As one might have said in an old Kentish dialect, I be somewhat buffle-headed this morning. I just posted this on my other site by mistake. I blame the thunderstorm currently passing overhead. Here’s what I meant to put here…

You know I’ve often talked about water problems on these pages. Well, yesterday, we finally found ourselves with hot water after five weeks without. The water on Symi has long been a problem for many on the island; the lack of it, the condition of it, and, now and then, the colour of it. In our case, water problems have been a combination of corrosiveness and what can only be called dodgy plumbing. In defence of our local plumbers, none of them was involved in the installation of the plumbing in this house, their involvement has been to try and put right the problems caused when the late owner put it in himself during his renovation of the property years ago. It used to be that, to fill the sterna, we had to turn off the pump, turn the blue tap to the left and the red one to the right, and then open the mains for a couple of hours. Once enough water was in the tank beneath the house, we then had to turn the red to the left, open the mains, and turn the blue to the right, and only then turn the pump back on, with no water available during the time it took to fill. Then, the sterna broke, so we had a barrel on the roof instead…

It’s a dull story, and not an unusual one around here, so I’ll spare you the details, but since moving in, we’ve had to replace the water pump six times, we’ve had a sterna, a small barrel and now a larger one, and we are now on our third hot water tank, all within the last 11.5 years. Why? Maybe this photo below will go some way to explain.

The wonderfully patient plumber came on Monday and fitted the new hot water tank; sorted. Not. Once full, the pump kept running, so we still couldn’t use it, but he came back yesterday and fixed the problem (which had something to do with downstairs), and everything was back to normal after a long, cold-showering five weeks. However, not long after he left, we noticed a drip in an unusual place inside, and on investigation, I found that the old, disconnected tank, put aside in the storeroom, wasn’t completely empty, and was leaking. It was also fairly full, so we had to manoeuvre it out onto the flat roof so it could be emptied, and what you see above is the colour of what came out. That’s about five years’ worth of crud, and is the same stuff that gathers at the bottom of the cold water barrel. Nice.

Meanwhile, it could be that we’re in for rain this morning. Thunder is rolling around the hills, but it’s still too dark to see the sky and judge how the day may go. If or when it rains, we’ll probably get rainwater coming through the flat roof and into the bathroom, because we’ve not coated the roof with concrete paint yet. We need to clean that mess off first, then paint when the weather’s good, and fill cracks, and then, hopefully, there will be no more internal showers other than the one we want.

Now, lightning is coming closer, and the thunder is louder, so I best put this up and move on before this potential storm starts to interfere with the electrics and internet. For me, today and the weekend will all be about my final readthrough of my next book, and I will tell you incessantly about it once it’s ready for you to rush to Amazon and order a copy. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

Welcome to the first day of a new month (already). Yesterday, the harbour was in full swing, the day-trip boats were coming in and out with no let-up in the number of visitors, and the sun was out. We had a very pleasant lunch with our friends in a taverna that was quiet at noon and nearly full 45 minutes later. Afterwards, we battled through some just-arrived visitors and managed to find a taxi back up the hill, so that all went swimmingly. I also picked up another new keyboard for this typowriter, and so far, this one seems to work properly. The old one wasn’t 100% compatible, it seems. When I’d highlight a word or phrase with the intent to edit it, either the highlighting would disappear when I let go the mouse button, or else it would select more text than I wanted, seemingly at random. As this new one is the same make as the laptop, I’m hoping it behaves a little better. It’s narrower, and the keys are lower and not clunky, but it will take me a while to get used to it.

Meanwhile, after five weeks, the hot water situation at home remains ‘almost there.’ We have a new hot water tank (arrived on Tuesday), it’s fitted and works, but it won’t stop filling up. That is, once the new tank was full, we expected the pump to turn off because all taps in the house were closed, yet the pump continued to run and refused to stop. This baffled the plumber as much as it baffled me. Where was the water going? It must have been going somewhere for the pump to run, right? Allegedly, our hot tank isn’t connected to the flat below, so even if a tap had been left open, it shouldn’t have been going there, but where else was it going? We can’t get into currently unoccupied downstairs to check, besides, it has its own hot water tank up on the other roof… The upshot is, still no hot water, and the plumber is due back today to get to the bottom of the problem. We shall see. Meanwhile, the cold showers continue… The joys of living in a house where the previous owner did all his own maintenance and most of his building, including the plumbing.

On the upside of things, my latest book is back from being proofread, and I am now making my final edits. The cover is coming along, too, so I can soon bore you with news of all that. In the outside but not too far away world, we saw new visitors arrive for their stay in the village, we still have day trippers reaching us up here and wandering the lanes, and there are still plenty of people about enjoying the variable weather of October.

Must be quick this morning. My latest draft has come back from the proofreader, I am getting towards the end of editing an older book ahead of republishing, and I have a newsletter to prepare. I have some ‘admin’ to do, too, and a book cover to decide upon, and to add to it all, I didn’t get up until five. Horror! To add to the trauma, my ‘new’ office chair has started to give up on me. Whereas before, I was sitting up and typing at a sensible position, over the last couple of weeks, I’ve started to sink, so now my hands feel like they are up to the level of my shoulders. I remind myself of one of the goblin bank tellers from Harry Potter. So, it’s back to using the adjustable piano stool for now, while remembering to keep a straight back, but also remembering not to lean back, because there isn’t a back, and if I do, I’ll go over backwards like a character in a dodgy farce. So, anyway…

I should have a new book out shortly, and I’ll tempt you to that at another time when I know exactly when. Also, a great friend of mine is about to release a book of reminiscences of his time working with Kindsay Kemp and his dance/theatre company, and I’ll let you know about that when it’s out there. Closer to home, we have been invited out to lunch in Yialos, and while I am there, I have a new computer keyboard waiting for me to collect from ACS. Let’s hope that when I sit to use it, I can reach it.

Meanwhile, after this confusion with Facebook and not being able to add the link to my website on the Symi Dream page, I have found a plugin for my website that automatically links these blog posts to FB the other way round. This may be a way of bypassing this new oddity, and we’ll soon see if it works. And talking of work… I’m off.

It’s changeover time. That was my last thought last night and my first thought this morning, and I was thinking about the temperature. We closed our front window last night for the first time in a few months, because the air is considerably cooler now than it was a few days ago, and the forecast ahead shows a few sunny days, and then some windier and colder ones. The sheets are back on the bed, and soon there will be a duvet, and later, blankets too. I’m already back to wearing socks and shoes, rather than sandals, and I’ve rummaged in my winter clothing store (a suitcase) for hoodies, jumpers and long trousers. We’ve started preparing other things needed for the winter to come, like the curtains that we hang over the front door and balcony windows, the spare towels for when it rains and the porch gets wet, and we’ve started discussing filler and concrete paint for the flat roofs. However, out and about, visitors are still investigating the village wearing T-shirts and shorts, visiting beaches, and enjoying the weakening sun.

The start of the change from summer to winter, via something resembling autumn, reminded me of another thing that’s changed over the years: changeover day. It used to be that we’d know what day of the week it was by the activity in the village. When you saw a mule coming up the steps with luggage on either side, when people who had been regulars were suddenly not there, and when you saw suitcases waiting unattended by the Windmill or the clock tower, you knew it was changeover day, and thus, you knew it was a Wednesday. These were in the days of holiday companies like Manos and Laskarina, Olympic and Kosmar, when there were reps on the island to meet and show in guests. You’d hear suitcases trundling by in the early hours, and know people were leaving and would soon be replaced by others trundling the other way. Now, holiday company reps are rare, if not existent on the island, and people come and go on all days of the week. I’m surprised anyone knows what day it is.

Some things remain the same. You might still see luggage waiting unattended, and know it will be quite safe until collected, but you no longer see uniformed reps herding their guests towards a boat and taking them over to Rhodes to say goodbye and collect another clutch. Independent travel is more ‘the thing’, making holiday dates more flexible, and it’s common to hear people are staying for ten or twelve days, rather than the standard seven or fourteen. There are no welcome meetings, and no reps running around trying to find guests and get them off the island a day early because the weather is set to storming, and boats are in danger of being cancelled. Visitors have to book their own excursions via the travel agents, rather than through a rep working for very little money, plus whatever commission they can muster.

It’s taken a while for this change to become the norm, but that’s where we are with the British companies, at least. I don’t know about the holiday companies of other countries. The change from summer to winter hasn’t changed much, though. That’s still the same, and every year is slightly different in timing, though the same in the result. To my mind, it’s not been a particularly hot summer, with nothing over 40°, which might indicate a colder winter to come (but who knows these days?), but preparations for it remain the same. Time to find and dust off the heaters, put away the fans, and give the wardrobe its own changeover. Summer clothes will soon be in the storage suitcase under the bed, and… Where did I put those blankets? ‘Seen the duvet?’ Answer, ‘I think it’s in a bag in the mousandra,’ and so on into the shorter days and colder nights.

What’s not changed, though, are the views, although the sunrises and sunsets can be a little more dramatic at this time of year.

The last couple of afternoons have seen busy times for the cafés in the square. The weather might have had something to do with that, because it’s been cloudy at times and, for a while yesterday, wet. Well… damp. The rain wasn’t heavy by Symi standards, but it was there, off and on. I suspect many of the café visitors were from day trip boats, and might have ventured the walk up because it is cooler now. There were also many longer-stay visitors, and it all led to a busy, chatty, sociable atmosphere.

It looked like the sky was clearing yesterday evening, but it’s still too dark outside right now for me to see what it’s doing right now.

You know the other week I was mumbling about ‘then and now’, comparing things to see how they have changed over nearly 25 years? Over the weekend, I came across another, though it isn’t specifically Symi-themed. We were watching something on YouTube, and as it was a popular programme, it was now and then interrupted by advertisements. I found myself with my finger on the remote ready to hit the ‘Skip’ button as soon as it became available, and tutting at how long we had to wait. (Something like 30 seconds, which seemed to last forever.) That reminded me of when we lived at our first house, right up at the top of the village. We had a portable TV set with a portable aerial you had to get just so if you were to see anything; no remote, no internet, no DVD player, just the old-fashioned way of viewing. We’d wait up until the magic hour of nine, when a film usually came on one of the channels, and settle in to watch, even if we’d seen it 100 times before, because it was a film in English, and came as a blessed relief after hours of shouty news and discussion programs. These films also had adverts. But…

Where, this weekend, I was itching for the adverts to hurry through their 30 seconds, back then, the advert break ran for around 15 minutes. There was usually enough time during a film or show at any time of day, to leave the house, walk down to the village supermarket, get some shopping and walk back up before the program restarted. I once counted the number of advertisements and trailers in one of these breaks: 32. Now, we have channels streaming directly onto the TV, and you can watch a whole film or documentary without interruptions. If one is needed, you can always put things on pause while you pop out for the shopping, and if you don’t like what you’re watching, you can choose from hundreds of other options, not just the five or six terrestrial stations. That has changed over time, but then, so has the price of the shopping, but let’s not go there.

Let us go, instead, into the dark work of horror stories, and in doing so, I will point you towards a re-release of a very old story of mine that has just been re-published and is now available for anyone who dares read it. Here’s the blatant advertisement, from which you should be able to reach the sales page.

Lonely House

If you want to know more about this book, see my author blog https://jacksonmarsh.com/