Wednesday
A much brighter start to Wednesday, it looks like the storm has passed. The air is so clear you can see right across Turkey to the mountains, some of which will soon have snow on them, I expect. If you are reading this on Symi and fancy a film, there is a children’s film on Sunday at 17.30 at Mandeio’s, ‘Inside out.’ I’ve seen it, it works for grownups as well.

The diary has suddenly started to fill up, at least for this week. Today (Thursday) we have an invite to lunch at Yiannis and Katerina’s house in Horio, there’s a birthday meet on Friday, and a neighbour’s son’s wedding at Panormitis on Sunday, as long as we can get there. So far, and I am not holding my breath, Saturday looks free for some writing. Between all that we have to track down the accountant and do some post, but otherwise, it’s a case of staying warm and keeping the house dry.

I was just checking to see if the Wednesday boat came through, and it must have done as it’s now coming back from Karpathos to Rhodes. Luckily I can’t hear it come in at 5.00 in the morning but it’s a magical sight to see when it is leaving at night; I’ll see if I can get a photo sometime.

There was something of a ‘cyclone’ on Rhodes on Tuesday night and we caught the edge of it here. I don’t know if it was an actual cyclone, I need to look up the definition and I wasn’t there so I can’t comment, but that is how it was described in the local online newspaper. It was very wet here for a while, there was thunder and lightning coming closer, and heavy rain. I sent Michaelis a text and told him not to worry about the cat litter delivery, not in the dark in a storm, and he replied that he’d come the next day instead. I’d hate to think of someone driving up the hill in that weather just for the comfort of the Alarm Cat who has enough to see him through a few more days anyway.

He’s back to normal now though still very wary of us. He’s back to disturbing me at least three time each morning with a demand to be escorted to his bowl; the last week he’s just been sleeping all morning. Now he’s a bit dischuffed because there is nothing in his bowl except the dry biscuits the vet prescribed for him. Meat only once or twice per day is the regime now, until the meat has all gone, then he’s supposed to stay on the dry stuff; it’s to do with his age and his heart. We’ll see how that works out as he has always been a fan of Whiskers sachets.

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Quick update
Yesterday: slightly interrupted work morning, down to Yialos to see the accountant (not there), and pick up post (Christmas crackers). Visited Pet Island (our pet shop) to order more cat litter. Michaels didn’t charge for the bag that was torn even though it and its contents were in another bag and very little was missing; said he’d bring it all up at 2pm. Raid the bank, have a beer, see Michaelis passing and ask him to come at five as we were having another beer, walk back up between showers, feed the strays, make some dinner (breakfast actually), do this and spend the evening watching things on the TV.

That’s me sorted, here is yesterday’s weather. (This blog is fast turning into a weather-watch.)

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Turning weather
The weather has turned. Woke to a grey and blustery day today, though the wind is from the south and so it’s not too cold. I just popped out to the shop and felt a few spots of rain, and it’s due to get worse. [Note: remember to close the shutters later.]

It looks like the Saturday trip to Tilos was a great success and much enjoyed. I haven’t heard the score from the football match but I know the junior team won 5:0 in Rhodes (I think it was) the other day. That’s about as far as my football knowledges stretches at the moment.

I am off out later to celebrate Miss DJ’s birthday at Mandeio (happy birthday for yesterday, I’m writing this on Monday), although I think Neil will be staying in as he is the latest victim to fall foul of a nasty tummy bug that’s going around. There were some very unmusical sounds coming from the bathroom this morning. So, that’s the cat been through it and now Neil, I hope it avoids me, someone has to keep dishing out the medicines.

I just had a look through some recent photos that have not yet been posted, so that’s what you have today, and probably tomorrow. I’ve put captions beneath them to explain what they are. Have a good day, I am off to batten down the hatches.

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Back to relative normality
Things are all a little calmer now. The weather has been good, though we’re desperate for rain and so is Rhodes and, I expect, other places. (It’s forecast to be wet and windy for a few days this week though.) I’ve been watching the boats come and go: the Blue Star was late on Friday due to a strike the day before, but she came and went. There was a day trip to Tilos on Saturday, mainly for an inter-island football match, but also for a visit to the neighbours. We were going to go but the expense of last Wednesday put paid to that.

The Irish passport application is filled out and now just needs to be witnessed and the photos signed/stamped and the whole lot of paperwork sent off; we’re aiming for Monday or Tuesday on that one. I’ve started work proper on the new book, which is travel stories, anecdotes and some of them about Symi. I’ve also started on the Christmas collection so as to avoid a big rush, so expect blog posts over the next couple of weeks suggesting all or any of my books and Neil’s calendars as Christmas gift ideas for those you love – or hate, depending on how you see my books. [My Amazon Author page is here. Wink, wink.]

We arrived back on Wednesday night last week and promptly feel into a wedding invitation for next Sunday at Panormitis; that will be lovely, if we can find a way to get there and back. We also fell into the usual routine for our house in the winter: work in the morning, Neil on his college course, me on my book projects, afternoons too, with lots of television watching and reading in the evenings, housework, sweeping the dying vine leaves from the courtyard, feeding the cats – Symi Animal Welfare have delivered us a large bag of biscuits for the strays at the bins – and some light walking. Last Wednesday I met my Fitbit target in Rhodes by eight in the morning, it was positively ecstatic come lunchtime and could hardly contain its jubilation come three in the afternoon when we walked back from the New Town towards the boat. I was surprised that there was no tickertape shower when I walked into the house after several thousand steps beyond my daily target, which I rarely reach, I have to say. I’m not taking it seriously at the moment.

And so all is well, and settled and ticking along towards the busy time of December, and we all know what that means. Hours of searching for ideas for surprise gifts for people. I always have good ideas when I am in a place where I can’t write them down and always say to myself, ‘That’s such a good idea, I will remember that one,’ and then never do. I am looking through my diary for the next two weeks and, apart from the wedding (hopefully) there is nothing in it other than ‘Jack, flea medicine.’ Oh, the things we look forward to here on Symi in the winter.

Actually, there is more going on than that. For example, there was a Christmas craft fair over the weekend at the cultural centre, we have an invite to lunch today (Sunday as I write), we need to see the accountant for the passport form next week, I have a trip to the pharmacy planned by Wednesday and a whole heap of chores to do around the house. Could things be any busier?

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Jack Cat and the visit to Rhodes 2
He gave Jack an antibiotic injection which came with the added bonus of calming him down and making him sleepy for the rest of the trip – mind you, he was pretty laid back already. On top of that, he prescribed three times something for gastro-something for two days, a tablet twice a day for other gastric doo-dahs and a syrup antibiotic three times per day for… everything else. Those last two to run for 10 days.

Now, we’ve all seen the video on how to give a cat a tablet. Hm. The thing is, he can’t eat anything for three hours after the first medicine so the days will have to run like this: 6.30 a.m. syringe medicine one by mouth. Wait one hour with cat demanding food and shouting. 7.30, catch cat and add a quarter of a tablet to it without it spitting it out or taking off your hand. Wait two hours with cat still demanding food and wondering why no-one likes him any longer. 9.30, temp cat to his bowl by saying ‘Mmm, lovely new cat biscuits for you, you’ll like these…’ and then hold him still while using a syringe for another syrup. Then let him get to his food although, by this time, he is up on the roof and refusing to come down. Some kind of rooftop protest at being syringed and tableted, all before breakfast.

And the worst part is that we have to repeat that process three time each day for two days and then the first medicine is done and we’re left with only three time one thing and two times another each day, a total of nine dangerous adventures per day for two days and five for the next eight days after that. The cat is already running away from us and won’t come into the kitchen because we have done the medicine combination once today. But, it must be done and it will be done; as long as he comes down from the roof.

After the visit to the vet was concluded (printed blood tests, the instruction manual written out, the prescription dealt with and Jack given a proper medical book and a CD of his X-Ray) and the bill settled, the vet then checked a local pharmacy to make sure they had the right things. They did and so he arranged for his father to come and pick us up and drive us back to the Plaza, via the pharmacy. Now I call that a great service. The vet also comes to Symi once per month and is in content with Michaelis at the pet shop, and other animal carers, and so getting hold of Jack’s new food won’t be a problem. Getting the medicine into him will be.

By this time, it was just on midday and, as we had been up since 3.30, we thought a beer would be in order. We had jack in left luggage again where he was sleeping so we stayed at the hotel and shared one of their mammoth pizzas. The afternoon was spent wandering slowly back towards Akandia harbour, taking it in turns to carry the 6.1 kilo cat in his box, via the Symi café at Mandraki where Jack attracted a lot of attention from the local cats who came to have a sniff. The walk around to the harbour wasn’t so bad and it’s much safer now there is a boardwalk to use rather than a narrow road. We stopped at Mouragio while we waited for the boat to come in and then carried Himself towards embarkation.

Passing, as we did so, the vet’s father and mother who had been sent to drop something off to go over to Symi. We had a pleasant exchange of well wishes and thanked them again and then set up shop on the back deck again, one of three, where it was warm enough to travel without my coat on. Luckily, at Symi, Konstantinos and his taxi were free and so we were driven up to Horio where we were able to get Jack home, out of his box and most of his first syringe-stuff down his screech before he could make a fuss about the whole thing. This he did later, with much use of voice, but he is settling down now (Thursday afternoon) and there has been no more sickness, cross fingers.

There, not particularly funny, but I thought you might be interested. If you want the number for this particular vet, drop me a line, we are happy to recommend.

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