All posts by James Collins

Day to day on Symi

Carnival

It was carnival weekend in Greece, and Symi held an all-day celebration in the harbour, with, it looked like, Disco as the theme. Lots of youngsters dressed as disco divas and John Travoltas, music from that era, belly dancing, and later, fireworks. There are some videos courtesy of Symi TV over on the Symi Dream Facebook page.

(I still have no idea who that was.)

Up in the village, we had the boys around for dinner to celebrate their mother’s recent birthday, Neil made a trifle in a handbag, of course, Harry played the piano for his mum (brilliantly, though I say so myself), Sam melted into the sofa after several non-stop days working in the café which has been packed, by all accounts, and we all had a jolly good laugh.

There was a trifle inside including jelly, cream, custard and cake. Bonkers.

It wasn’t so much of a fun weekend for this 36.2 kilo fish Manoli and his mates caught on Sunday, nor for the lobster or the eel-like creature that was also on display in the village square. We saw it while on our way to dinner at Georgio’s where the BBQ was alight, the tzatziki was the most garlicy I’ve even known, and the prices were more than reasonable.

Now, with the weather warming, it’s Clean Monday, the start of Lent, and the start of a new week. It’s already turning out to be a sociable one what with three piano sessions booked in and a dinner invite at the weekend, walking to do (starting tomorrow), and only three chapters left to go of my next first draft, I have plenty to be getting on with on this bank holiday.

Day to day on Symi

Ahha! Photos.

Today, I can show you a couple of the photos I was talking about yesterday but couldn’t reach because of the internet thing. It’s fine today (150 Mbs), so I don’t know why it was so slow yesterday. However, the image you see here of the blue sky… well, you can’t actually see that this morning. All that’s outside the window is a wall of grey as the rain sweeps in across the bay from the north.

It’s a day for staying at home, keeping dry and cosy, and not going to the shops, as one of us must do later. Neil is doing things in the kitchen today, while I am writing. Yesterday, the bathroom ceiling was finished to perfection, and I’ll share some pics of that next week if I remember, and the afternoon was spent, again, in the kitchen with Neil cooking and us two working on the beast of a model. I have to say, H is doing this all himself except from when it comes to the rigging which is a two-man job, only because of having to tie tiny knots in short pieces of cotton.

Still, it’s coming on.

There’s nationwide strike action today to protest over the government’s handling of the fatal rail crash of two years ago, so if you are in Greece and were planning to visit particular offices or services, you might need to check if they will be open or running. Mind you, if you are in Greece, you won’t have failed to have noticed the news coverage of that terrible event nor the ensuing outcry which has been screaming on for two years and yet no-one seems satisfied, because nothing much has been done to ensure such a thing doesn’t happen again. Meanwhile, you’ve got seven planets lined up across the dusk sky tonight though you can’t see them all without binoculars, and with all this cloud around, you can’t even see the sky let along things millions of miles up. Whatever, it’s time to set my mind to 1893, the day ahead, and to look forward to sunnier days.

Day to day on Symi

Unconnected Thoughts

Looks like another clear and calm day today, like yesterday when I managed to escape the house and nip down to the harbour. I came back up via a faster but more tortuous route, turning right near the bottom of the Kali Strata and heading more or less vertically upwards to the chicken slope (near New Villa George), and home that way. I managed to get some snaps along the way.

Mind you, you’re not going to see them today. I never understand how our internet connection can be 200 Mb once day, and 120 kbps the next, like it is right now. We pay for 100 Mb, but that’s never what we get. Usually it’s around that, if not a little more, but then, for no reason, it will drop to such a low number, nothing comes down or up. That’s what’s happening now, and I’ve tried moving closer to the router and all that, but it makes no difference. We might have to phone someone in a call centre about this or consider doing what others have done recently and switching to Nova who already have our mobile contracts. Nova do a thing where you don’t need a landline, you connect to your router straight to the phone tower in the way your phone connects, and you can pick it up an take it with you. It’s cheaper, too, but we’ve not changed because it’s only cheaper by a couple of Euros (for us), and our current system is faster, when it works. Which it hopefully will do later, or tomorrow, so I can show you my stunning photos of nothing of great interest. Here’s another blank space. Have a good day.

Day to day on Symi

Why is there always only one?

You’re going to have to make do with a lesser service today. I store my photos on OneDrive and download those I think the least uninteresting as I need them and post them, but today, I have a ‘Network error when attempting to fetch resource.’ In other words, something’s gone wrong up there, and I can’t get to my store of images. I have some old ones on the PC which I’ll have to use. The view might be out of date, but then again, it might be exactly as it is right now. I don’t know. I only left the house yesterday to buy some milk. The rest of the time was spent either at this laptop or on the sofa surrounded by tissues.

So far today (and I’ve only been up for 10 minutes) things in the nose department seem calmer, and I’ve only sneezed once. This might be the effects of the drugs still doing their work, or it may be a natural improvement. I hope it’s the latter as I have to go to Yialos this morning for some bits and pieces, and I’m looking forward to the walk. Talking of which, I was walking recently when I saw this on the side of the road…

Why is there always only one glove? I was in London recently and I saw the same thing: a single glove abandoned by the side if the road. I saw the same thing in Folkestone (twice) and was tempted to take photos, but then I thought that was a little like photographing roadkill and decided against it. As it happens, I became a victim of the same phenomenon while I was away and managed to lose one of my leather gloves somewhere between Folkestone train station and the Leas. As I was in a taxi, I can only assume I dropped it in there, but I also like to think I dropped it by the side of the road, so someone else came past later and thought, ‘Why is there always only one?’ It’s obviously a thing, this one glove dropping… thing. I’ll keep an eye out on future walks, see what else I can find beside the road, and report back. Now, it’s time to start the day, get some work done, ‘nip’ into town, ‘nip’ back, get some shopping in, and get some writing done. So I’ll leave you with another photo taken last month. This may also be today’s view, I’m not sure as I’ve still not been outside yet, but as far as I can see from forecasts, it’s going to be a calm, bright day today, and the temperature is starting to rise.

By the way, if you want to know where I am with the writing, check out today’s blog post at https://jacksonmarsh.com/back-to-acts-of-faith/

Day to day on Symi

Rolling Backwards

This morning, I am not sure if I have been hit with a cold or the cold: forehead ache, badly behaving nose… It may clear when the house gets above 4 degrees, if it does. Whatever it does, I am working backwards this morning, starting with yesterday’s progress report from Harland and Wolff. It may not look like much is happening, but the main deck is coming together, and other sections are ready to add when the time comes, so before long, I reckon, we’re going to have a major breakthrough, and I don’t mean through the hull by ice.

Not my fingers

While working backwards, here was the scene at Scena on Saturday night…

And here is an illustration of Smithfield market, London, in the 19th century for no reason other than it happened to be in the wrong folder at the right time. (It’s vague research for the next book).

Heading backwards while coming forwards from the 1800s, here’s a shot of part of a new exhibition concerning Athens and the Acropolis which you can catch between flights when waiting at Athens airport. It still tickles me that Athens is the only airport I know of that has a permanent exhibition space. Not a huge one, granted, but still…

Before witnessing this brief exhibit, I witnessed the Alps from the middle seat at 30,000 feet, so not a great image, and difficult to achieve without the woman beside me thinking I was trying to snatch a shot of her upper deck. The wing doesn’t help either, only in terms of keeping us at 30,000 feet, which is, after all, rather more important than yet another photo from an aeroplane window.

On which note, I shall go and blow my nose again and sniff my way to work at the kitchen table where I have just opened a new roll of kitchen paper.