A trip to town

A few jobs need to be done today involving visits to some of the most complicated facilities in the harbour: The doctor, the pharmacy and the post office. I allow myself two hours, fortify myself with three cups of coffee and set off into a warm-ish but blustery December morning; the penultimate day of the year.

First stop: the dustbins down by Campos supermarket, our nearest rubbish collection point. Put two bags of rubbish in the paladin.

Second: The shop, to collect some “front cover” photos for people who have ordered them from Neil, to be delivered in the harbour. 1st delay of the day; one of the donkey train guys needs his passport photos taking and I hang about just in case there’s a translation problem. There isn’t but I can’t get out until the donkeys move away from the door which they do once they have had a good browse around the shop.

Third: No trouble on the Kali Strata, all clear, no delays. Bump into Gabbie as soon as I land in Yialos and so can hand over the front cover prints – getting ahead of schedule as…

Forth: I find the doctor’s waiting room empty! After waiting for ten minutes and no apparent reason I get to explain that I didn't hand in a prescription within five days of it being written and therefore need a new one. That takes all of five seconds to do and I’m off to the post office.

Fifth: Post office and yes there is the long awaited ‘you have a parcel’ slip waiting for me in the PO box (with a cheque to be paid into the bank yippee!). Only two priests waiting to be served before me and, as I wait, Jenine and Sam come in to collect a parcel so I leave the queue and go to the back room to ask Lefteris if my parcel is in there with theirs. No, it’s in the store room so I must go back to the front office. The two priests have now been joined by three ladies and a coastguard so I am seventh in the queue. Decide to come back later.

Sixth: bank to pay in cheque and lo! No queue! But the transaction still takes fifteen minutes as it’s not a Euro cheque but at least, once converted, I have an extra 300 in the bank. Go to the cash machine and take out 300 – swings and roundabouts. But I am running out of time – I have a Bulgarian coming for an English lesson at 11.30 so need to get my skates on.

Seventh: Unscheduled stop for a chat with Nikos at the clothes shop. Slow winter for clothes he says. I don’t tell him that a new clothes shop opened the other day in Chorio but rush on towards the Pharmacy and…

Eighth: Stop to check the boat schedule for January as I have to get to Rhodes and then Athens and then England by the 12th. But there is a boat of some sort every day so as long as the weather doesn’t turn nasty I should be o.k.

Ninth: Pharmacy at last! Jenine toots her horn (of the car) and offers a lift. There is only one person in the pharmacy so I shouldn’t be too long…. Ha! One of the things I need will be arriving from Rhodes that afternoon and the other two… well I can only have one per prescription as it’s on IKA (Government health insurance) so I will need to get another prescription to cover that and the fact that the three things together costs more than the allowed limit per prescription so I will have to go back to the doctor to get a new prescription for those two and can I go now? No? (Outraged glare from Pharmacist – maybe because six people have now arrived and are trying to push in. Pharmacy suddenly resembles the Stock Exchange trading room floor.) Come back on Monday? O.k. Ten minutes later (and much thanks to an English speaking Greek lady who filed in the gaps for me) and I come out with 30% of what I went in for. But the good news: The tablets normally costs 40 euros a packet but IKA pay most of that so I only have to pay 5 – the small tube of cream would have been over 80 by the way, so always have health insurance of some sort if you plan to be ill or have a minor middle-aged-man ailment in Greece.

Tenth: Dear Jenine and Sam are still waiting for me in the car so leap in with fifteen minutes to go before English lesson and zip off up the hill… where ‘daddy’ is mixing concrete so a quick pit stop to say hello and then on to the village.

Eleventh: Where I have to pop into the (donkey free) shop to give Neil my mobile as he has left his at home and where there is a till roll crisis… running out… five minutes to lesson time… find another one for him in the store room that is apparently administered by Stig of the dump and dash off home…

Stopping (twelfth) to admire the new metal work Paul is putting up for Yianni at the Rainbow bar (‘coffee?’ ‘no time!’ ‘ah – sigar sigar, coffee’ ‘later!’) before dashing off again, waving vague and brief good mornings to various passing acquaintances and finally getting to the house before Ivo the Bulgarian arrives for his English lesson.

Just in time to get a message on Neil’s phone, from my phone back in the shop, to say that Ivo has got work today so won’t be coming. Realise that it’s the end of the month tomorrow and that I haven’t written a village view so… well, so here I am and here it is!

PS: Oh – as I will not be back from England until around February 4th (weather and Poseidon willing) next month’s Symi Dream updates will be late. You’ll just have to slip into GMT (Greek Maybe Time) and be patient.