Sean Damer - again!

by **Olive** » 18 Oct 2006, 08:37

For those of you that left yesterday, the Symi boat is behind schedule, and wasn�t here to leave this morning. It�s as calm as a mill pond so the ANES, hydrofoil and Dodekanesos Seaways, catamaran should be running as normal. Looks like I will catch my flight tonight. (What a shame, :?:

was hoping to get stranded for a few months!)

by **Adriana** » 18 Oct 2006, 09:10

Just updated my diary for anyone who is interested! :cry:

by **Anthony** » 18 Oct 2006, 23:21

Those of you who have been Chat Page users for some time will no doubt remember Sean Damer and the highly controversial and uncomplimentary "research" report that he produced 3 or 4 years ago about tourism, expatriates and their effects on Symi. The report itself is no longer available on the internet - quite possibly because of the understandable allegations being made at the time that it was libellous - but the following link to a Daily Telegraph article summarising the controversy still is.

I've recently had the following information from a friend who knew Sean Damer well when he was doing research on Crete - which unlike the Symi hatchet job was of seriously good academic quality. (At the time I sent her the link to the Symi report and she was as horrified by it as the rest of us).

The dreaded Sean Damer and a New Zealand academic, Ian Frazer, whose father was an evader in Selino, Crete, have produced a marvellous work called "On the Run". A well researched, well written history of the NZ and Australian escapers/evaders after Battle of Crete. Another of the current WW2 books which look at the lives of ordinary participants rather than battle strategies. Selling well since it is Heritage in NZ, but although published by Penguin it is not available here in Europe as it is only a Penguin Australasia publication.

He has done heaps better with this than with Symi and it is good luck that these two authors, with their respective passions, formed such a well-timed alliance.

Unfortunately Sean's wife returned home to her family in NZ who turned out to be the initators of one of those naive and hypocrital "Christian" sects that abound in USA, and, we read, also Australasia. Sean stuck it for some time, hoping it would work out. But of course it didn't. He is finishing a writing course first, and then, he says, he will return to Glasgow. (He must have forgotten its climate.

) Awful luck though. I myself couldn't have stuck it more than five minutes - how I loathe those who don't take personal responsibilty for what they think, say, or do".

Since Crete, and particularly the part in which the main wartime activities took place, is my next favourite island after Symi, I shall be trying to get hold of a copy of the book. It's not listed on Amazon UK (who sometimes do list foreign publications which they are prepared to order for a price and with a long delay) but I guess there may well be an Amazon Australia and perhaps they might be prepared (again at a price) to post books to non-Australasian addresses.

by **Ozzie Geoff** » 19 Oct 2006, 03:19

I'll have a look for you, Anthony.

by **Olive** » 19 Oct 2006, 07:50

Sean�s work is best ignored! The less said the better.

by **Olive** » 19 Oct 2006, 08:00

Now I understand why the Hydrofoil didn�t sail, even though it was calm in Symi. On arriving in Rhodes last night I�ve never seen it so rough. Passengers got of the ferry; I wouldn�t have wanted to drive off as the gang planks were moving up and down all over the place. But then who needs a car on Symi?

Athens Airport 06.58am - unsociable hour or what.

by **Adriana** » 19 Oct 2006, 08:36

Yes, I believe it was a case of 'surf's up!'in Rhodes :idea:

Mike's put up some photographs on the out and about page of the damage the storm caused. Looking up from my house, I can see undercut bits of the Panormitis road with the crash barriers hanging in mid-air. The bulldozers are still clearing rubble but goodness knows how they are going to shore everything up and repair it all in time for the Panormitis Festival next month. :idea:

by **Ozzie Geoff** » 19 Oct 2006, 09:07

Anthony, I've found it at one of our big book chains.

Brand new and costs $30, thats about 12 quid.
Let me know and I'll get it for you when I get back.

You can have a look at go to search and type in title and authors...easy peesy.

by **Ozzie Geoff** » 19 Oct 2006, 09:43

This is the first time I have read Sean Damer's article.
Mmmmmm... 8-)

by **benedetti** » 19 Oct 2006, 10:28

Thanks for the pictures. We were thinking of coming later in the year next year but I think we will stick to September. I am very tempted by a spring visit but wee Jimmy likes warmer water.

by **Jan** » 19 Oct 2006, 10:28

Hope the rest of you don't mind a private question to Anthony here.

That quote *must* have come from Loraine - the style is unmistakeable. We haven't heard from her for a while - is she still using the same freeserve email address?

Jan

by **Adriana** » 19 Oct 2006, 10:52

Just put up two more pictures on my diary page which might just make you change your mind, Benedetti!

by **benedetti** » 19 Oct 2006, 11:01

What wonderful pictures Adriana. It reminds me of Brodick Bay Isle of Arran on the west coast of Scotland.

by **Adriana** » 19 Oct 2006, 13:17

Thanks, Benedetti. Hoped you'd appreciate them...

ops:

It's a great time of the year to be outdoors and the walk down to the office in the early morning is a good start to the day. There's always something to look at.

by **Anthony** » 19 Oct 2006, 13:29

[quote="Adriana"]

Just rounding everyone up for the afternoon Symi ferry as there is a gale warning and the boat might not run tomorrow morning. :cry:

Mind you, there isn't much difference between watching the rain streaming past the windows in Rhodes or Symi! :cry:

[/quote]
I�ve got a ticket for tomorrow night! - So take my chances on the boat tomorrow. Maybe foolish but can think of worse places to be stuck, and don�t really want to go anyway.

Goodbye to everyone that got on the boat see you next year

I�m happy, with the rain streaming past my window, and the bucket under the chimney catching the drips.

Olive

by **Allan** » 19 Oct 2006, 14:46

Great pictures Adriana ans so unlike the Symi that us summer visitors know!

You've mentioned the Agia Marina river in your diary in the past and I've often wondered what course it takes ("Any course it likes" with 80mm of rain behind it, I suspect

). The path down the south side of Pedi valley beneath Drakos(?) crosses a couple of rough gullies that look to have been worn by water - it this the course of the river? And where does it emerge into Pedi itself?

by **Adriana** » 19 Oct 2006, 14:57

The Agia Marina 'river' starts in the gorge beside Profiti Ilias and is crossed by a bridge at Agia Marina cemetery and reservoir. The water course continues down through my property, crosses the path to Drakos, joins up with various other water courses that drain into the Pedi valley and seems to go to earth somewhere below the Taxiarchis hotel where there is a very wide and deep scoured area.

It has obviously been flowing intermittently every rainy season for centuries as the permanent rocks are rounded by the flow of water and many have been eroded into small pools. A considerable amount of rubble comes down it when in flood and we also get odd silk flowers and other trimmings from the cemetery above.

ops:

by **Anthony** » 19 Oct 2006, 22:52

So that perhaps is how Frank at Taxiarchis gets the water with which he and Eva water their garden so liberally?

I've often wondered where it came from and assumed they must have some private borehole as (assuming that as honest citizens they pay their water bills) it would probably cost them a fortune if metered at the normal Symi rate! No doubt the water is too brackish to drink, but that far up the valley not too brackish for watering plants.

by **Adriana** » 20 Oct 2006, 07:40

Actually the garden at the Taxiarchis is maintained with recycled water from the showers etc. They have quite a sophisticated and innovative filtration system which they have been using with great success for years now and all 'grey' water from the hotel is reused in this fashion. I'm surprised you weren't aware of this, Anthony, as you have stayed at the hotel several times.

The Agia Marina 'river' only flows in heavy rain and last winter, being a dry year, did not run at all, so it is not really a reliable source of water. According to geologist friends of ours, as Symi is a big lump of limestone, which is porous, and the rock folds are perpendicular, there is nothing to retain the water that high up. The boring machine took samples all along its course a few years back and failed to find worthwhile quantites at a useful depth.

by **Anthony** » 20 Oct 2006, 23:54

Thanks, Adriana - Frank never voluteered this information and one never likes to probe too deeply in Greece in case what you're asking about is something bending the law and too much curiosity might cause offence!

Not of course that I have any reason to suppose that Frank himself is anything other than the upright and conscientious citizen that he puts across.

Next time I'm there I'll ask him about the water and give him a chance to boast about what he's done!

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