I met Nikos Halkitis and Wendy Wilcox, who own and publish 'The Symi
Visitor', the island's monthly
English language newspaper in August 1999. To cut a long story short, I
offered to write a website for them and four years and four months later it is still
growing...
I live and work as a
languages teacher in
the UK-Bolton in Lancashire-so everything you see and read on the website is sent to
me via e-mail, apart from the photos I took on subsequent visits to the
island in April
and August 2000, July/August 2001, July/August 2002, April 2003, July 2003
and most recently October 2003.
I try to keep the
site updated as regularly as possible, both with words and pictures.
Best
wishes,
Mike :-)
Please send me e-mail
.................................................................................................................
MONDAY,
DECEMBER 15th 2003
Just to reassure
you all that I am still here, here's what's new on our website:
1. Symi
Art Calendar 2004
2. Send
a Symi e-christmas card
3. Symi
wallpaper for your desktop (changed weekly)
4. Visitors'
photo gallery (three new pages)
5. Festive
Noticeboard
6. Adriana's
Christmas recipes
Since my last
update I've been to Bruges for two days with 42 kids from school and
we all had a great time. I've been really busy otherwise at work,
among other things writing a website for our Bolton Primary
Languages initiative, which is why I haven't always been able to
spend as much time as I'd like to working on this site.
We had our Modern
Languages departmental Christmas do last Friday at El Rincon tapas
bar in Manchester and a fine time was had by all. Earlier in the day
we had helped to raise some money for our school by joining in a
non-uniform day and dressing up in a completely non-stereotypical
way..
Antonia, me, Gill & Mandy
Meanwhile, I get up in
the dark, go home in the dark. Still it's the shortest day on Sunday
and I started tentatively to look at flights for next summer
tonight. Due to a quirk of something or other we have seven weeks
off next July and August (I know, I know), so the island-hopping
books are being perused again and I've sent the form back to AQA to
accept their kind offer to be an examiner once more and to earn
enough money to pay for it all.
I've worked my way
through most of the backlog of photos and emails which people
have kindly sent me over the last few weeks. I've still got a few to
sort out so please accept my apologies if you have written to me and
I haven't replied; don't take it personally-I'm just overwhelmed
with correspondence at the moment. Mind you, I wouldn't have it any
other way :-)
Off to find some new
Christmas music for the website,
All the best as ever,
Mike
MONDAY,
OCTOBER 27th 2003
Got back yesterday
after a great week in Symi. The weather was beautiful, apart from a
couple of overcast afternoons. I've got a pile of photos to sort out
as usual, here's just a few:
|
Me at Villa Vassilis
|
Ducks at Nimborio
|
|
A quiet St Nik's
|
Watering the goat!
|
Some of the things
we did:
Went to the beach
every day, Nos or St. Nik's; swam, sunbathed, slept and read.
Ate in all our favourite restaurants, drank in all our favourite
bars.
Rambled round the
back streets of Chorio.
Walked over the top
to Nimborio and watched the ducks.
Met old friends and
made some new ones.
Watched the sun go
down over Pedi Bay with a glass or two of wine and plenty of
pistachios, then lit some candles and watched the stars come out...
Flew back into
Manchester to temperatures below freezing, the clocks having gone
back and the trees seeming to have lost their leaves in a week. Back
to work today and it's a long haul until our next chance to return
to Greece.
Can I just
apologise to everyone that has sent me photos for, or queries
regarding the website recently; I have a large backlog of emails to
work through but I'll get there as soon as I can.
That's it for now;
thanks to Nik and Wendy as always for looking after us while we were
in Symi.
All the best,
Mikhalis :-)
MONDAY,
SEPTEMBER 29th 2003
As mentioned below,
we discovered we had the chance to book a cheap flight to Greece next month and I
duly paid the princely sum of 92 pounds to Rhodes return (each) on
October 17th for a week! This will be our third trip this year since
April but our first ever outside the Summer season and Easter. Work
is mad, as usual, so I'll be ready for a break by the time we fly
out.
Meanwhile, our
hosting company decided to move everything onto new servers last
week (without warning!) leading to a temporary timewarp as the site
reset itself back to the end of August.. I spent most of the
beginning of last week on the phone trying to sort things out,
thankfully everything seems to have straightened itself out again.
I haven't put much
new up on the site lately, but I did finish updating Cobi
Sander's watercolour gallery yesterday. Nik sent me a set of new
photos earlier tonight which I've just uploaded to the Out
& About page.
| We
had a staff weekend trip to the Lake District last week; the
weather was still warm, although the trees were beginning to
show their Autumn colours. In the photo I'm standing with
Ullswater to my back, walking down into Patterdale. The trip
didn't go entirely as planned, but that's another story which
isn't for retelling here!
Here at home we've just
switched on the central-heating for the first time since I
can't remember when; last March or April I suppose. It'll soon
be Christmas....
Hope you're all well,
Mike :-) |
 |
|
WEDNESDAY,
SEPTEMBER 10th 2003
Hard to believe it
but I've been back at school for nearly two weeks already; the tan
is rapidly fading and Autumn seems to have arrived in Lancashire...
Anyway, first
things first-the answers to the quiz below:
1. Symi (!)
2. Amorgos - a lot of people went for Patmos but the photo is of the
1,000 year old Hozoviotissa Monastery.
3. Paros
4. Milos
5. Epidavros. Situated on the Peloponnese which is separated from
the mainland by the Corinth Canal and thus qualifies as an island
(well, it does in my quiz!).
6. Poros - a short flying dolphin ride down the coast from Athens.
7. Sifnos.
I received plenty
of entries including several correct ones. The winner and soon to be
owner of a SymiVisitor.com t-shirt is NEIL JONES. Well done
Neil - I'll be in touch.
Very busy at school
at the moment, so I haven't done a great deal of work on the site
(apart from all the regular updates). There are 3 new galleries on
our 'Visitors'
Photos' page, I've updated the photos on one of our
accommodation entries, Villa Cassandra
and I replaced our chat
page a few days ago as the original had problems. I'm also working on
several new photo galleries (including the cats!!) and I've a stack of
new watercolours to put up on Cobi
Sanders gallery page.
Talking of school,
our half-term dates seem to be a week ahead of most other areas in
the country, which got me thinking; would flights and holidays be
cheaper that week than they normally are when schools are closed?
The answer seems to be yes! Watch this space..
Finally,
congratulations to my son Matt and partner Anna who are expecting a
baby next year, making me a grandfather to be. Does that mean I can
retire?! 
Off to fetch the
pipe and slippers,
Mike
WEDNESDAY,
AUGUST 20th 2003
Well, here we are
back at home after a month's island-hopping around Greece. As usual
I have a pile of photos to sort through and put up on the site, not
to mention a sudden flood of Visitors' photos which have been
e-mailed to me recently. Keep your eye on the various galleries on
this site over the next few days...
Ironically, the
time I manage to do least work on the website is when I'm actually
in Symi; we spent the first two weeks of our holiday on the Island
but despite the lure of the office air-conditioning I'm afraid we
spent most of our time on the beach..
Leaving Symi we worked our way across the Aegean in the general
direction of Athens for the next fortnight. I'm not going to tell
you exactly where we ended up, for in the best tradition of this
page I thought I'd set you all a quiz! Since previous attempts to
stump you all have failed miserably, I've decided to make this one
particularly tough. So, to win a prized SymiVisitor.com t-shirt, can
you name the following 7 islands we visited this year:
|
1.
An easy one to start with! |
|
|
2.
A famous monastery |
|
|
|
3.
That's Naxos to the East |
|
|
4.
I told you we'd get there! |
|
|
5.
Not an island? By name and
geography it is.. |
|
|
6.
A vowel difference from 3. |
|
|
7.
Somewhere between 3 and 4.... |
|
If you think you know the
answers, then please
mail me; otherwise post them on our Noticeboard.
Good luck!
Mike :-)
|
WEDNESDAY,
JULY 16th 2003
| I'll
bet you thought Camelot was the mythical home of King Arthur,
well you're mistaken. It's actually a rather tacky theme-park
near Chorley in Lancashire, where I was this afternoon with
seemingly most of the 8-13 population of North West England,
in the kind of heat that would put Symi Harbour in the middle
of August to shame. It was a trip to reward those of our Year
8 pupils (that's 2nd year in old money) who had excellent
attendance and homework reports this year-and they both really
enjoyed it.. |
Look Nik, no tie :-)
|
Actually we took
about 85 kids and they had a great time, stuffing themselves full of
Coke, ice-cream and crisps, whizzing round at high speeds upside
down on various rides in 30 degree heat then wondering why they felt
slightly dizzy.
Meanwhile I've
spent the last few days almost thinking about packing-we're going
for the hand-luggage option this time to avoid carousel rage. It
certainly concentrates the mind as you have to juggle every last
gramme of weight to get in under Lufthansa's admittedly rather
generous 8 kilos limit. So pared down for 4 weeks island-hopping I
have room for:
1 pair running
shoes
2 pairs shorts
2 t-shirts
2 short-sleeve shirts
1 waterproof kagoule thing which packs down really small (for
overnight ferry journeys)
Swimming trunks
Underwear and socks
Mobile phone charger and plug adaptor
1 beach towel
Suntan cream
I'll be wearing
trousers, carrying a jacket and digital camera and a few other bits.
We slightly cheated by posting two lightweight sleeping bags on to
the 'Visitor' office; handy for those overnight journeys again.
I've no idea where
we're going or when and I don't care. Just get me to Manchester
Airport on Sunday afternoon, stick a beer in my hand and we'll take
it from there :-)
I'll update the
site as and when I can. Look forward to seeing lots of old friends
and meeting many new ones. If you're in Symi in the next week or so
look out for me and say hello. St. Niks/Nanou/Nos during the day and
up in Chorio at night.
Happy
landings,
Mike
SUNDAY,
JUNE 29th 2003
Three weeks today
we'll be en route to Athens! I think we actually get in about
three in the morning. The very loose plan is to then catch a flight
down to Rhodes about nine o'clock and then get the afternoon boat
across to Symi. However, the great thing about independent travel is
being able to go where you want, when you want, so plans might
change.
Thanks to everyone
who e-mailed me with suggestions and advice regarding Nafplio and
Milos-Julia from Germany, Alan MacKay and Phil Toll amongst others,
much appreciated. We'll relax for a couple of days when we arrive
and then start thinking of our next destination. The Pelponnese is a
definite for at least a week if not longer.
Believe it or not I
finished my marking two weeks ago and should be paid in about ten
days. Every year I say I'll never do it again, but I always do, of
course...
On the site the
main change has been the new webcam page;
the old version was fine but couldn't handle live video updates,
which this one can. I need to sit down and sort it out when I'm
actually there in a week or two. I know there have been problems
with a couple of the computers in the 'Visitor' office recently but
there have still been regular updates, the early evening being the
best time to check.
Then of course
there was the recent surprise visit of George Bush
Senior, which prompted a flurry of e-mails and a phone call or
two as we got the photos up on the site.
I've added another new page to our 'Visitors'
Photos' section, thanks to Eddie from South Wales' contributions
:-)
I'm off to
Warrington to a conference tomorrow; beats working for a living and
I'll get a decent lunch. Sports day at school on Thursday and I've
got my fingers crossed for fine weather as I'll be helping the PE
Department out all day-beats working etc.
Hope you're all
well
Mike :-)
MONDAY,
JUNE 9th 2003
Well, we've got the
flights booked :-)
After hours of
marking (see below) last Saturday having earned, I reckoned, enough
for our airfares this summer, I took a break to do a quick tour of
the cheap flight websites and stumbled across a 4 week return from
Manchester to Athens for 177 pounds-changing in Frankfurt but who
cares. Actually it was originally advertised at 165 but in the time
it took me to run downstairs and find my credit card (3 seconds) it
had gone up 12 pounds. Anyway, our tickets are in the post so we can
start 'planning' our trip. I use the word advisedly as our planning
often consists of turning up at Piraeus from the airport and jumping
on the first ferry going somewhere interesting, which usually turns
out to be Naxos...
In fact we are
toying with the idea of going to Nafplio on the mainland-we'd like
to visit Epidavros and maybe Mycenae. If anyone has any experience
of that part of the Peloponnese I'd be grateful for any advice: mike-gadd@ntlworld.com
I'd really like to go to Milos as well; don't know why really. I
like the Cycladean (Cycladic?) islands and Milos reads as if it is
one of the less overcrowded and over-touristed. Again, any advice
gratefully received.
I haven't had that
much time to do any work on the site-just the usual weekly news
updates from Adriana plus her
recipes, the ever-changing A.N.E.S.
Summer ferry schedules (I think we're straight now),
putting regular updates on the 'Out & About'
island diary page. I've updated our Readers' Photos page
and added an entry to our list of accommodation, The
Garden Studios. I've added some new photos to Villa
Karnayo's listing as well. I'm sure you've read George
States' description of his experiences as a first-time visitor
to Symi already. Told you I hadn't done much....
Well
it's back to the rapidly diminishing pile of tapes, HB pencil,
rubber and headphones. Saturday morning I should be finished; all
parcelled up and sent off. My cheque should arrive on the 17th of
July or thereabouts. We fly on the 22nd of July and spending it will
be considerably more fun than earning it. If you catch sight of me
in the Rainbow bar in Chorio sometime in early August, just remember
that the glass of beer (or brandy depending on the time of night)
I'm clutching was hard won :-)
Mike
x
.................................................................................................................
MONDAY,
MAY 26th 2003
|
Back
from Paris after a great few days in France; kids were great
and everything went really well. I've just got a few days
sleep to catch up on.
That's
me in the photo half way up the Eiffel Tower last Saturday
evening.
|
|
|
I
haven't had much time to update the
site recently, but I did manage to put the A.N.E.S.
Summer ferry schedules up today, together with some new
photos on our 'Out & About'
island diary page.
Now I'm back,
I've started my exam marking in earnest; counting the
candidates and days until everything is finished and our
summer holiday is paid for. I really must get those flights
booked..
Hope you're
well,
Mike :-)
|
.................................................................................................................
FRIDAY,
MAY 16th 2003
I'm
off to Paris with 42 kids from school on Wednesday night, can't
wait! Plan is to spend a day in the city doing the sites: Eiffel
tower, Musée D'Orsay (my pick), Montmartre, the Louvre, boat-trip
on the Seine etc. Next day we're going to Eurodisney. I spent six
months at University in Paris many years ago when I was doing my
degree and have always loved the chance to go back there. I'll put a
photo or two up here when I get back.
This
week has been hectic, with last minute arrangements for the above
trip plus the organisation of our by now traditional visit to the Christmas
markets in Ghent and Bruges next December. We sold 42 places out in
a day for that last week. I've also done forty odd German and French
GCSE speaking tests in the last few days and I'm off to an
examiners' meeting in Manchester on Wednesday (the same day we go to
Paris) as the first stage in my marking 347 of the damn things.
Still, it earns me enough money to spend four or five weeks
island-hopping in Greece during late July and August, so I really
shouldn't complain.
Meanwhile,
back at SymiVisitor.com, here's what's new:
I've
added a new property to our Accommodation page: The
Angelides House at Pedi Bay. The listing for 'Villa
Jasmine' has also been updated with some new photos.
I've
been tweaking the image from our webcam at Pedi Bay, trying to
improve the quality; there's a test page here
if you'd like a look at my work in progress. There have been some
gorgeous shots during the last week.
The
Readers' Photos page has
been updated; there are now 10 pages of photos sent in by visitors
to our website. Thanks to Sue and Iaan for the latest batch, see you
in the Summer!
While
we were in Symi over Easter, I took some new photos of Cobi Sanders'
latest watercolour and acrylic paintings to update her Gallery,
which I've now finished doing.
As
usual I've been looking after our regularly updated pages: Adriana
Shum's twice weekly Symi diary,
including her Greek recipes and our
Symi photo diary; Out & About in Symi.
Not to mention the Chinese Restaurant discussion on the Noticeboard!
Off
to the Lowry tomorrow night to see Northern Broadside's version of
Henry V. This time next week I'll be up the Eiffel Tower; we always
go about an hour before it closes in the evening, the crowds and the
queues have gone and it looks spectacular with the lights coming on.
À
bientôt,
Mike
.................................................................................................................
MONDAY,
APRIL 28th 2003
A
few pictures from our trip last week...
.................................................................................................................
MONDAY,
APRIL 14th 2003
So what do
you pack exactly for a week in Symi at (Western) Easter?
We're flying
out on Wednesday morning from Manchester at the very civilised time
of 10.00am, planned arrival in Rhodes at 4.00pm (Greek time being 2
hours ahead at the moment). Delays and Rhodes baggage handlers
willing we should be in plenty of time to catch a taxi to Mandraki
and then the evening ferry to Symi at six o'clock. Otherwise we'll spend the night in
Rhodes; no great hardship
really.
Judging from the weather
forecasts we can a expect a bit
of everything while we're there. So this is what I'll be packing, in
no particular order (I can't speak for my wife Jo ;-)
1 digital camera,
plus charger
1 digital video camera*, plus charger plus instructions
Pocket tripod
1 mobile phone, plus charger
1 Gameboy Advance plus assorted games
Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, (adult edition)
1 pair of running shorts
1 pair of running shoes
1 long-sleeved lightweight running top
1 lightweight fleece
Sunglasses
1 Goretex medium weight waterproof top
Umbrella
2 pairs of jeans
1 pair of trousers
2 Jumpers
1 zip-up cardigan
2 t-shirts
1 shirt
2 pairs of shoes (the trainers will do for walking)
1 pair of shorts
1 pair of swimming trunks
Underwear and socks
Towel
Sun-screen
Usual toiletries
Address book
Passport
E111 form
1 bank card
1 credit card
Corkscrew/bottle opener
Torch
Some Euros
Looks at lot, but
I'll be wearing or pocketing some of it and the rest should cram
into a travel bag.
No major changes on
the site since last I updated this page. I did put a great photo of
St. Niks beach up (goat and all) as
Windows wallpaper which has proved very popular. I'll try and put
some more up soon (any requests?).
I've added a new
entry to our Accommodation page-Pithini
House
Anyway, please keep
your eyes on this page over the next week as I can update the site
from Symi and will try to put some ongoing photos of our stay up.
All the best,
Mike :-)
*Any
requests for video footage you'd like to see on the site, please mail
me or post your wish-list on the Noticeboard.
Any requests for photos too, come to that.
.................................................................................................................
SUNDAY,
MARCH 23rd 2003
We're
going to Symi at Easter! Took the plunge a week or so ago and booked
a flight to Rhodes on April 16th, almost exactly three years to the
day when we last visited the island out of season. Having learnt
from that experience, I'll be packing cold/wet weather clothes as
well as beach wear. In April 2000 we arrived in torrential rain,
wind and cold yet were on the beach two days later. I managed to
burn my nose on a truck-trip to Panormitis, wrongly assuming that
the partly obscured sun wouldn't be very strong.
Agios Nikolaos, April
2000-my wife Jo on the left;
she went in the water, I thought better of it!
I'll be taking my
camera, of course, so you can look forward to some new photos on the
site.
| It
was Comic Relief Day here in the UK last week; an annual
fund-raising charity occasion which we do our best to support
in school. Somehow I got talked into spending the day dressed
in pyjamas. Rather comfortable, actually... |
Me, Mandy, Antonia and Gill-some
of the Modern Languages Department.
|
Anyway- what's new on the site?
I've updated the paintings
for sale by Cobi Sanders- nine new watercolours.
The Accommodation
page has been updated.
Some new links have been added to
our 'Links' page (figures), including
a nice photo gallery.
We now have a webcam installed on
our sister site HalkiVisitor.com
Three weeks of term left and
counting. Clocks go forward next weekend; the days are getting
longer and the weather here this week has been astonishingly warm
and sunny-I was in shorts and a t-shirt in Liverpool this afternoon.
Four weeks today I'll be in Symi.
That's it; I'm going to bed
Mike x
.................................................................................................................
TUESDAY,
MARCH 4th 2003
Oh
well, only managed one update to this page in February; I'll try to
do better this month...
So
this is what's new: The
look of the Home page has changed a bit; I've updated the navigation
bar on the left-hand side and slightly changed the layout and I've
put a page up advertising Caique Cruises
on the Mikros Kosmos I and II. For
new readers, the following pages are updated regularly, sometimes
several times a week: Adriana's
latest news-generally updates appear Monday and Friday,
depending on the pressure she's under to help produce the monthly
edition of 'The Symi Visitor' newspaper. Adriana also provides her
readers with a new Greek recipe every
Friday (or so). The newspaper's front page
is posted on the site as soon as I receive either the original file
or a scan. The
photos on the 'Out & About' photo diary
page are updated whenever I receive them from Symi-they tend to
come in big batches whenever there is a major event/festival on the
island. Generally they will have been taken by someone from the
'Visitor' office The
webcam photos are updated at least once a day; when the holiday season
starts and the office gets busier the frequency of the updates will
increase. A totally live feed is impractical as Greek ISP's
charges are higher than in many places, the UK for example and
obviously the office computer linked to the webcam needs to be
online to provide the picture. The
Rhodes-Symi ferry timetables are
updated every month, rarely in advance. I've just been deciphering
(with the help of my wife Jo) March's timetables which I was sent
today via email in the form of a scanned copy of A.N.E.S' own Greek
language version. 
The top of
March's timetable which I received today
Anyway-how
does that quotation go again ...? "Whatever
the great moments of your personal life are, either they've been a
long time coming or they're undercut by something else, whereas when
the ball hits the back of the net, it's something you always
want." 
Cardiff 02/03/03
Thanks
again to Andy for the photo! That's
it; off to make pancakes :-) Hope
the ball hits the back of your net sometime soon. Mike
................................................................................................................
FRIDAY,
FEBRUARY 14th 2003 Can
I just go back to 'whenever I get the time to update this page' and
leave it at that... I'm
on holiday :0) Half-term already-where on earth did those seven
weeks since New Year go? Lots
of work on the site just recently: I've
put new
360 degree views from Lorraine's
Apartments
in Pedi (inside and outside) and from Hotel Fiona in
Chorio on the site, to add to the existing views of Villa
Harani and Villa Karnayo. Added
two 'budget' accommodations the other day; Panayitsa
Studios at Pedi and Roloi Studios by the clock-tower in the
harbour
The chat-page
gained a new moderator; Norman Askew, better known as 'Kojak'. If
there's anything he doesn't know about Symi, it's not worth knowing.
The page turned temporarily pink and gained some heart decorations
in honour of Valentine's Day today. The
Noticeboard
has lost its new year's look and has reverted to its more summery
blue and gold livery, gaining a new logo in the process. I
finally managed to get the February 'Visitor'
newspaper's front page up on the site; with the bad weather in
Greece over the last few weeks I only received January's copy two
days ago! Wendy does e-mail me the front page but it's a real pain
to convert into a web page; I'd rather scan the actual paper. We
might be looking at making the whole paper available as a
subscription service online in the near future, meaning that
subscribers would get their monthly fix as soon as the paper was
ready to go to the printer in Rhodes. Off
to Warrington tomorrow night to see 'Coriolanus' performed by the
RSC; their touring productions are usually fabulous so I'm really
looking forward to it. Still
trying to book a flight to Rhodes at Easter-I keep flicking to
flightline.co.uk and checking their database; as soon as I see
something around £180 I'll jump on it.
My
wife Jo is out tonight at an Italian restaurant in town; I'm
left with our ageing and rather neurotic cat Pulford who is at
this very moment sat on my lap trying his plaintive look on
for size (see photo I took 2 minutes ago)-he knows there's a
real fire roaring in the grate downstairs and we should be sat
in front of it; me with a glass of brandy and he happily and
warmly asleep. He's right. Hope
you're all warm and well, Mike
:-) |
|
................................................................................................................
THURSDAY,
JANUARY 30rd 2003
Can
I change that update day to Thursday #:0) Lots
happening this week; Symi featured on the UK Holiday programme 'Wish
You were Here', prompting the hit counter on the site to go into
overdrive. The island did look very beautiful though.. We
got our second webcam up online last
Friday; the new one is at Pedi Bay. Thanks Lewis! YNWA Our
competitions on the Chat Page have proved very popular; if you've
already won a Symi Visitor t-shirt, then keep your eyes open for
even bigger prizes in the next few weeks! I've
just put a lot of new photos on our 'Out
& About' page; off-season on Symi. Work
is just crazy at the moment; reports, meetings, parents'
evenings-I'm off to Manchester University tomorrow afternoon to
deliver a seminar for trainee teachers. There's
always the beautiful game to console you though. That's me in the
photo at Anfield last night. Thanks Andy! More
next week. Kali
Nichta Mike
x
.................................................................................................................
THURSDAY,
JANUARY 23rd 2003
Yes, I know; I
missed my Tuesday deadline this week. I plead mitigating
circumstances as I went straight from work to Liverpool to the match
which didn't finish until after 10.30pm (not that I minded!).
Yesterday evening I was busy redesigning the site's chat
page. Apart from that, here's this week's additions and changes
to the site: I've
put a 360 degree view of the harbour on the
Home page. If you want to explore Symi a bit more and you have
Quicktime installed, there's a view of the Kali Strata and Agios
Vasilios here.
Our new webcam at
Pedi Bay is almost ready to go live; keep watching the site! I
still haven't finished our island-hopping photo gallery, just too
much to do at the moment. Year 9 reports to write, meetings to go to
and parents' evenings coming up next week. I'm supposed to be
giving a seminar at Manchester University next Friday and I haven't
even started to think about planning that yet. Still, at least my
football team have started winning again so there's a weekend in
Cardiff to look forward to in early March :-) Hope
you win the t-shirt competition! Oh,
I nearly forgot; UK visitors to this site, don't forget to set your
video next Tuesday for 'Wish you Were Here' on ITV. Cooking and
Gardening in Symi! Hope
you're all well, Mike
x
.................................................................................................................
TUESDAY,
JANUARY 14th 2003
I shouldn't have
bothered with the football...
This week I've done
the following: Finished
putting up the new 3D movies on our accommodation
page, Hotel Fiona to follow soon.
Put a new page of
photos on our 'Visitors' Photos'
section. Added
prices and some more info to the 'Rent a Car'
page. Started
to put some of the photos I took on holiday last year; they're not
finished yet and the pages need tidying up, but if you'd like a
sneak preview they're here. Got
the yearly letter from the exam board inviting me to mark GCSE
French speaking tests again in the summer; not my favourite activity
really but if we're going to go island-hopping again this year for 4
or 5 weeks (and we are) then the exam marking will fund the flights,
ferries and accommodation. Unfortunately this year there was a big
hitch; I'm due to take a school party to Paris in May on the same
day as the examiners' meeting. If you don't go to the meeting, you
can't mark the exams. Luckily someone realised that if I could
switch to marking the German speaking exam instead, the examiners'
meeting would be the day before. Even then it needed a phone call to
the exam board and a lot of persuasive talk (these people can be very
officious) to sort it out. So the island-hopping guides have come
out again as we start tentatively to think of some possible
destinations for this year... Any suggestions as always gratefully
received. I'd like to spend some time on the mainland; I've got fond
memories of Monemvassia on the Peloponnese. That's
it for now-I'm off to bed. Kali
Nichta,
Mike :-)
.................................................................................................................
TUESDAY,
JANUARY 7th 2003 New
year, slightly new look for this page as
I shovel 2002's ramblings into the dustbin of history. If you're
still interested in last year's
news then please
click here,
just don't blame me.. My
New Year's resolution for this page is to update it slightly more
often than I managed last year; what started as a more or less
weekly update gradually deteriorated as the year went on, so I'm
going to update this page every Tuesday-there you go, I've said
it now. Start as you mean to
go on I say, so this week I've updated the following: The
'Out & About' page with some photos of the traditional Epiphany
ceremonies on Symi-I've tried to keep the original sizes but
it's always a trade-off between fast download times and quality. I've
started to put some 3D movies of our accommodation
on the site; Hotel Fiona coming soon. There's
an revised Feedback Form on
the Home page to coincide with the new Mayor, Lefteris
Papakaladoukas, taking office at the turn of the year. Meanwhile
I've been back at work for a whole two days and already feel as if
somebody's hit me between the eyes with a sledgehammer. Never mind,
only 5 weeks 3 days until half-term :0) Off
to Sheffield after work tomorrow night to the football-I went to a
match a few years ago there and nearly froze to death; given the
current sub-zero temperatures across most of the UK I'll be packing
my thermals. Anyway,
a very belated Happy New Year to you all and roll on the summer (or
earlier if you're lucky) when we can get back to Symi. Until
next Tuesday, all the best, Mike
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