Sunday morning Symi

Wedding on Symi
Wedding reception in the village square – Saturday night

It’s yesterday morning here on Symi, the country is voting in the referendum and, to be frank, I’m done with all the ‘What if?’ and ‘They should…’ and ‘No!’ and ‘Yes’ and ‘He’s lying,’ and ‘they should never have…’ and ‘If only,’ and so on. I have my opinions on what should happen but, as I can’t vote in this one, there’s no point trying to force them on others, and certainly no point in calling those who disagree ‘stupid’ or ‘ignorant’, ‘ill informed’ or just plain ‘wrong’, as I’ve seen some people do of late.

Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Thursday night with the boys

By the time you read this it will be all over bar the shouting, at least the vote will be. I reckon that on one side there will be years of hardship imposed by outside, and on the other there will also be years of hardship but at least it will be self-imposed. Let’s see what happens and, in the meantime, return to our usual programming. And, in today’s case, a set of photos taken over the weekend.

Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
No queues at the National Bank Friday (and it was working)

A weekend that started on Thursday with dinner at the taverna, went into Friday with the boys and Tina coming to the house in the evening for films, pizza and ice cream, and then into Saturday where I managed to write 7,500 words of the new book, ‘Straight Swap’ and now have only three scenes left to go. There was also a wedding on Saturday and a huge reception in the village square. We sat on the balcony listening to the music and trying to take photos of the view at night. Mainly unsuccessful.

Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Life goes on

We also put up some lights in the courtyard on Saturday, solar powered so they don’t cost anything, and they come on when it gets dark. Jack also went exploring for the first time in several weeks. He had been watching other cats from the balcony and then, when he saw the gate open, headed down there for a good look around. He even came back of his own free will to use his litter tray, which kind of defeats the object of having the big wide world to dig in, but there you go.

Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Doing up the Kali Strata

Sunday, well, it’s only 8.40 and I am getting this out of the way so I can get straight down to work tomorrow morning. But we’re heading into town later to get some decaf coffee and have a look around. Then there’s a concert tonight on the freshly painted steps of the Kali Strata which we hope to get to. Like all of these summer events though it doesn’t start until 21.00, which usually means 21.30 and that’s about the time I’m usually heading for bed, with the alarm set at 05.15, but I’ll see, we may make it.

Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Painted ready for the concert

And that was our weekend. I’ll drop in more photos during the week as the country enters the next phase of its mismanagement and keep you up to date with what we’re doing on Symi, and how the new book is going. Neil’s brother is visiting us this week so the days ahead could possibly involve beer.

Here are a few more photos from the weekend:

Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Activity at sea
Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Preparing for the reception
Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Courtyard lights
Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins
Yialos by night

And two more from Neil who is a great wedding photographer, as we know.

Wedding on Symi
Wedding on Symi
Wedding on Symi
Wedding on Symi