The Symi Festival 2018 opened officially last night (Sunday) with a concert in Yialos. The festival will run through the next couple of months, and there are programmes on telegraph poles and in cafes and shops telling you in Greek and English what’s going to be showing and when. We’ve already had a piano recital, a Byzantine choir and last night’s rock/pop concert.

Today’s photos are more shots from the weekend mentioned yesterday. So far this week, I’ve hardly been able to settle into any work. I’m so looking forward to my trip that I can’t concentrate and I’m not worrying about work much. Monday’s plans are to go mooching about the Chinese clothes shop for anything I might be able to wear while away, pick up some more water, and make notes of what I’ve to do and organise before Saturday – boat tickets, an affidavit in Rhodes, a Symi t-shirt for a friend’s son, the usual kind of things.

The affidavit is to prove my address for my pension/investment company transfer thing because I suffer from that common small-island problem of not having a utility bill in my name. I know some people who live in rented houses do – and we have an address, but we, as tenants, have our electricity bill and water bill in our landlord’s name, and the phone bill is in Neil’s name with a strange address for our old house, not this one, written in Greek. My bank accounts are in the correct name and address and in Latin script, apart from Alpha, the Greek bank who simply use my name and ‘Symi’ as my address, as do my tax letters and things, which isn’t good enough for this purpose. The easiest thing is to arrange to swear before a notary that ‘I am who I am and my address is my own special creation.’ (Followers of Jerry Herman might get that last misquote.)

Meanwhile, it’s hotting up here again, and the humidly is back, just like we expect in July. It’s not as hot as it was back in June when we were hitting high 30s before ten in the morning, but it’s getting there. The breeze and occasional afternoon wind help (blow the dust around the house), but it’s really the weather for beach-sitting and chilling out in the shade. Ah well, I shall be on holiday soon myself.

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Weekend Catch-up

Lots going on over the weekend. There was a regatta in overnight Thursday, leaving on Friday. Remember the photo last week of boats four abreast in the harbour? Well, here are some of them leaving.

Tassos’ new butcher’s shop was blessed and opened on Saturday evening. Four priests, lots of locals, gifts and good luck wishes. A huge range of fresh meats, some home-prepared recipes and ready-made dishes Symi style, which means not ‘plastic’ food in plastic wrappers and polystyrene trays, but homemade sausages and real food. Proper stuff. I was able to take a few snaps; it was a bit busy and hot inside. This new shop is opposite the Old Pharmacy in Horio. Up the Kali Strata, through the square, past the Jean & Tonic bar and on the left by the old Glaros/Village Café bar on the way to Taverna Zoi and the American supermarket, you can’t miss it.

And then I went for a walk on Sunday morning at 5.15, too early for the sunrise but interesting to see young people on mopeds coming down the hill (from where we don’t ask) and farmers going up the hill to their farmsteads, it’s was quite busy. Mind you, it might be because the Symi Festival has started, with a gala concert in Yialos on Sunday night. There are posters around telling of other events and, as usual, everything is free to attend.

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Symi Saturday Photos

Lots of boats in the harbour yesterday. A regatta? Flotilla? And then some other photos from recent days. My weekend will, hopefully, be filled with writing. I want to get a first draft finished before I go away next Saturday. Have a good weekend!

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Coincidence?

Well, here’s a thing that’s got very little to do with Symi. I’ve been in contact with an old school chum, and we’re meeting up in London when we’re there in a couple of weeks. We were in different years at school, I’m two years older, but were thrown together because of the annual school musical. First off, he was Rolf in ‘The Sound of Music’, and I was Uncle Max (I was always the comedy relief), then we appeared in a revue I wrote, and in one scene we were dressed in drag playing our two deputy headmasters. Our greatest triumph though was ‘Cox & Box’ that creaky old, Victorian parlour three-hander, one-act piece of… musical theatre we all know and love so much. I was Mr Cox, he was Mr Box and in the second half of the programme, ‘Trial By Jury’, I was the Judge, and he was the Defendant – again I got the comedy relief. Anyway… (Pause for a vaguely Symi-related photo.)

Anyway… yesterday I was checking through some old photos and things and found a copy of the cover for that school show and discovered that it played for three nights, finishing on July 19^th, 1980 – exactly 38 years ago today (I’m writing this yesterday). So, Mr C and Mr B will be reunited 38 years and 11 days after bringing down the house (and bits of the scenery) in a triumphant performance – considering we were 17 and 15 – where we sang duets about buttercups and bacon, discovered we both nearly married the same woman, and turned out to be long lost brothers. Which is kind of how it will be when we meet (apart from the singing) as we’ve not met for 37 years. All very interesting for me, but what I can’t help worrying about is that revue scene we did in drag, satirising our deputy headmaster. I’m still friends with his daughter, and she and I will be having lunch with said deputy-head, who lives in a house where I was brought up, and although he’s not young anymore, he may still remember that sketch and put me in detention.

That was just a personal ramble. If you’re wondering about Symi news, well, there’s not much that I know of, though I expect there’s masses. It’s windy today. That’s blown away the humidity but also brought lots of dust in the house. There’s live music at The Secret Garden tonight if you’re on Symi, 9pm. And that’s all for now.

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Season of Mist and…

It’s all a bit grey and misty today (Wednesday). The air is thick with humidity, parts of Nimos are in cloud, there are more clouds above us, and the coast of Turkey is receding into what, in my Saddling books, they call a ‘grey-hang’. That’s one of the words I invented for ‘mist’ in the dialect. I’m currently writing the third in the quartet, and the element behind this one is Air, the season is Autumn, and so the main feature is Mist. But how many words for mist are there that you can legitimately use within the context? It’s too easy to keep talking about ‘the mist’ or ‘the marsh mist’ and over-using ‘brume’, and words like vapour and condensation don’t work more than once, haze isn’t too bad, but cloud is a bit dull… Anyway, that’s why I invent my own words.

Here are a few shots from the house. There have been a lot of boats in latterly – we can only see the north-east end of the harbour but it’s an indication of what’s going on further in, and that’s good to see. Already today we’ve had the Blue Star and the Dodecanese come in, the day boats are expected later. I don’t know if you picked up on yesterday’s’ blog where I mentioned the Sebeco making a trip to Panormitis? As I understand it, you can get there and back by boat, from Yialos, in the afternoons. You won’t have much time there but what you can do is take the bus over and the boat back – just an idea. You can also walk too (approx. four hours), take the bus both ways, or, if coming from Rhodes, take a trip there on your way to Yialos.

Waffling now, so off to do some typing-waffling and invent more words for ‘mist’ – if anyone has any obscure dialect words they know of (English) I’d be fascinated to hear (and maybe use) them.

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