I think I might need a new job

I've been feeling very listless lately. I'm still going through one of my tired and depressed phases and I don't know how long it'll take me to pull myself out of this slump. It doesn't help that I'm terminally broke and have begun to pretty much hate my job. I often daydream of quitting, but then remember my rent and bills. I like my new flat far too much to have to give it up.
I have begun however to look for something else. I'm even considering taking a break from "architecture" (if you can seriously consider what I now do architecture) and doing something else for a year or so. Something else paying obviously. Now if I could just find that something else...

So, if any one is lurking around my sorry journal and knows of any job opportunities in Athens, Greece for me, would they please leave a comment?

To help them out:
1. I speak three languages - Greek, English and French. (I have done translation and interpreting work in the past)
2. I'm fairly adept with a computer and know AutoCad and Photoshop.
3. I'm good at drawing, designing, lay-outs, hand crafts, model making, photography, storytelling.
4. I have a degree in Architecture and a post-graduate in Urbanism.

How to amuse yourself with no money

So I'm broke, and have been since I returned from my summer holidays at the end of August. As soon as I get my paycheck it disappears on the rent, bills, the supermarket, paying back people I owe and god knows what else, and a couple of days later I'm left once again with 20 euros in my pocket to last for two weeks.
But I've been lucky. September and October were good months to be broke. Free concerts and parties wherever you look. And when worst comes to worst I have wonderful friends who will buy me drinks for the pleasure of my company.
Who have I seen for free lately?


1. Sunday 21st of September at Trova Bar - Maraveyas Illegal
2. Sunday 28th of September at Thiseio - Gad
3. Sunday 28th of September at Thiseio - Cyanna
4. Sunday 28th of September at Thiseio - Matisse
5. Fraiday 3rd of October at Art House - Victory Collapse
6. Sunday 5th of October at Art House - Abbie Gale
7. Saturday 4th of October at Thiseio - David Fonseca
8. Sunday 5th of October at Kallimarmaro Stadium - C:Real
9. Sunday 5th of October at Kallimarmaro Stadium - Gabriella Cilmi
10. Sunday 5th of October at Kallimarmaro Stadium - Kaiser Chiefs
11. Sunday 5th of October at Kallimarmaro Stadium - REM
12. Friday 10th of October at Bios - Cast-a-Blast
13. Saturday 11th of October at Bios - Monika
14. Saturday 11th of October at Bios - Matt Elliot

Our house just got a bit greener!

We have plants! Not many yet, but it's a beginning. If we manage not to kill them all off the plan is to turn our balconies into forests - or failing that, gardens.
Yesterday we went to Kotzia square where there was a plant show. It all has to do with the mayor's crusade to fill Athens with green roofs. Since we have no greenery in the streets and hardly any parks, the mayor's solution is to ask people to plant their roofs. It's a win win situation for him, he doesn't have to do anything (like maybe plant a couple of trees or lay down some grass) but still gets to say that he's working on the problem of the lack of green in our sad grey city.
So we went, we saw and we loaded ourselves up with plants. Now we have two edible shrubs: basil and spearmint; three flowers: cyclamen, chrysanthemums and another I forget the name; and one tall bushy plant I think belongs to the ficus family. Not a bad beginning if I say so myself.
Wish us luck!

My verdict on the film festival

The 14th Athens International Film Festival is over. It has been for a week at least. It wasn't bad. Very different crowd this year. Many new, younger faces, while many of the typical ones were missing. Strange.

What with work and being broke, I only saw 10 films.


1. Better Things (uk/germany): Awful, awful, awful film. The english countryside at it's most dreary and it's inhabitants at their worst. Everyone was either a near catatonic teenager/twenty-something with a drug/sex problem or a depressed OAP. They hardly spoke and nothing really happened. A total waste of their time.

2.The Wild Man of the Navidad (usa): A b-movie featuring a man-monster, my kind of film! It takes place somewhere in the american countryside and is complete with red-necks, moonshine, guns and a weird "monster". Very fun!

3.Cat People (Jacques Tourneur 1942 usa): A classic b/w thriller. Not half bad even though it doen't scare anyone - except a two-year old - anymore.

4.The Tune (Bill Plimpton 1992 usa): A cute little cartoon musical about a guy who has to find the perfect song to keep his job and girlfriend.

5.I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur 1943 usa): Another classic b/w thriller. I really liked this one. Zombies, voodoo, skeletons in family closets and innocent nurses, all taking place in the Caribbean.

6.Le Marais (Isilde le Bescaux 2005 france) and Demi-Tarif (Isilde le Bescaux 2003 france): She is supposed to be a new up and comming director. Le Marais was a short amusing documentary about the district in Paris. Demi-Tarif was a crazy, strange, touching, ultimately sad story of three children abandoned by their mother. The film was oddly intimate and claustrophobic, and a bit disturbing at points.

7.Bananaz (uk): An on the road documentary about the Gorillaz. Damon is an oddball and Jamie is nuts. We love them anyway.

8.The Upsetter (usa): A very informative documentary about another loony, Lee Scratch Perry. Very informative. Lee Perry was really crazy, but who cares, he's also a genius.

9.Gonzo - The Life and Works of Dr Hunter Thomson (usa): Yet another documentary about a crazy genius. Thomson was the inventor of Gonzo journalism and the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Very good documentary with good footage of Thomson. Only problem was that it skipped out all his early years.

10. Sita Sings the Blues (usa): A cartoon about the story of Sita from the Ramayana incorporating blues songs. Very funny and well drawn, using different drawing styles.

And that's about it. Not much, huh?

Little update

I have been sick and depressed and internet-less this last week or so. I'm a bit better now, but not much. Now I am broke, depressed and quasi-internet-less.