We’re gearing up for family arrivals and so time is of the essence. Tidying up, giving the house a spring clean (or at least thinking about doing it) and getting other projects sorted out before next week. I have spent the last two days at home, only popping out in the mornings for a quick walk up a slow hill, and going to bed early so I can get up early and make the most of the day. The sun is coming up just after half six now, the temperature has cooled on the breeze, and none of the above has anything to do with this quick set of photos below, which is all I’m putting on the blog today. I have to get back to thinking about possibly doing some more housework, or not and it’s a huge dilemma.
Spam always amuses me. Not the meat product, nor even the Monty Python song, but the random emails that come in. There are a couple dissected and ridiculed in ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’, as you may see later this year. Today though it’s the turn of Booking.com to wheedle its way into my inbox.
Sunrise in Yialos
‘James, Symi has some last minute deals!’ (The exclamation mark is all important; you can hear the joy in the email’s voice.) Yes, well, I am sure there are some lovely last-minute deals on Symi, but I don’t actually need them as I live here. But what else do you have on offer? Symi from £45.00 per night – okay but I work in Euros. How about £49.00 for a night in Rhodes? To which I answer, Again? I can, apparently, stay in Ixia for £62.00, though it is not explained to me why I should. I am offered a ‘genius’ deal (how do they know I’m a genius?) for a night in London for £27.00 which is very generous, but it will cost me at least €600.00 to get there, and probably take three days what with boats and things. Or maybe Novi Sad?
Symi Greece
Novi Sad is in Serbia, as I am sure you know, and it’s only £14.00 per night at whatever property they have me lined up for. I think I went through or near it on a train (the journey is also in the new book out later this year) but have no huge desire to go there. Oh, I just scrolled down and there’s more: “Vienna, Sibiu, Bucharest, show me more, show me more!” that’s blazoned across the bottom of the email as if the backing singers from ‘Grease’ have joined the celebrations with my ‘Last minute deals (exclamation mark)’ email.
Early morning swim
I don’t know. I’ve been to those places already – which is why they get flagged up. Well, most of them. You’d have thought something as advanced as the alligator-rhythm, or whatever this called – algorithm, that’s it – that programmers programme into these sites would be able to think outside the box a bit. I mean…
‘Hey, Walt! Lets’ see where this guy has been to before and suggest he goes there again!’
‘No, Hank! Let’s think of some way we can suggest places he wants to go to! He clearly likes travelling but has no budget! He’s more likely to book somewhere new!’
Here are some photos from the weekend. It was a weekend packed with variety: an early walk to Nimborio and back, some time at home, a dinner party, a 10th birthday party and a concert in the village square. I’ll give you a taster of some of the events and then put up the other photos through the week.
Sunday morning
The walk to Nimborio, by the way, works out like this: From the village square, down the Kali Strata and up the slope at the back of the town square, across the top (lovely countryside walk) and to the church of St George, down the donkey track and around the bay: two miles. Then, from the centre of the bay at the back near the Basilica and the Roman mosaics, along the seafront road and down to Nos beach, around the boat yard and into Yialos, another two miles. After a coffee at Eva’s café, we walked back up the Kali Strata to home.
Ready to serve
Some of the photos were taken by me and some by Neil but we were sharing the same camera, and I can’t remember who took what.
Donkey path to Nimborio
On a completely different subject, if you’re interested in reading author interviews, I have an interview with Isobel Starling over on the author blog. Click here. While you are there, you might want to sign-up to my newsletter. I am not in the habit of sending any out, but I’m interested to see if the system works. I will get around to sending author updates when I have some news, but it won’t be one of those twice a day emails you never read, more like twice per year. Your info doesn’t get shared with anyone, of course, but you can stay in touch with any news I send out regarding price reductions, new titles and all that jazz. Mind you, I usually talk about them here anyway… but still. I’d still be interested to see if the system works and I should receive a notification when someone joins the mailing list. It’s a new (to me) advertising tool I am playing with.
I am writing today’s post on Saturday. I usually prepare Monday’s on a Sunday but we are aiming to get up early and walk to Nimborio on Sunday morning, so I thought I should put something up and ready today. It’s only a few updates anyway.
I was talking about the boats from Rhodes to Symi the other day, and how to book tickets on line. Well, Andy from the Symi Visitor Travel blog I mentioned contacted me with a clarification. Thank you for that, and here it is:
“Dodekanisos Seaways on line bookings can be converted into real tickets at any of their offices/agencies, they just find your booking on the computer system and print the tickets. This includes the hut at Akandia, but if for some bizarre reason you wanted to collect a Rhodes-Panormitis ticket while you’re on Samos, you could. The days of “only on the island, you’re travelling from” are long gone, thank goodness. The Sea Dreams Sunday night service has been running since early July and runs to the end of September. There is no Saturday night service – this appeared on one timetable draft, but never happened.
You can book Rhodes-Panormitis and Panormitis-Symi as separate tickets. The fare for Panormitis-Symi is €0.00, and the fare from Rhodes – Symi is the same regardless of which port you get to first. Or just book and pay for Panormitis and ask for the leg to Yialos when you collect the tickets, which you’ll have to do before leaving Rhodes for both legs anyway, as there’s no ticket office/agency at Panormitis. Panagia Skiadeni operates non-stop Rhodes-Yialos on both Tuesdays and Thursdays, the days when there’s no 08:30 catamaran from Rhodes.”
Today’s photos, by the way, were taken on Friday when we popped into Yialos to see if there was any post, stopped for a bite to eat and had a bit of a day off. There were many people waiting for the taxi boats, having the photos taken at the anchors and milling about. Apparently it has been very busy in Yialos with the Poseidon’s day trips being popular and often nearly full. Book early!
Here are a few recent photos that Neil took. This weekend I shall be working on edits for ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ most of the time while looking forward to a barbeque, and godson Harry’s 10th birthday on Sunday. Have a good weekend.
