A great omission

A while ago I realised that for a person who supposed was rather fond of science fiction and fantasy fiction I had read remarkably few books of the genre (the fact that I generally prefer dead authors having a great deal to do with it). Even though I have seen many many films. The list of books on the genre that I have read and liked enough to remember the titles of, are very very few:

1. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien

2. Dune and it’s sequels by Herbert

3. The Narnia books by CS Lewis

4. The Harry Potter series by Rowling

5. The five book Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy by Douglas Adams

And some books that don’t really count

- Alice in Wonderland

- The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs (the last bookshop I visited had it as science fiction.)

- The Master and Margarita by Bulgarov

And that’s about it. All other’s have been forgettable mediocre books,

But not for long! I have decided to remedy this.

And I started with Gay Gabriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, which was nice. Really nice. It has a great cover, I am a sucker for books with nice covers. It wasn’t as good as Tolkien, but it was more adult than Tolkien, as in the heroes where real live people, with feelings and hang-ups who even slept with each other from time to time. I liked it. I teared up at the point where the dog and the wolf lord where fighting while Paul hung from the summer tree. I am weird that way. On the other hand making Jennifer into Guinevere and raising King Arthur and Lancelot from the dead was a bit much. I liked it enough to consider reading some of his other books in the future.

And now I have just bought Pullman’s Dark Material’s trilogy and am hoping to read at least the first book before I see the film... Let’s see.

On another note it had finally got cold here, and this is the time the boiler in my block of flats decides to break down. I have been freezing for days now, when will this torment end!

My summer holidays (the severely abridged version)

Proof that I had fun is the fact that I hardly wrote a word the whole month. I actually harboured crazy hopes that would write as much as two chapters. Then I got there and reality hit. I was on an island. Camping on sand dunes under cedar trees above an idyllic beach with golden sand, clear green-blue sea and lots of good looking naked men (it was a quasi-nudist beach), was I seriously going to pass my time writing? I am embarrassed to say that I do not have such strength of character.

What I did do was get a nice dark suntan, do a lot of swimming and meet new people. What’s remarkable with free camping is how much easier it is to meet people. You can’t not meet your neighbours, for one. Also it proves really easy to invite total strangers, who you see cooking over fires and gas heaters, if they want to eat with you. Everyone pools their food and drink together and you have a dinner party!

We did a bit of exploring and sight seeing (there weren’t actually any sights on the island), but for most of the time we just lazed around. On the beach, at the taverna, in the shade on the sand dunes. So many days passed where I did nothing and yet didn’t get bored. That’s the life!

The island was Gavdos, the southernmost island of Greece – and Europe. It’s a whole journey to get there from Athens. A boat and then a bus and then another boat. But it’s worth it. It’s one of the few islands where you can free camp without a problem. Also there is no real tourism (hardly any foreigners even know about the island) and only lately has development slowly begun with rented rooms and more tavernas.

So much happened in so little time and most of it incidental, the you-had-to-be-there sort of things. One thing was for sure, I had a shock upon returning to civilisation. I am certainly thinking of going there again next year, even though I don’t often go to the same place twice. The thing about Gavdos is not the actual island, but the ambiance and the people. Which means that every time is different.

More ranting about the fires

I come back from my holidays to find that a great part of my country (Greece) went up in flames while I was away. Not that I hadn’t actually heard of it before (there is no place on this planet without mobile phones), but I was ignoring the horrifying reality until I got back and saw the newspaper headlines and the live footage. Now, like most Greeks, I’m feeling saddened and furious. Like there’s a hole in my heart where the forests (and the villages) that were burnt used to be. Like if I sit and really think about it I will cry, so I don’t.

I’m assuming that the damage was so big that we got worldwide coverage and everyone knows about the fires and the deaths. Some of the most beautiful places in Greece: Pelio, Taigetos, Euboea, Parnitha and even groves inside Athens. I was away, but I am told the sky went dark with the smoke and the ash for days, even in the suburb where I live which was far from the fires.

One of the reasons we are all so angry is that it wasn’t only the winds and the heat waves and the incompetence of the fire-fighters and the state. Everyone knows that the majority of fires were arson. The reason why might only interest those into politics and town planning.

The sector of the economy that generates the most money and the most work in Greece is the building sector. Thus the Ministry Of the Environment, Town Planning and Public Works is obviously the most corrupt. The majority of buildings in Greece are more or less illegal in some way or another. Some are even completely illegal, as in they are built in forest or littoral areas where building is prohibited and don’t have a licence. Most town planning departments can unforunately be bought off. (I have seen it happen. I am working for an architect who does it all the time.)

Now apart from all that Greece happens to also be a country without a proper cadastre (: an official register of the quantity, value, and ownership of real estate used in apportioning taxes). It’s embarrassing really. For the past ten years a public corporation has been created to put together a cadastre. Its slow work and they’ve hardly got anything done yet.

When will I get to the point? Put the two above together and add the fact that for a number of months before summer came, parliament had been talking about this cadastre and amending the laws concerning it and what land would be considered forest land and what wouldn’t. The motion had been put forward to ignore the existing forestry maps as out of date (they date from the 40s I think) and to put together new ones. Obviously the public together with such bodies as the Technical Chamber, the Lawyer’s Association and the Forestry Department have been up in arms about it for months now. Everybody knows that the new forest maps will definitely not include all the forests that were just burnt, just like word has already got out that the government has already given a large area of the newly burnt Parnitha (a supposed National Park) to the casino that just happens to be situated next to it.

I’m starting to feel a bit sickened by the whole thing, so I’ll stop writing now and hopefully stop thinking about it.

The country’s on fire!

Literally, and for a while now. It’s just too depressing for words how every summer we become a couple of forests poorer. This time it was, amongst others, Parnitha, Athens’ very own forest and a National Park. People have been so shocked that we have had rallies and concerts to protect the burned land from becoming houses and to bemoan the State’s ineptitude that let the fire get so out of hand in the first place.

I am just as heart-broken as I am every summer, and just as sure that the mercenaries that seem to pull all the strings in this pathetic excuse of a state will let the land be built on even if it is/was a National Park, despite public outcry.

The heat is on

Summer is officially here and it’s hot hot hot. I heard on the radio that it might reach 44C this week. Marvellous! I’m constantly sweaty and sticky and dizzy from the heat. Can’t wait till my holidays! The good news is that most of the plants are dead or dying so my hay fever’s gone.

woe is me

Its spring and I’m suffering. I’m sneezing, my nose is itching and my eyes are red and itchy. In general I feel awful and I wish the flowers and the grasses would just hurry up and die already.

And to top it all I can’t even take my pills, which while not curing me do make my hay-fever more bearable. And why can’t I take my pills? Because I had the bright idea to try out homeopathy. A word of advice: if you’re allergic keep away from homeopathy for the months of your allergy.

For a couple of years now I have been complaining to all and sundry that I am constantly unnaturally tired. A friend of mine, fresh from a course in homeopathic medicine, insisted that she could solve my problem and I thought, sure, why not?

Homeopathy is very intrusive. Taking my “history” down she asked all sorts of questions ranging from ordinary to bizarre to very very private. If she was a total stranger I’m not sure how comfortable I would have been with the whole thing. She then prescribes me three little pills to be taken over three days and THEN she drops the bombshell that the whole treatment will take three months. Meaning that for three months I have to keep away from coffee, mint, cinnamon and all other medication. Three months? I say, but what about my allergy that should be hitting around the mayish (only one and a half months into the therapy). Not to worry she answered, like all doctors, will deal with that when it comes.

And now its come and all she says is. Grit your teeth and bear it, and It has to get worse to get better. And I should have known it. I never liked doctors, they’re all blithely unconcerned by the suffering of their patients. Apparently even if they are your friends.

I'm slightly hysterical, but not stressed

We are severely behind schedule for the architectural competition. The deadline is Tuesday and we have so much more to do that the mind boggles.

But I am not getting stressed. I am on the verge of hysteria though. How am I supposed to go to work tommorrow, when I have all this work to do for the competition? I'm so angsty and I don't know how I'll sleep tonight or sit still at work until it's time to leave.

The town hall complex has turned out adorable and it would be a pity not to give it in. Crazy architects like us think colourful autoCad designs are about the prettiest things...

Got to go to sleep. I have hardly slept this weekend and on Monday I have to go pretend to design rich peoples soppy villas.

I refuse to get stressed

The deadline for the architectural competition is the 20th of March and we are in very bad shape. One of us has already deserted and another seems on the brink. I have put too much time and energy into this thing to give up now but things don't look good.
BUT I REFUSE TO GET STRESSED!!!

So no updates until the deadline and my fanfic will also have to take a raincheck.

Architectural competition

I’m too tired and busy lately to update my journal like I should.

One reason for this is that apart from working 9 till whatever, I have got together with a group of architects-friends and we are trying to take part in an architectural competition for the design of a town hall complex in a small town (more like village) in Crete.

It’s slow going, the project is big and complicated and we have trouble agreeing on things, and the deadline is in a month. If I stop and think about it I get awfully stressed, so I just avoid thinking about it and hope for the best.

I went to Crete over the Christmas holidays to visit the village. It’s a typical modern ugly Greek village, nothing old or traditional has survived. It’s only redeeming feature is the lovely landscape and the beautiful views of the mountains.

I also visited Heracleion (Crete’s capital city), a rather nice medium sized city with lots of old buildings, Venetian churches and walls around the old city.

Even though I have a number of photos I doubt I'll get round to posting any. I'm lazy that way....

Working is no fun

I feel like doing a bit of venting today....

It turns out that I really really don’t like working. Or maybe it’s just my job I don’t like. It’s not that bad I suppose, but every morning I get up with a groan wishing I could just pull the duvet over my head and go back to sleep.

I always wanted to either work for the state helping design cities or public housing or else work for a high-flying architectural company taking part in innovative and interesting designs. Instead I am stuck helping design the typical ugly, cramped and not entirely legal blocks of flats that are destroying our cities. It’s disheartening, but a person needs to work. I haven’t even been working for 6 months yet and I’m already dreaming of persuading a couple of friends to open our own office together. We will most probably starve, but we won’t be selling out.

What is also typical of Greek offices is the fact that I’m overworked and not paid overtime. At least I’m paid by month and not per hour. The pay is another matter. Wages in this country as ridiculously low.

That was enough complaining for today.