It seems like it’s getting to that stage when a day in Rhodes takes a day to get over. But still, I had a good time and managed to get a couple of the things I went to get. There was a distinct lack of hire cars though, not one single place had one to rent for the day except one place that wanted €100.00 and as we were only there for seven hours, it seemed a bit steep.

I noticed, when I got home and looked at my photos that I only took photos on the boat, and a couple when I first arrived. None of the hugely entertaining trip to Jumbo for birthday presents, or the Chinese for lunch; I did take one of a couple of people really enjoying their stay at the Plaza Hotel though:

And I assume you saw the one yesterday of the woman doing strange things with her legs. I think she was exercising, but why she had to do it in full view of people having their lunch is anyone’s guess. She must have needed the attention.

Now then, on the boat coming back I noticed these signs, one on either side of the ship and wondered what they meant – apart from the obvious connection to a darkly lit bar in the backstreets of Berlin. I wondered that, if you were to find this room, would you be able to hear Isaac Hayes playing? You know, the song that’s about a private dick and a cat that won’t cop out. (No, honestly.)

Actually, I looked into what a ‘shaft room’ is on a ship and found some alarming information on various websites. The most startling was one called ‘Shafting a ship’ and I quote:

“… a single shaft ship is uncontrollable and needs to have a tug …” there was then some detail about twin screws and “Another serious problem with centerline shafts is vibration.” Well, yes of course. The serious problem we had on the boat that night was backfiring. Every now and then a huge plume of black smoke would belch from the port side funnel along with an accompaniment of pops and chugs and passengers would start to double check where the lifeboats were. We did arrive on Symi though, and I saw the boat come back in again the next day so it’s still running. Maybe it just needed a clean out on its thrusters or was suffering “main shaft water lubrication issues” or something.

Seriously though, Rhodes was busy. There were several large cruise ships in that day (Wednesday), hence the lack of hire cars and also lack of taxis. We finally got one by walking around to Mandraki and waiting at the unusually empty taxi rank there. The Blue Star Diagoras was also fully booked on its return trip – we were coming back later on the Panagia Skiadeni – but Irina at Plaza travel told us that there were no hire cars to be had and that the only island you could get a boat to, from Rhodes, was Symi; everything beyond was fully booked. A lot of that will be the refugees heading up to Athens; there were over 400 processed through Symi alone at the start of the week. And, I found out later, the police officers who have to do this task worked through the night, until 6.30 in the morning, so that the people could move on, on the Wednesday boat to Athens. Bear in mind that these police officers are working through their own time, and not being paid extra for the additional hours and without them doing the job Symi would be filling up with hundreds of refugees each week.

You can do your part by volunteering to help, if on Symi, or by donating if you want to contribute towards helping the refugees with clothing, food, water, shelter and facilities. The target is £7,000 and already over £3,000 has been raised. You can find more details here http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info and you don’t have to register or login in, just put in your card details.

Share on Facebook

No blog today – late start. But, instead, a photo of strange behaviour seen at the Plaza Hotel. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, meanwhile, relax and put your feet up.

Share on Facebook

Here are some snippets of local Symi news I picked up on: If anyone (English speaking) needs a job for a few weeks or the rest of the summer, To Spitiko are looking for a waiter/waitress to start immediately. Go and see Jordana at the restaurant.

If anyone is looking for a place to rent in Yialos, long term, then there is a place going above Alegrito café. I didn’t know the name of the older man who called me over and told me, but if you ask at the café I am sure they will give you details.

If you would like to help the refugees who are landing on Symi, and you use Facebook, then you can go to this page and learn about the non-profit organisation that has been set up, and what you can do to help. Refugees continue to arrive on the island in their hundreds per week, and the hard-pressed authorities deal with their paperwork as quickly as they can. But there is still a waiting time and lack of facilities. I just passed a group on the south side of the harbour, eating bread, drinking water and siting on the floor. They wash in the sea, use the one WC at the port police office, or the police station and wait to be processed. They then have to book onto the Athens ferry and move on.

The photo (top one, above) was taken from the balcony yesterday morning and shows a group of new arrivals waiting at the police station. They would have been dumped on rocks somewhere, maybe Nimos, and then rescued by the coastguard. Or else they would have swum ashore and walked from Ag Marina, or the coast nearby. Some have arrived at Panormitis. You can just make out some of the children still wearing their life jackets.

The messages from ‘Solidarity Symi’ are currently: “HELP NEEDED TODAY (18th August) We’re creating a temporary storage area at the old post office building. In need of volunteers, particularly a handyman/women that can help whitewash some walls, fix some damaged doors etc. We’re there now. We’re needing chairs, tables and storage boxes. If you have anything, please bring down to the old post office next to the police station. Thank you!”

I’m sure that if you read this after the event (and you will as it won’t be posted until after the event) you will still be able to help and volunteer, send supplies, even from abroad. Just go to the page and get in touch. You can also help via http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info where you can donate money anonymously.

I don’t think I have any other Symi news today apart from the fact that I am going to Rhodes today for a drive around and mooch about and to have a day away from the desk. I have, as an aside, started work on ‘The Saddling’ which is to be the next novel after ‘Straight Swap’ (which I may retitle). The Saddling is a gothic mystery thriller – talk about mixing genres – let’s call it a mystiller or a thrillery.

Share on Facebook

Some more photos from Neil today, taken on Symi over the past few days during which time we’ve had hot weather, concerts in the festival(s), and 168 drops of rain, roughly speaking.

Over the weekend we were out and about, down in Yialos twice, seeing health insurance lady and getting that finalised, visiting the post office to collect a couple of things (slug pellets for the slugs that come up out of nowhere and explore the kitchen – odd), some DVDs, a book, and to see various folk about various things at various times – it was a day of variations. Saturday was the festival at the Ilithini, the Panagia and name day of Mary and others so an important holiday and several shops were closed.

Sunday was a semi-working morning followed by a meeting about the health insurance, all now done and dusted and up and running though I have to be careful running for the next two years as my knees don’t kick in until after then. Some things are not covered for the initial periods of time, like back problems (one year) and knee problems (two). After that I should be fully done. Not that I’ve had much time for running this past week. It’s been crazy season for invites and there are more on the way.

Last night we visited neighbours, tomorrow I am visiting Rhodes, Thursday a certain godchild has a birthday and another has a name day, and so on… Let’s aim for a quiet weekend where I can stay home and work on the next book. Meanwhile, the sun is shining hot and there are the taxi boats are busy. Sunday was manic in the harbour; our person coming from Rhodes arrived at the Sea Dreams at 9.30 for the 10.00 departure and had trouble finding a seat. Let’s hope everyone who comes over spends a little of their hard-earned in a Symi shop.

So, no other earth-shattering news? Don’t think so, if anything occurs I will let you know. Oh, we were told by a taxi driver that the nice blue/grey and white boat that had been anchored in the bay for over a week beloved to the ‘boss’ of Olympiakos, the Greek football team thing. Clearly here to spy on our house or search out talent from the afternoon under 11s football game in the village square.

Share on Facebook

If you like Symi, a spooky read and a creepy film, then this post might interest you. Below is the trailer for the film ‘The Thirteenth’ and some photos from the filming in 2013. This is not the theatrical release trailer, this is to attract distributors and sales agents.

The film is still not yet finished, but now, as I understand it, they have ‘locked’ the visuals. This means that the visual aspect of the film, the story telling, won’t be changed any more. It’s taken the new director a long time to get to this point as we know, but now the composer, Michael Bishop can complete his task and score the film.

While he is doing that, there will be some colour grading (enhancing or changing the colour of the film, lightening some places, darkening others) to give it a further visual depth. The start and end credits also need to be completed and the final sound mixed and layered over, in and out of the music. So, probably still a long way to go there; don’t put the popcorn on just yet.

What they (the production company) want us to do now is get as many people as possible to see this trailer on You Tube and to click the ‘like’ thumbs-up symbol so that when a potential distributor comes to see it they will see that it’s already popular and gathering interest. This will increase the likelihood of someone picking up the film and taking on board the job of getting it accepted for festivals, cinemas, TV, wherever they can get it sold. Then, once it starts to generate some income, all those people who were promised a small payment and a small % of the profits might actually start to see a little return on their time and investment. Mind you, they have to have all those folk signed up and under contract for that, so that’s going have to happen soon, presumably while the music is being added and the colour graded…

Anyway, that came in over the weekend so I thought I’d start the week off with the trailer, in case you have not already seen it. And, if you didn’t know: ‘The Thirteenth’ (which was originally called ‘The Judas Curse’, the title I gave the script when I wrote it) is based on my story ‘The Judas Inheritance’ though a much thinned down version of that story. ‘The Judas Inheritance’ is a spooky story told in first and third person, it’s a mystery thriller (with a few horror moments) and is completely set on a small Greek island in the time of economic crisis and rising suicide rates.

One of the underlying themes, for me, was to reflect the situation in Greece (the abandonment of the people by the government, the rise in suicides, etc.) in the story – each time the silver coins rise to the surface the surrounding community starts to die off – and it was all tied in with Symi history. (Though Symi is not mentioned as the island.) A lot of that is lost from the film as films always have to plane down the meat and subtleties of a novel in order to satisfy structure, runtimes, the actors, the producers, the director, the budget and even the makeup artist, it seems.

So, if you want the full story you need to read the book and you can find that here: The Judas Inheritance. Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer, see if you can spot anyone you know, anything you recognise and for more information, contact 1066 Productions.

Share on Facebook