What day is it today? Oh yes, Saturday. We should be off to the old post office to see what we can do to help the refugees who might be here, or to help the project generally if not. After that, we have a guest coming for drinks tonight and then we are off out for dinner. And on Sunday we have friends coming to see the house before we go and see theirs, a kind of hospitality exchange.
Symi is very quiet now. Some of the folk who stay here for the entire summer have headed home and there are few pert time residents and visitors remaining. There are only a few yachts in the harbour, but there are also some winter residents returning. Others, who live here all year round, have gone off on holiday or have gone to find winter work elsewhere and so the seasons are changing. You can tell that from the weather of course and the vine leaves that are falling on a daily basis.
It’s still grey and wet and we’re hoping we’re not going to see a repeat of last winter when were hardly got any walking in due to weather and work. (I still do my five mornings per week at the desk, and Neil is still working at the bar, but that surely must end soon.) And now with Saturday morning as our volunteer time it only leaves us a full day on a Sunday to do a long-long walk, or afternoons to do a four or five hour walk, weather permitting. That’s on top of the morning walks which are what today’s photos are all about – though these are from Thursday morning. I couldn’t go out yesterday as it was raining at 6.45 and on and off during the day.
For those that know Horio, Zoi’s taverna has closed for the winter as has the Windmill and the Olive Tree, Syllogos is still open but inside seating only, and Georgio’s is still open with outside still a possibility. Soon enough they will scale down to inside only. The bars are all still open and there is live music at the Secret Garden regularly and special events at The Sunrise from time to time, the cinema event on a Sunday at Mandeios is on-going and Rainbow has its multiplex two screen TV extravaganza for football, politics and Animal Planet on demand.
Through the winter there will be dance classes for children and some for adults, there will be name day festivals and other church events and celebrations, the walking is good and there should hopefully be some social time as well, dinner parties and the like. I’ve got my trip coming up at the end of next month and a book to finish before then: draft three of ‘Straight Swap’ is now the item on the desk and I am already in talks with the editor over certain aspects of it, mainly my atrocious punctuation, rather extreme spelling errors and a little bit of structure.
So, lots to do but now I am off down town, with hat and coat on and a note to buy an umbrella or two. Have a good weekend!
