Duvets and Detectives (and photos of yesterday morning’s weather which was pretty rough – more about that another day as I’m still drying out towels (so much rain it came under the windows.))

I have some must share shipping news (not that kind of shipping news). I recently ordered a new duvet for the winter as it was easier (and cheaper) than buying one from Rhodes when I was last there. So the other day I was delighted to receive an update on my shopping via shipping news. Kind of shopping-shipping I suppose. More of that in a moment, first the backstory.

I searched eBay to find something suitable and sifted through all the duvet possibilities, bumbling around confused in bed linen hell, flopping over onto my back to wallow in either eider or manmade and laying down in down, throwing aside anything that might set off sneezing fits and being tempted by things that sounded like British pubs, ‘Down and Feather,’ and staying well away from a ‘Bargain brand new king size duvet lemon,’ as the thought of a ‘duvet lemon’ filled me with dread – imagine that at the Rainbow Bar. ‘A G & T please Yianni with a slice of that delicious, if ever expanding, duvet lemon…

And that’s not to mention the tog thing. I checked up on a website that told me 10.5 was good for winter and anything over 13 was kind of ‘Antarctic-ready’ and then found things on eBay such as ‘Cool 10.5 tog.’ Oh, I thought it was going to be fine for winter. And ‘Cozy warm 13.5 tog.’ Oh, if only Captain Scott had taken his ‘cozy warm 13.5 tog,’ or even the rather startling ‘Luxury Hollowfibre 15 Tog’ (I am sweating at the thought). I was almost tempted by the ‘Luxury Hotel Quality Scott Goose Feather and Down 13.5’ which might have suited Cpt Scott well, as it’s apparently named after him, or a place in the Falkland Islands, or some luxury hotel somewhere – at least I assume it’s the quality of a luxury hotel, or do they mean it’s a luxury that is ‘hotel quality’ in which case I hope it’s not the quality of some hotels I’ve stayed in. That one by King’s Cross railway station where the action taking place inside the mattress was noisier than the action taking place in the next room, but I digress as there was no duvet at that hotel, luxury or otherwise. Where was I…?

Ah yes. Well, I found one in the end, after several minutes romping through the ‘heavy winter’ and the ‘Polypropylene’ and ‘goose feather’ and ‘duck down’ and ‘hey dilly-dilly, dilly-on down nonny-no nonsense luxury flame proof double hotel feels like luxury’ stuff and the slightly more exciting ‘Corovin quilt’ which I can only assume was something stitched in Medieval France to celebrate the invention of the word ‘duvet’ in around 1750-60 (French: meaning down (plumage), Middle French, alteration of dumet, derivative of Old French dum) and don’t get me started on that pun. Finally I settled on a 10.5 thing simply because it offered cheaper postage than the others.

And so, to the afternoon email and the message which I immediately misread but which turned out to be from My Hermes and not My Herpes and which highlighted the fact that I had been completely drawn in by the titling of my new duvet: “Your parcel containing LUXURIOUS 100% SOFT SILKY MICROFIBRE FEELS LIKE DOWN DUVET QUILT [Double, 10.5] from Simon Barber will be delivered to you by myHermes.”

It was/is such a joyous email I felt like dancing and thanking Mr Barber personally for personally selecting, wrapping and posting my new Luxurious 100% soft silky etcetera. And then, more joy! I can track it via this web address using that tracking number and you know how much I like to track inanimate objects across Europe. Okay so the disclaimer is fair enough: “You will usually receive it 2-3 working days after you get this email, although it may take longer.” And I am pretty sure it will take longer as the tracking page showed me that it hadn’t actually moved yet. And then joy turned to scepticism when I read the end of the email: “It will be delivered to the following address: GSP Shipping Centre, 1 Langham Park, South Normanton.” Oh, not Symi then?

Having rushed to Google and discovered where South Normanton is, I then realised that I had been the lucky victim of a four stage author’s coincidence. 1) My Hermes – 2) South Normanton is in Derbyshire – 3) a certain author friend lives in Derbyshire – and 4) the hero of her books, the Greek Detective Series, is called Hermes. I am sure my ‘Luxury microfiber feels like a duvet 100%’ will be in safe hands and that this storage facility in Derbyshire is only stage one of its journey. Watch this space for more duvet nonsense when the tracking starts.

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As you can see from the picture below, the clouds are heading this way. There has been talk of storms in recent days and we are expecting bad weather on Symi and elsewhere in the very near future. We shall see…

Meanwhile, the Alarm Cat has been in a noisy mood since before dawn. I had my earplugs in but could still hear him out in the courtyard. And it’s not because he has nowhere to go, we leave the other kitchen window open for him so if it rains he has his own kitchens and bathroom to play in, and his dirt tray will be inside there when the weather turns, there’s water and places to sleep. He was just in a cantankerous mood I think. He’s been whingeing at me all day, sitting there staring up and me and telling me he is bored. It’s bloomin’ noisy.

But it did get me up and out before seven for a walk up the hills. The alarm clock was going off at the same time as the cat, but in the other room and I’d turned the volume down so couldn’t hear it – bit pointless setting it really. The walk was good, I managed the museum steps and up without stopping which isn’t bad as it’s the first time out in over three weeks. I then took it easy but at a decent pace up the road a way. The sun was up, behind the hills, and finally appeared around seven-thirty by which time I was heading back down, my new trainers rubbing on one heel where the ‘trainer sock’ had slipped down. Not sure about these ‘trainer socks’, I mean, I know how to wear socks, I don’t need training, they are really small and sometimes don’t fit over the heel, as in the case this morning.

Anyway, back to the blog. A good response from a few people about the idea of posting your own blog posts next month and into early December. A few people have said they will do it and I hope they all follow up on that as I think it will be good to see. I was asked when the deadline for submissions was and I’m saying November 22^nd as that’s the Sunday before I go away and I can spend the day getting the posts ready. If I don’t get any then I will have to put up posts about my own books again and do some advertising; so you have been warned.

And on that note, remember that Neil’s 2016 Symi calendar is on sale ONLY from Lulu.com at this link: http://www.lulu.com/shop/neil-gosling/symi-dream-calendar-2016/calendar/product-22165801.html and Christmas is fast approaching and the calendars can take a week or more to arrive. So, best get your skates on and plan ahead. And if you like Neil’s photography (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) you might like to follow his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NeilGoslingPhotography I’ll let you go and have a look, a like and a comment on that and get back to this noisy cat – who is still there staring at me like something from a Poe poem.

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I’m going to try an experiment and see if it works. You can join in. In fact, for it to work you will need to join in and all you have to do is send me an email. Thing is, I’m going to be away for a short holiday in about five weeks’ time and that means there will be nothing to put up on the blog. I’m leaving my laptop behind on purpose and will be having a blogging break. But what I thought might be fun is this…

Anyone who wants to can write a blog post, about Symi, what you like, what you want to say, or about Greece or anything that’s relevant to my blog here – so about Neil’s photos, about one of my books, or more of them, or about your own writing or your trip to Symi, Greece or your creative writing course, your cat, our cat, holiday ideas, your own websites (links will be acceptable too) about your company, your ramblings, walks, holiday ideas, or well, almost anything really. (I will vet them.) You can email it to me and I will get posts ready before I go away so that you, dear reader, still have something to read while I’m not here – the post will automatically post themselves like magic.

You can write any length though I’d suggest around 500 words is a decent limit. You can send me images too (if you do, watermark them or put your name on if you want to copyright them). And the sooner you do it the sooner I can start loading them on. I got this idea from a piece of mail asking if I do guests posts. We have done in the past and I’ve even allowed a couple of dodgy ones where there’s clearly some advertising going on, but I thought it would be good for Symi Dream readers to have a chance to become Symi Dream bloggers, if only for one post; though you can submit more if you want and I’ll put them up too.

So, in the manner of those aggressive Facebook posts: ‘Share your Symi thoughts with us and write a blog post. I know that 99% or you won’t do this.’ So why bother writing it up there, matey? Stupid aggressive FB posts, they really get me wound up. Things like: ‘I know my friends will share this…’ Well, I won’t because I hate the way these things literarily bully people into sharing posts about ‘It’s Weak Bladder Week’ or ‘Show your support for Jockstrap Awareness Day’ or ‘It’s Herpes Month I know my friends will share this but will you?’ No, stop herping on about it and simply ask the question: Please will you consider writing a short blog post for other readers of Symi Dream? If you can, just email it and any pics to mail@symidream.com either as an email or as a Word attachment and I will post it up between November 25^th and December 14^th. That’s if I get any in, it may not work of course, and a lot of people will think, ‘what a great idea I’ll do that tomorrow,’ and then will forget, so I will try and remember to remind you.

Think it’s a good idea? Just let me know and send in a post, posts, picture or pictures. (And pictures of posts will not be considered.)

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Winter on Symi – it’s getting closer every day.

Spending a Sunday morning doing some bits and pieces around the house. Neil’s hoovering, I’ve tidied up the courtyard and swept, and have some washing on the go, we’ve had breakfast, that’s all cleared away and washed up and even Jack has been helping by doing his fire-scape officer duty…

When he is not being kept devilishly busy with that position of responsibility, he is also to be found helping the coastguard by keeping a vigilant lookout for refugee boats that might be out in the bay…

Talking of refugees… we did our session at the aid centre on Saturday, though there were no refugees on the island that morning. We tidied up the balcony area and tried to weatherproof some of the supplies that live out there; moved them away from the open side, put down plastic bags to protect things from a damp floor, and also on the walls, organised what was there, labelled it and covered it. We also sorted out some more bags of donated clothes: to have them come in ready washed, sorted and labelled is a great help. We also did a bit of general tidying ready for when the rooms are needed again, I checked the medical room was clean and tidy (that’s becoming one of the regular weekly jobs I set for myself) and basically did what we could. After that it was game on for (possibly) our last lunch out for the season, another trip to Meraklis which was almost full with day-trippers wearing their all-inclusive arm bands.

The two boats when out on Saturday, the Poseidon and then the Diagoras, we were having coffee at Roloi when they passed us within about ten minutes of each other. Roloi, by the clock tower (the names means ‘clock’) is one of the bars that stays open in Yialos through the winter. It, like several others, drop down plastic sheets to protect the inside from the elements. And talking of plastic sheets… That’s one of our pre-winter jobs. We need to find four bricks, some rope and some plastic sheet so that we can safely dispose of a body in the sterna, weigh it down and then put the lid back on so no one will suspect. No, actually, I was just seeing if you were awake – it’s so that we can put the outside table up on bricks away from the rain, and then cover it with plastic for the same reason, tie it all up and hope for the best. Rain is expected next Wednesday with storms on the way.

We also need to gaffer tape the plumbing so that when it rains the water-collector-pipes don’t let water spurt out through their cracks and more rain water gets into the sterna. There’s the oxeye window to get re-glazed, or rather have some Perspex put over it as the existing glass doesn’t quite fit the north facing hole and there’s a large chunk missing. So, we’re borrowing a ladder, one of us is going up and we’re going to measure what’s needed, make a template and then, hopefully, get something made up. We then need to find some wood to fit between balcony door and shutters where there’s a gap, again facing north, and then find a curtain rail and curtain for the main front door, put up the outside curtain to keep the draft out of that direction and then… Well, that’s a start and it should help keep us a bit warmer. You see, winter, on Symi, can be a pretty cool place to be.

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Back to Symi and Greek living with a bit of a bump. It was rent day yesterday and that reminded me to take a look at the electricity bill situation again. Pretty boring stuff, but this might be of interest to folk wondering what it’s like to live in Greece, so bear with me…

I might have mentioned that we had a problem with the water pump and electricity bill recently. The pump was sorted and that’s all now fixed and paid for. But while that was going on we also sorted out the correct electricity bill for the house. We’d been paying our landlord’s house bill and someone had apparently been paying ours. Thing is, the estimated bill is worked out on last year’s consumption – or something – and as the house was not really occupied last year the bill is set at only a few more units over what it was when we moved in…

So, what’s happened now is that we’ve found the right bill for our house and it’s actually in credit. But it shouldn’t be. That aside, what’s now the case is that the reading on the bill is 3,000 units lower than it should be and the guy didn’t turn up on the stated day to read the meter for real. So, yesterday I sent off an email to the electricity company to let them know the reading (you can ring them up, but me and phones don’t get on) and to ask them if they can figure out what the next bill is likely to be, just to lessen the blow. I am expecting it to be around €1,000 but that’s a guess based on how much we used to pay per month (on average) at the old house and doesn’t take into account how much you used, when, the rate rises, taxes that have been added on and so on.

So, we’re expecting to have a bit of an electric shock followed by a pretty lean Christmas this year and to have a pretty lean trip to Europe next month – tickets and trains all paid for so may as well go and just hope it’s cheap to eat there. I haven’t heard back from the electricity company as yet, but I have had a message to say my mail, in Greek and English, has been delivered and sent to the right department. Either way, we should get an electricity bill in a week or so, though it’s not going to be the right amount.

So, that’s that story semi-told; there may well be an update in the future if you can stand the wait. Meanwhile, the season is slowing right down and has almost come to a halt. The taxi boat is still going out, I’ve only seen the one from my window, and the day trip boats are coming in, though not as packed and not as frequently. A taxi driver in Rhodes told me that a lot of Rhodes hotels were staying open and there were at least another 60,000 guests expected there in the next couple of months. I wondered if that was due to the cruises, but apparently not. It seems Rhodes is aiming to extend its season, and why not? There are plenty of things to see and do apart from lying on a beach: Castles, ruins, old towns, museums, aquarium, art galleries, restaurants and walks. A bit like here on Symi.

So, Neil probably only has a few more days at the bar to work, Zoi’s Taverna has closed, others will close soon though Georgio’s stays open, as do the bars and shops up here, and some places in Yialos have also started to close. The weather is cooling down but clinging hold of the sun, so will be great for walks when I get back into my routine next Monday – or possibly Tuesday as we’ve been invited out for dinner on Sunday and that usually means a slow start to the next day. I’ll leave you with all that and the photos and see you next week.

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