Morning routine
I am pleased to report that I started Monday off on a positive note. Well, apart from missing the alarm clock and having an unexpected lie in until 7.30 that is. Even that loss of 30 minutes from my day didn’t put me off and I was straight to the kettle to make my fresh lemon in hot water drink. Well, maybe not straight to the kettle. Fist there’s the rush to get something warm on in that time period between warm sheets and the cold of the morning creeping in as you stumble around the bedroom trying to find something to throw on – a new dressing gown Christmas gift helped there.

And then, hopping into the hall as you try and pull one sock on and realise it’s back to front, it’s time to let the cat in before the whole neighbourhood gets woken up and advances on your gate in its night-wear with flaming torches and pitchforks, calling for cat blood. Cat inside and it’s straight to the kitchen and the bowl. There’s always a bit of a race there: for me to get last night’s left-overs out of his way before he starts eating what’s there – it’s not nice by then, overnight flies and stuff, you know. And then there’s a race to get his food down before his grumpy demands wake the rest of the house. That done the kettle does get switched on and there’s a dash for the bathroom…

…where the floor is usually cold and you realise you’ve left the window open all night – which isn’t a bad thing as it helps keep down the black mould that’s starting to grow on the grouting. A common Symi problem in the winter. Bathroom business done and the kettle is ready, so cut a lemon, squeeze in into a mug, add warm water and carry that through to the office to turn on the computers – and the heater as the offices are, basically, housed in a concrete block that faces north and that has reasonably large windows to let in the cold through the glass. The shutters are currently open. When the cold north wind blows and we (finally) get into the icy depths of winter, then they will be closed to help keep the wind out and I will work in more or less darkness, with the table lamp to light my fingerless-glove gloved-fingers like something from Dickens. Last winter there was tape around the window gaps to keep out the wind.

All that done, there’s then time to tidy up the sitting room from last night’s TV-fest, put the drying up away, and watch as the cat wanders the house deciding where to settle for the morning. Currently his favourite space is wedged between the back of the sofa and a sofa cushion, odd animal.

And that, should you wish to know it, is my morning schedule at the moment and has been for some time now. There you go! Have a good day.

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Symi Christmas
Christmas fun was had by all, there were parties, feasting, walking, laughing and family get-togethers. The High School held a fund-raiser at the Opera House which went on late into the night and on what we call Boxing Day (26^th December) there were more parties and dancing in kafeneion and a children’s party in Yialos.

We had a good time and I hope you all did too. There are a few photos to share, nothing too personal and we like to keep some things to ourselves, but what I can share I will over the next few days as I try and get back into writing mode during this in-between week. Always a bit of a strange one the week between Christmas and new Year, especially when the main Days are on Saturdays, it feels like a week where you shouldn’t be doing anything apart from reading your new books (thank you Sarah, and Neil and Jenine), or writing in your new notebooks – three for me, which means three new story ideas at least must be written in them.

The weather, as you will see from the photos, has been very kind; sunny, warm enough to be outside even after dark, as long as wrapped up, and calm, with hardly any wind. Checking things out online (when our currently very slow, intermittent and rather recalcitrant internet services works – the internet service on Symi needs a firm kick up its ASCI if you ask me) I see that we’re getting up to force 5 around 30^th and over New Year. That should give me something to look at through my dazzling new binoculars.

A couple of other things to tell you. If you don’t already know, the ‘American’ supermarket in Horio has trolleys now. I saw them for the first time on Christmas Eve, I don’t know how long they have been there. You can push them around as they are on wheels. You can load up with heavy stuff and it’s really easy. Until you come to go downstairs then you need to carry them.

And for those who donate to Symi Animal Welfare, we have been feeding the cats at or designated station this season, we gave them their S.A.W. ‘rations’ on Christmas Day and then, after lunch, went for a short walk and gave them seconds as a treat. We have around 14 of them and, on Christmas Day, we also had a cockerel a chicken and a donkey (or is it a mule?) looking very interested at first and then rather disappointed when they saw it was Rokus tinned cat food.

Anyway, I am sure there is more to tell you but today is just a quick catch-up written yesterday, so that I can then get straight back into work on Monday morning, which is my best time to get words out of the head and onto paper.

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Symi Christmas Eve
This is just a short note to wish those who celebrate it a merry and yet peaceful Christmas and to let you know I’ll be back on Monday, or Tuesday. Today we’re tidying the house ahead of our party on Saturday and then shopping in the afternoon. The cat has had me awake since around six o’clock, it’s still dark outside as I write, but starting to lighten, and my feet are cold. So, I had better post this and go and see to today’s chores so I can relax and chill out for the rest of the day. Have a great day tomorrow and remember, if you are driving over the Christmas period, don’t forget to take the car. See you on Monday! (Or Tuesday, depending on what happens on Sunday…)

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Symi Christmas week, Wednesday
As you can see from today’s photos, it’s still bearing up with sunshine down here. Yesterday on the far side of the harbour it felt more like a day in late spring rather than the winter solstice. I wore my new, warm coat down there but had to take it off after crossing the bridge, and I didn’t put it back on until much later in the day.

I think we’ve finally gathered everything in ready for a couple of days off over Christmas; last presents organised, paper bought, special things bought for Christmas Day and the drinks cabinet, that kind of thing. All that remains to do now is to get some shopping in for the house and Boxing Day and we’re done.

The shops are open on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day around here, things don’t clam up the way they used to back in the UK many years ago. The days when there was no shop open on a Sunday, and Wednesday was early closing day for some reason. When you would stock up your larder for Christmas sometime around November 20^th and start hording as you couldn’t possibly risk running out of anything over the Christmas period or else you would completely ruin the festivities for everyone. I don’t suppose it’s the same now that you can do Tesco at four in the morning, or have a wiz around Sainsbury’s at dawn. Not now the shops put up signs to say ‘Terribly sorry, we will be closed today between 10.00 and 10.05 for staff training, this is the first time we’ve closed since 1997, and we really are awfully sorry for the slightest inconvenience this heinous act may cause you (please don’t sue us, thank you ever so)’ because people are used to their shops being open 24/7. It’s like 7/11 – I always thought that would be a cool place to work, only doing four hours a day. Then I figured it out.

So, our own 7/11, that I prefer to call Fortnum’s (Sotiris’ supermarket) is open today, tomorrow and probably Saturday, though not Christmas Day – that’s the only day Sotiris gets to rest. That is, after he’s been up to the farm and mucked out, seen to the goats, planted a field of potatoes, milked the chickens, swept the pig and fed the yard. Then, sometimes around 2pm he can put his feet up and watch an episode of ‘Στέψη Δρόμος’ (Coronation Street) before getting back to work.

And talking of going back to work. I don’t think I will do that until Monday, thank you very much. I will put up a blog tomorrow, Christmas Eve, but then you will have to be on your own until Monday.

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Symi Christmas week update
The last big boat before Christmas comes and goes tomorrow and the last leavers will be leaving on it. They will be leaving behind a quiet island that’s currently in the mid-teens for temperatures and calm.

We are in the ‘Halcyon’ days, as someone pointed out to me the other days; the period of a week either side of the winter solstice (from today the days start growing longer as we head towards summer). Halycion: “From Latin Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus and wife of Ceyx. When her husband died in a shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the sea whereupon the gods transformed them both into halcyon birds (kingfishers). When Alcyone made her nest on the beach, waves threatened to destroy it. Aeolus restrained his winds and kept them calm during seven days in each year, so she could lay her eggs. These became known as the “halcyon days,” when storms do not occur.”

Another source states: “Fourteen days of calm weather were to be expected when the Halcyon was nesting – around the winter solstice, usually 21st or 22nd of December. The Halcyon days are generally regarded as beginning on the 14th or 15th of December.”

Either way, it’s still pretty calm and it looks like we are going to have a warm Christmas Day, which somehow doesn’t seem right. It also means that, without rain, there will be problems in the fields and the wells, and we can only hope that we get a lot of rain in order to catch up, sometimes in the depths on New Year. Until then, though, it’s still cold in the house and damp in the mornings and the washing is not getting dry; just like a good old fashioned Symi winter.

We attended the first of the weeks’ events last night (thank you for the evening and you know who you are). Tonight there’s a Christmas Quiz going on at the Sunrise, but before that we have another trip to Yialos to collect things and sort a few odd jobs out. Wednesday is so far stacking up as a quiet day at home until the evening when there is a mulled wine and carols evening in the offing, and Thursday will be filled with housework ready for our own party on Saturday and then shopping and peeling, delivering gifts and singing carols as we go.

So, I’ll leave you with today’s photos and briefly report that the Yialos road by the bus stop is open again and the bus is running and so are the taxis. So, Symi transport is back to normal, apart from the rail service which is suspended until the late spring early summer.

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