INDEPENDENCE DAY

Greek Independence Day holiday overlooking Panormo harbour

After a short spell in the UK, I have heard that there are people asking when the next blog will be and that I am under orders. So this blog is dedicated to Josie and her little dog Horatio (who I've never met) but they been waiting for the latest episode from our part of the world and becoming concerned that there seem to be large gaps between transmissions. I fear that Josie may be disappointed because I have just spent two weeks in and around Manchester! However, I did have some nice days in the UK and enjoyed varieties of Spring flowers which do not appear in Crete.

Daffs along the tow path in Stone

I had several illuminating conversations with people back in the UK. The first expression on hearing how anxious the Brexit decision has made those of us living abroad, prompted an almost identical response from most people:

(in a rather belligerent tone)

… “Well, what difference is it going to make to you then?” ...

Gulp!  It was obvious that the average Brit was under the impression that ex pats are all living in Shang-ri-la and that we are all engaged in lounging around on yachts or by the side of our own swimming pools drinking gin and tonics being lazy and horrible! Oh no,  we are not! So, after sketching my worries over peace and stability within Europe, I began to explain that the drop in the pound had hit us instantly in the pocket so our pensions had devalued by 15-20%,   We had no peace of mind about our future lives/nationality/status and the likelihood of any sort of healthcare provision once the UK had left Europe, and that along with EU nationals settled in the UK and UK nationals settled throughout Europe, we were all bargaining chips in the forthcoming negotiations. For people who had quite legitimately sold up everything and gone to other places in Europe to try and make a living or a modest pension stretch a bit further, the future looked anything but rosy. I don't think people in the UK could imagine the position for overseas residents, near or far. In fact the divisiveness of the process has caused people to dig their heels in and behave in ways that they never would have, say, five years ago. As a seeker after truth and peace, I was a bit unnerved by the overt animosity of it all.

Fire window at Manchester Cathedral

Despite the long term worry over health care, we still have a year or so before everything closes in on us and our IKA health insurance books needed their annual renewal in March. In recent years, a group of us always used to organise a dawn raid on the IKA office with books, passports, a crib sheet form on which we copied our declaration in wobbly Greek letters saying that we did not earn any money in Greece and only received a pension from our home countries. After presenting these to the people behind the grills, if were lucky we would get our books back stamped for the forthcoming year in the midst of crowds of people who were all trying to do the same thing at the same time. ~What a scrum!  We learned that this year we needed an extra form from our Accountant to ensure that we had paid all our taxes due to the Greek government. I managed to renew my book but K's visit and 4 hour wait was in vain.  He needed an extra piece of paper from the UK Government before he can give it all to the IKA office and breathe a sigh of relief. Its a very frustrating process but ensures that if we do suddenly need medical treatment, we will be covered for this year at least. After Brexit – who knows what will happen?

It is a relief to arrive back in the homely Cretan village where our hard working neighbours' pensions have been reduced to one-third of the value they were five years ago. Despite all this, they set us a good example and soldier on honourably - all is quiet, orderly, peaceably traditional and the birds have not stopped singing this morning so, being here does have its homespun and home-grown compensations. I delivered a big box of Thorntons chocolates to my dear friend Angeliki at the kafeneon, who has a weakness for English chocolate, and was given a bag of eggs and a bottle of their home made wine a few minutes later! Her husband Kosta makes very good home made wine which tastes like sherry. So it is important to serve it in a small glass and only have the one! We are still in Lent, when Greek Orthodox faithfuls fast by giving up meat, fish, eggs, dairy food and exist on grains, pulses, fruit, vegetables and alternative sea foods such as shell fish, prawns, squid and octopus. I thought I would have a go at adopting the practice this Lent, which was easy in Crete but not at all easy in the UK. I did my best but lapsed on a few occasions!

Saturday was Greek Independence Day and a national holiday. The service at the village church was broadcast by loudspeaker to all the nearby houses and followed by a march of school children dressed in navy and white to the village square all carrying Greek flags. As it finished, we decided to go into Panormo for a cup of coffee since our favourite coffee bar opened for the first day of the new season in celebration. The sun was warm and we discovered other friends who were in Panormo for the morning and bumped into more friends making up an impromptu party for lunch at one of the few restaurants open yet, near the edge of the sea. It is still Lent, so the menu was predominantly sea food items and we tucked in adventurously to shrimp saganaki, salted cod with a garlic sauce or cuttlefish spaghetti, sampling the home-grown olive oil and house white wine as we waited and chatted.  It was a heaven sent opportunity to catch up with one another after emerging from the hibernation of winter. A brave tourist couple swam in the harbour and sunbathed on the sand, but it was too chilly for us still! The talk was of getting our homes cleaned after the soot and dust of the winter, damp problems and leaks caused by the heavy snowfall and getting gardens sorted. Phone numbers for handymen, painters or paint suppliers, taxi drivers and chimney sweeps were exchanged. All of us welcomed the contact and buzzing hive of industry to get us back to work again after the winter chills!