Just back from a very productive meeting with the new landlord and the agent – all extremely helpful and reassuring. I feel I can now start collecting boxes and start packing.

In a little while we are heading to the Sunrise kafeneion for a memorial gathering in honour of Brian, who lived on Symi for a while. You may remember Brian, he covered two years at the Rainbow Bar for Yiannis, and his wife Marj worked for various people on the island, including a season (or two?) at St Nicholas beach. They left Symi a couple of years ago due to Brian’s health and he passed away a couple of weeks ago.

He used to tell us that he wanted a Viking funeral. ‘Just put me in a boat and send me out to sea,’ he’d say. We did consider this and, at the time, joked about it. We would have to push it towards international waters so as not to create an incident between Greece and Turkey, and we’d have to fire flaming arrows from the cliffs and aim well. Otherwise he’d wash up in Datca or somewhere and would be difficult to explain. Today, instead, we are going to do the best we can, because that’s what you do when you live in a place like Symi.

Neil has made a boat from silver foil and we are going to put a charcoal ‘brick’ in it and maybe some frankincense, as you do in church. You then light the charcoal and it flares up, with smoke, and then calms down and glows and the incense melts and does its stuff. That’s the nice smell you find when wandering the lanes on warm days, often on a Sunday morning, though on any day is acceptable; it’s a way of purifying the house.

That’s the plan for the rest of the day. Afterwards I can see us coming home and not doing much by way of working; it feels like an odd day – the thoughts of Brian, of course, and of moving house, and of how Jack will settle in (the new house is the property of a ginger tom who lives there now and who will be living across the road, so they will have to learn to share the courtyard). Having been a housing manager for 11 years and a member of the Chartered Institute for seven of them, I know all the potential problems that house rental brings with it. But, after this morning’s meeting, I am confident that we are all in the right hands, Jack included.

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I thought it was time we had an update on the house move. Even though there is not a lot to report, I am sure some people will be interested to know the ins and outs of what moving house on Symi entails.

Today I am having a quick meeting with the new landlord and our agent from The Symi Estate Agent (www.thesymiestateagent.com) who has been very helpful and understanding. We are just going to make sure both parties are singing from the same hymn sheet to make sure everything goes smoothly, for the benefit of all.

Meanwhile, we’ve been looking at furniture and things we need. There are places where you can buy and order furniture and white goods on Symi, and these days you also have the option of ordering online. I’m going for a bit of both. I’ve found out that I might be able to get the supermarket in the village to arrange a fridge freezer for us (the old one is on its last legs and needs replacing). That would be handy as they would also deliver it. We’re looking at Ikea via Rhodes for some other pieces, which does involve someone on the inside knowing how the delivery system works, but we have our agent for that too.

I’ve also has a word with an electrician who is going to come and wire the cooker in when we get there, so that’s that job sorted out. We have also started planning our system of actually moving but there are some questions still to answer and an order of things to do. For example, we need to find out if the current landlord wants us to ‘do up’ this place before we go. As I understand it he’s going to be ripping everything out and starting again, so I don’t see the point of filing in holes made by shelves, and then decorating. But we will ask. This house was last fixed up in 1981, according to the date on the paperwork found with the old boiler.

Then we need to get our new contract with the hand-over date so we can start arranging the moving party. We will need at least two strong men to move the heaviest things for us (will be advertising and paying for this in due course), though Vasilis has already offered his motorbike flat-bed ‘truck’ if we want it, which is very kind of him. A couple of strong lads and a sack trolley should do the trick. (Sounds like a Victoria Wood line.) Then, keys in hand, we will go in, clean up and paint up if necessary and move things in bit by bit.

There will, at that time, also be the thing about moving the phone line and I may ‘go dark’ for a few days if we get cut off here without being switched on there. These are all things you have to take into account when planning a move and the more you plan the smoother it goes. You also have to bear in mind that the nearest road to us is still a way away and the ‘road’ outside the new house is too narrow for a proper truck, so physically moving is not going to be easy. But that is still a few weeks away. I just thought you might like an update on where we are.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed today’s photos which are some of the ones Neil took recently, as promised yesterday.

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Some more of my shots from the harbour today. Neil sent me some of his (much better) photos but I made them the wrong size, so I am waiting for him to send them again sometime.

Meanwhile, Monday started off as planned, I was up early, I got straight out of bed and straight up that mountain, to the quarry anyway, and then back down again; all at a fast pace/slight jog, just to test the knees. Then I got to my desk and only stopped for lunch and here I am doing Tuesday’s post and it’s 14.30 and I’ve not written any boko* yet. But as soon as this is done…

Now, talking of writing, here’s a thing. My typing is appalling as I have never learned to type correctly, I can type quickly though and, when not copying, I can probably manage around 70 words a minute maybe 80. But only about 50% of them will be correct. My fingers (I use four on one hand and three on the other) bump into two keys at once, very orften, and so I end up with words such as ‘orften’ and ‘managew’ instread of ‘often and ‘manage.’ In some cases I simply get the word wrong and many readers will no doubt be aware, so I will put ‘no’ instead of ‘on’ and ‘if’ instead of ‘of’ or even ‘bog’ instead of ‘blog.’ There is nothing I can do about those automatically speaking, but there is something I can do about the ones where my fingers have learned the wrong fingering, as a musician would say, and so repeatedly type the wrong word, or hit the wrong keys.

I use the AutoCorrect function in Word to change certain words for me. There are some common ones, ‘teh’ for ‘the’ and so on. I have some more specific ones though such as ‘hen’ (not a word I use often) changes to ‘then’, the rationale being that when I read through I will pick up on: ‘we went to the shops hen we went home’ and ‘I saw a then in the chicken coup’, and it’s quicker to do things this way around than it is to go back and make changes the other way.

There are some words that I type consistently incorrectly that I can’t really change, such as ‘nto’ for not, because I also type ‘nto’ for into sometimes, so I have to leave those and manually change them later.

But all this did give me an idea for how you can get back at someone in your office, someone you really don’t like and want to wind up. When they are next out of the office and have left their Word programme open, slip in, get the autocorrect box open and add in your favourite auto corrects. Here are some ideas for you: for Dear Sir change to Dear Madam, for Dear Madam change to Dear Madman (and see how long it takes for them to figure it out). For Yours faithfully you could change to Yours Marianne Faithfully and for Yours sincerely you could try Yours snivelly.

And so on, I am sure you can come up with many of your own. And, remember, the more you get to put in, the longer it will take for them to track them down and change them back. But when you get caught out, don’t tell anyone it was me who told you! And as for the boko* above; this didn’t show up as an incorrect word in my Word document so I checked the dictionary and could not find it at all. I have no idea how Word comes to think this is a real word, it’s not in my auto-change as ‘accepted’ and so I’ve gone and added it; for boko read book.

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“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment” said someone called Jim Rhon. So, right, okay, I really must get back into a routine and get this next book down on paper. That’s the plan and it starts on Monday.

Today, Sunday, I am setting the alarm for 15 minutes earlier than usual so I can get up, take a brisk walk, if it’s not raining, have a shower and get to my desk by 7.30 to get my usual work done, do emails, admin blah-di-blah. That takes me through the morning until lunchtime and that’s where the routine will have to kick in. Straight after lunch it will be back to the desk, no internet on, no distractions, and at least one hour of writing, plotting, planning, noting or researching.

That will take me to around four in the afternoon, and I’ll aim to stretch it until five on a good day, when I will knock off for the day. That’s when I can watch films, play on the tablet, go out or pack boxes – which we have not started doing yet. We will when we have a contract for the new house, it’s not going to take us long and we won’t be packing for a moving van style move. Knowing me I’ll just bung things in bags and carry them along the street (it’s two minutes away) and then put them in their place…

You see! I am digressing already. The writing routine will also have to include the daily blog which, as you’ll know, I am now preparing a day ahead, so you are usually reading what I wrote yesterday. I used to do it first thing in the morning but now find that if I do that, it’s a quick and even more pointless than usual post; if I do it the day before then I babble on for longer, and sometimes even say something of interest.

The photos today were taken on Saturday when we went down to Yialos to go to the bank and then buy some cat food. We stopped for something to eat and Neil was asked to take a photo for a driving license, which he was able to do in the street thanks to a handy white wall. He’s popping back later to deliver it. We walked back up the main road, which was very quiet, and had a look down on the new jetty that’s being built. It’s still just two barges and some lumps of concrete. When we once went on a tour of the West Pier in Brighton, we were told that most of the renovation work was happening under water, and so I imagine that’s what’s happening with our new docking jetty. The preparation is the thing and most of the work is happening out of sight at the moment.

By the way, the West Pier visit was before it burned down, when you were able to take guided tours of what was left of it and in the days when two of the neon letters were not working, so the thing was announcing itself as the WE T PIE . Always made me laugh.

And then on Saturday night we had madness and mayhem with Jenine and Harry making pizzas and staying up far too late, which has made for a late start Sunday. And it’s a glorious day and we should be out there walking, And we may well be after lunch as the writing regime is not starting until tomorrow. (And will, in any case, be interrupted by moving house, hopefully in four weeks’ time.)

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN!

Weather news: no rain yesterday (Friday) at least not by 12.30 when I am writing this. The sun is out, the air is cool, it’s pretty cold again in my front room, and the last of the drops is still coming through the living room ceiling into the big pan, but the kitchen has stopped doing what it does.

We are feeling a little bit up today because we’ve had some good news and we are kind of at 80/100 on the ‘suitable house’ scale. Thanks to a lead from The Symi Estate Agent (who have been very helpful in joining us to a potential landlord and answering our questions), we have another viewing of a potential house this afternoon. I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to jinx things, not that I am superstitious. But, if all goes according to plan, and if nothing else leaps up before we sign a contract, we may have found a new place to live.

I say new, it’s old of course, and needs some work doing to it, which we will undertake once we have got everything sorted. But if it comes off it will suit us because it is in the village, close to work and everything, and a decent size and completely quirky, which we like. There is a little concern about the lane outside as it’s used by small cars and motorbikes, but it is not a main road and we reckon Jack will stay home anyway, he doesn’t do much wandering, he will have his own space and he’s much more of an indoor cat now. So, continue to watch this space and I will fill you in from time to time on progress (or not).

That progress will include the full details of packing and arranging to move the contents of a two bed house across the village; although there is a ‘road’ at the other end, there is no road here, but there is a pretty direct path on foot. But all that is for later. And I am thinking ahead and we’ve not double checked the property (doing that later) or signed a contract yet, not that contracts are particularly watertight anyway, not around here. In fact, I shan’t be completely satisfied we have been successful until we have the keys to the new/old property and it is empty.

We are looking at a timescale for roughly four weeks to take over the property, then two weeks to make it ready while still being in this one. Making ready also includes switching the phone and internet over, something we rely on these days. So, we are hoping to be moved by the end of February. That is how things stand as of yesterday.

What’s nice about a place like Symi is that when you’re doing things like moving house there are a lot of people around offering to help with stuff. We’re going to start packing things up bit by bit and have a sort out while we do so, but if anyone passes any empty boxes and then our house we’d be grateful for having then dropped off. You can always drop them in downstairs if we are out. As for moving, the aim will be to shift things bit by bit as we clean and paint up the new place (wherever it may be) and then have a day with paid assistance to move the big stuff like cooker, fridge, cat.

And there we go. That’s the house move update on day five. We have already seen or considered 10 properties, and this one is the most suitable (that is available) so far. Fingers are now crossed that all goes smoothly over the next six weeks.

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