Sunny Symi, general chat
A mixed blog today – a couple of frustrations and some good weather. The rain has gone (for now at least), and the sun is out, it’s warmer than recently and calm. I’ve been watching small boats (boats, note – I hit that O key with a vengeance today, like it was the entire yUK government) going about their business in the bay below. Fishing boats coming back after an early morning start, some others whose business it is not mine to know, but no big boats as it’s Thursday as I write. We only have the Friday to Monday catamarans, and the two Blue Star visits each day at the moment.

The frustrations? Well, one is my back which has decided to go wrong. Too much sitting at the desk, I fear. It’s fine when I am sitting down but moving around, carrying things and bending awkwardly feels like someone has come up behind and thumped me in the sides. I am tracking down a fixer in Rhodes, a fixer being an osteopath or similar, and I may have to go and make a call next week. Meanwhile, it’s a good excuse not to do anything. Mind you, I’ve just done several hours of typing, been to the shops, done some washing, fed the cat, made the dinner and am about to go for a walk so it can’t be that bad. Stop moaning and get over it! That’s my motto; good old British stiff upper lip eh? Well, not so much ‘Good old Britain’ anymore – and don’t get me started on that. I’m just very glad I don’t live there, that’s all I can say. (I don’t mean my friends or the countrywide or the majority of people, I am talking about the Alt Government you have, and the other right wing elements.)

To calm the blood, I’ve been looking at holidays in Ireland for next year. Visit the Titanic exhibition and Neil’s mother’s birthplace in Belfast (not historically related), take a train across country, maybe stay in the countryside for a couple of days, check out the west coast, see if there’s a village that’s like Symi in case Greeks kick out the Brits because the Brit-Gov is turning into a Trump… You know the kind of thing. But the other frustration? It’s one of those computer ones.

I have installed a programme called Grammarly to help me with my hideous typing, spelling, grammar and punctuation skills, or lack of. It works just fine, and I’ve even run this post through it to tidy it up a bit. The downer is that it has made my version of Word revert to US spelling when I paste in from another document. This happened before and I got rid of the problem, but I can’t remember how. I’ve asked the company who made the handy programme what to do about it but meanwhile, I go to check things and suddenly the language bar shows US spelling. I want as little to do with the US at the moment as I do with the yUK so I won’t be standing for that, thank you very much. I’ve changed my settings in the programme to only check yUK spelling, and it still does it. It’s a deeper problem. Anyway… On to the walking part of the day now that the sun is out. Proofing the last 30 chapters of the book can wait but, on that note, the cover designer has done me a second draft which we are just tidying up, and soon you will be able to see it. I bet you can’t wait.

Enough of my blather for now, I’m off into the sunshine while we have it.

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On typing and typos
Sorry about yesterday’s bat trip (sic). I have this thing about typing, you see. I do it too fast and, even though I read things back a few times, I still miss the obvious when I have written it myself. I expect that’s a common thing among anyone who writes, hence the need for proof readers. I can’t afford one of them for this blog though so, unless it’s a really naughty one, we will just have to excuse them. At least I will. I do wonder, though, what else I have typed incorrectly and not noticed? I wonder if I have ever talked about my bog instead of my blog, or said that a shop or website is easy to sue rather than use? I do hope so.

Another reason for odd words at the moment (apart from typing at 100 words per minute (no honestly) but only getting about 80% of those words correct and then having to edit at 3 words per minute) is my O. I am waiting for a new keyboard as this one is fair bashed to death. The comma sticks sometimes so I end up with ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and there are a few other keys, including the O, that need to be poked hard to get them to do what they should do. I just imagine my O is Nigel Farage (see photo, above) and I am poking him in the eye. OOOOOOOOOO

I enjoyed that. The new keyboard should be here soon. I ordered it from Germany. Believe it or not, that’s cheaper than going to Rhodes for a new one. They are probably only €30.00 in Rhodes (I have a particular, rather costly, keyboard that I have always used so I like to get the same again) but when you add on the cost of the bats (boats), the taxi, if needed, the lunch, always needed, the afternoon drink or two, a must-have, and the impromptu spending, it does work out cheaper to order in. I looked on Amazon and eBay.co.yUK. but Amazon won’t deliver such things to Greece and eBay didn’t have what I wanted. So, I was very brave and ordered one from Germany, via eBay.de This meant translating every page in an online translator and working out what a Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung was. But I got there in the end and so I await the new keyboard.

Mind you, if I can type Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung without a mistake then I’m not doing too badly.

BTW: I took that word from a website where it was described thus: “deferral of the second iteration of the federal presidential run-off election” so it’s not a word or set of them that I will ever use again.

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What’s to do on a Symi holiday?
Just sitting here wondering what to write about and I thought, I know. I’ll make a list of things you can do when on Symi. I’m thinking of people who might be interested in a holiday here but who aren’t sure what to expect. This is not an exhaustive list of course and actually I am only going to walk around the harbour – there is no much more and maybe I will come to that one day soon. Let’s go.

Let’s image that for some strange reason, you have landed at Nos Beach (the boats don’t come in there, but you can hire jet skis and there are other fun watersports activities on offer). Stop for a coffee or sunbathing there on the ‘town beach’ before heading off around the road towards Yialos. This will take you past several restaurants where you can sit out beside the water and watch the boats coming and going. You’ve also walked through the boatyard so you can see traditional boat building at work; and you might have popped up to one of the many churches to admire the buildings and the views. Leave your bags at one of the hotels, some of the apartments or studios, and then admire the 19^th century clock tower while watching the big ferry unload its vans, cars, people, luggage, provisions, livestock and visitors.

Moving on, you’re got a variety of bars and shops to stop at, two banks (on this side) and one of Symi’s famous wood oven bakeries to snack at or by fresh bread from. Have a wander around the town square to see the nautical museum, the town hall, the festival stage, clothes shops, household shops, hairdressers and the garden centre before winding your way into the backstreets. Here you have the ‘Symi Cathedral’, St John’s church, and the doctors, dentists, chandlers, travel agents, tavernas, bars, an ouzeria (what’s the singular? Doesn’t matter, there is more than one), fashion shops, souvenir shops, stationers, computer shops, butchers, off license and delicatessen. There you are back on the harbour-front again for a traditional kafeneion and a view of the taxi boats that can take you to any of the beaches later in the day; if you are not going on a bat trip for the day with lunch included.

More wandering leads you to another bank, a couple of pharmacies, more bars and eateries, the taxis and the bus, a lovely walk up the gentle slope of the main road to the village and to the steps of the Kali Strata, the carpenters and boutique hotels. There are plenty of benches to rest on while you admire the views, you can watch the fishermen bring in their catches, occasionally you can see the divers at work freeing anchor chains and you’re also able to find out Symi information from many shops and visitor businesses, holiday companies and so on, before you check out the status of your boat with the harbour authorities.

You might want to leave your children at the new play park, or sit them safely with a homemade ice-cream somewhere while you do your Lotto tickets and then pick them up to take them for a walk up one of the old donkey paths out of the harbour. Or walk up and over to Nimborio for swimming or just to see the ostriches (are they still here or have they been eaten yet?) and to admire the more rural side of things. And then it’s time for lunch, but where? There is almost too much choice.

And so it goes on and we’ve not yet been to Horio, Pedi, Panormitis or into the hinterland where there are load of walks and views. So, if you are thinking of a Symi holiday, rest assured that there will be plenty to do.

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Sunday Symi blog
The weekend plans fell into place as expected, though it is only Sunday morning as I write this and I’ve not been for a decent walk yet. We went to Yialos on Saturday morning after some heavy rain and did the jobs that needed doing: buying new oven trays, looking for other things for the house we need but couldn’t find – a trip to Rhodes may be in the offing. I mainly went down to pick up a parcel that had arrived but it turned out not to be the thing I was waiting for, it wasn’t even for me. After a couple of Saturday beers at Pacho’s (a once a week treat) we were lucky enough to find a couple of taxis still working after 3pm, and so Thanasis took us up the hill. We also had other shopping with us, so that was the easiest way of getting home.

While we were there, Neil met with Yianni-Poseidon to firm up details about our boat party on September 8^th. I know it’s a long way off but we like to get things sorted out well in advance. We currently have over 80 people booked on with us, which is actually too many for the boat, so we’re looking at that. Some guests might have to swim around to Again Marina.

Only joking. I was also able to spend some time on my final draft of the next book, arranging a flight for my nephew for September and, once I’ve prepared this post, I’ll be considering some housework, that’s for after the shopping is done. It’s very handy having a supermarket or two open on a Sunday though always best to get to them before the end of the Sunday church services when they can get rather busy as people shop on the way home.

Because we both work at home Monday to Friday mornings, the weekend takes on that old sense of having got everything done and now it’s time to relax. It does rather make Sunday evenings feel like the end of a good two days off and Sundays still remind me of ‘the old days’ when there was a drive to work to not look forward to the follow day. It used to be, in the very old days, Pinky & Perky, bath time, supper in front of the fire and then bed with that heavy feeling of going back to school hanging over you. That’s not so bad now – and there’s no bath in this house – as the commute to work only involves crossing the porch, but you still get the same old Sunday night/Monday morning feeling. Mind you, I much more look forward to Mondays now than I did 15 years ago, when I had a job working for other people. When you’re working here through the summer (as I did back in the early days of moving to Symi) there was no such thing as a weekend and each day was exactly the same as the next. Winters were one long weekend then, but weekends with no money.

Talking of summer. There is already some work going on in the harbour as some businesses are either changing or already preparing for the next season by getting some building work done while it’s quiet and, on most days, dry. There are still three months to go before Easter but that time will fly, and the season won’t really kick off until after then. There is sometimes a quiet gap after the festivals of Easter and before the charter flights start bringing regular tourists, but the good news for travellers is that the boat timetables are now up and available for the summer. The Blue Star http://www.bluestarferries.com/el/ can be checked and booked online and the Dodecanese Seaways timetable is available for the next several months (up until October 31^st) and you can book the catamarans online there to. The Panagia, the larger ferry, can’t be booked online (unless you book separate tickets to Panormitis, its first stop, and then onwards, or so I am told), and for all travel news of flights and boats, you should check out Andy’s blog at Symi Visitor. As I always say: if you are coming independently, always check your boats before you buy your flights. There are currently no extra evening boats scheduled from Rhodes (only Wednesday pm and Friday evening on the Blue Star) so there’s no point arriving at eight in the evening and thinking you will get a boat straight to Symi.

But still, there’s something to look forward to and start planning: your next Symi holiday.

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Symi Saturday photos
It’s the weekend and there’s lots to do. How much will get done is another matter but, for my part, I am planning to: Go down to Yialos and collect a new chair for the desk that is waiting for me, check out some kitchen light fittings, maybe have a look around for some drawers for the bedroom, buy some cat food and other essential supplies and do some shopping. Then there’s the book to work on, the house to tidy and clean, laundry to do, if the sun comes out and perhaps even an escape from the desk for an hour for a walk. Now then, how many of those things are actually going to get done, I wonder?

Meanwhile, I’ve got some shots today: one of the helicopter on the landing pad, and a couple of the Friday boats coming in and out through the misty rain that was out and about in the morning. It was one of those days where I could see Nimos one moment and then not the next, there was low cloud hanging over it and then it was clear. I was able to add a bit more free water to the sterna and the plants got some, and the electricity man came to read the meter. That’s something that’s kind of a mixed blessing. At least you know it’s going to be the correct amount on the next bill as opposed to an estimate but, at the same time, it is going to be the correct amount. It’s going to be a winter one so savings are already in place to cover the great shock when it comes in.

Anyway, I have things to be getting on with, the cat wants feeing again and so do we and it’s my turn to make lunch, so I’m off to do that, leaving you with a few more Saturday Symi photos to look at. Have a good weekend wherever you are.

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