Symi Winter – Ventilation
Yesterday started out sunny and a bit chilly as there was a breeze, and I suspect it’s coming from the north. Nothing like northern Europe is dealing with at the moment, I know, and I hope you are snow free and safe wherever you are. I’ve been spending my days inside at the desk, mainly. I keep wanting to go out for walks and things, but it’s been a bit wet and grey and, by the time I finish my day’s work, the urge has faded. That’s why I usually do any exercise first thing in the morning. I like to have the rest of the day spread before me with its not enough hours so I can get done the things I want to do. Walking up hills in the rain is not my idea of fun, no matter how necessary and healthy it would be.
On more practical, Symi-based matters, I was asked recently in an email what the day-to-day life is like at home on Symi through the winter. Well, if you’re interested, the practical home routine, for me, goes something like this. Get up, open the bedroom window to help get rid of some of the condensation that’s gathered there overnight. We also open the kitchen window when cooking and, when it’s not blowing a gale and raining, the living room windows and doors to let the air blast through the house and clear the damp. The bathroom window is permanently open unless I am planning a shower the following morning. In that case, I close the window at night, prepare my clothes, slippers and fleece dressing gown, so that first thing it’s straight from bed to shower before I have time to register how cold it is. It’s usually a dash back to the bedroom in similar fashion afterwards, and I don’t properly come round until I’m in new, dry and warm clothes.
The windows stay open all morning as we are lucky enough to have the workhouse where we spend most mornings and me, most afternoons too. It doesn’t get damp in there, it’s never warm enough, and the shutters are open/closed depending on wind direction. We tend to take a break around midday and at this time, start preparing the sitting room for the evening. That means turning on one bar of the heater and closing windows and shutters and putting up the curtain over the balcony doors, and pulling the other one across to block off the hall. As we have an open mousandra above the bedroom by the sitting room, that’s got thermal curtains drawn across in winter to make the sitting room, open below, easier to heat. Then, it’s blankets over knees, feet up and an evening with films or books.
Some evenings are given over to a drink at the Rainbow bar, but mainly only weekends now as we’re desperately saving for the holiday in two weeks. Domestically, the house is closed for the evenings, window-wise, and we keep a close eye on the black mould in the bathroom, and latterly the bedroom, and wash that off as soon as it appears. We’ve had to paint one bedroom wall already this winter – the first time in three years here. Well, Sam did it as one of his money-making sessions, and a good job he made of it too.
There. That’s the home, domestic, window news for today. As it’s sunny, I will put the washing outside to dry, so I don’t have to clamber over it in the workhouse entrance where it usually hags at this time of year.
