Time for climbing trees

While on the around the island boat trip with the Poseidon, Yiannis and his crew, I was reminded of an incident in Tilos, so I thought, today, I would bring the two things together. Both events involved men in trees but for two different reasons. I’ll return to the rest of the boat trip and the Tilos visit in the future, but for today, a couple of unusual shots, with explanations. In order, Tilos…

I was sitting in the square one morning taking a break from the typing, and the guys who run the bar at the back of the square were adjusting their lighting. Rather, they were rigging a new string of lights on a rope from the building across to the tree. To start with, I wasn’t in the way, but later I was, so I moved and watched the entertainment form a short distance away, from where I could also call out encouragement and ‘be careful’ unnecessarily as no-one really wants to fall off a bar or out of a tree.

The second tree incident occurred on Monday on Sesklia after lunch. This chap was entertaining his small daughters on the beach, and out of sight in this photo. It just struck me as strange how two things should happen one week apart. I know goats often stand in trees but humans? Perhaps these are the lengths folk will go to to get away from me, I don’t know, but again, it was entertaining.

Needless to say, the boat trip was delightful even though the weather clouded over at one point and was rather chilly on the way back. Perfect lunch as always, fun company and a day away from the dreaded typing machine that rules my life.

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Boat Trip

One of those quick blogs today, written on Monday as I’m off on the Poseidon with nephew George for the day. So, a few more photos from my recent writing trip to Tilos to keep you going.

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Back to Symi Dream

Here I am, back from Tilos and back to Symi Dream. I’ve been posting some photos on the Facebook page while I’ve been away, so you may have seen some of these before if you follow us there. There’s lots to catch up on, and it’ll be here over the next few days, probably in random order as I remember things.

The trip started on the Friday with a pleasant trip across on the Blue Star Patmos in the afternoon, arriving by seven in the evening. My apartment at Elli Bay was only a couple of minutes’ walk along the seafront, and Katarina was waiting to show me my room. This was to be the centre of operations for the next six days, and it didn’t take me long to unpack and head out for dinner. I went to Nicos’ taverna because I like it there. The traditional Greek meals are prepared in their own way, lots of things are cooked in the wood oven, and they have other dishes that are different from the norm. When you live on a Greek island, you can get accustomed to the usual chop-and-chips-and-rice, used to the same menus and places, so it’s good to go somewhere different. Hence, in Rhodes, we head for the Indian or Thai restaurants, sometimes Chinese, because we ‘do’ Greek all year round.

It was election night on the islands, and when the news came in that the incumbent mayor and party had been re-elected, the horns went off, there were a few bangers and, later, many celebrations in the streets and square. The incumbent mayor of Symi was also being re-elected that night, so no doubt there were celebrations there too, at least from the winners and their supporters. That’s about as political as I’m allowed to get here, but needless to say, I read a lot of articles and reports from the disaster that is the current state of the yUK while I was away. That was when I wasn’t writing 7,000 words a day, researching and reading. In fact, my trip was mainly: eat, write, sleep, rinse and repeat.

More tales to come along with any info I learn now I am back on Symi where we have my nephew staying with us for a week. Hopefully, there will be more Symi photos mixed in as the coming days go past, but if the blog ends up being short, it’s because I am entertaining and normal Symi Dream service will resume after next weekend.

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Symi Saturday Photos

Updated

Film Festival Update

Before I vanish, I promised to post this news about the Symi Film festival:

The festival is still open for entries and so far, “the early bird entries are 170 films submitted from 42 countries.”  The next deadline for entry is 15^th June. The final deadline is 30 June.

That’s already a lot of films for the committee to choose from, so it looks like it’s going to be a packed festival later this year. The Festival will be screening here on Symi between 16^th and 20^th September. http://www.symifilmgroup.com/

A quick reminder: I will be away for a few days now, possibly two weeks, though I am around next week so there may be some posts then, but if not, don’t panic! Just vote in the EU elections and don’t waste your vote. You are lucky to have one.

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Some local news

You know I’m not a news channel, but here are a couple of bits of information that may be of use. I had a message from the British Consulate in Rhodes saying that their meeting with British residents of Symi will now be held on the island probably on the evening of Thursday 30^th May. The venue is still to be finalised, but the opera House Hotel or the Rainbow Bar in Horio look to be the likely locations. I will be away from 24^th to 31^st May, so keep an eye on Facebook and other Symi news sites for more details nearer the time.

Secondly, I mentioned the new taxi drivers yesterday and included a phone number. I’ve been sent another one: +30 698 756 9469, John Nikolis. I’m not sure what hours these guys are available to take bookings, but assume that their phones are off when they are not working.

Thirdly, and more fun, the repair to the drains/road outside our house is nearly finished. The water seeping into the downstairs flat turned out to be from a pipe under the main road, hence the reason for digging it up. Our landlord reported this the other, evening and the following day, the workmen arrived to see to it as it was a council problem. We were able to lend them the use of our electricity for the compressor, a bucket, water and washing up liquid for filling it in. (I’m still trying to work out what the washing up liquid was for). The job took two days. However, the hole is only filled with sand right now, and the stones have not yet been replaced, so take care if you’re driving that way. I assume that the stones will go back once the sand/filling has settled, but it’s been a long time since I did building studies and I don’t think we covered road repairs anyway.

There, that’s my local news for the time being.

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