We have all been battling storms and bad weather this last week, and especially here on Symi in the last couple of days. We were up during the night on Thursday/Friday, putting down towels, unplugging things and checking the shutters. The storm came in around 1.30 a.m. and then rolled away, came back and rolled past again, then later in the morning on Friday came back again.

At one point on Friday morning there were two Electricity Board guys outside the house, up the pole, swinging wires around and, I assume, fixing next door’s supply. I did hear a strange ‘bang’ sound during the night. Each time it rained or hailed or thundered, they took shelter under our balcony and each time I went to tell them to take shelter inside our lobby it was pelting too hard for me to get out there.

But still, enough about that, Saturday has dawned bright and clear, as if nothing had happened. Here are some photos from Neil taken last weekend. You can click to open them in the lightbox and then run a slideshow if you want. Have a good weekend and stay dry!

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Sunday morning on Symi: The liturgy being broadcast from the church (listen to short video below), the cat asleep on his outdoor bench, washing out to dry, Neil up in his loft seeing to his messages, something in the slow cooker for later in the day, house tidy and it’s only 09.15.

We’re up early because we’re aiming to go for a walk up the hillside, but the skies look a bit dark, though the forecast says it’s not going to rain until tonight. We’re not planning to go too far though and I’ll put some waterproofs in the rucksack just in case. All being well there will be some more ‘walking on Symi’ photos during the week.

We went for a short walk on Saturday, just down to Pedi and back, by which time I was drenched; not rain, not the sea, but it was very humid. I took some snaps of the Pedi landmarks which I can share with you: the wartime shell, the fishing nets, the 101 uses of a dead motorbike, the strange man in red, the shopping trolley and other internationally renowned sights will be along on the blog today and later.

This Sunday morning (as it is as I write this) is also an exciting time as the illuminations are due to be switched on tonight. I don’t mean the municipal Christmas trees around the harbour, or the lights on the street lamps, the festive neon of the village square or anything as simple as that. Tonight is the Spalding Festival of Light which we should be able to see from the other side of the island. The boys and Co. are setting up their Christmas lights and decorations today, so I hope to be there covering that story later, and, as long as I can bag an exclusive, I’ll get a photo for the blog. Can’t wait.

We’re not putting our decorations up until after 11th December; two weeks seems adequate time. Before then I have to find decent wrapping paper and pay copious visits to the post office to see if things arrive in time. Not sure when the last posting day from UK to Greece is, but that doesn’t really matter around here anyway. Things can leave warehouses and homes in plenty of time, and wiz across land or sea to Athens, to Rhodes or wherever, but they can then still get held up by bad weather, a cancelled boat or even, and this has been known, get stuck in a delivery person’s yard for several days, outside, in the rain; though that happens rarely I should add.

We did once, when first opening the shop, order a blow-up from Kodak (USA, as it turned out) to see what their service was like – we were sourcing enlargement services from all over the place. The photo didn’t arrive so after about six weeks we ordered another one. That arrived in about three weeks, though the quality wasn’t great so we never used them. About a year after ordering the first print, this tattered, battered old piece of cardboard tube turned up at the post office, stamped all over with labels from places it had toured while en route, like Alan Wicker’s passport; ‘Dusseldorf’,  Antwerp’ and the back end of ‘Anus’ (which is actually a town in France, honest, look it up). And the photo was just as bad as the other one. Hey ho!

Anyway, here’s hoping you’ve posted and done, and everything is falling into place for Christmas (if you celebrate it) and here’s hoping it doesn’t pour down just as we get to the top of the mountain later this morning. And here’s that video:

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We have a new feature on the blog from today. There’s a thing called ‘Lightbox’ (thank you Allan) installed, you can’t see it but you can see it working. Click on the first image (or any image) on the posts and a pop-up image should appear (you may be asked if you want to allow this for this site, in which case you do; or you may not, but if you don’t then there’s not much point reading this…). This should be the most recently added image and it will open to a certain size. You can then click through all the images on the posts without having to open and close a new window; and I’ve just added a slideshow function too so you can watch ‘hands free.’ That should make it easier for you to browse the pictures. To change images simply click the picture or the navigation buttons you will see, and to close the thing just click the X in the bottom right corner.

And talking of images, there’s a new gallery up at the old-look Symi Dream site where we still have all our image galleries. This one relates to the weeks’ posts of Walking through the Kato Meria area of Symi and has photos I’ve not put up on the blog; it can be found here.

While you are browsing images, and talking about walks, I have used some of Neil’s images from our recent walk to add to the post today. You can use the new lightbox feature simply by clicking the first image, and test it out. Let me know if there are any bugs, our email address is at the very bottom of the page.

So, what’s been going on during this week, while we were wandering the hills? (Which we only did last Sunday, it’s just taken me a week to get through the event. And we may be walking again this Sunday, so watch out!) Well, the weather has warmed up and we had a slight sprinkling of rain, not enough to dampen the kitchen, though things have been humid and the house is already getting that damp-wall look. The Symi cinema has been playing films on a Sunday night, at Mandeio’s, and the crossword team have been doing crosswords on a Saturday.

We’ve been working at home, as we now do, and have been ordering Christmas presents like mad. Which reminds me, you can probably still get a calendar delivered in time, check the links to the right and order now! The Alarm Cat has been a bit grumpy as next door’s tom has been in and he tends to spray a bit; Jack lacks the internal combustion to be able to spray back. While he is outside on the path keeping watch on the roof and preparing for battle, I am on hands and knees sniffing washing machines and doors with a disinfectant spray in one hand, a roll of kitchen paper in the other and an equally grumpy look on my face. We have to keep the bathroom window open you see, to help reduce the black mould the grows due to condensation. Ah, the joys of living on Symi in the winter.

Neil’s also been to his Pilates and Zumba classes (separately), we’ve both started on tap and have been doing the weights, and the only thing missing at the moment is the early morning jog routine; it’s just too dark and cold at 6.30 these days. So, walks and dance instead, with maybe the occasional run if we can. That’s the way to go.

So, enjoy your weekend, try out the lightbox (I am thinking of upgrading so I can make images bigger and do other fancy stuff with this plugin) and enjoy the photos.

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Some photos from Kos in November (‘cos I got up late). As usual, click the photo for the full sized version, then back button back to this page. Must try and find a widget plugin thing that runs a slideshow of photos in a post… And ideas Allan?

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The last couple of days of our holiday were spent in the usual fashion for us: walking everywhere, stopping for lunch, having an afternoon café experience of some sort, doing some more walking and then spending an evening watching the world go by and maybe having a light dinner.

Our last day, waiting around for the boat, took us on one last lap of the town and the sites we’d not seen enough of yet, followed by a glass at what had become our favourite kafeneion. After this, lunch at the famed ‘Mummy’s Cooking’, a traditional Greek taverna which was, on this Saturday lunchtime, popular with local families. We’d read some reviews about this place on Trip Advisor and some had criticised the waiter for his arrogance. We didn’t encounter that at all and I have to assume those reviews were written by people visiting in the summer when I can see how the place would be very busy – so busy you have to book, apparently. We settled in for some banter, some homemade ‘gigantes’ and some homemade pork and leak stew, and very nice (and reasonable) it was too.

An after-lunch walk around saw us finally settle at the hotel terrace to wait for the boat. The sea was a bit choppy but we’d checked in with HQ (Jenine) to make sure the boat was running, and it was. Back at the port, with rucksacks slightly heavier than when we started thanks to the only-once-used dumbbells and a few extra ‘bits’ as gifts, and there was still plenty of time for a last Kos-cocktail as we watched various people check in through passport control. Seems a bit odd seeing such a thing, but as the town is so close to Turkey, many people come for a day, or go for a day, and pop in and out of Europe as if it were Sainsbury’s.

Our boat arrived only a few minutes late and was not busy. We were treated to a spectacular sunset on the way back which we saw from the back of the Express. Just before arriving back in Symi one of the crew came up and found us and checked that we were getting off at Symi, which was nice of him. And of course we were. In fact we were the only people getting off at Symi and I got the impression that had we been going on to Rhodes the captain would have said, ‘Oh, let’s not bother stopping here then,’ like the bus drivers used to do on country routes when there was no one waiting at the stop. But there were loads of people waiting at the stop and, as one of the crew cleared our path as his only disembarking passengers, a throng of ‘embarkers’ bustled on.

And there we were, back home again. Almost. We still had to get past Pacho’s, failed, and then the Sunrise, failed, where memory starts to blur (Sunrise is an anagram of ‘sure sin’ after all). Back home, Jack was pleased to see us, having been living outside for a week, but well looked after by Sam (and a little bit Harry), and before you could say ‘unpack’ we’d unpacked and were back into our usual routine.

So, I hope you enjoyed our rush around Kos Town last week, now I can get the blog back to its usual mundane nonsense about nothing in particular and tell you:

Since being back I have been working on ‘Lonely House’ the novel I wrote during the summer. It is currently being edited and is due for ‘release’ in the New Year with ‘RC publishing.’ This is another horror story, a bit more horror than The Judas Inheritance, and not set on Symi. Once I have done my share of the proofing I will have more time to get back to the next novel, which is a comedy called ‘Straight Swap.’ More about that in days to come.

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