It was 20 years ago today ......

When we moved from Athens in 1995, we went to live in Kato Toumba – a densely populated area of Thessaloniki, but, nevertheless, one that retained a sense of community. It was very noisy and at times there were parking problems so once again we rejected urban life for something quieter. We looked around at maisonettes which did not appeal. In general they were cramped, expensive, affording less privacy that our single-floor, corner flat in Toumba.

Z had come across a half-finished house in an agricultural area in the Vasilika area and arranged a visit. It was winter 1998/9 and the weather cold, wet, overcast. The ground was muddy with knee-high thistles and my immediate reaction was to smile at the vendor and mouth to Z, ‘No way!’

                         

Yet Z was enthralled: the building was sound, the price reasonable, the unfinished state allowing us some leeway in making personal choices. He suggested we make a second visit so I agreed - with my mind made up anyway! But to my surprise what I saw before me was quite another place. No longer shrouded in mist, the place lay in a sun-washed plain that was welcoming us. The villages of Peristera and Vavdos could be seen nestling on their mountain ridges, while we heard the church bells of the nearby Lakkia peel out. And it was then that Z played his strategic card: he said that there was lots of land, an independent water supply, and that if I agreed that we take the place on, he would build me a swimming pool – a long-term dream of mine. And there and then the decision was made.   It was negotiated that the owner undertook to complete certain aspects of the house within six months. We would make a deposit and undertook to do the rest – and, boy, was there a lot to do!                    

                            

Here you see our two doggies test-running the newly-laid path and searching out shade under our inherited olive trees. That’s Alex on the left, Leyla on the right.

The move was to happen on the Wednesday, lorry booked, house all clean. But we took the first batch of what we could ourselves on the Saturday beforehand. The weather was incredibly hot – topping 40oC- and the house seemed so cool that I made the decision to spend the night there- no beds or mattresses, just lying on a layer of towels.  I never went back to the city!!

 We decided too that the pool work had to start first and the garden project would follow. Z had asked several companies for a pool construction estimate that came to about two fifths of the total cost of house, land, taxation and lawyer fees – astronomical! But one local company suggested we get local contractors to undertake the different stages  and that they would do a final inspection that all was well, on condition that we used their pump  and lighting equipment – done! We also got the contractors to deepen the well and construct a sturdier pump house. All that work, including laying the tiles and stone slabs around the house nd pool all came in at half the estimated pool outlay. Great, but as project manager Z was run off his feet: ordering materials, staging contractors’ services relatively seamlessly, being foreman and checking at each stage - the dude served several apprenticeships simultaneously that summer.

                                            

This pool construction was all done in searing heat but the day came when the equipment was all in place and tiles were grouted. We just needed 48 hours for them to dry out before we began to fill the pool. It was then that our Swedish family friends arrived to spend a few days of their holidays with us. As a race, they place language learning as a high priority, so I was impressed when I heard the Mum tell her two sons – about 5 and 7 years old - that in this house they were allowed to speak only Greek or English. (Can you imagine such a scene happening in Britain?!) Angelos, the elder, was beside himself when he saw the pool but his excitement quickly ebbed when he saw it was empty.

He stared in dismay, thinking for a few moments, then turned to Z and asked in Greek, in glorious, final-syllable lilting Scandinavian tones, ‘But where is the water?’ We arranged they had a swim elsewhere to offset their initial dismay!

                                                  

Above we see the water pipes being laid for the sprinkler system, once that was done we could seed the lawn and plant trees. In the second picture, the grass has begun to grow and the tunnel-cum-garage has been put in place. The temperatures are now more comfortable and the Greek flag flies on the flagstaff for the first time as we celebrate National Day on October 28^th. In four months Z has overseen a complete transformation.

  And here we are now, twenty years on.  We have a second floor constructed, an outer insulation coat applied and a garden that has matured.       

                                             

Our home still requires a lot of work; it’s a high maintenance project but we have also created many happy memories during that span of years.

And the same goes for the garden. Through trial and error we manage to produce vegetables every summer from our patch.  This year we have done battle with magpies for whom our ripe, sweet tomatoes are so enticing we find them ‘beaked’ in several places ! 

                                                      

Z’s response has been very successful in deterring our marauders: his suspended cds reflect the sun rays and clink against the cane supports.    His very own son et lumiere show!                           

Application for Greek Nationality, Continued.

December 5^th, 2019, - day dawns and it’s time to present myself at the local administrative offices to demonstrate whether my knowledge of Greek language, history, geography, politics, culture, etc. is good enough for me to continue on the nationalization process.

Nice, sunny day but Z has to search for a parking space, so alone I negotiate my way through the human wall – mainly Asian applicants for rights of residence – which makes access to the entrance challenging. At our venue, a rather charmless corridor, I find other British nationality-seekers: 3 with appointments at 8.45; 3 at 9.00; 2, like me, at 9.15. looks like this is going to be one long day!

 About one hour in, and by way of distraction, I decide to record our group while we wait – smiles masking our anxiety. But these smiles suddenly changed to a range of quite different expressions, on seeing a grown woman exit the interview room in flood of tears. :o  I do wish I’d recorded those expressions too!!

                                             

We are taken into a room individually and asked to fill out an official request-form addressed to whichever Ministry we choose, making some form of request. I am assured I can complete the form in pencil and I request that the Ministry of the Interior look favourably upon my application for nationality. On leaving my room I realize I’ve made a spelling mistake – oh horrors! So when I’m recalled and requested to complete another form in pen this time, I’m delighted and do a bit of deft amendment to the offending word!

 At around 12 noon, when the Boss-Dude announced they were going to have a break -!?! – Z who was white-hot with real irritation on the delay, ironically asks if the break is for them or us L.  I have to restrain him from making further comments – that dude is going to be interviewing me soon  … -ish.

BD calls in the penultimate interviewee and advises me I’ll be asked to recite the National Anthem, I respond I’ll sing it if they’d like. At 1.30 it’s my turn to be called in. Previously I had decided not to do any rehearsal while waiting, in case I foul up and cause myself real anxiety, so I go in praying my retrieval skills will operate, but my recall is definitely misted by adrenalin flow.

There are two interviewers: BD and a lady of nil-expression - assumed, rather than botoxed -  and a third lady who is laboriously recording by hand my every response. We begin with BD asking me questions of personal information: my work, where, length of residence in Greece, marital status, home ownership, what difference will Brexit make to me. As I’m responding I catch a look made by Lady 1 to Lady 2. It’s a facial expression of pleasant surprise, so that calms me a little as clearly she thinks my Greek is okay- phew!

Then we move on to check out my geographical gen. I’m asked to list neighbouring countries, the geographic departments of the country, the seas that wash it, the island groups as well as the names of some of the islands.

They are very good at their job: If you make a mistake – I had the gall to assign the island of Ikaria to a completely different island group, even going so far as to move it into a different sea! – they gently question your response, giving you time to self-correct if you can, and they also have prompts at the ready.

I’m asked about the two major airports in Greece and when I respond ‘Spata’ for the Athenian one, L1 responds ‘Sparta?’. I say, ‘No, Spata, the area  it’s in.’ Then I realize that they wanted the real name ‘Eleftherios Venezelos’ as they want to me to give further information on its namesake, the politician during WW1. He’s a favourite of mine so I’m happy to identify him in a picture and discuss the high and low points in his career. While in full-Venezelos-flow, I catch L1 gesturing to L2 to stop writing down what I say. I take that as probably meaning they have enough data on me now to come to a decision on my performance. Is that positive or negative - who knows? But what it means for me is that L2, now freed of her recording duties, starts pitching questions at me too. And they are fairly relentless and hurl questions at a fair pace – gulp!

I’m asked about the mode of government - that’s easy: Greece has a Presidential Parliamentary Democracy, but, as you can imagine, in Greek it’s even more of a mouthful. I’m two-thirds through the phrase when I stop and realize I have to start again. I had been listing these long adjectives with masculine endings, but the Greek word for democracy is feminine so they all had to agree! I’m asked about how the parliament operates and to name the political parties represented in it. I am a bit thrown, however, when I’m asked to name the Prime Ministers since WW2. This is neither in our information booklet, nor have I studied it, but I praise Zeus for nepotistic political tendencies and from each of the families Papandreou, Mitsotakis and Karamanlis, I manage to harvest two or three names which cover a fair span of time.

Being their ‘last victim’ as I announced myself initially, I naively thought I might get a short interview, but no, these questions just keep on coming. BD asks me if Greece has had any Nobel Prize winners. The nice thing about that mode of questioning is you say ‘Yes’ and it feels more positive and less confrontational  than saying ‘Name …’ I answer that both Seferis and Elytis were awarded Nobel Prizes for Literature. My continued response ,’… and George Seferis won the award …’ is interrupted by L2, saying ‘”You think I’m interested in when he won it?’. I’m so shocked by this I ask her to repeat her question, which she does. To which I reply, ‘Okay then, I won’t tell you.’

And that was the end of my interview, just as the clock struck 2.00!!

Below we have a wee post-exam wind-down!

                                                 

To be continued ……

 …….19^th June and ….the results are out and I’m in.        

          My knowledge was deemed satisfactory enough for the naturalization process to continue.    Yay!!!

More Myths/Corona-Conspiracy Theories and their Rebuttals.

                              

Following on from my previous post on Coronavirus conspiracy theories, today’s post features three further refutations by the Greek doctor. (Any translation malfunctions are down to me!)

 The other day, masked-up and be-gloved, I was travelling on the city-service bus when a fellow-passenger urged me not to be afraid. His reason: ‘It’s all a game, a trick by the powers that be. There never was an illness!’   When I asked why, then, he was wearing a mask, he replied that his daughter, a pharmacist, insisted he wear it and had advised him never to visit a hospital for any reason as they don’t adequately disinfect these places.  So …… confusion! :O Is there a viral danger or not??!! :O Well, my response is that I am capable of protecting myself, thus the masks and gloves. But it’s other people and their thinking I’m afraid of!                                                              

 Quite a few young people were not wearing a mask on the bus. Their reasons were:

• I forgot it
• It inconveniences me to wear one
• I’m not sick!
•  You can wear two instead.

 There is no reasoning to be had there!

 Anyway, on to the refutations. 

Myth no. 4: Deaths associated with other causes are attributed to the Covid-19.

The Coronovirus is not like the flu - it hits many systems of our organism. Above all, it has been shown to be associated with thickening of the blood, increased danger of blood clots and thus can cause strokes, difficulty in breathing, pulmonary embolisms and multiple organ failure. Consequently, it is right to attribute all of these conditions to the virus as cause of death. This is the globally accepted practice in terms of measuring the death toll from specific, highly infectious diseases because the viral presence always increases the mortality rate for individual illnesses. In addition, the cause of death of people with pre-existing conditions, can clearly be attributed to the virus. If, for example, a heart patient becomes sick, his heart-function is affected by the virus and he consequently dies, then that is clearly caused by the virus since, without the viral presence, he wouldn’t have lost his life. As for young people who have died, it has been recorded that around 80% of them are obese, yet one cannot say that the cause of death is obesity!

Finally, this same practice is in operation globally in recording cause of death from the flu and from the HIV virus. In that way, the Covid-19 deaths are not being underestimated. In some countries, however, this practice is deliberately not being followed, to present fewer deaths and to show better results in dealing with the pandemic.

Myth no. 5 The Coronovirus was known in the past; it has been brought to the foreground

now for other reasons.

                                         

To argue this, they bring in the famous Dettol label which has been around for many years and claims that that antiseptic is effective against Coronoviruses. Coronoviruses, then, have been known since 1960 and the previous great epidemics of Coronoviruses were those of SARS-CoV and MERS CoV, while there are four more known such viruses with milder symptoms. This pandemic is caused by a new member of the Coronovirius family, SARS-CoV-2, which began to spread to man at the end of 2019.

Myth no. 6 : This is a global conspiracy aimed at restricting our personal freedoms, to vaccinate us, etc.

                                                              

 I’m tired of seeing countless conspiracy theories being circulated on the internet. If there is a global conspiracy, then I have never seen such a badly organized one. Where the leaders of every country feel ambivalent as to how to respond, where they say one thing and then say another, when one country doesn’t take any measures and another enforces quarantine.

Two things are evident:

1. The pandemic caught the people of the USA and the UK unawares, ill-prepared and forced to improvise. The countries of E Asia, having significant experience of large epidemics in the past, did much better.

2) The chief concern of leaders is not to keep us penned in, but to bring us back as quickly as possible to normal life, so as to restore the economy without too much damage.

Now how can that be compatible with a global conspiracy of keeping us closed in and restricting our freedoms? I cannot grasp that!

As for the vaccination, many writers say that there are already vaccines ready, which will change our DNA, they will radiate us with 5G and they will insert an electronic chip in us. Now it is well known that Bill Gates has, through his charitable foundation, donated 40 billion dollars over the past few years. Yet now the representative of the ‘bad’ Bill Gates has one main objective: to implant an electronic chip into Soula from Petralona! (Which roughly translates as Senga from Springburn or  Maisie from Craigmillar!)

                                   

 None of that deserves a response or comment. I will only say that, thanks to the stupidity of those opposed to vaccination, diseases which had disappeared are making their appearance once more, and there have been hundreds of thousands of deaths thanks to those people. Of the thousands of deaths annually from the flu, 80%-90% could have been avoided had there been vaccination.

So there you have it! The most wide-spread one is the global conspiracy theory. But I do have to share the ‘worst’ one I’ve heard so far:

The virus is a Chinese lab product, specially designed to attack the DNA of Muslims.

That completely confounds logic, science and is outrageously racist.

                                           

While preparing this post, I raised the question: what is the difference between the terms illness and disease? Though they are often synonymous in use, a distinction can be made. This is one response I rather liked:

An illness is the sense of being unwell, out of sorts. It’s what takes you off to the doctor’s. And when you leave the surgery it is with a disease – a clinically classified set of symptoms.

                                         Stay safe and symptom-free! :)

Staying Home, Staying Safe - Pussy Cats and Puddings.

I’ve mentioned previously that under lockdown we’ve been spending more time working in the garden. But we’ve also had more time to spend with the members of our feline family.  Let me introduce you to them one by one.

Mr Mao is probably the cutest in his fluffiness. He is very attached to Z and cries to come inside to keep him company. He loves finding freshly laundered sheets to recline on! He will often go to the other males and lick them –obviously wanting them to be well groomed.

Next we have Paireag, named after an aunt’s ‘scaredy cat’ from many moons ago. He seems wired to be constantly on the defensive, poor thing, and allows minimum contact – unless you’re feeding him. These two are brothers.

                         

 

And here is their Mum, the Lady Prunella, aka Pru. She is the aloof one and likes to be alone. We once had a little second-cousin stay a few days with us and she was really taken by this elegant mog. So much so that when she returned to the village in Evros, she insisted everyone call her Prunella!

Her brother is Pushkin. They had a Pharaonic relationship so he is the Big Daddy of the family. Sadly, he seems unwell these days and has lost most of his teeth, so Z ensures his food is soft. He doesn’t seem to be in pain, but seems to have aged: he moves slowly, and seems to be shrinking before our very eyes, poor thing! Here he is below, partaking of a wee post-prandial drink.   

                

 

We still have the odd cool evening, so this shot of the-boys-in-the-box demonstrates keeping-warm strategies. Z has been busy sanding down our balcony furniture and I’ve oiled them. I read somewhere that regularly rubbing in a mix of one part lemon juice to two parts  olive oil will give them a good sheen.  Gonna smell like a salad, no?

                         

Another area of activity has been in the kitchen where I’ve been trying out new recipes: chocolate cake was one that I wanted to explore. The first one was an ordinary chocolate cake with a ganache filling and topping. A bit dense for us, but our neighbours loved that one. The second, one of my favourites, was Black Forest gateau – décor by Z!

                               

I also wanted to try my hand at milk puddings. The first one below, is the Turkish cornflour-based sweet, Kazan Dipi.  This has a burnt layer at the base, so here it is intentionally being burned in the oven – well I think I kinda overdid that!! Below is my attempt at crème caramel, an egg custard with a caramel sauce. It turned out quite nice, but the best was still to come:  the Italian gelatin-based panna cotta, usually served with some kind of fruit coulis. This was our favourite - sorry, we ate it all up with no thought of keeping photographic evidence! :(  :)

                        

                                

    And our latest adventure was easing up on our isolation and going out for a meal with friends at a nearby restaurant. Lots of space to maintain a comfortable distance, tables outside, good food and waiters all masked and gloved – made you feel quite safe!

                                                        

     And that’s what I wish for everyone: lovely experiences in good weather and staying safe!