Living on Symi could be a general category for blog posts and here we have some thoughts on Symi living in a Sunday morning blog and news roundup. First the weather check (looks out of window): calm, flat sea, cool (low 20s) but not cold, sunny out there, a few clouds around, a couple of showers expected later, week ahead set for sun, declining temperatures, but soft winds. Inside the house conditions: generally dry, bit of dusting needed, slight leak from rain pipe into the laundry room. Now then, this was a conundrum.
After the heavy rains of the other day we had water in the workhouse. I assumed it had blown in there from the porch as it was warm enough to have the doors open and the porch is open to the courtyard and when the wind is in the wrong direction it blows rain in. But the water persisted after being mopped up and even when it wasn’t raining, so I blamed the washing machine which is over 12 years old. But on Sunday morning I noticed that the water was back, not a lot of it but still a mystery as it hadn’t rained, the doors were shut and the washing machine was off. It turns out to be something to do with the free water supply. There’s a pipe that has been designed into the roofing system to drain the rain from the roof and let it flow into the sterna and there must be a problem with one of the joints, and it looks like it’s the one I can’t get to. So we will have to put up with it or else take the whole thing apart and rebuild it. Note: keep mop handy.
The other news of the weekend is that the landlord dropped by with the electricity bill. Remember I told you we thought we’d been paying the wrong one? Well, we had and now we have the right one, and it covers the whole time we’ve been here which is eight months now. Luckily it was not as much as I expected and was just about the amount I had saved, so that’s all well and good and the reading is now accurate and up to date. Your electricity bill in Greece doesn’t just cover the power you’ve used, there are other things on it too: the use of the transmission network, the rather vague ‘Services of General Interest’ (I have a general interest in the Universal horror films of the 1930s, is that covered, I wonder?) and “the special duty of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction, destined to the development of green energy.” (Sounds fine by me.)
Plus: “charges resulting from selling generation power from photovoltaic systems”, (no idea) and “charges for works carried out on the network.” (Can I see the order sheets and specs before agreeing to pay for the work please?)
Plus: Excise duty, and “ΕΙΔ. ΤΕΛΟΣ 5‰ (SPECIAL DUTY 5‰) (L.2093/92): The estimated mean charge from the Special Duty 5‰ is up to 0.5 ευρώ per 1.000 kWh. It is noted that the Special Duty 5‰ is calculated in the Bills based on actual reading” (I’m not going to argue with that, I wouldn’t know where to start.)
Plus: VAT. And (we’re not done yet) charges for third parties (Municipal fees, Municipal tax, Real Estate Tax). And if you were wondering how those local taxes are calculated it’s by taking the square meterage of the property, multiplying it by the MF or MT coefficient, multiplying that by the number of billing days and dividing the whole kit and caboodle by 365. Then you take away the number you first thought of, add your paternal grandfather’s year of birth and divide that by the ASS coefficient (plus 18% VAT) and write down the first number that comes into your head. Bingo!
So that’s the water leak analysed and the electricity bill up to date and everything ready for a new week ahead during which I shall be working on draft three of ‘Straight Swap’ which is coming along nicely. It’s great to have a print copy of it that I can red pen all the way through, so much easier to do than on the screen (where the red pen gets in the way of other programmes and messes up my Facebook). Having a proof copy printed via Lulu.com was cheaper than using up paper and ink on home printing 130,000 words, double spaced, and the time it took to arrive, about six weeks, gave me enough time away from the story to come back to it with a more distant eye. So, that’s my week planed, that and wondering how to fix the water leak.
Oh, and by the way, the 100% duvet tracking is now showing that the duvet has been delivered, which is news to me as I’ve not seen it. What they mean, when they wash their hands of the delivery by saying it’s been delivered, is that it is now with another courier and probably somewhere between Derbyshire and Rhodes.
Your Greek electricity bill explained in English can be found at this link, but I am not sure how up to date the info is (percentages and VAT amounts etc.) https://www.dei.gr/en/oikiakoi-pelates/o-logariasmos-sas/entupo-logariasmou
