What’s the time?

Wednesday was all rather odd. I mentioned the brief power cut around 6.15 and the high winds that were with us until late evening. The temperature was right down too, but we’re used to that. The thing was, we were happily working away and pottering around when I thought it was time to prepare lunch. My computer told me it was 12.30, but my phone said it was 13.30. The oversized kitchen clock we have had for years also chose that day to stop working, so that was no help as it was stuck at midday with its second-hand twitching in some kind of death throe. I had to contact Jenine to ask the time and found out that the phones were off. Something to do with power cut and wind maybe. It all came right in the end.

During the day, I had a call from the shipping office in Rhodes or one of them. Because of the wind, the Blue Star came in on Wednesday on its way down but wasn’t able to come in on the way back up. So, she was ringing to let me know my piano would not arrive until Friday, which I thought was a good service. It became an excellent one when she also told me the name of the driver who would deliver it, using his first name (as we would do here), so I knew who to expect a call from. I am wondering if the Ikea order will also be onboard as that’s been waiting a long time now and surely they must have a full container or whatever they wait for before dispatching. Friday afternoon could see a lot of lifting from the Olive Tree drop-off point to the house, and the weekend might see a lot of putting together and finally rearranging the study, apart from the curtains and light fitting. On the other hand, it may not arrive on that boat at all. It’s Symi life: be prepared for anything.

I’ll put up some Symi photos as usual for tomorrow, but they, like today’s, will be older ones and random, but that’s all I can do right now.

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Dark and blustery

(Photos today from Neil and a few years old.)
I started writing this post during a brief power cut at 6.15 yesterday morning, but all I could think of to describe was the darkness. The wind was howling, the temperature down to eight degrees out of the wind, and there were few stars to see. Not that I ventured onto the roof in my slippers for long, for fear of being blown off it and/or freezing. Then the lights came back on, and normality was restored. Normality right now being, work at the desk on a kneel-up stool (the piano stool is on its way to the bin) surrounded by the bits and pieces from Neil’s room which is still in the being-painted stage and my own clutter which is waiting for the new furniture to arrive.

This happened four years ago – the wait for Ikea, I mean. When we moved house, I ordered some new things for the new house, and we sent off an order to Ikea. There’s a showroom in Rhodes, apparently, but you can’t nip over and buy and bring back; you have to order. We do it online. It’s much easier and more cost effective unless you happen to be in Rhodes anyway. Four years ago, the order was on its way, but strong winds caused boats to be cancelled, and we watched the ferry pass the island for about two weeks before it landed. Our new sofas were having a great, if rough, cruise, while we sat on garden chairs which had seen better days and fell apart beneath us. This time, the new computer table and other things are taking the trip, or, more likely, waiting in a container somewhere, but that’s how it is at this time of year. At least with the new harbour, the big ferry can get in in rough weather – as long as it’s allowed to sail, which at the moment, it isn’t.

The sea has popped into Yialos to flood the road a little but nothing too drastic and nothing we’re not used to. Luckily, there has been no repeat f the storm of 2017, though I expect some of the loose rocks and topsoil has been washed away, and the sea, when it rains, has turned a dark reddish brown as it does when the soil ends up washed down from the mountains and straight into the harbour. I don’t know for sure, the shutters are closed, and I’m not going back on that roof unless I have to.

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Bits and pieces

Really scraping the bottom of the barreli today with a couple more shots of the weather (again) taken from the roof (again) because the only place I saw other than the study and sitting room was the inside of the supermarket. I don’t like taking photos in there, I’d feel like an environmental health officer or something. Interesting, though, how the harbour was lighter than over Pedi, and yet the pics were taken at the same time, give or take three seconds. I was soon downstairs inside again, not that it’s particularly cold, but I only had my slippers on.

Sorry that I’m not able to offer much else at the moment. My days are filled with typing as usual, and I am working on a book which has ‘bitten.’ Sometimes I plough through 30,000 words and find the story stops working, and thus, so do I. This one, however, has caught me and I am enjoying it. I had to break off yesterday because godson number one was decorating Neil’s room beside mine and the doors and windows were open. I retreated to the sitting room for warmth and all afternoon felt like I was skiving off. Not so today, Tuesday. I’ve got my work up to date, been shopping, done my chores and the blog for tomorrow (this) and now I can settle down to an afternoon at the typewriter thing and continue to tell myself a story, which is basilar what I do with draft one of anything.

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