There’s a parade on Symi today, as there is every May 8th. This celebrates the end of WWII and involves the school children, local organisations and services, and the laying of wreaths at the war memorial. If you are here and want to see it, the best place to be is on the north side of the harbour (Takis Leather side) along the quay, and to be there around 11.00 a.m.

Here’s what the weather has in store for the day…

I love this time of the morning when the sun’s just coming up, the sea is still silver, and the sky a little pink. The Blue Star is on its way in, on time as usual, and a couple of fishing boats have recently gone out. Birds are twittering nearby, but otherwise, there’s hardly a sound. You can hear that on our Facebook Page under ‘reels’ where I’ve started putting random 30-second clips when I remember to or have something to put up. (Eventually, there will be a lot of the same view, but taken at different times of the year.)

The extended bank holiday weekend has more or less come to an end (some places may not be open in the morning because it’s May 8th), and things are returning to normal. We were out to dinner last night with friends, and had a great time at Georgios, good food as always and hardly any cost involved. Today, I’m off out for a walk before settling down to chapter whatever-I-am-on, and it’s all about getting my head back into the next book.

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As it turned out, we were fine, or we are currently fine, for water. Having said that, Tuesday is a bank holiday, and Wednesday is the May 8th parade, so we’re still favouring what we stored in the buckets over the tank, but as that was full on Monday, we should…

That’s all rather boring, isn’t it? You want to know how the Easter weekend went. The build-up was not as noisy as in previous years, and I wasn’t sure if that was because bangers are costly, outlawed, or simply hard to come by these days, but there didn’t seem to be as many of them going off in the last week. The fireworks and dynamite made up for that, though, and the island fair rocked over the weekend. It rained on Friday night, but that didn’t seem to put anyone off, and otherwise, it was a good-weather weekend. Me being me was in bed by 10 every night, and slept through the explosions, earlier ones of which had rattled the balcony doors right beside where I was sitting.

Sunday, we popped down to the home of our logical family (as opposed to biological family) to have a Sotiris lamb, salads, homemade gigantes, mojitos and other goodies, including some hastily made easter eggs. I was cooking up my gigantes on Sunday morning and remembered we’d not bought the boys Easter eggs. Neil wasn’t having that, so he popped out for some Kinder eggs, tempered some white chocolate, and made marbled spheres with the Kinder surprise inside. He also made a chocolate bowl for them to go in, but it was too delicate for the journey.

Just before we set off, he realised he’d not made the garlic dip he’d promised to, but seven minutes later, that was taken care of too. It was all very Masterchef.

And yesterday, I went for a walk in the morning out onto the hillside and back, and then came home and wrote half a chapter.

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It’s Good Friday here today, so it will be a very quiet day, until this evening when there will be dynamite and bangers going off to ward away evil. For my part, I am planning a quiet day at home doing very little. We had a lovely day yesterday with a surprise visit from Aunty Tina, who I had been told was coming on Friday. In fact, I was told not to tell the boys (Harry & Sam) because it was a surprise for them. So what happens? I’m passing the time playing a game on my tablet at just after 2pm, waiting for H’s music lesson at three, when who should wander into the house but Aunty Tina (who’d arrived on Tuesday), followed by Harry who knew she was here before I did. All very complicated, but lovely. She stayed through the music lesson where we covered some grade three theory, and then set to work writing the chorus for a poem Harry is setting to music as this month is composition month. I’d chosen ‘The Splendour Falls’ by Tennyson because a) I’ve always liked it as a lyric, and it is classed as a song within a longer work, and b) it has a steady four-four beat and great imagery. The music for the song is coming along well, just an intro and bridging bars to create next week, and we can write it out and learn to play/sing it.

Anyway… After that, we set about the kitchen table, and I finished my book nook creation. (Below are a few photos to show off.) It’s fiddly but fun, and I was glad of the magnifying goggles, while across the table H is still putting together his car.

So, we’re now into the Easter Weekend, the island is busy with visitors both foreign and domestic, and there are serious services and celebrations yet to come. I’ll leave you with these shots and be back next Tuesday. Oh, and this morning, surprisingly, we had water, so we were able to top up the tank, so that’s a relief.

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We are now on water rationing. Not the island, just us. Ages ago, our sterna was infiltrated by a rampant fig tree, and was emptying as fast as we could fill it, and our landlord installed a 500-litre water tank instead. That’s fine by us because the cold water comes out hot in the summer, so we don’t have to use the water heater, and after all, 500 litres is a lot of water, isn’t it?

It is, normally, because we top it up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and sometimes, on other days. Our feed is permanently open, so it looks after itself. However, this year for Easter, the May 1st bank holiday has been moved to next Tuesday, which means, unless we get water in today or on Saturday, we will not be able to top up the tank for a whole week. A full tank will last us three days, and that’s being careful. As you can see, 500 litres doesn’t go that far, and that’s one of the reasons we’re careful with water usage here on Symi. We do the washing on the mornings when the feed is on, and water the garden then too, so that water doesn’t come from the tank but from the mains. There’s a bowl in the shower to use in the loo, so that saves a couple of flushes, even though we only have a small wc cistern, and showering is a case of: get damp, water off, get soaped, and water on for a quick wash off. I don’t think we use even a standard non-Symi amount of water per day, but it works out at roughly 166 litres per day between us, or 83 per day each, which doesn’t sound possible, but apparently is.

We know we don’t have a leak as a) we would see it if it came from the tank, and b) the pump would run if it was leaking from a pipe. So, next time you’re here, think about how much water you use, because, come next Wednesday morning, we could be a bit dry at our place. Neil has to have a shower after the gym and before work each day, but I will go without for a few days, so if you find yourself standing beside me, well, sorry about the smell.

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It all looks very quiet in the village in this photo, but a few minutes later, it was much busier. Things are set to get busier still as more people arrive for Easter weekend, and the photo was taken during siesta hour, so that’s the main reason there’s not a lot of activity.

Now then, if you are heading over to Symi now or later and want to bring reading material with you, what do you do? I used to travel with at least one book, and then hunt around the book swaps for something to exchange it with when done. There are not so many of those places now, though they can still be found (the tourism offices often have some books, and the Sunrise Café has a few, I believe, as do other bars/cafes). I guess, since the onset of Kindle and digital reading, it’s easier to carry a tablet than a library, though now, you can carry your library in your tablet. Imagine saying that 20 years ago.

I started using the e-book system not long after it started on Lulu, where I first published my book Symi 85600 (it’s the postcode). Since then, things have improved no end, and now, I publish exclusively through Amazon. I’ve now got something like 40 + titles up there both as myself, and as Jackson, and in the last few months, I’ve started taking part in free promotions. Because Jackson is currently writing historical mystery novels, I’ve put a couple into a new promotion where the authors involved share the promo page with their readers and followers. This brings new readers to established authors, and new authors to established readers. So, if you’re heading on holiday now or later, and you want to stock up your portable library, take a look at this new promo which is all about historical fiction.

All you do is browse the covers and titles and click on any you think might be of interest. Do that, and you will get a screen telling you a little more about the book, and a link to its page on Amazon. The books are all in Kindle Unlimited, so if you subscribe to that, you can get them for ‘free.’

CLICK HERE

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