We were walking to Nimborio on Wednesday when we spotted and old bird. Stop it now. Be nice, I wasn’t talking about a person. I was talking about this great big winged beast that took off from down at the water’s edge below and then made its lazy way across the sea to another cove.

Neil managed to grab a photo, though it was at a distance by then so he had to crop in. Looks like a heron to me, but I’m not sure which kind. I looked at Symi Flora and Fauna, on the birds page,  but didn’t see anything that looked similar, so I will have to hope that Lyndon sees this and identifies it. I am sure Neil won’t mind if you use the image either, as you always credit photographers I notice.

That was just one of the day’s highlights, others included a wonderful lunch, long chats over too much wine, and a lift home again afterwards, followed by some unnecessary Andrew Lloyd Webber – there’s one note that Emmy Rossum hits during ‘The point of no return’ that I wanted to hear again, it’s a low note, no disrespect intended to Miss Rossum.

I just went to check up on the spelling of her name and found myself at the Wiki page for the show and that reminded me that I went to the first Saturday performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre, an event I remember well. I’d caught the train down from Lancaster where I was living at the time (because it would be silly to catch it from there if I was living somewhere else) and had arranged to stay with a friend in London overnight. This was on Saturday 11th October 1986 and I had arranged to meet said outside the theatre after the show as I didn’t have anywhere else to stay that night and couldn’t afford a hotel. The show happened, that’s another story, and I waited outside in a very busy Haymarket. And I waited, and waited, until about an hour later, when all the traffic had died down, there was still on said of friend.

This was long before mobile phones and all that jazz (that’s another show) so there was nothing I could do apart from consider a night at Euston station, not a nice thought. Then I hit upon the idea of heading to the bar and searching for the soon to be ex-friend there, but could I remember the name of it? Could I buffalo. I stood there for ages (even saw Miss Brightman and Mr Crawford leave the theatre, separately) watching the cars going back and forth and trying to remember the name of this damn club. Wandering through Piccadilly and crossing the busy streets the name if it would not come back to me. So, there was nothing else to do but head to the station and see what time the first train was. About seven or eight hours later, at least.

In the end I wound up in a very sleazy hotel in Kings Cross where the sounds from within the mattress kept me awake most of the night. In the morning I had breakfast with some very nice homeless folk and eventually caught the train back. Back in Lancashire I phoned my mate and found out that he’d completely forgotten due to a christening party and too much tequila, so thanks very much (Rad, you know who you are). Oh yes, and the name of the club I’d tried to recall while dodging traffic? It was called ‘Traffic.’

And the reason I know the exact day is because I looked it up on a ‘find what day you were born’ site where I also discovered that I am 18,854 days old, which is a bit scary, but not as scary as it would be if I were a dog, then I’d be 357 years old. Even scarier would be the fact that a dog wrote what you’ve just been reading.

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I open my Samuel Johnson Dictionary of 1755 at random and read the: “Eclogue, n.s. [εκλογη.] A pastoral poem so called because Virgil called his pastorals eclogues.” All I can say is that it’s a shame he didn’t call them Thunderbirds like his dad did.

I am actually on the first page of the Es, and in silly mood having, so far this morning, been for a run up the hill to the kantina and back, done 15 minutes of dumbbells (thanks for the routine Mike, simple and effective as promised) and written about 4,000 words; it’s only 10.45 as I write this (yesterday as you read it) and I am on schedule to leave the house at 11.30 to head to Yialos for a few things and then over to Nimborio for lunch with Jeanette at her house by the sea. Neil has been up in his den sorting out his things that are now all out of the shop, and the sun is straining to shine through some low cloud that may or may not develop into something wet later.

So, so far, Wednesday has been going well. And what’s that got to do with the dictionary of old words? Nothing really, I just couldn’t think up anything interesting to say. But I do note a few other words on this page as I sit here:

Did you know I was an eame? I certainly didn’t. In fact I am a great eame. It’s a word that comes from the Saxon eam, and/or Dutch, eom, and means Uncle; “a word still used in the wilder parts of Staffordshire” according to Sammy J. I wonder if anyone in Staffordshire still uses this word today, even in the tamer parts of the county. Maybe you can enlighten me. Also on this page I see that I qualify as an earthling, a word I thought came from some 20th century science fiction film or book, but no. The earliest recorded use, in this book, is from ‘Drummond’ who wrote, “To earthlings, the footstool of God …” sometimes before SJ classified it, in 1775, as meaning, ‘An inhabitant of the earth; a mortal; a poor frail creature,’ all of which I qualify as, especially after the dumbbell work out just now.

He also gives us, on this page, earthquake, which we know well around here, echinated which I am but which I intend to do something about in a minute (bristled like a hedgehog), and ebriety, which I fully intend to suffer from later on this afternoon, if suffer is the right word. I’ll let you look that one up, but a clue: it’s from the Latin Ebrietas.

And so on with the day. You may notice that the Share on Facebook link below this post is now accompanied by an advert (if you have not got an ad blocker on); I’m hoping that this is all working well now (like our water, touch wood) as, if they are, it means I don’t have to add those links manually every day. So, I’ll be looking to see. If the link/advert looks useful to you feel free to click it, it doesn’t cost anything.

There, have a nice day wherever you are. More nonsense from me soon.

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I’m not even going to mention pumps or water today, let’s just say that our week long holiday in Kos and Patmos is now looking like two or three days in Rhodes. But hey ho! At least we’ve got most of the blog issues sorted out, the sun is shining, Neil has now taken everything from the shop and painted the inside white ready for the next incumbent, so that’s that.

I’ve been so tied up with blogs and bogs the last couple of days I’ve not actually been out and about much. Where did I leave you? Oh yes, I was heading off down to Yialos on Monday to meet Neil for lunch. One of those impromptu winter things where you think, ‘I shouldn’t really, but why not?’ And a very nice lunch it was too, at Meraklis where I had my crab salad, and then some chicken. We tried to pay full price but, once again, we were given something of a discount. The taverna is closing after Panormitis weekend (this weekend) so if you are around and want to have lunch in the sun while you can, there’s a great place to go.

It’s also handy for Spacephone so I was able to drop in and get some advice about connecting the TV to the internet, which I’ve still not managed to do. That’s another on-going project for the winter, a bit like the Ikea instalments we have ordered. Did I tell you that the original order turned up? Ian was called to the depot to collect it for us, not sure how that works but it worked, and the box was addressed to ‘Collins James Symi’ which may be why it took a while to get here. Successfully put together now though, and the TV is now sitting on it, which is a bit of a worry as it was actually a scatter cushion. Only joking.

Anyway, after our lunch, we came back up to the village to, surprisingly, find Yiannis at the Rainbow at a time of day he usually isn’t (there was an important Greek football match on, Eek Vs. Olympia Dukakis, or Paraphernalia, or someone) so we stopped there until the sun vanished and the air became too chill for sitting out. Or was that on Sunday? That might have been Sunday, I think on Monday we went to Mandeo’s on the way home, sat inside, under the covering, in the sun and sweated a bit. It’s that time of year when you don’t want to say goodbye to outdoor life, so you cling to the last days of it. That, of course, means too much time spent enjoying yourself, but that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

And a final note about our banner at the top of the site. You should notice that the image changes when you return to the site, so you get different pictures to see, some of which have quotes on them. These are quotes from my books, or form people who have contacted us with nice things to say about Symi Dream. I intend to add to this stock of quotes as time goes by, so if you ever want to say something nice, please feel free to email, it’s the usual address: mail @ symidream.com

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You will be pleased to learn, I hope, that, at the time of typing (Monday midday) the plumbing is working fine and the Facebook share button is behaving, so, if you’d like to test it and you have Facebook, please feel free to use the ‘share on Facebook’ thing when you get to the bottom of the post. If you want to test the plumbing on the other hand, well, you’re very welcome but please call in advance to make an appointment.

The pump issue was resolved by Mr Marvel (Ian) while we were out. We decided on a walk, after doing some work in the morning, as I wanted to test out my new walking boots and start running them in, or rather, walking them in. So, we headed down the steps to the harbour, booked a table at To Spitiko for Saturday night (planning to go there after the festival at Kokimides if not raining), and then wandered around the harbour. I managed to get some photos while walking but the camera battery gave out after an hour or so. It’s quite a cute little camera, and I felt very sorry for the battery when a message came up saying ‘battery is exhausted.’ But we’ve only walked a mile or so, I thought, I’m not even tired yet. Poor thing. But still, Neil had his camera so there should be shots to come.

But I managed to get some of the spectacularly dazzling day that was Sunday, with no clouds and very warm temperatures, clear air so you could see every fold and valley on the Turkish mountains. There were fish in the sea, that too was clear and boys were out fishing. There were others out in their boats, and a great big pleasure cruiser thing over in Nimborio bay. We saw their dinghy (is that what it’s called when it’s big enough for ten people and is about 20 foot long?) heading into Yialos with a party on board (assumed going for lunch or afternoon tea), and then a little later a jet ski setting off from the ‘yacht’ and racing around to Yialos (assumed the party had forgotten its personalised tea strainer and this was he, hurrying to be of service).

We passed Nos beach where Dimitris was pushing wheelbarrows of sand and pebbles around and where a few folk were sunbathing. There were bathers in the water further around the coast as well, in the small coves which are looked over by holiday huts and houses. There had been a breakout from one of the smaller farmsteads (see photo), or small holdings, which put me in mind of my favourites Walt Disney film:

‘My name is Amelia Gabble and this is my sister Abigail Gabble. We are Geese.’ ‘Say, and I thought you were swans.’ ‘Oh, flatterer! We are on a walking tour of France, swimming most of the way. On water of course.’

Mind you, the ladies we saw weren’t geese but turkeys and how sad is it that I can quote from The Aristocats without looking things up? ‘Oh Napoleon, we done gone bit six tyres today, chased four cars a motorcycle and a scooter…’

Anyhow, a great walk it was too but we decided it was time for lunch as I was hankering for a crab salad at Meraklis. No chance. By this time the King Sardine, or whatever it’s called, and the Nikolaos X (always worry about the fate of the other nine) had come in and Meraklis was full, as was Trawler, Kantirimi, many bars and other eateries too. Good to see, and it made us try bout somewhere new, Oliva, by the Trawler, for a Cretan salad and a mixed plate of things from the grill. Very nice, very reasonable and Yiannis there is a good host.

So, that’s that and I am now off as Neil is calling me from Yialos and has offered to take me out to lunch for that crab salad I didn’t get yesterday.

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Well, the move over to this new look blog hasn’t run too smoothly and neither have the waterworks at the house.

It’s a marvel, our plumbing, a marvel that it works at all. In case you have ever wondered how it all runs around here, in our case: We fill the ‘sterna’ under the house from the mains water supply whenever it needs topping up. Then, when we turn on a tap, the pump up on the flat roof, kicks in and draws the water up from under the sitting room, where the sterna is, and to the roof. It then runs along exposed pipes to the very end of the house and the kitchen roof, where it disappears into the concrete, reaching the hot water tank and kitchen sink first before heading back towards the pump and the bathroom. It does a kind of round trip to reach its destination.

If the pump goes wrong we have no water; end of story. Our old one was going wrong, leaking slightly, so we’d wake up in the morning to no water anywhere and have to go and jump start it, so Ian (another marvel) came and put a new pump on for us. That worked marvellously for a while and then conked out due to an airlock somewhere, so he came straight back and fixed that too. Marvelous!

And then we woke up on Sunday morning with water in the taps and shower, but not in the W.C. How very odd. So, that’s still an on-going wonder to be performed.

Meanwhile, I am in the office grappling with the new site. I had it all prepared with the adverts and widgets and pages and everything, and it was being created in a folder ‘over there’ somewhere off stage. Then, when the guys who run the server and do the maintenance for me moved it across to where it is now, half of the content got left behind (something to do with backups of images only happening every few days). Not a huge problem as I had all the codes and pictures and things so only had to spend another two hours putting it back together. But the ‘add to Facebook’ and other little plug-ins that appear are/were not working so I spent Saturday and half of Sunday in an exchange of emails with the server folk about that. If you see and use a share or like button and get a ‘500 internal server error’, it’s not you, it’s us and it should all be better soon.

So, the plumbing and the site both having internal errors eh? Whatever next? Well, for us, this week, what comes next is: Working from home, Neil painting the inside of the now empty shop ready to hand it back, some business to attend to with the accountant down town, a walk to Nimborio on Wednesday for lunch, working on the new book, ‘Lonely House’ and getting it ready for RC Publishing (Rousseau-Collins, or Jack’n’Me) and aiming to have it ready for the New Year, a walk up to Kokimidis on Saturday for the St Michael Panormitis festival, and also planning a trip to Kos or Patmos for a few days towards the end of the month if the weather and finances hold. The savings have taken a bit of a pre-Christmas bash as things have now been ordered for small children and grown up children alike, but the weather has held and it’s been a very sunny weekend.

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