The bakery in Ano Korakiana

Polling station on Democracy Street on Sunday

Monday started clear but became an overcast day - warm and close. I’m pretty sure our neighbours were up all night. I woke at five to hear their TV softly relaying election commentary – rather less dramatic with proportional representation, as you don’t get to hear the succession of personal mini-triumphs and defeats as our British first-past-the-post results come in with the announcement of the count by the local government returning officer.
I knocked on their door and invited myself in, enjoyed the coffee and sweet things that Vasiliki makes and watched the TV as Lefteri and Adoni (just back, with Effie, from caring for elderly parents near Thessaloniki) commented on a streaming sub-title banner reporting performance around the country of ND New Democracy, PASOK Panhellenic Socialist Movement, KKE Communist Party of Greece, LAOS Popular Orthodox Rally, SYRIZA Coalition of the Radical Left, ANEL Independent Greeks, DIMAR Democratic Left, KOISY Social Agreement, DISY Democratic Alliance and about 21 other parties….(see Huffington Post for instance - showing ND coming first but Samaras unlikely to be able to form a government with PASOK or SYRIZA - next most successful in the poll....and this from Nick Malkoutzis:

We expected the two parties that have ruled Greece since 1974 to go through a staggered collapse, possibly over the course of two or three elections, but we are already surveying the debris today: The wrecking ball came in one fell swoop and left New Democracy and PASOK in ruins from which they will find it difficult to rebuild themselves.

At sunrise I went down the path below our garden to the lower road to complete an account of the bakery on National Opposition Street - Οδός Εθνικής Αντίστασης - with permission from Pepe via Stamatis at the shop.

ΚΥΛΙΝΔΡΟΜΥΛΟΙ  ΓΡΕΒΕΝΩΝ Ηλίας & Κώστας Αμανατίδης Ο.Ε.

Lin and I are devilling about small things, like putting too much lemon in the loo ("It'll mess up the soak away" "No it won't" "Yes it will" "OK you do what you like") and other banalities that amplify into ridiculous significance – thus are cattle distempered by insects.
A kind villager, Mariki I think, brought round some hanging geraniums and Vasiliki has given us a flowerpot of large daisies. Cycling back from the bakery, the carpenter I see working in his garage fronting Democracy Street, called me over to see the small inlaid round table he’d nearly finished; a finely turned central support and an exquisitely crafted table surface of orange, mahogany and – another greenish wood whose name I couldn’t catch – an intricate geometry of inlays awaiting finish and polish, over a circular frame in which he’d cut a hole for a small bow fronted drawer.
Once home I edited and compressed my film down to just under three minutes, and was about to show it by way of placation to Lin when I heard someone on the path outside our veranda say “Yasoo”. There was silence and then the greeting was repeated and peering round the wall appeared Richard and Emma.
“Bloo-dy hell” I exclaimed in delight. Lin was instant beaming; sun come out of a cloud. Soon we were chatting on the balcony, their hand baggage in the small bedroom already. They’d caught a flight deal from Birmingham for a week’s stay in Corfu, and driven on a day-hire from the airport.

Our son likes giving such surprises. We love getting them. Later Lin looked at the film of the bakery.
"It's good"

*** ***
See Jim Potts' Corfu Blues for comments and links on Corfu and overall Greek election results; and this is how a 65% turnout voted - with just 14 spoiled ballots - in Ano Korakiana; under three quarters of the village's 1252 permitted voters. As Thanassis points out on the village website, these figures like the national result show how difficult it will be to form a national government. We have 67 neighbours voting for far-right parties - Golden Dawn and LAOS, (At least the Greens got more votes - 41- than LAOS), 147 - the highest vote in the village for one party - voted for the left wing alliance SYRIZA who are against EU-IMF austerity programme, then 114 voted for PASOK the outgoing party, 111 for KKE, the communist party of Greece, and 87 for New Democracy ND, the party who received the most votes at national level.

Πλήρη ανατροπή του πολιτικού σκηνικού της χώρας, έδειξαν οι χθεσινές βουλευτικές εκλογές, με την ενίσχυση πολλών κομμάτων, η οποία δεν ξεπέρασε σε καμία περίπτωση το 20%. Παρόμοιο σκηνικό και στην Κέρκυρα, τις βουλευτικές έδρες της οποίας μοιράζονται από μία ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ (πρώτη δύναμη), η Νέα Δημοκρατία και το Κ.Κ.Ε.

Εγγεγραμμένοι:	1.252
Έγκυρα:	761
ΣΥΡΙΖΑ:	147	19,3%
ΠΑΣΟΚ:	112	14,7%
ΚΚΕ:	111	14,6%
Ν.Δ.:	87	11,4%
ΑΝ.ΕΛΛΗΝΕΣ:	84	11,0%
ΧΡΥΣΗ ΑΥΓΗ:	44	5,8%
ΔΗΜ.ΑΡΙΣΤΕΡΑ:	44	5,8%
Οικολόγοι:	31	4,1%
ΛΑΟΣ:	23	3,0%
Λοιποί:	78	10,2%

Δύσκολος φαίνεται ο σχηματισμός κυβέρνησης με διάρκεια και μια νέα προσφυγή στις κάλπες είναι πολύ πιθανή.
*** ***
On May 9 Richard Pine who lives in Perithia wrote his regular Letter from Greece for The Irish Times:

The tragedy of Greece's struggle to survive will affect us all: The general election has been a referendum on economic situation and its consequences.
I am sometimes asked why Irish readers should be concerned over the fate of the Greeks. Quite apart from the similarities in the depression of the two countries, Peter Murtagh’s recent reports from Athens in this paper vividly indicated the extent of the collapse of Greek society on both macro and micro levels. This has repercussions for Ireland. The reasons for needing to know about Greece are threefold.
Firstly, the fact that we are all within the EU – at least for the present – means we do not ask for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for us. Secondly, we need to appreciate that a country considered principally as a two-dimensional holiday destination is actually populated by real people with real lives to lead outside the holiday season: we have severe winters here! Thirdly, Greece gave us concepts such as “democracy”, “economy”, “philosophy”, “aesthetics”, “semantics”, and, admittedly, “plutocracy” and “kleptocracy” – in fact, about one-third of our vocabulary. That it should lose its sovereignty, its status, even its attraction as a holiday magnet, is a matter for all of us to regret and to recognise we can do nothing about it. And – here is the real tragedy – neither can the Greeks.....

Richard and Emma at Ipsos

General Election UK

From the kitchen window. Beyond the sea - Albania

“The place looks especially islandy today”

“What do you mean ‘islandy’?”

”I don’t know. It just does.”

Sun and gentle haze, not the summer fog, have made foreground, middle ground and background separate, according depth to the landscape; the firmest blue and green along the island shore; brindled blue-grey flecked flaxen by sunlight between fluffy clouds on the receding ridges of Albania. We’re repairing a washstand that must have been well but simply made in the 1950s, perhaps earlier, with good mortises and precise angles. Discarded it had begun to fall apart weakened by woodworm, though not too much; one leg-end rotting, with clues as to its use – burns where cigarettes may have been left during washing; fine repeated shallow cuts where shaving foam was smeared off a cut-throat razor; scratched initials barely readable; dark patches from standing water on winter days rather than later rain in an abandoned house; an attempt at makeshift maintenance hammering in over twenty two-inch nails – rusted, rotting the joints they were meant to tighten; cracking and blemishing the pine.

It was simple pleasure. Like getting a potential survivor into A & E. Woodworm killer was allowed time to work. Nails were extracted or driven on through, the piece disassembled, and put together again with glue, joints realigned, a drawer made where one was missing, mortise and tenon joints cut for the wood surround; the whole sanded with a new piece of wood replacing the rotten leg-end; the frame that had got out of square pulled straight and the table top mended and re-attached with countersunk screws.

Now all that’s needed is to fill the old nail holes and do enough extra sanding to tidy but not remove the history and decide what to do with the hole for the wash basin.

*** ***

This morning I asked Leftheris about the election in UK, he having TV and me with errands before going on the internet at Mark and Sally's. “Brown two” he said holding up two fingers. I understood 'second'. But he was unsure who was first because, as I was suspecting, it was not clear who was first. We seemed to be looking to a hung parliament and the unaccustomed negotiation that follows when no party has an overall majority. Meantime I shall be interested to see what’s been happening in the local government elections (invariably obscured by the national news), given the higher turnout that goes with having these on the same day as a General Election.

Alan arrived to continue work and told me more details adding news of the problems experienced by many casting their vote because of overcrowded, possibly ill-managed polling stations. From the the ladder “We’re a laughing stock. We’re not a banana republic. We’ve not even got bananas! What’s happening to us. We were the ones who monitored other people’s elections. Now the EU’s sent people over to monitor us.”

The builders, over the way, have been having a joyous time rubbishing all politicians, expressing their views on civil servants’ wages, especially now that pensions are being cut across the Republic. Alan joined in the general scorn, stirring disapprobation of our two governments, as they worked.

“One problem” he observed to us “is that now we’ve made this deal to get help with mixing and pouring cement is they’re now part of your balcony project, so I’m going to be getting lots of advice”

Mark drove by around then and shouted down to Alan “You don’t want to do it like that!” Around noon the building material truck arrived. With impressive dexterity the driver, having manoeuvred his truck to a point in the middle of Democracy Street above us, stabilised it with a hydraulic strut extended from the chassis, and proceeded, with remote control slung at his waist, to guide the truck crane to pick up up several tons of sand and cement and lower them gently down to the bottom of our steps – the operation done in 10 minutes - speed that's valued on Democracy Street, as it's blocked during deliveries, although drivers seem to take such delays in their stride. There’s no altercations; no honking.

Carpentry, cake and democracy

This morning Mrs Lefteris came to our door with a delicious cake made from a squash (kolokithi), warm from the oven - moist, dotted with raisins, topped with pieces of orange and sesame seed. Three slices disappeared from a red plastic plate that sat between us as we got ready for another day on the cupboard. Our tustle with this has lasted ten days. We've still to strip down to the wood, wax it, paint inside and replace a pane of glass. This amateur joinery is a parable for my attitude to democracy - a system of government marginally superior to the others, easily distorted by populism, based on that hallowed invention of Classical Greece which excluded women and the slaves, on which their economy, and the leisure that allowed a relative minority to take part in politics, depended.

We could hear young Leftheris trying out his new trumpet and high in the sky glimpse one of the first contrails since the volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded planes across the continent. "If Iceland can send south this chaos as revenge for allowing it to go bankrupt, what could Greece send north as a commensurate threat to the bankers in Brussels?" asked Richard Pine at supper in town.

Henry Maine wrote about democracy as 'popular government', suggesting that idealists could not accept the idea of democracy as 'just another form of government'. Instead they had a way of speaking of the 'divine right of the people' that sounded suspiciously like those monarchists who claimed the same ridiculous rights for a king. I hope I could fight to the death, or at least be prepared to die for the marginal difference that makes democracy better than totalitarianism, but I'm aware that, like fitting separate pieces of recovered woodwork into an uneven hole in the wall to create something that holds together, serves a useful purpose and looks good, democracies require regular redesign, repetitious tweaking, good will, perseverance, tolerance and all the gifts of diplomacy. I suspect that some of our neighbours feel compassion for us, assuming we are unable to afford to buy a new cupboard or have one fitted by a professional. The idea that we actually enjoy giving all this attention to recovered wood and old fittings may seem bizarre - ditto those who strive to make democracy work.

Meantime from England I had a nice briefing of the current situation in the run-up to our General Election on 6 May.

I don't know how many votes there are for our expiring administration in whistling up a couple of aircraft carriers and restaging Dunkirk but this turns out to be a very good time to be in the UK, not least because both politics and nature are conspiring to stand the world as we know it (TWAWKI) on its pointy head. By this afternoon it had dawned on both major parties that the electorate (aka the Great Dismissed) has chosen to pile onto the Clegg/Lib Dem bandwagon as a way of stiffing PAU (Politics As Usual). As a consequence the Tory backwoodsmen are re-emerging (cometh the hour, cometh the Tebbit) instructing Their Dave to cancel tonight's mega-expensive party political (which Dave's done) and unleash the attack dogs on the proper target. Which will play exactly into the Lib Dems' hand. Glorious stuff. And about time too....

My reply begins:

Dear G. It's briefings like this that keep me in touch so that I sound as if I know what I'm talking about when running a session on 'political nous' the morning after I get back from Corfu in May. Thanks. If the Lib Dems show up significantly in a new Parliament they'll push, as they did during the brief Lib-Lab pact, for proportional representation. Few in England understand PR (especially as there are so many versions - ever been cornered by a PR anorak. Run. I wouldn't as it's my bread and butter and probably not you 'cos you're a writer) yet voters still sense PR's fairer than first past the post and would be good for the multiplicity of TWAWKI (an acronym I'm stealing along with PAU). PR's proved popular in Scotland after start-up problems two years ago....

* * *

On Paul and Cinta's house - a present from their opposite - neighbour Nico, there's a bi-lingual sign in bright fresh colours:

This street, running about a mile, through the centre of Ano Korakiana, from Venetia westward, only got its name in the time of the Colonels when we were told by Kostas Apergis, soon after we bought our house here, and I started this web diary, that a message - a directive - came from Athens to the villages and towns, to give names to streets that celebrated the regime - names like Οδός 21ην Απριλίου 1967 - a date still celebrated by some in Greece. Ano Korakiana's response, if I understand correctly, was, in those dangerous times, an exercise in practical wisdom (Μῆτις). They chose the name Οδός Δημοκρατίας - a Odyssean response to a dilemma that has lasted well. In fact the places in the village are still known - like Venetia, to the east on the Sokraki road - by their local names. Thus Natasha says our part of the village has long been known as 'the bear'. I give our address as 208 Democracy Street but no mail is delivered to our house, nor has it a mailbox. Our letters go, with most others, to the shop 30 metres from us at one of Democracy Street’s slight bends, where cars can pass, opposite a cake shop with a shade and and alcove where familiar people will often be standing or sitting, chatting and musing, greeting passersby, in the morning and evenings, a few yards from a Venetian arch leading into shade down steps to the lower road. Like all small shopkeepers, Stamatis Savvanis, competes with foodsellers whose vans drive through the village on weekdays announcing themselves through loudspeakers, and many main road supermarkets from Tzavros on – Sconto, A&B, Lidl. His shop sells bread from the village’s bakery – warm and crispy. Open weekdays from 10.00am to 2.00pm and 5.00pm to about 9.30pm. It's sensible to reserve bread on Saturdays as it leaves the shelf even more swiftly for the weekend.

Σταμάτης Ζαββανης