Quick news roundup
Here’s some other news to catch up with. It was all happening in Yialos on the afternoon of November 16^th. First of all a chicken went shopping…

It’s one of those things that you see every now and then. You’re just walking along the backstreet towards the post office, passing the Xatzipetros supermarket when from behind the flower shop comes a small chicken. This is being followed at a polite distance by a curious young cat. The chicken crosses your path, you grab a quick photo and then it heads into the super market (sic) to, I assume, pick up a few essentials. The cat loses interest and wanders off somewhere else and you go to the post office.

Later you attend a meeting organised by Solidarity Symi, the refugee and island charity newly set up to help those in need. Attending are a group of interested observers plus the hosts, the island doctors, the head of the port police, people form the Rhodes charity ‘Helping Hands’ and members of the UN. A good two hour discussion with questions and some answers follows.

Later, having a glass at Pacho’s, you see a red flare being set off and wonder if that’s got anything to do with incoming refugees. It doesn’t, on closer inspection, seem so as the person holding it was on the quayside. The Dodecanese catamaran was leaving so maybe someone was saying goodbye in style. It did remind me though of a time in the summer when we were on the balcony and saw a flare, red, over by Nimos which did turn out to be a refugee boat in trouble. Red flares in the sunset.

And that’s my news for today, except to remind you that if you haven’t already put in your order for a Symi calendar or several, then now is the time to do so. You can find the order page here: Neil Gosling at Lulu. Or you could just ‘Google’ “Neil Gosling Lulu” and, surprisingly, you won’t find Neil singing ‘Shout’, but will find links to where you can order a copy, or several, of next year’s calendar. Well worth shouting about.

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Symi to Rhodes, boats in November
Today’s blog post is a ramble around the boat timetable for November/December. As you know we’re heading off for a couple of weeks soon – and don’t worry, the house and Alarm Cat are being looked after – and so, as is usual around here, you have to check the boats to see when you’re going to go. Thing is, the flight is on a Friday morning and although there is a Blue Star ferry on a Friday morning it doesn’t get there early enough, so we have to go a few days earlier, in this case Monday, four days before our flight is due to leave. Why? Well…

Here’s the boat timetable from Symi to Rhodes for the week beginning 23^rd November:
Monday           17.45   Pride
Tuesday
Wednesday     08.15   Diagoras
Thursday
Friday              07.45   Diagoras
Saturday          17.25   Pride
Sunday            17.10   Pride

Not that we need to, but you can only come back on the same day if you go on the Diagoras. Now then, you say, what about going on Wednesday? Well, yes, that’s the obvious choice and what we were originally going to do. But the thing is, should something happen and that boat not go (and there have been delays due to strikes) then we are stuck until the Friday morning when the boat, even if on time, would not arrive until about half an hour before take-off. So, the only safe option is to go on the Monday. (When I booked the flights the timetable for boats was not available and I was relying on the Wednesday Blue Star, which is still the fall back option should anything happen to the Monday boat.)

So, a delightful four nights in Rhodes before we jet off to visit Neil’s brother and other interesting sights in Europe. What to do? Well, first off you have to find accommodation and though we usually stay at hotels, and would in this case if it were only for a couple of nights, we’ve found an apartment in the old town at a very good price (€25.00 a night for a one bed apartment including TV, heating and Wifi); I will no doubt do a review of it on Trip Advisor or elsewhere when I get back. So, what’s the Rhodian itinerary?

Well, ideas for what to do currently look like this: Monday night, staying around the Old Town and seeing what a night there is like in November.  We are hoping to visit Ancient Kamiros too. This is open every day except Mondays from 08.00 to 14.40 and costs €4.00 to enter. There are buses back and forth to a nearby village and then a three mile walk. Tuesday night? Not sure yet but Wednesday is curry night with our annual Symi Dream outing to Saffron. We were also thinking of a Jumbo visit (from the sublime to the ridiculous) but that will have to wait until our return; I’m not carrying plastic tat around Europe with me. There will also be lots of walking no doubt, and a certain amount of staying in and watching television or reading to save money as the extra two days and nights were not in the budget.

So, while all that’s going on, there will be guest blog posts and I’ve only a few more slots to fill out – and I may have to do that with adverts about my books and Neil’s Symi calendar which you might want to consider ordering now so as to avoid disappointment later. Links are on the right >> and more details will follow over the next few weeks.

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It’s the end of the week and here are some Saturday Symi photos for you; again, these are from last weekend and our long walk and the Panormitis Festival. After this we shall move on to other things for next week, though there are still many images to share. There are a few posts about Panormitis coming in the future in the guest post slots while we are away, so watch out for them. We’re away to a baptism today and then I may go on a walk on Sunday so there could be a deluge of photos over the next week.

Other news? Well, there’s a meeting with Solidarity Symi on Monday at 2pm in the cultural centre in Yialos and everyone is welcome. There are lots of things up for discussion and not just the refugee situation on Symi, but also what the charity can do to help locals affected by the economic crisis. We are doing out little stint at the aid centre this morning, there have been refugees coming through Symi but not in the numbers we saw in August and not as many as on other islands. But keep your donations coming as any over-spill of donations will be sent on to where they are needed if not needed here.

More domestically; we have started readying the house for winter and on Symi this means: waterproofing where necessary – rain through windows, under doors etc., so shutters shut when it rains and some plastic sheeting up on the porch, also covering garden/courtyard furniture in plastic. We’ve filled in some gaps under doors and around windows where the cold north wind blasts in, so that should help. I am waiting for some thermal curtains to put up at the moussandra balcony so any heat we can generate in the sitting room is not lost to there and the oxeye at the back of the house. Neil’s been chopping the vine back and seeing to his and Louise’s plants that are sheltering in the courtyard. And we have dug out the electric blankets and spare blankets ready for when it gets really cold. It’s been fine of late though, hot in the sun and cool in the shade, average around 23 degrees. But we all know that cold and dark are on their way.

Anyway, enough rambling, I am going to leave you now with some more photos (in no particular order) and wish you a happy weekend.

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A walk to Panormitis (2) Continuing yesterday’s theme, here are some more photos taken on the walk to Panormitis last Sunday. We’d set off early and taken plenty of water and a sandwich or two. The first part of the walk was on the shaded side of the countryside, as the sun is quite low at this time of year and not yet (at that time of day) over the hills. I was still sweating like a glass blower’s a… mind you, but not because of the sun.

That (above) is Stavros Polemou over on the right, the highest church on the island. This is Neil, still walking and not yet limping, though I did have to stop around here and adjust the plasters on my heel (new walking boots).

There was some traffic on the road (we’d lost sight of the walking couple by now), we were offered a lift but we were there for the walk, we got lots of toots and waves and hellos from loads of locals (we only saw three other ‘ex-pats’ the whole day, apart from Jenine and the boys who we met at Panormitis). I think we saw every taxi at least four times during the walk too, and the buses hurtled past us pretty often too, but mainly everyone was heading in the same direction as us.

Past the olive grove…

And past the olive grove…

To where there is land for sale and a bit of a building already started. Fancy a taverna in the middle of nowhere? This is where some folk were going to have a rave in the summer (last year or this, can’t remember) but they were not able to get permission becasue of fire safety -we’re in the middle of a very dry wood in the height of summer after all and nowhere near a fire hydrant or water…

And on past Nanou, which is down there somewhere… More photos tomorrow! Do try and keep up.

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A walk to Panormitis. As I thought, no great big blog post today, it’s 7.40, I’ve only just got up and I have to be at the dentist in two hours or so, so here are the first of several photos I took yesterday when we walked to Panormitis – and had a great day. More info and photos tomorrow.

It was a misty morning when we set off at 7.50, the walk took us three hours 50 minutes in total.

Leaving the village by the old calderimi path, the ‘donkey path’ which leads to Xissos, though you turn left at the sign and head vertically to the road.

I hope no one was badly injured (or injured at all, actually) in this mishap. This is taken on the ‘short cut; via Ag Katerina which is no short cut at all. There were a couple and a solo lady walking ahead of us who carried on up the zigzag as we sniggered off into the ‘short cut’ only to find them still ahead of us when we came out on the road again. Not bothering with that next time and the rough terrain plays havoc with Neil’s bad foot.

More photos and notes tomorrow when I have recovered from the dentist…

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