Just catching up on weekend activities… A morning in Yialos for the annual Symi Dream Christmas party (a giros) and a Saturday walk down to Pedi followed by a quiz, a Sunday at home for the day and a dinner out in the evening, all very chilled and relaxed.

I have some photos to show you various parts of Symi in December, taken over the last couple of days and I’ll be putting up a blog post every day until Christmas Day, then I may take a couple of days off, so if I ‘go dark’ it’s (hopefully) not because I’ve exploded after eating too much on Christmas Day, it’ll be because I fancied a couple of days without having to think of anything to write.

So, Friday morning, I finished off some things at home, pottered about a bit, doing the hoovering and suchlike and catching up on the washing. Ah yes, you see, living on a little Greek island brings with it the same daily routines and rat-race-chores that we all have. A bit of light dusting, nothing too strenuous, and then a wander down the steps to Yialos. The accountant wasn’t in which is both a blessing and a pain as there are two large bills to be settled before the business can finally be said to be closed, and on into town.

We were just walking over the bridge when Neil had a phone call from a courier company, TNT, saying there was a package for him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked, not being too sure where TNT deliver to on Symi, ‘It’s on Symi,’ she replied, ‘Yes but…’ and that was the end of that call as far as she was concerned. We called in at the post office, collected a pile of bits and pieces and then headed off to find TNT. We checked ASC first, but they were away for five minutes please come back later, and then I went and asked Sarantis as he used to take deliveries, but he doesn’t and he didn’t know where TNT might be.

So, Neil called back to ASC and found them in but not knowing who the agent for TNT was, so he called into the newsagents, who are a courier agent, but who also didn’t know who TNT delivered to. And then we tried the bookshop as they also take deliveries from DHL, but no, no TNT and nothing for us (still awaiting some Christmas presents ordered two months ago). I phoned the TNT lady back and had an in depth conversation along the lines of, ‘you called us just now, you have a delivery for us, where is it?’ Apparently it is on Symi, in Yialos, with Valantis- someone. ‘Yes,’ I say, probing a little deeper, ‘but where is he? What shop is he next to?’ ‘I don’t know,’ she says, ‘I am in Rhodes.’

So we thought, ‘if in doubt, ask a postman’ and were just heading back to the post office when George (the postman) came around the corner on his moped. ‘Ah,’ he says waving cheerily, ‘did you open your box?’ Tempted to reply, ‘no, we took the money,’ we instead told him that we had, and asked where TNT went to. I mentioned the lady in Rhodes had said Valantis-someone, but no, apparently the TNT deliveries now go to George’s wife back at the newsagents and if they’d rung to say it was here then it was probably on the boat that night. All rather confused, but now knowing where this mysterious thing might turn up, we thanked him and set off for the rest of our adventure, intending to return to the hunt on Monday or Tuesday.

Stay tuned for part two of this riveting, action packed thrill ride tomorrow.

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You may already be a member, you may have thought about it but been put off for some reason, you may not have needed it, but maybe now’s the time to log back in and have a browse around, or to sign up and take a look and get chatting about Symi, Greece. There’s lots to learn, lots of nice people to meet, helpful tips from regular visitors, and Symi residents alike, and it’s more specific and focused than many of the Symi Facebook pages – and not everyone has a Facebook addiction. It’s also friendly, positive and poses no technical challenges to those who are wary of being online.

I am talking about the Symi Visitor Chat Pages, as they are sometimes called. It’s actually the Symi Forum now, as the following information from the Symi Forum community outreach press and publicity department officer explains:

“Symi Chat” the internet forum run by Symi Visitor has moved to a new home: symiforum.com

Over the last eight years its 820 members have made more than 31,000 mostly Symi-related posts on the site.

Much has changed in the internet world over those eight years and the creaky old software running the forum was well past its best-before date, causing no end of bother. So, a new forum was set up, running on fancy modern software and after a lot of faffing about, most of the posts from the old site were copied over.

The user accounts were copied over too so members will be able to continue using their existing username. Passwords have been changed though. Most members will have been sent an email with their login details, including a new password, so should be able to log in to the new site. Anyone who wants to continue using their old user name but didn’t get their email (the email address list is very old!) should contact admin@symiforum.com for help.

Anyone who had the old forum symivisitor.forumco.com bookmarked should change their bookmark to symiforum.com The links on the Symi Visitor home page will soon be changed to take you to the new forum automatically.

Me: So, I’ll leave you with this and their link [Symi forum] and the suggestion that you might like to a) renew/refresh/use your membership and see what’s new, b) sign up (free of course) for a new membership and start browsing and chatting, c) pass this post on to others who may be interested, or share this post around Facebook, and d) pop in to the new-look forum and wish everyone a happy Christmas. See you back here on Monday though, don’t be late!

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Random blog this morning (yesterday afternoon). Have just had rather a busy day and am expecting another one tomorrow (today). You’ll get used to it.

When I say busy, I mean busy for me/us. It started during the night with a thunderstorm around five in the morning which got me up to go and unplug the essentials in the front room; phone, computer, router etc. One power surge and we’re electronically cut off for days. Back to bed just in time for the Alarm Cat to wake me up again, and so to the desk by just after 6.30 and emails to do, things to check and so on. A morning spent working and doing some weight lifting (as you do), while Neil dashed to the post office, got caught in more rain, went to a Pilates class and came back with another bill for the shop we no longer have.

I made lunch and we took an hour and twenty minutes off to have that and watch an episode of something on TV before Neil headed off to a Zumba class and I set about the house chores: wrapping a few more presents (still loads to hope will arrive on Friday’s boat), and then hoovering the house from one end to the other, then polishing and tidying the sitting room, and then having a shave and all this while the cooker was absorbing the over cleaner I’d sprayed on it, after translating the back of the can to see if I needed to heat up or not. I didn’t, and neither did the oven. Then half an hour on my knees cleaning the inside of the thing, with Jimmy Somerville as my favoured throwback musical accompaniment, then tidying up some left over boxes, and now sitting down to write this before Neil gets back and I make dinner.

That should be followed by a postponed game of golf, all being well, and tomorrow promises to be even more fun with another trip to Yialos a possibility, and certainly more housework and writing, I hope.

So, that’s the kind of thing that goes on in our house during the winter months, in case you were wondering. That and picking up towels after it’s rained, putting them down when it is raining, checking things are unplugged when there’s a storm, emptying the trash and, it feels like, endlessly shopping. I’ll let you get on with your random Friday now and go and clean the bathroom or something.

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First: Confusion of boats caused by blog writer thinking about postal services – bottom line: it’s now announced that the Blue Star will be calling in this Friday and next Wednesday but not next Friday but next Sunday instead and it won’t be in on January 2nd but January 4th instead all due to holidays and if you want the Symi Tours announcement in Greek here it is:

Tα δρομολόγια του πλοίου Διαγορας 26/12 κ 02/01 δε θα εκτελεστούν λόγω των εορτών. Τα δρομολόγια αυτά θα αναπληρωθούν 28/12 κ 04/01 αντίστοιχα με επιστροφή από Ρόδο την επόμενη μέρα.Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες επικοινωνήστε με το πρακτορείο μας.

So, that’s all sorted out then. What else is going on? Well, the Alarm Cat has decided that as it is December it is far healthier to sleep outside during the day and evening than it is to sleep inside where it’s warm. He has spent the last couple of days on his terrace bench (as opposed to his downstairs-lobby bench which is more sheltered) curled up and dozing happily. Normally, at this time of year, he favours inside. He has no particular place inside, last week it was on top of Neil’s rucksack, last winter it was the spare (only) armchair, and before that it was on my trunk in the front room.

But in recent days he’s come in, in the morning, for first breakfast, then spent an hour at my feet by the heater before his second breakfast, then gone outside to see if there are any decent fights worth having, coming back in for third breakfast/elevenses and finally settling down on his terrace bench until lunchtime. He has this knack of knowing when we are just sitting down to eat and coming in and wanting to join the feasting. He sits right in front of me and stares up in a very annoying fashion, like a dog that’s been allowed to beg at the table. The only option is to escort him to his own table for second lunch and hope he goes outside straight after, otherwise my midday meal and TV viewing (currently the Inspector Linley Mysteries, gawd, she a moany old grump isn’t she?) is ruined.

And then, in recent days, he has taken himself back outside to enjoy the cold air and has curled up quite happily for the rest of the day. Sometimes he’s been back in for three rounds of afternoon tea and dinner at eight, followed by a couple of suppers (he’s a grazer is our Jack) and then quite happily taken himself off outside for the night. Having said all that, today he is still at my feet and we’ve only had two sittings of breakfast so far.

Yesterday he was walking with a pronounced limp form the leg he smashed up a few years ago. You don’t normally notice it but yesterday he ‘sure had a hitch in his giddyup’ as our Californian friend used to say. Seems better today. I suspect the cold air is playing it up, and a touch of rheumatism or arthritis has set in, he is nearly 12 after all.

So, that’s’ the AC news for the time being. He’s fit and well otherwise, his black patches on his nose and ears come and go, but nothing has developed too far as yet. He’s still as fat as ever due to the fact that he used to body-build and now it’s all gone to flab, and he’s still moulting despite the fact it’s winter. He’s bought Neil a Christmas present which has arrived and been wrapped, and is waiting for a couple of small gifts he ordered for Harry and Sam who feed him while he is away.

And that is enough cat nonsense for one day, I have things to think about writing, housework to do and probably need to quickly go and shop for cat food between Jack-meals.

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It was a quick trip to the harbour yesterday. It’s always hard to know what to wear, not because of any fashion concerns, there’s a distinct lack of that around here in the winter, but because of the heating situation.

What I mean is, it’s okay walking down the Kali Strata in a jumper and jacket, but once you get to the bottom and head over the bridge you’re sweating, even at this time of year. It wasn’t particularly cold yesterday, but felt it coming from the warm-ish house with only a t-shirt and a light jacket on. But then, by the time I reached the National Bank, I was feeling slightly moist, by the time I’d done my chores I was sweating, by the time I’d bumped into the accountant and got a few hundred euros worth of bills handed to me I was dripping (could have been tears) and by the time I reached Horio again I looked like an unwrapped mummy and needed a bottle of water or two, and was very wet on the inside. So, consider your layers when heading out and about on Symi this winter.

While I was out and about yesterday I noticed that Pacho’s kafeneion was open again and that the International is also still open for meals. That’s handy to know as we may be having our Symi Dream Christmas party later this week or early next and it would make a nice change to go there; a nice change from a gyros that is. I also learned that the Blue Star is due to run as usual this Wednesday, Friday and next Wednesday, but won’t then be back until the 27th December heading to Rhodes and back, due to the fact that, to complete its usual run, it would have to leave Piraeus on Christmas Day, so that’s not going to happen. So, limited fresh supplies for a while after this Friday; unless some things arrive on the ‘Spanos.’ Time to knuckle down for the real winter months!

I also picked up a few Christmas deliveries while at the post office and a card – thank you to Alun and Andy for that, and wishing you a good upcoming trip in February. And I took a couple of photos, quickly, one of the boats on a very flat sea and the other of the crib on the town’s main stage. And that was about the highlight of my daytime yesterday, that and some Christmas present wrapping that is.

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