In which I find myself becoming part of the blogosphere
I’m not really sure why I decided to start writing a blog. A combination of factors, I suppose.
I have for some years been a serial commenter on various blogs, newspapers, magazines and forums online; when I come across an article which piques my curiosity, or a comment which I view as disingenuous, or a blog which covers subjects in which I have an interest, I find the urge to add my two-penneth quite irresistible. So it’s sort of been in the back of my mind to start writing a blog for a while, the reasoning being that I could expand a little on some of those comments I’ve penned, and cogitate in print about some of the random thoughts which pass through my mind. Much of what interests me is to do with the issue of smoking; or more pertinently, with the issue of the war which has been declared on smokers by a small but powerful and very well-funded minority of fanatics; ideologues who have used their funding to disseminate a quite astounding avalanche of misinformation. So that’s a subject I will doubtless return to quite often. Plus I’ve lived a somewhat varied life, and will probably on occasion touch on some of the experiences I’ve had in my travels through the Near / Middle East and Asia in my younger days, when things were very different to today.
But as well as being a serial commenter I’m also a serial procrastinator; so the idea of writing a blog remained just that, an idea. It was only fairly recently, when I responded to a request from ‘Grandad’ on his ‘Headrambles’ blog for some guest posts, and submitted a couple, that at his gentle urging the nebulous idea of starting a blog began to coalesce. This coming to fruition was very much aided and abetted by the fact that ‘Grandad’ happens to be a master of the technicalities of building a web page, and was able to do stuff that I wouldn’t have believed even possible, let alone to have attempted myself. Left to my own devices, it’s very doubtful this blog would ever have seen the light of day. So I owe ‘Grandad’ a huge debt of gratitude for all the hard work he’s put in to create a blog page that at least in appearance, if not in content, looks highly professional.
There is a general Greek theme to the site, because I’ve been living in Greece for the past fifteen years, and some of what I write will naturally pertain to the country where I have made my home; however, my musings certainly won’t be Greece-centric, as my interests range far beyond the borders of my adopted land.
The blog was actually supposed to go ‘live’ about a month ago, but just before I was about to bite the bullet and expose myself to the scrutiny of the blogosphere, I found a workshop which met my criteria – something I’ve been searching for since I moved to Patras more than six months ago. So all of a sudden, I was dragged out of my state of torpor and into a frantic flurry of action; buying materials, building workbenches, racking and shelving, getting my saw out of storage and delivered to the workshop (not as easy as it sounds, as it weighs more than 350 kg) and transferring all my tools and equipment from the apartment below us to the new premises. ‘The Blog’ was thus consigned to the back-burner and allowed to simmer untended. But the time has come to lift the lid and stir the pot. The workshop is up and running, and I’ve run out of excuses to delay any longer. Amusingly, as I write this, we have no internet. It’s been very dodgy for the past few days, but during the past couple of weeks the phone company has been digging narrow trenches and laying in cables, and shiny new boxes are springing up on the street corners, so it looks like the long promised fibre-optic network is finally coming to town! I assume the dodgy internet connection has something to do with this latest activity. I will be making a visit to the local office to see what speeds I can sign up to, and (inevitably) how much extra it’s going to cost.
Still, for Greece, this is indeed progress! Up until about ten or so years ago, I was still on dial-up.
I arrived in Greece for the first time at the end of March in 1967, a fresh-faced young lad setting out on his travels, having dropped out of school at the age of 16 because of an insatiable urge to see the world. Education seemed unimportant to me when compared to the wealth of experiences waiting to be sampled in exotic locations, so I walked out of school (much to my parents’ dismay), got a job on a building site to earn some quick money (also to my parents’ dismay), and some six months later set out on my travels.
I made my way down through Europe to southern Italy, where I bought a ferry ticket from the port of Brindisi to the port of Patras on mainland Greece. In those days, the ferry always stopped en route at the island of Corfu, and the ticket permitted one to disembark at Corfu for a few days and then re-join the ferry (or a sister ship from the same line) a few days later, on the same ticket, to continue the journey to Patras.
When I was a boy of twelve, I’d read the delightful book ‘My Family And Other Animals’ by Gerald Durrell, a zoologist who had spent his childhood years in the 1930s living on Corfu with his eccentric (bordering on barking mad) family, and the book was an account of their sojourn there. I’d been absolutely captivated by the book as a child, so when the opportunity arose to visit the island, there was no hesitation whatsoever. I disembarked.
The island of Corfu was all I’d anticipated and more. A beautiful old town with a strong Venetian influence from the period when the island was ruled from Venice, and a verdancy that had to be seen to be believed. This was a time before Greece was a mass tourism destination, so most of Corfu was much as it had been for hundreds of years; but with the advantage of a good road and sanitation infrastructure, put in place by the British when they ruled from 1815 to 1864. Another quirky legacy of the British rule was that cricket became the favoured sport, and until recently there was a cricket pitch in the centre of town, where every Sunday you could sit at one of the cafés next to the pitch and relax with a beer (or maybe an Ouzo accompanied by a small plate of meze) to the sound of the thwack of leather on Willow as two teams battled it out under the hot sun. If the ball broke a windscreen in the adjoining car park, it counted as a six. Needless to say, the locals never parked their cars in that car park on Sundays.
I was bewitched by the magic of the place. I had a tent which I pitched in an olive grove just outside town, and settled in. The original intention of re-joining the ferry in three days evaporated like the dew under the morning sun. I was captivated.
The weeks passed, and I got to know, and be known by some of the locals. I’d stumbled upon a café-bar in town where the drinks were cheap and the locals were friendly. I spoke no Greek, and they spoke no English, but it didn’t seem to matter. The clientele was largely made up of the guys who worked on the trucks that collected all the garbage around town, and they were a hoot. I’d go there of an evening, and the beer, Retsina and Ouzo would be flowing freely. Someone would fire up the ancient juke box in the corner and we’d all end up singing along and dancing the Sirtaki together into the early hours. In their enthusiasm for the moment, the guys would be grabbing glasses, plates, ashtrays and anything which would break with a satisfactory noise, and dashing them on the ground at our feet; whereupon we would dance like maniacs on the broken shards and grind them into dust. Michalis, the unflappable owner, would just add the broken items to the bill of whoever threw them. So the bills at the end of the evening would read something like: “Spiros: 3 beers, 5 Ouzo, 1 ashtray, 2 plates”; “Dimitris: 6 beers, 4 Ouzo, 1 Retsina, 3 wine glasses, 2 beer glasses, 4 plates”, and so on. And when I was walking in town during the day, if a dustcart went past me on the street, all the guys hanging off the side would be whooping and shouting greetings to me as they went past. I still smile at the memory.
So my three day stay turned into a three month stay, and I probably would have stayed much longer had I not been offered a lift to Istanbul in exchange for sharing driving duties. I didn’t have a licence to drive at that time (a mere detail), but I accepted anyway.
Thus began my affinity with Greece and its people, which seems never to have left me, and has repeatedly drawn me back to the place.
Chaotic, anarchic, bureaucratic, iconoclastic, deeply religious, stubborn to the point of stupidity, honest, trusting, passionate, contemptuous of authority, fiercely patriotic, tolerant, lethargic, hard-working, generous, dismissive; it is a country of paradoxes which continues to surprise me even today.
We are, as everyone knows, in the midst of deep recession here (and have been for seven years), the reasons for which (as I see them) I will doubtless expand upon another time. But the Greeks nevertheless maintain a stoic optimism, and continue to reject stupidities like smoking bans for the obvious attempts at social engineering that they are. Despite the train-wreck of an economy that currently pertains, Greece is still a fantastic country to live.
I really can’t imagine living anywhere else.
*bookmarked*
*proud to be the first to comment*
About bloody time too.
I spoke no Greek, and they spoke no English, but it didn’t seem to matter. The clientele was largely made up of the guys
Yeah I know that one; being a foreigner in a foreign land and yet being accepted…even a feeling perhaps of belonging, although I had the advantage that most of the guys I was hanging out with spoke something akin to English and the advantage of not having to cope with some fucked up alphabet (although German does have a few special characters…as did the Hamburg of my youth).
https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/cNH3HxIYkeb2zfszM1vJuQ/258s.jpg
That was one of my versions of Michelis’ taverna (there were several), we’d meet there early mornings and have a beer or two for breakfast. It’s what Germans call a ‘kiosk’ -a rather upmarket one in the sense it is a proper shop & not just a ‘hole in the wall’.They sold newspapers, fags and beer and as long as the Polizei weren’t around one could stand in the shop and drink (verboten as they only have an ‘off’ licence).
Hi and welcome, delighted to see you have started a blog and really looking forward to reading it. We all seem to follow the same blogs so in a way we know each other.
Carol42
Captivating first post- your story about Corfu is wonderful. Incidentally I had never heard of “My Family and Other Animals” so I just reserved a copy from the local library.
I’m very much looking forward to more posts as soon as possible!
Congratulations. I’ll be visiting regularly.
And the great pleasure of smoking George Karelias cigarettes a pleasure now denied to us in the UK unless you want the slims which i don’t !
Well done and good luck
Oh I’ve seen your comments numerous times Nasakiman. Well done for becoming another one of my favourites. Enjoyed your first blog and look forward to many more. Well Done
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement, everyone.
On a number of occasions when I’ve been sitting chewing the fat with friends over a beer and a ciggy, I’ve been told I should write a book, but I don’t think I have the patience nor the application for that. Hopefully, bite-sized chunks (as blog posts tend to be) I’ll be able to manage!
Being a new blog, all first comments go into moderation. Once they are approved, then any subsequent comments will appear immediately. Apologies for any inconvenience, but it will hopefully keep out any potential spammers.
Heh! You even beat Grandad to it, and he’s admin! You will be remembered in history, BD, as having been the very first commenter on the globally renowned ‘Nisakiman’ blog! 🙂
Frankly, if I can be an irritating thorn in the side of Tobacco Control, I’ll consider it a job well done!
No one, but no one, gets in an inane quip faster than The Blocked ‘6 gun’ Dwarf. Especially not some mick codger too busy watching ‘Penny’ dogging his wife’s pussy (at least I think that’s what he said…the long winter Kilkenny nights must just fly by).
Good News! I’m looking forward to reading your musings. Couldn’t help noticing your picture too. I like a ‘Fix’ and am hoping to enjoy a few in Greece next month
Oh good, I am glad, Nisakiman, even more interesting reading. I know almost nothing about Greece.
Brilliant! It’s great to see guys like you letting rip and calling it as it is. The best of good Irish luck to you Nisakinman and I look forward to your ………. ramblings I suppose.
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s Nisakiman’s Blog!
OY! I object to that. I don’t live anywhere near Kilkenny.
Hello and congratulations on starting your own blog. Whilst I probably won’t comment all that often I will certainly be a regular reader. I have always enjoyed and appreciated your comments on other blogs. Wishing you good luck and a following wind.
Congrats on the new blog. I’m a militant smoker too. I look forward to reading your musings
Hey! Well done Nisaki! GREAT first entry! 🙂
I’ve considered blogging a few times over the years, but between emails, books, news-comment boards and my activities on Quora I’ve simply never even come close to having the time.
Looking forward to visiting here often in the future (Heh, even if I *still* haven’t flapped my wings hard enough to get across the ocean lately!)
🙂
MJM
Great stuff, glad you are joining in, the more the merrier.
I too am looking forward to learning about a country I shamefully only know of as a drain on the Germany economy. I think I did once or maybe twice visit a Greek Restaurant Germany , had some little pasta shapes that looked like maggots…and some ‘wine’ which tasted liek the disinfectant we used to clean the school toilets with…(actually I jest, it was Retsina and was delightful but I did feel the pasta shapes could have used some proper traditional greek tomatosauce and come out of a tin).
Great first entry, Nisakiman! I shall be a frequent visitor, too!!
But the Greeks nevertheless maintain a stoic optimism, and continue to reject stupidities like smoking bans for the obvious attempts at social engineering that they are. Despite the train-wreck of an economy that currently pertains, Greece is still a fantastic country to live.
Well said! Looking forward to my next holiday on one of the Greek islands.
Far from being a drain on the German economy, the southern outposts of Greece, Spain and Portugal, and to a certain extent Italy too, have contributed massively to the German economy by dragging down the value of the Euro. If Germany still had the Mark, they would be in much poorer shape financially. The Euro has basically taken everything from the poorer economies and given it to the wealthier industrialised ones.
I recall we spoke about this before perhaps at the Arms? We shall have to agree to disagree on this one, as we probably do on all manner of topics. One thing we probably can agree on is that the Germans (Kohl I think?) should never have pushed for the ‘southern Europeans’ to be allowed into the Euro, it was as unfair to them as it was to the rest of the Eurozone. I recall at the time most financial experts saying it would end in tears and that all the Greek financial stats were as dodgy as a 9bob note.
Indeed, allowing the Greeks in was a big mistake, and one which has cost Greece dear. Likewise the other southern countries. But then the Euro always was a vanity project, so financial viability didn’t really come into it. And yes, the Greek figures were heavily massaged both by Brussels and the Greeks themselves. It was madness of the highest order, akin to giving a teenager a credit card with no limit. But it suited Northern Europe at the time to deflate the Euro by letting the agrarian economies in.
Can’t add much to what has already been said but I’m always impressed with your comments so I have no doubt your blog will be a regular read for me.
ps.I’m also a serial procrastinator and I love Greece too!
Nice to see you taking to the quill my friend, Simple Simon will be a regular caller at your post! 😉
Once again, my thanks for your kind words, all of you. I expect I’ll get the hang of it eventually! 🙂
Hello and welcome!
I’ll be around, visiting and reading. I love Greece, and I don’t know much about how it resists the anti-smoking madness. And I need that information, I’ll surely quote & spread it by means of my own regular column in Russia.
You can publish statistics, research, you can jot down street scenes and random conversations. One day these pieces may easily grow into a book, like with Durrell whom I read avidly. If you need an advice on how to write books, ask me – that’s what I do, I write books. In any case, it all begins with emotional, vivid scenes you cannot forget. Now you have a blog to write them down. And we have you – one more fighter for our cause.
Best luck!
That picture was taken in the bar / restaurant I was telling you about when we were chatting in Frank’s bar, Bucko. Try to get there – I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
Brilliant – and about time too!
Thing is it has also cost the Northern States dearly too- although they have perhaps gained more from it than the Southern. I think I recounted once before my shock at discovering there were now Food Banks in Germany (and that was before the ‘Refugee’ crisis)and you are right I think that the Euro project was a vanity/ego thing. Personally I think Kohl, having against all sensible expectations, pulled off the Vanity project of 1=1 Xchange of East Marks for DMarks thought he could do it again and to be fair to the man it has worked out a lot better than the predicted ‘economic car crash’ although the Greeks do seem to feel they were the crash test dummies in the equation (from what I can gather from the Liberal German MSM -who,like the Beeb, do push the ‘poor old Greeks abused by Evil Merkel’nonsense).
Finally!…something good to read… 🙂
Oooh, how exciting, Nisa! I’ve bookmarked you already and will, I promise, become a regular avid reader – and probably a just-as-regular boring commenter on here as I am elsewhere!
Looking forward to this…
Oh, the auld bastard sent me.
Welcome to the Blogosphere! I have read and enjoyed many of your comments elsewhere.
It is good to have another site challenging the tobacco control lies and resisting the persecution of smokers.
Bon chance…
Nice to read you in your own blog, Nisakiman. Congratulations. I would like to start a blog in Spanish for the Latin American public, but I have a very demanding full time academic job. For this reason I have been posting much less on the blogosphere. Yet, seeing your blog now functioning is a reminder that I should not give up on this.
It is important to counter the mountains of disinformation we read on the mainstream media, not only on tobacco and vaping, but also on cannabis and other drugs. In Latin America smoking lacks the stigma that you see in the English speaking world. Save for a few nutcases (which do not have the power and influence of the likes of Chapman and Glantz), even anti-smokers do not care if you smoke 20 yards away from them, so there are no outdoor bans in parks, campuses, beaches, restaurant terraces, etc. Since the weather allows for outdoor life year round, smokers are not marginalized and cut out of social spaces. For all these reasons, vaping also faces much less obstacles. I imagine that you see in Greece a very similar landscape.
Great first post, Nisakiman, and Congratulations!I look forward to your future contributions!
I will do. We’re planning a walk up to that village and I’ve told Mrs Bucko about the bar, so we will be in there at some point
Thanks for a great read, reminiscent perhaps of Laurie Lee’s ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’. I look forward to future posts and hope there’ll be many more.
Welcome! I’ve often read your comments in other places and thought “What a sensible and perceptive chap!”; now I can look forward to dropping in here on a regular basis.
My family and other animals, As I walked out one midsummer morning and Cider with Rosie are three of my favourite books. Still have all three in my library some forty years later.
slugbop007
He called Head Rambles a “blog”, did you read that? 😉
Welcome the the old blogosphere, Nisakiman, and all the plurdled gabbleblotchits that go with it. Not quite the same blogosphere as when I and a certain other curmudgeon who will remain nameless (Grandad) started but in some ways a lot easier to deal with while in other ways more complicated. Of course, I can’t explain about the differences since I really don’t understand them myself.
I’m not being any help am I?
And unlike a certain other curmudgeon who will remain nameless (Grandad) who posts every damn day, I’ve petered off over the last year or so. The mind’s going you see. So often times it’s a bit difficult to find the keyboard. And when I actually do find the thing I have trouble remembering what it’s for never mind figuring out what all the keys do.
Anyway, welcome aboard! I look forward to reading your future missives and leaving comments thereof. Not that they will make any sense but at least you know I’m reading?
OK, so where is the second post? Hard, isn’t it? But the third one will be easy. Just make a portrait of some of your Greek friends who doesn’t give a damn about bans. Or something.
Great stuff, inspiring, Nisakiman!
I’ve hoped to be writing a blog one day myself, but still behind on blog comments and even emails… perhaps theoretical ‘retirement’ soon will afford more time for it!
I look forward to reading more, perhaps contributing too.
Glad to hear the workshop move worked out… what kind of saw weighs 350kg?
I do have a fine furniture making woodworking friend who has a very large table circular saw, I never thought to ask him what it weighed…
Greece is starting to seem like a great potential place to live… a bit more freely!
Sou éfchomai ta kalýtera
Heh! Your comment inspired the title of my second post, Dmitri. It put me in mind of the music industry, where new bands always talk of that ‘difficult second album’.
…what kind of saw weighs 350kg?
It’s actually quite a small saw, as far as commercial saws go. It’s the table itself that carries all the weight, as it’s a cast iron slab which has been milled flat. I’ll be posting a little bit about ‘The Workshop’, as I’ve had several people ask me about it.
Re being behind on emails, see my reply to your other comment!
Ah, well Grandad is a man of leisure, and has the time to post on a daily basis. I, on the other hand (now I have the workshop up and running) am either there all day making stuff, or working here fitting what I’ve made. So I won’t be posting on a daily basis, I shouldn’t think.
I let it go as a beginner’s mistake.
I will swap my “life of leisure” for yours any day.
Sorry Grandad. I’ll try not to make that mistake again! 🙂
A welcome new blog. I look forward to following it.
‘My Family And Other Animals’ by Gerald Durrell. Read it several times and still have a copy. Great book. Amusing. I will never forget the cure for a scorpion bite.