A Walk In Yialos

This morning we are going for a short walk in Yialos. This is Symi Town, the main harbour and the place where most people arrive when visiting the island. As you arrive, you see the horseshoe-shaped harbour and the houses clambering up the hillside as if the sea was a stage in an amphitheatre. Many folks get off the boat, follow the guide, listen to the talks and then are sent to certain places for lunch. They might then have a look a few shops or have a coffee before re-joining the boat and saying, ‘There, done Symi.’ But there is more to see, even if you don’t make it out of Yialos.

For example, you can explore the backstreets where there are restaurants and cafes and more shops. You can take a look at the outside of St John’s church, the island’s ‘cathedral’, though the bell tower is currently roped off. Go beyond that and start to see the real Yialos where there are schools and the playgrounds, some large mansion houses, and also the artisans’ shops and buildings. You can let the children play in the square on the playground or take them for a walk up the hill towards Nimborio for a view back towards the sea.

On the south side, opposite the clock tower, you find more cafes and shops and places to eat where you can watch the sailing boats coming in and out. That’s often good entertainment as not everyone who hires a boat knows exactly what to do with it. You will also find fresh fruit and veg stalls in the backstreets, the butchers and bakers, a newsagents, several supermarkets, and souvenir shops alongside working craft workshops. So, there is more than just the quayside offerings. There is the war memorial to view and the famous steps up to the lovely house on the north side; not so bad going up, but you need a head for heights coming down. Explore behind the houses on the north side, and you can find a path that leads across the hill there, looking down onto the bay. Explore on the south side, and you may even find your way to the village.

And those are just a few ideas. I think the main point is to explore. Get away from the guides, or better still, come on your own. (Sorry guides, but few allow their guests to explore in Horio or other places that are reachable by bus and taxi within the allotted time of three and half hours, or whatever.) If in doubt, ask someone. You’ll always find a friendly welcome and many locals speaking your language who can direct you to something slightly off the beaten, well-worn track.

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Symi Spring Photos

Well, the good news is that I sorted out the layout problem on The Witchling. The bad news is that the layout artist is currently very tied up. He looks after his very elderly mother and severely disabled sister, who is currently very ill. So, we will have to wait for the final files to be ready to publish while hoping that everyone in his household comes through their current crisis.

Maybe today should just be about photos, to lift the mood. These are some Neil took recently on a walk. As you can see, spring is well on its way.

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The Curse of the Saddling Witchling

I spent some of Monday working on ‘The Witching’ layout, trying to save the layout guy some time. I laboriously copied the text of each chapter into a text file, to clear it of all formatting, and then set about using a programme called In Design. I shall pepper this tragic tale with recent images, to break up my gloom.

When you make up a book for printing, you need to be sure you have your gutters right – the blank spaces either side of the age and in the middle. The right-hand page, the Recto, has the left-hand gutter (or margin if you like) wider than the right so that it takes into account the binding. The left-hand pages of a book, the Verso pages, have the wider gutter on the right and the outer margin on the left. My layout chap sent me two files, Recto for chapters starting on the right-hand page and a Verso template for chapters starting on the left. Easy…

So, my process was this: open the Recto template for chapter one, as chapter one always starts on the right-hand page. Each section of the chapter has a different ‘master’ template within it that controls various layout settings, in this case, there’s a ‘B Master’ for the chapter heading. So, I find that and change the heading to ‘One’, for chapter one. Then I place in the text from the text file, fiddle with the first line to make it left-justified and not indented, and add the drop-caps size. That all goes well. I checked for windows and orphans (words or parts of lines that are left on their own on the first or last line and that look messy) and made a few edits, triple checking that I haven’t made any typos which will upset the proofreaders. All okay so far…

Once chapter one is looking smoking hot, I see if it ends on a right or left page, as chapter two will need to start on the opposite page, make a note, and close the files. Start the process again with chapter two and a Verso page as it starts on a left-hand page. Some people like to have each chapter start on their right, and that does work, but it also adds unnecessary pages and ads to the cost of printing, so to save space I tend not to do that. Chapter two gets done, and I fall into a rhythm… And work my way through all 36 chapters carefully. There, that’s a great job done. Except…

When I come to make up a dummy document in PDF, to see how the layout looks, I realise that I have, at some point around chapter four, started on the wrong page, and thus there is a blank page. Every chapter after that starts concurrently and looks fine, except there’s an additional blank page near the start of the book for no reason. And that means, going back to square one and starting again – so that’s about four hours wasted. Also, the page numbering is up the spout so I will have to deal with that. Hey ho! Publication may be slightly delayed. It’s the curse of the Saddling witchling I tell you – but I hope it will be worth the effort and worth your wait. So, now it’s back to the tedium of copy and paste and typeset and check, and double check – and an email to the real typesetter to see if he can do the whole thing for me.

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More From Last Friday

Here are a few more images taken at the name day service last Friday. (And a couple taken afterwards where Neil was enjoying the last of the carnival silly-foam.) It’s been a warm weekend and, after some high winds on Saturday, we’ve enjoyed calm weather, some cloud, but mainly higher temperatures. It’s turning out to be a mainly settled February.

I’m not stopping long, I have the pages to put together for ‘The Witching’, and we’re aiming to have that with you in the next week, maybe sooner, maybe longer, it depends on when the layout artist can check my formatting. I’m trying to save him time by doing the donkey work myself this time, as he has many other things on right now and I’m keen to get this one out of the pending tray, as it were. So, have a glance at the images, and I’ll be back to tomorrow, probably with more weather reports and news on books.

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A Name Day Festival

We attended Harrys’ name day festival on Friday morning. If was a smaller affair than previous years, possibly because a) some people were still stuck in Rhodes and b) there is another festival for the same name up in the hills, and the weather was lovely. But so was our service and the friendly gathering afterwards which included coffee, cakes, people pleased to see you at church (even if I do only go once a year), doughnuts, bread, Jenine’s cupcakes that she provides, after enjoying the chanting and the spectacle. The more I go, the more words I understand so by the time I’m 145 I may be able to understand all of the sung liturgy.

If you’re coming to Symi and are interested to see inside a church, the best time to go is when there is a service on. The buildings are usually locked at other times unless someone is in there cleaning. You’re welcome to attend a service or part of, just make sure you dress appropriately, switch off phones and don’t chatter etc. If unsure what to do, find a stall or seat towards the back and sit/stand as the congregation does. There are certain practises which are not always, excuse me, religiously kept, such as the men sitting on one side and the women on the other. As a visitor, you won’t be expected to keep to these, but if someone does direct you to a certain place, just do as you are told. Name Days are the best festivals to attend (in my opinion), although there are many other regular services during the week. With a Name Day, you will find you’re welcomed to the coffee and cakes afterwards. You will also be blessed during the service. No need to go anywhere, someone will come with a tray of candles and anoint you with holy water – drop a couple of Euros on the tray in return. If in doubt about what to go to, ask your holiday rep or a local person and take some advice first.

When I say ‘dress appropriately’ I mean don’t go in your shorts or bikini. For a Name Day, I usually (er, always) wear black shoes, trousers, a jumper and, as Harry’s is in February, my Crombie overcoat. With that and my glasses reacting to the sun, a few people have asked me (on Facebook) if I have joined the Mafia, but I just say I am Harry’s bouncer for the day. Here are a couple more photos of the event for you.

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