Weather, Wandering, Wondering

It’s one of those weather update days today, as you will see from the photos (taken on Monday). We had some grey skies, and they persisted until eventually throwing down rain sometimes over Monday night. I was woken at 4.30 by lightning, and the storm rumbled on until around six. Good for the plants and reservoirs, and I am pleased to report, no water got into the house or even the porch. The hills are already turning green as the herbs and things come back to life.

I was out in them there hills on Monday for a wander, waving at masked men in cars, nodding politely to masked ladies in the graveyard too, it was all very Roger Korman and spooky. Heading off-road, I was able to take off my mask as it’s hard to walk when your glasses steam up like a Swedish sauna, though I had it to hand in case I saw anyone coming my way. The only ‘people’ I met on the route was a flock of sheep charging towards me in the hope I’d come to feed them. I was given some very disgruntled looks when they realised I wasn’t.

I also dropped off the rubbish at the bins and greeted the stray cats with a nod. Apart from all that, I managed to get some writing done, dragging myself back into the usual routine and adding another very draft chapter to The Clearwater Mysteries book nine which has a not-really working title of ‘Something Exposure.’ I’m not sure what the something is yet, but exposure works because the story concerns Victorian erotic photography and the 1889/1890 Adriatic Influenza pandemic. Well, the subjects go so well together, I thought, why not?

In other news… more like gossip… I saw a post in a group which suggested that it’s now been decided that the something-office in Rhodes is to be the place to go to exchange our residency cards for biometric permits. I can’t remember the details right now, I was more interested in thinking about how we’d all get there and when, but the post did mention we’d need passport-sized photos on paper and on a CD Rom. Again, not sure how that will work as the only shop here who did/does that is closed for all but paying bills, and the ones in Rhodes, I think, are not allowed to open. So, I reckon, for us here on Symi, we’ll have to wait and see if/when restrictions are lifted before we can go and be made properly official. As I said before, we have until June.

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Are the cracks beginning to show?

From time to time, I read snippets of information in the news, and over the weekend, I read some of the less publicised side effects of Brexit that are starting to become apparent. You’ve probably heard more about them than I have, so I may not be 100% accurate here. For example, Spain residents trying to get home from the UK and not being allowed to fly because of paperwork confusion was one story. Another was a Dutch company who are no longer able to deliver to the UK because of new and expensive paperwork and tax collection issues. I think that was for bicycle parts. Then there’s the extra cost of postage and customs duties on some items when you order from Amazon and others online. Plenty more delist like that to come, I expect, as the small print kicks in.

For me, when ordering online, I’ve been using only Greek sites and those in Europe. Places like Amazon.de and German eBay when I can only find items I need outside of Greece. I do have to use the online translator a great deal to make sure I don’t hit the wrong button and find myself signed up for Amazon Prime or some other neatly hidden add-on when all I want to do is buy a book, but otherwise, it’s not only cheaper but quicker to arrive.

As for the residency thing, I’ve also been following posts and pages for Brits abroad, and there’s still loads of confusion around 90 days out of 180 residency and all that. I don’t look too deeply as I have had residency for many years, and all I need to sort out this year is exchanging my paper permit for a biometric one. That may involve having to go to Rhodes, somehow, finding photos and putting them on a CD ROM and proving that I have a sustainable bank account, but none of that should be an issue. I hope. Again, I’ve read stories of some people having no trouble, others having to more or less reapply, and some having to show they have over €40k in a Greek bank account. As the period for switching to biometric only kicked in yesterday, I’ve not yet heard how it’s going to work for us, but we have until June to sort it out.

What I still don’t get though, is the 90 out of 180 days thing. I mean, I get it, but I don’t understand how some others don’t. I may be wrong on this, but I thought that residency permits were for permanent residents, not for people who wanted to pop over for an extended holiday. If you have residency, you pay tax here, and that’s that. (Or you have an agreement to pay tax in the yUK, but then may have to top up to the Greek authorities the difference in what your tax bill would have been had you been paying it all in Greece…) Some people are still asking how they can get a card so they can come for longer than three months at a time and then pop home again when it suits them. That doesn’t seem right to me, you can’t have your cake and eat it, not now Brexit has kicked in. You can’t even order your cake from the yUK unless you want to risk paying import charges and extra postage to ELTA…

I think this is a show that’s going to run, and there will be lots more gossip and lots of niggles coming out as the weeks go by, and all for what? Ah well, at least the NHS is benefiting from the extra 350 million a week, so that’s fine.

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Bits and Pieces

I’m starting off the new year blog with some bits and pieces drawn at random from my mind at 4.47 on Sunday morning.

First of all, this news just in: Banyak & Fecks has made it to the next round of the Cover of the Month competition on AllAuthor.com. You can vote for it via this link https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/10695/ I often drop cover into this competition to get my designer, Andjela, some more publicity, so any votes and shares you can manage would be appreciated. Thank you.

Then, there was New Year. We spent the evening at home and missed the dynamite and fireworks because we were asleep by 10pm, but apparently, it was, somehow, quite rowdy. We’d also turned off the doorbell as some malaka thought it funny to ring it several times during the previous night, an old and rather boring trick some local idiot gets a kick from, from time to time. (Note: if you want us to answer the gate, send a message first.)

Then, on New Year’s Day, there was the weather. Luckily, we’d been up to the family the day before to drop off Christmas presents that had come late in the post, and so we didn’t have to carry them through the rain and runoff on New Years’ Day morning. It poured down just at the time we were preparing to leave to attend the hallowed kitchen for NYD, and we had to wait for a break in the downpour. In fact, the day/year started, for me, at 6 am with a power cut and a thunderstorm, neither of which lasted for very long.

The day itself was spent at the kitchen table with the god boys and mum and progressed through sherry to delayed present-giving, games, madness and celebration until it was time to get home before the curfew. The following day was spent on the sofa wading through new films on Netflix and doing very little apart from making self-promises.

I was able to do some more writing during the holiday period, and am getting back to it today with two new stories crowding my head and desperate to get out through my fingertips, so I have plenty of work ahead of me.

Meanwhile, in the slightly wider world, our lockdown has been extended again but is nothing compared to an island-wide lockdown instigated in Kalymnos. Where our non-essential shops have had to close again after the Christmas break, over there, residents are not even allowed out to ‘click and collect’, and from what I’ve heard, to even go to the supermarkets. I need to check the facts of that, but that’s the general chatter on certain Facebook groups and news summaries. Again, Greece is being very tough on restrictions in order to keep things under control, or as much as is possible. We’re into something like day 59 of a nationwide lockdown now, with no messing about.

And so, into the first week of the new year with the weather looking improved, lots of good intentions, lots of creative ideas and plenty of things to do at home. I’ll keep you posted.

Remember, if you can, click and vote! https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/10695/

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Happy New Year

You don’t need me to tell you that today is New Years’ Eve. Rather than do what many blogs to and provide a roundup of the year that was, I thought I’d not say too much about it. It started well enough for us, with a trip to London and Canada, and has ended more or less like any other winter on Symi – quiet. Of course, things for other people have been very different. Rather than dwell, I thought I’d put up some recent photos, wish you a Happy New Year’s Eve and the year ahead, and let you know I will be back next week to carry on carrying on as I do.

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You asked about winter

From time to time, I get asked what the house is like in winter, does it get cold and other questions about ‘real-life’ on the island. So, now and then over the winter, I thought I’d post some random thoughts about such things, starting today (Tuesday), with my early morning observations the house so far this winter.

As you’ll see from the photos, today is a stay-at-home day, for me at least. Neil has gone out to brave the weather, take a walk, and hopefully call into the post office on the way back to see if anything new came in on the Blue Star boat over the weekend. Me? I’m staying close to the heater that’s close to my desk. I’ve just had a shower and made the two-meter sprint from bathroom to the relative warmth of the bedroom to get dressed, and that’s enough exercise for one day.

I say ‘warmth’… At this time of year, we open the bedroom window every morning to alleviate the condensation that gathers on the glass overnight. If we don’t, the room soon smells of damp, and the walls gradually change colour, particularly in the corners. The window offers a lovely view up the lane, more so now some of the trees have been pollarded, but it doesn’t let in any sunlight. In fact, we hardly see any of that in the house over the winter. The courtyard shutters are closed to stop the rain and cold coming in, and that wall is about the only one that gets any sun.

The summer is a different matter of course, when the sun’s higher and the offices roast as they are basically concrete blocks. The house mainly faces north, with the courtyard facing south. The office rooms are on the east side of our place, with windows to the north and the east end buffets the neighbour’s garden wall. The kitchen and bedroom windows face west, so are fine for late afternoon in the summer, but not so good in the winter. It’s mainly the bathroom that suffers between November and March, as does anyone who uses it. It’s a kind of concrete afterthought into the courtyard with a window (north), and opens directly into the kitchen. So, when things are boiling on the stove, and clouds of condensation are billowing, it’s a case of opening the bathroom door and window and letting the clouds roll out. At least our bathroom, unlike many, is inside.

Later in the winter, it’s a case of wiping the black growth from the bathroom ceiling, airing the kitchen cupboards as the backs are now falling prey to the damp and don’t always smell very nice, keeping the bedroom aired in the mornings, trying to warm it in the evenings, and hardly seeing daylight at all as there are curtains, duvets and towels at the windows to keep the heat in and the rain out. The only room with a wall-to-wall carpet is my office, and even then there’s a six-inch gap all the way around, and the room is above the sterna, a currently empty water chamber willed with cold air.

Still, I’m not complaining, as I love the winter and the challenges it brings; typing in fingerless gloves, worrying about the electricity bill, the celebrations after a rainstorm when the bathroom ceiling hasn’t leaked and hanging the washing to dry indoors for three days at a time. It’s fun. It’s like camping out in the yUK in summer, and this morning, it was 14 degrees at seven o’clock, so it’s not even winter-cold yet.

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