Okay, it’s Thursday as I write and I am talking about Wednesday as I sit inside watching the British style rain coming down, and I’m wondering when it is going to move on to Turkey, as the Poseidon weather station tells me it is going to do.

So, house hunting, where are we with that? Well, we have considered a place by Lemonitisa that is a kitchen and a bedroom with an outside bathroom and, despite the terrace (which is larger than the living quarters) have decided that no, we can’t go from a two bed house to one room. Ditto a house we saw yesterday which was a one bed, house conversion with no view other than the neighbour’s front door. We have also looked at a house that is in the middle of renovation but which would not be ready in time, and a property which would do very nicely if: the rent is right, he takes it off the market, gives a five year lease and clears it of all the stuff in there within the next four weeks. (I am waiting to hear back on those points.)

We have also considered a holiday house that’s been offered, too small, another one near the road, also too small, one right on the road (not Jack friendly and currently has no bathroom and is not quite finished), and have asked about houses up near Sevasti studios, but these are also for sale and the owner wants only a short term rental.

And, with the help of Jenine –house-hunt assistant supreme – we have wandered the streets of Horio again, talking to people and knocking on doors. One problem we are up against is that a lot of houses have been converted into small units, like the one we saw yesterday. Two one bed flats in one property is fine for a brief stay, or a season, or if you are teacher, alone, an army officer etc. but not if you are a couple and living on Symi, as opposed to just passing through it.

Another problem is that a lot of people have their properties for sale and want to make money out of them. Fair enough of course, especially as one day a very wealthy person might come along and pay the (in my opinion) ridiculously high asking price. Prices that, as everywhere these days, put local people out of the buying frame. You might be able to get a let in a ‘for sale’ house but I would ask for a lease that stated the house would not be advertised on the market for the length of that lease. That’s going to be hard to find too.

But on the good-news side, we saw our landlord in Georgio’s in the evening and he has also been looking for us (as are many local people, Zoi, Nikos, Anna, the baker and at least two Yiannies). He also said not to panic about moving out ‘in a month’ as there was no rush. Well, you know how things work around here. And, while there, we had a very nice meal too, and without having to fuss about what to eat. ‘I have keftethes, salad, saganaki and pork chops,’ says Noufris. ‘That’ll do then,’say we, and very nice it was too – and so reasonable, $10.00 each, with wine. (Winter prices for the nearly homeless, I suspect.)

So, today (Thursday) Neil has already looked at another house – which would be perfect if not already occupied by someone who may want to carry on living in it – and has been out getting wet. The towels are drying on the balcony (not) and we’re rapidly running out of dry ones. Still, rain is due to stop this afternoon. Tha thoume. (We shall see.)

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I’m not talking about our house hunting today, although that continues apace with another one to look at later today, but I wanted to give you some interesting facts about home.

For example, did you know that there are enough empty homes in China of everyone in the UK to have one each? Or that in Beijing, two million people live underground? As if that weren’t startling enough, the soil in your back garden is actually two million years old. Now how do people know these things? (I am ‘reading’ from a book of facts here and not making this up.)

That’s assuming you have a garden I guess, what if you live in a mobile home with no garden? And on that note, did you know there are more folk in the USA living in mobile homes than there are living in the whole of the Netherlands? Well, that’s something I didn’t know. (And why should I?) Oh, and apparently three quarters of Britons have a drawer in their house full off odds and ends. We would too, if we only had drawers in our house. Maybe the next house will have… No, I said I wouldn’t mention the house-hunting, not until tomorrow at least.

Finally on the home facts front, the average Briton passes 32 takeaway food joints between home and work. I am clearly not average. I pass through the bedroom to get to my front room where I work, and there’s no fast food joint there.

So, there are some facts about homes in general from my new book of astoundingly unnecessary facts. A few facts about Symi houses: they tend to be small, drafty, cold, expensive to heat and can be expensive to rent. They are often up for sale for many years (especially at the moment). They are mainly dowry houses, and the ownership of others is often ‘shared’ between several members of the same family. There was, I believe, a law in place several years ago where houses had to be officially claimed and registered (talking ruins here I guess) or else would fall to the local authority to decide who owned them – something like that. And, a lot of them still have outside bathroom, no mains drainage and no mains water, though this is now an option in most places.

There, those are a few random facts from the top of my head – they may not be 100% accurate, and this post may contain nuts, remember that your interest in a Symi Dream post can go down as well as up, and the management holds itself totally un-responsible for anything that may happen on its premises. Have a nice day. Thank you.

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Don’t worry, not every day for the next X days will have the same title, I hope. I’ll try and think of other things to talk about.

So far though we are off to a good start thanks to word of mouth and helpful friends. I was making dinner in the kitchen yesterday, unsuccessfully dodging the rain drops every time I went to the fridge, and I reminded myself that the new place should be rain free if possible, at least to start with. I know that’s a tall order, but then so is the size of place we would ideally like. Still, later today we are going to look at a house near the Sunrise that’s not the one we already know (Little Blue = far too small), and this morning Neil is meeting with the estate agent in town who deals with rentals.

Meanwhile, we took a walk on Monday afternoon, between showers, and had a look out for any ‘for rent’ signs on houses in the village. We also looked of any old property that looked suitable and was clearly not inhabited. There are plenty around, but it’s a case of discovering who a) has them for rent, b) owns them c) is willing to give a long contract.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, Jenine and others have been putting the word out. We’ve told Sotiris at the supermarket, and Gabriel the drumming, kick-boxing ex-priest (whose cancer scare on his foot has now been given the all clear, he says, so that’s good news), the baker, and everyone at tap, aerobics and Pilates knows that we are looking for a place. Thank you to everyone who has been messaging in ideas too.

If it wasn’t raining so heavily yesterday we would have gone for another look around then too, but instead we stayed in and did some work, and started thinking about collecting boxes.

It was rather wet yesterday, to say the least. The current house discovered several news ways that it could let in water, but I’m not worried about that now, as long as it doesn’t drip on anything electrical I can put up with it for as long as it takes. The windows were all steamed up as I was boiling things in the kitchen and we’re trying to dry the washing inside; all the standard kind of Greek island/Symi winter living things one has to deal with, all good fun.

BTW, the weather forecast is showing ‘spotty showers’ for today (I assume adolescent ones) but sunshine from Thursday onwards, in fact it’s almost looking spring-like.

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Well, the next few weeks are going to be interesting, both for us and maybe even for you if you have ever wondered what it was like to find, and move into, a new house, on Symi within four weeks.

Our landlady is getting married soon and needs her dowry house back; it was always a possibility of course, and not unexpected. We have, after all, been in this house for 11 years now. As Neil says, it’s the longest place he has ever lived in. Meaning, as I pedantically point out, the place he has lived in for the longest (‘length of time’ is implied).

So, from today (Monday) onwards we shall be house hunting. Funnily enough we saw a place in Pedi the other day and noticed it was for rent, though it looks big and cold and dilapidated somewhat from the outside. But we’d rather like to stay up here in the village, or as close to it as possible. We know of a house for rent on the main road, but it has no outdoor space suitable for Jack and he’d be squashed as soon as he went out for a wee as the only cat friendly place is across the road, and he is deaf So that’s out. Shame though, great view; but it also needs some work doing inside apparently as it was half built as a taverna.

We also know of the ‘Little Blue’ house where Rebecca Grant stayed when she was here filming. But as I remember it, it is too small for us. That’s going to be one of the problems. The house we have now has a conversion on the back which gives us the sitting room. So we have the saloni chock full of dining table, piano, desk, shelves and trunks; the bedroom full up, the moussandra now Neil’s office full of his stuff from the shop, the sitting room bulging at the seams with DVDs and other entertainments. Finding something as spacious (and as affordable) could be tricky.

We have already been offered a stop-gap house (thank you, you know who you are!) if we need it, though we’d have to store out things somewhere. And to think, when we first arrived here we had two rucksacks and a laptop.

Anyway, this tale could get boring or to could get interesting, but I will keep you posted as to progress. And of course, if you know of a place to rent, preferably in Horio (though we would consider elsewhere though probably not Yialos as we’d like to stay close to the village), that’s not a silly price and that would be long-term, and I mean years and years, then do drop me a line. Thank you. Right, off to make some phone calls now…

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Sunday afternoon, around 2pm, the sun is out, the neighbour is hanging out her rugs, her son has given us his selection of rock hits from the 1980s, and the neighbourhood is quiet.

Out in the street there are lumps of plaster and paint that have cracked off a few buildings, our own house included, thanks to the frost and cold wind (I assume). One of the triangles in our frontage-apex-pointy-bit (I don’t know what it’s really called, obviously) has literally fallen off. I hope it didn’t hit anyone. So, we can add that to the list of running repairs that need seeing to.

Talking of which, did I tell you I’d fixed a leak in the bathroom? The pump had been going off every now and then, a sign that all is not well in Plumbingland, and we’d been trying to figure out what was causing it. The taps in the kitchen  were tried, turned off and not to blame, ditto the bathroom and also the WC. Thing is, if the leak is very small you can’t see it but, over time, it’s enough to drop the pressure in the system which then sets the pump off. Annoying when it does it every 30 minutes day and night. But, as things started to set worse, I was able to see the cause, a drip from the tap in the bathroom where the actual tap fitting, named ‘Gloria’ (the name on the box when she arrived), meets the pipe coming out of the wall.

I was dreading there being a leak within the wall. That would entail knocking things down and fixing things up and I’m not good at that kind of stuff. Well, I could probably knock things down, and I did once remove and install a WC in my Dalston flat, but that was years ago. Anyhow, I had a look at this drip and puddle of water in the bath, discounted cat activity and Neil, and thought, ‘What the hell, I’ll borrow a adjustable spanner and see what’s what.’ So I did and what’s what was that the nut tightened up and the drip stopped. So, feeling strangely macho and very satisfied with myself, I got back to writing my next book.

A process which was interrupted by a friend sending me a link to a piece about this young man who has kept a video blog for several years, in Brighton, who is now making something like 20k per month. Now then, if every reader of my blog would like to click on the adverts, send the links to the books to all their friends with instructions to buy at least one, order a calendar or two, book their holidays through our Booking.com link on the right and shop via out Amazon shop, also on the right >> we might be on our way to making €2.00 per month. Every little helps and goes towards the heating bill. I mean, 20k per month from a video blog? We are all in the wrong jobs.

Meanwhile, out there in Symi, Greek island world, things remain cool but calm, flowers are starting to come out, there is still ice around, Sotiris registered -7 up at his farm the other morning, and outside our house there is ice in the plant pots – no plants of course, the snails have had all them, they’ve almost finished eating the chilli plants now. I have borrowed the image of snow on Symi from Sevasti (many thanks). This one shows snow on Symi in 1978  though it did snow here in 1987 too, and in 2004, a little. It’s interesting to see from this old photo that there is snow on the ‘Symi boobs’ as the hills on the right have been called, but no radio masts, towers or army installations.

So, that’s that and what’s next? Sunday afternoon party invite where chilli is, rather ironically, on the menu; Monday evening tap dancing; Neil also has his programme of aerobics and Pilates to adhere to, and I am seriously thinking about taking up the morning walks again. A quick check of the weather ahead shows the temperature reaching the staggering heights of 13 and 14 during the week, thanks to rain, so it might be warm enough to take up the early mornings again. I’ll keep you posted.

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