Symi, August

August is breaking out all over here on Symi. There have been rumours that the ‘Lucifer’ heatwave that’s been hanging across Europe is heading to Greece, but at the moment the temperature is quite bearable; 32 degrees in the shade in the courtyard at ten in the morning, for example. It has been humid though, which doesn’t help, and I have only been out walking at six the morning before it gets too hot. The forecast on Windfinder tells me we are heading for the same weather for the next few weeks with light winds.

The Symi Festival has been going well, with a concert on Monday night and a dance show on Tuesday, plus the church festivals and name days for Sotiris at the weekend. The taxi boats are heading out, and the day boats coming in packed with visitors. There are sailing boats in the harbour, but maybe not as many as we have seen in the past. But life ticks on by slowly and pleasantly.

Neil has now read ‘Symi, Stuff and Nonsense’ for me to give his valued opinion and has laughed out loud in all the right places. What he has said though, is that perhaps I should remove Symi from the title as there’s not actually that much about life on the island in the book. I think I agree with him. So, the next book, which does have some Symi in it, might end up being called ‘Stuff and Nonsense’, which is mainly what it is about. Travel tales from the past, a diary I kept when we first moved here, and some nonsense posts from this blog that have appeared here over the past several years. I will discuss with my editor at a later date (after the next draft) and see what he thinks. I don’t want to mislead readers into thinking they will be reading a Symi gossip and warts-and-all book of revelations.

And talking of Neil, he took today photos while on an early morning trip down to the harbour the other day.

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Tilos Photos

I was going through my files to see what photos I could share with you today and found some from Tilos. Nothing to do with Symi, but as they were there, I thought I’d use them.

It’s Monday as I write and the water is coming in. We only found the water feed open once last week, and that was on Friday for one hour only, maybe we missed it on the other days. It usually comes in from around eight in the morning and stays on until as late as twelve or one three days per week. At the moment it’s going into our neighbour’s sterna as he needs it more than we do. We share a meter, and although we pay the bill on line, he gives us something towards it when he’s taken some in. You have to be very careful with water on Symi, and other islands, especially at this time of year. Just a note.

Back to Tilos. I’ve not been able to get to Tilos this year, but I went there last year and the year before to have my writing retreat, as I call it. It’s an easy journey from Symi, but you can only go direct on a Friday evening on the Blue Star. It’s possible via Rhodes on other days. I have stayed at two very good places which I chose because they had large dining tables. Why? Because I like to spread things out. I have my notebooks on one side, the laptop in the middle, and papers all around where I can jot things down or look things up. I also place the table facing a window with little view, so there are not too many distractions. The header image at my author blog was taken in Tilos last year, with Paddington looking on.

When on my retreat I fall into a routine. Up early, usually at six, and straight out for a walk around the seafront at Lavidia, where I stay. This clears the head and allows me to plan out what I am working on for that day. Back to the apartment and coffee, and then I settle down to a couple of hours typing, sometimes with a break for breakfast. At the last place I stayed, the chambermaid would come to do the room every day and on the first day, I noticed she came at 10.30, so I upped and went out for a frappe in the square, returning 45 minutes later when she had finished. I then did that every day only to find out she varied her routine and no matter what time I went out and came back, she would just be arriving as I was coming back to work. Never mind, I still managed to get another two hours at the typing before lunch. After that, an afternoon session, usually longer, before finally putting down the pen and keyboard around six.

I managed to get 35,000 words done last year in that one week, which is actually only six days because the travel back is early in the morning on Friday. I also took one afternoon shift off to go for a walk because I thought I should. Last year I worked on ‘The Saddling’ and the year before on ‘Remotely’. This year, as I couldn’t go, it took me a bit longer to write what I was working on, doing it at home with all the home distractions around me. But, I have managed 80,000 words of ‘The Witchling’ and am now on the second draft; this is the follow up to ‘Saddling’ and, at this rate, might be ready before Christmas. We’ll see. I also have ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ on the go, Neil is reading the draft of that as I write. So, look out for the new books later in the year and meanwhile, tell all your friends about those available already (click the links above) and I’ll get back to my typing while you check out these other images from Tilos.

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Varied pieces of news

There are a couple of pieces of news today. First of all, next year’s Symi calendar is now available for everyone who likes to shop early. It will be available for the rest of the year. The thing is, you can only find it n Lulu.com, we don’t have any on Symi as it’s exclusive to Neil’s Lulu.com page which you can find if you follow this link. When you get there, you should see a preview link so you can check if your favourite view of Symi is featured. I notice that the 2017 calendar is still on Neil’s profile page so don’t buy that one by mistake. You can shop by country, and see the price in your own local currency. I took this image from the USA versions.

The second piece of news is that there is an interesting review of the film ‘The 13^th’ on this page, Cult Critic. Also, to one side, you will see that local lad Renos is featured on their monthly magazine cover. Renos was in the film, hence the image, and the local children who took part in the making of the film were given good reviews in this write-up. “You watch ‘The 13TH’, and you can feel the strong influences from modern classics, such as The Conjuring or Insidious, but it is also reminiscent of oldies – The Exorcist or even the all-time classic, Psycho. It is an excellent blend of horror genre, spiritualism and questions of morality.” Click the link to read the full review.

And, in more local news, we had rain on Saturday evening. Well, we had about four drops, so nothing to write home about. Sunday dawned bright and clear again, the temperature is up, and the festival is well under way with name day events, music, book discussions and other cultural happenings.

I will leave you with those pieces of news and wish you a happy week ahead.

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Here is your collection of Symi Saturday Photos; a random gathering from the files. There will be news on next year’s Symi Calendar next week, and news on the film, ‘The 13th’ which has just won three new awards, making the total 18 or something. Have a good weekend.

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Walking

I didn’t have the camera with me, but we went for a walk up to ‘To Vrisi’ the other morning, early, and down to Pedi and back yesterday. On the walk to ‘To Vrisi’, real name Zoodhochos Pighi Monastery, on the side of the Pedi valley, I finally got to see Yiannis, the goatherd at work. I’ve known him for years, but I guess he usually has his herd somewhere else. On this morning he was moving a herd (he may have been helping someone else) down the hillside. He had a very noble shepherd’s crook in one hand and was waving a piece of polyethene in the other. Those two tools and a few ‘miswords’ are all you need to move goats around, it seems.

A misword, in case you have not read ‘The Saddling’ or have not studied old Kentish dialect, is ‘a cross, angry or abusive word.’ I think it was the power of his voice and his tone that made the animals move, and he could have been shouting anything. Goats are very easy to shift, especially if they don’t know you. They clearly knew him and did exactly as he wanted them to. It was a very rural sight to see at six-thirty in the morning.

In case you were wondering, the distances as recorded by my Fitbit that morning were: from the village square to the monastery was 1.5 miles, or 3,000 of my steps (everyone’s readings are slightly different, Neil’s Fitbit recorded slightly more steps than mine), so it’s a three-mile round trip. Along the road, up to the cemetery at Ag Marina and then out along the path. The old yappy dog on the chain has been replaced by a much more sober one that’s quiet and non-aggressive. On the way back, we walked down through the village and so the distances I quoted might not be accurate if you come back via the road, the way we went up. But still, three miles before breakfast wasn’t bad.

We did Pedi and back via the road on Thursday, a distance of just under two miles from the village square, return, and 4,000 of my steps. Back at the desk, I noted that that cloud was back over Nimos. I am assuming it’s down to humidity, and it wasn’t there for long.

The sky was clear and blue all morning, something which brightened up an otherwise painful day. Painful only because there were bills to pay. The annual health insurance that I’ve been saving for, so that was okay, the phone bill, and putting money aside for various bills to come along shortly. It’s one of those months. Hey ho! Upwards and onwards.

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