Meanwhile, this time last year…

Well, almost this time last year. I was wondering what to blather about today, and I thought I’d have a look at my old folder of photos taken in 2020.

In order, between December 2019 and June 2020, these are a few shots from Symi through that year. They include:

A night at Rainbow (not been able to do that since last November), and heavy hail in the early months that scarred the plants. Cold clear days in January and February, but still time and suitable weather for the occasional afternoon glass of wine outside in the afternoon.

There were flowers in March and will be again soon, we had 18 degrees in April (we have already had this in January), the weather was warm in May, and the plants flowered right through to June where the following collection runs out. For now. I will no doubt do this again when I can’t think of anything else to talk, moan, mumble about in days to come.

A night at Rainbow

Heavy hail in the early months

Cold clear days in January and February

Still time and suitable weather…

Flowers in March

18 degrees in April

The plants flowered right through to June

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My Monday Moan is free of the €700 import charge

Don’t read this if you are/were in favour of Brexit and don’t want to hear some home truths about the consequences. Things like believing the NHS would get millions per week, you’d be running through sunny uplands (whatever that’s meant to mean) and the lies about trade deals, oven-ready or otherwise. Luckily for all of us, Neil has supplied some beautiful photos of Symi to lighten my Monday morning mood, so you can always look at them and ignore the text.

Today’s advice. Don’t order anything online and have it sent directly to me. Certainly not cheese, horse feed or football shirts, not that I need the latter two, and I can buy cheese here at the moment. I’d also be wary of sending anything from the yUK to Europe right now as couriers may refuse to deal with your parcel. If you’re thinking of sending a gift to friends abroad, then think again or tread carefully. The likelihood is, us over here will either have to pay a massive import tax to collect it, or we’ll have to refuse to take it, and it will be sent back and possibly burnt. Sadly, I am not making this up or scaremongering. That’s how it currently is with the yUK’s ‘oven-ready’ trade deal with the EU. Ironic really, as some exports are being burned and, thus, really are ready for the oven.

To back up my wildly outlandish statement: A small business that makes and exports cheese from Cheshire… has lost 20% of his sales overnight after discovering he needed to provide a £180 health certificate on retail orders to consumers in the EU, including those buying personal gift packs of his award-winning wax-wrapped cheese worth £25 or £30.

 To save his business, he will now have to switch a £1m investment he was planning to make in a new distribution centre in Macclesfield to the EU, with the loss of 20 jobs and tax revenue to the UK.

Meanwhile, in another part of the newspaper: British businesses that export to the continent are being encouraged by government trade advisers to set up separate companies inside the EU in order to get around extra charges, paperwork and taxes resulting from Brexit. (My emphasis, simply because… Well, honestly! What a shambles.)

Oh, here’s another one and it’s to do with books: [A Berlin publisher] said that, as a result of new rules, regulations and costs resulting from Brexit, it had decided not to export any more books to the UK at all, not even ‘111 Reasons to Love England.’

As you can gather from today’s post, I can find few reasons to love England right now, and by England, I mean the whole of the UK, though it seems those blithering about in Westminster sometimes forget that it is a united queendom.

Anyway, I’ve got that out of my system, and really, I just wanted to warn against posting things from the yUK to friends and family in the EU unless you check carefully what extra charges may be incurred (at either end). Brexit, eh? A gift that keeps on giving. Thank the stars for Neil’s photos.

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Cats, Goats and Weekend plans

Let’s enter the weekend with some animal shots, shall we? I have no idea why. I was simply browsing through my folders and saw a few cute cats and characterful goats, and thought, why not?

While you’re doing whatever you’re doing over the weekend, I’ll be working away on my latest story. I am one chapter away from finishing the first draft. This one was born out of an idea that only took proper shape as I wrote my way through 90,000 words (with another 4,000 or more to go), so I will need to start again next week on draft two and do a lot more work. I almost have a title, and so I can start my designer working on a cover. I will also finish my Phantom model as best I can so I can clear the kitchen table for Neil’s baking. We’ve had a wonderfully endless round of cakes and biscuits, curries and other delicious things since Christmas, all made while he’s wearing his MasterChef apron (personalised, of course).

There may be some rare walking going on, from me, I mean. Neil’s been doing up to eight miles each day with Clare, and bravo them. He left yesterday bundled up in several layers looking like the Michelin Man and set off for Nimborio again. If you walk from the village, down the main road, follow it around the coast, reach the far side of Nimborio bay, and then come back on the same route, you will be covering eight miles, should you ever wish to know.

Meanwhile, if you head up to Xissos and try to get up to St Nikitas church on the steeply sloping path that’s the middle of three roads (if you know the area, you will know where I mean), you can’t. Not this week at least as the road is being improved and resurfaced. This will make driving and walking to Ag Nikitas and that area easier. At least, I think that’s where Neil described his route, he wasn’t too sure where he’d gone that day, but it sounded like that was the right direction.

Anyway, I’m off to write and create and keep warm, do the shopping, try and find a cover for a leaky wall-tap in the bathroom that’s there to feed a washing machine and seems to have deteriorated despite never being used. I tried the universal fix of gaffer tape, but that’s not worked, so I need to investigate some basic plumbing items, a bit of a first for me. And that will be my weekend. Whatever you’re doing, I hope you have a good one.

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Photos today

Today, some photos showing the wintery side of Symi as photographed by Neil over the past week or so. As you can see, there is a variety. Crisp, clear days, rough seas, windy waves, quiet, pastoral moments and sunny shorelines. We have it all here.

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Cold and Covid Vacs

Blimey. The temperature has dropped by at least 10 degrees in the last couple of days, and although the courtyard is registering 7° first thing in the morning, it feels a lot colder thanks to the north wind. Shutters are shut, curtains are up, and the heaters are on in the background, but blankets are required for TV watching, thermals and Aran jumpers for daywear, and as soon as I find where I put them, fingerless gloves will be a la mode for typing.

Yesterday, I went through the online process of putting our house electricity bill in my name to match up with the house contract. It used to be a complicated process and, although I never tried it, involved attending the DEH office in Rhodes with paperwork, bills, your landlord, his extended family and various other hard to find bits and pieces. Now, it’s a case of filling out some online forms, giving tax numbers and passport proof of who you are, the contract and bank details. Hopefully, in a couple of days, I will get a reply telling me what, if anything, I need to do next. I forgot to add the contract when I filled the form as my translation might not have been up to scratch, but I’ve now emailed that, so I wait to see what happens. The good thing about having the bill in my name is that it works with the contract, and everything is now linked through the online tax service. Not sure if that means the bill is deductible, but what it more importantly means is that I will have a utility bill in my name and address. That proof of address, I hear, is needed for getting the new biometric residency cards, which are another story yet to be told. Neil has the phone bill in his name.

We’re still waiting to hear what we need to do to get those cards organised, so if you’re on Symi and wondering, hold on a while longer as the officer in charge has said we’ll know as soon as he does. There is a rumour that, as with the Covid vaccinations, we will have to go to Rhodes to complete the process. What with inter-island travel banned for anything but medical emergencies, I can’t see a group of immigrants such as us being allowed to pop over for the day to exchange residency cards for biometric ones. I can’t see an island population of 2,500 or so nipping across to get a shot in the arm either, but again, we’re waiting to hear what’s happening about that.

Meanwhile, the kitchen table should be clear again soon as the Phantom is coming along, and I’ve almost finished. It’s not my best work, but it’s fun to do, keeps me away from the TV and makes a change from writing.

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