While showing you some photos from one summer not so long ago, I shall be having a business morning this morning, by which I mean, probably no time for creative writing because I have some technical issues. Mainly, my emails. I’ve been having trouble with Outlook over the past couple of weeks. It would open, download the house emails (the Otenet ones), and then freeze. After several frustrating hours trying to get to the bottom of things, it turns out that my Symi Dream and Jackson Marsh sites sit on shared servers, and these no longer support the email addresses attached to the accounts – or something. It’s all to do with not having a dedicated server, and I was thinking about migrating away from the host company anyway. The help centre is outstanding, but if I can’t reply to emails…

So, the news really is that I want to move everything you see here, and everything that’s archived, over to a new company, and I have no idea how to do it. In fact, I want someone at this yet-to-be-found new company to say, ‘Give it here, we’ll do it all for you,’ but that’s unlikely. Therefore, if these pages go dark for any length of time, you will know I lost my websites in the move.

Today, then, I will be searching around for a new host (I already have some suggestions), while seeing to some Jackson publicity, and then later, going for what will probably be a well earned relax sesh at the Sunrise, where there’s to be a quiz. In other news, I am assuming the electricity work is ongoing. We’ve not had a planned power cut for a few days now. I assume also that the boats are back on their timetables after that spell of bad weather, and I have to assume, because I’ve not left the house for a few days. On the upside, though, I am up to 40,000 words of the next mystery, so I’ve not been idle.

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I’m talking about water. At least, I will be in a minute. First, some parish announcements. To conclude yesterday’s tale of Sunday: our power came back on later in the afternoon, but we weren’t there at the time. We were having lunch with the family, finally trapping both godboys under one roof for the first time in months – and, sadly, probably for the last time until at least November, due to college and work. Lovely afternoon, and home to a lit house.

We had some rain the other day. The kind that turns the Kali Strata into an ISRD Class VI rapid, rarely attempted in competitions. The kind of rain that washes the topsoil down from the mountain and into the sea, turning it to the colour of the Red Sea, if the Red Sea were actually red. This was going on and off for days, and wasn’t much more than an extended but usual rainy spell for this time of year. Symi TV filmed some of the runoff as it washed down past the town square to the bridge (and you can see all Panormitis’ excellent videos by clicking that link and subscribing).

Irony #1. They’ve been doing works to the harbour road, and due to a variety of causes, the part along past Trawler Square and the corner is or has been flooded.

That’s irony #1 because of irony #2. While all this was going on, a local newspaper decided to announce the news that Symi was a disaster area, because of water (and we were not the only island mentioned). Odd timing. On first glance, it looked like the rain had made us victims of an horrendous natural disaster area, and I expect people were receiving messages of ‘stay safe’ (as if one wouldn’t), and ‘thoughts and prayers’ as if we were sinking.

Turns out, we aren’t a disaster area because of too much rain, but because of a lack of it. Our ‘disaster’ is that the island doesn’t have enough water, something I reckon most people have known since year dot. We’ve certainly known it with our current water rationing: no showers at the weekend, no washing machine unless the water main is on and the tank is filling, that kind of usual. I just thought it was unfortunate timing to suggest we were being washed away by a natural disaster, when in fact, we’re probably seeing a worsening of the ‘disaster’ of water shortage that the island’s had for years.

Anyway, that’s my thought for today. I am off to have others now, and spend a quiet day in reading and writing.

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Well, this is rather fine. I’m sitting here on Sunday morning, lit only by the overhead laptop light running from the battery, in an otherwise blacked out room, and Neil is in the courtyard with the camping stove, a saucepan and tea bags. There is no sound but the hiss of the gas and the thudding of my fingers.

When I stop writing and wander about the strangely silent and dim house, I can imagine how things used to be before electricity. We’re having one of those planned power cuts, you see. Could be off for half an hour, could be off all day. It doesn’t matter, because you get so much else done when you don’t have electricity Alright, so you can’t do the hoovering, run a tap, or stay warm, but you can sweep up something, tidy up something, and later, rustle up something that doesn’t need cooking. You could read a book if the shutters weren’t shut against the cold and keeping out the light. You could read on your Kindle if the battery hadn’t died. You could write up your notes (see above re: closed shutters and lack of light). Plenty of things to get done. A taste of the old days, except we know that the power will come back on at some time, and we don’t yet need to fill a bucket from the water tank.

The gas is still hissing.

We trotted out for a pizza last night (Saturday). We were going to go to the taverna, but the high school class was holding a fundraiser for its end-of-school trip later in the year, and the taverna was already booked out. Just like the old days.

The gas has stopped hissing.

I’m sure some readers will remember ‘those’ days. Those summers when both bars were so full, people were sitting on the steps, and where the taverna was so busy, there was a queue to get in. It is still like that in the summer, but there are fewer people on the steps, and that part of the season doesn’t seem to last as long.

My tea has arrived!

Who knows what the rest of today holds? Who can say when we might be back on the grid and back online? I’ll let you know.

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I’m sure you’re fed up with our winter view, the ‘shots from the balcony’ type stuff that always shows the same bit of sea and island. Apart from keyboards and television, it’s about all I see at this time of year. So, to end the week, I had a trawl through last year’s photos and beyond, and found a few spring and summery shots of the village and its details that I thought would do as a weekend gallery. Hopefully, a quick browse will remind you of the reason you come here on holiday, or why you should if you don’t already. Either way, enjoy, and I’ll see you back here in class on Monday.

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The courtyard’s looking forlorn. It’s the time of year when most things are on hold, waiting for the warmer weather. I say most things because the orange rose is currently blooming, and the chilli plants were still going right up until Neil harvested yet another hundredweight of the things and cut back the plants. The weather’s been so up and down, I reckon most things out there don’t know what season it is. Some were damaged in the high winds (sorry Penny, we may have lost two of yours in a recent storm), some didn’t make it through the cold winds, some have drowned, and some are just sitting there wondering what in earth is going on. The weeds are thriving, but I suppose that’s their job.

Once things start to brighten up, we’ll set about tidying the courtyard and readying it for the summer. This will entail moving that hosepipe I bought in September and never got around to putting away, and sweeping up the collection of leaves that gather behind the table in that place that’s really awkward to get to so we leave it alone. Then, there are the buckets to empty, clean and refill, ready for the lack of water storage problem because still no sign of a larger tank or a repaired sterna, so we’re still rationing it, particularly at the weekends when we have no refill for two and a half days.

Soon, too, we’ll be able to open the shutters and let some daylight back into the house. As it was a bright and mild day yesterday, I opened my office curtains and window, because I wanted to highlight the dust that’s accumulated over the past few weeks. No, actually, it was just to air the room, because we don’t want the ceiling going mouldy again.

Hopefully, I’ll remember to give more courtyard updates as the months go on. Bet you can’t wait.

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