Naturally the media providers must spice it up to make it attractive to their audience. The German media have spent ages spreading disinformation regarding Greeks. Simply characterising an entire nation as being lazy and spendthrift is already bad enough.
As I have probably mentioned in the past, I can see no evidence of people being lazy as they seem to work very long hours for little money.
Referring to the lengthy document I sent you the other day, it is more easy to understand the tendency for politics in Greece to be as they are. In the past years the Greek people have been under the control of the Turks, for a good three hundred years, the Germans, the British, the Americans, the Colonels and now the Germans again. The present government might just manage to offer something different.
Janne showed me the awning he used once on his caravan which he has left me to try at my convenience. It is designed to fit into the awning rail on the van and has a substantial tubular frame so it should be robust. Even with the winds we have here, if properly erected and tied down, it should survive a couple of winters. I’m not able to try it out without moving the van since the olive trees are in the way. I don’t want to move the van yet anyway as this is a better position during the summer. If things go according to plan, I would move it in October before the rains come.
This morning I was assistant to Salt Man, who had taken some of his equipment away to do another job. I helped him lay out the hose but let him carry the motorised pump whist I looked after the can of petrol. He amused himself playing with Boris and the other dogs. He tells me he has to go to Athens to get his eyes fixed. I’m not sure what the fixations is with Athens as this stuff can be done here as well.
Mr Tsipras has decided to call a referendum on Sunday week, 5 July, in order to let the people decide whether the terms of the proposed bailout are acceptable. Just speaking with Manolis, Georgia’s brother, he expressed annoyance that things have been allowed to drag out as long as they have and felt that this should have been dealt with sooner. I suggested that most people have already made they holiday plans so will come to Greece regardless. Anyway, if you’re here for a holiday, you don’t care much so long as your plane arrives and departs as scheduled, you can get a good meal and your accommodation is ok. I’m sure that everyone in Greece will be trying their hardest to make it look like everything is as normal as possible. Only if you go raking around in parts of Athens do you really see things the way they are.
The nice lady in the supermarket was putting out the bread this morning and we had a more advanced scintillating conversation than usual. Having exchanged pleasantries about each other’s health and the weather, we progressed to her dislike of olives. I said that I thought all Greek people like olives. She, it turns out, is not Greek, but comes from Georgia. So there’s a turn-up for the books. I’m going to try to get her to put me a brown loaf under the counter each day as they seem only to have half a dozen. They have other interesting bread but it’s white and probably more expensive.