Hello, and a happy New Year to you. I’m back after my Christmas Week off and looking forward to the year ahead. I’m not one of those blogs that spends an entire two weeks looking back over what happened last year, although I think I did that the other day, so instead, let’s have a catch-up.
December, Symi
I’ve been very quiet over the last week, staying at home, having great times with the godboys and their mum, writing when not sitting on the sofa eating Quality Street or checking out the gifts I was given on Christmas Day. We’ve also been busy revamping our offices. Mine is getting there, I am waiting for the new computer desk and chair, and a cabinet and then, all I need to do if find decent curtains and perhaps a new light fitting and I can reveal it. Neil is also sorting out his room which is currently a bit bare and finding him a proper desk, and perhaps some carpet is next on the agenda. I ordered a tailor-made piece of carpet for my room from Christalo towards the back of the town square, and it arrived a few days later from Athens. Because it’s a bit plush (for me) I feel I can now call my office a study. I just need a slowly ticking clock, a drinks cabinet and some very worthy leather-back books on shelves and the fantasy will be complete.
I know you want a weather update, but there’s not a lot to update you with. Temperatures have been down to eight degrees inside and out, the little meter wheel is whizzing around when all three heaters are on, and I daren’t look when I also have the oven and kettle going, but we manage to stay warm enough, sometimes under blankets on the sofa. I do find I’m up and at my desk before it gets light and it’s often a surprise to emerge from the ‘study’ to find it’s daylight, sunny and almost warm in the sun. The shutters are closed, you see, to help keep the heat in. Today photos were taken the other morning, the first time I’d been on the balcony since before Christmas.
And as for the year ahead… Well, no trips are planned apart from our annual health-check MOT in Rhodes in March or April and a visit to Scotland for our son’s wedding in November. If I can, I will go to Tilos or somewhere equally as peaceful for a week to do my writing retreat, and I am spending a couple of days in Athens with mother in September when she is on her way to Symi. (Note: must check out the hotels in the village for prices before long.) We have, though, put down a deposit on a trip for early 2020 when we will be taking a train trip – you know how I am with train journeys. This one will be to Vancouver, via London. The train actually starts in Toronto, but we will fit in a couple of days either side in the yUK (if we are allowed in, being displaced migrants from that country with no rights to vote in it and so on, but let’s not get into all that so early in the year). Which means, plenty to look forward to, including the falling apart of the yUK, and that’s without the friends and family who will be returning for their Symi holidays and trips in the summer.
Pour yourself a sherry as this is a long post.
I’m shutting down for a week, as in, there may not be any posts here for a few days. I will see what mood I am in, but if you don’t hear from me here for a while, it’s because I’m having some time off, waiting for the cold water to trickle out of the tap, or still trying to get out of the house.
‘Do you hear the people sing…?’
That was a joke. The guys have been getting on with the road really quickly and well, and strangely, with minimal noise, something of an achievement as they have to drill up the stones, pile them, level the ground beneath, replace the stones and cement around them, then scuff them down to make them less slippery and add some kind of grouting. Not much further to go. I imagine many residents are wondering if they will put the work on hold for a few days so the rubbish can be cleared from the collection points along the lane like they did before. The stray cats are no doubt loving the build-up and we’re lucky it’s not hot.
Meanwhile… The view from the front of the house yesterday.
I’m not one for doing all that nostalgic ‘what a year it’s been’ stuff, but what a year it’s been, and I am talking personally here which I don’t mind doing as it’s only you reading this. Travel has been on the menu. Firstly with a trip to Split in Croatia for our honeymoon and my birthday back in March. That came with a few pre-trip days in Rhodes and was followed by a ‘cruise’ down from Athens on the Blue Star, something which I would be happy to do every other week just for the fun of it. In the early summer, I went back up the ferry route to Athens for a few days to collect a screenplay award at the London Greek Film Festival for ‘Girl Gone Greek’ with Rebecca Hall where I rather fell for the area of Thiseio, in Athens. I returned there in November to meet Neil who had been to see family in Vienna and Scotland, and another cruise back on the boat followed.
Christmas in Sotiris supermarket
I’ve also released a few novels under my pen name, The Eastling under my real name, wrote a speech for a dear friend of mine to make when receiving his honorary doctorate in the arts and spent some time in London and Kent to meet an old school friend after 37 years. While I was there, I revisited my birthplace and caught up with other school friends still in the area and had a bit of a nostalgia event – plus my first ever cancelled flight event (sympathy to those currently stuck at Gatwick and elsewhere). If you followed that story and the compensation chase that followed, you’ll be as thrilled as me to learn that I received £50.00 from Easy Jet to compensate me for the £400.00 I’d spent on flights, pre-booked hotels, emergency hotels, feeding and taxis. Before you bombard me with helpful messages about entitlement, I’ve been through all of that several times with three different ‘we can do it for you’ companies and the airline itself all to no avail – apart from £50.00.
Yialos nativity scene 2018
I didn’t mind. I was travelling and that’s the important thing. To travel is to experience adventure and difficult travel is a way to test yourself. We have only one travel plan for 2019, a wedding in Scotland in November, but who knows what might pop up in the meantime. This year, I also took up a private pension plan and took it early, and this has benefited me in various ways. Apart from having the rent and bills now covered with the income, it keeps me in the Greek tax system and, if necessary, I can prove I have a regular income. Not only that, but my investment is now out of the yUK and safely in Europe. (You might guess where I am heading with this.) I’ve also ensured my residency card is in order, my bank account profile is up to date, I have private health insurance and take no money from the state, and I am working on changing my driving license to a Greek one, or I will be in the new year. Yes, I’m heading towards mentioning the hideous Brexit fiasco that has forced me to refer to my home country as the yUK, rather than the UK.
Yialos nativity scene 2017
I don’t mean the people I know or the scenery, there’s nothing yuk about them, but the state of the ‘union’ is now in peril, and the country has no idea where it’s going or what it’s doing. Actuality, not the country, but the politicians ‘in charge’ and on all sides. I’m not one for predictions, but I do reckon that woman will get what she wants as she always slimes her way out of things, and the yUK will become even more of a laughing stock and a difficult place to live. The worst things about all of this, in no particular order, are that: a) no-one knew what they were voting for, b) no-one researched what it would mean, c) the far right have seen it as a chance to get a foot in, c) future generations will not have the opportunities we currently have, d) everything else. But the worse thing is simply that no-one knows what will happen and if people were aware of the consequences before the cowardly referendum was called, they might have voted with knowledge rather than hatred. Whatever happens, we’ve done all we can to secure our security here, so hopefully, the Symi Dream blog will continue past March next year.
Random Santa attack, 2017
Enough of that. Back to the nice stuff. The office planning is underway, and the furniture has been ordered, the carpet may be here this weekend if not after Christmas, and I am on target to start my ‘renovations’ early in the New Year. There will be photos. I’ve booked flights for mother to visit next September and there’s a surprise trip in the planning for 2020 – though original plans have changed.
The book of the film script. Look it up on Amazon.
Okay, so as I write we have only a trickle of cold water in the house and no hot, so we’re doing the washing and taking showers in a house near The Olive Tree (with permission), but Symi Property Services are on the case. We nearly have a new road outside the front gate and Kevin’s on the case regards the fig tree which has breached the sterna which won’t be repaired until the summer, if at all… But hey! We’re on Symi, it’s clear and cold, chilled in more ways than one and we have a festive season a few days away and two wonderful godboys to share it with. (And their mum who, as many will know, is Actually Mother Christmas, the superhero.)
Athens in November
On which note, I will wish all my readers a peaceful Christmas if you celebrate it and a happy New Year to all. Check back over the next week, there may be more about our Symi Christmas if I have anything to share, and I’ll definitely be back around New Year to pick up and start a new year with random highlights, cheap publicity for my novels, photos from the phone and other nonsense. Xronia Polla!
And now a few more random images from the year.
I think that was Mykonos – can’t remember
If you were wondering about the pen name thing, it’s all niche writing (MM romance) and you will pick up on the author name if you follow my James Collins Author page on Facebook – which it would be good to have you visit, like and share the jingle bells out of.
Also been able to do some walks this year and drop a few pounds (going back on quickly right now, normal service will be resumed after the festive season).The office (the sofa bad was down becasue we had guests, but it doesn’t look any less cluttered right now).The stage set which is our courtyard in summerSt Mary in the Marsh, Romney MarshAn evening boat partyEarly morningCarrying on up the Acropolis, early summer
Thursday morning brings the sound of lane improvements outside the house. There is a fair amount of work going on elsewhere too as you might be able to spot in a couple of these harbour photos today. The clear blue skies are back and with them colder temperatures and a mild breeze.
Yialos was quiet on Wednesday when we went down to visit the KEP office and the bank, the post office and our harbour office (Pacho’s).
Strangely for a few days before Christmas, I have few plans for today. Must get some shopping in, waiting for news on the water system, take some washing to another house, tidy up, wrap a present or two and that’s about it.
I’m being random with my photos today just so you know. Images from a walk t Nimborio a couple of months ago.
I’m also being a bit quick again. The week has improved since Monday (thank you for your messages by the way), but we’re not quite there yet. Nick from Symi Property Services came around yesterday as arranged despite the rain and the cold. A quick inspection of our problem and today (Wednesday) one of his guys visited to take the old pump out of the broken sterna -not as easy as it sounds, but it was managed. He’s taken it away to see if it works and we expect more news on Thursday. Meanwhile, we still have cold water in the house, just, and we’re making do.
We’ve been staying up with the godboys these past ten days but mum is back tonight, so we can stand down. A dinner at Georgio’s is planned for tonight and who knows, I may even get some up to date photos. Before that, we have business to attend to in Yialos. I need to drop something in toe the KEP office for someone. This is the citizen’s service centre and advises and helps in all kinds of matters. Then we want to check the post to see if we have any more deliveries, there’s the bank to be raided as always and some Christmas shopping to do. Then it’s back home via another friend’s house where we’re doing our washing, and back to the godboys for the afternoon before meeting mum tonight.
That’s what Wednesday holds in store as I write (try and write, I’ve had the door open for the plumber and can’t feel my fingers), and who knows what Thursday will bring. Hopefully hot water and pressure enough to use it; if not, more camping out while we wait for a new pump. You see? If you want to know what Symi is like in the winter, all you need to do is follow Symi Dream.
I would have put up a photo of the office view today, but as it’s nothing but grey, there’s not much point. Instead, there are a couple of photos from sunnier days earlier in the year. It’s raining, Nimos has vanished into the drizzle and downpours, and I can hear our sterna filling up with water that’s only going to leak off into the ground, or the tree roots or whatever has caused the leak, but the good news is, there is no water in the bathroom. I mean, no water coming through the roof – there’s none in the hot taps either, but that’s another story.
Now then, as you spend so much time with me in my office where I write the blog, I thought I’d copy you into the proposed redevelopment plans. As long-term staff will know, I have been writing this blog on an old (repro) desk of my father’s while sitting on a very old piano stool. Not great for the posture, back and shoulders but it works. However, the time has come to change things around a little. This won’t make much sense unless you know the office well, but I intend to:
Return the borrowed spare bed that’s in Neil’s room, and put the office sofa bed in there making space to put the desk against the wall. The wobbly table in the corner is going (most of it has already gone) to be replaced by Brusali, a cabinet. The LV trunk can move to what will be the desk wall or will go in the sitting room to make room for a piano I’ve not yet ordered, and the bookshelf may have to turn to the other wall. All this will leave space in the corner for a Micke, a corner computer table which will have a co-worker called Unjtejke, or something gloriously Ikea. Hopefully, all that will mean better sitting. It will also give me a modern corner and an older-looking, classic study part of the room. I’ve ordered a banker’s lamp for the desk in brass and green glass and, when it’s finished, intend to refer to the office as my study with all the pretentiousness I can muster.
I’ve also ordered a carpet to cover just about the entire floor, and that will make things a bit warmer in the winter. There will be an orientation session when the change is complete, but I will let you get back to your workload now. Appraisals in two weeks, and I want that report on my desk (either one) by midday.
