Comments on: Trying times

By: helen

helen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:29:53 +0000

I always feel if I whinge too much then people will just say “why do you live there then?” like I’m not allowed to have off days when everything just feels like it’s getting on top of you. Maybe I’m just over sensitive or too pernickety (love that word!).
Thanks for the vote of confidence – not that I’ve got anything against cows:-)

By: kat

kat — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:10:59 +0000

Yes, I’m not really great at denial. The funny thing is, we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

If I gush all day about the glory of Greece, I’m called a clueless tourist who doesn’t know how things work here.

If I tell the truth, they admit I’m right and even speak more harshly than I ever would, but somehow I’m not entitled as a non-Greek and therefore disrespectful. My friend Panos calls it chauvinism.

P.S. I’ve never met you, but I’m sure you’re not a cow!

By: helen

helen — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:14:04 +0000

Alice, it does seem to happen to everyone and I really do resent being a cash cow especially when I don’t have much cash and I’m not a cow – others may disagree!!

Sally, sorry to hear about the impending court case. When we finally buy a house I think our nearest neighbours will have to be about 5 miles away!

Kat, I know what you mean about being thought of as ‘disrespectful’ to a country that isn’t my own but when the rose tinted glasses come off you just have to tell it like it is don’t you?

By: kat

kat — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:54:12 +0000

The endemic you refer to is a good way to describe how little truth and how prevalent rumors can be in everyday life, especially when a majority surrounds you and is trying to beat you over the head to agree. Some days, I feel as if I’m going insane and it’s only by speaking to someone with the same mind set, someone fighting equally hard to keep their wits, that one can feel ‘normal’ again.

It’s tiring to hear people blame tourists for garbage, how nothing is their responsibility, and I’m a liar for telling the truth about prices, racism, egoism and the like. This is the reason I don’t share details from my everyday life any longer; it became too burdensome to keep an optimistic attitude and then answer commentators who would tell me my life isn’t really the way it is and I had no right to be ‘disrespectful’ toward a country that is not and will never be my own.

I keep going knowing that one day it will be over, or there will be a moment such as you describe when your children put a smile on your face and it all melts away.

By: sally

sally — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:43:42 +0000

Tell me about it Helen and we don’t even live there most of the time. Our “lovely” neighbour is busy suing us for alegedly chopping down 10 of his olive trees, building a cement road and stealing one of his old walls – needless to say none of which we have actually done! He just wants us to buy land from him at an inflated price and since we have said no he is trying to cause trouble in the hopes that we will pay up. But still we have to come over to go to court in April to answer the charges. Just bizarre. Sally

By: Alice

Alice — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:04:23 +0000

Hey there, sorry to hear you have been having a bit of a trying time of late. Ups and downs everywhere me thinks Although reading your post did remind me of the lower times that we spent on the island… times when we too felt people were just making money out of us because they could It’s such a shame but I’m sure that all the great things far outweigh! And if it makes you feel any better, yesterday I was walking down the high street of my beautiful quaint market town and saw a young boy (with his mother) casually open his milkyway wrapper and discard it in the otherwise clean street. GRRRRRRRRRRRR.