Symi in the winter
People often ask, or always ask, ‘What’s it like in the winter?’ And I assume they are talking about Symi as that’s where we are when they pose the question. Well, this winter looks like it’s going to be one of the coldest for a long while. Last summer I remember telling people that the winter hadn’t been so bad; cold for a couple of weeks, but otherwise fine, not too wet either. So far this year we have seen storms one day and very cold weather the next. We are luckier than some islands further north which are currently under snow and declared disaster areas. We must feel for the refugees still in camps on Samos, Lesvos and other islands living in tents, some of which have no heating. I’ve heard of three refuges dying from the cold on other islands and, although we don’t have any here at the moment, Solidarity Symi is still doing its bit to support those further afield.

I was outside the corner shop the other day, the little shop on the village square, and Stelios had placed a thermometer by the door; it read four degrees at midday. He and his wife are to be found there all day and late into the night, huddled behind the counter with the doors open to welcome customers. The supermarkets have air-conditioning heating on and that warms you up as you go inside, but the boys are still delivering groceries to those who can’t get out, you still see them carrying four packs of water or more up and down the steps. The shops are still open and battling the cold and the boats are coming and going when the storms don’t stop them.

So, in the winter, life carries on and you make do. A few years ago I photographed icicles on the rosemary bush at our old house. It’s not that bad at the moment, but facing north and being exposed, it’s still pretty chilly around this place. I am wearing three layers, a fleece, fingerless gloves and a hat as I write, with my shutters closed against the cold (I’ve not seen the view for days, apart from when I went up on the roof the other morning) and I have a heater on full beside me. After lunch and the afternoon writing shift, I will try and warm up the sitting room which is large and open plan. The heater will go on, the hat and gloves will stay on, and the cat will be welcome on my lap as added insulation. I’ll sit there watching my breath ascend into the roof (which is not insulated, neither are the walls in these old houses) and pull the thermal blanket up over me as I read.

Bedtimes are not so bad as there’s an electric blanket to act as a bed warmer and, by the time I go to bed, the house has warmed up to around ten degrees (the thermals stay on for very cold nights and the socks I now have are Everest quality). The mornings are something of a trial, especially when taking a shower. Apart from the bathroom being cold, the shower curtain is attracted by the warm air and so gets sucked in, to cling cold to your body at unexpected moments. It’s like a shroud from the grave wrapping itself around you as you stand there not wanting to move from under the hot water. But you do because you must, and so another day starts. Yesterday, Neil was very brave and went out at eight in the morning to go to the gym for the aerobics class, and then walked back up the road. I was intending to also take a walk early in the morning but, at 6.30, it was dark, cold and not very inviting; so I shall wait for warmer and more settled weather before starting on that idea.

We, and many others, are doing what we can to look after the poor stray cats who rely on the bins for food and the ruins for shelter. We can’t take them into the house, but we can visit them every day or so and give them what we can when it’s not raining. Meanwhile, I am thinking about finding a large rug for the sitting room, to try and help warm things up, the smaller one, nice though it is, only covers a small area, and I should also find something to plug the two inch gap under the front door. Old towels usually work.

I’d love to turn the central heating up a notch but we don’t have any, or close the double glazing but there isn’t any, so instead I’ll go and  make lunch now and perhaps leave the cooker on a while to warm the kitchen and, while doing that, I – like everyone else in Greece these days – will have to save hard and extra to cover the increased cost/tax on electricity and try not to worry about the bill until it comes in.

That’s kind of what it’s like on Symi in the winter.

Share on Facebook

Sunday morning zoom
Never be afraid to ask, that’s the moto of the day. Here are two examples where it didn’t hurt to ask. First of all: when trying to get home after a late, long, lovely, lush and other L-word lunch in Harani and finding no taxi available and no bus for nearly an hour, don’t be afraid to stick your thumb out and flag down a passing car. ‘Can you give us a lift?’ ‘Certainly, hop in.’ And off you go. It doesn’t always work, but the chances are it will be someone you know and they will be happy to oblige if they can. At least, it works/worked here on Symi.

The other example is: I am/was looking for a new camera as a) mine is an underwater one that’s not so good on zoom, b) it’s a bit old now and c) I have no idea where it went – so I have no camera. (Apart from the two large Nikons and one large Cannon (that has never worked properly) that Neil uses.) So, I asked a friend what his camera was, knowing that I’d seen it in action and it was the kind of thing I was looking for. I asked the make and model so I could look it up with a view to buying one. Turns out, he’s had and upgrade and the old one is available. Not only that but I can borrow it for a test run and see what I think. So, today’s photos are taken from the roof this morning (Sunday) where I was testing out the zoom. I have to say, I am very impressed and I think there will be an offer in the offing soon.

As for the rest of the weekend… We were hanging on, waiting for a huge storm that was promised and that didn’t really arrive, though there have been some very windy moments and some heavy rain. As you can see, Sunday was bright and clear and cold in the morning. The wind, when there is some, is from the north-west and, looking at Windfinder.com, is set to change from NNW to N to NE to ESE to E to WSW to SSW to S… over the next few days. It seems the wind doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going, but it will be getting stronger, and is due to bring more rain during the week. I think we’ve already had more colder and rainier weather than we had last winter; the current air temp of 5 degrees is due to warm up during the week to a heady 13 or 14 by next weekend; that’ll be the cloud cover helping, I guess.

That’s the weather for the week ahead. The diary contains only a little piano playing, a games afternoon/evening, moving house (not us) and a lot of the usual typing. Neil is working hard on his course, I am pottering about with books, there are 101 household things to be done and maybe, if I can get into the mood, some walking. The aerobics classes also start again today (if you’re local, see Dawn for details) though they are not for me, and the children are back at school now for the long term and run up to Easter. That’ll be on us before we know with carnival and Clean Monday and all that comes with it.

But I am getting ahead of myself, so I will go back, post this blog and then check out what jobs I need to be doing today: Shopping, putting the clothes away, getting some washing dry between the rain, sweeping up the last of the vine leaves from the courtyard (must cut it back soon) and picking up leftover Christmas tinsel that seems to get everywhere and that is usually hanging around in unexpected places until summer. Have a good week.

Share on Facebook

One way up the Kali Strata
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, they say, and I have to wonder who those nasty people are who discovered this fact. But, putting that aside, there’s also more than one way to climb from Yialos to Horio, on Symi. They all involve steps and I’ve mentioned a few of them before on the blog, but here’s another way that many of you will already know. If you do, share this post with others who may not.

When we lived high up in the village, and worked down in Yialos, I would set of to work first, as I started an hour before Neil did. This went on, day after day, every day for seven months and so, rather than head through the main village path and down the main Kali Strata, I would often go via this route (coming along in a moment) so that my journey to work would be varied, and also offer me great views – just to remind me why I was doing this commute every day, seven days a week, for seven months. It’s the route past the high school down the slope and via what are known as ‘the lazy steps.’ Wrongly known, I am told, because the ‘lazy steps’ were further along the harbour and so called because that’s where non-workers would go to rest out of the sun, or something.

People think they are called this as they are easier. Here’s a tip: there is no easy way to walk up from the harbour to the village. I find the main road is the gentlest slope, though the path does give you some foot massage due to its pointed paving rocks, and I find the main steps are the easiest for shade and pausing places, but the way they zigzag does take you across and to the left and then back to the right again, so it’s not the most direct. Here’s another way of coming up and it is the way I used to head down, in reverse. (It’s also not direct.)

Pass the taxi rank and Pandalis restaurant and the bus stop, and then you will see the slope heading up where the Sea Dreams day boat comes in. This is the start of the non-lazy ‘lazy steps’ and it’s a slope to start with. It zigzags a couple of times before you then have a choice of turning right to the main Kali Strata or heading up a steep set of steps towards the school. These come with a handrail, which is, well, handy. Head up there and turn right. Here’s another tip: the first step here is very high on the right, but there’s a helping-foot step on the left which makes it easier to hoist your leg up and plonk it down, usually accompanied by a big sigh, and then, as they say, you carry on carrying on up.

You will pass the Women’s Association building and then the high school, with the bins on one side. (You also pass the small car park area through which you can walk to find the road to Haritomeni Taverna overlooking the harbour.) Carry on up the slope past the school and you reach what is still known as the Kali Strata Bar corner, or viewpoint – though the bar has now gone. Here you can join the main Kali Strata and take the final ascent on the north face, or you can turn left and head up to the ‘main’ road and then double back. Once you’re up those steps you are, strangely, heading downhill which by then is a relief. This road will take you past the Windmill Restaurant and the hotels and bring you out at Georgio’s Taverna, which is where the other, north face, route will also bring you.

From there it’s only a few more steps to the village square where you are home and dry, or home and wet by that point if it’s the summer. Like I said, there are loads of other ways to get up to the village and the easiest way is to take a taxi or a bus. We’d missed both on Wednesday after stopping for a beer at Pacho’s and chatting to Hugo, but we did get a lunch invitation out of it and the exercise did someone some good I am sure.

So, next time on Symi, try the non-lazy, lazy steps as it’s just one way up the Kali Strata.

Share on Facebook

Early morning activity
I shouldn’t ask this but, what happened to the storm we were expecting last night? I heard some rain for a short time during the evening and a bit of wind, but that was it. Unless I missed it during the night. Or unless it comes in today, or later tonight. I should keep quiet I guess don’t want to tempt fate.

This is one of those days when I can’t stay long. I didn’t get around to preparing anything interesting or amusing yesterday, so I am up and at it early today, posting a few words and pictures and then heading off to work. I heard the new alarm clock start playing its music at 6.30 (the same two bars of music as it plays every morning, I thought it was supposed to select a new song each day), and leapt out of bed, worried that my early readers would have no blog post to read. It took me 20 minutes to get to the keyboard: Finding clothes in the dark, letting the noisy cat in, feeding him, then getting dressed in the kitchen, putting the kettle on, finding the heater in the living room, taking it to the office, plugging back in all the things unplugged the night before in case we had a storm, changing clothes and putting on the right ones, starting up the computers and heater, making coffee…

So, I’m finally here and it’s time to go. In a moment. The photos are from yesterday when we went into Yialos to check the post office and for Neil to send off his Ancestry DNA sample -there’s a story there which I will get to another day. I’m rushing this morning as we have a lunch invitation for later (sounds very grand) and I’ve a lot to do before heading out again. I’ve not actually looked outside yet, but I can’t hear any bad weather; perhaps it will throw it down on me just as we are leaving for Harani later this morning. Hope not.

Share on Facebook

Chit chat
More photos today of walking on the hillside the other day. We were going to go out on Tuesday but rain stopped play. In fact, it was a day for keeping the shutters shut, the internet unplugged (as there was thunder about) and for staying inside keeping warm. Yesterday was not so bad and I opened my office shutters for the first time in a few weeks, giving me the view of the sea, grey with clouds hanging above it, and the harbour where I can just see a cargo ship moored up on the other side. I must go down there soon – to the lonely sea and the sky – and I’d take more photos but I’ve put my camera down somewhere and now can’t find it. Ah well, age…

We’re still celebrating over here, not Christmas and so on, but the award for being one of the top 25 blogs about island life on the net. (Seems a bit of a small category, but actually it’s not, I just checked. There are hundreds of blogs about there about people living on islands.)

Talking of islands… The island, Symi, will be celebrating Epiphany on Friday, 6^th January, the official end to Christmas, I believe. This will be celebrated throughout Greece with church services and the diving for the cross in the cold waters, as the boats and seas are blessed. Check out previous posts about ‘Epiphany Symi’ on Google, or on our Symi Dream, search box. It’s in the right-hand column with all your other useful links. BTW. The links to the 2017 calendars will soon be going, so if you’re short of one, click through now before they do.

Here’s an aside: A friend of mine contacted me to ask about how to book tickets for the Blue Star ferries. She had been trying but was unable to find cabins to book. I thought this was odd so I looked online and sure enough, there’s no trouble and their schedule is up for well into this year. It turned out she was using a Blue Star app on her phone so, if you have the same trouble, try looking online on a PC, as that’s what I did. Just thought I’d mention that.

There’s no other great news to tell you. I’m doing that ‘on a diet thing’ (though I am not) where I say I will start on Monday and then when Monday comes say that I mean the next Monday – but I am talking about getting back to the books writing here. I really do mean to start next Monday. At the moment, after lunch and some housework, I am more tempted by the sofa, the heater, the blanket and six series of Downton Abbey (which I have seen before, but…) so I am being very lazy. In that respect.

Share on Facebook