Category Archives: greece

well, the christmas bazaar came and went…

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Days and nights spent getting ready for the bazaar, carrying and carrying and carrying stuff to and from, and the long hours at the stall itself all took their toll. It took days to recover from lack of sleep and plain tiredness. I had begun to get back into tidying up at home, packing, sorting, sweeping up glitter, finding where things should live etc when I suddenly developed a really sore lower back for no apparent reason (well, doing leg lifts with a roller under my back at the gym *might* have something to do with it… as do a few compromised discs due to lower than optimal bone density and a myriad of accidents in my recent and distant past). I can barely lift a coffee cup without pain. So all those packed and half packed boxes are now sitting in the living room/kitchen firmly planted on the ‘do later’ list and I have accepted that I now live in a permanent obstacle course.

And life goes on.

Meanwhile, since I’m having to take it easy (back to grooming but not lifting or bending apparently) I decided it was time to share some of the stuff I made for the bazaar. I think I mentioned that the plan was to use stuff I had on hand and not go buying new stuff for this project, though I did have to buy a few things here and there… ‘obviously’, says the art and craft supply addict.

This is my favourite. I’ll be listing this in my Etsy shop soon as I get my act together to take more photos, but I confess I do love it… Eh. It will be too late to post it anywhere before Christmas very soon…

I made quite a few wreaths. All different. Some were made using ready made wreaths I had on hand, others I made using wire. I do love working with wire… Embellishments were whatever I could find or make to create something pretty.

Using blocks of wood I created cute little ‘scenes’. Here is one as an example.

I made quite a few of these little paper mache houses, some I attached to wooden bases and added stones and some greenery to create a scene, others were kept as singles.

I even made cycladic houses on blocks of recycled wood and beach pebbles, with space for tealights.

The only piece of driftwood I had was converted into a decorative piece using air dry clay ‘trees’.

I made a few more trees – some out of leftover bits of bamboo I had from making a cute little tray a long time ago, others were made of clay and lace and mounted on sticks. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I ever shared that tray… hm…

I made quite a few varied tree decorations using various materials…

Glass jars made some very cute candle holders in different sizes. Of course those aren’t real candles, but real candles can go into them.

Bigger jars became small Christmas scenes using whatever I had on hand and small fairy light strings glued to the lids.

I had a new pack of plain white socks that became a gaggle of snowmen.

I do like wall hangings, so I made a few of those using whatever I had in my vast collection of ‘things to use one day’.

This one has to be my favourite and I’m glad it didn’t sell! Turns out what I like doesn’t always correspond with what people in Greece like…

Here are some photos of my stall at the market. My table was full of all kinds of things, including little hats with Ferrero Roche chocolates inside.

By far the biggest hit of the bazaar was Vincent. I should have charged money for photos with him – I’d be rich now! Here he is, all fresh and cute at the start of the market.

And here he is after, having accepted gazillions of pats from strangers, listened to LOUD Christmas music on repeat, and been forced to stay out ALL day and well into the night.

So, now we’re on the downwards slide towards Christmas and the new year. There is always much to do, but hopefully there will be time ahead to get it all done. And share.

z

christmas is approaching fast

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I’ve booked a stall at the local christmas bazaar for the first time so I’ve been madly preparing. I helped at the bazaar the first Christmas I had on Paros but never had my own stall. Plus this is the first time I’ll be on Paros for Christmas in ages.

Since I got back from Athens I’ve spent all my time pretty much preparing for the market. Bazaar. Whatever.

Firstly, I had to bring all the craft stuff in from outside where I’d stashed it in plastic boxes for the summer, or up from the basement – moves necessitated by having to make space in my tiny home for another person to live (mom) for months.

Now mom is in Athens and happy to be back in her own home with her friends and neighbours around her, and I can convert my home back into a studio. Which I’ve done.

Well, to be more exact, I’ve mainly converted into a mess.

I brought so many boxes of paint, paper, fabric, glues, beads, wooden objects, stones collected from the beach, cardboard boxes and anything and everything you can think of out of storage and scattered them around every inch of floorspace that poor Vincent has to hop from one place to another. It’s an obstacle course in here.

Oh and since its been impossible dry clothes outside on the line (which collapsed last week) I’m also using my home as a chinese laundry.

Mind you, I did do a bit of organising and tidying as I went along, but mostly I just worked and added to the mess.

I brought an outdoor ikea shelving unit into the bedroom to hold supplies after spraying it pink just for fun. That is now holding a lot of paint tins I had outside for ages… well, the ones that hadn’t dried out already.

I used a few temu clear plastic bags to store my felt, wool and fabrics so I can see what’s in them and put them in the wardrobe which used to hold mom’s clothing. Mom’s clothing has gone into plastic boxes and to the container for safe keeping till she returns. Then I’ll do a swap. Again.

My life is about constantly moving things from here to there, back again, then a smidge to the left.

There’s still a ton to do, but until the bazaar is over my life exists in two stages: BB and AB. Before Bazaar and After Bazaar. Nothing will get done (other than bazaar related stuff) till AB.

Then I’ll tackle the house – Clean first: Sweep the floor of all the glitter and bits of fluff and paper. Mop spots of dropped glue or glued glitter off the floor. Put away materials, paints, glues and whatever into wherever their homes will be from now on once I figure that out. Take out the easel and canvases and start on some new paintings. Maybe make some more felted critters…

So much to do. Such a short lifetime.

And I’ll start on other home things… like removing the disgusting mouldy grout around the bathtub and replacing with new. Moving stuff from the basement (which smells of damp and mould) to the container to keep it safe(r). Plus countless other things I am too tired to remember right now.

And yes. I’m tired. Some nights I’ve been up working till 2 or 3am. Not on purpose. I just got into the zone and didn’t realise the time.

Anyway, later. I’ll be sharing stuff I’ve made for the bazaar and photos from the days/nights.

On a related note, I’m still going for a swim and aqua aerobics almost every day. The weather had been pretty amazing. Then, after weeks of glorious weather, we have rain on the horizon for the bazaar.

That will be fun.

z

its that time…

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You know. Before a trip, when you’re almost entirely ready, almost everything but the last minute things are packed, you have nothing to do really but wait till its time to go to bed and get up in the morning, do the last minute things, and go.

You can’t start anything new. Almost everything has been finished and put away, or thrown or given away. You can’t pack up the charger, the laptop, your toothbrush or Vincent’s toothbrush cause you’ll need them tonight and/or in the morning.

Its that wasting time time when you have time to think and maybe bore people.

So here I am, writing a post just cause I can’t think of anything else to do.

Its a nothing post and to be honest, I do wonder why I’m even bothering to keep posting in general. Its not like I have a ton of followers or I promote my Etsy shop enough to make it worthwhile.

I post for a few reasons. One reason is that recently a good friend told me that I have a style that’s obvious in my posts and that I need to keep that ‘voice’ when I write fiction.

So I need the practice.

Sometimes its to share stuff that might interest my friends, in one place, cause I’m too lazy to send out emails or, heaven forbid!, make a phone call. Gone are the days when I’d sit on the phone with friends for hours. Now when the phone rings I pick up in case its work, but I almost always groan inwardly thinking “leave me alone, I really don’t feel like talking to anyone now”.

(Except for you, you know who you are.)

How awful is that? Its not like back when I worked at the travel agency and spent 6 hours a day talking, talking, talking to everyone who walked in the door who wanted to buy a ferry ticket, or ask about activities on the island or where the closest public toilet was. Now, most of the day I talk to mom (and that can be so wearing, hearing the same stories over and over, and yes, I appreciate her and I know that one day I’d be giving anything to hear her stories one more time) or to a dog I might be grooming – which is very fulfilling in so many ways.

But I’m still too tired/bored/lazy to actually talk to someone on the phone.

How life has changed.

Years ago, when I first got Scooter and then Billybear, my ‘toyboys’ – two toy poodle pups, and moved into a house with Simon (the then boyfriend) we’d go out for a movie or dinner and all we wanted to do was get back home to the dogs!

I think that’s where I am right now. I’d rather be home with my Vincent. He and my art is all the company I need. Plus Netflix and audio books. I am content.

People say “aren’t you lonely?” “isn’t Paros too quiet in winter?” “how will you ever meet a man if you don’t go out and do things?”…

To them I say:

I am never lonely. I have Vincent. I have my craft and DIY projects. I have my computer and all the social life that lives in there. I have my art. It never crosses my mind to be lonely. And if I ever feel the need for company, I have good friends I can call or meet.

No, its not too quiet in winter. There is so much to do on Paros. In fact, sometimes there is TOO MUCH to do. If you have friends and have any modicum of a social circle, there is always something to do. In fact there have been times in winter when I’ve made excuses to NOT go out.

Well, I’m not that sure I want to meet a man. I’ve been alone too long now. I don’t know if a man will fit in my life. I tried the whole visualize and manifesting the man of my dreams, but I’m so ambivalent about it, its never going to work.

I love cooking what I want, when I want it. Snuggling on the couch with a hot chocolate on cold nights, with a warm blanket, woolly socks, comfy pants and a little poodle. I watch soppy Christmas movies or serial killer series and all sorts of things in between.

Saw this on Facebook the other day and its almost totally true.

I turn on my fairy lights and sometimes even sip a Baileys on ice. I love my quiet evenings at home, after a day spent painting or creating.

I also love Christmas, but living alone, I feel its silly to do the full on Christmas decorating thing. I would love to go all out one day, but for now, its the fairy lights inside and sometimes out, other times just in the window, which is a waste cause my window isn’t really visible to passersby, and a tiny table top Christmas tree… that’s about it. Kinda sad, but its home and its cozy. I think the fairy lights make it all better.

What is this post about?

I have no idea. I’m just writing things as they come to me. I’ve had dinner. Vincent and mom are fed. Mom is watching some crappy Greek TV and I’m at the kitchen table, watercolour pencils and brushes laid out next to me tempting me to start something new and I keep saying “No. there’s no time”…

I might go check on our bags. Make sure they are ready. Then again, I’ll be up early and I’ll have time to do that then. As well.

Ok. I’ll leave you be and see if the watercolours win out.

z

OMG where have you been???

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Yes, yes, yes. I know. I’ve been busy, I was abducted by aliens, the internet was playing up, the beach called, my suit didn’t get back from the cleaners, I was having an existential crisis and wondering whether I even wanted to keep blogging. Other things seemed more important.

Then for some strange reason, tonight, I had the urge to post again. Not that I have much of importance to say… just the usual rubbish I write about.

But for anyone out there in cyberland who may have been missing me, I am still here. Still alive. Mostly. Ok, I’m fine, I’m just being dramatic. Mom is fine. She’s been getting better all the time. I tell you, I’ve never met anyone as stubborn as my mom. In the best way. The doctors brought her back from the brink after she lost 2 of her sisters within a month of eachother (the youngest who dropped dead of a stroke without warning and the oldest who’d faded away over 6 years with dementia in a nursing home). The doctor and the physio visit to check up on mom regularly and she does whatever they tell her – she gets up every morning and does her exercises.

*I* don’t do exercises. Mom, at almost 94, does.

Ok, so I have been exercising. Before summer I finally decided that joining the gym (and actually attending) would be a good idea so I began pilates. Then soon as aqua aerobics started I switched to that. Let me tell you, nothing is as good as working out in the sea. No matter how awful or painful something might be, its better in the water.

Once aqua stopped mid September, a friend and I continue doing our own workouts. We meet at a convenient and protected beach and swim and work out with our leg and hand held ‘weights’ (of course they’re foam, not metal, we’re not suicidal!) So I’m keeping fit(ish).

I’ll be taking mom back to Athens soon, she insists, she’s getting better, I can’t refuse to let her go to her own home. And once I get back I’ll reinstate my gym membership and start doing some weights as well as pilates. And the plan is to keep swimming through winter. Its meant to be great for your immune system. Not to mention your skin.

I tell myself I’m going to swim in winter every year and soon as it gets cold I bundle up and pack away my swimmers. But with a partner in crime who actually swims in winter, I think I might be able to do it this year…

I have ordered a neoprene swim jacket. And a microbre hooded poncho I can wear and change under. That might help.

Stay tuned.

We’ve had a very busy summer. The entire family from Australia came to Greece this year. Everyone except for my brother and his partner. But my niece and nephew came, heaps of cousins came, my niece brought her partner and kids, my brother’s ex wife and her new partner. The place was hopping.

Its one reason mom bounced back. All those people to see. Especially the great grandchildren. So gorgeous. So cute. So loud…

On other fronts, work has been okay. Grooming dogs and doing workshops. All good.

Very little creative time. Too much happening to concentrate on creativity. But I have begun needle felting again, plenty of painting stones, some smaller stuff. You know… I have to do something or I go crazy.

I leave you with a photo of the most recent needle felted creations for Christmas… made by upcycling felt dryer balls by needle felting and adding accessories (bought and made).

Hopefully I’ll be back again soon, with catch up posts.

Till then,

z xxx

Shared at Funky Junk Interiors Upcycle Ideas Party

going home soon

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My life in Athens has been a round of sorting pills, helping mom with everything, dressing her, putting on her back brace or taking it off. I walk Vincent on the hill near the house with a friend and her elderly dog most days. I run errands, do the cooking and grocery shopping.

So far I’ve learned to make greek lentil soup, bean soup, octopus with pasta, spinach rice and cabbage rice, chicken and vegetable soup, yiouvetsi, trahana soup* and I’m sure more things I can’t remember right now.

Trahana is something I’ve always hated. Yuck:

I can’t say its all been fun. I don’t usually cook greek food. Sure, I do cook something that resembles greek food now and then, but not often. I’m more of a stir fry, chinese, thai, vietname or italian food kinda girl. I’m also not a ‘cook often’ kinda girl.

I don’t fry unless you count oven or air-fryer frying.

And I never add a excess olive oil to anything. Mom is like “did you add olive oil while it cooks?”

“Ummm, no. I browned the onions in a bit of oil. You didn’t specifically tell me to add oil so I didn’t. I’ll add some now.”

Drizzle a tiny bit…

“And at the end, once its cooked, add a little more on top.”

Hmph.

When I defrosted pasta sauce from some tomatoes mom had cooked and frozen, I actually drained the excess oil OFF in order to make pasta sauce.

ugh.

And to think I always told everyone that MY mother doesn’t use a lot of oil in her food like most greeks do – dishes swimming in oil slicks to rival the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Yuck. She’d spent enough time in Australia to cut down drastically on oil.

Anyway.

Tomorrow we return to Paros. Me, mom, Vincent and a ton of stuff. We already sent 5 boxes and a suitcase ahead of us by transport company.

Mom doesn’t travel light. She used to fill her car to the brim when she used to drive and lived in her own unit. She’d take everything with her to Paros and bring a ton of things back each year.

“Mom, don’t they sell toilet paper on Paros?” “Its cheaper here.” Sheesh.

This time we are NOT taking everything with us, but her medication alone filled one box.

But this time she doesn’t know how long she’s staying, so she had to be prepared for all seasons. To be honest, at this stage I don’t know when, or even if, we’ll be back to Athens to stay. It all depends on mom’s health. Plus, I live on Paros, I don’t want to be leaving my home, friends, life and work for too long.

We will see. My life is all about taking it day by day.

z

painting #2 in a series

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I finished this one quite a while ago, its been on my wall long enough to blend in with the furniture now. Still, I hadn’t managed to share it, so here it is for your enjoyment. 🙂

Its my second in the series I’m working on (sometimes more actively than others) which are mostly on recycled canvases and picturing the beauty of our island and the ugliness of humans with their disrespect of their surroundings.

Here is painting #1 in case you missed it.

This is a subject close to my heart cause I really hate what is happening on Paros with its over-tourism and the continual construction, turning a cycladic paradise into another version of every resort island in the world.

In summer its noisy, with loud music on every side, people blocking the small streets, motorbikes, quads, traffic jamson the roads and ferries lining up in the bay spewing out black smoke.

In winter, instead of the welcome quiet, we mostly have the sounds of construction in the countryside.

I grieve for the Paros I knew growing up. But while the government cares more for what it can make from tourism and ‘growth’ and ignores the fact that it’s destroying the very thing that brings in the tourists and money, not to mention that growth without consideration for the future is like cutting off your nose to spite your face, this will continue till Paros loses its character and attraction.

But it is what it is. We can’t do anything about it. Two years ago the residents of Paros rebelled againt the beach bars taking up so much space on beaches that people who didn’t want to (or could afford to) pay for loungers and umbrellas couldn’t find space to set their towels. The media called it ‘the towel movement’. We had protests on beaches and succeeded in the municipality enforcing the limits of beach bar space and allowing space for ‘free’ beaches.

Well that backfired. The government over-rode the local municipality and gave out permits to bars as it pleased, and now keeps the money itself.*

Ah. I love the smell of corruption in the morning.

I have a ton to say about it all, but I better get off my soap box and get back to my little life and creativity. That’s what my blog is about.

So, till next time!

*I am no expert. I try to remain totally uninformed on the subject of politics. My statements are based on what I am told by people who are involved with the municipality and local government and what I can glean from other sources despite myself. Its like a car wreck… I don’t want to know but can’t help looking.

why does it have to be so complicated?

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Oh boy. I’ve been through a lot of crap again. It seems to be the life just IS in Greece.

Mom’s landline wasn’t working about a week ago. We’d had a hellova thunderstorm the night before and it had tripped our power board master switch. Easy to fix, but the phone wasn’t getting a dial tone in the morning, even after unplugging and plugging it in again.

So I tried to find a number to call the telephone company. Ha. Good luck with that. I got a number which was answered by a robot called Tobi. I went a few rounds with that moron, ‘the wanted info about my ‘press x for internet connection or xx for mobile connection’, no option for a landline. He kept asking me if I’d tried unplugging the modem. We don’t have a modem.

I hung up on him.

I went onto the website thinking there might be a number for service issues, there was, but it was just a chat with Tobi.

When did PEOPLE disappear from the world?

So I tried to chat with Tobi and ended up yelling at him ‘ITS ABOUT MY LANDLINE’ and I was finally put through to another guy ON CHAT. ha. He told me if I wanted to talk to an actual person on an actual call, I had to start over, so I stuck with it.

He wanted my name and tax file number so they knew it was my line I was enquiring about.

I gave him mom’s name and went looking for her TFN, then remembered the phone is in my brother’s name and I have his TFN somewhere but …???

Why do I need to jump through hoops when all I want is to report a problem, find out if there is a problem with OUR phone only, or if its a general issue…

So I told the guy about it being my brother’s line, then yelled again that WHY ON EARTH DO THEY NEED TO KNOW TFNS (and crap) WHEN ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS IF THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH THE LINE?

A moment of silence, and he did some checking, said it was a problem in our area and would pass the info on to the relevant team.

Great. Thanks. He said they would be in touch by December 10 to let me know the outcome of the issue.

I got updates that our ‘issue’ was being dealt with. Apparently random guys were spotted at the phone box on the corner scratching their heads.

They came, they stuffed up lines in the entire neighbourhood and left.

Now our neighbours hate us…

They called yesterday to tell mom that they hadn’t sorted the issue yet and that they would not charge her for the time she was without a phone, and today, they said they would divert the home phone to her mobile free of charge till it was sorted.

I’m not sure it will ever be sorted… I suspect this part of a larger plot to get her to change her plan, put in wifi or fibre… who knows? I’ve never been a conspiracy nut, but I do wonder…

z

ring around the rosie. again.

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It’s been an ‘interesting’ couple of days. Well, a month+ actually. But I’m pleased to tell you it’s nowhere near sorted out yet.

See, back when I first arrived in Greece almost 6 years ago, I got my aunt #1 to sign a power of attorney for me to act as her representative for all things legal. She was already showing troubling signs of dementia and I needed it done before she lost it entirely.

Well, all went well for a little while. And then I found out that power of attorney here in Greece has a shelf life of TWO YEARS.

Yes. You read that right. Two years. Like she’s gonna get better in two years and take over her own affairs.

My aunt is now in the nursing home and, although she does have moments of clarity, she is far from being ‘of sound mind’. I was told that the only way to get to be her ‘guardian’ now would be to go through the court. Uhuh. Like I have the money to do that. Maybe not even the time… who knows… I know the courts are notoriously slow here.

Aunt #1 is now totally wheelchair bound, unable to support herself on her stick thin legs. She is so weak she can barely talk. But she’s clinging on to life and is eating and happy to see us when we visit though it’s horrible to see her like this.

When I decided that the best place for her was the nursing home (seeing as she needed round the clock care) I rented her apartment to pay for the nursing home. Back then it was easy. I had power of attorney to sign anything necessary. And back then we didn’t need a energy efficiency certificate for the house in order to rent it.

NOW however, we do need it and about 1.5 months ago I asked my engineer’s company to organise one for me. It’s part of what they do after all.

1 month, 4 texts, 1 conversation and 1 email later I finally received the certificate and checked it. The address was wrong and the photo of the property is wrong. Not only did the idiot who did it put the address down as the corner of x and xx streets (which is mom’s house, my aunt’s house faces only one street) but the google maps photo he included in the certificate was of the house OPPOSITE.

I replied, telling him where he was wrong, included a picture of the actual house and waited. And waited. And waited.

I still haven’t got a new one.

What I did get was an email asking me to get my aunt to sign an official declaration and have the signature authenticated in order to produce the certificate.

Funny. They didn’t ask for that first time around… another mistake? Or did some law change again? Hard to know in Greece.

So, I called the guy and said my aunt can’t possibly go sign the thing in front of a legal witness.

He suggested I speak to my/her accountant. Which I did. They say, yes, they can do it through the taxation department as they have all her log in details, but we need a telephone in her name.

Now, we took away my aunt’s phone even before she went into the nursing home casuse she would call people at all hours and tell them everyone had abandoned her even we’d just been with her for hours.

The accountant said, just go buy a phone in her name. So I went. And was told I need a declaration from her saying she was authorizing me to get a phone in her name.

Ring around the rosie indeed.

Why on earth do you have to get a new power of attorney as a carer/responsible person for someone every two years? Maybe everywhere. How would I know? It just seems stupid, dumb, foolish, irrelevant, ludicrous, senseless, brainless, dim, dopey, deficient, idiotic, imbecilic, meaningless, mindless, moronic, needless, nonsensical, obtuse, unnecessary, pointless, puerile, redundant, simpleminded, superfluous, useless, and a waste of everyone’s time.

As for needing her signature for everything, ok, I get that, but it just brings me back to “Why on earth do I need a new power of attorney????”

Who else would be responsible for her? My 93 yr old mother, her sister, or me, her niece. She has no children.

At least we don’t have to worry about her property after she dies. She has a will. But it would be fun times if she didn’t, thats for sure!!!

Holy cow.

It’s so much fun living in Greece.

z

a hot day in the gardens

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The national garden in Athens is a place I remember mom and dad used to take us to when we were kids. But I hadn’t been for many years. The other day a friend suggested we go have a coffee there and walk around a bit… a small oasis of cool in a hot Athens.

The old cafe there is quaint but so expensive… a double greek coffee was 4.60e or something. I can’t remember exactly, but it blew me away.

Still, it was cool and restful.

A nice little break from the headache that is my life at the moment.

So. what have I achieved in the days I’ve been in Athens? Well, I got a new credit/cash card to replace the new one I never received in the mail. I could have done that on Paros, but the deadline was approaching so I needed to get it done. That took 2 trips to the bank, but I was lucky. It was a quiet day so there was no waiting in queues.

I found a pet shop that sells BARF (raw) dog food for Vincent in the area so I didn’t have to go all over Athens to get it.

I got the paperwork together to apply for a new water meter for the unrenovated upstairs apartment – that entailed a trip to the local water authority office, then being told I needed to go to the main offices in another area get that underway. The application cost 63 euros. I now need to wait for about a month for the inspectors to come check out the position for the new water meter and will receive a bill for over 600 euros to get water connected. I need to go in in person to sign and pay.

Of course.

This is Greece.

I’m hoping I can give someone power of attorney to go in and sign for me and I can do an online transfer to pay. There is no way I want to pay another 100 euros minimum for a trip to Athens just to sign a piece of paper…

I have not managed to fix the issue with the water leak and damp… After trying 4 different plumbers (from before leaving Paros) who I’d speak to once and then never ever reach again, my uncle brought a guy over this evening who I gave the job to. I guess you could say I did succeed in organising it, but I’m told it will take AT LEAST two weeks to fix, given that they’re all busy and if a job more urgent than mine comes up, I’ll be dumped like a hot potato.

I found new tenants for my aunt’s house, but when they can actually move in depends on when the leak and damp issues are fixed. Which means they’re waiting and need to move asap and my aunt isn’t earning rent – which pays for the nursing home, so meanwhile we’ll have to cover any shortfall…

I really am over this whole thing. Old houses. Tenants. Being responsible for people other than myself.

There’s more. There’s always more. But I won’t bore you. Let’s just say my life right now is a mess.

z

oh boy!

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How much can I take before I lose it totally? I think I’ll soon either be totally white haired or bald at this rate.

Why you may ask?

Well, I’ve had a sick mother all summer. And I’m lucky. I actually have one of those rare nice mothers who aren’t so annoying (or as infuriating) as so many others. And she’s getting better, again, fingers crossed.

But she’s been insisting that she return to Athens, to her own home, NOW, cause she’s sick of being isolated in my place on Paros, being a burden on me, etc etc. So, I began to organise her trip, someone to take her to a seat on the ferry by wheelchair. Someone to pick up her suitcases and put them on the ferry. Someone to meet her on the other end and take her home and carry her bags in and help her settle in…

But then the guy I’d organised for the other side get sick and ended up in hospital.

So here I am, on the ferry with mom, taking her to Athens myself, carrying bags, lending an elbow, trying to keep track of our luggage, carrying Vincent.

I couldn’t let her go alone.

A few days in Athens won’t kill me.

But they just might.

Cause its not just mom… its aunt #1s house too. The old tenants finally vacated 2 weeks after they were meant to. And I have spoken to two plumbers so far about locating and fixing a leak which has been causing trouble on both sides of the wall between my aunt’s house and where mom lives. Mould and all kinds of lovely things.

The previous tenant was an old lady with dementia with her carer, and her son would not let us in there to locate and fix the problem while she was there, cause he didn’t want to cause her confusion… so we now have a small window (getting smaller every day) to get someone in to fix the problem.

Cause of course, all this time (about 3 years now) I’ve been insisting that the issue is in THAT wall, but no one believes me. We’ve had pipes fixed on the outside of our wall. Someone else went into the light well to fix the issue in there… but the problem is not fixed. Cause I’ve been right along. We need to fix it on my AUNT’s side of the wall. And I need to do it ASAP before the next tenants go in.

And of course NO ONE returns my calls, or messages or anything.

Oh, and I have to see what the previous tenants left in the house. I told them to leave only the bookcase and wardrobe which belonged to my aunt and have stayed with the house till now, but now I’m learning that apparently they’ve left 3 beds which I ‘can do what I want with’… Which means they are now my problem…

I am so over this crap.

And all this time I’ve been trying to organise the plumber(s) and organise someone with keys to let him in, all over the phone, chasing things up 2nd and 3rd hand.

You’d think it could be done, but no. It can’t. I have to BE there. Like as if, if I’m there, I’ll be able to grab some random plumber by the collar and drag him to the house to fix the problem.

sigh.

But that’s not all, either.

I finally have some kind of paperwork I’d been waiting months for, for the upstairs apartment which we split into 2 apartments, renovated one and rented it out, leaving one to be renovated… In order to get power and water to the 2nd half I needed this paper. Now, I have to take it to some place in Athens (in person, cause if I try to do it online it might never get done!), and run around various agencies to apply for new connections yada yada yada.

Only then can I begin to renovate the 2nd apartment (with money I will miraculously conjur up)…

Between the paperwork necessary for everything, chasing up people who never call back, jobs that don’t get done, struggling to pay bills, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, etc, I’m kinda over this whole thing. I just wanna hide in my house and never come out.

Of course, I really really want my studio. My space. Space around me.

This was 2 weeks ago at our building site:

And this is now – the framework for the columns is still up, to be removed soon, but the roof is ready.

Sometimes I wish I’d never started anything. That I was content to live in a small one bedroom apartment with my small dog, and knit while watching TV and not have any desire to remake furniture, play with power tools, work on large canvases or paint on any surface I can think of, or play with any other forms of art.

In fact, living in Tasmania, without any family nearby, was really nice…

z