Some Symi Church Photos
Category Archives: Day to day on Symi
Preparing for the off
Preparing for the off
Today is all about packing and washing and preparing things for our two weeks away. It’s also about preparing blog posts for that time and so tomorrow’s and Saturdays are going to be photos only. We are catching the 7.30 Blue Star tomorrow morning, so there won’t be time to get anything ready before setting off. I have posts ready for the two weeks after that, talking about books, as I mentioned yesterday, and then from around 1st April, I shall be back to normal – well, you know what I mean.
It’s going to be odd, arriving back a week before Easter when there will be regular visitors and even some tourists here by then. We’ll be wondering where the winter has gone as we always do when we get to the end of it. When it starts, with a brief autumn at the end of October, we’re usually in that ‘Phew! Sumer’s over now we can stand down,’ kind of mode. There then follows a build-up to Christmas, and then the hangover from that which lasts until around the end of January, and then a cold and dark February and, before you know it, it’s Lent and Easter and, whoops, there goes my winter and ‘Hooray! It’s summer again.’ Mind you, I like both seasons, the winter because I am less tempted to hang out at the bar, the summer because I can.
This winter so far, I’ve published two new books and written a few others or rather, helped a couple of other writers write theirs – it’s complicated. So, a lot of work has been done, and a lot of fun has been had along the way. Now, with a rucksack to pack and a list of things to not forget, I have a day ahead that will probably not be as long as the to-do list I have prepared to fill it with. So, I’m just going to prepare Friday and Saturday’s photos and get them ready to auto-publish, and then it’s back to the decision over what coat to take. I want to wear my Crombie because I think it looks smart and when I take it off, the red lining tends to dazzle. It’s the right thing to wear to make an entrance, but it’s not the kind of thing to wear with a rucksack on your back. My other coat will probably be too hot and bulky, and I don’t have an inbetweener. Anyway, that’s between me and my dresser, and I better go and see to it now, leaving you with a ‘Bye, and see you in a couple of weeks.
Whether to risk the Weather
Whether to risk the Weather
I am looking out at a great day today, in contrast to Monday morning when it was glorious weather again. Things are set to change, and strong winds are forecast for Sunday when we were planning to go to Rhodes ahead of our trip. We may have to go before then, to be sure – another ‘Symi winter’ thing you need to be aware of if you’re heading this way in winter or spring. The wind and weather can affect the boats, and if you have a flight to make, you need to be sure you’re on the right island. Better to spend four nights in Rhodes so that you don’t miss the flight and the follow-on connections.
We shall decide today what we’re doing as there are no boats this Saturday. Well, there is, but it’s a complicated one. The Dodecanese Pride is running, Rhodes – Symi – Kos – Symi – Panormitis – Kos – Panormitis – Rhodes. So, if we wanted to go from Yialos to Rhodes on Saturday we could get on at 13.30, have a vada at Panormitis twice (once for two hours, once for five minutes) and Kos, and end up in Rhodes eight hours after we set off. We’ll not be doing that, though the 19.35 sailing from Panormitis is not impossible.
Anyway, that’s all for later in the week. Yesterday and the day before, I spent a few hours putting together some posts for while I am on holiday. They will start self-publishing from Monday until the end of the month. They are about my books, so it’s a sales thing really, but there is some other info in the posts about the books and the writing of them, and on Saturdays, you will still have the usual Symi photos. (Today’s are from Sunday.)
Football Match – No Shots Fired
Football Match – No Shots Fired
There was a wonderful bit of madness and mayhem at the Rainbow Bar on Sunday night – unless you’re an AEK fan, in which case it wasn’t wonderful. We’d been for lunch up at the godboys’ house (fab headless lamb – see yesterday’s post) and, on the way home, decided to stop for ‘one’ to round off the weekend. AEK were playing at the Rainbow…
I should just step aside to let you know, in case you were wondering, that AEK is an Athenian football team much supported at the Rainbow, so when I say they were ‘playing’, they’re not a band or anything, and the whole team wasn’t actually in the bar. They were on the television, but you probably guessed that. We arrived just after the interval, so we were in time for act two, and our usual friends were there. The guys have made us honourable members of the AEK supporters team, the AEK Rainbow Supporters Ensemble, you might say (ARSE for short), and I thought we were going to be blackballed for missing act one, but we got away with it. Anyway…
It was a fairly aggressive act two. A couple of players had done that pass de deux thing where they stumble and roll about each other like something from a Martha Graham dance show. A couple of others had done the ‘Face Off’ routine like John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, minus the guns (that came later), and we’d had our fair share of scraps and bitchiness, all of which were highly entertaining. As the end of the show approached, so the anxiety in the crowd grew, it was mithen-mithen (0/0) up until the finale at ninety minutes when all hell broke loose both on the pitch and in the bar. The other team, PAOK from Thessaloniki, scored a goal which was allowed and then not, and then it was, and then there was some complaining which escalated into some macho pushing and shoving and managers in suits running up and down pulling out what was left if their hair. This was on the TV, not in the bar, I should add, after the initial outrage that another team should dare score against AEK, we in ARSE debated the events in the usual passionate fashion…
Until everyone gave up on it and the game was abandoned. That had something to do with the owner of PAOK having a go at the ref while going for the gun he wore on his belt. AEK returned to the dressing room saying they weren’t coming out to play as it was dangerous – er, rather – and we sat chatting to Alan and Mary, and Pat and Andy until the fuss died down. On which note, thank you for the headache this morning guys, and for the lovely chat and catch-up, and to Jenine for Sunday lunch (celebrating my birthday and Easter as we’ll be away for one and the family will be away for the other), and for the godboys and football teams for the entertainment. Monday morning for me was a bit of a write-off.
Tooth Out, Head Off, Man Up
Tooth Out, Head Off, Man Up
Here are a few things that we were up to over the weekend, and some photos from Friday. That was the day I had to go and see one of our wonderful dentists because an old tooth at the back has been playing up and I didn’t want it to turn nasty when we are away. I saw Vasilis who remembered the work he’d done on it last year when he did a temporary fix, as the tooth had a crack in it. Temporary lasted for over a year, so that wasn’t bad, but on Friday the only thing that could be done was to whip it out. I have to say, that was done without any pain at all after it was numbed, and although it was a bit of a tug-of-war, it came out in one piece.
I did feel a bit ‘knocked sideways’, as you do, but when the anaesthetic wore off, there was hardly any ache or uncomfortableness, so a good piece of work and, as usual, it was a very good price.
On the way down to Yialos, we passed one of the school classes having their photo taken on the Kali Strata…
In Yialos itself, there were a lot of deliveries being unloaded and sorted in the town square and many businesses were preparing for the summer. I’d been told by the deputy mayor (the dentist) about the visit by the parliamentary leader of the position the other day and the clean-up work that has been done after last November’s storm/flood. There is still work to do, and some of it is being hampered by lack of access. Moving massive boulders from watercourses without heavy lifting machinery (as it can’t reach the areas) is no easy task. (My words.)
It was a bright and sunny day, and I was tempted to sit outside a café, but not after having a tooth pulled out. Home for a rest and a snooze, followed in the evening by a lovely dinner up at Villa Jeanette (thank you Miss DJ). The theme continued on Saturday with another wonderful dinner at Holty Towers (thank you A & M & A), and today – Sunday – we’re off to the godboys’ house for lunch, but that comes at a price…
The price, in this case, being the transportation of one’s dinner from Olive Tree freezer to upper Horio. Neil dealt with that (it’s a standard Symi thing, wandering the lanes with a dead lamb in a blue plastic bag). Up at Mamma’s Kitchen, he helped with the surgical process needed to fit the thing in the oven. In this case, it entailed sawing off the head with a bread knife and hacking off the ‘happy sacks’ with a carving knife before chasing his eldest godson around the sitting room with one of them. Don’t know why godson was so outraged, it was only a few years ago the two of them ate the same things after frying them up.
And so Sunday is here, and I am at the desk adjusting to the view. I gave the office a good tidy up and spring clean on Saturday. We took the defunct piano apart and tried to get it into the mousandra (we’re keeping it in case a fix is forthcoming in May), but it weighs a tonne, so it’s ended up in the spare bathroom, which acts as a storage area in the winter. It’s passing has given me more room and so I had a re-organise. I haven’t turned the desk to face the window before because it means having my back to the door – uncomfortable – but I might get used to it. If not, I’ll turn it around, or maybe move it away from the window and sit with my back to the view; I can always turn and look out. Will see. And that’s where we are.
This will be the last week of blogging before a two-week break, and I will try and make it an entertaining one. Well, you never know, stranger things have happened.