Today, a quick message from Symi Animal Welfare to start us off:
“Better late than never.
A very Happy New Year to all of our friends and supporters! Winter feeding continues as volunteers take foodstuffs to their delegated stations, despite bitterly cold weather. In certain areas, bin-cat numbers are reduced as street-wise cats relocate at the coldest time of day, to warmer locations i.e. under parked vehicles, on discarded blankets & rugs or abandoned boats. Most of the cats appear healthy, even those born later on in the season last year. We plan to take some cats over to Rhodes for neutering during the winter, dependent on the boat schedules & weather conditions that is! We look forward to seeing you in the summer, Melanie, Suzan, Claudia, Tove & Hazel.”
All good news there then. And good news for some children on Symi though maybe not for their mums and dads. Some teachers, due to return on Wednesday for school to start on Thursday were unable to get here and were, I assume, stranded no Rhodes. As are a few other people who are trying to get back to Symi this week. That’s all due to an unhelpful wind on Wednesday.
The Blue Star came down from Athens despite the force six winds, but was unable to dock due to the direction of the wind. So it didn’t call into Symi on Wednesday, leaving some folk unable to leave Rhodes and some having to stay there instead. (The next boat to Symi being due on Friday.) I heard that there was a chance the boat might call in on its way back on Wednesday evening (I am assuming it didn’t) but that it could not be guaranteed. This would mean, if you risked it, that you might end up in, at best, Kos for a couple of nights. Nothing wrong with that if you have the cash, but not what you wanted.
We had the same dilemma a couple of years ago coming back from somewhere. We could either stay in Rhodes an extra two nights for sure, or risk not landing at Symi and end up somewhere else. In the end we decided that we would stay in Rhodes, as that’s where we knew, and so battened down for an extended stay. Costly, but unavoidable at times. Ian was right to leave on Monday for his Thursday flight to the UK, had he stayed and risked it he would still be here and incurring the cost of changing flights and onward arrangements. A couple of extra nights at a hotel is better and cheaper than that. (Plaza was doing a single deal for €30.00 per night for Symi residents.)
So, that’s the shopping and Symi Animal Welfare news for the day. If you want to know more about Symi Animal Welfare then check out their website at http://www.symianimalwelfare.org/
