Blazing blasé
It is easy to become blasé about some things when living permanently in a place like Symi. Goats wandering past your door, finding a stray cat asleep in the bathroom towels one morning (when the door had been shut all night), snakes in the courtyard, a roach in the washing up… But let’s take the summer weather as a more pleasant example. Recently I saw some notes and posts from people in the yUK saying how hot it was at 32 degrees. I remembered a similar heatwave when I used to live there and how uncomfortable it was, so I sympathised. However, it made me wonder how hot it was here, and on checking our garden thermometer, found it to read 38 in the shade. I am inside a lot of the time with fans blasting at me and windows open, so I’ve become accustomed, I guess. The temperature dropped to 35 overnight, but you know, we just get on with it.
A day or so later (Friday I think it was), I woke up cold, or I woke up because I was cold. There’s no duvet on the bed these days, there’s not even a sheet, and the fans were on, but this was a different cold. By the time I reached the sitting room a couple of minutes later, I’d had to but a shirt on, and that’s not happened around here for some weeks now. Checking the thermometer later that morning, just before noon, actually, I found it was an icy 29 degrees. The shirt stayed on all day. There was some bad weather ‘up north’ around the mainland, so I assume we got the outer edges of that.
Today’s photos were taken yesterday morning, and as you can see, a calm sea, a few yachts up this end of the harbour, and a supply ship heading out. We are expecting some regular visitors to return over the next few weeks, and it will be nice to see them – remember, no hugging or spontaneous handshakes. It will also be good for many businesses who, I am sure, are in dire need of custom. Let’s hope everyone’s sensible and the country doesn’t have to stop flights coming in again. Meanwhile, I am planning a quiet week, mainly at home with a couple of walks before the day gets too hot, and, hopefully, a lot more writing.
