Spring Shots

After all the plumbing news excitement yesterday, I thought we’d calm things down a little with some general photos of the island. Neil took these recently, and they give you an idea of what spring can be like on Symi. This year has been unusually calm and warm so far. We’re usually battening hatches, rain-proofing rooves and staying home more. Apart from a few cold snaps, it’s been glorious weather, and I’ve only once had to wear fingerless gloves to work. I think I’ve only worn my jacket twice since last April, and I’ve not had a chance to wear my posh overcoat or leather jacket because a) the weather’s been so good, and b) there’s been nowhere open to wear them to. Ah well, not complaining. Here are your photos.

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Plumbing Challenge part two

You know that scene in Cast Away, where Tom Hanks finally manages to light a fire? He’s beating his chest and doing the victory dance, it’s all very tribal and a little cringeworthy? Well, that was me yesterday morning, and my rite of passage involved the same torture, but without the plane crash and bad tooth. I would illustrate today’s chat with photos of my plumbing, but no-one likes to see the underside of someone else’s scabby sink, so I thought we’d have some random Symi shots instead, just to break up the tension.

So, after doing my morning work routine and trying to write a chapter that just wasn’t coming for a reason I couldn’t understand, I took the bull by the horns, collected my trusty adjustable spanner and headed to the bathroom. Bucket at the ready, I removed the waste pipe from the sink with ease because it had never been sealed into the wall, and emptied the pipe into the bucket. Thinking it was just clogged, I found a cane from one of the courtyard plants and an old toothbrush that I knew would come in handy one day and joined the two with some cure-all gaffer tape. I was now armed with ‘the spear of cleaning’, the kind of thing you win at level three of ‘Scrolls’ or other fantasy role-playing video game.

A few scrapes and dig-abouts later, and it was clear the pipe wasn’t blocked by gunk at the parts I could reach, and so I tried bending it a bit to free things up. It was one of those concertina pipes which allow you to do that; I wasn’t bending iron or copper. However, I was bending old plastic, and it broke into pieces, so that pipe was now unusable, and it wasn’t blocked anyway. Taking my screwdriver (I have three!), I unscrewed the plug guard in the sink to reveal the after-effects of X years’ worth of who knows what and used my spear of cleaning to clean up what lay beneath. That was where the blockage had occurred, but now the water was free to flow… directly onto the floor. ‘Okay,’ I thought, ‘I need a new pipe.’

But… How to remove the old pipe from the sink? It seemed attached to the ceramic by some invisible force, and the plastic end of the bendy tube wouldn’t come free. Neil had a go, and hey presto! The whole contraption came away, leaving a pristine ceramic bowl with no discernible way of attaching a new pipe. A quick call to big-sis Jenine up the hill and she explained to a dumbfounded fledgeling that what lies beneath is held in place by what happens above, and everything made sense. Armed thus with knowledge gifted from the high priestess (it’s a ‘writer’s journey’ stage in the classic Hero’s Journey structure of storytelling and comes in the third act), I set off to B&Q.

That’s is what I lovingly call Nellie’s Hardware Store up here in the village, the nearest place to me for DIY bits. I took the old contraption pieces with me so I could compare, but Nellie knew exactly what I wanted and found exactly the right thing. She even told me how to attach it. I also wanted a cap for the dripping washing machine inlet, and she gave me something which appeared to be the right size, telling me to try it before I bought it and bring it back if it didn’t fit. (It doesn’t by about 2mm, which is annoying, so I’m off there later to see if there’s a replacement.) Back home, I did a dry run putting the contraption together to make sure it fitted. My non-existent gymnastic skills came in handy as I contorted myself into all manner of positions to fit into the six-inch gap between pedestal and wall. Pipe fitted, U-bended, and plugged into the wall, and all was well. Except it wasn’t because it leaked at the top. I took it apart, shaved off some excess plastic with my modelling tools, and fitted it again, but still, the pipe was wobbly where it shouldn’t be, and another internal operation revealed it needed a washer… Found the old one, a bit manky but still intact and attached that… Still a drip, though less than before… Found my handy ‘fix everything’ mastic, bunged some of that around the washer and screwed the contraception together through the plug hole… Held my breath… Turned on the tap and… Bob’s your uncle, Fanny’s your aunt, and everyone’s as happy as a pig in sh… It worked! Thus, followed the victory dance with the unneeded adjustable spanner in hand, and all is right with the bathroom world (apart from the dripping washing machine tap, which can wait for the sequel). It will take me a while before I stop checking under the sink every time I run the tap, but I will learn to accept my new-found skill in time, and meanwhile, the water drains away so well I could stand and watch it for hours.

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Plumbing Challenge

It’s Monday, and we’ve started with a mildly blustery day. The Blue Star came in at around five, and I thought of those who were due to catch it because they must go to Rhodes for the first of three appointments to get their biometric residency permits. If only they could be done here on Symi! It’s not so much the cost, as the Bule Star is that that costly, but arriving in Rhodes at six in the morning for an appointment that shouldn’t last any longer than 20 minutes is a trial. That done, you’ve got to wait until the return boat in the evening, with more or less everything shut and in a deep red zone… When I am due to go in April, there is, currently, a morning Blue Star but no return boat until Wednesday. I’ve not checked the Stavros sailings yet, but it might mean a two-night stay to add to the cost and possible danger. I’m hoping I’ve had at least one vaccination by then, but who knows?

We also need to have our annual health checks done. We usually do these in February or March to avoid the pre-season workers’ rush, but that’s not going to happen this year, not until later, possibly. As for today, my plans for the week are to turn my hand to some light plumbing. The bathroom sink needs its pipe cleaned out, and there’s a permanent drip from a washing machine feed tap that we don’t use. (The washing machine is in the other part of the house, and I plumbed that in myself. Well, I stuck a pipe onto a tap and plugged it in.) The sink waste pipe is one of those flexible things, and it’s never been properly fixed into the wall, so that should be easy. The plan is to take it out of the wall, fiddle about with it and flush the gunk out into a bucket. That done, it shouldn’t be too hard to refix into the wall, maybe with a little filler if I am feeling adventurous, and then all should be well. I’m fed up with using the plunger on it at five in the morning, only to free it but have it slow-drain again a few days later. Knowing my luck, it will all go horribly wrong, and I’ll have to call someone. I am to DIY what the yUK government is to giving pay rises to nurses.

I am building up the confidence to attack the washing machine tap as that, to me, has no discernible way of detaching from the wall. I mean, I can’t see a nut, and as I only own three adjustable spanners and a blunt screwdriver, who knows what will happen? I’ve tried fixing the drip with silicone – messy, but it has stemmed the flow – but it looks like a complete transplant will be needed. As the tap is ‘live’, it also involves turning off the pump, emptying the pipe, trying to get the tap from the wall without damaging the pipe, finding a replacement tap, attaching it with my spanner, and hoping for the best. I’ll see how the sink adventure goes first. If you were wondering why I have three adjustable spanners, the answer is, I have no idea. They multiply in our house like coat hangers. So, wish me luck, and I shall report back on the progress of this, the most exciting thing to happen in our bathroom in the past several months.

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Nearly a year already

A year ago today, we spent our last day in London before flying to Canada for our trip across the country by train. (I blogged about it towards the end of last year in day-by-day style if you want to search or scroll to find the full story.) Hard to believe it’s a year already. In a few weeks, it will be one full year since I was last off the island. To be honest, I’m looking forward to having to go to Rhodes for my 1^st meeting about my biometric residency card, not because I want to travel until things are safer, but just to see some different scenery. The appointment is necessary, before you say anything, and all British residents have to do it, else lose their right to live in Greece. So far, from what I’ve heard, it’s all going reasonably well for us here on Symi, but people on other islands and in other parts of Greece are having a hell of a time since the B-word kicked in. I’m not due to go until the end of April, so restrictions may be different by then, and Rhodes may be safer than it currently is (which, compared to other parts of the world, is still incredibly safe), and, the way things are going with vaccinations, they may well have got to us under 60s by then too, which will help.

Meanwhile, talking of a change of scenery, here are some spring photos from around the island.

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Lockdown Deep Red

(Not a new feature film starring Gerrard Butler, apparently.)

If you’re outside Greece, you may not have heard that Rhodes and surrounding islands that fall under its jurisdiction are now in the ‘deep red’ zone. This is because of the increase in cases nationally and, in the case of Rhodes, locally. This means Symi is also in the deep red zone, though there are yet to be any reported cases of you know what on the island. Schools have gone back to online learning. You can only venture two kilometres from your home for shopping or walking and must stay local. Masks are compulsory in the street and in the shops that are allowed to open. At least, that’s the theory. (It seems appropriate today to post some photos of gates and bars.)

Future walks in this clear, but sometimes chilly spring weather will have to be local, so no more wandering to the hinterland, and we will continue to be cautious when we are out for shopping or essentials like the bank and pharmacy. Sadly, not everyone is so good. The other day, I took a walk around the village lanes. I passed very few people at first, but after fifteen minutes of solitude among the ruins, taking paths to nowhere, I unexpectedly bumped into someone in that classic comedy film fashion. We met at a blind corner and took each other by surprise at close quarters, resulting in two exclamations of ‘Oh!’ followed by a shared laugh. Luckily we were both wearing masks over both nose and mouth; otherwise, we would have shared breath at less than two feet from each other. Later, coming down the main village lane past the shops, I saw several more people, none of whom showed any sign of wearing a mask, nor even carrying one.

Okay, so if you’re on the hillside or wandering an open road and there’s no-one about, maybe it’s acceptable to wear your mask beneath your nose, it’s hard to breathe otherwise, and if you wear glasses, it can be dangerous when your lenses steam up. But, in the street, with people coming in and out of the bakery, or in blind alleys when you don’t know who’s around the corner, and certainly inside the supermarkets, well, not wearing a mask there is just plain stupid. It’s certainly disrespectful. ‘But we have no cases on the island,’ some people complain. ‘As far as you know,’ I reply. ‘But we can’t go to Rhodes, so we’re not going to get it.’ Well, you can go to Rhodes with permission for medical reasons, and while you’re there, who’s to know if you pop to a large store or visit family? Huh. Not impressed by those who do. Also, through no-one’s fault, it’s possible the ‘thing’ can come ashore here via the innocent and necessary act of meeting supplies from the boat. A crew member who regularly meets people from Rhodes to Patmos and back could easily pass it on to someone here picking up supplies for their shop. You just don’t know. And let’s not talk about some of the hawkers who have, somehow, been allowed to travel between the islands to sell their wares – they are few and far between, but one is enough.

Anyway, I wasn’t here to be sceptical or moan, and I’m not moaning. I’m just pointing out that if others don’t care about themselves or you, the island’s future trade and tourism, and think every mask is contaminated with a microchip and every vaccine too, well, that’s up to them. It’s also up to the police to police it, and they have been doing that, I hear. By the way, what’s the point of saying there’s a chip in your vaccine when you’ve already got one in your invaluable phone far more powerful than anything you could pass through a syringe? Hey ho! On a positive note, the KEP office asks people over 60 to ring and confirm their details so they can get the first jab, hopefully, this month.

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