Shouldn’t have taken the micky our of Mrs What’s’ername yesterday. The next time my Mailwasher went ‘ping’ I got another spam email. This time from myself apparently. I didn’t open it, it looked like a bill.

Now, you know I’m not one for news, but I am keeping an eye on what’s going to happen to Greece at the end of the month, the Grexit and Euro fiasco and all that. I don’t really have an opinion on it other than, ‘If you’re going to do something then get on with it! We’re all rather bored of the story now, we need a new twist.’ I mean, if this was a novel you’d have put it down long ago. Well, I would have. So, if I get wind of anything interesting from all of this that might possibly affect Symi, then I’ll let you know.

I only mention this because my ‘Mister Enthusiastic For Dramatic Headlines’ back in the UK is sending me regular updates, as he sees them. He is a journalist, so he has this eye for the selling point, so the distillation of the UK reporting might be biased towards what would sell his paper, if he still worked on one. Example: it seems the Mail in Sunday has a ‘special’ reporter in Athens who can report from ground zero on the way the Greek National Health Service is starting to resemble parts of the British NHS. The wonderfully obtuse newspaper apparently reports that in Greece’s hospitals, “…babies are being held to ransom until bills are paid. Hospital porters [are] being sent out as paramedics. The headline is how people in Greece are literally dying to leave Europe.”

And apparently life expectancy in Greece is now down by three years, so probably down to 96 then. But read all that with a pinch of snuff because it may be bad in one hospital in the poorer parts of the largest city in the country, but elsewhere? Well, come and see the excellent Rhodes hospital, or check into an IKA specialist for a free consultation, and I expect you’ll find a different story.

But enough seriousness; whatever you do, don’t let this kind of reporting, the (I wish they’d get a move on one way or the other) Grexit, my ramblings on subjects I know very little about, and the scandalous reporting of refugee, financial, health and other crises, put you off booking that ticket and getting on that plane. The water’s lovely, come on in, as they say.

And meanwhile, back in the real world which is the view from the desk: The taxi boats are going out, the Poseidon’s long gone out (this is yesterday morning by the way), there are some super-yachts (that’s a matter of opinion) hanging about, plenty of those white ones you can hire and take out after only half an hour’s training (gulp!), and some Turkish gullets nosing in. The ‘Spanos’ boat has come and gone to return later and the day-trip boats should be along in a moment. There were three on Friday and all packed, which was good to see.

And as for me, I am just about to go and check the Kindle version of ‘Lonely House’ again while I wait for my editor to send up the final interior file for the book to go up to Amazon. Neil’s off to town to sort out some “work permit paperwork unnecessary admin and €3.00 tax for the honour of having a part time job and three hours lost to administration via three offices but it’s better than risking a fine”, and that’s about it for today.

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Late start to the day, didn’t get up until 7.30, had a great weekend, and Neil had given me loads of photos for the blog so that’s all good news. First thoughts for a Monday morning? Well, it’s got to be the email inbox hasn’t it? Word for word, as written, Mrs DorisHamson writes:

Dearest in Christ,
I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ our Lord, I am Mrs DorisHamson (presumably she means Doris Hamson), from Kuwait I am married to Mr Robert Hamson who worked with Kuwaitembassy (no idea – think it’s like Marks & Spencer) in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2012. (Read that again. She; still married ‘I am married to…’ and yet he died in 2012. Probably going a bit smelly by now love, I’d get over it and move on.) We were married for eleven years without a child. (She sounds like she is proud that they broke some kind of Ivory Coast record.) He died after a briefillness (“’twas ‘briefillness’ and the slivey toves did gyre and gimble…”) that lasted for only four days (Never mind, perhaps your next husband will linger longer in agony for your amusement). Before his death we were both bornagain Christian (just the one, clearly). Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a childoutside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. (Your Bible is against your matrimonial home? That’s a bit strict isn’t it?)

Mrs DorisHamson then goes on to explain that she’s sitting on $5.2 million dollars and her doctor has told her she only has a few months and she’s shuffling of this mortal coil to go and join her HusbandMrHamon and she wants to use this money “toendeavour that the house of God is maintained.” Presumably that kind of house is allowed even though the Bible is against her kind of matrimonial house. It carries on to tell me all about Exodus (I saw the film) 14 Vs 14 and how she doesn’t need a phone call but when I email back she’ll hook me up with “the contact ofthe Bank in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire West Africa” and that I mustn’t hang about because “Any delay in your replywill give me room in sourcing another church for this same purpose. Pleaseassure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein.”

However, I didn’t reply straight away and thus, I assume, I have lost my PlaceAtTheTableOfTheLord and whoops! There goes my five million, ah well, ‘I shall not want’, and all that. The reason I got delayed in claiming my financial security and place at the right hand was because I had this note from a UK TV addict (and, I suspect, secret Daily Mail reader):

“Lots of discussion about Greece this weekend on TV news etc. Surveys of voters in Germany and France show people are getting fed up with the Greeks and basically want to get them out. The general feeling is that the Greeks are incompetent at running their country, for years they’ve been spending money they haven’t got and then they expect everyone to bail them out. Then they elect a government that simply doesn’t face up to the realities and won’t engage with the rest of Europe in a proper way. They won’t compromise or bargain and just insist they should be helped out without helping themselves. Lots of people on TV saying things like that.”

So, all that has got my week off to a rather wobbly start. There will be more entertaining news as the week progresses, for example, how ‘Straight Swap’ is now up to 103,000 words and heading for the finale, and how ‘Lonely House’ should be available online at Amazon in a few days. Now then, let me compose a reply to MrsHamson.

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Wednesday is a busy day for Symi as far as boats are concerned. First of all the Skiadeni goes out at 6.30 to reach Rhodes at 8.00, and the Blue Star Diagoras usually comes in around 7.30 – ish, though this Wednesday it arrived at midday.

The Dodecanese Express comes in at 9.20 and heads ‘up the line’ to Agathonisi and back, calling back here in the afternoon. Then the day boats come in at some point, usually the Symi Sea Dreams and the Nikolaos X, and then the Panagia Skiadeni coming back from Rhodes via Panormitis; all bringing day trippers with them.

While all this is going on we have the pleasure boats, the gin palaces, the yachts and the fishing boats going in and out too. And then at around 4.30 in the afternoon we get the traffic jams as the Skiadeni heads off to Rhodes again, the Blue Star comes back in from Rhodes and the Cruise ship calls in and tries to dock, all at the same time. At least, that’s how it was last year, this year I notice that someone has thought to stagger things by a few minutes so there’s not the same blasting of horns and jostling for position in the queue.

The things you see from a balcony eh? And talking of things you see…

Here’s a photo from Allan, here on holiday. It was taken at Steno, the kafeneion down in Yialos that is fast getting a reputation for its hospitality. Extreme mezethes are included in your drinks order, it seems, and so is live music and even dancing, especially in the evenings. When you’re in Yialos it’s down the lane that leads to St John’s church. Just ask and ye shall find. Sounds like a good night out.

Not that I have been having nights out, nothing past 10.00 pm, not recently. What with alarms and cats and sometimes both going off at 5.30 or 5.45 and then going out for a fast walk up a long slow hill, followed by a slow jog down the same hill, and a morning of typing, I’m physically and mentally done in come lunchtime. But, siesta or no, I am then back into more writing or proofing or house cleaning or table painting, and then stop at 4.30-ish for a glass before, salad, film and sleep. A great routine and I am not complaining!

So, I’ll leave you with some same old sunrise shots and go and see what housework still needs doing – I’ve been listening to Neil pottering around with buckets and brooms so I am hoping I’ve delayed long enough…

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I’m running a bit short of photos in my ‘To Post’ folder now. I have some originals still, some more from Tilos, but can’t remember which I have used and which not. So, if things start to repeat, visually speaking, it’s because I’ve not been out and about to get any more snaps. I’ll see what Neil also has in his folder.

I have been out and about but mainly to the same places. Up the hill in the morning to go for the walk and catch the sunrise, though clouded by cloud yesterday; and then to the square in the afternoon after a day’s writing work. It’s always hard to resist that hour or two at the café, watching the world go by, catching up on the news, seeing who has arrived, getting the gossip. So, as the best way to deal with temptation is to give in to it, I pop down usually around 4.30 for a soda water or two.

What else is going on…? Oh yes. I noticed a lot more ‘Live Music’ signs have gone up. With things being on the quiet side around here it seems that more places are getting in on the act, or rather, realising that they need to provide something to help attract the customers. Georgio’s has been having live music on a Friday (and sometimes Saturday) for a long time now and it was more or less booked up last Friday. The Secret Garden have live Greek music on a Monday night and then live… thinks of the word… Western (?) music on a Friday with blues, jazz, two guitars one bass and Claire on vocals. There are other places also presenting music nights, I must get photos of the posters and put them up.

I am keeping an eye on my Facebook friends, Konstantinos and his group, too. They have played at the Kantarimi and, were these things not so late, I’d love to go and hear them. These guys were pupils of Vasilis (maybe they still are) and are still quite young, so it’s good to get them some publicity and audience. And all this live music is at least good for the musicians after all, and hopefully too for the places presenting it. Not to mention that fact that the audience gets to hear some incredibly talented musicians playing traditional and more up to date music. So, in the end it works for everyone. Let’s hope that the bars and tavernas get it together so that music nights don’t clash too much.

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It’s hard to believe that we are nearly half way through the year, but we are and there’s nothing you can do about it so let’s just enjoy it. As you can see, the AC is going all out to enjoy himself on one of his sofas.

We’ve been doing some courtyard work at the house. Neil’s in charge of things in pots and I took to the old dining table and thought, ‘Well, I can’t make it any worse than it is,’ and went and stripped off most of the cracked veneer, then gave what was left and underneath a bit of a sand and a prime and, so far, one coat of gloss. Might need a second, we will see.

So, the courtyard is coming on and the next job is to redecorate the offices, as they weren’t done when we moved in. I’ve got the paint, all I need to do now is move things around and out and Neil said he would paint it for me. That could be a job for the weekend. I’m hoping to get it done before the sofa bed arrives, as that’s going to have to fit in here as well, somehow.

The top Symi story of the weekend was the car that overturned on the Nimborio road and ended up upside down in the sea, with no great injury it has to be said. And here’s a shot thanks to Jeanette from Nimborio. It’s a reminder to us all to wear seatbelts. It might not be a long way down at times (though at other times there are long drops) but if you got thrown out of your jeep or car and rolled down the rock, there wouldn’t be much left of you worth taking a selfie of. And people who ride motorbikes, it’s quite simple: wear a crash helmet or suffer brain damage. Yes it’s hot, but so will the concrete be when your skull scrapes across it, to say nothing of your arms and legs. I used to ride a 550cc around London, and out into the countryside, and there is no way I can get on a motorbike now without a helmet and proper leathers. So I don’t.

There, mild lecture over and done with, don’t say I didn’t warn you. So, the weather is looking reasonable for the week ahead, according to Accuweather, and the bars and tavernas are now all open in Horio. This includes Taverna Zoi where we went the other night for some barbeque. So there is plenty to see and do and enjoy once you are up in the village, just make sure you drive up here carefully and, if you are driving this way, don’t forget to take the car.

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