Friday morning and I am trying to make an international payment to cover my new health insurance. My agent from Rhodes, glad that I got such a good deal with her at AXA, is coming to Panormitis on Sunday to celebrate. We are going to meet up afterwards and sign the papers, this means I don’t have to go to Rhodes to do it, which is very thoughtful of her. But…

Meanwhile, I need to send AXA the money. This is coming from my UK account as I can do an online payment in Euros for only a small fee and it’s cheaper than taking the money out of the ATM in tranches. Except, the bank doesn’t recognise the SWIFT code. So, I try again, as you do, and then I contact the agent and she double checks it, and I try again. But still no joy. The IBAN code is correct though, so that’s all well and good. So, I notice that I can put in the bank’s address, rather than SWIFT, so I do it that way – after more messages to find the correct address and… Nope!

Now it’s not recognising the IBAN code which was correct before. So I try it without gaps, and then try again with gaps as it’s not having it. Now it’s telling me it’s wrong whichever way I enter it so I get onto Ranjit at Barclays UK help centre in Sangrur in the Punjab, or wherever UK headquarters are these days. He very quickly and eloquently tells me (we’re using live chat online so typing rather than chatting) that I am right, and there must be something wrong with his end. I stop myself from asking about ‘his end’ and suggest I’ve upset the system with my constantly getting it right, and he agrees. I should try again in a day or two or phone customer services. Nooooo! I decide to make a few trips to the ATM and take out the cash, even though it will add an extra cost. Anything is better than a customer disservice centre phone call.

So, I’m writing this now before I head down to the bank and start the process. I have three days in which to collect the right amount of cash and it is surprisingly little for a comprehensive health insurance (including annual M.O.T. affair) for a man of my age, so I should be okay. If not, my agent will have to say a special one at Panormitis and conjure up her payment from somewhere else. Perhaps Ranjit’s end which, I hope, is now working just fine.

I thought I should knock this up and put it ready to go now as, even though Neil has a dentist appointment at 12.00, I know what happens when we hit the town at lunchtime; it usually involves taverna food and a little wine, and I won’t feel like typing this later. So, there we have it. I’m off to buy health insurance this weekend, what are you up to?

Note: I actually finished this of after we got back, complete with Amazon delivery of a CD and two bathroom lights (small) in a big box (huge), but at least Jack enjoyed the box and I got to listen to Credence Clearwater Revival for the first time in X years.

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As you can see from the photos today, there are lots of boats around Symi at the moment. These pictures were taken on Wednesday evening from the house just in front of ours. Thank you for a lovely evening Alun and Andy!

The boats tend to thin out during the day as people go sailing, or motoring, though some do stay in for the day. There’s been a large motor yacht in Harani bay for several days now. It makes you wonder why, if someone had a huge expensive thing like that, they don’t use it more. But then you think they are probably too drawn to the island beauty to want to sail away. Either that or they are waiting for a spare part or something.

I see Kos has been on the news recently over the refugee crisis. In this case there was some frustration boiling over at the police station, and understandably too – from both sides I mean. Here on Symi we continue to receive refugees almost daily. Local people bring them water and donate food, the hard working police officers do what they can to process their paperwork and have them ready for the Wednesday afternoon and Friday evening onward boats to Athens.

Only a couple of days ago we received over 40 from one boat, men, women, children and pregnant mothers. Lifejackets can be seen on the rocks on the approach to the harbour, from the lucky ones who made it ashore. These people tend to arrive at night in calm weather (at the moment) and somehow find their way across the rocks to the village or Yialos where they politely ask for directions to the police station. Once there, they stay there, or nearby, while they wait to get their papers done and then, if they have money, they find a room for a night or two. Others have to sleep on the station veranda, or wait for up to five days for the next boat, outside at the police station. You might see wet clothes hanging from the railings at the clock tower as people try and get clean, but with only one WC at the police station and sometimes over 100 refugees waiting, it can’t be a very pleasant wait.

I have heard of some ignorant tourists complaining about this humanitarian crisis and wanting to be moved from their nearby hotels as they don’t want to look on dishevelled people fleeing for their lives, but, as I said, most of the people of Symi are compassionate and do what they can to help. The refugees, from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, usually don’t want to stay in Greece, a country not best placed, financially, to help out. They want to head further north to more economically viable countries where they already have friends and family. What happens to them in Athens and beyond is another matter of course.

Anyway, that’s what I was thinking about as I looked down to super yachts and sailing boats, pleasure craft and one or two impounded illegal people-smuggling boats that are dotted around in the harbour below.

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Here are some photos taken in the square, and at Georgio’s on Tuesday evening. The concert was given by a local singer, so local in fact that his house was directly opposite him and his parents could have sat on their balcony and been in the royal box.

We were taken to donner at Georgio’s and the group of us decided on a kind of ‘pig in a poke.’ I had one of these once in a pub somewhere in England, can’t remember where. I was young and had never seen it before: a blackboard on the bar advertising today’s specials which included ‘A pig in a poke.’ You probably know that it’s an expression meaning something bought or accepted without being vieed first, a lucky dip kind of thing. I now suspect that it’s a way to get rid of dishes that are fast approaching their sell by date, but that’s me being cynical. Here’s some more info:

The idioms pig in a poke and sell a pup (or buy a pup) refer to a confidence trick originating in the Late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce, but cats and dogs were not. The idiom ‘pig in a poke’ can also simply refer to someone buying a low-quality pig in a bag because he or she did not carefully check what was in the bag. A poke is a sack or bag. It has a French origin as “poque” and, like several other French words, its diminutive is formed by adding “ette” or “et”—hence “pocket” began life with the meaning “small bag”. Poke is still in use in several English-speaking countries, including Scotland and the USA.

The scheme entailed the sale of a suckling pig in a poke. The bag, sold unopened, would actually contain a cat or dog, which was substantially less valuable as a source of meat. The French idiom acheter (un) chat en poche (to buy a cat in a bag) refers to an actual sale of this nature, as do many European equivalents, while the English expression refers to the appearance of the trick.

In Greek: αγοράζω γουρούνι στο σακκί – I buy a pig in a sack

So, did we get served a pig, cat or dog at the taverna? Certainly not, and not anything that was approaching it’s sell by date either, everything was freshly made. What we did was ask for two mezethes each, plus one salad. That, between six people came to 12 small plates and a salad and we shared things around. The fun part is you don’t know what plates will turn up, but the good part is you know that everyone will be able to eat something. And the plates were? Well, if I can remember: mushrooms, cheese balls, courgette fritters, calamari, spinaches fritters, liver, chips (x2), prawns in pastry, stuffed peppers, the salad and two other things that escape me at present. It’s just another way of enjoying a night out on Symi. And has nothing to do with cats, pigs, dogs or pokes.

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Ploughing on with the novel though I’m pretty sure I will need to revisit the second half. It’s a complicated story and I might have made it over complicated in at least one place. I’ll get a proof copy of it soon and while I wait for that to arrive I’ll think about writing something else.

That was a kind of note to self as I think of what to write about today. Today is actually Tuesday as I’m writing this the day before so I have my early morning free. Neil’s just back from the dentist and Yialos. He bought some cat litter (not from the dentist), and some shopping, loads of cat food and some lemons and then carried it all back up the steps, arriving home looking a little damp. It’s still pretty hot out there and will be for a while yet.

There was a concert in Yialos last night with one of the local bands on the main stage and there’s another concert in the square tonight (Tuesday). We are having one of those weeks where you start out with nothing planned and end up, after a day, with only two free evenings out of seven. Not complaining, we love being taken to dinner and being invited for drinks. We also like inviting folk to the new house, which is so much more convenient to do now we are closer to the main square and don’t have to worry about the shop.

So, it looks like it is going to be a busy week, and we probably won’t have much opportunity to get up early and head out, which is what we did this morning. Leaving the house at around 5.40, we passed a small group of foreign girls on the steps by the square. They were drinking water but I fear it may have been a case of stable door and bolted horses. It also sounded like someone had had a bit of a falling out with the Greek boy of her dreams who she met only yesterday and who asked her to marry him before supper, during which he met someone else and she changed her mind, much though she still loves him and will never forget him… you know, what’s his name?

After that is was plain sailing, for us at least, heading up the lane and through the village to the usual route to To Vrisi. The girls had gone by the time we came back to the square about fifty minutes later, perhaps the wedding was on again. I then spent the rest of the day, up until writing this, at this desk working, apart from a break to make a veg soup for lunch. So there, that was my thrilling and exciting Tuesday morning. Life on a Greek island eh? Doesn’t get much more thrilling…

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Here’s a quick update about a few things going on around our little world at the moment. The festival and alternative festival continue; tonight there is a concert in the village square. There is something on just about every night of August and into early September, so it’s a good time to be on Symi if you like arts and culture. As long as you can stand the heat – which has abated slightly these last couple of days.

The boats continue to come and go, with the Blue Star Diagoras coming in more or less on time on a Wednesday and Friday, the day-trip boats and the ‘Spanos’ catamarans doing their regular trips. No trouble getting across from Rhodes at the moment, so that’s good news.

The internet connection is going up and down like a yoyo, manly down though – downloading at 2 kbps yesterday, then suddenly 350. Out and about in the afternoons… well, everyone is at the beach cooling off…

And next to the play area and Manteio’s the new hospital building is coming along; plenty of reinforcing rods and concrete going into this new facility.

And the afternoon sun continues to shine on the hillside. This is what is known locally as ‘To Vrisi’ or the tap, or spring, so called because the monastery is built on a natural spring and you can fill your water bottles from the tap when you get there. Like many of the island’s churches, the chapel and buildings are usually locked, but you can get into the grounds, fill your bottles and see the view. There are then trails and paths that run from the top terrace up the hillside and beyond. This is the place we often walk to early in the morning.

And, elsewhere in the village, local stray cats are being looked after. If you want to do your bit to help the strays then putting down water for them is a good idea at this time of year.

There you go. I may not be funny but at least I’m quick.

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