When I am not there I imagine Greece

When I am not there I imagine Greece. This was painted far inland - in Michigan - recalling a moon so bright it dazzled.

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I met with two friends - one English, one Iraqi, to plan the arrival in England of an academic refugee - and friend - from Basrah. The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics has granted money for subsistence and the University of Birmingham has waived academic fees so he can study for a PhD. I phoned him in the Middle East to go through details and hearing his voice for the first time in two years. There's still a long road. Getting visas is the next problem. We discussed this over two hours and covered many practical issues.

Kim, my friend and editor of the book to which I'm contributing, is sending me back to rejig my chapter. Her advice is good but it means I can't yet say goodbye to my writing yet.

Amy and me put up the nice old bed we'd driven down from Scotland on Monday. It was in Mains of Faillie and her grandmother has given it to her. Old dark wood in tudor style; a family bed being passed down.

I've e-mailed Kostas in Corfu to book us a car for September. Martin, one of our roofers in Corfu texted 'Hi Simon. Hows U and Linda...still got a few bits and pieces 2 do up at d house before u cum bak...All gud...C ya in 3wks...' I know exactly what Martin's saying. Why can't I text like that? It takes ages to click down to question marks yet I'm compelled to get them in and my thumb aches more.

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This May, the New York bank J P Morgan fired Mike Savvides, head of derivatives sales for Greece, after prosecutors began investigating how Greek pension funds bought €280,000,000 of government notes at face value hours after J P Morgan underwrote them at $0.93 on the €. (Current exchange rate $1.00=€0.74 or €1.00=$1.35). Various people must have trousered a lot of money through selling overpriced government bonds to Greek pension funds. The 'Greek bond scandal' has rumbled on in my peripheral vision for months. It forced Labour Minister Savvas Tsitouridis to resign and prompted Kostas Karamanlis to overhaul investment rules for state pension funds and it looks as if there's more to emerge. I wonder what the Greek equivalent would be for chickens coming home to roost. I don't understand international finance - along with 99% of the population - but I suspect we can all smell a rat (what's the Greek version of that?). Who blew the whistle on this? The Zorbas Report, forthcoming, may apportion blame.

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Monday 13 August: I've done this journey so many times. 450 miles from Strathnairn - 7 miles south of Inverness - to Birmingham. The M6 motorway covers the greater part of the route, its three southbound lanes passing through the Lake District, blighting the landscape with the unending hum of traffic.

I far prefer travelling by train but in 2007 and for the past 40 years I've been making the journey, especially when there is more than one person, travel by car is far less than the cost of a rail ticket - £25 each in petrol for Lin and me, but around £80 each for a single rail fare between Inverness and Birmingham.

We got married - 31 Oct 1978

I just wanted another picture of the sea and me and Lin. The oil on the wall at 1 Daisy Road was my recreation of a strong north wind blowing across the Gulf of Corinth. If I get this in I've given myself an excuse for putting in more pictures of people. Gosh look at that knife. * * *

From: W*** Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:30:51 +0100 (BST) To: Simon Subject: Re: Permission to use 'The Gallery' image in my blog? I have been somewhat effected by this new tension between secular humanists and fundamentalist believers myself, I mean of all three monotheistic faith, not just of Islam. I am now a homeless wanderer (at the age of 53), trying to negotiate staying alive, with hiv, and trying to describe what is going on. I lost my home when Islamic fundamentalists sent me a sheep's head in London and the police had to move me out. I have been on the road since (for 2 years). I believe I am only one of the first of many who will be in this position soon. I love your reference to Goya, he has always been in the highest Pantheon of my heroes. I had forgotten about his 'exile', but of course remember now his Bordeaux washer-woman. I have just left Berlin and find myself in a completely new culture, where I know none of the language and not a single soul. This is very hard. I am still waiting to see what the outcome of this journey will be for me. I do not have Internet access at 'home' yet, but will be starting an artist residency (for 3 months) in this city on the 1st of August and will have access then. I would be very pleased to continue this sharing with you then. Sincerely, B*** Dear B***. Weber said ‘the relationship between democracy and bureaucracy creates one of the most profound sources of tension in the modern social order.’ Churchill said ‘the English never draw a line without blurring it.’ One enduring comedy - ‘Yes Minister’ - and two government enquiries – Hutton and Butler - attest its consequence (the relationship between politics and administration – the line of consequence and responsibility you present in The Gallery). Lord Hutton’s enquiry in January 2004 claimed that the scepticism of one set of managers about information presented to politicians by another set, had not reached the politicians. An important political decision – to make war - was based on the judgement of MI6, rather than the co-ordinated reservations of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Lord Butler, reporting in July 2004, included in his review of evidence for the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction, a précis by a policy advisor of evidence collated by the JIC about the likelihood of such WMD in Iraq. That summary - the dossier - had ‘put a strain' he said 'on the JIC in seeking to maintain their normal standards of neutral and objective assessment’. Continuing, in the passive voice to avoid direct reference to the subject, Butler added, ‘more weight was placed on the intelligence than it would bear.’ The political decision that followed was catastrophic - its future consequences unfathomable. ... I imagine Thucydides being moved to tears of grief and anger at human stupidity and cruelty, yet determined not to lose the plot. He wrote what he did. You quoted him underneath an image. I found it while googling Thucydides. Now we write. Words written on a papyrus roll transferred to parchment codex to printed books and thence to cyberspace. Who could have known the old man had so much ink in him or doubted his pen was mightier than his sword.

Best, Simon