It looks like we are in for a blustery day today. The wind is forecast only to 4 or 5 Bf. Beaufort Force 5 is, apparently, a fresh breeze. The wind will be up to 17 to 21 knots, or 30 to 38 kph or 19 to 24 mph. (I wish it would make up its mind.) Rising westerly Dogger, German Bight. Easterly cyclonic Forties… and all that. Anyway, it means I’ve got my window open, but the door shut so it doesn’t slam, which, in turn, means there will be bits of trees and dried bougainvillea flowers scooting along the floor and taking me by surprise because I will immediately think they are spiders, even though I know they’re not, while out in the courtyard…
Not a lot is happening in that shot, but the chillies are coming along well, and we’ve already had one lot from them. I’ll drop in a photo at some point. Talking of which, I really must get some more. Everything in my folder is currently at least two weeks old. Still, not that much changes around here, only by the seasons or very gradually over time – renovations, more vehicles, businesses change, but the premises remain, the boys who came to dance under the orange trees on my 40th birthday are now getting married and raising families… When did that happen? Oh, and the early morning sunlight on old buildings is still a joy to see.
Wasn’t that a fun weekend. Oh. Why? What did you do? Not a lot, to be frank. Wrote a couple of chapters, watched a bit of TV, used buckets of water to flush the loo, listened to the pump going off every 10 minutes, finally turned it off on Sunday afternoon because we’d run out of water anyway despite not having a shower for two days and using bottled water in the kettle, made an appointment with a plumber to look for a leak this afternoon as long as the boy downstairs remembers to be home at the right time, made a note to ask him (plumber) if it’s possible to add a second water tank to the existing, and how much will it cost, and another note to (again) let the landlord know the issue persists, and went to the bar for a drink.
Also took a photo of the rose.
Happy September, by the way. Already? I know. The weather has been thinking it was September since early August, so that’s been quite pleasant, but it makes me wonder if we are in for an early winter. But hey! At least we are not being misled by a slimy phobe called Farage, we’re not seeing vandals being allowed to spray paint sinister red crosses (badly) and otherwise vandalise the streets with misspelt words and impunity. (I know. I wrote it that way on purpose.)
Friends came for drinks the other night. This makes the courtyard look huge!
Instead, we are looking forward to having lunch with the godson on Wednesday, Neil’s birthday and our anniversary this time next week, and a few other pleasant things for which we may or may not be able to wash. Oh, and I’m also looking forward to the mains water being switched on at eight so I can do just that.
It’s odd, and I must investigate – although I have mentioned this to the landlord. Houses up the road from us are on the mains 24/7, so how come we’re not? How do we get put on? That would save a lot of problems. I must ask Valantis later, or call into the town hall, or send an email and ask. Another job for this week, perhaps.
You may remember that a while ago I put up a photo of the graffiti wall, the place opposite the corner shop with some very interesting graffiti on it, medical pictures and all. It has a strange kind of charm about it, knowing that it’s a place where youngsters hang out (near the sweet shop, like when we were young). They also hang out in the square where there’s always a generation of footballers, and that generation changes over the years. There’s not much else for young people to do on the island, it seems to be more or less football or nothing, so they make their own entertainment. (We have the scouts and other organisations, but as far as I know, the massive sports hall is hardly used – I may be wrong.)
There always seems to be a couple of shirts acting as goalposts in the square, where there are a couple of benches. There was a planter, maybe put right in the centre to stop the children playing ball games, but that’s found its way to the side, and the match resumes. What’s nice to see is how the younger folk look after this little area, in that they’ve taken it upon themselves to decorate one of the benches. Yesterday, Peter delivered me these photos, so thank you for that. The colourful, fun side of ‘hanging out in the village square,’ and certainly more cheerful than the graffiti wall.
The full bench.The details.‘Symi is the best island.’
It’s that old devil called water again. Yesterday was water intake day, and because we had run out the day before, it was vital we had a full tank, otherwise, we would be dry until Friday. So, we’re waiting and waiting, and the needle on the meter isn’t going round, and Neil had to go down town for something, and was going to call into the town hall to ask why, when, on his way, he noticed other people’s water supply was on and it was coming in, so why not us? I checked again and discovered the water was coming in, but only as far as the garden tap (not that we have a garden). From there, it runs directly to the water tank only, yesterday, it wasn’t. So, I tried the hose to see if that would run from the garden tap to the tank, which is about six feet higher, and no, it wouldn’t. So, I went and bought a better hose from Mr Chan, whose name probably isn’t Mr Chan, but that’s what the locals call him, but not even his hose made a difference. Neil was back from town by now, and we discovered that water would run through the house and dribble out (better than nothing), but only to a certain altitude; after that, nothing.
So, we had to resort to buckets, 20 of them, up and down the spiral stairs until the tank was full of soup. Pouring the buckets in, rather than having the steady flow from the main pipe, disturbed the sediment that’s built up at the bottom of the tank over the years. Sediment? From rainwater? Yes, well, no, because it’s not rainwate,r it’s some strange water-effect substitute provided by a desalination plant that doesn’t quite desalinate, so we’re constantly seeing yellow water coming out of taps, and rust-coloured water-effect substitute in the WC now and then. All very odd, and no, we don’t drink it.
Anyway, the plumber called later, took a look at the pump, which still goes off every ten minutes for no reason, checked our pipes for leaks (none), took the mains pipe off, blew down it and will come back tomorrow to check it or change it so we can fill up without having to go up and down with buckets. Then he went to knock on the door downstairs to check for leaks. However, he decided, en route, that it was siesta time and he would come back later to see the soldier who must have a leak despite what he says, and I don’t mean that kind of leak, Missus. But, apparently, he either didn’t call back, or he did, and the soldier was out because the pump’s still going off. But at least we have a tank of yellow water to see us through until next top-up day. We also now have five buckets of spare water, a new hosepipe and stronger calf muscles just in case.
Other things that happened during my week off and since… Let me see… I mentioned the birthday, and if you’re on the same social media as us, you will have seen pictures from Harry’s 18th, so that happened. He chose to go to lunch at the Kali Strata Restaurant, where he works in the evenings, so he had a chance to enjoy some of the fare he nightly delivers to other people, and the meal was as special as it always is there. Even more special for H as his brother was cooking for him and came to join us at the table for a present opening. H’s birthday is the same day as Sam’s name day, so we were able to sit with big bro for a short while between his shifts and do more present sharing.
There have been other kinds of celebrations and events taking place too, as today’s photos show. Thank you to Penny for letting me use them.
That was in Yialos late the other night. I think the concert was also last week?
The harbour has been busy with boats, which is always good to see, but the roads have been over-busy with visiting traffic, as you might have gleaned from my earlier photos. We got caught in this last Friday when we decided to take a taxi up to the village. We do this now when it’s too hot to walk up at midday, or when we have too much to carry, as we did last week. Hats off to our taxi drivers for their patience and good humour. It took roughly 10 minutes to get from the taxi rank to Petalo, that’s the bottom of the hill leading out of town.
First, he had to negotiate the tourists who’d just got off a Sebeco. The tavernas along the way were full, and the chairs were out almost to the road, so you can’t pull too far that way, and the quay is on the other side, so you can’t go that way. Visitors have a habit of standing in the middle of the road like a herd of ruminating cattle contemplating their bare navels and wondering where they left their brains, and no-one likes a horn blower (unless it’s Ioan Gruffedd, or perhaps Gregory Peck), and you can’t even nudge them out of the way. Next came the tour groups gathering in the road and in the bus stop parking bay waiting for the talk about the island, and then came oncoming traffic, including the bus, followed by another bus, followed by the line of people who’d come of the Panagia and who had walked around from the ‘new’ port, and then came a stream of cars…
This was taken on a quieter day
Oh, first had come one car who though she owned the road and sat there waiting for the taxi to hitch up its skirts and sidestep into the sea so she could pass, and she had the bus behind her, and the only thing she could do was reverse, or try to. Our driver was laughing by this point. She did some farting about and managed to get herself wedged into the side of the road, with pedestrians streaming around her adding to the confusion, but finally, by the time we’d negotiated her back several yards, we were almost at Petalo, and the bus was halfway back up the hill, and the road to the ‘new’ port was closed to traffic because of building work, and still the herd was streaming from somewhere and inching between the cars, and finally…
Totally bonkers. Luckily, many of those visiting from the mainland will have returned there or are now on their way back there with their cars, so there may be a little more space on the roads. One day we’ll get to the point of a radio play I wrote b ack in the 90s, where it turned out there was more length of vehicle on (an island’s) roads than there was length of road, and everyone decided to go out for a drive at the same time leading to one of those square ‘nine’ puzzles where you have one space, and you have to slide tiles (vehicles) around to get home. Anyhow… That was last week, and now, it’s back to work.
