April 29th, the first cruise ship of the season arrives on Symi and four go mad at a dress rehearsal. Living the dream on Symi eh? Well, having fun at least.
Now then, for all you first time visitors who are preparing to head this way, whom we may meet at some point during your stay, can we get a few things sorted out?
Firstly: I’ve never understood that ‘Living the dream’ saying. People come up to me and say, ‘You’re living the dream!’ And, after I’ve recovered and asked who on earth they are, I think to myself, ‘No I’m not. If I were, I would be doing something like running through a town I’ve never seen before and yet I know intimately while talking to an old school friend I’ve never met about the house we are standing in which is growing real flowers on the wallpaper where you step through to find yourself by the sea eating chocolate chairs with no noses.’
That’s the kind of dream I have. Living the dream? You wouldn’t want to live some of mine. Others, on the other hand, you would want to live, I know I certainly would, but we shan’t get into all of that now.
Here’s another one I hear a lot from total strangers, ‘Oh, you are so lucky to be living here.’ Well, yes, when you see the trauma and tragedy and devastation and hatred and all those other non-nice things happening to people around the world, we are lucky. We are lucky to be UK citizens, believe it or not, we are lucky that the world speaks our language on the net and in the air, at sea and elsewhere, and we’re lucky that, so far, we have avoided major illness or horror. But we didn’t actually get here by luck; we didn’t wake up from one of those odd dreams to find ourselves living someone else’s dream. We made it happen. You see you can, if you try, make your own ‘luck.’
And thirdly, for those Symi newbies who will find yourself wanting to know more about Symi, here are some of the questions you will want to ask:
- What’s it like on Symi in the winter?
- Do you live here?
- Do you ever get used to the steps?
- What are the medical services like?
- Does it get cold in the winter?
- What is it really like to live on Symi?
- Where can I get the bus to Rhodes?
And so on. Well, dear yet-to-be-met fiends*, there is one simple answer: Read the books!
Symi 85600 | Carry on up the Kali Strata | Village View – all available in Kindle and proper-book form. Oh, and happy May 1st to you! Kalo Mina.
* Typo
