Wednesday, early, waking up to the wind which is cold, and a sky streaked with cloud, but at least there’s no rain. Also waking up to a handy post on Facebook directing me to the yUK Gov site where the latest info about what might happen to British foreigners in Greece, or coming on holiday to Greece. You can find it here.
Of course, it all depends on what happens next, and that’s as up in the air as it’s ever been. As I see it, and I’m usually wrong, if there’s a deal, everything (for us here) stays the same except we’ll have to change our paper residency cards to something else in time. If there’s no deal, the Greek government will reciprocate whatever the yUK does with Greeks there. If there’s neither, if a no deal isn’t allowed but a deal voted down, then there might be more time to prolong the agony, keep Her in power while she gets what she thinks is best for everyone, allow the other parties to shift around and settle on whatever green benches offer the best view of the car crash, and no-one will know what’s going on for another few months. So, that’s as strong and stable as mud then.
She has recently made her speech about protecting British immigrants now living in Europe (as that’s what we are). She says she is behind us (a hideous thought). But she’s doing it simply because there’s a bill going through committee to bring back the voting rights of UK nationals living abroad. Handily, that could be just in time for her extension so everyone will have time to forgive and forget the way She’s ignored us all this time and come around to her way of thinking. A masked attempt to add a few more potential voters to her failing armies. Or something equally as cynical. But that’s only me. And there my Big B thoughts will end for now. The photos today are from Neil and his walkabout yesterday (changing his tax details to reflect his Irish passport). Some Symi views and details to take our minds off the macabre car crash which is the current state of the yUK.
Tuesday morning and, after another thunderstorm overnight which I didn’t hear, I woke up to rain which soon cleared. It’s now sunny and clear, the windows are open to help shift the damp smell, the washing is on in the hope it will dry before more rain comes, and there was no need to have a heater on in the bedroom last night. In fact, if the weather settles down and stays as it is today (yesterday), I should be able to drag myself out onto them there hills and start up my three-mile walk-a-day routine before long. I need to. The belt is back on hole number two, one down from where it was before Christmas and not down in a good way. Still, that should be rectified when the weather is more amenable to regular walks rather than the odd one here and there.
Meanwhile… Here are some interesting stats supplied by Grammarly. That’s the plug-in program I use to check my grammar and spelling on top of Word’s own (hideously inaccurate) grammar and spell check. The program highlights possible typos and other anomalies and regularly send me a report on my progress. The following was quite surprising.
Number of words checked since July 2016 when I first started using it: 4,979,397
I was more productive than 98% of Grammarly users (which doesn’t mean much as perhaps no-one else uses it)
I was more accurate than 78% of users
I used more unique words than 99% of users, which is probably due to the dialect used in the Saddling and others and also because I am currently writing with an old-fashioned Victorian style (or my own version of)
My most common mistake is missing commas in compound sentences (I do use a lot of ‘and’).
As we were talking work and writing, I thought I’d share the latest images from ‘the study.’ My writing corner and my reading desk which is still waiting for the captain’s chair which, I am told, goes into production early next week. When it’s ready, it will be delivered to friends in the yUK when they return from New Zealand, and they will be shipping it with some of their own items before the end of March. As for me, I am shipping off to the writing corner to see if I can make the 5 million words mark before the end of the week.
PS, that painting isn’t of me, it’s of my uncle, done in oils the 60s (I think) by a well-known artist I can’t read/remember the name of. I the photo above, the house is a tapestry of where we lived, done by my mother in 1972.
Monday morning and it’s raining again. It has been since Sunday and overnight we had a thunderstorm roll across which is now doing the rounds. They tend to come, go and come back again. Sunday, we spent some time at the Sunrise for a quiz, hence the photo today of the inside, warm and welcoming, and one of the cats. That made for a pleasant change and got me away from the typewriter where I have, of late, been very busy.
Sunday morning view
I ordered a book recently, the kind of thing that maybe only I find interesting and it’s called, “Passing English of the Victorian Era, A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang and Phrase” which is a hefty title. The book was published in 1909 and is a mix of English and American English words in existence/use around 1870 and before. Some are still in use, others are not, but I’ve not read the whole thing yet. You can dip into almost any page and find a gem apart from two pages where the scanning didn’t work, and the text is blurred. This is a book from Forgotten Books (dot com if you want to look them up) where, I guess, they scan old copies and then print on demand.
Sunday afternoon view
A rather liked ‘A fair herd’ meaning, a good attendance of strangers. ‘We had a fair herd of day-trippers today’ still seems to work. I found one Greece related phrase, ‘Grecian Bend,’ for which the entry reads: (1865-70). A satirical description of a stoop forward in walking noticed amongst women of extreme fashion during the last years of the Second French Empire, and which was due to the use of enormously high-heeled French boots. The fashion fell with the Empire. (See Roman Fall, Alexandra Limp and Buxton Limp.) Another which just happened to catch my eye as it’s on the facing page is Griminess (literature). Eroticism in literature, especially French. That seems a bit harsh, and the book isn’t all about bashing the French. Anyway, it’s fun and useful and will give me something to flick through when it’s too wet to go out, as it is right now. I shall look forward to the summer to see if I can spot a fair herd of visitors milling about with a Grecian bond due to their ‘extreme’ fashion, whatever that is.
First, though… Remember: Monday 25th (today) evening, 7.30, at the Sunrise Café, a meeting with Ilias M Tsavaris to discuss your thoughts on the island. This is the first consultation of this year’s mayoral elections specifically arranged for non-Greek residents. Elias is one of the candidates running for office this time around. The last date to register to vote at the Town Hall is March 28th. Get on the register before then, or you will lose your last democratic right to vote anywhere post Brexit.
Ah, iconic summer Symi views today to counter the B-word talk
Sorry, that was the first mention of the B word, and here are a few more.
With March 29th approaching, time is running out for you to get your papers in order in case of a no deal Brexit. Brits abroad seem to have been mainly forgotten by what’s left of the Government over there and although Greece has officially said those here, registered and in the system will be protected, there’s still that clause which suggests they will reciprocate whatever the yUK government does to Greek nationals living in Britain after the historic mess really kicks off which, of course, could be anything, So, I say do what you can to protect yourself now. As far as I can see (and I’m not an official source, so do your research), you will need to have a few things in place. The list below is off the top of my head and may exceed what you need, or it may miss something, so the main piece of advice is to ask at the KEP office, the citizen’s advice department if you like. They are the one most geared up to know what’s going on. In fact, I’d say our KEP office knows more than the yUK government, but that’s my personal opinion. Here are some ideas of what to have in order, kept safe and ready to present if needed:
From the village
Residency permit issued by the police station.
ΑΦΜ number – your tax number which you will need to get a residency permit any most other things like telephone, mobile etc.
AMKA number (a national insurance number) if you are or have been in the national IKA or other health/social care system.
Up to date UK passport, of course.
Proof of sustainable income. If working for someone else, ask your employer or accountant. If you have a pension then proof of that.
Greek driving licence. You can change your British one to a Greek one via the KEP office; after 29th March you will need to resit a test in Greece if you haven’t swapped. Like any other driving license, you can use your Greek one to drive just about anywhere in the world following the rules of whatever country you are in. Some people have been worried that they can’t use a Greek licence in the UK after March, but I don’t see Greek people with driving licences having any trouble right now, and it’s the same thing.
Health insurance cover. You will need to have in place some form of health insurance. Self-employed Greek national scheme (whatever that’s called now) or IKA if you work for someone else. Or private insurance, which is what I now have. Apparently, your (forgets official name) ‘E111’ as they were called years ago will no longer be valid; that’s the temporary, reciprocal health cover for holidaymakers.
I’d also advocate making sure you have a Greek bank account with money in it (you need €330 + to get your residency card).
Kali Strata corner view
As I said, there may be other things, in fact, there probably are, but as far as I can see, the basics are: Residency card, health insurance, income, tax number, driving licence, proof of income and address – and in that last case, on Symi where an actual house address is hard to come by, I have a notary-sworn affidavit stating my address, and a mobile phone bill (which not every department accepts, hence the affidavit).
Village square (wedding gathering about to take place)
And on that note, I’ll leave my self-styled parish notices with the news that Neil now has his residency card issued under his Irish citizenship so if you also have two passports and one’s a decent European one (which is anything but British) then I’d change your residency registration to base it on that passport and not worry about any of the above.
Before we get to the regular Symi Saturday Photos, here are two news items that will be of interest to people living on the island and visitors alike. The election of a new mayor and council is due to take place in a few months, and the process has already started. I’ve been told that three candidates are running this year (though I don’t know all the details yet). One of the candidates, Elias, has arranged a meeting with non-Greek nationals living on the island, so everyone has a chance to let their views be known and ask questions. This meeting will take place on Monday 25th February at 7.30 pm at the Sunrise Café, Horio. It will be a chaired meeting, and everyone is welcome to attend.
Also, for those who want to vote in the election who haven’t yet registered, you have until March 28th to do so. You need to do this at the town hall. It’s been so long since I registered I can’t remember what you need to take, but go and visit the KEP office (downstairs at the town hall building, front, door on the left), and ask there. After March 28th… who knows? This could be the last chance for British people to register. You will need to have your residency card in place, but if you’ve been living on Symi for more than three months, you should have done this by now anyway.
Okay, and now some recent and older, random photos.
