Chris and I went into Chania yesterday to visit our IKA (National Health Service) doctor only to find the surgery locked and no doctor to be seen. On the way home we stopped off at the central IKA building in Souda to have our books stamped for 2009 and only just made it in time as they were all on strike from midday, hence the surgery being closed. It would seem hospital staff, health workers, and allied occupations really get the short end of the stick in Greece as they are forever complaining about not being paid, sometimes for months on end so naturally I assumed this was once again the reason for the strike but no … this time it was a gesture of sympathy for the Palestinians in Gaza. Now what good a strike in Greece could do for the Palestinians I have no idea but, as Chris remarked, it did give them all the chance of a long weekend. Farmers on Crete tend to demonstrate quite a bit as well, usually because the olive oil subsidy hasn’t been paid.
In the eleven years since we bought the house in Crete we have seen so many changes in this area, some of which take one completely by surprise. Yesterday something was here, today it’s gone, and tomorrow something else will have taken its place except that, in the current financial climate, it is not going to happen so fast. Vacated premises will stay vacated for a while. Asked to bring home sausages for dinner, as we were standing outside the market in Chania, I suggested we just pop in and purchase them from any one of a dozen butchers in that establishment but Chris said no, let’s get them from our own butcher come greengrocer in Vamos. So back to Vamos we duly drove only to find that our local butcher who was there yesterday is not there today. The shop has been gutted and he has obviously gone down the tubes. On the way back to the parking lot right next to one of three proper restaurants in Vamos who should come walking up the hill but Christos, the restaurateur himself and, after cheery hairy greetings, I ask why his restaurant stands empty and cold. Again it is because of what he termed “the crises” and he is not reopening but staying with the one he opened last year in Kalyves. Well that seemed to do remarkably well during the season catering for the holiday makers but will it do the same in the winter? Who knows? The restaurant in the park the owners decided, though nobody seems to know why, is evidently closed until March which leaves only the one open for the winter. Sad and it will probably get worse.
Here’s a lighten up bit for you, Wolf – In the paper today an article about seven Thai elephants who (unlike chimps who doodle and daub abstracts), paint figuratively using their trunks to hold the paintbrush. The particular elephant photographed was shown together with his finished work of a vase of flowers. Maybe not quite as talented as a human being but hopefully this show of obvious intelligence might make us consider animals with a little more understanding and compassion.