We’re setting off to Athens today, except online in story world, not in the real world, because we’ve already done that, and here are some photos to prove it. But… ten days ago, we set off for our New Year adventure, and it started, as all good stories do, with a boat. (A train works better, but we don’t have one of those.)

The ferry was at a reasonable time of the morning, and the walk from Akandia to Mandraki was a pleasant one, especially as Neil took my luggage because I’d put my back out. We had time to kill which we were going to do at Mandraki with breakfast, but the plans started to go awry when H discovered he’d dragged his case through dog sh*t. Hell hath no fury like a hormonal teen, Shakespeare once didn’t write, but let’s just say there was great consternation and gnashing of teeth, beating of the breast and entreating to the great God of WhyMe? With the end of the world upon us, the goddads slipped away to find breakfast and a remedy for this early-morning teenage angst, returning a little while later with food, water, half the supply of papers from the public toilets, and a new toothbrush. The luggage cleansing was a success, and the universe was put back on an even keel.

Off to the airport.

Using Rhodes Airport in winter is almost a pleasurable experience. Being fair, it’s a very easy experience, and as we’re only ever flying within the country, it’s quick and quiet. I remember being there in the summer one year, escorting a couple of family members to their check in, and witnessing the horror of queues of passengers snaking through the concourse, outside, and along the path a mile or so. Not having this, I thought. So, I left my party in the queue just in case, and investigated what was happening at the desks. There, I discovered that a new check in had opened, and only a few people were being herded there by their rep. I was wearing Chino shorts, a white shirt, and had a travel bag slung over my shoulder, so I popped forward and acted the ‘organised, in a hurry, and keen to get my business done’ holiday rep act, in Greek, saying: ‘Sorry, mate, but are you checking in for the Exeter flight? (Or whatever it was.) Answer: brusque but affirmative. So, head down, checking a random sheet of paper and looking professionally flustered, I hurried back to my party and nearing them, called their names while still checking the paper, and signalled them to ‘Follow me… Quickly now.’ Reaching the front of the long queue and the back of the very short one beside it, I projected, ‘They’ll check you in here, and I’ll meet you on the other side,’ and left them to it while I stood a few feet away, attending to a vital text message from head office. Upshot: my party were checked in within minutes, and all was well.

Anyway… There were no queues when we reached Rhodes airport for our flight to Athens. In the winter, with the sun shining, it’s a pleasant place to be. We’d taken the bus there for €2.50 each rather than a taxi for €30.00 or whatever it is now, and had plenty of time to check in (no queue) and hang around upstairs after exploring the shops without the crowds.

I always like it when you can walk across the tarmac to the plane; it feels like you’re trusted and everything is homely, but in this case, it was a bus ride as the plane was up the other end (a technical expression). It also took off the wrong way around, by which I mean, we set off in a direction I’d never taken off from before, so we got a different view of Symi before turning and taking the usual course. There were occasional breaks in the clouds to allow a view, but before you know it, you’re up, along and down again, arriving in Athens 45 minutes later. Quicker than taking the ferry from Symi to Rhodes.

We had a Welcome Pickups driver waiting for us (highly recommended), who whisked us off into town and our apartment in a very comfortable car with Teen in the passenger seat examining the controls and no doubt imagining how he’ll be driving something similar in less than a year (yeah, right), and we landed safely ‘a few paces away from the Acropolis Museum,’ as the Airbnb blurb had said. It wasn’t that far from anywhere, actually, and came with lots of amusing quirks, like shower heads held on with masking tape (not even gaffer tape), and such like. It was handy for a decent supermarket, so we split up and shopped in pairs with one pair ringing up a total of €52.14 and the other, quite independently, ringing up one for €52.13 – how odd was that?

Shopping done, stored, unpacking done, blah blah, it was off to find food. (Teen must be fed every two hours or it does a gremlins thing and transforms into hormone monster.) Not far from our pad was a very nice Asian restaurant which did us well for dinner. It was opposite a Tibetan food place which I mean to call back to but never did. So much choice not enough time, and you will read in future instalments…

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As Randy Quaid, playing Russell Casse in ‘Independence Day’, famously said, ‘Hello, boys. I’m back.’

He then went and crashed his aircraft into a spaceship and saved the world. I don’t intend to do anything quite so dramatic as I take up my typewriter and bash out my regular morning nonsense. On which note, lets get the AOB out of the way first: Happy New Year, Kali Xronia, and all that. As for the 1st of January, that was a ‘Kalo olla’ day as it was a first of the year (kali xronia), the first of the month (kalo mina), first of the week (kali evdomada), and so on, and that’s done with now, so lets start back at Christmas…

I don’t want to bore you with hundreds of shots of our Christmas and New Year, as they are mainly photos with us and the logical family in them, and there are only so many images of our godsons that mankind can take in one sitting, but over the next few days, I will pull out some choice pics, and throw them up here by way of a ‘things I did in my holidays’ essay from junior school. Since I last wrote, we have been away, flown to Athens and taken the boat back, and had a few adventures in between. You may have seen some on Facebook, but not everyone uses that millstone, hence, a few more pics and stories will appear here.

Christmas followed our tradition of helping out at the boys’ house on Christmas Eve, peeling veg, with now trained chef Sam creating things in the kitchen, making stuffing with Neil, and everyone lending a hand. The reward was a game of Cards Against Humanity in the late afternoon, now the youngest is old enough (it was his idea), before a quiet night ahead of the storm which was Christmas Day. Not a real storm, the weather was very pleasant, and has been since. Except, I have been away and then, apparently, it wasn’t.

Still… Christmas family time continued and was followed by Boxing Day fun, feasting, cabaret and films. H did his first piano recital, we played some duets too, and he did me proud, playing three pieces from grades three, four and five (he’s only just started at the beginning of grade four).

It’s so rewarding after 20 and 16 years of waiting, one can finally share certain films and humour with one’s godboys. We made them watch Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. (Inserts evil, sniggering emoji.) I mean, it’s a film that covers all important aspects of growing up from contraception and the Catholic Church, to sex education, middle age to death, and all with catchy songs and silly sketches, people having their insides pulled out, and fat men vomiting. What more could you want as a teen? When we later asked H (now 16) for his opinion of the film, his verdict was ‘Disturbing.’ But it was said in that tongue-in-cheek way he has, and we don’t think he will be scarred for long.

Anyway, that’s all done and dusted now, and not what this week’s set of blog posts was to be about. That’s just getting the Christmas stuffing out of the way so I can get on with the business of Athens, and our trip, and that adventure will start tomorrow.  As for the rest of today, we are back to piano lessons (grade 4 proper starts today), the schools are back, everything is returning to winter normal, and we’ve almost finished the post-holiday washing and tidying. What’s still to do is model making, but more about that another time. Then there’s the book writing and publicity and, like everyone one else, somehow, making some money to keep us going through the winter. Stay tuned…

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I’m just leaving this here as a surprise for anyone who stumbles upon Symi Dream on Christmas Day. Here are six images, one from each Christmas over the last six years. Yeah, I know, they’re not great, but they are all I have. Most of my photos are of us and our family, and I like to keep those moments private (and so might the others).

Anyway, here’s wishing you a peaceful Christmas and New Year. Ours will be anything but what with a day with the family, then a day with them coming to us, then, two days later, all of us off to Athens for New Year like ‘Five go Mad in Attica’ or something. More likely to be ‘Carry On Up The Acropolis’ but good fun will be had by all. We have a day each to plan which, so far, includes my day (‘Into the Woods’ sung in Greek at the National Theatre), Jenine’s day (The Nutcracker at the Opera House), Neil’s Day (rock climbing and other dangerous activities), and Harry’s Day which will be 100% shopping at the Mall, going to the cinema, and doing all those other teen things you can’t do on Symi.

Have fun, and I’ll be back in January sometime.

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The Christmas festivities have begun here on Symi with a week or more of events in Yialos, including concerts on the stage, a Christmas market, and celebrations. Yesterday, I watched and heard a brass band parade play Jungle Bells all the way from the clock tower until they were out of sight, though still playing. I took a short and distant video from the balcony which you can find on the Symi Dream Facebook page. (I can’t upload videos here, because I’ve never worked out how.)

Up here in the village, things are quieter… Until you’re invited to a party or gathering, and we’ve been to two over the weekend, including a birthday dinner at Georgio’s. On the way there, we stopped to say hello to Yiannis at Rainbow, and again, admired the fridge.

Giorgio’s is only using its inside for tables at the moment, but still, I reckon you can get around 30 people in there if not more, and it was just about full on Saturday night, which was good to see. Passing it on Sunday early evening on the way to the great Woodhall Lightshow Extravaganza, I noticed that the tables were again all laid and arranged as if more large parties had booked in. Also good to see, but it does make me think if you’re planning to go there it’s worth booking.

We’re still keeping an eye on the Blue Star booking pages to see if/when the rest of their usual journeys will come online. We need to get a boat back from Athens in 18 days’ time, and the expected sailing isn’t yet showing. Apparently, the company will be sailing, but it’s waiting for some authority or paperwork, or something, before it can start selling tickets. My only concern is that the cabins get snapped up before I get a chance to book a couple, and we end up camping on deck on the way home. That wouldn’t be so much of an issue for our party, I’m thinking more of the safety of other passengers. The last time was all sailed back together, we had a three-hour picnic on the stern deck. Imagine if that went on all night.

I’m heading off into the week now, and it’s a week where I have told myself I am winding down before taking two weeks of work. A few things to type up, some chapters to write, some housework to get done, a piano lesson, a concert rehearsal (for my pupil’s first recital), some singing, the oldest godson is cooking for us one evening later in the week, and coming to do some chocolate tempering with Neil on another afternoon (or some other mystery of the kitchen), and there’s one awkwardly shaped present to wrap… and I think that’s me done.

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The period of ‘getting into the Christmas spirit’ has started up here in the village and in our house. The sitting room is festooned (kind of) with lights which looks cosy after dark, and we’ve started wrapping presents. For the first time in many years, everything I had to order from off-island has arrived in time, but there has been a three-month battle with one item that I’ll tell you about after Christmas. We’ve had invitations for Christmas and New Year events, but we’ll be in Athens at those times. All the lights are up in the village and in the harbour, and some shops and bars have been decorated.

Yesterday afternoon, we called into the Sunrise for a quiz, which was, as always, good fun and good humoured, and with all the lights twinkling and the cats curled up on laps, it was all very cosy. The weather has remained mild though not always warm, and it’s been calm. Hopefully, it will stay that way today as several folks we know are heading to Rhodes for the day, as the big ferry comes in a little later on a Friday, so there’s no need for a 5.30 start.

My piano student is gearing up for his first recital; a performance of three solo pieces and two duets to be given on Boxing Day to his mum, brother and other goddad, and that’s all coming along nicely. Our lesson yesterday consisted of practising the ‘bastard bars’ of Chopin’s Prelude in E minor, and then running through the whole thing followed by some work on a duet and some improvisation. Also included was a short video given by a music teacher explaining his method of practice, and why he uses it. All very helpful, I hope.

Today in our house…? I have a writing for myself day planned, or at least about six hours of it this morning, and Neil will be going to the gym. After that… not a lot.

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