Symi Birthday

I suppose as I am writing this yesterday and it’s my birthday (56), it might be an opportune time to think back on where I was on other birthdays in the past. There are quite a few to remember, and I don’t have many photos taken on the actual days, but here are a few reminiscences…

Regarding Symi, I guess one of the most memorable was my 50^th, and I wasn’t even here. We were in Transylvania for a holiday, and on the day itself, I woke up in the presidential suite of a hotel in Sighisoara. The hotel had messed up on our booking for our first night of three – the hotel was booked out by a party of Greek pilgrims visiting the local churches – so they put us in the suite at no extra cost for all three nights. I’m still sure that this was somehow pre-arranged by Neil, Jenine and Ian, but apparently not. It was snowing, and in the morning, we had coffee I the house where Vlad Tepes was allegedly born. A bit of a Dracula tie-in there. Back on Symi, we had had one 50^th party at the Sunrise, a 50^th dinner with Jenine and the boys and, after our return, another dinner to celebrate, so that birthday went on for at least four weeks.

Back in 2003, for my 40^th and not long after we had moved here and fit from a seasons’ non-stop work for Takis at the Leather shop (600+ steps down and up every day of the week for seven months, plus the walking and lifting at work), we walked to Panormitis with Lisa. It was a sunny, spring day and the walk took us around four hours going via the wine press shortcut. Getting home was unplanned but we hitched a lift with a gang of celebrating builders who had invited us into their cell where they stayed during the week while working down there, for wine before setting off. Nearly didn’t see age 50 + one day, but we made it home, shaken and somewhat stirred. Sadly, I don’t have any photos of that time.

As for my 30th, well… That’s probably best not going into, but it involved being stood up by my then partner who chose that day to call it all off, going to a pub with my cabaret partner, Keith, and then a club in East London followed by a long walk home to Dalston at three in the morning. The rest is something of a blur.

Last year we were in Croatia for our honeymoon and my BD. On the day, the hotel presented me with a cake big enough for 20 people and a free packed lunch for our visit to the national park. They had seen my passport and realised it was my birthday, hence the cake. Like the hotel in Romania, the staff went out of their way to make my stay and birthday a memorable one. Hoteliers could learn a lot from the young people that ran these paces and how they deal with customer care and going ‘the extra mile’ in other parts of Europe.

I have also spent other birthdays there on Symi, notably one where there was an impromptu party at Rainbow that involved gin and tonic, and several that I have spent with Jenine and the godboys, our island family. As for yesterday, well, it’s still only 8.30 as I write. I’ve been up since four, done three hours of work, and we’re planning to go to Yialos, maybe have lunch or a drink there before meeting friends for a few drinks this evening. We’re taking the boys to dinner on Friday as they have after-school school on a Tuesday, so this birthday, like others, will run for more than just the one day.

Thank you for all the messages and thank you for supporting the blog and my books, all of which can be found here – with the same page being available to Amazon users in various countries. This is the .com page but should lead you to your local Amazon store if you have a birthday present to buy for someone and need some ideas.

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Wind, Walks, Waiting

Meanwhile… Hatches were battened down on Sunday afternoon and evening when the wind got up, bringing colder air with it. It was still pleasant in the sun but after dark, not so much. Monday dawned bright and a breezy, with the Independence Day parade taking place in Yialos. See the Symi Dream, Facebook page, and I will share photos there if I can. Today, there are some images from a walk along the hillside. As you can see, the spring flowers are coming out, and the hills are green with the oregano, thyme and other wild herbs that grow there. As long as they are not on someone’s land, you can pick these and believe me, they are far stronger than anything you will buy in a shop.

As for the rest of my week… It’s a birthday drink at the bar later today, dinner with the godboys on Friday and there is a memorial service for Wendy at the chapel in Pedi on Sunday morning at 11.00, where everyone is welcome to attend. Unless we get a call from our health insurance agent, we are not planning to go anywhere (apart from those mentioned events), but she may ring and call us to Rhodes on Friday. Apparently, Euromedica where we have our annual MOTs done is changing hands at the end of this month and we can’t get in before then. I assume they are rearranging their insurances or staff or something, but hopefully, we’ll get our checks done before the season is too advanced. If they leave it too much longer, Neil will have to take a day off work to go, and we were hoping to spend a night or two in Rhodes rather than just one day. Anyway, a couple more photos and I’m off.

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Brex*hit and Independence Day

Just let me get this out of my system today, and then we can carry on with our Symi week.

Good morning, and welcome to the start of a week that could mark the end of the word Great being attached to the word Britain, to be replaced by Little, or simply, Pointless or worse. Incredible scenes from London on Saturday and an online petition that’s now (as of 6.00 a.m. Sunday) at 4,790,982 signatures. I know. I’m as sceptical as the next person that these things do any good, they are only a lip-service service from your government really, as all they promise to do is consider the matter for a discussion and that can take ten seconds before a ‘no’ is given, and the ‘government’ have, therefore, considered it. But… It made me feel better to add my name, and it makes me feel even better that I can share the link to it, so here it is. Sign, if you haven’t, it doesn’t take long and, if nothing else, you will be able to say you’ve been a part of history in the making and you did your bit.

Some people will wonder what on earth it has got to do with me, someone who has chosen not to live in the country for the last 17 years. I’ve had people tell me it’s got nothing to do with me, that I shouldn’t have a say in what happens over there because I’m living ‘far away, by the sea’, ‘in La-la Land’ (and I’ve had worse). To make them feel any better, I tell them that indeed, I am no longer allowed to vote in my home country. That basic democratic right has been taken away from me and soon, perhaps, I shan’t be able to have a say in the workings of the continent on which I live, nor even in the local elections for the town I live in. So, if they don’t like me because I live in a better place than they, at least they can sleep soundly knowing that my one voice no longer has a voice, except one I can use in support of fellow humans who will suffer more than me should this madness continue. Hence me mentioning it here among photos I took on Symi on Friday and Saturday to help take your mind off the mess if only for a minute.

I read a Twitter post yesterday which really brought it home to me. “The only arguments in existence for going through with Brexit are: It won a small majority by breaking the law in a referendum three years ago. Its supporters will inflict violence on us if we don’t. Does either of those sound to you like something we should give in to?”

Whatever happens, I’ll be here carrying on with my blog, bringing you my personal news from here in Greece, photos to take your mind off the horror of having to live in the yUK. I make no apologies for calling it the Yuk, or the ‘Why UK?’ depending on how you want to read it. I used to like my home country but like many other people I am now completely done with it, disenfranchised, unable to have a say in what happens to the country whose passport I carry, fed up with the way it’s being led and where it is being led to. This state – this feeling of not belonging – is reinforced by frustration, mainly when I read how those at the top of the dung heap of the yUK parliament simply refuse to listen to the people who elected them.

I don’t want to get your week off to a depressing start, the 3,500 extra troops being put on standby today can do that for you, the queues at the shops as the panic buying starts later this week will take your mind off it, and you’ll be too busy stockpiling medicines and other essentials anyway. Don’t think about driving in the carpark of England that was once the garden of England, my home county, Kent, and be prepared for another round of frustratingly bad, self-serving politics, far-right hatred of anyone not a Daily Mail devotee, and, if you’re on the A1, the group of – what is it now? – ten people trying to emulate the Jarrow Marchers and currently storming London. Yeah, well, whatever.

Meanwhile, it’s Greek Independence Day over here. There’s a march, a parade, church service, speeches and flags, and a good reason to celebrate independence from an oppressive rule. I expect those ten people on the A1 will be demanding a yUK Independence Day before long, and those you currently have in power will let them, scared that there will be violence if the minority don’t get their way. Good luck with it all. My usual Symi blah-blah will resume tomorrow.

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Symi Saturday Photos – a year ago

I’ve found some unpublished images from around this time last year, so I thought I would put them up. These were taken in the days before my phone cam took over from my heavy DSLR so the quality might be better, but they have watermarks, which I no longer bother with. Anyway, I’m heading off into a weekend which promises to be sunny and warm, perhaps a little windy on Sunday, but with, I hope, not a cloud in the sky. Have a good weekend.

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Symi Spiders

They’re back! Well, one of the is anyway, but it’s gone now. You will have to excuse the low-quality image today, I was in the process of breaking the record for the 100-yard dash when I took it.

These things, referred to here as ‘Symi Spiders’ are, apparently, unique to the island – well, so I am told, but probably not. I was also told they were an Asian Tarantula, but I’ve never been close enough to one to ask. This young chap (you can tell it’s young as it’s only a few inches long – the photo on the wall below it is about 12 inches wide, and I was ten feet away, if that helps with scale), was just hanging there one night, probably having come in from the mousandra where there well may be a colony of them. Neil fetched one of those unnecessary plastic containers you get at the supermarket when you buy even just one a slice of ham and trapped it humanely. He usually picks them up, eek, but it was hard to reach. I was going to take a closer shot of it but was too busy climbing off the balcony at the time. He took it up the lane, or it took him, and left it safely in someone else’s house… No, he put it among the rocks and stones and told it not to come back. It’s a bit early for them. I don’t usually see them until May, but maybe recent warm weather has brought them out ahead of time. Anyway, that’s enough about them, here are two more random shots of Symi to take your mind of the spiders (which are harmless, by the way).

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