Book done, dusting next
Well, it’s finished. Except it is not. I am talking about ‘The Saddling’, the new novel I have been bleating on about all this time. Bleating being appropriate as it is set on the Romney Marshes, where there are a lot of sheep. This means I can now turn my attention to the backlog of housework, and take some time away from the desk to concentrate on what normal people do during the day, whatever that is. It also means that I can share the front cover with you. This is now agreed, apart from the font used for my name, the editor/publisher thinks a serif font would be better and Diogo in Portugal will change that while he also works on the back cover – not yet competed. But, before I show you the cover, I have a few other Symi related images to show you. Life is not, after all, all about me and my typing. Or so I’ve heard.

Sunday dawned bright and cold-ish. The wind has moved to come from the north and so it’s going to be colder. The barge has been busy over at the new jetty, where there’s been a drill hammering away and lots of building activity going on.

We were out on Friday night, a dinner at Giorgio’s with its winter-time atmosphere and ‘What do you want for dinner?’ kind of menu. There were some children out and about, dressed in fancy dress in a rehearsal for carnival, which will be on us soon. It’s ‘meat eating Thursday’ next week, I am told,’ the day for barbeques. Saturday was also a lovely day with a beer stop after shopping, impromptu, I should add. And Sunday was all about finishing the draft (seven) and sending it off to the editor/publisher so they can check it and lay it out. We’re hoping the book will be available towards the end of April. I will let you know.

So, another photo and then the front cover.

Remember, if you use Facebook, I have a page there: https://www.facebook.com/jamescollinsauthor/ where I put my author related posts. Please feel free to click through and give the page a ‘like’ and share, it all helps with publicity. Thank you, and have a good week.

Symi photos: Haralambos name day
We’re just back from church as Friday was the name day of Saint Haralambos and Harry (real name Χαράλαμπος ) is our Godson. For more information about this Greek Saint (Χαράλαμπος, not Harry) , see this page at http://www.orthodoxchristian.info As you can see, the name is also spelt Charalambos and that’s because of the pronunciation of the Greek letter Χ , Άγιος Χαράλαμπος is the name in Greek. (And it’s pronounced, HarAlambos, with accent on the second A.)

Friday was a sunny morning so the light was streaming in through the incense. The army and other officials were represented as usual, the icon was paraded and Harry carried one of them, and there were coffee and cakes afterwards, including Jenine’s homemade cupcakes. There were also two surprise visitors from Scotland which made the morning even more special. I was going to stay in tonight, but suddenly we are all going to Giorgio’s – can’t wait! Enjoy the photos, I expect there will be more next week.

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.

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.

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.