Time after time

Time after time

It has been a long time since I have had chance to write. All sorts of life has intervened. But thankfully, here on Kythera, life goes on the same, well almost. The Greek economic crisis does reach out it's tentacles of fear as far as here. But in such a long reach stories become mangled as gossip and rumour abound.

I'm not sure whether it is the Greek people's stoic optimism, their naivete of the financial world or that they are simply in denial but there is little outward evidence of problems. Inward tourism to Greece is way down this summer and fewer Greek people will be taking holidays or at least cutting back on the distances travelled, cost of hotels and eating out. nevertheless we are greeted by taxi drivers' complaints that on a Wednesday, 3 flights a day and the Athens ferry now arriving in the evening are too much - to much hurry, hurry. But apart from that Kythera this summer is quiet - 'nice quiet, good roads not many peoples'. We hear that local hotels have refused to take any bookings for August from new incoming tour operators because they want to keep the rooms vacant for all of the Greeks that will come to visit. Hope springs eternal ......

Whoever spoke of 'the enigma wrapped in a smile' must have visited Greece at some time.  For despite all that is going on and the very real financial difficulties of the nation, the people are still smiling, still trying to do their best, still friendly, still giving away free drinks, free desserts and putting themselves out to help where possible.

Apart from the days when I have to 'attend' meetings via Skype, time has a completely different meaning here. I don't wear a watch. There are three types of 'alarm clock' here, each guaranteed to wake the heaviest of sleepers. The first is the bright sunlight as the sun rises before 6am. The second is the leg cracking of thousands of cicadas as they start trying to attract another; apparently triggered by the temperature rising beyond 28'C. If you are not already awake then the rising temperature to it's daily 44'C - 47'C will soon coat one in cooling sweat making it impossible to remain in comfortable sleep.

Breakfast and any shopping that might be needed are the only priorities for the morning. The rest of time is immaterial. I know the approximate time by the sighting of the little ferry that goes to the mainland every day or the sound of the island's aeroplane arriving or departing for Athens. I know the day of the week by the aircraft, ferries or cruise liners that go by. Monday is the Dutch tour operator from Kalamata; the first we hear is the bus driver totting the horn in the village to hurry up the departing tourists and then an hour or so later we hear their 'plane. Tuesday a particular cruise ship goes sedately towards Athens. Wednesday there are two local flights from Athens and a very large MSC container ships goes past on it's way to Athens or Istanbul. Thursday the 'big' ferry goes up past our house towards Githion, the cruise ship from Athens returns and then the Githion ferry returns. Friday the little local ferry has an extra trip. Saturday the large ferry comes down from Githion - we don't usually see it going up as it does so in the middle of the night.  Sunday is usually quiet.

All of this takes place at a distance and does not impinge upon our solitude one bit. As we all get older and our short term memory won't work as well as it once did, we are grateful for these markers of time. We have no rush. We don't have the desperate challenge of keeping a diary, remembering to look at it and to squeeze in appointment after appointment. We don't need to keep pages blanked out 'just in case' a meeting is that day or the next. We don't need to wait weeks, months, years even for hospital appointments. We don't need to plan to take time of work, then telephone the doctor's surgery first thing in the morning on the off chance that we might get an appointment that day.

In Greece life is very different. Friends make plans no more than 2 days in advance, so we are either meeting for coffee this morning or tomorrow, going out for a meal tonight or tomorrow evening. It is very simple. If we are ill we go to the local clinic/hospital, pay the grand sum of 2 Euros (now about £1.55, and the parking is free!) and see a doctor within half an hour. If we need to be admitted we are admitted there and then - not in 10 weeks or left waiting for a letter asking us to telephone to make an appointment. If it is something outside of the remit of our local facilities then we catch the next ferry or flight and are admitted within 2 days at the most to hospital in Sparta or Athens. If we need to see the dentist, we telephone and will be sitting in the dentist's chair that evening or the next morning. Similarly business meetings are called for today or tomorrow and very occasionally the day after that.

We were given a lovely little weather station that told us the temperature, humidity, cloud bank for now and the next 24 hours. Unfortunately Waldo put it in a sheltered spot on our patio where it reached 50'C and then blew up! As the heat become almost unbearable in the afternoons it is impossible to try to work. So we rest. Sometimes that means lying down reading a book, doing some sewing, light work at the computer or actually going to bed and going to sleep. I just love the few minutes of freshness I feel when getting up from an afternoon sleep around 8pm, having a shower and dressing to go out. Of course as soon as we step outside the airconditioning and into the 30'C heat the sticky, sweaty skin looses all it's freshness. But once it is dark, being outside, even in 30'C+ is pleasant as there is no searing sun and often a cool breeze.

And so we have our 24 / 7, but how different, how much more relaxing than the busy world of commerce and Western capitalism. What is amazing, is that I get as much, if not more work done in this atmosphere than I do in the pressurising life back in the UK. just thiunk about it.