Well now I'm back in the blog but now from a very noisy internet cafe in Athens. If you are coming to Greece give athens the miss and go straight to the northern side of the island of Lesvos. Every thing there moves at a much more human pace.
Before I tell about that I must say how I found Geoffrey - Geoffrey is still Geoffrey, loveable but still infuriating in his impracticality. I took him shopping for some work clothes, but he insisted on buying two tyres for his pushbike first and carrying them over his shoulder through the shopping district of Myteline. Yes, their standards are not ours, but we still drew looks, but I was able to have the shop assistants treat us with complete seriousness.
The troubles he has with his work, or what seems his work, is a very different situation to what we have thought. His employers are not ripping him off, in fact the owners of Eftalou Hotel, the whole family really care for him. The problem is bureacracy in Greece - it is insane. The hotel owners are crippled by all the petty permissions they have to get, farmers who run just a few goats have to fill out forms and and pay for every one, form and goat. On my fight from Myteline I spoke with a school teacher who started teaching in Jan, ie not at the beginning of the school year, she allowed to teach 12 hours a week, no more, is paid by the hour, supposedly by the end of the month and has not been paid yet...and there is nothing she can do. That is Greece.
The people who feel this acutely are the Greeek Australians. The ones who emigrated had the spunk to go and try something on the other side of the world. And they succeeded. Those who have gone back, usually for family reasons, find the system there very difficult. To a person, once they realised where I can from, said Australia is the best place in the world - and they loudly and regularly tell Geoffrey that he is mad wanting to live in Greece, especially when it is so difficult to make a living here.
Speaking of Aussies in Greece, if you are ever passing through Matamados, ther is a very modern looking cakeshop there with simply the best profiteroles that I have ever tasted. There other cooking also is divine. (from that I wasn't overly impressed with the cooking, in fact in impressed on me how lucky we are with the standard of fruit and veggies we get at the Yeppoon market.) The wife (of Greek extraction) comes from Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, and was so obviously homesick I told her that Yeppoon desprately needs a shop of their quality. Promised her a similar climate and scenery to Lesvos. So people from home, if they turn up let us make it worth their while.
Before my internet time runs out, I must mention one thing about the scenery in Lesvos. I have said how like Yeppoon it is, with one variation. Turkey is closer that Great Keppel Island and it looms up from the sea far higher. Dominates the horizon out to sea. And the people of the island have nothing to do with the Turks, nor do they want to. All sorts of economic opportunities are lost because they want nothing to do with Turks, and yet one can see that that may well be where their economic future liew.
Before I turn into a pumpkin
Good Night
Kym