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!

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.

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.

Have you lost a ring?

Here’s a thing. A wedding band was found recently in the sea at Agia Marina. It would be good to reunite this with its owner. It has two names inscribed inside it and a date. It is written in Greek. If you know who it might belong to, or if it’s yours, please get in touch, and I will pass on your message to the person who currently has it.

Symi is not unknown for having things wash up on its shores. There have been many occasions when messages in bottles have arrived on the island. Quite recently I heard a story of some people who found a bottle at Nimborio. Inside, the message asked for the finder to light a candle at Panormitis. On other occasions, bottles have washed up at Panormitis itself, with messages to the church (and higher). These bottles have come from very far afield, or far a-sea, you might say. It’s amazing how many reach their destination one way or another.

People have also ‘washed up’ on the shores, though usually by boat and on purpose, luckily. Some, such as the refugees, have arrived here having been told they are arriving in Athens, such is/was the way of the unscrupulous people traffickers in Turkey who were last most active in 2015; the situation has quietened on that front in the last year or so.

As I look out of my window, I see more boats arriving with more visitors. Already today (Wednesday) we have had the Blue Star ferry, the Express, the day-trip boats and a few gulets, plus the white sail boats, and ‘gin palaces’ of the rich. We need these visitors and no-one is complaining. No-one complains either when they find a lost wedding ring or a bottle with a message. Here on Symi, the finder will put out messages on social media (and here if they as me) to try and find the owners of the jewellery. Or they will take the message to Panormitis and light a candle as requested, as happened recently. Things also become lost on the island. I once heard the town hall announcer telling us all that Mrs Someone had lost her purse with X amount of money in it and if anyone finds it can they take it to the police station. It was found and returned, fully intact, and another announcement was made to that effect.

If/when you come to Symi, try not to lose anything but feel free to lose yourself in the beauty, tranquility and mystique of the island. It is, after all, easily done.

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.