The famous castle of Frangokastello is that long grey object in the middle of the shot.
When I’m not kvetching about the rubbish, I’m raving about the view from the balcony here. It’s totally ekpliktiki – stunning – but you need to be able to see the castle to get the full effect. So Zia and Thanassis, our downstairs neighbour, each embraced their inner boy the other day, and rummaged about in the mulberry tree, trimming the branches before winter set in.
The downside to all this is that we’ve turned Thanassis’ brave kitchen garden into a desert – no shade now. He’s not complained yet. He was happy to share a beer after the sawing and the climbing, and make sure we knew he was a Communist and believed in ‘nothing’. Lots of grinning about reading the Little Red Book and Marx and Lenin when younger.
Zia is a big admirer of Chairman Mao. Pakistan and China have a high regard for each other at present. I’m summoning up the courage to lob him a question about the way the Muslim Uigar community is treated these days – locking up their representatives and rationing prayer time. Imran Khan swerved the question when he was in New York just now, trying to get the Kashmiris’ plight on the agenda.
But I probably won’t. Choose your battles, as they say.
Today I was chained to my desk, noodling around some new story ideas and doing my Greek homework, waiting for the guy to come and fix the seal on the sink. Due at 9 he showed up at 1.30. It’s fine. I got a lot done.
Izzy Brown 