More ramble for your money
Why is it that, occasionally, when you turn your computer on and open a programme, its screen opens to a strange, smaller size, not the full screen size that it should be? I’ve often wondered that and my Word did it just now. Odd, but there you go, one of those mysteries.

It’s Wednesday morning and I’ve not pre-prepared a blog post for today so this is happening ‘live’ and I have no idea what to tell you other than: the Alarm Cat is still out and about and has not come home and has not been seen, the weather is calm and cool and the sea flat. It all looks very pleasant and slightly wintery out there. And we have an appointment with our landlord later to help him cut down a fig tree. And, to be quite honest with you, I have no other news, so I’ll have to leave you with a couple of photos (there will be more tomorrow and I have some on the camera I’ve not dealt with yet) and leave it at that. This is why I like to do the blog a day in advance, you get more ramble for your money.

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A quick Symi catch up on news from up here in the village… Another quiet Sunday passed off without incident. We went back to our old house and the area to see if we could see or hear Jack out and about, but there was no sign of him. As of Monday late morning he’d still not come home. I expect he is having a wail of a time beatings up all manner of poor cats in some neighbourhood; he’s not been in a good fight for ages.

Interestingly, it was nearly one year ago that we moved house. Since that time he has ventured out and about on only a few occasions, even though we have left our courtyard gate open for him in the hope that he will explore the area. He has done this in the past too, and returned the following morning or afternoon, on one occasion he came back after two days and on another we went and got him from the old house after three. There’s not a lot we can do about it really, he’ll come back if and when he wants to, or he may stay away for good and we may never see him again. He’s a cat. I reckon he’ll be back… at some point.

Apart from peaceful mornings and no need to clean out the dirt tray (we’ve just bought eight big bags of litter, so he’d better come back and use it!) there’s not been a lot else going on at the house. As you might have read, Saturday was very windy and so all shutters were closed and the house in darkness. Sunday was better and Monday I was able to open some shutters without fear of losing them, and was able to see sunlight again. The sea down there is calm, though not 100% flat as there are ripples coming in towards the shore. Apparently the Blue Star, held up by strike and wind, that was due in at 11.00 in the morning, didn’t come in until 3.00 the next morning – not sure which morning as I was asleep at all 3.00 ams over the weekend. The Dodekanisos, stuck here on Saturday, is back to normal and was in and out on Monday morning.

It’s Harry’s name day tomorrow (Xronia polla all Xaralambos, or is that Xaralamboi?) but he’s at school; now he is at junior school he can’t really bunk off to attend his name day so we shan’t be going – feels a bit wrong to turn up without your godson, it’s like you’ve only come for the coffee and cakes. And that ‘not going anywhere’ is the only social entry in the calendar so far this week. It’s still very quiet everywhere, hardly anyone about it seems, but if this good sunny weather stays and things warm up a bit, I can see café-life returning to the village before long.

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Symi Sunday morning
Here we are, another Sunday morning and time to write tomorrow’s post. The wind has dropped. It was pretty blowy yesterday to say the least, all the shutters were shut and the house was buffeted all day and all evening. In the morning we managed a trip into Yialos to do some shopping and took a taxi back up (due to weight of shopping). This, as you will see from the photos, involved driving through the spray coming over the quayside as we drove along the south side of the harbour. The other photos from today were also taken on Saturday morning.

It was a weekend with some film news in it. A friend of mine is involved in trying to get a film to Berlin in time for an extended deadline on the entry to the Film Festival being shown there in a few days. This is nothing to do with ‘The Thirteenth’, but instead to do with an entirely different project. The experience does highlight the need for caution and care when putting a film together. All to do with having the right paperwork and there is a surprisingly huge amount of it, and sound files matching visuals, having various copies of the film in various projection aspects so it will show all large screens as well as small and a lot of other things that, in the case of this film, were not readily available. To be fair, this film was a last minute entry brought in to replace an existing film entry that had to pull out (had they had more warning the ‘missing’ processes would have been completed in time). I’ve not got all the details but I know that their production office spent Friday and Saturday couriering copies of the film to Los Angeles, and then finding someone to upload it as the servers in the UK were not fast enough. Unfortunately, there were still some issues and so the film had to be finalised by Sunday and a copy flown, with a person, to Berlin to be presented. As I write this is still going on. But there is a point to mentioning this…

And that is to highlight the need to be thorough, which ‘The Thirteenth’ producers are being with the visuals and sound design. The visuals on the film have been completed now apart from the credits, and the music and sound are being finalised methodically. So, if you were wondering what was happening with ‘The Film’ as it’s become known around here, the news still seems to be that it’s in the sound stage, which involves the soundtrack and the musical soundtrack. Then comes the colour grading and then comes the paperwork. It’s happening, I am told, but cautiously so as to avoid just these kinds of problems in the future.

The other Sunday morning news is that Jack, the Alarm Cat, has gone for one of his wanders again. He had been a bit bored over the last week, and it looked like he was anxious to get out and about. Whereas he usually sleeps in or around the house all day (and night), recently he has been wanting to get on to the balcony to look at the views as if he wanted to get out there and join whatever party the local cats were throwing. On Friday, as one of us popped up to the bins to feed the strays, he slipped out of the gate (his only way out) and we’ve not seen him since. He’s often sat there looking at the open gate and not bothered to go out even if we have left it open all day, but on Friday he was clearly in the mood to travel. So later today, if he’s not back, we may go back to our old house to see if, after a year of living here, he has popped back there to see if lunch is ready. I’m sure he’s fine and if he can find his way there he will be able to find his way back here. Especially as our old house now no longer has a roof, as renovations are underway.

So, there will be more news on Jack as it breaks, if it breaks, and on the film if and when I get some, and of course the weather. I’ve also been writing, as you would have seen from Saturday’s post, and that short story is still to be finished, but I’ve also done some more Donkey work, slogging away at putting the words around the ‘everything else’ that this writing project already has: characters, plot, action, development etc. It’s a long job and the fun side of writing the story has already happened. That is, the plotting and development. Now I have to be in pure ‘adding word’ mode as I push on with it. So, with the shutters still closed (as there’s a slight breeze and it’s a cold one), and the gate open should the AC return of his own accord, I must now turn to the Donkeys folder and write at least another 3,000 words. So, happy Monday to you and here’s to the week ahead.

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Greek strikes hit home
I’m not here today. Like a lot of Greece, I am on strike.

But you’re okay, as I am writing this on Wednesday morning for you. It is the public sector unions GSEE and ADEDY who are striking, plus other craft, commerce and seamen’s unions who are striking, so possibly no boat for a while, though the Dodecanisos Seaways crews are, apparently, not unionised and so not affected. But on a lighter note…

It’s a very quick blog today. I have a chicken pie and biscuits to cook (separately) and so can’t hang around for very long today. I must go and strike the kitchen while the iron (oven) is hot and see if I can rally a striking meal for our dinner guest tonight. So, I will leave you with some of Neil’s photos of our Sunday walk, with more to come soon, and set about my duties.

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Symi spring weather
Here’s wishing you a happy month ahead, kalo mina, as they say in Greece. We are starting off the week with some photos from Neil. I have run out of shots in my spares folder but we are going out for a walk later today (Sunday), so I aim to get plenty to use in the up-coming blogs. Expect lots of shots of rocks and terraces, views and blue sky as it’s time for some Symi spring weather.

It’s a good looking calm day today and the temperature has risen again. According to some weather reports on Friday (Euronews), Rhodes was the warmest place in Europe at 18 degrees. Try telling that to the bedroom at seven in the morning, with condensation dripping off the windows and the top blanket wet with it, your glasses steam up as soon as you put them on and then there’s the condensation dripping from the bathroom ceiling onto the ‘library.’ Three books are currently on the go in the bathroom: A history of England, a biography of Howard Hughes and a copy of the Beano, all in danger of being soaked by dew, basically. So, bathroom ceiling wiped down and bleached (to stop black mould), the windows left open all day and the books removed to dry in the kitchen, when it’s not also condensated. Meanwhile, the balcony doors are open letting through a wonderful slice of cold air every now and then, giving the cat something to tut about as he takes up his morning sleep duty on the sofa, and hopefully drying out the inside of the house.

Outside the house things look pretty much as they did at the end of the summer. The plants (ours and those we are allegedly looking after for others) are doing fine in most cases and looking like stalks where they should be in others. Some lose their leaves in the winter and that’s happened, others are doing well, some we’re not sure about and even the basil is still going strong at its home in the laundry room. The vine has actually started to grow back in places, mainly in the part that overhangs the road where we didn’t cut it back, and it won’t be long before the fig tree that half blocks the view is in leaf again. I’m not saying that it’s spring here already but it feels like it could get that way soon. I’m not a planty person as you know, but others who are, are sharing images of new growth and daffodils on the island, and other interesting spring-like things.

So, maybe we shall find some spring hints on our walk this morning/afternoon. I think the plan is to head out on the donkey path from the village towards Ag Paraskevi, and then follow ‘the wall’ around to Ag Rafael and over the hill to Roukouniotis, and then wall back in time for a late lunch. Watch out for photos and, by the way, welcome to a new week.

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