A little something

I have so many things to say, but never seem to get round to sitting down and typing it out. I'm a pen and paper kind of girl, not so much into keyboards. But I have promised to eventually update with all the thoughts that are spilling out my mind these days.

But until I get round to doing that, here's some Kate Bush!

I went a-travelling

The weekend that past, I gathered up my waning energy and took the train. Four and a half hours is how long it takes by the express intercity to go to Thessaloniki. Of course while I was studying there (it feels like it was a lifetime ago!), the intercity was a luxury. I used to take the slow train (seven or eight hours).

How I love Thessaloniki! How can you not love a city that you lived in for seven years? Every time I go back, it's like I never left, and yet I can't help but notice how many things have changed.

Of course I didn't go all the way to the north of Greece just t visit a city. I went to visit friends. I used the excuse of a christening to go. And now that I'm back, I have two things to note:

1
Travelling is good for the soul. You need new sights and experiences every now and then. And the re-visiting of old much loved locations is comforting and comfortable. But more than that, the actual act of travelling, being on the move, riding trains and buses and boats (but not aeroplanes), is strangely freeing and exhilerating. Kerouak knew what he was talking about!

In particular travelling by night in Greece when the weather's hot, induces odd nostalgic and optimistic feelings for me. It makes me feel like everything is possible. It makes me feel like there is nothing but the feeling of here and now, the warm air, the rapidly passing, shadowy landscape, the dark sky. True, it makes me feel maudling. But sometimes maudlin is good.

2
Most people my age are married with kids. Yup, strange as it seems, I often forget this simple fact. The friends I hang out with in Athens are mostly single - and definitely childless - and the places I go - bars and concerts - are havens for single people like. But this weekend I felt like I walked into enemy territory.

Christenings are the ultimate smug-marrieds gatherings. I was horribly outnumbered. All my friends and aquaintances - plus a large number of strangers - were parading their husbands/wifes, children and baby bumps in front of me. I felt like the token singleton. It was lonely and strange and a little bit depressing.

Do You Remember Vera Lynn?

Isn't it strange that when you're feeling over-emotional practically anything will make you cry? Ads with cute kittens, and particularly songs. Even though I must confess that there aren't many recent songs that get to me like the old ones do.

Things are looking pretty bleak

I don't know what to say today. I assume that everyone has heard of Greece's bankruptcy and today's demonstration cum riot. Athens was in flames, yet again. And three people died, innocent bystanders who were forced to go to work today under the threat of losing their jobs. Their bank caught fire, and they died of asphyxiation. The whole country is broken up over it.





We - the Greeks - have been sitting on tender-hooks for the past weeks waiting to see how our government will deal with the country's bankruptcy and the IMF's unbelievable demands. Slowly slowly the new measures had been made public, as if they were - rightly so - afraid to tell us everything at once. And slowly slowly we had been getting more and more angry.

I remember reading the newspaper on the bus to work this Monday (the Monday after Mayday). The news made me sad and depressed and very very angry.
-Taxes became unbearable - now even I, who barely make ends meet with my pitiful wage, will have to pay taxes.
-The VAT rose - and then threatened to rise again.
-Public service bills (electric, water, telephone) will go up yet again.
-Our pathetically low wages have been frozen (but not the cost of living).
-Unemployment benefits have been cut.
-Pensions have been cut.
-Civil sector wages and bonuses have been cut. (A friend of mine with two kids who works for the state says she and her husband will most probably be forced to move to a smaller apartment now.)
-Civil sector workers have been cut down ( starting with the school teachers!).
-The age of retirement has gone up.
-Compensations for firing employees have been cut.
The IMF also wanted the 40hour week to be abolished! No wonder they waited until after Mayday to go public with the news!

All in all it feels like we are forced to become guinea-pigs for some inhuman hyper-capitalist free-market experiment. And it chaffs, because I have always been a proponent of socialism and the welfare state.

An (anarchist) friend of mine is strangely optimistic. He believes that in two years or so, Greece will collapse and pull the whole of Europe down with it. And then, by necessity, the revolution will come! I wish I were as optimistic. I can definitely see Europe collapsing into a broken bankrupt mess, but I believe that then China will take over the world, and we will be left to starve on the rubble of our civilisation.

Sorry I'm feeling a bit melodramatic tonight, but wouldn't you be?

PS. If you want to get depressed, check out these photos on athensville's blog.