This has been a difficult summer so far, and there’s no end in sight yet.
Mom has been sick since she arrived on Paros on June 1 and ended up in hospital for 2 weeks with COVID and pneumonia. Then, returning to Paros she was on oxygen for a month.
And she’s been staying with me cause she needs assistance and care.
While she was getting better life got a little easier. She began cooking again so I’d come home to a cooked meal instead of having to cook for both of us (I don’t like having to cook! I only cook when I want to!)
Now mom’s been unwell for a week again. Needing more care again. And me being busier than ever with dog grooming.
It’s not been an easy summer… yet she’s my mother. I have to look after her, and I want to do it too. And I did return to Greece to be with mom – to enjoy her company while she was well but to assist when she wasn’t. So I’m not complaining…
But I miss being alone and having my space to myself. I really really miss having my tiny place to myself.
Mom plans to return to Athens in 5 weeks. Let’s hope she’s better by then or I will have to go with her…
I’d been reading a book a while ago and really can’t remember the title or author. But inside there was something about vampires – the energy sucking type, not the bloody sucking type.
It prompted me to write about it at the time but I never got further than sourcing this photo (thank you AI).
However, today I feel I have reached a peak of anger, frustration, and general stress that I cannot hold it in anymore.
I am putting way too much of my own energy into the problems I see around me all the time.
The destruction of this and other Greek islands in the name of tourism. I get involved where I can, but we can’t achieve anything real against the greed which abounds around us. And I get angry.
The news is horrible every single day. I try to avoid it, but living with someone who watches TV all day every day, I am now accidentally seeing the news on a much more regular basis. I lived so happily for so many years never watching TV, not reading papers, and only hearing about things that affected me locally.
Ignorance is bliss.
Now I constantly upset. Animal abuse. Horrific things, bad enough that they are not just put on Facebook, but on the national news! Disease among the ruminants in Greece today, first time ever, meaning that thousands of animals will most likely need to be destroyed. Fires, everywhere, all the time. And so many idiots leaving their pets behind!
I’ve had it.
I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I’m considering taking a break from the internet for my mental health. And maybe wear ear phones with music so I can’t hear the news.
I don’t know.
I’m just so upset so often. It can’t be good for me.
As I already shared, we went to Naxos for the carnival. It was great, totally different to anything I’ve ever done before. A real adventure, so much fun! Of course, little Vincent had to sit out the actual Lampathofori (Parade of Torches) as it was too loud and too crowded. He stayed in the air bnb while Zefi and I joined the crowd as they chanted to the beat of the drums.
On the balcony, waiting for the Parade of Torches. A long wait.
We were lucky (or unlucky) in our choice of air bnbs ’cause we were right over the main square where everything happened on Saturday night. It was ideal for watching thing unfold from our own balcony, but not ideal for the early morning wake up on Sunday as they sound tested the equipment for the float parade later that day.
Dionysia was a Panhellenic festival in honor of Dionysus. One of the most important centers of these festivals was Naxos. The celebration included wine drinking, cheerfulness, unbridled enthusiasm, cymbals, drums, troupes, processions, dithyrambs (choral chants) and phallophoria.
Here is my own video of the night:
The lambathofori parade on Naxos.
The next day, we went to a couple of villages where we saw the Koudounati.
Men strapped with bells and carrying Dionysian phallic symbols known locally as somba, stir up a racket while parading through the village alleys in a procession held to welcome the spring season and exorcise evil spirits.
Turns out, this would have been a better day to leave little Vinnie at home. It was way louder and way more crowded. Poor little man cowered in his bag. Especially in Apeiranthos, the town most famous for the Koudounati where if you fell you’d never hit the ground.
However, we managed to catch them in another town as well, where this lovely man was happy to take a photo with us.
Here is my short video of the event:
Koudounati, bell strapped men, at the Naxos Carnival.
Now, if you’re wondering at the lack of actual MEN in those parades, let me take some time to rant a little about the organizational skills of the Greeks and their total inability to stick to any kind of schedule. Ever.
The Naxos municipality puts out a timetable of events around the island, and like most gullible people who have lived in countries where a schedule is a schedule, we made our plans. I’m not saying we didn’t expect some delays… its normal to have some delays… especially in Greece where the national tag line is ‘siga siga’ (literally ‘slowly slowly’ or ‘it’ll get done eventually‘).
However, let me warn everyone who will visit Greece – times/schedules etc are not a program based on any kind of reality but of fantasy. As Captain Barbarossa said in Pirates of the Carribean, its more like ‘guidelines’….
Seriously. The program said that the Lambadifori would start at 6pm at the square were people would get dressed to start the parade. I didn’t expect to see them till about 8pm, cause it needs to be dark, right? They didn’t show till almost midnight. sigh. Good thing we didn’t turn up to get painted and dressed at 6pm or we’d have been dead on our feet before the parade began!
And it was the same with the Koudounati. We got to Apeiranthos around 2.30pm, they were meant to gather at 2pm. We left there at 5pm when someone told us that the men still hadn’t gathered, it would be at least another hour before they made their entrance. Only the young boys were happy to run around town with the bells and clubs – so, no wild mustachioed men for us… We weren’t going to waste more time being squished while we waited.
We also hoped to see the Kordelati but missed them due to the lateness of everything. We ran into these two Foustanelatoi just as they finished their dancing…
On Clean Monday the custom of ribbons and foustanelata (foustanelades) is observed, which, like the other customs of the Carnival, is a memory of the ancient Dionysian festivals and coincides with the ancient Anthestiria.
According to scholars of folk tradition, kordelatoi and foustanelatoi (foustanelades), during the Venetian occupation, were a way for the Orthodox to communicate with each other, while it is said that during the revolution of ’21, they sewed triangular handkerchiefs they had on their chest and hid gunpowder there to transport it to the Peloponnese and elsewhere.
The custom is that the young people of the village, wearing colored ribbons or foustanelles respectively, form groups, the bairakia, led by the bairachtar, that is, the one who holds the bairaki of the group, which is a thick reed with a colored scarf at the end, and to honor with their visit the women of the neighboring villages, dancing with them in the central square accompanied by violins and lutes. In turn, the women of each village treat the men with food, sweets and wine to please them.
In the past, this custom was also a way for young people from different villages to get to know each other and so many weddings occurred. Today the inhabitants of the island zealously maintain the custom and pass it on from generation to generation.
Amongst all the things happening around us, we visited a few villages, had some great meals at tavernas, caught up with family and friends and made some new ones.
Vincent made a new friend.
Walking up to the Portara on Sunday morning, Vincent made a new friend. Here she is, peering at us over the wild flowers.
The Portara
Naxos’ Temple of Apollo – Portara, a huge marble gate and the single remaining part of an unfinished temple of Apollo of 530 BC, is the island’s emblem and main landmark.
Standing on the islet of Palatia, at the entrance to Naxos harbor, it comprises four marble parts weighing about 20 tons each.
The view back to town from the Portara.
Here are some pics I took along the way.
We visited Lionas, a tiny place you wouldn’t even call a village, on the furthest end of Naxos. There was a cute little taverna there and a small beach with the most beautiful black sand, black stones and the best white rocks I’ve ever seen.
This is how Vincent felt after all our travels…
Pretty much how I felt too!
Back home now and trying to catch up on all the things I have on my to-do list. Well, some of them at least!
I admit, I’ve been lazy. Very lazy. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t done anything at all. I’ve done a few things…
Including this very large painting of a shell.
It’s a commission for an air bnb studio apartment, the theme was something island-ey and the main colour had to be grey.
It took a while to do, first I had to find something I liked as a theme, then I worked on layers to achieve the colours and texture I was after.
I think I achieved it.
For now I’ve hung it over my bed in my bedroom as its the only free wall in my place. The new owner will pick it up in a month or so, till then I’m the one enjoying it.
Here are a couple of close ups that show the texture I was aiming for. It’s not nearly as textured as the cat on a chair I did last year because I didn’t cover the canvas with magazine pages first.
I’m pretty pleased with it. I’ve rarely worked on something this size – 120cm x 90cm. But I like it, it was fun. It was done on a recycled canvas so now I’m looking for more large canvases to recycle!
So, you may ask, what other things have kept me busy? Well… Vincent keeps me on my toes for one thing. He’s either sleeping, chewing on things he finds in my toolbox, selecting a toy from his toybox and playing with it, asking for cuddles, wanting to go out and socialize and have coffee with friends… what did I do with myself all those months without a poodle?
Plus I am working through a list of things to get done both online and in real life.
I’m halfway through making a small table to hold my grooming tools while I work, using all sorts of odd and end bits of timber I have lying around.
My dog bath arrived and has been set up. Now I await the plumber.
I’m waiting for the wind to die down so the guys can come out and do more concreting on our building – a slab for the container to sit on, columns and a structure which will house the electricity meters.
Yes. You read that right!
I actually heard from the electric company and it took me two visits to see the guy I needed to see, who just wanted to show me the map he’d made of where they will bring in the power.
I said “That’s fine”.
He said “Get your construction crew to build a spot for the meters.”
I said “Sure” and it was done. Only took getting up at 6.30am two days…
I also got a call from the water authority!
Wonders will never cease.
This was trickier.
I was told that the closest route to get water into our property was through one of the 3 neighbouring houses above our land. So I have to find out who they are and knock on their doors to see if any one of them will give the water company permission to put pipes through their land…
This is Greece.
How likely is it?
I don’t know.
As for the road access… I’m still on that, but I’m told I will most likely need a solicitor to locate the owners of the other properties who would benefit from opening that section of road. No way I can find the owners on my own… and the neighbour who said she will fight the issue with me can’t find her contracts… which would mean I’m requesting a road on my own.
How likely do you think the council is to do this if me and my brother are the only ones asking?
You do know that you can’t create without making a mess, right? So why bother cleaning if you’re going to just make another mess?
At least that’s my philosophy in life.
My house is my art studio, a place to pile stuff, where I groom dogs, where I make stuff or paint stuff and, sometimes, where I actually make art…
This little 50m2 apartment has to fit all that in it.
As a result, I can’t see my kitchen table top for months at a time. When I want to cook I have to clear crafts, paint and occasionally tools off the kitchen bench and stove top.
In summer, since I don’t really have time to do much other than groom, I usually keep the house tidier. Soon as I get busier with grooming, I pack away all the paint tubes, varnish spray cans, the sewing machine, the unfinished works of art, and clean the house. Once almost everything but the daily living stuff is put away, its easy to clean.
I just run a broom or a vacuum cleaner over the floor, mop it, and voila. Its pretty much done.
But its too early in the year for that, so for now I only sweep or mop when it gets embarrassingly bad, or I can no longer quieten the voice my mother implanted in my head as a child which hassles me to do housework.
For the last couple of days I’ve been doing online stuff as well as building a side table for grooming. I’m using all scrap wood I’ve collected over the months, making something not so pretty but functional. It’s where I’ll put my scissors, clippers, blades, and anything I might need to reach for while grooming a dog. When its finished it will have a couple of handy hooks, get painted a pretty colour and have a cover to protect it from the weather.
Till now I’ve been using a metal trolley I found at the rubbish bins a couple of years ago. It’s missing the top but the two lower shelves are intact. I think that while I have power tools out, I’ll make a top shelf for it. So far, I’ve been spreading a clean towel over the existing middle shelf and laying my tools on that. However, now I bought a bath for the dogs, I will move that to the wet area to hold shampoos and other bath accessories. Hence the need for the patched together little bench/side table.
When it’s finished, I will share a post about it, but trust me… I am no carpenter, so I don’t bother sharing instructions or how to videos. You do not want to do things the way I do them! I just screw this to that, measure then measure again another 2-3 times, and still get it wrong sometimes, cut this or that to add as I progress along a path that is totally unplanned and for sure completely the wrong way to do things.
It works for me. I’m not fussy. I like using recycled materials and making things from scraps. I also don’t care if something looks wonky. It has character!
Well, not exactly. Not yet. I’m still in Athens. But that doesn’t mean issues haven’t already cropped up.
For one thing I realised I can’t get electricity connected to our property till we have an official road. I THINK we can get temporary power in order for construction to continue, but in order to get a regular connection we need a gate/entrance to our property where the electric company will build housing for the electricity meters… Right now all we have is permission to drive through a neighbour’s land to access ours… not a real, legal road.
Sigh.
And that’s the Paros issue I have to deal with soon as I get back.
There’s also an Athens issue.
The tenants in the upstairs apartment I finished renovating last year let me know that their electricity bill says they are being charged for a 140m2 house – which is the size of the entire upstairs, not the smaller apartment I created when I separated it into two. Turns out I had to go through a few more steps which I was unaware of in order for that to happen.
I made some calls… Apparently I need an electrician to give me a certificate for both upstairs apartments (even the one which is currently lying idle cause I have no money to fix it). I thought I’d done that, given you can’t rent a place without a certificate of some kind from an electrician, but it turns out thats a DIFFERENT certificacte. I need 2 OTHER certificates.
Once I have those, I can apply to the power company for a new meter. They will then give me a connection number (before or after they actually install a new meter?) I take that to the municipality with the certificates from the electrician, and get some paperwork from them which I have to give to the electricity provider of my choice in order to amend the size of the apartment and thus the base charge per month…
If that makes sense.
The only good news about this is that when I get the certificates, I can do the application online, and once I get the connection number I can give it to the tenant and they can chase up the rest of it. I (sincerely hope) I dont have to be in Athens to do that myself.
Its been a while since I was in Holland last…. I used to go every year when I lived in Greece, and on every trip to Greece once I moved to Australia. This is only my second trip here since I moved to Paros 5 years ago).
I have always loved Holland. The first time I went there I felt almost like I’d come home. I’ve often thought about living here but there were always reasons not to. I even applied for a job here after I’d finished high school, and planned to go to art school here, but I ended up going back to Australia where I spoke the language and could get AUSTUDY (a government payment which enabled me to support myself while I studied. Sure, I had to get a part time job as well, but it made life so much easier to have a steady fortnightly payment.)
I often wonder how different my life would have been if I’d decided to live in Holland instead, learned dutch, attended art school here, got a job at Greenpeace… The road not taken. If I had my life to live over again, I would definitely take that path.
People sometimes ask if I would do things differently if I had my life to live over. Of course I would. I’ve lived this ilife, made these mistakes. I would want to try different things, make different mistakes.
I’m really quite excited about this trip. I had planned a trip a couple of years ago but postponed it due to COVID, so this time I’m going to do the stuff I planned to do back then: visit Germany and the Christmas markets in Cologne, drink gluwein, hot chocolate and freeze my toes off.
There is nothing like a white Christmas and the markets though there is no snow and only rain, rain, rain (and some hail thrown in for a change since I got here. I doubt I’ll get the white Christmas I’m hoping for, but who knows… I would LOVE to be able to ice skate on a lake or a canal again, but its been years since there’s been enough ice over Christmas to do that I’m told…
Other than that… I was in Athens to see mom for a couple of days, and she’s well. She’ll lbe 91 in January and has had to give up driving which makes her very sad. Still, she’s healthy and her mind is intact so I am thankful every day for that.
Before leaving Paros I’d had a lot of social events to go to, which was fun, and some grooming to do. When I return in January I’ll have a tons to do, no least of which is following up with the container positioning and worrying about whether I’ll get water and power to it by summer. Ain’t looking too promising… Meanwhile the excavations have finished, and they moved on to the concreting this past week.
For now I’m happy to spend the holidays with good friends and just relax in the warmth while it rains outside.
I did actually manage to tick a couple of odd jobs off my 563m long to do list over the last few days.
Firstly, I finally hemmed the living room curtain I pinned up sometime in summer. I did it so long ago the pins had all disappeared as I pulled the curtains back and forth over that time, so I basically had to do it again.
Plus, with winter upon us, I needed thicker curtains. I went to Jumbo and bought the thickest curtain they had (which is not that thick at all, but a velvety texture) in the neutral shade I wanted. I figured I could double up the curtains, the thick one behind against the window, the thin summer curtain in front. Double protection from the cold.
Should work, right?
This is the curtain rod I made myself during COVID lockdown when I couldn’t buy anything. I made the backets from some old bits of wood I’d scrounged from somewhere and sacrificed a wooden broom handle for the rod. I put some vintage knobs I’d bought in Holland on the end as decoration. I’m very happy with my DIY curtain rod.
Well, I laid the curtains out on my bed and began to fold, pin and trim off excess. My way. ie use my eye and do the best I can and expect that it will work out okay.
Then I got out mom’s old Singer and got to work.
Mom’s old sewing machine is almost as old as I am, she used it to make us clothes when I was a tiny tot. It’s the machine I learned to sew on, but I hadn’t used it in decades. In fact, I think I was the last one to use it back in the late 70s and it had sat in a closet in our house in Athens since then.
I’d taken it to be serviced when I first got here, thinking I’d keep it in Athens and have my own on Paros for sewing projects. Thankfully I had brought it to Paros on a trip at some stage, cause my old Singer (almost the same age, bought at a trash and treasure market many years ago in Canberra) blew up this summer. The motor is cactus. Apparently, I can buy a new/second hand/ motor on ebay, but so far the ones I found are in England or the USA and the postage will kill me.
So, I’m trying to figure out how to use mom’s again now.
Its way fancier than mine ever was. Dad was a great believer in buying the best you could afford so mom got the top of the range. Mine was fully manual. Basic. Mom’s is smart (for its age!) and can do things like automatic button holes… If *I* knew how to do them, of course.
Anyhow, I hemmed both curtains and washed the summer one which had been dragging along the floor for months (not that I needed to really, I’d cut off the dirty bits!). I then hung them both up together and let the washed curtain dry in place.
I was told by a seamstress neighbour in Athens that it was the best way to do it – wash and hang. Easy. No ironing involved. And that suits me just fine!
Here is the window before and after:
I forgot to mention I made a ‘pelmet’ of sorts from the offcut of the thicker curtain… I’ve been told that if you really want to keep the cold out you need pelmets. Well, I don’t want pelmets, but figured something over the top of the rod would suffice. We’ll see if my theory is correct soon enough.
It’s downright ugly, but if it does the job and cost me nothing but a bit of experimentation, so I’m reasonably happy with it. I’ll be happier if it works, balancing out ugliness with function.
I still have the blackout bedroom curtains to hem. I’d forgotten about them while I had my sewing vibe going. Groan. I knew there was something else I had to do…
The other thing I ticked off my to do list – I finished the bathroom window.
I think I mentioned it before. There were a few gaps between the tiles and the bottom bit of window frame and ants were getting in. I asked my cousin (who was painting my shutters at the time) to have a look at it and when he pulled it off, we found there was an empty gap behind the trim. Just a bit of rubble and a hollow.
Wonderful.
So he put in a strip of wood to seal it off and painted it for protection. It was then up to me to finish the job.
This week I finally found a small piece of MDF thin enough to fit in the gap between the tiles and trim. It was too big a gap to fill with sealant alone. I cut a couple of pieces and used small nails to hold them in place, put the trim over it all and sealed it all with waterproof/paintable acrylic sealer.
Next step would be to sand the entire window and paint it. But for now, at least its a finished looking window again. That’s something.
Yesterday I realised time is running out fast. I had thought ‘Oh, three weeks till I leave for Christmas is plenty of time to get a ton done…” and now I’m leaving in a week and my house still looks like a bomb exploded.
I have a huge canvas I’ve barely begun working on, on the easel in the middle of the living room. I have to work around that. I have the suitcase I’m taking to Holland on the floor and am tossing items into it whenever I come across something I need to take with me there or to Athens. I have the sewing machine on the kitchen table along with all kinds of smaller things I have to either do something with or put away. I have the clothes airer in the living room cause it’s been too wet to dry anything outside. My grooming table, dryer and case are also in the living room cause I’ve been grooming away from home, or at home – which entails taking most things out of the bathroom to fit in the table and dryer. There are boxes with items to sort, put away or get rid of. Some things that need to do to my storage room in the basement. Mom’s ceiling fan which needs to go in my bedroom ceiling. And a whole lot of my own work/art which I have been photographing to put online to sell.
I need more space.
Then again, I’m sure I’d fill that up as well. But it would be nice to have separate places for all the things I do. You know, like dedicated areas…
Hey! One of my neighbours is renovating so I’m going to pick up a ton of old timber bits and pieces! More to add to my collection of stuff. However, this is stuff I can use to make a workbench and a dog drying bench for my eventual grooming room!!!
All good.
NOTE: Just putting it out there… does anyone know how well insulated a refrigerated container might be? I figured it would have to be very well insulated as they are meant to keep things cold even in the hottest temperatures. Will I need extra insulation on it in order to live and work in it in summer? Does anyone have any ideas? I’ve tried looking it up but have had no real luck.
Or at least I THINK its still there. We’ve had thunder, lightning, pelting rain, constant rain, hail and all sorts since last night. And the night before. And all day today.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the container hasn’t slid down into the shrub…
Anyway, this is part of what I had begun writing last night, before I lost it all and before I was hit over the head with money owed for car registrations (and rates!!!!) and lost all will to live.
I’d been out to visit the container and measure the area inside to figure out what will be the best/easiest/cheapest way to line the floor. And perhaps the walls? Not sure I’ll need that, but I’d like to at least line one wall cause its so nice to be able to put up hooks and shelves and its so much easier to do on wood.
I also met up with the engineer and discussed the solution to the container position problem. Apparently the diggy-diggy man was appalled when he saw it. He said they should have brought it out with a bigger crane. Duh.
He will fix it. He’s got a bigger crane and when he starts work on the concreting he will move the container.
So it will be after Christmas before its in place. IAt least I hope its in place by then. It won’t be if this weather continues.
This is the floor of the container.
Its worn in quite a few spots but the worst is near the door. I’m not sure the best way to tackle it, but I will find a way. I have faith in my imagination.
Watching YouTube videos on how to fix up containers and tiny homes gives me plenty of ideas… I just need to find the right materials, tools, and power to be able to do it.
Its not like I can build stuff in my back patio, carry it through the house, transport it in my tiny car, then take put it where it needs to go… A generator might be an option I need to look into but it won’t do for months on end. I’m told they’re expensive to run… let alone buy…
I spent one morning this week applying for water and electricity for the site. I’m told it will be summer before we get power there (odd since its supposedly quick to get ‘construction’ power…) and there are about 5,345,246,294 applications for water before ours.
Well, water can be sorted with a tank. I think I have a handle on that.
All in all, the application process went really fast considering this is Greece. Surprising.
Of course I’m also expecting the cost to be surprising, and not in a good way.
What can you do?
Right now I’m living according to Field of Dreams. “Build it and they will come.”
Only in my case its more like ‘Start and you will finish.”
junk4joy 