Category Archives: Day to day on Symi

Stars, Fans, Covers and Rubber

August 2, 2023 James Collins

August has started with more visitors arriving from the mainland, standard temperatures (rather than the excess of July), and the Symi Festival, which has its official opening tonight with Helena Paparizou on the main stage in Yialos town square/amphitheatre.

In our house, we have a couple of pinups for the month…

The same pair will be at it again later in the month when Neil takes H for his birthday dive with Blue Lagoon Divers. This year, as he’ll be older, H will be able to dive deeper than the last time they went two years ago. And yes, they did dive deeper than you see in the photograph. Don’t be clever. If you fancy a dive either as a PADI card holder or as a newbie, you can contact BLG through their website or Facebook page, but my advice is to do so early, because it’s a popular Symi activity, and often booked up.

The photo, in case you hadn’t realised, is of our copy of the Symi Dream calendar. Neil creates one and sells them online every year, usually between October and December, and I’ll announce here when the next one is ready. I know of several people who have collected one every year since he started them when he had the shop. I can’t remember exactly what year he started them, perhaps a collector can remind me, but it’s become something of an institution. Look out for a link in a couple of months.

The images in the calendars are always of Symi, and not always of men dressed in rubber. In fact, August 2023 is the first time there has been such an image. He’s featured traditional dancers and public space scenes before, but never a duo like this. You never know, you may get another one for August in the 2024 calendar – watch this space.

While you are watching, you can have a look at another fan worm. This photo, Neil took while snorkelling at Pedi.

And if you want to see another image, and one you have never seen before, then I’ve got a cover reveal coming up on Saturday on my other blog, www.jacksonmarsh.com A cover reveal is a bit like one of those ridiculous gender reveal parties, but without the party, and without the institutionalised colours, accidental balloon let-offs, and other nonsense. Basically, I’ll blather on a bit about the new book, the first in my latest ‘must read’ series, and show you part of the cover. Then, you click the image at your leisure and get to see the full cover. You’re meant to go, ‘Wow!’ and remember to buy a copy when the book gets released. I know, but we indie authors need all the publicity we can get, and a cover reveal constitutes a major event in my life these days. All you have to do is click www.jacksonmarsh.com and bookmark the page somewhere, so you can pop in and check on me in my other world where I do, now and then, talk about what’s happening on Symi — and it’s not talk that I put on this blog.

Right then, off to do something useful, and think about what to tell you tomorrow.

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Books & writing, Day to day on Symi

A Free Book for August

August 1, 2023 James Collins

Well, a free book for five days (1^st to 5^th) and possibly not one you’ll be interested in, but if you click the link at the bottom of this post, you’ll get to the book’s Amazon page and see what I am talking about. Not now! Wait until you get there…

By the way, these links to Amazon often lead you to a page that says ‘Not available in your area.’ Ever had that when trying to buy a book? If so, don’t panic! What it means is you’ve gone to, say, Amazon.com (USA) when your account is based at Amazon.co.uk (UK). The book is available in your area, but you need to find it on your own country’s Amazon site. So, either copy the ISBN number from the details, or the title and author, head to .co.uk or .whatever, and search out the title that way. Then, you should have no trouble ordering the Kindle or paperback. (I guess it’s to save you postage from USA to UK, or something. I don’t really understand why Kindle downloads are affected, but we’re not here to talk about all that…

We’re here to talk about shrimps and August.

The Symi Shrimp Festival happened on Sunday night, and by the sound of it, it was a success. Neil was called in to work the evening at the Rainbow Bar, and when I vaguely saw him around 2.30 on Monday morning, it sounded as though he’d been very busy, and the party went on until well after midnight.

We’re now in August, of course, so happy month to you; Kalo mina. (My spell check changed mina to main. It’s one of those words that when typed, has a mind of its own, so apologies if Kalo mina is ever printed as Kalo main, a little-known consequence of the Spanish colonisation of South America.)

I’m not sure who’s coming to visit in August. If you are, leave a comment on this post on Facebook so we can look out for you. After the heat of last week, August may well feel positively chilly, though it’s usually one of the hotter months. I know it’s terrible weather ‘up north’ in Denmark, the yUK and other northern-European places, and apparently, that has something to do with the changing Jet Stream, or some such. Well, if you can, drop ‘down south’ to escape it. Rhodes is now as back to normal as it can be, and lots of businesses and individuals are putting around publicity saying just that and inviting tourists back. The island, like the rest of the country, relies on tourism, and it’s fair to say, the European press hasn’t helped in recent days. (See my post ‘Village Views’.)

I escaped the news and my writing routine on Sunday morning and went for a short walk, taking today’s snaps as I went. This is the lane that runs off the village square. It does a couple of sharp bends and then a gentle slope and takes you around the back of the Castro to where you can see over Yialos and the hills. If you keep going straight until you can’t go any further and have to turn left or right, you will come to the Kataractis (if you turn right). These are the ancient steps/slopes down to the back of Yialos. I didn’t go that way, I had chapters to write and sofas to sit on, which is probably what I am going to go and do right now.

Enjoy August, and we’ll chat more tomorrow. Meanwhile, here’s that free book which may interest you or someone you know:

Free book on Kindle from 1^st to 5^th August. Click here.

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Day to day on Symi

Sunday Morning Ramble

July 31, 2023 James Collins

The temperature has dropped a little, there have been a couple of windy days, but there’s been nothing like the heat of last week. In fact, some mornings, it has felt almost autumnal, especially when it’s been humid, but that’s only by comparison to the 40° + we had recently. Over the weekend, as well as the usual write-and-work day-to-day, we were taken out to dinner on Friday night and had another fabulous meal at Kali Strata, a place so popular that unless you book, you will be disappointed. From where I was sitting, I saw my godson and his waiter colleagues having to turn away several parties of hopefuls who had climbed the steps to spend an evening in the village. Luckily for them, they still had the options of George & Maria, Taverna Zoi, and Scena, not to mention the bars, Sunrise, Ringo’s, Lefteris, Rainbow, and the Secret Garden, or the two cantinas further up on the main road. There are plenty of places to socialise in the village these days, but for some, you have to book. (And no, I don’t know the phone numbers and I can’t do it for you. These days, all details are online somewhere.)

Also over the weekend, a flotilla came into the harbour; the Rhodes Regatta (I think). I stood and watched a long procession of sailing boats heading in under sail and tilting in the wind. We had two cruise ships too, one that can moor by the clocktower and one that stayed out at sea and ferried its passengers in and out on its smaller craft. And, in other shipping news, the King Saron was still out of action, and the Blue Star Galaxy didn’t happen due to a mechanical fault.

In other general ‘news’, the Symi Shrimp festival is due to be held on Sunday night in the village (I put it in that tense because I am preparing this on Sunday morning). The chairs are stacked up in the village square ready to be put out, and someone has moved the central planter. Also, the Symi Festival is either underway or about to be underway. (Remember, I am not a news service.)

More ‘Also over the weekend.’ I have been battling with my PC. Not in the way you might see in an old film, where the hero wrestles with a giant monster in stop-gap animation, but in a more metaphoric way, and not with all of my PC. Here’s the thing: I am happily typing away in Word, glancing up now and then to see how many words are underlined in red, and then looking back at my fingers. When I look up again, I am staring at my files in Windows File Explorer, the program that shows you your filing system. It seems it’s taken on a mind of its own and pops up when it feels like it. This, I thought, was odd, so I went to the great know it all in the sky and Googled the problem. There, I found all manner of tips and tricks, and worked through them. You know what these helpful things are like: “Find your advanced menu from the main menu and click on file display under preferences, from the list select external drives and stand on your head for five minutes. Fixed!”

Not at all. I can never find what they tell you to look for as they seem to be using completely different Windows operating systems, even though they swear they are not. I’m on Windows 11, btw, and I have tried everything the online ‘experts’ tell me will fix my problem. Pah! It persists – the file viewing program opens itself whenever it feels like it. It’s not a great problem, except for when I am on a roll and write THE best paragraph ever, only to look up and find I haven’t because I am looking at File Explorer, not what I thought I’d been typing. Anyway… If anyone knows of a fix for this that I haven’t tried, please feel free to let me know. (It may have something to do with me using an external flash drive; the only fix I’ve found is to turn off File Explorer, the trouble is, like the flash drive, I use it all the time.)

Ramble over, here’s the last paragraph.

Neil’s been doing some snorkelling, hence the underwater photos taken in Pedi. I have been writing and working as boringly usual, and am about to release the first book in a new Victorian mystery/detective series. I will tell you more about that in a week or so when it’s ready. Meanwhile, I have a giveaway on Kindle this week, and you can find the free, full-length novel by clicking this link. It’s free from 1^st to 5^th August, so maybe have a look tomorrow.

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Day to day on Symi

Friday This & That

July 28, 2023 James Collins

At least I know the cause of this morning’s earworm. I woke up early, even for me, and found myself trying to decide if I should put on a T-shirt and go back to bed. After a few moments of staring at the clock as though it was to blame for the early hour, I decided to carry on as normal and catch up on sleep later in the day. I am now wearing a T-shirt because it’s 26 degrees outside (2.30 am), with a bit of a breeze blowing.

The earworm? ‘In the Winter’ by Janis Ian.

Yesterday was one of those humid days where the Turkish coast was misty all day, there was a haze across the sky, and the balcony rail was damp in the morning. It felt cooler than it had been, and there was no breeze until later at night. As usual, I spent the morning at the desk doing this and that, while Neil dropped down to the dentist for a visit. A little more work in the afternoon, and another couple of films on Netflix before bed at what’s become my standard time, 20.45. Gosh, I know how to live.

The other Easter candle that sucumbed to the recent heat - it's never been in direct sunlight, only in the shade. — The other Easter candle that succumbed to the recent heat – it’s never been in direct sunlight, only in the shade.

We watched some boats come in last night. There must be a regatta or a race happening, as we counted at least 20 yachts come in under sail. It was too dark for my phone cam to take a picture, but it’s always a magnificent sight to see; boats under sail, I mean. So often we see them under engine with no sails up, so I never know whether to call that sailing or motoring. Motoring I guess. I’d love to see one of the gulets heading in or out under sail, or any sailboat come to that. ‘Behold, the power of the wind!’ (A line from ‘White Squall’ – a Ridley Scott film with some excellent shots of a topsail schooner at sea.) I got a bit into schooners, barquentines and brigantines earlier this year while researching for one of my Larkspur books. Wonderful romantic things to look at, but I wouldn’t like to be caught in a storm while sailing one. (Boat I mean, not one of my books.)

The things you research when writign historical novels. In this case, Pears Blanc du Pearl arsenic makeup from 1890. — The things you research when writing historical novels. In this case, Pears Blanc du Pearl arsenic makeup from 1890.

As for Friday and beyond, I only have the usual planned, plus an evening out to look forward to. I have one MS currently at the proofreader, another in the typowriter, several others in development in my head, and a book to read, so I have plenty to be getting on with. My weather forecast shows it as breezy (3/4/5 Bft) for the next couple of days, then 1 or 2 Bft winds, with the temp between 26° and 28° during the day (but we’ll see about that), and for that pattern to continue for the next week.

As far as I know, that’s it from me for this week, so now, I really must get on. It’s nearly three in the morning and that’s half the day gone already!

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Day to day on Symi

Village Views

July 27, 2023 James Collins

I was just having a cup of tea on the balcony—listening to the new neighbours’ new air conditioning unit and watching nothing happening because it was too early in the morning for anything to be happening—and realised it was July. I’d suspected this for a few days, but you know how it is when one day is pretty much the same as the next. It occurred to me that it was also 2023, and ten years ago, I was preparing to release ‘Village View, a Year on Symi.’ This is a collection of blog posts from this very blog, all written during the year ten years ago, and it comes with pictures.

A view of the vilage — A view of the village

Rushing to my study at the pace of someone holding a mug of tea, I took the book down from the shelf and had a flick through, only to realise I have one of the few copies where the photos are in colour. I remembered speaking to Amazon about this a while back, and asking why the book was on sale for around $200.00, thinking it was one of those scams organised by the unscrupulous who occasionally manage to get through Amazon’s defences. Turns out it’s what the book costs if printed with colour images. I’m sure I never paid that for it. Luckily, the black and white version (which looks just as good) is only $19.63 in paperback and $4.99 on Kindle.

According to the book, ten years ago this month, I was talking about the new Nautical Museum opening (now closed and turned into the house for the top clergy, I believe) and the Symi Shrimp Festival which was around this time. There are other snippets of info and island news/stories too. The book takes you through an entire year with several posts per month and runs to nearly 300 pages. It’s the third in my four Symi books, the first being ‘Symi 85600’ which also continues to sell and doesn’t cost $200.00, I’m pleased to say.

That was one thing. Another was news from my yUK ex-journalist mate who told me that the fires on Rhodes have now dropped out of the UK news (or at last, the news he sees). In the tradition of the great British press, when a story has made its sales, it’s shoved out of the way in favour of what dress a certain ‘celeb’ was popping her boobs out of on a red carpet last night, and who fell over on ‘Strictly’, whatever that is. But Rhodes hasn’t dropped off the agenda at all; it’s still happening, though some good news yesterday from an online Greek reporter told us at least one of the fire fronts had been brought under control. (There are more, and that info might have changed by now.)

As I posted the other day, if you want real, local and reliable news, then check the Greek press and not the distant scabloids of other countries who put up headlines such as, ‘Tourists sent into the jaws of death’, when they mean a plane landed at an airport 30 km away from a fire, and on it were people who had chosen to keep their holidays because they were staying in an entirely different part of a very large island. Is it any wonder readers are ill-informed when those who have taken on the role of informant batter readers’ brains to a pulp with sensationalist nonsense because they need to sell copy at any cost?

Anyway… That’s my early morning view on thoughts that sparked when I was on the balcony. If you want to know what they were ten years ago this year, then pick up a copy of Village View: A Year on Symi.

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Ramble over, here’s the last paragraph.

Writing on a Greek island