Symi by night
Saturday night in Yialos. Quiet. There, you wanted to know what Symi was like in the winter, well, last Saturday it was quiet.

One of the reasons for this was the fact that the road was closed from To Spitiko to the bus stop as new concrete had been poured and was drying, or ‘going off’ as they say in the trade. Going off to where I have no idea as it was still there when we inched past it to Pandelis and then had to take a detour up and around the back of the restaurant to get to the bus stop.

Where there were loads of cars parked all the way along the quayside towards the gym, as that was as close as you could drive to Yialos on Saturday afternoon/evening. We were heading for the bus but were early so we sat on the bench for a while watching the sea. Nothing was happening there either. After a while Lakis, the bus driver, came over and told us that if we were getting on the bus, don’t, as it’s not working. So we were just debating walking up when Thanasis turned up in a taxi and the day was saved.

So, a quiet Saturday night in town looking at the shop that was open. Actually there was more than one shop open: The Emporium, Taxas, the other supermarkets, Chrystalo, the book shop, the Lotto shop, the two in the corner of Trawler Square, the butchers and a few bars and souvlaki shops. Oh, and the two pharmacies. That was about it. Oh, and the jewellery stores.But whatever is open offers a cheery welcome.

While up in Horio, everything was open, including Syllogos and the toy shop ‘Jumbo’, with the exception of the Olive Tree and Village Café, closed for winter. Plenty to see and do up here. But not so much to see and do at night. (Rainbow is currently also closed as Yiannis is away.)

And that, and some pottering around at home and working on the book version of ‘Shocking the Donkeys’, and generally preparing for Christmas Day, was all I got up to. Some presents are wrapped and under the tree, but there are still a few more things to get hold of and sort out. The week ahead looks good weather-wise with Accuweather showing the temperature at 16 or 17 for Christmas day (some rain expected on 28^th).

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Symi in the News
It seems that Symi was in the British news yesterday; a passing reference in a robbery case. Both The Mirror and the BBC carried the story.

The story is about a group of men (one of whom is called Collins, no relation) who pulled of a £10 million + robbery in Hatton Garden, London. You won’t get much detail from the coverage at the Mirror website but the BBC gives us the line that’s of interest to us. ‘Mr Lincoln [one of the defendants] admitted leaving the country two days after the raid, saying he travelled to the Greek island of Symi where he “went fishing”.’

I’m not exactly sure of the timeline, but presumably the summer. A UK observer wrote: ‘One of those accused flew to Symi two days after the heist on a supposed fishing trip – the court heard today. One theory is that he was carrying the missing £10 million worth of jewellery and may have hidden it on Symi or got someone to hide it and keep it safe.’

So I’d like to ask the real jewellery heist hoarder to step forward and share the spoils with your Symi mates. No one around here will say anything. Lips are sealed and you know there’s no such thing as a wagging tongue on a Greek island. Just share around the wealth and it will be like ‘Whisky Galore’, or ‘Waking Ned,’ we’ll all carry the burden of guilt and lesson the load. And it is just before Christmas. Go on. I’m not going to look my fellow islanders at the same way again, wondering who might be the friend of the Hatton Garden Mob who is currently safeguarding part of the hoard. (They stole over £100 million worth, I heard.)

Anyway, while we are all looking at each other suspiciously from now on, I have been getting on with a small winter project which I will tell you more about in due course. For now though, it’s Saturday and so here are a few more images from Symi taken in the past few months (as I’ve not been out and about to get any new ones.) Have a good weekend and I will see you in Christmas week soon.

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Friday morning and we’re waiting for the boat to Rhodes. At least, Neil is, so I’m keeping an eye on Marine Traffic to see where the Diagoras is (currently about one hour behind schedule and still on Tilos) while also updating my Mailwasher programme and writing the blog.

There are more decorations up on houses on Symi now as we prepare for Christmas week. When we first arrived here, thirteen years ago, we would hardly see any Christmas lights on houses and I remember the first season here as being rather dark and dull because of that. It was a change after the madness of Great Britain where neighbours compete to be the most American in their Christmas gaudiness. But over the years more and more lights have appeared, and some now even stay up for the whole year. Our neighbour here has a big star on the house and it’s very close to ours so we can pretended we have one on our house too. Inside the house it’s a simple tree (with half its lights not working), that will do for now.

I expect Rhodes and certain shops in particular are going to be busy today. Reports from Jumbo last week were that it was manic and mad enough so now, with only one week to go before Christmas, I suspect it will be busier than a one-armed violinist with fleas. Not that I have ever knowingly met one. But still, the trip must be made, the tickets are bought (€8.00 each way on the Blue Star, in case you were wondering) and the appointments made – not at Jumbo of course, you don’t need an appointment there.

And as for me, well, today I shall be mainly at the desk typing and catching up on some work and maybe some writing. I may get back to ‘Shocking the Donkeys’ as a book of some sort. The Greek government are soon to vote on allowing civil partnerships for same sex couples, or not, and that would make ‘Donkeys’ timely, though it’s never going to get made as a film, so a book that people can buy to read the story might do instead. But for that to happen I have to convert the script into some kind of readable book format. And I reckon I should try and do that while ‘Straight Swap’ is in edit and pre-publishing mode, as it now is. Anyway, that’s what I plan for the day and I really ought to go and make a start. But I’ll just check the boat position first… Ah, it’s left Tilos now and should be about another hour and a half. No rush.

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Wednesday’s desk view gave me some clouds to look at, the Blue Star coming in (a little late) and the fishing boats going about their business, as a cold, quiet day settled in over Symi.

That was in mild contrast to Tuesday when we found the harbour warm in the sun and calm with clear skies. There was a round of bank visits to be taken care of, the last of the previous year’s tax payments to make, yippee! No more bills… Oh hang on, the health insurance bill arrived, and then the rent became due, and the phone bill was just paid, and there should be a water bill coming in any day now, possibly an electricity one, and then we have Christmas to think about and… Oh to hell with it, let’s go to Pacho’s and consider a gyros for lunch.

Talking of money, I’m going to share this image with you (below). Some of you may have already seen it doing the rounds on Facebook but for those who don’t use that site, here’s an outline of taxes and things you need to pay if you have a freelance business in Greece. I didn’t put this together so I can’t say if it is accurate or not, and I don’t understand all of it, but it does show you how hard it is to get everything paid before you earn enough to live off. In order to have €700 per month for home life you would have to earn €30,500 – roughly speaking, or if you are in the UK, an income of £21,000 per year would net you £500 per month for rent/mortgage, bills, food etc., a third (roughly) of what you would have if you were living and working in the UK and earning the same amount. (And shopping prices are not any cheaper in Greece than the UK.)

And on that sorry note, I am going to go and hang the washing out, see to His Majesty’s dirt tray (and I mean Jack Cat’s of course), feed the strays, celebrate that the council or someone has finally filled in the death-trap hole outside our gate, remind Neil to water his plants and then go into the other part of the house, try and warm up and read a book. But first, a couple of village winter photos:

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As promised, some very quick snaps taken from the desk (and elsewhere) as yesterday was a day at home catching up on some work and not going out anywhere. As you can see, it’s clear out there and when you’re in the sun it’s actually very warm; you could probably sunbathe. But as soon as you go into the shade, then it feels cold, though it says it’s around 12 degrees out in the courtyard.

The Alarm Cat has been looked after while we were away and has been very clingy since we’ve been back. He shouts as lustily as ever around sunrise and when he wants something, but is very pleased to be able to come back into the house during the day and sleep on the sofa, back of the sofa, arm of the sofa, bed, under the bed, other unusual places. He’s also been out sunbathing, which will do nothing for the skin cancer he gets on his ears and nose, but there’s nothing we can do about that and it’s not yet very far advanced.

We have started feeding the strays again, our ‘post’ this winter being the bins that we visit every day when throwing out our rubbish. There’s a group of about 10 or so, some better looking than others. Symi Animal Welfare have provided the food and all we need to do is drop some off every day when we go that way. We are also putting down water for them when we can. So far the weather has been mild so they all seem reasonably well off.

Some of the local farmers are worried about this mild weather, apparently. When you think about it, we’ve not really had any rain since around May. We have had two big storms, and maybe a couple of days with rain too, but not the regular amounts we might expect at this time of year. This is not such good news for crops and olive trees, or for topping up sternas and filling up water tanks. No one really likes it when it’s dark and wet and cold, but the wet is necessary. Doing a quick long-range forecast check on a weather station online I see that temperatures are set to be mid-teens with sun, with a little rain from 29^th onwards but not much, and no storms or heavy rain until mid-January. We’ll keep an eye on that while, hopefully, getting in some winter walks in the dry.

That’s it for today. There’s a noisy cat at my feet wanting something and so I must go and see what it is, then empty his litter tray and then see to the strays up the road. Beginning to feel my life is being ruled by cats.

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