We’re nearly at the end of January, so I’ve taken down the advertisement for this year’s Symi Dream calendar. If you still want one, you can find them by clicking here. As you can see, over there on the right, there’s a list of my Symi books. The first of these, Symi 85600, is getting so old now it’s almost an antique. It’s a simple book that describes our first impressions of living here back in 2002 onwards. People often ask what’s changed over the years, but it’s a hard one to answer because we live among whatever change is taking place, so don’t notice it as much as a returning visitor might.
More renovated buildings, I guess. More large houses done up by rich people to use as their summer homes, others done up by ordinary working people who intended to live in them after retiring, with some British being disappointed because they can’t now, thanks to Brexit. Many being done up for holidays lets, and very few being available for locals to buy or rent. That’s one big difference, and one which will become an issue if/when we have to move from this house. Also, there are more roads across parts of the hillside, more streetlights for sure, smoother roads, like the one to Nimborio, a new harbour for the larger ships, these kind of improvements have been going on over the last 21 years.
But some things remain the same. The ‘boys’ at the empty peripteron still call me Vasilis thanks to a misheard name back in 2002, you can still get expert dental and medical treatment, see a specialist within days and for a very reasonable fee, if paying privately, and you can still find yourself saying good morning ten times on the way to the nearest shop.
As the poet said, ‘Listen. Time passes.’ And talking time passing, it’s getting on and I must set about chapter 20 of ‘Follow the Van’, the next instalment of the Delamere Mysteries (which you can find here), and see how my main character is doing in 1892 at the Charing Cross Music Hall where he is interviewing Marie Lloyd and learning things about his old man he didn’t want to know.
