Symi Saturday Photos

Let’s round off the week with our usual Symi Saturday Photos. This week has given us rain (yippee! Say the plants), Neil’s last day of the season working at The Rainbow Bar, my wonderful editor finishing off the interior of ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’, me making progress on the screenplay commission I am working on, a football tournament for our youth teams, a last lunch of the season (for us) at Meraklis – it’s open until mid November, Vasilis tells me – sunny days, some warm evenings with the windows still open, and the first of the Christmas shopping orders arriving. So, before you head off into your weekend, here are a few photos from this week. Have a good one, as they say, rather vaguely.

And back to the sunshine

As it turned out, Wednesday brightened up to the point that I was sweating after I’d been to the bank. Not because I’d done anything dodgy, or had to pay a huge bill (luckily) but because the bank is on the south-facing side of the harbour and it was hot. That side of the harbour, I mean, not the bank. There were tourists in shorts wandering about, having come off the two not-so-full day boats, and even sitting in the shade at Pacho’s was warm enough just for a hoodie, jeans and trainers – gone are my sandals and shorts, you will be pleased to know.

The bright day turned to afternoon, and we sat at Lefteris’ kafenion for a while because Rainbow is now shut in the afternoons. Neil has finished work for the season. We did pop down there afterwards though because Yianni had come back for the later shift and waved us over for a freebie while he negotiated the terms of Neil’s release. He’s very kind; he worries that Neil finishing work will leave him destitute when, in fact, Neil is more than happy to have the whole day back to himself after working seven days per week for seven months.

There were clouds about in the evening, but impressive ones, and here are a few shots from Wednesday to keep you going until tomorrow when, no doubt, there will be more.

Still raining

As you can see, the rain is persisting. It’s Wednesday late morning as I write, and I am about to venture into Yialos, probably to buy an umbrella. The Blue Star came and went, the Express too, and the Sea Dreams has just come in. It will be interesting to see how busy the town is this morning, and how many damp visitors we have. I’ll go and check that out and leave you with these shots from yesterday.

First Decent Rain of the Winter?

I like it when it rains. I know, some people hate it, but after so many months of hot weather and little rain, it’s good to get a downpour. As of 10.15 yesterday morning, I am still waiting for the promised heavy rain. We’ve had a few showers wander past and dump on us, but not for long. Various weather sites were predicting a storm and high winds, but so far, they have not materialised. I may be speaking too soon, of course, but I’m just going to check with http://poseidon.hcmr.gr/ to see what they predict for the next 24 hours. Hold on…

According to their site, the biggest fall was due at nine this morning (Tuesday), and we did have a suspicion of a downpour. After that, it looks clear (of rain, the cloud persists) until around six on Wednesday morning when it could get heavy. The wind also looks to be pretty calm for the next few days apart from a few dodgy, but short, moments. Over in Rhodes this morning, they had thunderstorms. I am not jealous. Each time there’s a storm I have to unplug the internet and computer, just in case of a power surge.

But it is still warm enough to be working with the door open, even if particular shutters have to be shut depending on the wind direction. The sound of heavy rain in the courtyard is a strangely comforting one and helps me concentrate. It’s also good to hear the runoff gushing through the downpipe and into the sterna; free water. Which reminds me:

If any helpful Symi dweller is reading this, can you let me know if/when you are expecting to have your water meter read? Ours has only been read once in the last two and a half years and the last bill came in at €10.00, which was clearly wrong. Our meter is inside the courtyard, so can’t be read by George as he passes by. (Is it still George?) I know I can take the reading to the town hall and let them know there, but I always forget to do that. If George comes around the Syllogos part of the village on a certain day, can you let me know? I’ll make sure the courtyard gates are open.

Anyway, sorry about that, it was all a bit weather and water-related today, but, as that’s what’s currently falling on our heads (another short downpour at 10.22 precisely), and possibly dripping into the bathroom, I’d better go and check.

Symi International Football Tournament

There’s an International Football Tournament taking place on Symi at the moment, 21^st to 24^th of October with two teams from the U.K., one team from Rhodes and two teams from Symi – the Under 11’s and Under 12’s teams are taking part. Gary Shaw arrived this morning to present the medals at the end of the Tournament. Gary Shaw is a former Aston Villa player and winner of the European Cup in 1982 when Aston Villa beat Bayern Munich 1-0. Aston Villa then went on to win the Super Cup beating Barcelona 3-0 at Villa Park in January 1983 with Gary Shaw scoring one of the goals. There are games at 5.00 p.m. & 6.00 p.m. both today and tomorrow, and our teams need local support. Have a look at A.O.Symi Facebook page for full details of the matches to be played.

As you might have gathered, that football detail didn’t come from me. That was a message kindly sent by Jean yesterday. By coincidence, we bumped into some of the players at the Rainbow Bar on Sunday night. Rather, they didn’t bump into me. I was heading back from Yianni’s salubrious outhouse when I found myself standing like a rock in a river as around 20 boys and girls poured into the bar. They were after the Someone Vs Someone Else match that was streaming in from the UK. That first, soft drinks second.

One of the teams met our team when they were at Camber Sands, in East Sussex earlier in the year. It’s great to see things like this, giving the youngsters a travel adventure, a different culture to see, and new friends to meet with a common interest. There was a positive, party atmosphere at the bar, some of the boys and girls discovered the square (and probably a football) and Renos (star of film and football) acted as the translator when talking to Greek children. Well done to everyone involved.