Inspiring photos
How about some inspiring photos (mainly from Neil) to see you through today?
Here you go…
Category Archives: Day to day on Symi
Blazing blasé
Blazing blasé
It is easy to become blasé about some things when living permanently in a place like Symi. Goats wandering past your door, finding a stray cat asleep in the bathroom towels one morning (when the door had been shut all night), snakes in the courtyard, a roach in the washing up… But let’s take the summer weather as a more pleasant example. Recently I saw some notes and posts from people in the yUK saying how hot it was at 32 degrees. I remembered a similar heatwave when I used to live there and how uncomfortable it was, so I sympathised. However, it made me wonder how hot it was here, and on checking our garden thermometer, found it to read 38 in the shade. I am inside a lot of the time with fans blasting at me and windows open, so I’ve become accustomed, I guess. The temperature dropped to 35 overnight, but you know, we just get on with it.
A day or so later (Friday I think it was), I woke up cold, or I woke up because I was cold. There’s no duvet on the bed these days, there’s not even a sheet, and the fans were on, but this was a different cold. By the time I reached the sitting room a couple of minutes later, I’d had to but a shirt on, and that’s not happened around here for some weeks now. Checking the thermometer later that morning, just before noon, actually, I found it was an icy 29 degrees. The shirt stayed on all day. There was some bad weather ‘up north’ around the mainland, so I assume we got the outer edges of that.
Today’s photos were taken yesterday morning, and as you can see, a calm sea, a few yachts up this end of the harbour, and a supply ship heading out. We are expecting some regular visitors to return over the next few weeks, and it will be nice to see them – remember, no hugging or spontaneous handshakes. It will also be good for many businesses who, I am sure, are in dire need of custom. Let’s hope everyone’s sensible and the country doesn’t have to stop flights coming in again. Meanwhile, I am planning a quiet week, mainly at home with a couple of walks before the day gets too hot, and, hopefully, a lot more writing.
Something for the weekend
Something for the weekend
A collection of random images to be precise. Just a few I’ve pulled from the recent collection of shots taken when out and about which, as you know, isn’t something I do very often at the moment. Some of them are Neil’s. You can tell that from the quality. The upcoming weekend holds no surprises for me that I know of, but then, if they did, they wouldn’t be surprises. What it does promise, is the visit of a pair of ‘Rainbow Regulars’ who we’ve missed this year. Hopefully, they will have a trouble-free journey over, and won’t mind us sitting apart rather than with. I had to tell someone off the other afternoon. They passed by and did that usual thing without thinking – grabbing Neil by the shoulders, as he was sat down, by way of a friendly greeting. My barked order of ‘Don’t touch him!’ came out instinctively. I’m not paranoid, but really people! Just think before you act. I know it’s what people have always done, and they may have tested negative on the way over (but who knows whose breath they have breathed in between times), but these are not normal circumstances. Anyway… You know my feelings on all that, now here are some photos.
Boats, mainly
Boats, mainly
It’s been a while since we had some shots from the balcony, so I thought I’d have a look at my camera and see what was on it. The camera tends to stay in the living room which looks out to sea, so I leave it on the windowsill for when something exciting might be going on out there and come back to it from time to time.
It’s been a time for boats, it seems. The Blue Star One (above) and the Nikolaos X both came in on Monday for the first time this season…
Recently, I noticed a small flotilla of sailing boats….
And we’ve also been having the regular visits from the Stavros, and sometimes, the smaller day boats from Rhodes, including this one that I’d not seen until this year.
Hopefully, that means some trade and business for the harbour, and maybe even some for the village where, on Monday evening, things were starting to busy-up. There was music outside Lefteris kafeneion, where some of the more typical summer activity had returned. No Symi Shrimp Festival though, which was due about now.
Sunrise shots
Sunrise shots
And off we go a-wandering… Yesterday, before down, up the hill to the first bridge over the old riverbed just beyond the top cantina. The sun came up as I was coming down, and I saw the usual succession of cars and motorbikes with army officers on their way to work. I passed the goatherd and his dog, three other men walking their large dogs up or down, and was serenaded by the summer cicadas as they deafened from the trees. It was a pleasant, sultry morning, and I returned home dripping but invigorated ready to get on with the day’s work, which unfortunately began with having to pay my health insurance bill for the year. That was okay, I was expecting it, and it’s all part of the master plan. Actually, considering what it offers, the price isn’t bad, but if you are thinking of taking private health insurance, all I can say is, get in early, before you get any older because the older you are when you start, the more costly it is to get started if you see what I mean.
If you’re living in Greece and have independent means (private pension, savings, etc.), then you need private insurance. If you’re working for a company, your IKA should be paid for you, that’s your national insurance, and if you are self-employed, then you have a government scheme you can pay into. If you were thinking of emigrating here from the UK, then you need to do that and be registered to live here before the last day of this year, and there are various things you will need. I’d suggest asking the consulate or your embassy to be sure as I read conflicting information on Fakebook and only trust the groups that are run by the embassy staff.
Anyway, that’s not what I mean to talk about. In fact, I don’t know what I mean to talk about. I think I only intended to show you yet more sunrise shots from myself or from Neil who, yesterday, walked to Pedi for a swim and then headed off to Nos and back as his morning walk, arriving home just as the Blue Star One arrived on its new Monday sailing. No doubt, even more sunrise shots will be added to the album and stuck up here in the days to come.
