Symi Scouts Helping the Victims of the Athens Fires

I had a message yesterday to let me know that the Symi scouts (of which our godson is a member) are helping the victims of the recent fires near Athens. They will be at the high school (on the slope just down from Kali Strata corner) between 10:00 and 12:00, and 18:00 to 21:00 every day up to Saturday. You can take along anything that can be sent that might be useful: canned goods, dried food, nappies… Whatever you have to spare but not money.

The people of Symi are always good at giving. As a lighter example, I went shopping in the village the other morning, firstly calling into the new Chinese emporium for some holiday shorts. I found a very nice pair for only €20.00 and tried them on in a cubicle built under what used to be the cooker extractor fan when the building was a taverna, that was a new experience. What’s more, they actually fit me. Then I went toddling off to the new butchers up the lane. There was a very impressive display of pork, beef and internal animal parts, and in the second counter, there was more of my kind of thing, white meat. Having said that, I opted for two chicken schnitzels and two beef burgers, all prepared on site. There was a discussion about how the new shop was going and what new things would be coming in soon, homemade sausages and so on, and then I went to pay. €6.80 for the (massive) schnitzels and burgers and a free cream-filled éclair as a gift. Well, that’s’ what you expect around here, we’re talking Symi after all.

The burgers and chicken were both wonderful, by the way, as well as being non-expensive and big. Anyway, a couple of random shots today and later I’m off to town again to do some pre-holiday shopping, raid the bank, check the post office and probably have some more wonderful home cooking at one of our favourite tavernas.

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Expatfinder Interview – and other news

Yesterday was something of a hectic one for me. I was expecting an email with some forms attached from an investment company. What I wasn’t expecting was the amount of them, nor the fact that some were page and pages long. Not enough ink in the computer. I’ll pop down and get some. Another email from elsewhere: Can you do XYZ this morning urgently? And then there was the phone call to go through the printed forms at four in the afternoon. A dash to the harbour and hope the shop has ink? Try printing a page… and the printer’s playing up. Put off the phone call for two weeks and cause further delays? Or call in Peter and his printer and ask him. Phone Peter. Are you…? Can you…? By three? All the right answers and a huge weight off my mind. Thank you, Peter!

So, I did grab a few minutes to post this, and one of the things I want to add is that there’s an interview with me on expatfinder.com today. I wrote this before going to Croatia in March, but it still seems up to date. You can find the link here: http://www.expatfinder.com/greece/expat-guides/interview/james-collins-expat-in-greece/7948

At the end, it mentions Adriana’s blog and has a link to what was, at the time, the correct location. Now that’s changed, so I’ve written to the site to ask them to change the link to Adriana’s new blog (before anyone tells me I got it wrong). The photos today are from yesterday morning when we had mist across Nimos at sea level (a fret or haar?) and a cloud of ‘grey-hang’ (Saddling dialect) over the new harbour. It cleared eventually when the sun broke through the humidity and was a particularly eerie sight.

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The Symi Festival 2018 opened officially last night (Sunday) with a concert in Yialos. The festival will run through the next couple of months, and there are programmes on telegraph poles and in cafes and shops telling you in Greek and English what’s going to be showing and when. We’ve already had a piano recital, a Byzantine choir and last night’s rock/pop concert.

Today’s photos are more shots from the weekend mentioned yesterday. So far this week, I’ve hardly been able to settle into any work. I’m so looking forward to my trip that I can’t concentrate and I’m not worrying about work much. Monday’s plans are to go mooching about the Chinese clothes shop for anything I might be able to wear while away, pick up some more water, and make notes of what I’ve to do and organise before Saturday – boat tickets, an affidavit in Rhodes, a Symi t-shirt for a friend’s son, the usual kind of things.

The affidavit is to prove my address for my pension/investment company transfer thing because I suffer from that common small-island problem of not having a utility bill in my name. I know some people who live in rented houses do – and we have an address, but we, as tenants, have our electricity bill and water bill in our landlord’s name, and the phone bill is in Neil’s name with a strange address for our old house, not this one, written in Greek. My bank accounts are in the correct name and address and in Latin script, apart from Alpha, the Greek bank who simply use my name and ‘Symi’ as my address, as do my tax letters and things, which isn’t good enough for this purpose. The easiest thing is to arrange to swear before a notary that ‘I am who I am and my address is my own special creation.’ (Followers of Jerry Herman might get that last misquote.)

Meanwhile, it’s hotting up here again, and the humidly is back, just like we expect in July. It’s not as hot as it was back in June when we were hitting high 30s before ten in the morning, but it’s getting there. The breeze and occasional afternoon wind help (blow the dust around the house), but it’s really the weather for beach-sitting and chilling out in the shade. Ah well, I shall be on holiday soon myself.

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Weekend Catch-up

Lots going on over the weekend. There was a regatta in overnight Thursday, leaving on Friday. Remember the photo last week of boats four abreast in the harbour? Well, here are some of them leaving.

Tassos’ new butcher’s shop was blessed and opened on Saturday evening. Four priests, lots of locals, gifts and good luck wishes. A huge range of fresh meats, some home-prepared recipes and ready-made dishes Symi style, which means not ‘plastic’ food in plastic wrappers and polystyrene trays, but homemade sausages and real food. Proper stuff. I was able to take a few snaps; it was a bit busy and hot inside. This new shop is opposite the Old Pharmacy in Horio. Up the Kali Strata, through the square, past the Jean & Tonic bar and on the left by the old Glaros/Village Café bar on the way to Taverna Zoi and the American supermarket, you can’t miss it.

And then I went for a walk on Sunday morning at 5.15, too early for the sunrise but interesting to see young people on mopeds coming down the hill (from where we don’t ask) and farmers going up the hill to their farmsteads, it’s was quite busy. Mind you, it might be because the Symi Festival has started, with a gala concert in Yialos on Sunday night. There are posters around telling of other events and, as usual, everything is free to attend.

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Symi Saturday Photos

Lots of boats in the harbour yesterday. A regatta? Flotilla? And then some other photos from recent days. My weekend will, hopefully, be filled with writing. I want to get a first draft finished before I go away next Saturday. Have a good weekend!

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