Happy Easter from Symi Dream

Here’s wishing you a Happy Easter, if you celebrate it, or if you simply find yourself with some holiday time. I’m going to leave the blog for a few days and put my feet up, I’ll be back early next week.

Meanwhile, here are a few recent photos to keep you going and, if you’re short of something to read, then here are some ideas for you. To start you off, my novel, ‘Jason and the Sargonauts’ will be free on Amazon Kindle over the weekend. The link is below. Here’s the release:

Jason and the Sargonauts

‘Jason and the Sargonauts‘ will be free on Kindle over the Easter period – from April 14^th for five days only.

Set on the Greek island of Symi, the story concerns a holiday rep, Jason, and his group of guests on their SARGO holiday. To keep his job, and stay on the island he loves so much, Jason must invent an excursion and sell it – and he must do it now. His grandmother, one of his guests, gives him an heirloom left to him by his grandfather who was on Symi during WWII. Inside, they find a musical treasure map that will lead them to ‘The Golden Fleece.’ But others have got wind of this and soon an old family feud is revived as Jason sets off, with his assortment of elderly guests, to track down the Fleece and unlock the mystery.

“This is Dan Brown meets Whitehall Farce with a bit of education about Symi’s history thrown in for good measure. Set on the Greek island of Symi, it’s a fast-paced whodunit with lots of laughs and loads of page turning moments. Yes, it was hard to put down.

This book deserves a large audience and stands up there with the best novels about contemporary Greece.”

‘Jason’ on Amazon: https://goo.gl/fE13Q7

Remotely

If you’re up for some comedy, then ‘Remotely; may appeal; to you. Here’s the blurb and the link.

‘Remotely‘ is a gay/straight body-swap comedy that pokes fun at British reality television.

Britain’s newest and most pointless TV talent competition is coming to Middlestone-On-Sea. ‘So You Think We’re Remotely Interested?‘ has taken Friday night viewers by storm as it streams live variety shows from remote, provincial theatres across Britain. The theatre with the most audience votes wins regeneration and revival, and lord knows, Middlestone-on-Sea needs both.

The dying seaside backwater rests its hopes on the performance of two ex-best friends, gay Gary and straight Stag.

The visiting celebrity judge, the mysterious and timeless Miss P, knows that for all to be well, they must mend their broken friendship. But there is no success without trial. She magically swaps Gary and Stag into each other’s bodies. Secrets are learned, comedy ensues, and yet the community remains divided.

Rifts must be healed, differences accepted, and bodies swapped back before the season grand finale in four days’ time otherwise Middlestone will lose everything.

“Once you start on James Collins’ coming of age, body-swap comedy, you won’t be remotely interested in putting it down.” G. J. Mugwatch MP

Some Amazon reviews for James Collins

“Brilliantly observed and a wicked wit.”

“Lots of laughs and loads of page turning moments. Yes, it was hard to put down.”

“Another unputdownable book that had me engrossed from beginning to end, and chuckling.”

“Finished this book yesterday and oh so amusing, would love to see it as a film.”

“More, I want more! I truly could not put this book down.”

You can find all of my books on my Amazon Author Page here.

Happy Easter, again, and here are some Symi photos.

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A little fall of rain

All those people arriving yesterday from the yUk for their summer on Symi brought the weather with them. It’s an old joke, but actually quite a welcome one. On Tuesday, we were sitting outside with friends having lunch in the shade, and on Wednesday morning we were sitting inside at home with the rain coming down. Just a bit of cloud and some much-needed rain for the plants though, and like everything else in life, it will pass. The weekend, Easter, looks to be good weather and so I’m not complaining.

As you might imagine, there have been many church services, much ringing of bells and lots of pre-Easter activity. Houses are painted up, and outsides are clean, paths have been weeded, and the white or blue lines between the paving stones also painted again, in some cases. There is a Town Hall barbeque on Sunday afternoon, there will be the midnight mass on Easter Saturday, there has already been some dynamite and many bangers being let off, and we’ve ordered a leg of lamb from Sotiris for Easter Sunday.

In more close-to-home news, I’ve sent off for my passport renewal, keeping a photocopy of my old one in case it’s needed in the meantime. We’ve been working on the next novel and want to get it out before May 19^th, so that it is eligible for an Amazon new novel promotion, so watch this space (again) for more definite news. Only a few more chapters to set up and it’s ready to go through the publishing process. I’ve also been reading the draft of ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ and making myself chuckle, so that bodes well. I hope to have that one ready by the end of the year at the very latest.

Other than that, it’s a quiet time at home with not a lot of news. We’re just enjoying watching everything come back to life after the winter. We were at Rainbow the other afternoon watching the way the neighbours send their children out into the street to play. The children were only little, but everyone knows they will be watched by other neighbours in the area, so no one is worried. The older children were playing football in the square and throwing the occasional banger to ward off evil, and, I suspect, scare each other. The simple joys of growing up safe and looked after; always a pleasure to see.

Anyway, I’m in danger of rambling about nothing as I get this ready before heading down to Yialos to meet friends and have a look around. I may need a coat for the first time in a few weeks, but hopefully, the rain will have passed by then.

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Passport, the dreaded Brexit and the cat

First, a quick walk on Monday morning. From the village square, through the village and down to the road, along and up a bit and then turning off to the Pedi Valley, down the right-hand side, across the old riverbed and on to Pedi, along the bay a little and back up the road, a quick stop off at the supermarket and back to the square. One hour thirty, just over three miles, or, for me, around 7,000 steps. Pleasant weather, lots to plant life, not too many butterflies yet, plenty of sheep, goats, lambs and kids, people working on their plots of land, and the sea to look at half way through the walk. Very nice thank you.

We were putting up ‘celebration lights’ in the courtyard the other day. These are what were once called ‘fairy lights’ (and still are in my vocab), but presumably certain online traders have changed the title to an all-encompassing, non-threatening, non-judgemental, everyone friendly term so as not to offend anyone who is terribly ‘PC’ and might object to the word ‘fairy.’ We don’t want to upset Tinkerbell or anything, do we? Anyway, we were putting up a string before the vine grows back so that when it does it, the lights will twinkle (‘flicker’, in case we upset anyone else) through the leaves. Neil was up a ladder, and I was holding it. I looked up and there, right above him, was some kind of large eagle surrounded by swallows. I think it was a short-toed eagle, like the one we saw the other day. Rather fabulous, I thought. I couldn’t rush to get my camera for fear of knocking Tinkerbell of his perch, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

And on into the week. A few things planned for today (Tuesday) including sending off my passport for renewal. This will leave me without one until the new one comes back, or gets rejected for some obtuse reason, but I should be okay. In case you were wondering, a UK passport renewal costs £103.00 (roughly) including the return postage, you need to fill the form in online, then print off the declaration and sign it, supply two photos (no need to be signed) and your existing passport, plus proof of address. Always a funny one that, for us on Symi. I have a letter from a UK local authority (that is within a year old), but I had to print it myself from an email as the authority are reluctant to send out printed matter. I queried this with the HM Passport Office, and they said it should be fine – that’s where I can see there being a problem if there are any at all. It was a very easy process.

I was distracted by a link I found on the site to where I could read the UK government’s proposals for the Brexit future or something. It was titled along the lines of ‘The Rose-Tinted Vision for Post-Brexit UK’ and had lovely photos of a happy, smiling PM and her minions reading this and cheerily signing away that, with subtitles such as, ‘The Way Forward (turn the clocks back)’, ‘A Stronger Britain (without Scotland, trade, essential workers, etc.), and ‘What Brexit Means for You (costly imports, racist bashings depending on your colour, loss of your freedoms and rights, bleak future for your children’, and all that – in the end I couldn’t bring myself to read it due to the intelligence numbing rhetoric, deciding instead to come back to it when I felt a bit stronger. The day I was doing it (yesterday) was the anniversary of my father’s death and, although I am fine with that now after 20 years, I know he will be hammering his Mayor’s gavel in a furious response to what his country is doing to itself. I’ll read it another day.

But the day was also Jack’s 14^th birthday, and thank you for his birthday wishes. I have relayed them to him. He just stared at me and wanted feeding as usual. Apart from the fact he is deaf, he is also Greek, I was speaking in English and, after all, he’s a cat. But he had a better day than the day before when his ear was bleeding over the Turkish rug and other parts of the house. He’s ‘dry’ in the ears now, but a bit piebald with dried blood, bless him. It comes and goes and he’s gone to celebrate his birthday up on his favourite roof, in the sun. And I am off to ramble on about something else elsewhere.

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Saturday in Yialos

Although Saturday was sunny, the wind was from the North-West and chilly, so I found myself heading out in a thermal top, a shirt and a hoodie over it all. We had a few things to attend to ‘downtown’, and set off in the late morning after feeding the stray cats up the lane.

As usual, there were a few stop-offs on the way, to say good morning to people at the café, to pop into the Olive Tree to see how the painting is going (very well; it will be open after Easter), and then on down to the big city. There had been some light rain overnight and recently painted and cleaned café tables were spotted with disturbed dust. Many places are now fully open while others are finishing off their preparations. The Trata taverna was open, only a few days ago the building was still under renovation, and parts of it still are, but work has paused now, and the tables and chairs are all out, ready for customers. We walked up to the banks to find the rent money, passing Takis at his leather shop, the new souvenir shop next to it, Nikos’ souvenir shop and the other cafes. Los, the ‘art yacht club’ was being done up ready to be open very soon. The harbour is quickly coming back to summer season life after the winter.

A walk around to the garden centre to look at plants and other things we might need for our courtyard, a wander around the square, more hellos and how are yous, and off to Taxas for some supplies we can only get from there, and then to Pacho’s to catch up with friends. A group of children passed by, taking part in a parading of the icon for the day of Lazarus. This reminded me that few days before we had heard and seen the scout group passing our house, brooms and bags in hand, singing as they headed off up into the village to clean up some lanes. Great to see this kind of thing going on. Later, on Saturday, there was lunch at Meraklis where we chatted to some visiting Belgians and where many locals and day-trippers had stopped for lunch. The Dodekanisos catamaran had come in for the day, staying in the harbour and bringing some day visitors with it, so there were a few tourists about. To Spitiko opened its doors and later, when we passed, was nearly full; good to see.

Back in the village with our shopping, we were met by our godson who was out to play. He sat with us for an ice cream while Neil gave Yiannis an hour off to go home and freshen up. Great isn’t it, that you can be left looking after a business while the boss heads home. Mind you, Neil does work there now, and I did for nearly ten years. This gave us a pause in the day to sit and wonder when the cold wind would die down – it was colder up in the village than it had been in Yialos – and finally we wandered home, still full from a very reasonable lunch.  Jack was waiting for us, keen to get onto someone’s lap.

And talking of Jack, it’s his birthday today, and he is now 14 years old. That’s not a bad run for a Symi cat, born of a rescue cat in our first house. Who’d have thought we would still have him after 14 years? He’s getting on, but still mobile and mostly lucid. He has his eccentricities, and now he has his bad ears and nose, but otherwise, last time he had a check-up (November) he was all fine and dandy internally. So, happy birthday to the Alarm Cat and now I will let you get on with the rest of your day and the rest of Great Week and the lead-up to Easter.

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A few observations from the weekend

Neil was covering the bar all day on Friday, and so I spent a couple of hours there in the afternoon. (No camera on me, so today’s photos are actually from Saturday.) So much was going on in the one short lane opposite my table that I was kept well entertained. Neighbour #2 had washed her courtyard, and the run-off had been swept out onto the street through the hole beneath the doors. Many courtyard entrances have these small holes bored through the stonework to allow water to escape. In this case, there was a stream of it heading down the lane towards the top of the steps. A sparrow took advantage of this and had a quick bath between the pairs of passing feet.

Neighbour #1 came out of her house and put a small blue plastic bag on her outside sink. No doubt there was something interesting in this rubbish bag as it attracted the attention of a passing cat. When Neighbour #1 was back inside her house, the cat sneaked up onto the stone sink and grabbed the bag in its teeth. It dragged it down to the lane and then began creeping up off the lane as if it was taking its shopping home. It ran into trouble when it found three children playing at the end, outside Neighbour #4’s house. It was forced to abandon its prize and head for home empty-mouthed, and the children’s grandmother came out to see what this blue bag was that had appeared on her doorstep. She later removed it, presumably to the bins.

A while later, while I was turning on the television for some of the children who wanted to take a rest from their games by watching Sponge Bob Surrealist Pants (or whatever it’s called), Neil was called to the house of Neighbour #1 to assist with a broken chair incident. This left its owner on the floor, the back two legs of the plastic chair having given up the struggle for life after several years in the sun. He managed to get the elderly neighbour to his feet, no harm done, and return to work. No sooner was he back inside dealing with a customer than Neighbour #1 was at the bar offering to buy him a drink for his pains. No need, Neil explained, just doing his neighbourly duty.

Friday afternoon drifted into evening and, when Yiannis returned at nine, we went to the taverna for dinner. Georgio’s has been redecorated inside and out and is now bright and fresh with white and blue paint. The photos that have lined the walls for so many years have gone, replaced by clean walls and smart paintings, with only a few images of the family now framed and placed there. The old photos, fascinating though they were, had seen better days. I reckon some had been there for at least 20 years, probably much longer. Some were nearly white with faded age, while some were peeling, some splashed with the spills of one retsina too many, and the display had become something of a fascinating eyesore. The ambience and food were still as friendly and tasty as ever, though, but no longer can you lean across fellow diners to see if there is still that photo of you taken in the 1980s when your hair was unbelievably as big as your spectacles. Time moves on.

Time moves on, and things change. Many return visitors will find a few changes in the village this year; a few closures. Taverna Zoi and Georgio’s taverna will, as far as I heard and understood, be the two places to eat dinner in the village this year. The Olive Tree is ready to go, serving breakfasts and lunch until three in the afternoon every day; the Sunrise Kafeneion has been open all winter, ditto the Secret Garden where Friday night is blues and western music night and Mondays will be Greek music nights – I assume. Georgio’s will also have live music on certain nights of the week. Lefteris’ Kafeneion has new outside lights on a dimmer switch and has been painted up. The new pie shop, bakeries, supermarkets, herb shop and others are all open and waiting for you.

That was Friday, Saturday brought a visit to the harbour, and that’s a story for tomorrow.

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