We’ve not had any early morning Symi photos for a while so… Tuesday morning, out of bed at 5.45, and it is still dark as the cat screams to be let in and fed and then spends the next five minutes getting under my feet as I try and find my jogging shoes. Those found, cat partially happy but not sure if it’s too early for his biscuit course or not, and bottle of water collected, it’s off into the great outdoors for the first time in about ten days.

The night before, Monday, had been an early night thanks to not going out but staying in to watch the new version of ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,’ which nearly had me asleep by the end of act one. But I persevered and made it through to the end. A bit more dialogue wouldn’t have gone amiss; far too much reliance on everyone understanding the subtleties of Benedict Cummerbund’s eyebrows and the reflection in Gary Oldman’s glasses, I thought. Still, sent me off to sleep nicely.

The walk up to the second bridge and beyond towards the lookout point and classic view-stop on a bus trip was easy enough, with some stretches of uphill done at a slight jog. The weather is cooler now so it’s a bit more bearable, though this jogging lark still not shifting anything from around the tummy region. That, of course, will have something to do with also enjoying life, which is, after all, what it is there for.

Back home and a morning of work with the cat asleep on my feet (why only in the summer? Why never in the winter?) that is, after he’d had his biscuit course and his second breakfast and his pre-elevenses snack, all of which require my attention and attendance as though I was some scribe out of Gormenghast and the whole kingdom of Jack would come tumbling down if I didn’t see to his every ritual. And then cooking lunch while Neil headed off down to the aid station (as I call it) to deliver some clothes he found in his wardrobe, and in mine I should add, though, in the wardrobe he has three shelves while I have one, and I only use half of that. Still, there should be some clothes for the men available now, which will be welcome.

And on that note, finally, the appeal has reached its target and now has enough money to start improving basic facilities at and around the police station where the 400+ weekly refuges wait. You can still go to the site and donate though (scroll down for yesterday’s blog and the link) and all donations over the target will go towards food, water and other essentials. Thank you!

A quick Tuesday blog.

Yesterday’s blog caused a lot of interest and it was good to put the human face on the current refugee crisis, even it was only one person’s story. Perhaps I will hear more as we do more volunteering and as the situation continues, as it no doubt will do. As of Monday morning the appeal had raised 97% or its target. Take a look this morning and see where it is, and I am sure you can still carry on giving even if the target has been reached. Everything collected will be used for the benefit of the refugees coming through Symi, and the appeal is open until the end of September. Here’s the link again: http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info

In other local news, the wind has been a bit brisk, which has taken the temperature down to, at times, September levels, but when it stops blowing we’re right back up to August again. There was the festival at Nimos on Sunday night, there are many boats in and around Harani, I’ve seen quite a few with their sails up too. Real sailors, not the fair weather type, I’ve even seen gullets, those big Turkish cruise ships with masts and things, with their sails up, which is a pretty majestic sight.

I’ve been working on a new book while I wait for the first draft of the last one to be printed and sent to me. Actually, I think I had an email to say it was on its way. Being a bit prolific at the moment, but I’m not complaining, though my typing fingers are. The Symi festival(s) continue with more performances and concerts and readings, plays and celebrations. These carry on into early September.

There, after a longer ramble yesterday, today’s post is short, mainly because I’ve been having some RSI in my hand and shoulder and don’t want to overdo things; am trying to rest the two typing fingers for a while. (Actually I use eight over both hands, but not correctly, so it’s mainly two on each hand that do all the work.)

Here’s a bit of fun for a Saturday morning that fits into the ‘how to get a delivery to Symi’ chapter of the next book – which I’m not planning as yet – and some unrelated photos to go with. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a birthday present for Neil. (It’s on the 8^th of September so you’ve still got time.) The thing I wanted was found in England and so I did an online order to a company I’d never used before. And here we go…

First of all the company accepted my card and payment was made, and then they contacted me to ask me to call them to run through some security checks as I was using a card that was not registered in the same country as my address. Unfortunately the number they had me to call was one of those 0898 things where you can so easily call up a sexy chat line by accident. So I am told. But no, it wasn’t, but it was similar and I was unable to access it as the country the phone number was registered in was not the same as the country I lived in. So…

I emailed them and explained that I couldn’t do that, but maybe they’d like to call me at their expense, and I gave them my phone number and waited for the phone to ring so I could answer with ‘Hi, this is Chuck and I wanna play (calls may be recorded and are charged at the premium rate of £4.67 per hour plus V.A.T. your investment can go up as well as down) what’s your name, sexy?’ But sadly they didn’t ring but emailed me back instead. So…

I emailed them again and explained that we don’t have an address as such, not many roads around here have street names (which is the same for two thirds of the world apparently) and I am known to the post office staff and most couriers, the port police, the national police (for all the right reasons) and can get at least one local papas to verify me, and here’s a photo of the house. I also offered to pay using my other card which is registered in Canada but that didn’t help. They were very impressed with the photo of the house and so believed me and said they would send the thing on to me, tout suite. So…

Another email came in and this had a tracking number and a site link so I could track the progress of the thing on its journey. A couple of days later I had a look and found out that the thing had left Brighton and was at “Gatwick -We have your parcel and it’s on its way to you.” And the next day: “Birmingham -We have your parcel and it’s on its way to our depot” where, later the same day: “Birmingham- Your parcel has left the United Kingdom and is on its way to Greece.” Wow, that’s good to know. I assumed it was flying to Athens but no, its first stop was: “Best (eindhoven)- The parcel is in transit on its journey to local delivery destination.” This was the same day, so it must have flown to Germany or else someone drove very fast. And then…

Two days later is was: “Budapest -The parcel is in transit on its journey to local delivery destination.” Which is again ironic as that’s where we are going in December. But it gets spookier as the very next day it was at Bucharest, where we were a couple of years ago. I imagine that it’s got a hire car by now and is driving across Europe to enjoy the scenery. If so, it had a sleepover somewhere between Romania and Greece as it took two days to drive to Thessaloniki where it did some sightseeing before heading down to Athens the following day. And then…

Well, then it left its car with Budget and got on the Blue Star, possibly calling in at Symi but, the follow day arriving at: “Rodos – The parcel is in transit on its way to its final destination.” I’ve seen that film and it’s very scary. Luckily the thing arrived safely at the Rodos depot later that day and then got itself a lift: “Rodos – Your parcel is on the vehicle for delivery.” Woohoo! It’s nearly here. It’s going to need a holiday to get over that journey. But then, the final track of the list…

“Greek Islands – Unable to Deliver”

What? Which Greek island has it gone to now? Bloomin’ traveling ‘thing’ in a box… Ah wait. Ironically (number three) Neil found it at ACS and luckily didn’t open it or read the ‘From’ address too carefully. So, it’s now recovering in the wardrobe and is all in the same pieces it was when it left Brighton.

There you go, and here I go – have a good weekend.

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.

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.