have all been battling storms and bad weather this last week, and especially here on Symi in the last couple of days. We were up during the night on Thursday/Friday, putting down towels, unplugging things and checking the shutters. The storm came in around 1.30 a.m. and then rolled away, came back and rolled past again, then later in the morning on Friday came back again.

At one point on Friday morning there were two Electricity Board guys outside the house, up the pole, swinging wires around and, I assume, fixing next door’s supply. I did hear a strange ‘bang’ sound during the night. Each time it rained or hailed or thundered, they took shelter under our balcony and each time I went to tell them to take shelter inside our lobby it was pelting too hard for me to get out there.

But still, enough about that, Saturday has dawned bright and clear, as if nothing had happened. Here are some photos from Neil taken last weekend. You can click to open them in the lightbox and then run a slideshow if you want. Have a good weekend and stay dry!

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