Good morning, I hope you had a good weekend. I had a productive one, thank you for asking, though it started as a cloudy one. It has been very humid of late, which is what I assume caused the cloud you can see in the photo, because it was gone a couple of hours later. It’s all very well when it’s 40 degrees and dry, but when it’s only 30-something and damp, it’s a ball game of a different colour. Nothing like a mixed metaphor to start the week. Still, after the Saturday morning blimp, everything settled down into a warm weekend, with fans on when needed, and plenty of staying in the shade.

I was able to get a few odd jobs done. You can see one of them over on the right of this page. I put up the widget that lets you link directly to Neil’s 2024 Symi calendar. When you are ready to buy one or two, all you need do is click the image of the cover and you will head straight to the page at Lulu where you can place your order.

Another triumph of my weekend was to fix the light in the laundry. This is one of those jobs that has been waiting to be done for around two years, but which only took five minutes. Having turned off all possible fuses via the three main switches, and turned off the other one in the workhouse just in case, I took down the old light fitting, trimmed the wires, bunged on a new fitting, screwed in a bulb, and Bob’s your uncle, Fanny’s your maidypard, let there be light in the laundry again. So thrilled was I that I popped down to the Rainbow bar for a celebratory iced tea, and, on returning home, spent some time standing in the laundry flicking the light switch on and off and marvelling at my achievement.

While there, I thought it was high time I did something about the smell. Ever since we moved in here, there has been a lingering whiff of waste, to put it politely. Sometimes, it’s not so much lingering, but loitering, and at other times, it’s positively squatting. Clearly, there is an issue somewhere with the plumbing. I make sure the traps are watered, by which I mean, I regularly run water in the sinks which are otherwise little used, to ensure the U bends have water in them. That hadn’t helped. Then, about two years ago (only six years after first noticing the whiff), I took my courage in both hands and bought a new contraption of white pipes that join plughole to outflow pipe, and set about replacing the old one. As per usual with this house, there was an issue. The outflow pipe is meant to be slightly larger than the sink waste pipe so one fits in the other, and they are the same size, so you can’t join them. I found a workaround, fitted the new contraption and sealed it so there were no more holes where the whiff could escape. To be sure, I wrapped the joins in gaffer tape.

Still, the stink persisted, being worse when the wind was in a certain direction and even worse in the summer. Some days it was fine, and those are the days you say, ‘That’s sorted itself out, good.’ Of course, it never does. So, on Saturday, I addressed the back of the washing machine. When I’d fitted that in a couple of years ago, I’d packed a plastic bag in the gap between the drain pipe and the machine’s water-out pipe, but I noticed this had come loose. So, I pulled out the washing machine and the plastic bag (plus a roach which was investigating there – a clue to how the padding may have failed), and restuffed a new seal inside one pipe and around the other. As of 3.30 this Monday morning, I can report, no whiff. I even popped in there last night just for a sniff and could only smell washing powder. Possibly, a success. Time will tell.

At the risk of sounding overly manly with all this DIY business, and at the even greater risk of boring you to tears with my achievements, I’ll let you get on. I was going to take a look at the new plastic water bottles and their impossible lids, but I will have to leave that for tomorrow. Oh, there are so many exciting things to chat about… but they will have to wait.

Well, I say lots… Today is a big day in the church calendar. I’ll let Jenine explain:

15th August is one of the biggest days in the Greek orthodox church calendar…the day that the Virgin Mary is celebrated. Everyone takes their holiday at this time, a chance for the city dwellers to visit their families on the islands and have a merry time. Yesterday was the evening service and tonight the dancing and barbeque feast. Chronia Polla! (I borrowed that from her Facebook page.)

That’s one thing, another is Upload Day, which means, for me, uploading the final files for my next book. More news when I have the link to its Amazon page.

Also today, I have the mundane bits and pieces to do, like paying the electricity bill and paying the mobile phone bills. Allegedly so much easier now it’s done online. Years ago, we’d have to take the pieces of paper down to the harbour and hope to find the appropriate office or bank open and without too long a queue; always a bit hit and miss. Now it’s a case of:

Open online banking, “Password expired, Please reset your password.” “Enter existing password”, think you know it, get it wrong. Try again. Get it wrong. Look in book, find a password, enter it, get it wrong. You have blocked your account. No, you have blocked my account… Find phone, make phone call. Press one for this, two for that, three to get ready and four to go to English. Get cut off.
Start again; one, two, three, four… Listen to Mozart’s 110^th symphony recorded underwater and played back through a tin can and a length of string.
‘Your call is very important to us.’
Hayden’s 177^th symphony played on a kazoo and a Stylophone.
‘Your call is very important to us.’
Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
‘Your call is…’
Apparently not.
Phone finally connects. It’s not in English but it says, press one to be ignored, press two for Bach’s entire output, press three for… ‘Kalimera?’ Oh joy. Explain problem in great depth (we’d got locked out of internet banking, in case you were distracted by the adagio and forgot where we were), and receive reply, ‘You will need to go into your branch.’
Luckily we have one on the island, so… down 400 steps, into bank, deal with issue, up 400 steps. Please enter your new password.
Doesn’t work.
Anyway… That’s not happened, I was just filling in white space.

So, the celebrations for the day started last night with church services, and by the sound of it, many people thirsting after righteousness and partying the night away until half three. They will continue through the day, no doubt, and culminate this evening at the church on the Pedi road.

If you are driving there (and I don’t advise it), you might like to check out the new speed reduction measure at the junction. Apparently, this appeared overnight the other day (you know what I mean), and so far, seems to be doing its job.

It’s just this sort of photo that accounts for news in my life. I am so provincial.

I predict a random week, hence four random photos this morning. I don’t know why I am predicting this, probably because I have woken up with no idea what to put on this page, so you’re getting random thoughts. Having said that, the day has started with no random tune in my head, whereas most days recently have started with a song or a piece remaining on my mind after waking up, and being there for no reason at all. Today is an earwormless day.

As for the first random photo… The Blue Star leaving on a calm sea a few days ago.

There are a few things on my ‘to do when I get around to it’ list for this week. Mostly, these are jobs which have been waiting to be done for ages yet take only five minutes to achieve. Example: change the light fitting in the laundry. (Turn off the power, unscrew the old fitting, replace, and enjoy light for the first time in a year.) Another is to tighten the legs on the piano stool which is becoming as wobbly as my rendition of Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude, and another is to run the hoover over the office carpet.

Random photo number two, a view looking down the Kali Strata.

I’ll be taking that route tomorrow on the way to the harbour where we have to do a couple of random things. (Note: remember to see if the dreaded tax returns have been done yet.) Talking of downtown, the festival continues with concerts and dancing in the town square and elsewhere. For the first time in ages a couple of the bars are still open when I get up at 3.30, which means someone is having fun and someone else, hopefully, is making money. There are plenty of boats moored at the end of the harbour we can see from up here, and although I don’t go down there much, it looks like Yialos is keeping busy thanks to the many day boats and visitors. All good news.

Random photo number four is one of Neil’s and shows you the colours of most days.

I see in the national press that the great sunbed debate rages on: space on beaches, how beaches are never private in Greece, as all are publicly owned, and some places are taking up too much space, blah-di-blah. That’s one to keep an eye on. As for me this week, I have very little planned apart from the usual: get up, splurge some random words here, get on with other less random words for seven hours, take the rest of the day off to read. I am intending to release a new book this week – details will follow – while working on the next one because that’s my job. Otherwise, hopefully, a lunch with the godson, some piano playing, a short walk or two, and that light fitting to change, though that has waited a year, it can wait a little longer We shall see.

Final random shot, the sunrise at Pedi. Another Neil shot – oh and that’s something else on my list of ‘definitely to do’, I must upload next year’s Symi Dream calendar because Neil has chosen the images, and likes to get it online around now. Again, I’ll post news when I have it.