5th January 2023: It continues to be a mild winter. I drove to Halkidiki yesterday. It was sunny until I reached Toroni. I went there to check our house. One of the most important jobs is to make sure the drains on the balconies aren’t blocked. The house was OK, fortunately. A harsh winter combined with poor build quality can inflict a fair amount of damage on dwellings anywhere in this country. As I said, we have been fortunate so far this winter. So nice was the weather that I took a few photos on the way.
Don’t be fooled by the first two photos. It was cold.
What fate has befallen our very own Northern Girl?
Η Έυα Καϊλή, η Έυα Καϊλή
Περνάει τα Χριστούγεννα μες΄ στη φυλακή
OK. Maybe Elytis, Seferis and Ritsos are not turning in their graves, secure in the knowledge that their poetic legacies are not under threat, but it is a reasonable football chant. Eva is not doing very well in prison. As one Greek commentator opined, it is fortunate that she wasn’t in Greece at the time of her arrest because she would be free; free to tamper with witnesses; free to bury evidence; free to drum up alibis. In prison in Brussels she has not even been allowed to see her daughter. The Belgian authorities have cited three reasons for keeping her in detention, but I wonder if there is a fourth, unstated reason. Look at who she is in bed with; Greek politics and politicians are dirty enough, but Eva is bed (literally in one case) with Italians and Gulf Arabs. How did you rate your visit to our consulate, Mr. Khashoggi? Eva’s personal safety must be an issue. The latest is that bank accounts in Panama are being investigated.
With family commitments I have avoided the media for the past week or two. This morning I opened www.voria.gr for the first time this year. There has been a spate of car fires in the past 24 hours:
https://www.voria.gr/article/thessaloniki-stis-floges-aytokinito-toy-diplomatikoy-somatos
Just down the road from me: https://www.voria.gr/article/thessaloniki-synagermos-apo-fotia-se-ohima-stin-peraia
Back to Thessaloniki: https://www.voria.gr/article/thessaloniki-kaike-olosheros-stathmeymeno-ohima-epi-tis-koyntoyriotoy-vide
Over to Alexandroupoli: https://www.voria.gr/article/megali-fotia-se-parkingk-toy-aerodromioy-tis-alexandroypolis-kaikan-deka-ohimata
And there are more! These incidents cannot be coincidental or accidental.