One of the things you need to consider, when considering a move to Symi, is how much of a rush you might be in. We go on a lot about the weather and boats around here and there is a very good reason for that.

Imagine if you lived in Middle-Marsh, twenty miles from the nearest town, with only two buses per week, no car, no taxi service and no way of getting to or from your idyllic village if the bus didn’t run. And imagine if the bus didn’t run when it was raining. Well, that’s a bit like being here on Symi, except it’s a boat not a bus, and it’s wind not rain. And that’s what we’ve been suffering from this week in particular: high winds.

And not just us (at least we didn’t have snow as they did on other islands). The weather was so bad it stopped the boat from docking at several places on its way down from Piraeus, including Rhodes. And that meant that some people, going from Athens to Rhodes, were stuck on the ship from Tuesday morning until sometimes on Thursday afternoon, in rough seas. Similarly, some people who popped over to Rhodes for a day or two ended up staying a week as, if I remember correctly, the last boat into – or out of – Symi was last Tuesday. (I’m writing this on Friday and the Blue Star is due back tonight.)

At least I am hoping it comes in to night as there are people who have already missed flights and who were due to leave on Wednesday to get back to the UK. Which is what I meant about being in a hurry. Sometimes you can’t be. It was one of the things we discussed when deciding to live here permanently: if there’s an emergency in the UK, we may not be able to get there straight away. When going on a holiday, where a flight from Rhodes is involved, we always go at least one, if not two, days early and add two days in Rhodes onto our break, just to be sure of catching the plane. Expensive, yes, but that’s the choice we made.

So, enough of this, the wind has dropped slightly and I am able to open my office shutters and share the view for the first time. After getting this post ready I am going to find a long ladder and something to fill in a hole in the ox eye window in the sitting room. With a curtain up, shutters closed and heaters blasting, it was still only around five degrees in there last night thanks to a break in the ox eye glass.

Oh, and then I am going to see if Jack has found his litter tray yet. He has been in the house since Wednesday afternoon and has not yet ‘been.’ He’s shouted at everything, of course, he’s had a look around the roof, he’s been shown his litter tray (but after 12 years of never using one I am not surprised he has no idea what I am showing him) and he has met the pregnant female cat who sits outside our door each day. So, hopefully, by the end of the weekend, he would have settled down and ‘been’ and in the right place too!

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First blog from the new house and we are still not quite ‘in’ but we are getting there.

It’s been a tiring week, but the start of the process was made really easy thanks to Dora and The Symi Estate Agent who found the housed and dealt with all the tenancy matters and other things that needed sorting out; a wonderful job and thank you! http://www.thesymiestateagent.com/

And then things were made easier still by the equally as fabulous Jenine who has cleaned everything even if it didn’t need cleaning, and who has been unpacking as well as feeding us, looking after Sam who’s not been well, and keeping Harry down to medium-speed mode. Harry has also been helping when not at school.

We had three strong guys helping us yesterday (Wednesday) and they are coming back tonight to finish off the last heavy things, the cooker, table, chest of drawers etc. And then, when that’s done, we’re going to see if we can get Jack installed. I went back to the house this morning (Thursday) to collect a few bits and he was there, alone in the middle of an empty room looking slightly bewildered. But he is fine and he’ll get here later today, as long as we can get him in his box. We’re waiting until everything else is in so we don’t have to have the courtyard doors open onto the road, in case he escapes. So, all being well, we should be 100% ‘in’ at the end of today.

And then we have to get some basic things seen to, like getting some curtains up to keep out the drafts. The house is open-plan and faces north and we must be in the middle of the coldest February in the coldest, wettest winter since we’ve lived here. Wednesday was blowing a gale so much that the Blue Star didn’t even bother trying to dock, it just went straight on past to Rhodes and spent a lot of the day going up and down the coast. I think it’s still there –Thursday at 9.40.

I would show you the view from the desk, but the shutters are closed against the biting wind. Even with the air conditioning heating thing going (how posh!) my fingers have still not warmed up. It was the same at the old house but at least this room is heated. You will get a view as soon as it’s warm or safe enough to open the shutters.

So, off down to Yialos this morning to source cat litter and a tray for the Alarm Cat’s first night/day inside the house before we let him out to explore. I’m keeping half an eye on the news and watching the ‘Grexit’ with vague interest, and my mate in Britain is sending me updates and his journalistic thoughts regularly. The guys in the taverna last night (still not got the food and cooker sorted in the house) were laughing about it all. They were also serving us Noufris’ ‘famous’ Viagra dip, which sounds horrible but which was actually very nice. Pestrami, feta, chili, something else, all mixed up together. No idea why it’s called Viagra dip.

Anyhow, must get on. Loads of unpacking needs doing, and we still haven’t finished off in the old house yet. May blog tomorrow or Saturday, probably won’t be back to normal until Monday though. We’ll see.

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Day 36, as it is today as you read this, day 35 as it is as I write as it’s actually Sunday morning. On Monday, the work really starts. Picking up keys at nine, and then the trundling back and forth across the village with the sack trolley we borrowed on Saturday, and trundled back from Nimborio to Horio, in the rain, or partly in the rain.

That, naturally, necessitated a stop off en route, at Pacho’s, and then we decided to get the bus up as we were wet and had the trolley with us. A quick trundle through the village, some supper and then all that was followed by going out to a birthday party in the evening.

We’d seen Yianni Rainbow on the way down to the harbour in the morning, looking fit and well and starting to open up the bar, or at least he was getting in there and sorting things out. ‘Two more months and working?’ Well, maybe it will be Neil working the afternoon shift this year, we shall see. We’re interchangeable in that respect.

The walk over to Nimborio was pleasant, as always, and a wonderful homemade soup lunch, with bread from the village bakery (one of) that was still warm when we bought it, and a very pleasant day it was too. Also, while trundling back, we stopped and arranged with Habib that we’d like a couple of his mates to help us move, maybe Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, the heavy stuff. No problem. How much? Whatever. Okay, will make firm arrangements on Monday. Whatever. Okay.

I’m going to leave you with some photos; you can click one and then run a slideshow, or browse them one at a time. I’ll be back later in the week, as long as the phone/internet change over goes smoothly… Meanwhile, don’t forget Adriana’s twice a week Symi blog which you can read here. http://adrianas-symi.blogspot.gr/

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For the last couple of years the Tsiknopempti party has been held at the school due to bad weather. But this year, on Thursday, the weather was fine, cold, but fine and so the party was held in the village square. I took some photos but they are really far too dark to see much, but you know, I do the words, not the pictures.

We’d been down to Yialos in the afternoon to get the rent money out, called in to see Takis who is working on his latest masterpiece, and then walked back up. Jenine had called to say the party was on, so we met up for a pre-party drink at Mandeio’s and then headed to the square.

The party celebrates ‘smoke Thursday’, the traditional day for eating meat before Lent starts in a week or so’s time. The town hall provide the souvlakies and the band this year were some of the music students – I am not sure if they are from the Symi Music School, or the general school, or have private tuition, I guess perhaps all three. They were great, and it’s really heart-warming to see and hear young, talented people, doing so well. They entertained for a good two, maybe three hours, with traditional dances and other songs with drums, bouzouki, accordion and guitars. All the made for a very special night, and the free wine helped slightly too.

Friday dawned cold and clear again and, after getting some work done, Neil went off to pay another bill and check up on Monday morning. All is now set for collecting the keys at 09.00 on Monday. There’s not a lot more packing we can do here, not until we have emptied some of these crates and boxes.

If you’re on Symi and reading this and have nothing better to do during the week, and fancy trudging back and forth from Ag Thanasis area to the village square carrying boxes and bags, feel free to join in, drop me a line or give us a ring. We will probably start on Monday and just keep going until it is done, hiring a couple of strong folk to shift the really heavy stuff. We were planning an all-day event on Saturday or Sunday but I reckon we will be mostly in by then. Because the phone should be going in on Tuesday, we’ll probably aim to be ‘working’ from the house on Wednesday, by which I mean posting the blog and stuff.

So, I’ll try and do a post on Sunday/Monday – and Monday will be ‘Moving house on Symi day 36’ – but if there is no post for a few days you will know why. I’ll post photos eventually, don’t worry, there will be photos of the moving, I may even share an image of the new furniture in situ to bore you, and there will certainly be endless pictures of the new view.

So, that’s me off to see what else can be packed while I await the arrival of the Ikea order which, we think, might be on the boat that came in this morning. If not, then next Wednesday. Watch this (almost empty) space.

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It was cold out there yesterday morning at 6.45 as we trudged up the steps through the village to the top road, and then along and back down via the main road, for a bit of a wake up with 20 minutes exercise. Neil later went off to his Pilates leaving me surrounded by heaters and boxes in the front room, where the thermometer read 12 degrees.

At least it’s nice and sunny outside with no wind, clear skies, and a blue but cold sea to look at. The Accuweather forecast is showing a low of seven degrees last night and nine today, slightly warmer tomorrow and then, after a showery weekend, a clear week ahead for moving boxes.

Things are starting to fall into place. Neil rang our phone company, Ote, on Wednesday – the phone is in his name – and explained what we are up to. The helpful person there said that the arrangements would all be made for us to move our number and package from one house to the other next week. An hour later our local engineer phoned us and we arranged to meet ten minutes later at George (the younger’s) supermarket so we could go to the new house, so he knows where we are going. We did that and walked over there and he had a good look around. He called in, told our new landlord (who is still clearing things from the house) what was going on, and that was that. About half an hour later the Ote lady rang back to ask what day we wanted the switch-over to happen. We said Tuesday.

So, this means that there may not be a blog for Tuesday/Wednesday or some days next week, though I can get Monday’s ready on Sunday, assuming we don’t get cut off earlier by accident; it’s been known to happen. We also double checked the keys hand-over arrangements; I’ll be getting them at nine on Monday and doing the inventory and learning how the water and electrics work at the new pace, Neil will be joining us a little later and then we can start actually moving in.

But in other news, I should probably mention that Thursday was ‘Sooty Thursday’ or Tsiknopempti, on Symi and in Greece, the traditional day for eating meat before the start of Lent, which is on its way. Clean Monday, the start of Lent, is February 23rd, which will be our first real full day and night in our new house, which seems oddly appropriate, and Easter weekend this year is April 11th (Jack’s birthday) with Easter Day being 12th April. We are planning a joint housewarming and birthday party (for me) on the last Sunday in March which I know is still in Lent, but anyone invited doesn’t have to eat, drink or celebrate.

And talking of celebrations, for those who don’t know, Yianni Rainbow has been back on Symi a while now and is looking fit and well. No sign of the bar opening yet, but then it’s often closed at this time of year, and no news on what’s to come for the summer. But all seems well.

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