Seated in the conservatory having breakfast Sunday morning I could hear the Papas loud and clear going through his stuff which, considering I am hard of hearing and the church is a good half a kilometre away, means he had the decibels up to the fullest. I might have mentioned this before but it’s weird how the Greeks like noise. What did they do before they discovered the microphone and sound system? A traditional band of three of four playing at a celebration aren’t happy unless the music they make is around 110 decibels which I believed is the noise a plane makes taking off. Returning home in the early hours from a panagia at Litsarda a village a good four and a half kilometres away we can still hear the band giving out for all they’re worth. Music is far too loud in restaurants making conversation in some cases quite difficult. Evidently the authorities, in Athens anyway, have been inspecting nightclubs and restaurants and clamping down on the noise.
Talking of Litsarda we went last week to the brand new pizzeria and very impressive they have made it. Two very large rooms and a vast balcony. They have built two apartments on top one for each daughter both if whom are getting married this year Lucky sons-in-law is all wot I can says. One thing you have to say about Greek families, they do stick together. The food was as delicious as ever and it was a very merry party celebrating a friend’s birthday. The old pizzeria across the road that was abandoned for this brand new building is evidently going to be another taverna – pizzeria! How daft can you get? The original is an institution, people come from far and wide to patronize it; why would the village want a second pizzeria? It could be interesting to find out, eating in the old building as in days of yore. And still on the subject of food I forgot to mention in my previous Blog the grapes which are plumping out nicely as well. Maybe this year we’ll have better luck. The last two seasons were washouts; last year because for some reason the bunches tended to wither on the vine and the previous year because Mister Ratty and his family had a field day or more noshing on our grapes. In order to stop them I hung old DVD discs up which did the trick as they move and flash in the wind and sunlight and what amazing colours they produce, enough to frighten any rat away.
There were two letters in the Athens News this week in answer to the Dutch lady’s criticism of Greece and the Greeks, both of them more or less accusing her of ignorance and wanting to know how she could just condemn a whole nation out of hand with what little knowledge she might have. I am constantly amazed at how widespread the paper’s readers are. Letters come in from all over. America, Canada, Australia, I can understand , the Greek Diaspora, but why Holland? Interesting, like my Polish fan who hasn’t got his photograph yet but I will get around to it.