Thoughts from the balcony
Another early start for me today thanks again to another early night (20.30 to 03.30, if you’re interested). I did spend a little time in this square after finishing work yesterday late afternoon, and it was good to meet a few couples who were visiting Symi for the first time, and loving it, I am pleased to say. The square tends to become busier later in the evening, but now the weather is cooling off a little, more people come up in the late afternoon, or stop off on the way back from the beach. During July and August when the temperature was up to and over 36 or 38 degrees, many people prefer to wait until the evening. Mind you, this year it wasn’t that much cooler then.
When I’m up early in the summer, I tend to sit on the balcony and have a cup of tea before firing up the computer and getting to work, and of late, I’ve had to wear a t-shirt out there. I like the peace and quiet of that time of day. Well, I say ‘quiet’, some mornings there are still parties going on at some bars, as there was this morning. The sound doesn’t affect us, and I can only hear it faintly, bouncing off the wall of the property next door, depending on where it’s coming from. There is a club/bar/restaurant opposite us, and when the doors open the sound pours out, but again, that’s mainly during August. Other times, I guess the noise is coming from further into the harbour where we can’t see from our house; cheering, music and laughter ringing through the night.
I also get to hear more natural sounds and see some sights. The owls are regular background noise and last night while sitting outside we saw a barn owl flying overhead. I know it was a barn owl (there is a pair nesting somewhere in the village) because, well, I was once a young ornithologist and a barn owl is a barn owl. We also occasionally see the bats and little owls flying around the house, the occasional rat on the ruin wall, cats of course, and sometimes young people trying to get home in a straight line, taking a shortcut past the front of the house, following the torch of their mobile phones with varying degrees of success. And then there are the lights from boats and buildings, and the mysterious rising light over Turkey (must be some kind of weather balloon as it goes up in a straight line, waits, and then come down, fading as it descends). There’s plenty to see and hear on Symi even during the wee small hours.
