Photos today!

Mainly photos today and fewer words; I’ve had a bit of a busy day and am running out of time while suffering from word blindness. Early morning walk for an hour, 4,000 words typing, emails to send and respond to, an interview for a blog site typed up (another 2,000 words), two chapters of a book to read and make notes on, an hour playing the piano and a blog post all by 5 pm. A bit brain addled. So much so that I just wrote ‘typoed up’ rather than typed up, but that was probably far more appropriate, and I should have left it in. Anyway, off to cook a salad now… I mean chop up a salad… I doesn’t know what I mean. Don’t know… I give up.

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Symi Calendars 2018

The Symi Festival moved up to the village square on Monday night for a concert. We saw some and heard the rest, but I didn’t have my camera with me as we’d been out for drinks at a friend’s house. Meanwhile, there were services and fireworks to celebrate the start of the Assumption events, as yesterday was the feast day of the Assumption, an important Orthodox day in the Greek calendar. The island is busy with visitors coming for the festival and the music and cultural festival as well, and it’s good to see.

Because of our slightly late night (for us) on Monday, I didn’t get out for a walk on Tuesday but did manage to get to work early as I do. So, today will be a collection of images taken the other day around the village and harbour. Neil took these, and that’s a good way to mention his next year’s Symi calendar. You can find the link over on the right, in the column there with book links and other things of interest. When you’re ready to order one (and I will leave the link up all through the rest of the year), simply click across to Lulu. You can change the currency and online shop to one local to you. That will make it cheaper for postage. You’re able to browse the calendar online before you order. You may need to set up an account, which doesn’t take long, and once you have, you can then check the status of your order.

I know some people have bought one already and have commented to Neil on how impressed they are; always good to hear. It might be a bit early for thinking about next year, but if you’re planning on presents for Christmas, for example, then my advice is to shop early, so you don’t have a last minute panic.

Anyway, that’s just a thought on the calendar. I’m off now to get on with something else, and I will see you tomorrow.

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Catching up on weekend news

Generally: Festival events, preparations for the Assumption Day festivals at various churches on 15^th August, busy nights in the village square, a couple of private helicopters coming in and out, many boats, a cruise ship on Saturday, hot weather (34 degrees in the shade in the courtyard), clear skies, live music playing at various venues and lots of happy holiday makers.

At home: finishing draft two of ‘The Witchling’, the follow-up to ‘The Saddling’, about to start on another major project which has a deadline, cleaning windows, cleaning the floors, washing the sofa cushions, watering and feeding the plants, going out to dinner with friends, long walks for Neil, up to To Vrisi at sunrise, a couple of jogs back, rehearsing a dance routine, checking arrangements for the civil partnership next month, sending emails, doing some blog admin, reading, watching television and doing some shopping.

These days, when I am writing, I use a couple of add-ins to my Word programme. Grammarly is one, and I use this one for checking my punctuation and any obvious typos; it doesn’t always catch all of them. The other one I have started using is called ‘Pro Writing Aid’, and you can use both online or have them plugged into your computer; not physically. This one is much more detailed although I find it’s grammar check and punctuation not as good as Grammarly, which is why I use both. It has checks for all kinds of things such as repeated words, clichés, over-used words, as in over-used generally by people, words like all, like, quickly, felt, saw, etc. It also has a full analysis function which I’m now going to run to see what it says about this post so far…

Average sentence length (28.3) but should be between 11 to 18. That’s because my first two sentences up the top are lists. Sentence variety, ok, no long sentences found (which seems to contradict the average sentence length report, average reading age (10.9), other ‘readility’ indexes fine. (I just noticed that word ‘readility’ I think they’ve abbreviated readability.) No house style issues, thank you, and no ‘sticky’ sentences found, but I do score a glue index of 46.3%, and the target is up to 40%, and I haven’t worked out what they mean by glue index. I know now, I just looked it up. Glue words are the most common words in the English language; in, on, was, that, will, be, think, much, have, with, etc. I use a lot of them in the blog.

I have no idea where that bit of writing chat came from, but it has made me realise that I now need to run all the pieces for the forthcoming ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ through Pro Writer Aid and boy, is it going to have some fun with some of them.

It’s a wonder I get any time to write this blog. Sometimes I don’t, which is why on some days you find only photos, but on other days I have half an hour to ramble on. Example: what’s you’ve just read. The photos today, are from Neil and there are more to come through the week. Have a good one!

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Symi Saturday Photos

Here’s your collection of random photos for the weekend. Mainly Yialos, you can see how the new boat dock is coming along, and there are some shots from the Kali Strata. Have a good weekend.

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Winter in Symi?

Yes, I know it’s in the low 30s here today and August, but now might be the time to start thinking about your winter, and where better to spend it in than Symi? There is a list of question that you’ll want to ask, and I will get to some in a moment, but the reason I am mentioning this is because a friend has a house-sitting place available for two or three months over the winter period. It’s not a job, it’s simply looking after the house by being in it, keeping it running and so on. The house is in Nimborio, so perfectly quiet, and if you’re genuinely interested, email me (address right down at the bottom of the page), and I’ll send your message along to the home owner. The dates are to be finalised, but we’re looking at the start of December to sometime in February – you can discuss the details if you are interested.

So, questions. Well, the top one is always ‘What’s it like in the Winter?’ and to answer that fully you need to check out my Symi series of books: ‘Symi 85600’, ‘Carry on up the Kali Strata’, and ‘Village View’, all available on Amazon and Kindle. You can find them from my Author page here. But, in brief, it is (or can be) quiet, non-touristy, local, friendly, cold, wet, adventurous, sociable, peaceful and active, with festivals to attend and parties, dinners and so on. It’s what you make it, but don’t expect summer sun.

‘What is there to do?’ Again, the books will give you a better idea but, in another nutshell, walk, swim, read, watch TV, visit some tavernas, there’s kafenion life, there are dance classes and language classes, yoga, pilates, etc., other activities organised the Women’s Association, you can visit friends, invite them to you, write a book, paint paintings, hang out, and do just about everything you can in the summer, apart from jet skiing perhaps. You can also visit other islands.

‘How much money do you need?’ More than I have is the usual answer, but that’s just me. It depends on what you want to do. It’s not expensive to eat ‘like a local’, but, at times, you do have to adjust to using what you find in the shops rather than what you planned. There is no need to spend all day and all budget in the bars, and there is not the temptation of home delivery pizza and the like.

‘What about boats?’ Yes, you do have to be aware that we’re like a sea-locked village that’s not on the train line and has no road connection to the mainland or nearest large town. So, boat timetables become a fascination if you need to get to or from the island – in exactly the same way a bus timetable would if you were in a rural village with no car in any other country. The two days per week Blue Star has been reliable these past few years and will continue to be so, as long as it gets its commission or whatever it needs. There are the Dodekanisos boats, though on a reduced timetable, and all boats are subject to the weather. You get used to it.

I could go on, but I won’t just now. Remember, if you are interested in a few months rent-free in Nimborio from December to January/February and you can commit to it, drop me a line and I will pass your message along. If you need more detail, head to the author page and download or order one of the Symi series of books, you should find them helpful and fun.

By the way, all the photos today were taken in the winter months.

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