FRIDAY, AUGUST 30th 2002

The island has been bathed in a golden haze for several days. Anyone looking at the early morning webcam shots which are normally downloaded between 8.30 and 9.30 am, depending on when we can get on line, will notice how long the shadows are across the harbour bridge as we drift into autumn. It is still quite hot during the day but the evenings are pleasantly cool.

The new academic year is beginning. The local stationers are vying with each other for infant euros: gaudy satchels, novelty pens, pencils, files and notebooks are all on display. The same scenario is probably being reinacted all over Europe - while some things on Symi may be different, there are other things which the community has in common with many others. One of the pleasures of living here is that the Greek community is just that, a proper community, with kindergartens and schools and people of all ages, from babies and teenagers through to the little old ladies in black. 

There are still plenty of visitors around and it looks as though the end of the season is busier than the beginning. 

Have a good weekend!

Regards,
Adriana
The Symi Visitor
www.SymiVisitor.com

MONDAY, AUGUST 26th 2002

Summer is not quite over yet, even though it is getting a bit darker in the mornings and Mike Gadd is back in the classroom! Thanks for the postcard from Astypalia, Mike - it arrived this morning, a mere three weeks after you posted it!

We have had another minor heat wave on Symi with temperatures in the upper thirties at midday and some fairly muggy nights. The weather forecasters keep promising meltemi winds of Force 6 and 7 but most of these have passed us by. An apricot haze obscures the Turkish coast and the full moon is picture book yellow.

A colony of birds has taken up residence in the Virginia Creeper smothering the stone building next door to the Symi Visitor office. Every evening we are treated to much coming and going and twittering. There are small spaces in the stones where nests have been built, screened from the sun and predators by the trailing vines. Watching the diligence of these little birds has provided us with much pleasure so it is with some dismay this morning that I find myself watching human intervention in the form of two technicians wrestling with a new satellite dish on the balcony.

Mind you, maybe I am over sentimental. We have been known to refrain from hoisting our mainsail before now if there are birds nesting in it!

Have a good week.

MONDAY, AUGUST 19th 2002

These reports are a bit haphazard at this time of the year as I never know when Mike is going to be able to post them up.  This morning he came into the Symi Visitor office en route to Nanou beach (lucky devil) and said he would put this one up so here I am again!

After last week’s extreme heat the meltemi is a relief.   The Panormitis Symi Marathon was run yesterday and the participants were very glad that the temperatures were in the 30s instead of the 40s.  There is a sailing regatta from Leros to Rhodes this week and the yachtsmen will enjoy some brisk down hill sailing.  The fleet will be in Symi on Wednesday.

It is not all good though.  Last Wednesday was so windy the Symi I could not leave Rhodes in the evening and only came across the next morning.  Worse however is the usual crop of forest fires around Greece and Turkey.  One has been raging on the hills behind Marmaris on the Turkish Coast for several days now and sunrise across Pedi Bay is streaked with smoke on the horizon.  Meanwhile, just to be different, Athens experienced its second flash flood of the summer yesterday and last night’s television news was full of footage of Athenians baling out their basements.  A change from the views of Prague, Dresden and much of the rest of Central and Eastern Europe awash with mud, not to mention reports of the abnormally heavy monsoons and the killer smog cloud over Asia.  Why am I not surprised to read in the Athens News that George W Bush is staying on his ranch in Texas, head no doubt firmly in the sand, instead of attending the Earth Summit in Johannesburg? 

Have a good week and watch this space.  I believe Mike is returning to the soggitude of home soon!

  SATURDAY, AUGUST 10th 2002

After several incredibly humid days during which Turkey has been obscured by haze and we've all shuffled around apathetically wiping sweat from our eyes, a brisk northerly wind has picked up. The sky is blue again and the stars last night were too clear to be real. Apparently there is a gale blowing up in the northern Aegean but we're at the tail end of it and, with the shelter of the Datca peninsula, it's just freshening the air rather than causing
chaos.

Speaking of chaos, there have been several fairly drastic changes to the ferry schedule so anyone reading this who intends to travel to Symi in the near future is advised to check the updated timetable as many connections now run from Colonna, which is part of the Commercial Harbour, instead of Mandraki and it is not exactly walking distance with a suitcase or two. If in any doubt, please contact us at the Symi Visitor office.

Meanwhile, back in Yialos, the harbour is full of glamorous yachts and equally glamorous people. Question to ponder over this weekend: Why would someone have a 100 foot power yacht with a large screen TV and then moor it in Yialos with the TV on CNN at full volume, with not a soul in sight on board watching it anyway? Is this a bad case of 'if you've got it, flaunt it?'

Have a good weekend. I'll write again the next time Mike hits a friendly Internet cafe!

THURSDAY, JULY 25th 2002

After the recent heatwaves the meltemi gusting through the harbour, tossing menu boards and brollies into the sea has been something of a relief, even if it has showered ice creams with grit and sent empty crates scuddering across the Town Square.

Speaking of the Town Square, one of the more noisome and niffy corners has been dug up and the pipes repaired by the Demos so that particular source of smell has disappeared. This morning we were treated to the sight of metres of bright pink firehose as the municipal workers scrubbed and sluiced down the entire Town Square area as far back as the Nautical Museum. While the back lanes and square are hosed down early every morning during the season, this time they were really getting stuck in with stiff brooms. Just in case anyone is wondering, they use sea water for this exercise and run a submersible pump connected to high pressure fire hose from the harbour near the Customs House.

Yachts of all shapes and sizes are coming to Symi this summer. Apart from the usual raft ups of GRP charter boats there are battered long distance cruising yachts bristling wind generators, wildly expensive sailing yachts of a size where the masts have red lights on top to prevent low flying aircraft from hitting them and shiney power yachts with manicured crews padding round the potted palms on the teak decks.

Have a good week!

FRIDAY, JULY 19th 2002

It's a touch cooler today - about 39 Centigrade thanks to a brisk northerly breeze. This week has been particularly hot. The heatwave peaked at 44 Centigrade on Wednesday. As this was accompanied by very low humidity and a scorching dry wind the local plant life is looking a bit sick and the inhabitants don't feel too lively either. There is a strong temptation to lie about in shady places, doing nothing much in particular. Unfortunately those of us who live and work here cannot yield to this and have to attempt to seem alert and industrious, even if our mental processes have slowed to a pathetic pace unalleviated by copious cups of strong coffee and bottles of cold water. On the plus side, laundry is dry in about 15 minutes (2 hours and it's faded away and the consistency of old cardboard)

There is very little ambient human noise in the afternoon - people are either on the beach or asleep - but there is a constant hum of struggling air conditioners and rattling refrigerator compressors in the lanes around the harbour. The bees have given up hanging about in the Virginia creeper next door and now gather round every puddle of water they can find.

Yesterday was the Panagia at Agios Emilianos which provided a good excuse for the locals and visitors alike to go round to that monastery. Small fishing boats laden with old ladies, nubile daughters and picnic lunches were pulling out of Yialos from early in the day. 

Have a good weekend.

MONDAY, JULY 15th 2002

On Saturday afternoon a big black and blue cloud growled across the straits between Bosburun and Pedi, tossing lightning flashes and arcing pastel rainbows in an off-shore display that lasted several hours but not a drop of rain fell on Symi itself. Two sharp gusts of wind at sunset and the whole thing dissolved into a clear starry sky. 

Another heat wave is on its way and we are already melting. Those who clamber our stairs to the Symi Visitor office show a marked reluctance to leave the air conditioning. Down below in the street an enterprising hawker has set up an attractive display of assorted garden furniture - cane chairs and tables, varnished wicker benches and bright plastic chairs - in the spot where the baker downstairs usually stacks his firewood. The hawker himself has retreated to the shade of a nearby tamarisk tree. A gypsy woman in a long black skirt and dark red blouse is going from door to door, a big sack of pink washing up sponges and gaily printed tea towels slung from her shoulder. A hot dry wind is blowing cerise oleander blossom across the square and tourists drifting back to the excursion boats are clutching sunhats and billowing skirts.

Have a good week.

FRIDAY, JULY 12th 2002

Every afternoon, just before sunset, we see big clouds build up over the Turkish coast and lightning flash over the mountains but nothing is happening to break the heat on Symi. A delicate wisp of cloud wrapped itself round the top of the Vigla early this morning but had burned off by midday. The long term forecast shows more thundershowers over the mainland but we are unlikely to be affected. We just get to watch the pyrotechnics from our terraces. Parts of Athens were inundated in a flash flood on Monday night which caused a river to burst its banks, flooding ground floor buildings and the studios of Alpha Television. 

Otenet, our service provider, decided, without giving any prior notification, to shutdown its service for about 24 hours while upgrading equipment which caused a lot of frustration yesterday. They did send an email of apology when they reconnected though...

The Symi Festival is now underway. The proper printed programs are only now being distributed but posters have been going up around the town advertising events and there are daily announcements over the tannoy so events have been well attended.

Have an enjoyable weekend

MONDAY, JULY 8th 2002

Another hot and hazy day on Symi. Drooping pink oleanders in the town square and the heady scent of ripe peaches for sale from baskets under a wonky umbrella by the bridge. Some of the Symi Festival activities have started, particularly film shows - finally those of us who live here more or less permanently will have the opportunity to see 'Captain Corelli' and not just pass round dog-eared paper back copies.

The new high speed ferry arrived amid much jubilation on Saturday night and is now lying alongside the new quay, bright flags fluttering in the sunshine. Once we know her routes and schedules we will put them up on the website. 

Looking at the handful of change in my purse, I have a Dutch 2 Euro coin, a Belgian 20 cent piece and a whole array of German coins - a quick way of seeing which nations are travelling!

Have a good week.


PS Subscribers receiving their July copies may notice something slightly odd about the front page - the mosquito isn't a free gift from Symi, it was a freak accident in the print shop in Rhodes!

FRIDAY, JULY 5th 2002

One hot and hazy afternoon down in the harbour this week I was roused from my musings in front of the computer by the lilting strains of a saxophone drifting up through the French windows. The saxophonist was, aptly in the circumstances, playing Gershwin's 'Summertime'. Further investigation revealed an assortment of sixty-something year old Greeks, plus most of the medical staff, sitting at one of the tavernas, playing various instruments and treating passers-by to an impromptu concert.

The garden furniture lorry has moved on to a different island and there is another chap in the square with a pick up full of ripe melons.

Day time temperatures have been in the mid to upper thirties all week with little drop at night fall. Last night it was still about thirty degrees at midnight. With such warm nights there is a certain restlessness in the air. The murmuring tinkle of sheep and goat bells as they rummage among the bushes. The occasional heavy sigh of a donkey somewhere in the undergrowth. The island never quite goes to sleep.

Enjoy your weekend.

MONDAY, JULY 1st 2002

Just in case you're all wondering, it is still hot and sunny on Symi. 

There have been no recurrences of strange rain storms - just the usual relentless blue sky, burnished sea and shimmering houses. 

It is fairly quiet in the harbour during the day now as everyone heads for the water and stays there until sunset. The bays and anchorages are far busier than the harbour and even the locals are at it. The waterfront at Pedi on Saturday afternoon was decorated with beds and brollies as those who head to Symi for the summer from Rhodes or Athens opened up their holiday houses and aired their furnishings. Matriarchs in floral house coats dragged mildewed mattresses out onto the quay and waggled sun umbrellas while their menfolk swopped notes about boat engines and the size of the fish they intend to catch in the next few weeks. The younger generation will arrive once the schools close. The last boats have been launched and the beaches are reverting to their summer trappings of sunbeds and brollies. The smell of suncream is taking over from wet paint. 

When we took our boat out on Saturday we were very careful not to disturb the swallows who are nesting in our rigging - which gives you an idea of how often the Symi Visitor staff get down to the sea!

Have a good week.