The weather is calm and it looks set to stay calm for the festival of Panormitis happening this weekend. A 48 hour strike by some ferry workers meant that there was no Blue Star on Wednesday and may not be one on Friday, so our annual winter boat disruptions have started already. And that may also have a knock on effect for anyone hopping to come by ferry to the festival, unless they can come by the ‘Spanos’ routes from Rhodes. It may also mean fewer stalls at the festival if they were due to come by big boat. Or it might all work out fine.
We are, at the moment, intending to walk over to Panormitis for the day on Sunday, as long as Neil’s foot’s okay. He’s just started aerobics again so might be feeling a tad stiff in the legs; a walk will do it all good. The mornings are colder so it is even harder to get out of bed early and get into jogging gear and go up that hill and evenings start earlier so it is even more tempting to be in the warm with a good film or a book, rather than going up that hill in the evening. I’m working on it.
I’m also working on my new book and almost have the third draft ready for the next proof reader. My efforts are being slightly hampered by the E key on my keyboard, which is sticking in the up position; I have to belt it with my finger to get it to work. So, if you find typos with the e missing you will know it’s because the ky isn’t doing what it should. And clearly that was meant to read key and not KY.
Other news? Well, I heard that a group of doctors is coming over on Saturday to do examinations at the clinic and the Yialos school between 14:00 and 19:00, though exactly what doctors I am not sure; would be worth enquiring though if you are in need of a check-up. I also heard that the current island doctor may be leaving soon and we might be without one for a while.
I can tell you that fewer and fewer day boats are coming in now the season has ground down, a few of the tourist shops are closed, and some have shut for the whole winter now, while a few remain open for Panormitis weekend I guess. The boats will be doing runs from Rhodes to Panormitis at the weekend but may not be calling into Yialos as often. And I also heard that Symi Tours are putting on buses to bring people back and forth to the festival, so we shouldn’t have to walk home, and there should also be the Panormitis regular bus, so that’s handy. If all else fails we will stick our thumbs out and hope for a ride on the back of a truck. If all else-all else fails we’ll walk back. Yeah right.
Just to add that part one of the root canal work on the tooth went smoothly and surprisingly painlessly and part two is today around midday. It’s nice to be able to eat without pain again, until the next one goes wrong. And finally, finally, Neil spent some time with other volunteers sorting the winter and summer stock for the refugee centre yesterday as 20 or so new refugees came into Symi. The international news may have gone quiet on the subject in places (an on-going news story is not always a selling news story) but the crisis continues, people are still dying in their attempt to get to freedom and idiots are still saying ‘send them back, they are all men, they want to turn Europe into an Islamic state,’ and so on as Greece considers taking down it’s physical barrier between Greece and Turkey so the refugees don’t have to risk the sea. And so it goes on.
