Blue Star Patmos
We’re almost getting back to normal now after a wonderful three weeks with mother visiting. I say almost as I’m going to be away for a few days early next week, and then we will be back to normal – or what constitutes normal around here.

I went over to Rhodes on Wednesday on the Blue Star Patmos for the first time. That’s an impressive ship! It looks too big to make it into the harbour and dock and yet it does. Once you are on it, up in one of the lounges, you hardly feel it moving and it is also very quiet inside. It has three outside decks at the back and at least five cafes that I counted, plus a self-service restaurant and an a la carte one and a shop. On the way back I wandered around it for ages saying hello to various Symi folk I knew and still met up with others as I disembarked, others that I’d not known were on it. It’s quick too and not expensive to buy a ticket. I’ll be on it again next Wednesday.

In other, more personal news, those who read here but don’t follow us on Facebook might not yet know that we have had confirmation that Neil is an Irish citizen, as we thought he was, and that he can apply for his Irish passport. We’ve been dealing with a very helpful lady in the Embassy in Athens who is helping him through the application process, and now a very helpful solicitor in Rhodes who is also going to help with affidavits needed (to do with Symi not having street names, our bills being in the landlord’s name and so on). These, or this, will satisfy the Embassy that he is who he says he is and lives where he says he does. Once that’s done, we will just be waiting on the form and a couple more documents which have been ordered. After that… well, he will be European twice so if the UK goes ahead with the…. and you know my feelings on that travesty, then he will be able to stay in Greece with no hassle if the situation for UK citizens changes in the future.

That’s a great relief but it doesn’t stop me worrying about everyone else who may have their European citizenship taken away from them following a very unfair, badly run, ill-informed and non-binding vote that gets taken as ‘the majority of the country’ and all that rubbish. So, it’s a case of ‘we’re all-right, Jack,’ at least for now.

And talking of Jack, he’s all-right too, though getting more and more demanding and noisy and grumpy with age. Meanwhile, it looks like the season is more or less over though day boats are still coming in and out. Neil will finish work at the bar on Saturday ahead of his winter family visit and we can start to settle down for the winter. This means, this weekend, putting up the thermal curtains, finding the winter clothes, making sure we’ve money for the heating bills, finding the warm slippers and electric blanket… Lots to do before the writing  season really kicks in, which I am hoping it will do as of next Thursday.

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Simply 10 random photos today.

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Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and other handy things, the Greek equivalent is Athena. It is also the name of a nicely old fashioned (the interior) cruise ship that called into Symi on Monday, early in the morning. Its arrival attracted the attention of the Alarm Cat who wanted to make sure everyone on board was up and ready for their day.

The cruises they offer include distinguished guest speakers such as: “Rear Admiral Namechange CB CBE, who will deliver engaging talks relative to your itinerary.” Can’t wait for that one – snoozing off over my fine dining “of international dishes to tempt you” while learning all about double ended crankshaft sprocket maintenance and the benefits of a well lubed intake valve. No, I’m sure he is a wonderful speaker and I just realised it said ‘engaging talks’ I thought it said engineering talks. I need to get out more.

Anyway, that was the highlight of Jack’s day yesterday, that and a good long snooze on the bathroom roof once he’d got over the fact that he only had three breakfasts and stopped whining about it.

Just to keep you in the loop; I’m away on Wednesday so there may not be a blog on Thursday, then I’m away the following week for three or four days so I’ll have a bit of a rest then too. But before all that, here are a few more random photos from recently.

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Symi weekend
A few photos from a sunny weekend which included a walk to Yialos, and around, a lunch at To Spitiko, a bus-ride back up and a walk down into the village. On Sunday we took a walk up to the museum and had a look around. It’s been wonderfully restored, through the Sala and a new wing are not quite ready, but we were told it will be ready by the end of the year. Entrance is free, at least at the moment, and the restoration works have been done with some funding from the EU – I doubt the UK will get any such treatment if the mad people in charge there pull the plug on Europe. (Angry face icon not available.)

The harbour was again busy on Saturday with three packed day boats and a cruise ship, plus a hydrofoil from Turkey. The weather was calm and the sea flat. It’s hot in the sun and feels a bit chilly, to me, in the shade, but we’re still in shorts and light shirts. By the way, the Dodecanese Seaways timetable for the beginning of November is now up, they hadn’t decided on the schedule when I last saw it which was why it was empty. Neil can get back to Symi on the Saturday he needs to, but only to Panormitis. He’ll have to get a bus from there or walk. Anyway, here are some random images from the weekend for you.

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Winter boat schedules, Symi
Everything is under control and things are going well here. We’re out and about some days, staying in and being homely on others, the weather is fair again though you can feel the temperature dropping and the sea is calm. All’s well.

I learned a handy tip from Andy who runs the Symi Visitor Travel blog. This may be of interest to anyone coming and going through the winter. I was looking around for boats in November and looked at my usual two sites, Blue Star and Dodecanese Seaways. Blue Star has the timetable there but Dodec doesn’t as yet. (At least that’s what I thought, read on…) Andy suggested looking at Sea Dreams, the day boat that comes in, and I’d not thought to do that as I wasn’t expecting it to run in the winter.

There’s a link to the Timetable in the top menu and then you click on the Symi-Panormitis subtitle and the timetable opens up. It’s dated all the way through to the 6^th March next year. I was looking at a week in November when Neil is coming back from his family visit. Although there’s not a sailing on the Saturday he needs, there is one the following day so if all else fails he can come back on the good old Symi for a bit of nostalgia. The link to Sea Dreams is right here.

By the way, looking at the Dodecanese Seaways timetable for November I noticed that there are sailings advertised from 14^th November through to 20^th December (and possibly beyond, but I didn’t look that far). The Pride is running on six days per week, four of them to Symi – Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Strangely, they haven’t listed anything for the first two weeks of November, which means, I assume, the boats will be having a service at that time. Or else they’ve not decided what to do with them yet.

Amway, I didn’t sit down here to babble on about boats, though the links might be handy for you. I sat down to share some more photos, which I’ve done now, so I’m off. Have a good day.

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