Before I vanish, I promised to post this news about the Symi Film festival:
The festival is still open for entries and so far, “the early bird entries are 170 films submitted from 42 countries.” The next deadline for entry is 15th June. The final deadline is 30 June.
That’s already a lot of films for the committee to choose from, so it looks like it’s going to be a packed festival later this year. The Festival will be screening here on Symi between 16th and 20th September. http://www.symifilmgroup.com/
A quick reminder: I will be away for a few days now, possibly two weeks, though I am around next week so there may be some posts then, but if not, don’t panic! Just vote in the EU elections and don’t waste your vote. You are lucky to have one.
You know I’m not a news channel, but here are a couple of bits of information that may be of use. I had a message from the British Consulate in Rhodes saying that their meeting with British residents of Symi will now be held on the island probably on the evening of Thursday 30th May. The venue is still to be finalised, but the opera House Hotel or the Rainbow Bar in Horio look to be the likely locations. I will be away from 24th to 31st May, so keep an eye on Facebook and other Symi news sites for more details nearer the time.
Secondly, I mentioned the new taxi drivers yesterday and included a phone number. I’ve been sent another one: +30 698 756 9469, John Nikolis. I’m not sure what hours these guys are available to take bookings, but assume that their phones are off when they are not working.
During the opperation
Thirdly, and more fun, the repair to the drains/road outside our house is nearly finished. The water seeping into the downstairs flat turned out to be from a pipe under the main road, hence the reason for digging it up. Our landlord reported this the other, evening and the following day, the workmen arrived to see to it as it was a council problem. We were able to lend them the use of our electricity for the compressor, a bucket, water and washing up liquid for filling it in. (I’m still trying to work out what the washing up liquid was for). The job took two days. However, the hole is only filled with sand right now, and the stones have not yet been replaced, so take care if you’re driving that way. I assume that the stones will go back once the sand/filling has settled, but it’s been a long time since I did building studies and I don’t think we covered road repairs anyway.
Tuesday night: We met up with a friend for dinner in Yialos and decided to try the new Mythos restaurant. This is now on the north side of the harbour, beside Manos’ fish taverna, Stavros is the chef, and there is a good choice on the menu. The boards outside list traditional Greek food, but the classic Mythos menu is also available. Stavros came to greet us, as he does with his guests and told us what he had prepared that day from the Mythos menu. Customers are also able to choose from a printed menu. With the weather suddenly warming up, it was possible to sit at the front tables overlooking the harbour without being cold. The restaurant has kept the design and fittings from before and looks stunning.
The staff are also efficient and friendly, the prices are very reasonable considering the standard of cooking, they make their own bread; you can see it being made. It’s also possible to look into the kitchen, so it’s all very open and ambient. As for the food… Well, there’s a reason we like to go to Mythos. I’m not saying we pigged out, but we did a bit. Garlic pitta, a tuna salad and chilli feta from the oven got us off to a good start, and it came with homemade bread. Neil and I went for our favourite, the chicken breast in blue cheese sauce, and our friend had a pork dish, all were rather wonderful as you would expect. After, full and delighted, we were presented with three desserts and a shot of tsipouro (think raki) on the house, and later, a very reasonable bill.
Starters
Being full and lazy, we asked our waiter to phone us a taxi which arrived a few minutes later. Now then, visitors often grumble about not being able to find a taxi in the late evening hours or the early mornings, if you like. Well, we have some new, young taxi drivers. I mentioned one of the guys here the other day. Yiannis picked us up from the restaurant and took us to the village. On the way, he told us that he and his brother (possibly cousin, either way, the same surname) were planning to run a late night service. Kind of: let the older guys drive during the day and the younger guys will take over for the late evenings and early mornings. He said he would still be running at two or three o’clock, but that, in my opinion, might depend on the time of year. The point being, these young entrepreneurs have listened to what people want and are now offering to be around when most needed – most needed by stay-out-laters who don’t want to risk the steps after dark or after one too many free tsipouro. He gave us his card so you can make a note of his number: +30 697 462 3492 – Yiannis and George Petridis. I’ve not yet got the details of the other drivers.
I had one of those nights last night. Bed at just after nine and off to sleep. Woke at 22.50 thinking it was time to get up. It wasn’t. Same happened at 00.10. Rinse and repeat at 01.34, 01.50 and then at 02.12 and finally gave up on the idea at 02.30, wide awake and looking forward to getting some work done. Peaceful and quiet down below in Yialos, apart from one idiot who thinks it’s macho to remove his/her baffles and roar his 50 cc motorbike in the early hours. Didn’t disturb me as I was awake but glad I wasn’t trying to sleep nearby. Next thing I know it’s dawn and time for lunch. I think a siesta will be in order later as we are dining out tonight. I may be asleep in my kolokithokeftethes otherwise.
An advantage of early rising; the night view (a few mornings ago)
While in Yialos tonight, I need to organise some boat tickets. I am off to Rhodes for Saturday and Sunday so there may be no blog next Monday, and then the following Friday, I am off to Tilos for a week, so may take a break then too – from the blog I mean. I am there to write so will probably be working longer hours as there will be fewer disturbances. So, if I ‘go dark’ you will know why. Or, if I am off-and-on for the rest of this month, you will know why.
Later in the morning, still an impressive sight (different day)
If you have been following our water issues, you’ll be delighted to know that there was another plumbing emergency on Monday afternoon. This one wasn’t draining the water from our limited tank, so we weren’t directly affected, but water was trickling through a wall downstairs in the unoccupied flat. The strange thing is, on the other side is the ground beneath the road. The soil pipes from our place travel along the kitchen ceiling down there, and there are other large pipes that seem to come and go from nowhere (it’s rather Steampunk), and we, that’s me, the landlord and his plumber, were baffled for a while. I think it might be a large pipe from the landlord’s house opposite that travels beneath the road to meet up with this house’s drainage, but it didn’t smell nasty, and nothing upstairs was being flushed, drained or run, so it’s still a mystery. Another plumber came at seven in the evening, and after a while, everything went quiet down there, so I assume it was, in the end, an easy fix. And now, twelve hours later, I think I might go back to bed.
I assume the cat was lapping up the salt after the logs for the bakery were washed in the sea? Oh no, that’s sponges. He was licking something… I have no idea.
Today, a few photos showing recent action in the village square. Well, when I say action, I mean… You know, daily life. The bars starting to busy up as summer gets underway, Symi and our mayor on the TV on Sunday night, someone taking their young garlic for a walk in the pushchair… You know how it is.
Let’s have a plug. If this is all new to you and you want to know more about Symi and what it’s like to live here, may I suggest starting with ‘Symi 85600’, my account of moving here and our first five years on the island. More details of that time can be found in ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ and the other two books about living on the island fit in between. Start with ‘Symi 85600’ move on to ‘Carry on up the Kali Strata’, then to ‘Village View’ (which takes you through a complete year, 2013), and then come up to date with ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense.’ I expect most of my regular readers have already seen these books, but if you haven’t, you’ll find quirky tales, thoughts, observations and perhaps even something worth knowing.
The link at the end of this chat takes you to my author page at Amazon where you can find all the novels and books. I was asked on Sunday if any of the novels are Symi-set. ‘Jason and the Sargonauts’ is set on Symi in World War II and ‘present day’ (which was a few years ago now), and as far as possible, the wartime flashbacks are historically accurate with some licence, so don’t use it as a basis for your thesis. ‘The Judas Inheritance’ is also set on Symi although it’s not named and the story (a horror) has nothing to do with the island, that’s just a metaphor for Greece in the days of the economic disaster of a few years back.
