Rainbow views

A few shots taken from the Rainbow Bar on Sunday, plus an early morning trip to the bank. I was down in Yialos at 7.30, taking advantage of the cooler time of day to make the walk up the steps afterwards more bearable. Pleased to say I was able to do it in one go without being out of breath and without sweating too much. Today (Monday as I write), I intend to take a walk up the old donkey track to Xissos and then back down the road, that’s after I’ve worked on and edited two more chapters of The Eastling.

We’re still catching up on washing after the nephew’s visit. How can two lads get through seven towels in ten days? Best not to ask. Neil’s off out soon to lop a friend’s bougainvillaea, I’m going to turn the water off and then turn the washing machine on… I should explain: we can take in water three times per week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the best time to do it is early. It was on at 7.00 this morning, gushing in for a while but, as more houses do the same, the flow reduces to a trickle, but we keep it going for as long as we can. Especially after having four of us in the house for those 10 days. Luckily, we have a large sterna under the workhouse, but it can take a couple of weeks to get it back to full again. Roll on the rainy season when the water will be free.

And back to the old routine

Here’s how today is shaping up – today being yesterday, Sunday, as I’m now back in my old routine, kind of. So far today I’ve done my admin, checked the emails, sent the messages, had a cup of tea and organised the day ahead, and it’s currently… checks time… 04.58. I’m still not back in a routine of waking up at a sensible time, it seems, but then I did go to bed at nine last night.

So, what is the usual routine? Well, I’m aiming to get my work done early in the day, set up a blog for the next day, and then, after lunch, get back to work on the next novel, in this case, ‘The Eastling’. I’ll be starting on that as soon as I’ve posted this blog ready for Monday. I have had my cover designer knock me up a draft front cover so I can start to share it around (still needs some work, like the book). One of the reasons for that is so I can publicise the two books that come before ‘The Eastling’ in case there’s anyone out there who hasn’t read them and wants to get up to date on the series before part there comes out.

I often get chatting with visitors who have read one or more of my Symi books (Symi 85600, Carry on up the Kali Strata etc.) but who haven’t ventured into my other worlds – the magical world of Miss P, the creepy world of the Judas Inheritance or Lonely House, or the mysterious world of Saddling. Why should they? These are not related to Symi or Greece at all. Fair enough, but, if you are interested, then you might like to pick up a copy of The Saddling, follow it with The Witchling and be ready for The Eastling come Christmas, or before. You can find all of these titles on my Amazon James Collins Author Page, and all my books are available in print, Kindle format and are free on Kindle Unlimited.

So that’s today plug and cover to transition me from holiday two weeks back into the usual routine where there will be some news from Symi as well as my daily chit chat about what we’re up to here and how my writing is coming along.

End of the week

Visitors have left, and we’ve ended our two-week at-home holiday with a boat trip to Taviri for a party – thank you Colette and everyone else who made it a fun night. Because it was such a fun night, I’m just going to leave these photos for the weekend and then go and recover. I’ll be back on Monday with the usual.

In local news: the main road out of Yialos is being dug up to lay electricity cables to the new harbour – only in a narrow channel by the curb, so it’s still possible to use the road and pass the workmen. I was in a taxi the other day when one of the men stopped us so he could safely direct the oncoming traffic. I thought, ‘Oh! The first traffic light on Symi.’ A human one, but it reminded me that we don’t have traffic lights, or roundabouts and (as far as I remember) no road markings to speak of, yet we have surprisingly few accidents. I guess drivers around here take responsibility for themselves and don’t rely on the authorities to tell them how to use the road. Anyway… the road between the old windmill restaurant and Campos, in Horio, is also dug up at the moment and is being re-laid. If you’re getting a taxi up, you can get off at the crest of the hill and walk down the road to the village or ask the driver to drop you at Campos and walk up past Taverna Zoi.

And now on with the photos.

Thursday morning

Thursday morning, 5.20, been up for an hour. Don’t ask me why. Mother set off on her return trip yesterday, all taken care of by Olympic, and the nephews are leaving this afternoon. I will see them off and then, a couple of hours later, we have a party on the Poseidon to attend in the evening. It’s going to be a long day.

In Yialos yesterday. It was a busy day down there. I counted several day trip boats and ferries yesterday: The Blue Star in the morning/evening, the Express calling in twice, and then six day boats including one from Turkey. Many tavernas and bars were full or near full; we booked a table at To Spitiko where Spiros and Vasilis coped admirably with the influx and so many tables. These guys work so hard day and night with only a couple of hours off in the afternoon to recover. (The guys at LOS were still working this morning at 5.00, having started at about 3pm yesterday, if not earlier.) Meanwhile, the schools have gone back after the summer break, more visitors are arriving and the island is still buzzing with about another five/six weeks of the season to go. Here are some touristy snaps.

St Nicholas Beach

We didn’t do the round the island boat trip on Monday because it was off on a private charter. Instead, we took a taxi boat around to St Nicholas beach, St Nick’s as it tends to be called. We went with one of the Loukas boats, €9.00 each return from Yialos, and takes only a few minutes to get there. It wasn’t too busy on the beach, there are plenty of sunbeds (€3.50), and it was very peaceful until after lunch when the snoring started – not me and not for long.

Lunch for me was chicken souvlaki (€10.00) at the taverna where the waiters are young and friendly, full of fun and very professional. It’s a family-run beach, bar and taverna and a popular place for visitors due to the sandy beach and shallow waters until you get further out. You can also walk to and from St Nick’s via the improved path from/to Pedi. We took the taxi boat back. The wind was getting up, and there was some splashing of our party towards the back of the boat. All great fun.