Birthdays, Cats and Mules

Happy birthday to anyone who has a birthday today. I open with this because there are several people we know who have birthdays today, and our third grandchild is due today too, though I think she might be held up. That gives me a slightly weird segue into the next subject, cat neutering. As you can see from the photo, the bin cats down our way have multiplied somewhat from the one or two of last winter to the several of yesterday. I went to drop the rubbish off and came across this little lot just after someone had been past and left them food and water.

There has been a free neutering programme running, and if you want to know more, you can check their Facebook Page. Symi Neutering Programme – SniP operates out of Pet Island, the island’s pet shop at the bottom of the Kali Strata, and works with larger cat welfare organisations and a veterinary surgery in Rhodes.

You know, yesterday, after dropping the rubbish and chatting to the bin chickens, I headed off to Sotiris supermarket to pick up a few supplies and came across a roadblock. The flower and garden shop was unloading a van in the lane, and there was no way anyone could get past for a while, so I took the long-cut around the back of the old Olive Tree to come out on the other side of the truck, only to be faced with another potential delay…

The mules still work on Symi, delivering to parts other transportation cannot reach, and we often hear them coming past the house, bell tinkling, hooves clomping stoically, and their boss calling ‘Oishi, oishi’ which is a version of ‘oxi’ I guess, but sounds like the Japanese word for delicious. (Or similar, and I picked that up from MasterChef, so it might be wrong.)

Anyway, quick ramble over, I have nothing on my slate today apart from revisions of my next novel, and as it’s not yet six, and I have eleven hours before attending a birthday event, I should get on with it.

A few random photos

That’s all I have for you today, a few random photos as my mind is a more or less a complete blank when it comes to thinking of what I can tell you. Unless you want to know that yesterday I took delivery of a new book, a sociological study of slumming, the 19^th and early 20^th-century practice of the better-off taking tours to the slum areas of London to see how the other half live. Out of interest, to make themselves feel better, to improve knowledge, to inspire charity or to engage in more nefarious activities, there were lots of reason people did it. I now have several research books on my to-be-read pile, though I have already started on this one because it’s background for a current writing project and there’s another book about the East End in 1888 on its way, and I also need to read that one before returning to my current first draft and creating the second. Here’s a random and unrelated photo…

Meanwhile, it’s five in the morning, and the Blue Star has just pulled in. It’s not the most popular time of day for folk to catch a boat on their way to the airport, but it’s the best we have if your flight is Wednesday daytime or early evening, as there are no boats to Rhodes until later in the day, and it is reliable too. And here are a  couple more random photos as I really have run out of things to say today.

Chugging along

The weather has warmed, cloud is due on Wednesday and Thursday. The boats continue to come in, people have been taking advantage of cheap flights at the last minute, and a couple of the taxi boats are still running to the nearer beaches. I heard the Poseidon is continuing its trips for a couple more weeks, numbers permitting. People are still donating to the appeal to help fund the music school, which will have to close if it can’t raise enough funds. The Oxi Day parades have been cancelled this year.

The cockerels continue to crow from early morning to late at night, the owl sits on the pole outside the sitting room and calls in the early hours, and the mules have been working. There are more cats at our local bins these days, the mosquitoes are back, but so far, no October spider invasion.

Messages are passed – there’s a parcel for you at the book shop, but he couldn’t get you on the phone, visitors welcomed, buildings worked on, diner invitations sent and received, walks planned, swims taken, gossip passed along and embellished. Cars drive down to meet the early morning ferry, fishing boats chug out to sea, the occasional church bell rings, and the same old sun shines in the morning. Life goes on, and the cockerels are still crowing for twenty hours a day.

Saturday

Had to pop into town on Saturday to pick up a new PC keyboard. I seem to go through one every six months and haven’t yet found the perfect one. The Microsoft one was flat, and I eventually got used to it, but then the keys’ stuck’ and all I was getting on the page was a long line of one letter or spaces. The big old Logitech giant was more heavy-duty with clunky and large keys that got stuck on their mechanism on the way down so not every letter was typed. Now I have a smaller Logitech, and the keys feel smooth and are slightly raised, but it’s a smaller keyboard, so my fingers are fighting over each other, and things aren’t quite in the same place. I play the keyboard like I would play a piano, which doesn’t help (I’ve never learnt to type properly), so my right hand is all over it while my left tends to stay still and only plays the from Tab to R, Ctrl to V. Which all an excuse for any typos you may find.

But hey! At least we were able to have lunch out for the first time in ages and for only about the fifth time this year. Friday lunch ‘down town’ used to be a regular thing, but this year has been different, for various reasons, mainly financial, so we made the most of it at Meraklis before treating ourselves to a taxi back up.

There’s work going on in the harbour, and I mean in the harbour. Concrete slabs are being dropped, planted, placed, sunk, whatever beneath the water for a reason I can only guess at, and this involves floating them out under balloons and then deflating the balloons, so the slabs sink, and a diver goes down with them to… Well, most of that is guesswork. I’ve been told they’re concrete slabs, I only saw the balloons, and I can only assume it’s something to do with making anchoring easier? Whatever the reason, I’m sure it’s for a useful purpose.

Now then, I am one chapter away from finishing a rough first draft, so I’m going to get on with that as I have all day, and one without interruptions apart from godson #1 coming to do the cleaning as that’s his Sunday job and maybe popping out to buy a bottle of milk.

Friday Photos

Just received this message: “Thanks for the details about the music school in Symi, I’ve just done exactly what you suggested re the cost of a meal for 2 in Symi*, I hope all your other readers do it too. The longed-for calendar has also been ordered, so all is well in my house at the moment.”

Today, the appeal has raised just over £2,000, that’s 10%. Bravo! Here’s the link if you’ve missed it. Help fund the Symi Music School.

* The suggestion was to donate what you’d have spent on a meal in Symi had you been able to come this year, or even if you did.

A few September shots to share for the weekend.