More shitty news

I sincerely hope that my run of bad luck is going to finish some time soon. I think I might have had as much as I can take.

Let me remind you. We have been evicted from our apartment (the owners want to use it for themselves) and have to be out before June. I have lost my job. And just yesterday burglars broke into our flat. Oh, yes, we were robbed. At two o'clock midday while we were at work. I even took a crappy photo of our broken door with my mobile as proof.



That is the state of our door. We put a temporary lock in but it will take at least a week for them to put a new door in. So yeah, I'm feeling very very low.

What did they steal? Fortunately not everything because they were interrupted by the girl upstairs who heard them and called the police. They took:

- my sister's Macbook Pro
- about 300 euro in cash from my sister's bedroom
- one of my sister's pendants
- my ipod
- my little compact fuji camera
- my old half dead laptop
- my bank cards (I kept them in the house because I was afraid of getting my wallet stolen)
- ALL my extensive collection of earrings

I think the fact they took my earrings stings the most. I had lovingly collected them over ten years and had finally managed to amass almost all the colours and stones I wanted.

What we learned out of this? Burglars go straight to the bedrooms. They emptied every single box or pot or basket or drawer searching for cash. They had even begun on the shoe boxes and sock drawer. They didn't touch the living room, kitchen or bathroom. They didn't even look in the chest of drawers in the hall opposite the front door. So guys, stash your cash or jewelry in a coffee tin in the fridge. Safest place.

Sexy men and women

Because I've got bored of talking about the mess of my life, here's something completely different and utterly frivolous.

I decided to make a list of my celebrity crushes over the years.

12 male celebrities I have fancied at one time or another

1. Ewan Mcgregor - how can you not?


2. Colin Firth - has anyone seen Valmont? the one time he played a bad guy?


3. Jeremy Irons - Brideshead Revisited anyone?


4. Raplh Fiennes - words can't describe how disturbed I was when he actually made me possibly maybe like a nazi officer!


5. Kevin Bacon - isn't it nice he's played in so many films?


6. Clint Eastwood - the only reason I watch spaghetti westerns


7.Dennis Quaid - the only person who can make a southern american accent sexy


8. Tim Buckley - ever fallen in love with a voice?


9. Jarvis Cocker - in the 90s Pulp was totally my favourite britpop group


10. Jake Gylenhaal - what can I say? sexy and funny


11. Brent Corrigan - he singlehandedly converted me to gay porn


12. Chris Colfer - he makes me want to pinch his cheeks and ruffle his hair like a little boy (disturbing that!)



And because I might be straight, but I'm not blind:

10 female celebrities I find attractive

1. Audrey Hepburn - if I could only be her!

2. Katherine Hepburn - she has serious style and attitude

3.Elizabeth Taylor - I used to think she was the most beautiful woman ever

4.Helena Bonham-Carter - need I say anything?

5. Andie Macdowall - I confess that it's mostly because of Four Weddings and A Funeral

6. Salma Hayek - because latinas are the best!

7. Penelope Cruz - ditto

8. Kate Bush - all around amazing!

9.Karen Gillan- how can you not adore Amy Pond? (she get's a colour photo because she has red hair!)

10. Emma Thompson - I don't find her beautiful so much as insanely likable and funny and all around lovely.

Stuff

A little update:

Yes, I have quit my job, my boss - who despite underpaying me is actually a nice guy - agreed to the two months I wanted before leaving. Our landlords are still kicking us out. My sister/flatmate has found somewhere to live while she sorts herself out. So starting from June I will be homeless and jobless. I have not yet decided exactly when I will go to London. I have too many other things to sort out first.

Now that I have come to a decision, I'm feeling less stressed and confused. That doesn't stop me from getting randomly scared or overemotional though.

To offset the maudlin self-centeredness of this post so far, look at this cuteness:



This morning when stepping out of my building I saw this cute graffiti on the road just in front. Later on my sister called me (while I was in the town planning office no less) to tell me her boyfriend had drawn it as a surprise for her. Her bedroom balcony overlooks the road. I thought it was sweet and kind of romantic. My sister found it embarrassing. She's a bit uptight like that.

The Colours Meme

I'm sick sick sick. So I'm staying at home from work today. Everytime I call up sick, I always get the feeling they don't believe me. Ah, well!

Have you come across the colours meme? I was given the colour green.

Ten green things:

1. The basil plants I have on my balcony outside my bedroom.


2. The beautiful teapot my sister got recently from a second hand shop in Psyrri.


3. The kilt I bought when I visited Edinburgh.


4. The old Pireus buses used to be green. Most memorable of all was the 040 joining the center of Athens to the center of Pireus, affectionately called the "green bus".


5. The wellies I bought from the little village of Skipton when I went camping in Yorkshire in August and it rained the whole month!


6. Spinach! Which is in season and is one of my favourite greens, particularly because it's so versatile.


7. The green olive oil soap I prefer (and use for many different things.)


8. The green clay I use as a face mask.


9. My prefered type of serviettes, Always Ultra Normal Plus.


10. Green tea, the type of tea I drink most often.

Backed into a corner

Things have been getting shittier and shittier lately.

The boss called me into the office today. He cut my hours and my wage because we have no work. (I dare you to live on 700euro a month!) But he also told me that he has to fire one of us. I was sure it would be me, instead it was the other girl. The one who is married with two kids. The one who has been working for the office longer and actually enjoys the job (I don't particularly like my job anymore). The one he said he'd prefer to keep. Why? Well, I'm cheaper for starters. But he said it was because he knows I'd never find another job the way things are, whereas she can claim unemployment benefit (400euro for six months I think, might be more due to kids) and has a husband with a wage (no idea how bug his wage is).

I think I'm going to tell him to fire me instead tommorrow. I think the universe is conspiring to tell me that moving to London is the inevitable choice.

I think we need a pick-me up after this.

Haven't completely disappeared yet

I know I have sort off feel the face of the earth for the past week or two. I have had a lot of thinking and stressing to do. And the way I cope with stress is avoiding people and finding something random and completely trivial to obsess over. This time I chose Glee. I must say that in two weeks I have learned more about Glee than any single rational person should know. Doesn't mean I will be skipping fandoms however, so no worries.

There is no way around it. There is no future and no hope in Greece anymore. I will only spiral into deeper depression, hopelessness and eventually unemployment if I stay here. But it's not easy packing up and leaving. It will need a lot more guts than I usually possess and a lot time and effort. I have a whole life here - friends, family, a flat full of furniture and books, a neighbourhood I love, groups I'm part of - everything will have to be packed up and put in storage or abruptly ended. So, yeah, still working on my courage. Still feel like freaking out, bursting into tears, or jumping of a roof at random moments during the day. But if I don't do it, I will forever regret it.

Yesterday we went on a day trip. We just drove with a vague destination in mind, but it turned out fine. We came across a random archaeological site and decided to stop and visit. Spring has started, the flowers are out, and ruins amongst the grass and flowers are always beautiful. Afterwards we went to the seaside, walked on the beach and sat and ate fish in a seaside taverna. You know, the sort of stuff I will invariably miss when/if I leave this country.



In the spirit of feeling maudlin. The three things I will miss the most from Greece if I leave are:
1. the weather
2. the sea
3. the low crime rate.

Having a meltdown

You wouldn't believe how stressed and confused and scared and undecided I am at the moment.

And I have to make a decision soon!

Thing is, I never wanted to live in Greece. I always found it stiffling and narrow. So I did a post-graduate in Paris with the hope of staying there. I loved Paris as a city, but found it was too lonely and the Parisians were too stand-offish for me to be able to live there. I tried half-heartedly to find a job in London afterwards, but was put off by the way they considered my degree second-rate because it came from a Greek university and the fact that my own relatives refused to let me stay with them for longer than a couple of weeks while I was looking for a job. Plus I had my nagging parents back in Greece begging me to come home.

I have never been fully happy with returning to Athens. Yet, I am not blind, I can see the ways Athens is superior to London. (More easygoing, better weather, safer, closer to my immediate family.) But on the other hand, I feel like I'm stagnating. I am not meeting any new people, because greeks are very closed-off and because I really have nothing in common with the average greek.

This past year our flat's lease has expired and we've been staying without one. (They do that in Greece.) Which was cool, because if I decided to leave there would be no problems with contracts and stuff. Only thing is they have just told us to move out by the summer because the owners' daughters want to use the flat. So we are looking for flats, and good affordable flats in the center of Athens are not so easy to come by. And once we sign a new lease we are stuck.

See? I can't afford to be undecided any more. I either rent a new flat here (and we saw one that we like enough, and if we don't grab it soon someone else will) and decide to stay put in this country. Or else I pack everything up, resign from my job and take the leap to go to London to look for a job. Which is scary. Because I have hardly any money in the bank, I have a Greek university degree and four years experience of working in the construction business in Greece which will definitely underwhelm everyone over there, and I am over thirty, which is pretty old to be doing stuff like this.

So I am going a bit mad.