Before we get onto birthday bashes, here’s a note from Melanie at Symi Animal Welfare that I should have put up a couple of days ago: “Thankyou Tove, the unusual glass cats have now all been sold at the Sunrise Kafeneion, €300 was raised for Symi Animal Welfare, in a very short time too. During these last weeks with so much uncertainty & cash-flow limits, our supporters have once again shown such kindness. We have recently explained the vet situation on the island, please read the report on our website www.symianimalwelfare.org

Thanks again, Melanie”

If you’ve not checked out the website you should, it is very informative about the animal situation and care on Symi.

Meanwhile, back in birthday bash-land. A great time was had by all down in Pedi on Tuesday evening where ‘several went mad by the sea.’ No dressing up as a pirate for Neil this time, just a sober time at Katsaras Taverna, who looked after us perfectly. The boys were swimming and snorkelling, finding starfish and playing in the sea. The adults were at the table chatting, some went swimming, and then, later in the evening, dinner was served.

It was just the family with godparents and a couple of Sam’s friends. And dinner was amazing – thank you Ian for that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a large chicken fillet. And those Gigantes (my favourite) were some of the best I’ve tasted, bar mine. The taverna, with the jetty, is a good place to have lunch and watch the sea, or dinner and watch the many boats. There were loads in that night, a good sign that numbers of ‘yachties’ have not obviously dropped off this year.

And what’s happened to the ‘Greece as it happens’ posts? I hear you ask. Well, nothing, as nothing much has been happening yet. We’re waiting for the Wednesday’s results (I’m a day early as usual) of the laws that need to be passed in order to get some money to pay back some money that was lent by people who now say that there shouldn’t be any money paid back just yet, but then others do and they are screaming out for the country to sell itself off in pieces so those who shouldn’t have lent so much money can get some of it back and therefore stay in their high powered and well paid jobs. Or something.

There are various laws being put forward today (Wednesday), apparently and, as I understand it… No, as a web page and news site that’s usually pretty accurate understands it and I get the info from, those new laws are going to be:

• Ratifying eurozone summit statement
• VAT changes: Top rate of 23% to extend to processed food, restaurants etc. 13% to cover fresh food, energy bills, water and hotel stays, 6% for medicines and books
• VAT discount of 30% to be abolished on islands, but remotest islands to keep discount until next year
• Corporation tax raised from 26-29% for small companies
• Luxury tax for big cars, boats and swimming pools up from 10-13%; farmers’ tax up from 13-26%
• Early retirement to end (phased in by 2022); retirement age raised to 67
• Greek statistics authority Elstat to have full legal independence

I’m not sure which are the ‘remotest’ islands (apart from Kastalorizo I guess) not sure if that includes Symi. Corporation tax rise for small business will help finish most of them off I imagine. (See yesterday’s post.) And that’s as political as I am getting right now. I am rather tired of all the conjecture in the social media and anti-social media (and I don’t just mean the Daily Mail) so I am on a bit of a ‘crisis overload’ at the moment. So, should you pass me in the street don’t expect an intelligent conversation about it, you’re more likely to get a yawn and whatever. Eyes are on the situation of course, just my heart’s not in it at the moment. Far more important things to be getting on with, like new novels and birthday parties.

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General ramble today, but a little bit about the cost of having a business in Greece at the moment. First though: My copy of Lonely House arrived yesterday. I realised after a few weeks that I didn’t actually have one so though I’d better put one on my shelf. This makes number nine in the collection, sixth novel, ninth book. This copy came from Lulu and if you want to order one the link is here: Lonely House by James Collins.

Also on Tuesday we called in to get our last year 14-15 tax things sorted out with the accountant. Now then, you may not know this but as well as income tax on your personal income, if you own a small (or large) business there are other taxes to pay, some of which are paid after the event, some are paid in front. So, beneath this next photo is a quick rundown of what you can expect to pay for a business in Greece – numbers and things may vary depending on business and place and year and so on, so it’s not going to 100% accurate.

• First off you pay a tax just for having a business and that was, last year on Symi, €520
• Then you pay your income tax and that depends on your income of course, though there is a threshold which is, I believe, about to be lowered to a very low level indeed.
• And with that you pay €400.00 a year in advance, which you then have (I assume) off set against your next year’s tax or which you get rebated if you don’t work.
• And then you have your other running costs and cool stuff such as the VAT you need to pass on to your customers and then take from them to pass on to the government – 16% on some things, all about to change, depends on what work you do and so on
• And then you need to pay your town hall tax at a certain % depending again on where you are and what you do
• And then you pay your shop rent unless you own the building
• And of course you have the electricity and water bills
• And your stock bills on that otherwise you wouldn’t have anything to sell
• Staff? You pay your staff’s IKA (health insurance) for the year plus an Easter bonus, plus a Christmas bonus which a lot of folk don’t get because they work up until a certain date so no one is too sure where that goes
• And you pay your own TEVE or health insurance; this used to be around €200 per month to start with and increased year on year
• And then you have to pay your accountant for putting it all together and they charge at least €100.00 per month, again depending on business sand so on
• What did we forget? Probably something. I am sure there’s another tax that you pay for the fun of having to pay taxes; a kind of tax-tax, just to make sure you’ve paid something to someone somewhere.
•  So, you can expect to pay at least (does quick add up on the ‘set’ basics, i.e. not the stock or income tax or VAT) something around €9,000 just on the things needed before you start to make any money.

Is it any wonder small business are going bust left right and shopping centre?

I just thought I’d share that with you as I was thinking about tax stuff yesterday and it is actually yesterday today – just back from Town on Tuesday you see, ah, fooled you again! But tonight we have a party to look forward to and a walk to Pedi. There may be a bus back as today we’ve already been to Yialos and back. We took the scenic route down the zig zag below Lemonitisa which comes out, well all over the place, but in our case near the newly refurbished multi-million Italian property towards the bottom of the Kali Strata. Coming back up again with 10 kilos of cat litter, 10 kilos of shopping and a bag of 78s (thanks Steve! Love ‘em) in the heat at midday is something of a trial, but at least it’s exercise and you don’t get taxed on it. Yet.

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I think we’re both worn out from the ‘holiday’ week now, far too much entertaining and eating out. But no more guests for a while now, and I am going to get back into the habit of turning down invitations to things that start after eight p.m. Not getting old (well, I am of course) just want to get back into the early morning routine. It seems impossible this year though.

Still, here we are, Tuesday (Monday as I write) and I have a day in Rhodes to plan for next week. I think next Wednesday might be the day to go. I have some insurance things to see to and I fancy a day out. Before then there is work to do. I have started on the second draft of the new novel and will be progressing through that in the afternoons, without too many interruptions I hope. But having said that, there is one planned for this evening as it’s Sam’s birthday – and that’s not going to be too late a night; and even if it is, it doesn’t matter, It’s Sam’s birthday.

And meanwhile, on Symi, what’s been going on? The train is going, the horse and carriage is running its trips, the taxi boats are heading out, the Poseidon is doing its trips too – not sure about the Diagoras at the moment – and things are ticking along quite nicely. At least that’s how it looks from the outside. There’s lots on sale, there are day trippers coming in and the weather is hot. 30 degrees in the shade in our one porch by mid-morning. A slight breeze helps us keep cool, especially with all the windows open.

The cat’s not happy as usual, never is at this time of year. Doesn’t know what he wants. He’s always at my feet looking at me, trying to hypnotise me into taking him to the kitchen for another look at his food bowl. I keep it covered and as fresh as possible but he only thinks he wants to eat, he doesn’t really. He does first thing though, so it’s only the heat of the day that troubles him. Still alarms the house at five in the morning though when he thinks it’s time for us to get up.

And that’s my news really, another day of same old same old, ticking over, nothing to complain about, quite happy, getting on with things. And getting on with Tuesday: a trip to Yialos to see the accountant about my tax return, a trip to the post office, a trip to the pet shop to get cat litter (joy! 5 kilos to carry up the hill) and then a birthday party at Pedi to look forward to. Such is life.

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I had an idea, on Friday evening, to take photos of various flags on boats in the harbour, so we could see how many countries were here. Then I ran out of light, but I took some.

We were down there to meet some friends from the Blue Star when it came in, only slightly late. But before we went to Taverna Xaris on the south side of the harbour, right next to the taxi rank, and very nice it was too. Good service, very attentive, good Greek food served with potatoes rather than chips which makes a very welcome change, and generous offers of free afters. No matter how much we declined we were still treated to a slice of cake and a glass of Samos sweet wine. And all a reasonable price. Thanks James.

We waited for the boat at Elpida’s kafeneion, a very popular place amount locals and visitors alike, and then, after greeting our friends, went to wait at Pacho’s (also very popular with locals and visitors) while they checked into the new Symi Centre apartments by the nautical museum and has a bite to eat at To Spitiko.

And so the weekend went on, as it does when friends visit. Visits to the house, meeting up at a kafeneion, lunch there, dinner here, walks around the village, I was well and truly done in by Sunday morning and couldn’t get the energy together to do anything else but read and listen to music. I also had a bad throat and headache so I must have picked something up while out and about. But enough of that! We are now officially a ‘No moan zone’ so please bear that in mind if you bump into us at work or out and about.

I did notice, while down in Yialos, that everything was running as normal, the place was busy, the harbour was packed with boats, new visitors and old friends alike were pouring in and the day boats and ferries were coming and going as usual. It was good to see so many flags from various countries, Germany, Spain, Turkey, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and elsewhere. Over the weekend, we also so a few refugees with their whole life in a bag, looking for somewhere to stay while they wait for the big boat on Wednesday. And that kind of puts the holiday atmosphere into perspective.

I spent some time on Sunday looking for flights as my nephew said he might be coming over in September (not sure if Symi is quite ready for that but…). Apparently Ryan Air is doing a flight for £5.00 or something though I couldn’t find it, and it would probably end up at £500.00 once you’d paid for each individual piece of clothing in your 20cm x 30cm baggage alowance, paid for your seat belt, put 20ps in the meter for your decompression, used the loo (cheques taken), paid for your breathing space, paid 50p a time to read the magazine, put down a deposit on a life jacket just in case, topped the thing up with four star, and promised the driver at huge tip at the other end. Easy Jet and Aegean were doing better and probably more trusted deals where you don’t have to bring your own fuel, so I pointed him in their direction.

Before that though, we have a few weeks off from visitors before Neil’s son returns to Symi for the first time in nine years, or something. So, on that note, I am going to put the house back in order, make the beds and be a happy little house husband before starting work on another draft of another book, as Cole Porter might have said had he written books instead of songs.

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So, let’s get up to date with Symi as it happens, or as it happened up until Monday morning, which is where we are now up to in our day to day blog from Greece. But fist, let’s start at Sunday morning where we left off.

Sunday we needed to get the rest of the rent money from the bank so we went down and took it out, no problem. I did have a sneak peek at some of the receipts in the bin and saw that people were still able to take out €60.00, where as in some places in Greece the banks had run out of €20 or €10, so only €50 was available.

After that there was time for some shopping and a quick look at ‘Symi Central’ from the outside. This is a new apartment place next to the Nautical Museum, where some friends will be staying on Friday. Looks nice, quiet and on the flat. We then went along to look at the polling station as Neil wanted some photos, possibly for The Guardian, to whom he had submitted some of the wedding pictures from Saturday. There were one or two people going in and coming out, but with only a couple of thousand people to vote and 12 hours do to it in, it’s never going to be that busy there.

And then onto the shops, avoiding the clock tower at Agios Yiannis which is cordoned off, I assume for repairs. Loads of fruit and veg at the supermarkets so we did some shopping and also got some Jack food, and then as it was nearly 11.30 it was Diet Coke Break time, but as that stuff eats through toilet bowls we went for the Greek beer option. (Neil had sold a couple of next year’s Symi Calendars  (as he had a very limited supply at home) and so we thought we would celebrate the new ‘Oxi Day’ (though we didn’t know it at the time) with a beer.) We watched the boats come in and unload the day trippers, chatted with folk, including Hugo and enjoyed a Sunday morning.

Later, finding no taxis, I assume they were busy with family visiting from Rhodes for the vote, we walked up the steps, with bags of shopping at 2.30 in the afternoon. Not recommended. But once there we discovered that The Guardian had used two of Neil’s photos for their web pages, and they used another two later on that day. All good publicity for Symi.

In the evening there was a concert on the steps, just down from our old shop and Neil got the photos you see here today. It was a good turn out and a great concert. It had been organised by a new group who are arranging cultural events and who are running on donations only. As the Symi Festival has kind of ground to a halt, this new group is doing what it can to keep live music and arts going for the people of Symi and those who visit every year. So, Bravo! But no, I have no intentions to play the piano in public. Ever. So I’ll be happily in the audience from now on.

And then Tuesday started with the referendum news – which I’d seen on the TV the night before – and off we go into the next round of question marks. I went up the mountain for a run and very nice it was too, and then got to work. So, I hope you enjoy the photos and I hope you have good day. Keep reading, keep supporting with the advert links and the books, tell your mates and all that, get your calendars and keep living the dream.

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