Here’s a bit of fun for a Saturday morning that fits into the ‘how to get a delivery to Symi’ chapter of the next book – which I’m not planning as yet – and some unrelated photos to go with. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a birthday present for Neil. (It’s on the 8^th of September so you’ve still got time.) The thing I wanted was found in England and so I did an online order to a company I’d never used before. And here we go…

First of all the company accepted my card and payment was made, and then they contacted me to ask me to call them to run through some security checks as I was using a card that was not registered in the same country as my address. Unfortunately the number they had me to call was one of those 0898 things where you can so easily call up a sexy chat line by accident. So I am told. But no, it wasn’t, but it was similar and I was unable to access it as the country the phone number was registered in was not the same as the country I lived in. So…

I emailed them and explained that I couldn’t do that, but maybe they’d like to call me at their expense, and I gave them my phone number and waited for the phone to ring so I could answer with ‘Hi, this is Chuck and I wanna play (calls may be recorded and are charged at the premium rate of £4.67 per hour plus V.A.T. your investment can go up as well as down) what’s your name, sexy?’ But sadly they didn’t ring but emailed me back instead. So…

I emailed them again and explained that we don’t have an address as such, not many roads around here have street names (which is the same for two thirds of the world apparently) and I am known to the post office staff and most couriers, the port police, the national police (for all the right reasons) and can get at least one local papas to verify me, and here’s a photo of the house. I also offered to pay using my other card which is registered in Canada but that didn’t help. They were very impressed with the photo of the house and so believed me and said they would send the thing on to me, tout suite. So…

Another email came in and this had a tracking number and a site link so I could track the progress of the thing on its journey. A couple of days later I had a look and found out that the thing had left Brighton and was at “Gatwick -We have your parcel and it’s on its way to you.” And the next day: “Birmingham -We have your parcel and it’s on its way to our depot” where, later the same day: “Birmingham- Your parcel has left the United Kingdom and is on its way to Greece.” Wow, that’s good to know. I assumed it was flying to Athens but no, its first stop was: “Best (eindhoven)- The parcel is in transit on its journey to local delivery destination.” This was the same day, so it must have flown to Germany or else someone drove very fast. And then…

Two days later is was: “Budapest -The parcel is in transit on its journey to local delivery destination.” Which is again ironic as that’s where we are going in December. But it gets spookier as the very next day it was at Bucharest, where we were a couple of years ago. I imagine that it’s got a hire car by now and is driving across Europe to enjoy the scenery. If so, it had a sleepover somewhere between Romania and Greece as it took two days to drive to Thessaloniki where it did some sightseeing before heading down to Athens the following day. And then…

Well, then it left its car with Budget and got on the Blue Star, possibly calling in at Symi but, the follow day arriving at: “Rodos – The parcel is in transit on its way to its final destination.” I’ve seen that film and it’s very scary. Luckily the thing arrived safely at the Rodos depot later that day and then got itself a lift: “Rodos – Your parcel is on the vehicle for delivery.” Woohoo! It’s nearly here. It’s going to need a holiday to get over that journey. But then, the final track of the list…

“Greek Islands – Unable to Deliver”

What? Which Greek island has it gone to now? Bloomin’ traveling ‘thing’ in a box… Ah wait. Ironically (number three) Neil found it at ACS and luckily didn’t open it or read the ‘From’ address too carefully. So, it’s now recovering in the wardrobe and is all in the same pieces it was when it left Brighton.

There you go, and here I go – have a good weekend.

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It seems like it’s getting to that stage when a day in Rhodes takes a day to get over. But still, I had a good time and managed to get a couple of the things I went to get. There was a distinct lack of hire cars though, not one single place had one to rent for the day except one place that wanted €100.00 and as we were only there for seven hours, it seemed a bit steep.

I noticed, when I got home and looked at my photos that I only took photos on the boat, and a couple when I first arrived. None of the hugely entertaining trip to Jumbo for birthday presents, or the Chinese for lunch; I did take one of a couple of people really enjoying their stay at the Plaza Hotel though:

And I assume you saw the one yesterday of the woman doing strange things with her legs. I think she was exercising, but why she had to do it in full view of people having their lunch is anyone’s guess. She must have needed the attention.

Now then, on the boat coming back I noticed these signs, one on either side of the ship and wondered what they meant – apart from the obvious connection to a darkly lit bar in the backstreets of Berlin. I wondered that, if you were to find this room, would you be able to hear Isaac Hayes playing? You know, the song that’s about a private dick and a cat that won’t cop out. (No, honestly.)

Actually, I looked into what a ‘shaft room’ is on a ship and found some alarming information on various websites. The most startling was one called ‘Shafting a ship’ and I quote:

“… a single shaft ship is uncontrollable and needs to have a tug …” there was then some detail about twin screws and “Another serious problem with centerline shafts is vibration.” Well, yes of course. The serious problem we had on the boat that night was backfiring. Every now and then a huge plume of black smoke would belch from the port side funnel along with an accompaniment of pops and chugs and passengers would start to double check where the lifeboats were. We did arrive on Symi though, and I saw the boat come back in again the next day so it’s still running. Maybe it just needed a clean out on its thrusters or was suffering “main shaft water lubrication issues” or something.

Seriously though, Rhodes was busy. There were several large cruise ships in that day (Wednesday), hence the lack of hire cars and also lack of taxis. We finally got one by walking around to Mandraki and waiting at the unusually empty taxi rank there. The Blue Star Diagoras was also fully booked on its return trip – we were coming back later on the Panagia Skiadeni – but Irina at Plaza travel told us that there were no hire cars to be had and that the only island you could get a boat to, from Rhodes, was Symi; everything beyond was fully booked. A lot of that will be the refugees heading up to Athens; there were over 400 processed through Symi alone at the start of the week. And, I found out later, the police officers who have to do this task worked through the night, until 6.30 in the morning, so that the people could move on, on the Wednesday boat to Athens. Bear in mind that these police officers are working through their own time, and not being paid extra for the additional hours and without them doing the job Symi would be filling up with hundreds of refugees each week.

You can do your part by volunteering to help, if on Symi, or by donating if you want to contribute towards helping the refugees with clothing, food, water, shelter and facilities. The target is £7,000 and already over £3,000 has been raised. You can find more details here http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info and you don’t have to register or login in, just put in your card details.

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No blog today – late start. But, instead, a photo of strange behaviour seen at the Plaza Hotel. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, meanwhile, relax and put your feet up.

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Here are some snippets of local Symi news I picked up on: If anyone (English speaking) needs a job for a few weeks or the rest of the summer, To Spitiko are looking for a waiter/waitress to start immediately. Go and see Jordana at the restaurant.

If anyone is looking for a place to rent in Yialos, long term, then there is a place going above Alegrito café. I didn’t know the name of the older man who called me over and told me, but if you ask at the café I am sure they will give you details.

If you would like to help the refugees who are landing on Symi, and you use Facebook, then you can go to this page and learn about the non-profit organisation that has been set up, and what you can do to help. Refugees continue to arrive on the island in their hundreds per week, and the hard-pressed authorities deal with their paperwork as quickly as they can. But there is still a waiting time and lack of facilities. I just passed a group on the south side of the harbour, eating bread, drinking water and siting on the floor. They wash in the sea, use the one WC at the port police office, or the police station and wait to be processed. They then have to book onto the Athens ferry and move on.

The photo (top one, above) was taken from the balcony yesterday morning and shows a group of new arrivals waiting at the police station. They would have been dumped on rocks somewhere, maybe Nimos, and then rescued by the coastguard. Or else they would have swum ashore and walked from Ag Marina, or the coast nearby. Some have arrived at Panormitis. You can just make out some of the children still wearing their life jackets.

The messages from ‘Solidarity Symi’ are currently: “HELP NEEDED TODAY (18th August) We’re creating a temporary storage area at the old post office building. In need of volunteers, particularly a handyman/women that can help whitewash some walls, fix some damaged doors etc. We’re there now. We’re needing chairs, tables and storage boxes. If you have anything, please bring down to the old post office next to the police station. Thank you!”

I’m sure that if you read this after the event (and you will as it won’t be posted until after the event) you will still be able to help and volunteer, send supplies, even from abroad. Just go to the page and get in touch. You can also help via http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info where you can donate money anonymously.

I don’t think I have any other Symi news today apart from the fact that I am going to Rhodes today for a drive around and mooch about and to have a day away from the desk. I have, as an aside, started work on ‘The Saddling’ which is to be the next novel after ‘Straight Swap’ (which I may retitle). The Saddling is a gothic mystery thriller – talk about mixing genres – let’s call it a mystiller or a thrillery.

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Some more photos from Neil today, taken on Symi over the past few days during which time we’ve had hot weather, concerts in the festival(s), and 168 drops of rain, roughly speaking.

Over the weekend we were out and about, down in Yialos twice, seeing health insurance lady and getting that finalised, visiting the post office to collect a couple of things (slug pellets for the slugs that come up out of nowhere and explore the kitchen – odd), some DVDs, a book, and to see various folk about various things at various times – it was a day of variations. Saturday was the festival at the Ilithini, the Panagia and name day of Mary and others so an important holiday and several shops were closed.

Sunday was a semi-working morning followed by a meeting about the health insurance, all now done and dusted and up and running though I have to be careful running for the next two years as my knees don’t kick in until after then. Some things are not covered for the initial periods of time, like back problems (one year) and knee problems (two). After that I should be fully done. Not that I’ve had much time for running this past week. It’s been crazy season for invites and there are more on the way.

Last night we visited neighbours, tomorrow I am visiting Rhodes, Thursday a certain godchild has a birthday and another has a name day, and so on… Let’s aim for a quiet weekend where I can stay home and work on the next book. Meanwhile, the sun is shining hot and there are the taxi boats are busy. Sunday was manic in the harbour; our person coming from Rhodes arrived at the Sea Dreams at 9.30 for the 10.00 departure and had trouble finding a seat. Let’s hope everyone who comes over spends a little of their hard-earned in a Symi shop.

So, no other earth-shattering news? Don’t think so, if anything occurs I will let you know. Oh, we were told by a taxi driver that the nice blue/grey and white boat that had been anchored in the bay for over a week beloved to the ‘boss’ of Olympiakos, the Greek football team thing. Clearly here to spy on our house or search out talent from the afternoon under 11s football game in the village square.

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