Home news, rain and books
Yippee! More free water in the sterna. Unfortunately, it’s too wet outside to use the washing machine and get things dry, so I’ll have to wait for this rain to pass before doing that. From my window, I can see the waves breaking on Nimos across the bay, the shutters are creaking on their hinges and will have to be closed later when I’ve finished work. The rest of the house shutters are closed (bar one) giving us a permanent night for day feeling like you see in old Hammer Horror films but in reverse. I was told that when they did their ‘day for night’ shooting they used to use blue filters over the camera lens, so they could shoot out in the wild woods of Transylvania (aka Buckinghamshire) no matter what time of day it was. Today, here on Symi, it’s all grey and a little bit windy, wet and, although it’s not cold, it’s certainly a day for staying in.

Which is unfortunate as I have to go shopping. We’re down to a couple of carrots and some dubious beans in the fridge. Although there are some frozen leftovers in the freezer, they are more dubious than the has-beans. So, after I have posted this ready for tomorrow (today), it’s on with the walking boots, my only waterproof footwear at the moment, and the overcoat and down to the supermarket for some supplies, chat and fun – as that’s what we always get when we go the supermarket. It’s the only place to hang out. I reckon if Sotiris put a coffee bar in there he’d be full up all day long.

The morning (Tuesday) started off well as I woke up to realise that I have, at last, finished the last draft of ‘The Saddling’, the next James Collins novel to be made ready for the printers. Nothing is ever finished though – I still worry about lyrics for shows I wrote 20 years ago and wonder where I put my copy so I can change the occasional world here and there – but it’s done for now. All I need to do now is wait for the editor to check the latest additions, send me any typos etc. change them, send it back unformatted and ready for setting, then work on the ‘front matter’ which will, for this novel, include an explanation of some of the dialect I have researched and used, and a glossary. Meanwhile, I am looking around for a freelance cover designer and the editor has sent me to a site where you can post jobs needed, or search for freelancers and see examples of their work, and where an hourly rate is stated or negotiated. I’ve found so many that look good I don’t know where to start. So, it’s not exactly finished, but it will rest there for now.

A few days off to catch up on housework and other things and then on to the next travel book, which is already in draft preparation. That should see me through to the summer unless any other ideas leap to mind and so it will soon be all go again. Just as we like it.

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A couple of thoughts only
Only a couple of thoughts today on a short blog, and some photos. I had some ideas of things to mention today but now they have gone out of my head. There was something to do with blue toothpaste… I bought one of those ‘buy one and get one free’ offers last week from the supermarket and it was a bit of a bargain. I can’t remember the name of it now, ‘Instant White’ (it never is), ‘Total Protection’ (ditto), ‘Tastes like chemicals’ (for sure), something like that, but the fun part is that it is totally blue. I mean, fluorescent, bright blue both going in and coming out. It’s like using paint to somehow make your teeth ‘instantly’ white. I assume it’s quite harmless but it does look a bit nuclear.

In other close-to-home news, we have now arranged for our civil partnership to be ‘done’ at the Symi notary office in September. As far as I know, it will be the first one to be done here. That’s another thing crossed off the to-do list. Now it’s on to the guest list. Trouble with that is, there are so many people we would like to invite and not enough room on the boat to ship them all, so please don’t be offended if you don’t get an invite. There’s plenty of time still to get things arranged so we’re in no hurry.

That’s it from me today. I am so near to finishing draft six of ‘The Saddling’ that I want to get on. Once that’s done, I can start looking around for a cover designer – if anyone is interested or knows of anyone, let me know… So, I’ll leave you with some photos and get on with some work.

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Symi weekend, plus frog
Highlights of the weekend? Frog, furniture and fun.
Let’s take that in order. Firstly, frogs. One frog, actually. He/she (I can’t tell the difference) was hopping about on the road right outside the house as we popped out to feed the strays and take the rubbish to the bins. Gave me a start, I didn’t expect that ‘rock’ to suddenly move like that. I have no idea where he/she lives, but we made sure it was in no danger from the road. The gender unspecific thing found its way into the grass and weeds beside the road where it was, hopefully safe. Of course, I didn’t have my camera on me at the time and it was dark anyway, so it wouldn’t have made for a good shot.

We were on our way for a bite to eat at the taverna, being too lazy to do anything at home. We’d spent some hours in Yialos on Friday, Neil went to get his form witnessed by the solicitor and I went to collect something from the post office. We just missed a taxi for the journey home but luckily we were offered a lift (thank you ladies!) which was a boon as I was coming down with one of those unidentifiable bugs/head cold/brain-debilitating/flu things that, luckily, had blown itself out by Sunday. The taverna was its usual winter self, warm and welcoming and ‘What you want?’ ‘What you got?’ ‘What? You say what you want? Saganaki, meatballs, salads, chicken, bean soup…’ ‘I’ll stop you there.’ So, we had bean soup (gigantes in sauce, lovely), Neil had chicken and we shared a saganaki cheese. (The ‘saganaki’ refers to the frying pan method of cooking, rather than the cheese because you can also have saganaki prawns and other things, but I expect you knew that.) After that, it was home for half of ‘Miss Saigon’ in a 25^th anniversary production I had not seen before, the other half will probably be watched tonight.

Saturday was about moving furniture, or the overseeing of, as we were helping the godboys move house. We were all wearing our Fitbits and reached our daily targets with ease, though my last few hundred steps were achieved while sitting on the sofa later watching a film; don’t ask me how. So, that was the furniture. The ‘fun’ part of the weekend started after work on Friday morning and, so far, has lasted until Sunday morning (when I am getting this post together). I was up only half an hour after the usual time to make the most of a free day to work on the book. I just heard the army men down in Yialos singing a section of the National Anthem as they salute the flag at the war memorial, as they do every week. It’s a very lusty, throaty rendition and serves to remind me that national service can be a success for country, community and, in particular, teenagers who might otherwise never learn how responsibility is meant to work.

And so, as usual on a Sunday/Monday post I look at the diary (a piece of paper at the moment as I haven’t got a diary as yet) and see what the week holds in store. A couple of social engagements later in the week, but otherwise… It looks to be a quiet week ahead with the weather set for wet and windy for a couple of days but otherwise, clear and cool with the wind from the north and the temperature dipping right down to ‘very cold’ at the end of the week, I mean around five degrees; cold for us. Best check out the thermals situation and make sure they are ready to go.

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Symi Holidays
I just Googled ‘Symi Holidays’ to see what came up first. A load of adverts, as usual, followed by a lot of what I expected to see. It’s a shame that search engines don’t know what’s a local business in need of support, and what’s a huge company that is selling holidays to destinations none of their representatives have ever been to. We can all look through Trip Advisor and Booking.com these days – and I have used both myself, for cheaper prices and for ‘real people reviews’ – but how do you find the ones that matter? Searching for ‘local Symi holidays’ doesn’t help much, I got the same results.

What I decided to do here is highlight three that I’d not seen before, just as links so if you are looking around for a Greek holiday and are not sure where to start, you can check them out and see what’s what. Of course, we support our local businesses, like Symi Visitor Accommodation, Kalodoukas Holidays and many others, but have you heard of these?

Love Holidays
Greek Island.co.uk
Alpha Rooms

They are just three search and find sites that have Symi listed. I’ve not looked at the in depth but you might like to spend your weekend checking them out and planning your next Symi visit, or your first. I also found an interesting Symi Beach Guide at Greek Islands which has a search box attached. This brought me three ideas for a ‘Symi Holiday’, 76 properties in Symi, a few nearby a place in Albania called Symiz and a few in Symington, Strathclyde – a bit further from my desired destination. I then noticed it linked into Booking.com and we were back to square one.

I think the point of this search exercise was to try and find something you may not have found before and there were several properties on these sites that I didn’t know existed. One was just down my street. Still, it might be a fun weekend activity for you.

As for me, I have no plans for the weekend apart from work, as usual, and maybe a walk now the weather has calmed, and there’s some much-needed housework to be done, a fig tree to cut back, a vine, ditto, and the concertina to try and learn. So, I will leave you with some random Symi Saturday photos taken recently and a few ideas for searching out your next holiday on Symi. Have fun.

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Bit of a grumpy mood today
A bad mood and some photos today, as promised. These were taken by Neil on his way back from aerobics at the gym the other day. You will be able to see the barge and other machinery working on the new jetty and the access road, the view from the road as you walk up and shots of the harbour between rain storms. We had another one pass over on Thursday morning, so the sterna is now well and truly full with free water.

Meanwhile, up at the house, winter continues as per. We are looking forward to the presidential inauguration (not) and it reminds me of the time when Obama was sworn in. Well, it makes me remember where we were: at Brian and Marj’s house watching it live with a bottle of wine. I expect, today, we will be ingnoring it and hoping it goes away, a bit like the mess the yUK government seem to be getting themselves into. I know some of my readers don’t like to hear it, but I still say that whole referendum was not democratic, even though I still have people sending me rather patronising messages saying ‘That’s democracy, sorry, get over it.’ It’s as if they actually believe that having a country vote on misinformation, lack of information and in only an advisory opinion poll, and then letting a government use that as a mandate to do what they want to do in order to keep themselves in with the powers that be (within their own cliques), was in any way democratic. But let’s not go down that discussion route. Suffice to say, the more I see of what’s happening to the country I was born in, the less I ever want to go there again, let alone go and live there again.

I don’t think we will be made to; unlike some older immigrants in other EU countries who may have to return to the yUK to benefit from their pensions that they paid into for so many years. It’s getting very hard – with Sterling in trouble Vs the Euro, and the possibility of non-reciprocal agreements, no health care etc., – for many to see a way to stay abroad where they came to live as the quality of life was better. We are lucky in that I am privately insured (and will one day have a private pension) and Neil is soon to be Irish and so stays part of the EU.

I didn’t mean to start on this topic, world calamity I mean, but I just had a flashback to one of the British ‘news’ papers reporting a ‘Surge’ in the “£ Vs €” after “Ms Mayday-mayday-mayday! We’re going down. CQD”‘ made her speech the other day. I looked it up and the pound ‘surged’ about 0.5% against a fall, since last year of 30% or something. Laughable reporting and even more laughable that some people think things are going forward for the better.

As you can see I am not in a good mood today. It started well enough but then I was working and receiving all manner of interruptions from people on Skype, questions, requests… my new mouse was driving me mad (three or four clicks to get it to actually do what it was meant to do, don’t think I’ll be buying a Logitch again for a while; I’ve gone back to the old one now)… the cat’s ears bloody again, blood on the sheets… bad news on the interweb… One of those days. But still. I have the view, Neil has offered to make lunch, giving me time to write this diatribe about a dire tribe of morning mishaps (the light in the kitchen blew so I changed that and then the light in my desk lamp blew and I had no new bulb), and, once this is posted, I am going to retreat into la-la-land. Not the new film but a state of not-being-here that I get into when I work on one of my own books, which is what I plan to do for the rest of the day in the hope that there will be no more interruption or bad news, or dreadful world events. Unlikely I know, but it’s all I can do.

And relax…

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