Symi Dream

Living on a Greek island

Symi Dream - Living on a Greek island

Obstacle Course Friday

I managed something of an obstacle course on Friday. I was off to Yialos to pick up two deliveries at the courier, buy a tin of gloss paint, tea bags, and pay the post office box bill. Simple. Neil was in Rhodes to sort out his phone, and he’d taken all the money with him, so that was the first obstacle. I found an old card with a few pennies left on it, and I was able to extract them from a machine, so that was okay. That done, the first stop was the courier which has now moved to the back of the square.

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It’s a much nicer office, and has a great view of the play park…

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One of my packages had already been delivered, so that must have been the one that was rerouted to the Post Office, whose automated system had sent me a note saying it couldn’t be delivered because of an incorrect address. Usually, when we get this message it means it’s arrived at Symi. Don’t ask me why that happens. The package I collected on Friday was my music, as mentioned last week; a Mozart Fantasia for me and Fur Elise for Harry. I was so excited, I girded my loins, and with the sun shining, decided to walk back up the long way around. As you can see, the weather was spot on.

20240126_100118After admiring the harbour for a moment, I passed the empty taxi rank, and the closed bus, and decided I would come back up via the Haritomeni road rather than go on the main road. I was keen to get back and try my Mozart again after all these years. So keen, I only remembered I’d forgotten the paint once I had passed the taverna.

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After that, I took the shortcut off the road and up the steps, and encountered my next obstacle. Someone was paving the path with wet cement and new tiles, so I had to do that Indian Jones thing where you can only step on certain tiles or else fall through the floor to the fiery pit beneath. I managed it, obviously, and continued up to steps above the high school, only then remembering that I’d forgotten to pay the post office bill. The next obstacle came at the top of the steps that lead to the road where the one-euro shop used to be (many moons ago) and where the pharmacy was for a while. There, some guys were doing building work on a raised level and had slung a plank across the top of the steps so they could push their wheelbarrow up it This left a three-foot gap and me with the choice of either returning to Kali Strat corner and up, or limbo dancing under. So, I limbo danced, or rather, lumbago crawled beneath, and was free.

No more traps, but I did remember I’d also forgotten to buy tea bags. Hey ho! The Mozart was lovely and such a nice surprise to see that with only a few practice runs, I can still play it after all these years, even the very fast runs and arpeggios, the shapes of which my fingers had remembered better after 43 years than I’d remembered that mornings to-do list.

Random Photos at the End of the Week

After some wind and rain yesterday, we’re back to calmer conditions today, though it still feels chilly. On my walk yesterday, I went up the hill, while today, I am planning to go down the hill to Yialos because I have two things waiting for me at ACS, the courier. I can’t think what the second one might be. I ordered two pieces of music from the same shop, so unless one has come from the same shop but in a different location, the second package will be a surprise.

Neil’s on the boat (below) and off to Rhodes for the day to sort out his mobile phone contract which has been playing up of late, leaving me with the house to myself, writing to do, the courier to visit and a quiet afternoon hopefully working on my new music, which is, by the way, Mozart’s Fantasia in D minor (K397). That will give me something else to think about other than the masts and rigging of the Cutty Sark which I am going to start next Monday. It looks horrendously complicated, but that’s the fun/challenge of building model kits, I guess.

With all that ahead, I will leave you for the weekend with some random photos from this week’s collection.

Off on the boat to Rhodes. This morning's view.

Off on the boat to Rhodes. This morning’s view.

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Ag Athanasios in the heart of the village.

shoreditch music hall

This was in the collection because earlier in the week, I was researching the history of this particular music hall.

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View from the road.

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I aim to be spending time here today.

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And spending time with this.

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Keeping it Reel

I feel a creative day coming on. I have just had some banners made for my other website, and my designer has done a great job. Here’s an example:

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She’s also designed all my book covers for the last five years, and I am more than happy with what she does. While that was going on, I started looking at making short videos of the book covers so I could get them shared around social media. Later today, we have piano and model building followed by a quiz, so all that sounds pretty creative too.

The reason for the short video idea started in Athens… When I was laid up with the flu, I took to my phone and thought I might as well have a look at these ‘reels’ that pop up on Facebook. Well, I think I was hooked after about five minutes. All those ‘fails’, people having silly accidents, people doing daft things, cats, what it’s like to take a cruise, more cats, a couple of adverts to flick through but no hassle, then people doing extraordinary things, gymnasts doing unbelievable moves, a lot of college wrestling for some reason, more cats, random scenery, then a few more cats, building site mishaps and a few cats…

Random weather photo from a week ago.

Random weather photo from a week ago.

There is a darker side to it. I’ve caught a couple of videos that I didn’t want to see, like people having skateboard accidents which looked like they didn’t end well, but then if you’re going to do daft things on narrow railings, and you’re a boy, you have to be prepared for the inevitable nutcracker. Now and then a video will pop up of gym-fit young men showing off their bare chests, but also waggling their dangly bits in their shorts (what’s that all about?), and I can’t tell you how many Indian men I’ve seen swimming in muddy rivers for no reason, or playing practical jokes on each other in most alarming ways. But, among all that, are some short videos by creatives, like a quick blast of music or dance, and sometimes, book covers. These seem to be a more sedate kind of ‘reel’, just the cover, a few static words of text, and some background music, so that’s what I am going for. Whether it will help sales or not is another matter, but you can find them on my Jackson Marsh page on Facebook where I’ve so far put up two or three, and they are pretty dire, but I am still learning.

And from two days ago.

And from two days ago.

Meanwhile, back in the other real world, I’ve been up since four thanks to a blocked nose and an active mind. The medical helicopter has been in and was met by the ambulance (not for my nose). I don’t know if that was an exercise, it’s not really my business, but it was there for half an hour, so I’m assuming it wasn’t an emergency. Just an unusual time of day to arrive. Our emergency response volunteers are always doing training exercises and manoeuvres, so maybe they were having a practice.

Whatever, it’s a little blowy out there this morning and only ten degrees, mind you, it isn’t seven yet, so things should warm up later.

Hills and Water

There’s a photo below looking towards the Vigla, the highest point on Symi. I don’t know how to take a photo so you get an idea of the height, but standing there and looking up the side of the hill, it’s easy to see why it’s known locally as the mountain. Here’s an interesting fact: The Vigla is 616m high. The highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, is 1,345m, which means our Symi mountain is half the height of Ben Nevis, give or take 113m, which in the wider scheme of things, is about as interesting as watching paint dry, so let’s move on.

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The Vigla, Symi’s highest peak.

We’ll continue on a gentle stroll along the side of the hills above the Pedi Valley where, thanks to my phone’s camera, you can’t really see how wonderfully green it all is in the sunshine, but at least you get an idea. The football pitch looks very green, of course, and the sea looks calm because it was. In the summer, the bay will be peppered with boats, but come wintertime, they are mainly moored up or out of the water. Fishing boats are about the only kind of vessel you’ll see around here at this time of year, apart from ferries, of course. We do have some intrepid winter sailors come and go when the weather allows, so you can still see white sails far out at sea, and then we have all the special patrols and official boats keeping our waters safe.

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Meanwhile, on land, some of the tavernas and businesses are already starting to prepare for the summer. I know of one restaurant that’s currently redoing its kitchen, and I’ve heard of a few others and some cafes that are already asking around for staff, mainly cooks and kitchen workers. I remember last year there was a flurry of such adverts with some businesses not being able to open on time because of a lack of staff. Hopefully, this year, everyone will get their positions filled in plenty of time. And talking of time, it’s gone 7.30 and I need to get my Jackson Marsh blog updated before I settle down to serious typing, and I must investigate a new keyboard as I have four letters missing off this one.

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A Post Partly About Post

The sunshine is back, calm has been restored, and my forecast isn’t showing any rain for the foreseeable future, so the view is something like this:

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It’s also something like this:

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Or at least, it was yesterday as we moved onto the spray-painting stage. That was after the music lesson during which we took on the scale of Ab major because the next piece to study in the book has a key signature of Ab, which is four flats in case you were wondering, and looks like this:

FireShot Pro Webpage Screenshot #3081 - 'Chopin - Impromptu No.1 in A flat major, Op. 29 Sheet music for Piano (Solo) I Musescore.com' - musescore.comThat’s not the next piece in the book, but it looks interesting, so I might see if I have it or if I can find it. I’ve just ordered two pieces from Nakas music store in Athens, Fur Elise for my pupil, and a Mozart Fantasia for me. Having just written that, I remembered I’d had an email from them this morning and on checking it, I see my order has been sent to the courier, so I should receive that in a few days.

It’s important to consider where orders are coming from. It always has been, but now more so, because some items from the UK come with additional post-Brexit charges, and I find deliveries from Amazon France and Germany are costly on postage. However, if you head directly to a Greek outlet, you often find free delivery (over a certain amount spent), or delivery via ACS or another courier, and for a very reasonable price. You can use the post office, of course, which is also cheap for deliveries within the country. Not only is that handy to know, but it’s also much quicker to have something sent down from Athens or Thessaloniki than it is to receive it from abroad. I guess the temptation for many is to use Something.co.uk because the site will be in English, or because you’ve always used that outlet, but a quick search for similar products in Greece via Skroutz and other online places usually reveals the same items at a lower cost and without the hassle of extra delivery charges.

I have no idea where that ramble came from. Thoughts from the top of my head as usual. On which note, I have just decided to take a short walk around the village while I set the next chapter of the next book in my head. Yesterday, my copy of the slim volume of short stories, ‘1892’ arrived from Amazon Germany where the postage was the same cost as the book. It’s fun to see your husband and a friend on the cover of a book, even if it was your idea to put them there.

Click for more details about the book.

Click the image for more details about the book.