Friday Photos
To end the week in what’s become my usual fashion, here are some photos.
Firstly, Taverna Zoi is opening tonight (Friday). I took these and other photos early in the morning while walking up to To Vrisi. The others were taken on a walk down to Yialos, as you can probably tell. Here they are in no particular order. Have a good weekend.
Living on Symi, sometimes the simplest of tasks can take a terribly long time. For example, let’s say you needed to get your incoming orders from the bank and give them to your accountant so she can prepare your tax returns. This can involve gearing yourself up to head to Yialos, an event in itself for the likes of me, preparing your speech for when you get to the bank, and being forearmed with your bank book, passport etc. That done, you head off down the steps, around the harbour, and arrive at the bank, hoping there won’t be a queue. There is, and you wait in the blazing sun while the queue declines pleasingly quickly until there’s just one person in front of you, and you are being held in the vestibule, which must be the only non-airconditioned part of the building. However, the person in front of you is trawling back through their transactions since before the days of the Drachma… But you finally get in, deal with your paperwork, pay the fee and escape. As you do, you decide to call at the post office, where you wait again until you can enter, check your PO box and find there’s nothing there anyway. So you decide to drop your papers at the accountant, only to find they’re not open yet because it’s still early. So, you trudge back up the steps knowing that you’ve got to trudge back down them again another day soon.
And breathe.
That’s how things can sometimes go. On Tuesday, however, things ran differently. Having geared myself up for the annual visit to the bank to ask for my ‘pink slips’, which the accountant needs to do last year’s tax now the platform is open… I headed on down the steps with a self-made printout of the transaction details I needed official copies of, so I could hand it over and save the teller some time. I was early, as I hardly ever do anything late, i.e. after ten in the morning, and discovered, when I stopped to tie a lace by the war memorial, that Jenine had been calling me for the last five minutes. I’d not heard because my head was back in 1890 and the chapter I intended to write when I got home as it usually is when I am allowed out on my own. We walked to the bank, and she continued on to work, and lo! I was admitted to the vestibule straight away. There, I had to wait while someone finished some piece of business inside, which took all of two minutes, and I was released into the air conditioning to talk to the teller.
I made my opening gambit in Greek, of course, and after that, we slipped politely into English. The paperwork was quickly prepared and handed to me with the news that not only are these things not called ‘pink slips’ anymore and haven’t been for years (I knew this) but also, there is no need for me to go to the bank to get them. I can do them via my Alpha Web Banking… and here’s how. After the demonstration, and after being told how to activate my new card, which arrived a couple of weeks ago, I was back out in the sun with a spring in my step. A quick visit, no need to bother them annually again, and my card activated to boot. So, buoyed by this, I decided to head to the post office, where there no queue, only a cheerfully welcoming George, and a delivery slip waiting for me in our PO box. I’d ordered a model from the USA back in March. It was a pre-order, due to become available at the end of May, and I wasn’t expecting it until next month. It had been posted on May 16th and arrived here on June 10th, no extra charge, all in one piece. Well, as many pieces as the kit should have because you have to put it together yourself. Result: I now had a spring in both steps.
There was another result shortly after when I started my trudge back and found Stelios already in his office. I dropped off my papers, thereby saving another trip down the next day, and headed on up the Kali Strata springing like nobody’s business. On the way, I met Panormita, who does my tax return, so was able to tell her – while bouncing from one spring to the other – the non-pink slips were waiting for her. And so, my annual admin was done and dusted within one hour of leaving home.
Sometimes, things don’t take so long after all.
I’ve got some odds and bods to show you today. These are photos that don’t seem to fit anywhere or haven’t yet found a place in one of my quick ‘catch up’ blog posts. Oh, apart from the boot which falls under my ‘things found by the side of the road’ collection.
I’ve also got a preview of what you can find in next year’s calendar, which is now on sale at lulu.com (and only there). You used to be able to do an online preview at that site, but I haven’t yet found out if I still can. So, this will have to do:
Click here to go to the purchase page.
The glass of wine shot was just one of those moments when a butterfly fancied checking out the vintage and hung around for a quick look.
This other one is there because I thought it was about time we had a shot of Yialos and the boats. It’s looking a bit busier down there right now. The taxi boats are going out, the beaches are open, there are more visitors, and there’s more activity. The same goes for the village where there are more people about in the late afternoon/evening.
Well, not exactly from the bridge, but from the balcony looking towards the bridge… of various ships. Hey! It’s early. We had a new Blue Star boat coming in yesterday. The Ariadne is doing the Monday run for the time being. According to Yiannis, it is 197 meters long, and I have to say, it did make an impressive sight. When I first saw it coming around Nimos, it looked like a cruise ship, only not as high. The other boats you can see are the other Blue Star with the Nicolaos X day boat behind it going home, and the one going out is the Sebeco taking Neil over to Rhodes for his health checks last week.
I’m not sure if that’s a phrase, ‘busying up’, but it kind of describes Symi these past few days. More visitors are arriving, some from the UK, many from other parts of the world, all tested and so on, and those I’ve spoken to report that are double-vacced, which sounds like what Sam does to my office carpet when he comes to do the cleaning. So, that’s all good news, especially as Colette arrived the other day bearing the gift of Tetley teabags. (Inserts gratefully smiling smiley.) The Rainbow bar was almost back to normal on Saturday afternoon/evening, as far as I remember.
In other news, Neil has produced his Symi calendar for next year. He’s always had this ready about this time of year because, when he had the shop, he needed it to be in stock by June ready for visitors to buy copies. Now, you can only buy it online. I’ll say that again to make sure the message is clear. You can only buy it online. When you go to the sales site, you can change your country/currency to suit what’s best for you. So, if you’re in the EU, for example, choose Ireland and Euros, that will save postage costs and import taxes from the UK, or long delays from America. If you’re in the USA, then there are no long delays, but as the calendar starts next January, you’ve got plenty of time for delivery. Click on this link to learn more: Symi Dream Calendar 2022.
As for me, over at my desk, I have just published the 10th mystery in my Clearwater Series, and over the weekend, it shot to the top 10 of the LGBT Mystery rankings on Amazon, which was temporarily thrilling. There are actually 11 books in this series, the 11th being a prequel which I count as one of my best pieces of writing to date. You can find the full series under The Clearwater Mysteries on Amazon. The 10th book, ‘The Clearwater Inheritance’ is currently available on Kindle and in Kindle Unlimited (as are all my books), and I’m hoping the paperback will be approved before long. Amazon can take a few days to check the print files, and as this novel is 150,000 words long, someone’s got a bit of checking to do. So, bear with, and prepare to order. Ta.
You know me, workaholic, I’m already on chapter eight of the first draft of the first book in the follow-on series, ‘The Larkspur Mysteries’, and I am taking myself back to the Hackney workhouse in 1890, so, I have some reading to do, followed by some writing, followed by a piano lesson, followed by a collapse in front of the TV to watch a film. I’ll see you tomorrow.
PS. The photos today are not on the calendar, but they are by Neil.
