It’s still all about the sea. Yesterday, a shot of the flooded part of the harbour, today, the Blue Star Patmos (below). This’ll be old news to Facebook fanatics, but yesterday, the Patmos bumped a harbour wall while trying to land at Kastellorizo in a force six wind. Some of the translations refer to the bump as ‘ran aground’, which it didn’t. The images are of a scrape near the rear end, rather than the thing washed up and listing on a deserted beach. As far as I can make out, it remained unberthed while the authorities did whatever they had to do to make sure passengers were safe. That must have been frustrating; being stuck only a few meters from your destination and unable to get off. The same happens now and then in Rhodes, when we hear of the boats sheltering up near the airport, when they should have been in Akandia, but the weather turned.

The knock-on effect of this slight bump is that the Patmos had to change its timetable slightly. There is information on the Blue Star Ferries website. (It appears to be back to normal on Friday.)

Away from the sea and back on reasonably dry land, I’m wrestling with the settings of my new phone. You may know what it’s like when you have had a phone (or other device) for some time, and you’re used to how it all works. You’ve spent half a year getting the settings just right, and then, the struggle is forgotten as you enjoy life with your new whatever. Then, the time comes to change it, lose it, stamp on it, whatever you do when you’ve had enough with the thing, and you go for a new one. Okay, it’s easy enough these days to swap the contents across, and the apps and all that, but then comes the fine detail. For example, currently, only the photos I take on my phone get sent to my gallery, and from there, to the cloud storage. Photos sent in from apps, like the ones Neil takes and sends on via WhatsApp, don’t get saved to the gallery, but elsewhere. That means, they’re not automatically sent up to the cloud, so when I bumble my way in here at 5.30 in the morning to write this kind of gibberish, I can’t easily download them and put them on the blog. I have to fiddle with the phone to send the image he’s sent me from one app to another, then to another, thence, if I am lucky, up to the cloud, then down again and up to the website. (Or I have to go searching for that lead I know I have, so I can physically connect phone and PC, and I know I put it somewhere…)

Still working on that fine tuning, but if that’s all I have to fuss about today, I’ll be quite happy.

I put up a photo of my writing desk yesterday, and here’s another of the room since we moved the piano in here. I have cut off the top of the curtains (in the shot) because I am still waiting for the right hooks, and at the moment, it looks like something from the set of Phantom, only with less swag. Have a good day.

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As the old postcard used to say, ‘We get some kind of weather here every day.’ This weekend was no exception. What with a full moon raising the tide from underneath, the skies pouring down from above, and the wind trying to keep the two apart, it was a varied weekend out there. Yesterday, the wind aimed itself directly at our porch and front door with such determination that it blew off the draught excluder. Luckily, I have a spare role *, so I was able to put up some new, and it’s currently holding. (* I double as a caretaker as well as typist.)

Neil had business in Yialos on Friday, and took a couple of shots which you might find interesting…

Oops… that was Carnival. Here you go…

The full moon isn’t helping, nor, I suspect, are the works in progress on the road, the ancient drainage system and ongoing vothros problems. I read Town Hall announcements from time to time, but I’m still not 100% sure if the road is just being resurfaced, if pipes need to go down for the new treatment plant, if that’s already been done, or if it’s just for fun (doubtful), but I wouldn’t want to be out there working in this up and down weather. I’d rather be inside in the dry (apart from the leak at the bathroom window) and in the warm (apart from the wind around the front door), where I can watch television (unless there’s a power cut), and enjoy a nice cup of tea (as long as there is some in the shops).

And on to today with a story to make up and tell. Ironically, as the thunder rolls and the rain pours, it’s water day, so we can get some washing done.

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Being in a not particularly creative or thoughtful mood this particular first thing, I thought I’d mention the biography of my godfather ‘what I wrote.’

I just had a quick look at the Amazon page where people leave reviews, and was happy to read, in one of them, “At times felt I was in a very risqué PG Woodhouse novel.” (It’s not a novel.) The reviews are currently around 85% good (4 and 5 stars), but I wasn’t surprised to see someone had given the book a one-star review. I have this… what? Troll? Creep? Weird person with psychic powers? Every time I put up a new title, there’s a one-star review, and I’ve even seen it go up within hours of the book being published, meaning the creep hasn’t even read it. I have no idea who this is, but it’s too regular to be random, and the good thing is, it makes no difference to the readership or the sales, so I only mention it because it’s pointless.

The reason for mentioning all this is that, as well as being available from your local Amazon site [click here and you should get to the page], it is also in a special promotion with a few other non-fiction titles, and you can see them here.

Bobby finds himself in some, er, interesting company. Poetry books, books about relationships, there’s one about knee joints (I shall be dipping into that later), one about a pregnant man, leadership, inspirational moments in life… You know the kind of thing.

Here’s a bonus image:

I’ll leave you to ponder whether you want to take ‘Bobby’ from the shelf. If you do, you will find it “Lovingly crafted, exceptionally well written and well researched.” (It took me 20 years to fact-check and research.) “Reminiscent of a fifties & sixties London and thoroughly entertaining naval stories.” Thank you!

As for Symi… Housework done, Bake Off watched, pub quiz attended, early night ready for a writing day. I’ve still not opened the office shutters, but today could be the day because it feels warmer in here, at last. Another reason is that I am sure the curtain will fall down as soon as I touch it. Half the hooks have snapped due to age (plastic), so I need to get some more. I had some spares in a drawer somewhere, and I just need to find them, but all the drawers are all full of ‘things that might be of use one day’ and never have been, so I might have thrown them out. Ah well, I need a new broom, so I might pop to Mr Chan’s later and buy some new curtain rings and other quality plastic items. Let the day begin.

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A quick correction to yesterday’s local news: apparently, Lefteris Kafeneion in Horio opened up again the night before last. (Open mornings and late afternoon/evening.) That came in from Peter, who we’ll be seeing later as there’s a quiz at the Sunrise later today – assuming we can scrape together a few pennies, because for me, pension day isn’t until Monday. (Things that, when you were younger, you couldn’t imagine yourself writing #12.)

There are things to do before then, such as preparing my monthly newsletter, where I highlight books that are on offer and are being promoted by all manner of indie authors. I also add a little of my work-in-progress news and any other updates that don’t make it to my website. That’ll take up an hour or two, and after that… not a lot really.

‘What do you do in the winter?’ It depends on the weather. Recently, it’s been a case of staying in and sheltering from the elements. According to Windfinder, today’s to be calm and dry, but from tomorrow onwards, it’s back to force 7 winds, rain, a wet-south-west wind, and this is going on until around Friday, then starting up again from Tuesday. In the winter, I tend to watch the weather as much as I watch the boat schedule if/when I need to travel. After all, when you live in a rural village that has only three reliable buses per week to take you to the nearest town, you tend to keep an eye on it. The same with boats when you live on an island.

Oh yes, and I’ve also promised myself I will spring clean the bathroom today, the first room in the annual post-winter spring clean, which usually starts around now. A bit early? No, the bathroom is the dampest room in the house, and it will need doing again before summer. I ran the dehumidifier in the house yesterday, just in the background and not in the bathroom, and emptied out a few litres of water during the day. The same happens at night, and it’s hard to air the house when the weather’s bad, because sometimes, you can’t even open the shutters, let alone the windows.

‘What do you do in the winter?’ Then, there’s the courtyard and the plants. Neil’s successfully cut back those that needed it, he’s harvested another tub load of chillies (we have several in the freezer already), and after the brief, harsh cold snap, and then the warm, damp snap, nothing out there seems to know what it’s meant to be doing, and not everything is doing well.

And so, to my admin, networking and newsletter. ‘What do you do in the winter?’ The same as I do in the summer, I go to work, only colder and damper.

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Don’t panic. This was taken a few years ago, now when there was so much snow in the region, some even landed on Symi for a day or so.

This morning: rain, but the howling wind of yesterday has passed by. We’re in the changeable-weather season, which doesn’t help if you’re planning a trip by boat. People often ask about Symi in winter, and if it is a good time of year to visit. Yes, if you want to see what many people want to experience, the ‘authentic’ island life. The use of that word sometimes makes me snigger. ‘Are there any tavernas serving authentic Greek food?’ Yeah, there’s one, and the rest use a 3D printer… I know what you mean, but…

Authentic Horio in winter…? Yesterday afternoon, we thought we’d go for a short walk and see if the Rainbow was open. We were chatting on the way, and as we walked past the village square, our voices echoed in the stillness. I mean, it’s currently tumbleweeds and all, because everywhere is so quiet. The shops are open, but not many have stock to write home about. The taverna is open, but it’s only whatever Noufris has available, and in January and February, that’s often not a lot. Of the two bars in the square, Rainbow is open now and then, mainly when Yiannis comes in to check the water intake or watch a football match, so it’s hit and miss. Other places are open, like the Sunrise, where we’re going tomorrow for a quiz, and Scena, where we were the other night for a pizza. But the classic street-café life doesn’t exist up here right now. You can sit outside in the harbour and watch the world go by, but you’ll have to sit behind plastic and may be waiting a long time.

Very quiet, apart from the weather, and now and then, the helicopter coming in for whatever reason. Oh, there’s building work going on, there always is, and some municipal works, such as the new road surface in Yialos. Other than that, for me, it’s peace and quiet all the way to Easter.

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