Symi Sheep and Other Animals
One of the things I love about this time of year on Symi is waking up to sheep. More precisely, waking up to the sound of sheep passing the window at 6.30 in the morning, followed by the occasional goat, and getting out of bed to open the window after wiping condensation from it, and seeing a few wandering ovines in the lane. They are brought down from the hills to feed on the weeds around the village to help fatten them up for Easter, I guess. I think some just escape at random times as you do occasionally see them wandering the village lanes at other times of the year.
That sight got my Tuesday off to a good start, but later, the dreaded banking helpline kind of put a damper on it. Actually, not them, but a company I am trying to pay who are not accepting my address. Yes, that old chestnut again. I need to pay for the website hosting service otherwise, shortly, you will find Symi Dream has gone offline. The card I usually use has expired now, and although a new one was ordered at the start of February, the replacement has not even arrived with the bank yet, so will be a few more weeks before it gets from them to here. (It’s also the one I use all the time, so going on holiday with no fall-back credit card could be fun.) Anyway…
I filled out my details for the hosting company who I have been paying regularly each month for years using a variety of cards, including an older version of the one I want to use now – Barclays if you want the detail. The site I am trying to pay tells me the card can’t be validated because of the address. I phone Barclays just to confirm the address, and the chap there tells me it’s, ‘Absolutely fine, Mr Colling, absolutely accurate”, which is more than he was. I try again with the absolute details and still it gets rejected. The helpful helpdesk put me through to online banking for some obscure reason, and someone there gets the full story too, though it’s got nothing to do with him. Anyway, not your problem and I will battle on with this, but if you do open Symi Dream while we are away and find nothing there, you’ll know why. That shouldn’t happen as the hosting company know what’s going on, but not why it’s going wrong, and meanwhile, I need to find a way to pay the hosting fee to keep the site afloat. Such joy. And now back to the sheep. (Or chickens as I couldn’t find another sheep photo.)
