What was burned is alive

I am in Corfu, in Ano Korakiana. When I woke on the first day I watched the sun rise from the balcony at 208. Then I had a cup of tea. I went to the bottom of the garden and saw that the charred tree behind the house is already, in winter, sprouting shoots. The lemon and orange trees are heavy with fruit. Charred ground is covered in green. I exchanged greetings with the neighbours. Bought bread and butter at the shop. It didn't seem to matter that our roof is in a mess; that the airline has lost one of my bags in Athens. I feel it will come right.
I went down to the harbour at Ipsos to check Summer Song was secure. John, when I dropped in for a tea and an egg and bacon sandwich at Ipsos, said he'd driven, with the money CJ's had collected for the Greek Fire Disaster, to the village of Kakovatos on the middle of the west coast of the Peloponnese where it had been used to buy animal feed.

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Nov 22: Dear Lin. Flights were uncomplicated and uncrowded. Had 3 seats to myself on both legs and arrived in Corfu at 0625 in darkness. Carousel delivers only one of the cases. Eleni in lost property says it’s in Athens and. of course, it's the heavy one missing. Maybe it looked suspicious under the X-rays. I must phone first thing tomorrow for the morning flight from Athens. She’s confident it’ll turn up. Meanwhile the quilt is on the bed. I couldn’t find the car for 30 minutes then found the ‘Mr Simon’ sign in a larger white saloon near the lake. No wonder I missed it. By then it was a perfect pink misty dawn with promise of the sun we’ve had for most of the rest of the day.
Leftheris and Lulu send their love. They were so welcoming. The new bedroom is pristine. No water has got under the stable door – whose bottom half tho' is v.sticky as you’d guess. Kitchen is fine, as is dining room. So it’s all entirely liveable and lovable as ever and Bubble is roaming outside being fed by the Leftheris who've looked nicely after our plants. Aln came up swiftly at 1130 and we spent the next two hours inspecting and talking. The long and the short of it is that even what tiny bit of electrics X has done is dangerous and I can see why. Aln said ‘I’ll do it’. We perched on the roof and surveyed.

There’s not a lot to add to what we’ve already learned from the exchange of photos, just a growing general impression that except for Z's electrical work, and his and Y's plastering, our first gang of 'builders' didn't have much idea about building whether its’ about plakering, roofing or putting in windows. Aln kept apologising for bearing bad news but I kept thinking that the best work get’s done on 208 Democracy Street when you and I are there, doing it ourselves or supervising someone else doing what we can’t do. ‘Roofing shouldn’t be done at this time of year’ said Aln pointing out a multitude of familiar problems.

D & M have made the new roof waterproof, D, having cut off the beam ends (since Aln visited while we were in Birmingham) and hung a skirt of waterproof lining over that edge and under the tiles. There are no leaks we can see in our bedroom or the spare room. But as you know the seals at either end, tho’ OK for the moment, will need replacing properly. You know this already.

I had a comfortable catch up snooze this afternoon and did some local gov work for my return sitting up in a bedroom warmed by hot water bottle and the electric radiator D has put upstairs and which is being used to dry sheets. A cat messed my cycle pannier and a corner of the top sitting room. I’ve cleaned and disinfected. The SIM card works fine and I’ve spoken to D to arrange a meeting tomorrow or Friday. He sounds his usual laid back self.

I saw John at CJs for an egg and bacon butty, he said ‘Hi’ as though I’d not been away and sends his version of love to you ‘So Lin’s let you off on your own for a while then? (:))’ Aln has spoken to P re a Greek builder who works for him. He speaks no English but he will send him up to look over the house, the roof in particular, with L who’ll translate. It could be a useful back-up.

I think more and more that we should be here when any work is done. We learn. We negotiate. We inspect. We can arrange payment. I think we should gulp and say hold everything. The quality of work done by the September gang means we need to learn and shift our attitude to improvements and repairs on this place. I love it but its been messed with by amateurs. Take that window. I was so pleased to see the view again I didn’t think to note how incredibly shabby is its installation. I don’t need to go into the details. You know. I have nonetheless been using my camera and have a few choice shots and quotes from Aln for you to savour. The electrics in the sitting room can wait and we can look for a proper plasterer to finish that room and repair the unevenness of that arch ‘What did they think they were doing?’ says A. Then comes the floor and the flue.

These things will just have to wait. The roof is leaking but not seriously. There’s dampness near the front opposite the balcony. Aln says there's a ‘soft spot’ in the roof but it's something easily braced – almost certainly not serious given the weight the old roof has been happily supporting.

I’ve phoned X and he is going to do the cupboards in the kitchen before I leave. I think that’s enough to be going along with. I’ll check the electricity bill tomorrow. They were closed by the time I finished with A and there was no bill at the shop, tho’ they are due every 2 months. Hope things are still standing in Handsworth. S XXXX (and to our children)

Nov 24: Dear L. The bag was waiting for me this morning at the airport. I've paid Kostas for the car and visited the electrical place. The bill estimate was €110 and I was advised to pay another €70 to cover us until the next bill. They had no idea why we'd not got a bill yet. I'm glad it's paid and I have a receipt and I have figured out the complicated route to get to where you pay.
X is doing the cupboards on Monday. Any other jobs I should suggest? Like fixing the balcony tighter? Putting in a shelf somewhere else? Putting up some hooks? Making me a boiled egg and soldiers?...
The old roof has been stripped to the waterproof paper leaving a margin of mortar round the edge which is why damp has got in the sitting room. Aln reckons its v.mild damp and that the roof will be OK until Spring. I'm saying this so that I can feel OK telling D & M not to do more work - except the last strip by the guttering - unless we're there.
Aln pointed out that Y had put staples through the waterproof paper to hold it on - an absolute 'no no' encouraging leaks once the water's found its way through. A did say ellenike could be OK but that you still need a roofer who knows how to put it on and how to place different shaped thigh tiles so that it looks nice.

The garden isn't yet overgrown but no doubt will be by Spring the way Greek vegetation flourishes. Your rockery looks solid and green. This morning mist lay below me and far across the island. Beautiful to view but I'm glad we're above it. I will cuddle Bubble. I think she's pregnant.Kostas and I were chatting in general terms over 'problems'. He spread his arms and looked at me compassionately. 'Because you are a normal good English person, everybody tries to be a bastard! Not for profit - just friendly - you know'. In a nutshell. 'You must be firm! Tell them!' The bed was so big without you. I had to kick the hot water bottle this morning. X S

In Greece

Wednesday at 208 Democracy Street: I wake before 6.00 which is just before 8 here. This morning is grey and even damp from a short rain (predicted even last Saturday) while we slept, brought, as usual, by a rare southerly breeze.

Most bad things in Greece come from the north (totalitarians and the m*lt*mi with its moaning delivery of suicide and household mayhem) but the issue in Greek foreign policy since WW2 has been an island to the south east. The British relinquished their governing role in 1959, satisfied to an agreement that gave them a military base in Cyprus and bars for our lads. Tension between Cypriots, locked in their children’s history books, and stands by Greek and Turkish governments in defence of their own, as this is understood, on the island and on the two mainlands, has stymied reliable peace. Memory of the feud – great acts of chopping and shooting between villages – has made old men and women weary of the fervent young, so ready, if licensed by their elders, to set upon each other, in uniform for their state or as bandits for their friends. Internal politics in Turkey and Greece are swayed by great men’s views on ‘the problem of Cyprus’. Some young mainland Greeks scorn the trouble bringers – ‘Cypriots, ttch!’ The Aegean pot is stirred by the great powers protecting our ultimate driver. A river intractable runs through it from the Middle East. Until our economies eschew carbon and we live instead on the bounty of sun and the wind we live under the satrapy of oil.

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And now comes more sweet rain. When we go to the cottage people say “you’ve brought the rain” with reproach, but in Korakiana it’s only a blessing and we must hope for more.

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Tuesday 4 September at 208 Democracy Street
The train journey to Gatwick and the flight passed most of Monday. We arrived at Corfu in the night. Kostas’ son met us with the hire car. We drove to Ipsos and dropped in on the café there for an indoor smoke and a drink. V was just tidying up to go home. Dg sat at the counter as he had when we left and J pointed to the collection box for the victims of fire mentioning ‘one boy they bought in with firelighters – 65 years!’. We wandered across the road and drove up the jetty to see ‘Summer Song’ lying quietly at her mooring. Amplified sound came from the strip but most places seemed lightly patronised, except where a coach party milled in one long bar.

At Ano Korakiana, at one in the morning, Lin dropped me off with the luggage and parked further up the village. I found the keys in their place. The house held the day’s heat. I surrendered to the air conditioner. There was building dust and detritus everywhere and much incomplete, but the upstairs room with its divider out is a great improvement. The replaced window stood wide open to the cooler night and a moonlit view of the sea and hills and a landscape dotted with too many lights. I made us tea and coffee. Lin wiped surfaces. I was glad we’d anticipated there’d be ‘a few things to be done’.

I woke just before 8. Wandering to the balcony I shade my eyes, gazing only momentarily to the east, where the sun has already turned the view to dazzling monotones, assailing the house through windows left unshuttered by the previous builder, leaking through the ones that are protected. The clock ticks in the kitchen. Lin sleeps. I make myself a cup of tea bracing for the heat, wondering what to wear. M. texted he was coming round with G. They sat over coffee and tea, new bread and honey, I’d got from the shop.
Lin paid part of what we owed for work to date. M. will come tomorrow to try and finish more of the top room. Gossip about the island. Police heavies from the mainland have visited to enforce laws on things like bad driving and parking habits and not wearing helmets on motorbikes. Local police not wanting to stir things with fellow islanders treated many infractions as customary, and tolerance on such things has long been part of tourism, but the state is putting its foot down to avoid paying more fines to the EU, whose Regional Structure Fund has benefited Greece since she joined. Brussels is now saying ‘what’ve you been doing with all the cash you’ve had from our shared pot? Didn’t you know when you dipped into it that there were conditions? Where’s the structure? Rule of law? Regulatory frameworks? Your borders have had the protection you get from full membership of the union. The Euro emphasises that, making a mockery of neuroses, once justified, about the ‘Macedonian Question’. Do you seriously think the place under the conditional name FYROM is going to invade, invest Thessalonika and march on Athens? Grow up. Stop the corruption. End the pervasive clientelism that blights your democracy. Stop the seedy relaxed attitude to the rule of law!’ Of course I wouldn’t countenance such views’ being too used to what pots tell kettles.

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Evening of Tuesday 4 Sept: The house, although we’ve not wanted at first to admit it to ourselves, is more of a mess than we’d expected. The Apothiki is a fish skeleton of nailed lengths of wood, lathes and debris from the upstairs building work. ‘Who would have known the old wall to have so much rubble in it?’ There ‘s a pile of broken tiles and odds and ends on the balcony. Furniture wears a fine dust from the sanded floor, which is incomplete, as are the walls with wires loose and rough surfaces. Builders’ odds and ends have been plonked down all over. The garden looks more of a mess than when it was rubble. To top this there’s been a fire in the land below our house that was once overgrown. From the balcony you can see a couple of dead trees, others badly scorched. Mrs Leftheris greeted us and shook her head at the devastation.

To add to our chagrin I was stung by a wasp and trod on a nail. Blood dripped on the path until Lin found a pad for my heel. The wasp must have been weary so I didn’t go into antiepileptic shock as I did once. We tidied and tidied. Now there’s a pleasant waft of salad in preparation, plus fresh bread, and wine. Supper of tzadziki, ham, salad of tomatoes, onions, peppers and feta, with a chilled retsina. Lin wondered if there was some music and I dug out on my laptop some of the lute music from Iraq that Dhiaa has sent me when I asked him about his favourites, interspersed with songs from Miki Theodoraki’s setting for Axion Esti – near East mingling with Middle East. It’s strangely moving to hear these sung in German given their context.

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J said ‘business has been shite’ this summer. G. said middle Europeans – Croats and others from Yugoslavia come to Corfu with their food and drink in their baggage. ‘They stand outside bars chatting and dancing and drinking. enjoying the lights and music but not spending any money. They even bring their own water!’