How to collect you package from TNT.

If you want to collect you parcels on Symi you have a variety of places to go in order to find them. The post office is a fairly obvious though frenetic choice; the bookshop (1) also kind of makes sense as it is an agent for a courier, as is bookshop (2). However the new sports shop is now an option, as was the jewellery shop before it. Of course! Makes perfect sense to me. It’s kind of like going to the bakery to find the diver or asking the bus driver if he has any wardrobes. (He also has a furniture shop apparently but I’ve never seen it.) Or, you can collect your packet directly from the boat.

Our story starts in February when, due to modern technology, I ordered 36 copies of Symi 85600 from my ‘publisher’, www.lulu.com. This is a great new site where anyone can write a book and self publish it at no cost to themselves. When someone orders a book (or 26) it is printed, bound and sent. Although the company is based in America (I think) the books, calendars, DVDs or whatever are printed as near to their destination as possible; in my case Spain.

A couple of weeks later and an e-mail tells me the books have been produced and sent. A few days after this I receive a phone call from a chap in Rhodes telling me he is the TNT agent and has a parcel for me. He will put it on the boat that afternoon so I can go to the harbour to collect it. There’s no TNT agent on Symi (not even at the fish shop, I asked) so this is the closest we get. I thank him and, later that day, Neil and I are down in the harbour to await the boat. Bad news; Elpida informs us that there isn’t a ‘Spanos’ that day. (Spanos is the local name for the Dodecanese Pride catamaran, the line being run by the Spanos family.) But we have a G&T and wait just in case, but no there is no boat. So a slow walk back up the steps necessitates another G&T at Glaros on the way home.

The courier calls later that evening to tell me there was no boat. You don’t say! Not a problem, he’ll put it on the morning Spanos, due to arrive in Symi at 8.45 a.m. Thank you very much.

It’s a lovely day down in the harbour as I sit by the clock tower and watch the sea where a boat should be but isn’t. It’s calm and delightful out there but apparently just around the headland the sea is too choppy for boats and even the Dodecanese Pride (which seems to thrive on bad weather and goes out in all manner of storms) is not allowed to run today. Neil is positioned on the other side of the harbour near Symi Visitor just in case the ghost ship pulls in over there as there is a Navy boat where the Pride usually docks. He texts me to say there is no boat even scheduled for today. I ring the courier who confirms this and we make an arrangement for the following afternoon.

A slow walk back up the steps necessitates a G&T at Glaros on the way home.

The following day, feeling quite fit after all the recent exercise and I’m back at the harbour. I am encouraged to see that the Navy have left and the Pride’s space is available. Even more encouraging is the open ticket office and several people gathering expectantly on the quay. And, sure enough, the boat appears and starts to pull in. I’m glad of this not only because my package may actually arrive but also because Brian has come down in his car to drive me and the books back up. When 20 ‘Jasons’ arrived I carried them and they were bloomin’ heavy!

Anyway, boat backs in, tailgate goes down and there’s that semi-organised scrum with folk getting off and folk getting on. Great activity around the ‘Symi’ area where several interesting boxes are waiting… for other people. I check the Kalymnos pile but there is nothing with my name on it there. I stand kind of dumfounded for a while as one chap calls ‘everybody off’ and another asks me what I’ve lost. ‘Have you got something from TNT?’ I ask in my best Greek, ‘ask him,’ the chap replies. ‘Him’ is directing a car onto the boat, which I manage to dodge as I approach. ‘Something from TNT?’ I ask with one eye on the man who is directing everyone else off the boat and still calling ‘everyone off’. ‘Hang on…’ ‘Everyone off now…’

The car is safely aboard and helpful chap number two saunters over to a closed door beneath the stairs and rummages around inside. ‘We’re off,’ or similar is shouted by a crew member. Yes, you may be but I’m not, I mutter. ‘Here you go.’

A parcel from TNT has been discovered. ‘Everyone…’ Yes, I’m going! And I do, with about half a second to spare as the tailgate lifts, nearly taking me with it.

Recover afterwards with a coffee at the Aktis bar and a lift back to the village. Phew.

You get used to this kind of thing on Symi and you have to accept it or go mad. If I’d not found the box it would only have gone to Kalymnos and back and finally been sent back to TNT where the process would have started again.  

And, in a few years’ time, you will be able to re-read this in Symi 85600 the sequel which will probably be delivered to the Dentist.