 |
| Our water boiler thermostat |
“Just to be quite
sure about the connections, Yianni. It’s blue to blue and brown to red? Yes?”
I pointed to the
points of connection on the thermostat he’d sold me.
“No”
“Surely it’s brown to
red and blue to blue?”
“Yes. By all means
make this connection. You will blow up your boiler and burn down your house”
“But...?”
“Look” He ran his
figure over the circuit diagram I hadn’t noticed, in relief on the plastic
housing.
“See the numbers?" They were also there “Brown goes to one
and blue to four”
I wrote it down,
muttering “brown to one, blue to four”
“Like that?”
“Yes of course”
“Thanks Yianni. Bye”
Other jobs - fitting
new taps to the washbasin, tightening the mixer tap in the kitchen. Flash
photos show the fixing so’s we can select the right bottle spanner. 
Getting
under, lying on a foam mattress, applying penetrating oil; waiting. Water’s
turned off but pipes in their nature drip. Fiddling, fitting, trying and
finally turning reluctant nuts on rusted threads. We’ve got plumber’s wadding
thread and the right wrenches. When the water’s on again with no leaks we get
pleasure. Work that once we wouldn’t have attempted - not me at any rate - will seem easier next time.
It must be as good when someone learning to read late in life can get through
the first pages of a Ladybird.
 |
| Das Boot |
...My ignorance of this
or rather my willingness to own up to it, apart from my interest in avoiding a
minor disaster, is a sign of C.P.Snow’s two cultures. It ought to be a
shameful to me to reveal such illiteracy about the simplest electrical wiring as for someone else who in secret embarrassment says they’ve lost
their spectacles when faced with being shown something to read. Two others including Linda had already made the brown-red, blue-blue connection clear, but they'd not even seen that circuit diagram on the thermostat. Would that
such shame could attach to denying the chronology of evolution and the wondrous
antiquity of the universe.
Just to remind myself again. If there was a history book whose pages were of rice paper and one page described a century, the length of the close packed bookshelf needed to hold the history of our universe – ο κόσμος μας - would be ten miles long – possibly ten and three quarters if you add in a bit of statistical uncertainty and varying types of paper - the distance from Ano Korakiana to St Spyridon’s Church in the city travelling on the Sidari-Paleo road.
Just to remind myself again. If there was a history book whose pages were of rice paper and one page described a century, the length of the close packed bookshelf needed to hold the history of our universe – ο κόσμος μας - would be ten miles long – possibly ten and three quarters if you add in a bit of statistical uncertainty and varying types of paper - the distance from Ano Korakiana to St Spyridon’s Church in the city travelling on the Sidari-Paleo road.
 |
| My KJV - a mere 23,800 years |
*** ***
A friend finally
discerned the ageing obscure sign with the name of the road that runs through
the village almost parallel with Democracy Street. Οδός Εθνικής Αντίστασης, National Opposition Street...
Why
such names? Until I point out these street signs and ask about them, nobody but
the village historian Kostas Apergis, who spoke sketchily to me about this some
years ago, even knows about them, let alone uses them. One road – ours - is the one that leads to Sokraki and the
other is the road to Ayios Markos. The naming of village streets was suggested
by the government of the Junta in the late 60s and chosen by just a few senior
people in the village. In those days ‘suggested’ meant ‘prescribe’ and response
was mandatory. What was to be done. I don’t know and unless I live here longer
it is most unlikely anyone will tell me the exact story. Perhaps wisely. The
Junta - ο καθεστώς των Συνταγματαρχών - described themselves as a democracy, so although they would have
preferred the street to be names something like April 21 Street – the day of
their coup in 1967, much celebrated on stamps and posters – they could not too obviously object to the name Democracy Street, especially as it so clearly ran
above the other street now called National Opposition Street.
 |
| Οδός Εθνικής Αντίστασης - normally called the road to Agio Marko |
**** ****
Mike Tye, who now
shares our allotment, sends me snippets of news about progress on plot 14:
As the wind rattles down the chimney and I watch the tree branches reach to the ground I fear the lashing rain will not encourage your spuds or anything else. Reports of Asparagus heading back down again are not exaggerated, maybe a better May blossom time, if its not all swept away today! MT ps I will not be heading to plot today I fear
