Saturday 5th June. It is becoming harder to get basic Covid facts from the Greek Press, by that I mean the Greek-language press. Covid continues to abate with 932 new cases recorded today, 35 deaths and 445 undergoing “invasive treatment” as it says in the English-language Greek Reporter. One consistency over the past few weeks is the low number of cases detected at border entry points. Today it was only one of the 935 cases, and the rate has been lower than one in a thousand since I started paying attention to it a few weeks ago. 457 and 85 cases were located in the Athens and Thessaloniki conurbations respectively, which is very low considering the population density of both.
Saturday, July 3rd. I’ve not contributed anything for a while. I’m in Sithonia, the second leg of the three-legged Halkidiki peninsula, a peninsula within a peninsula. The first leg, Kassandra, being nearer Thessaloniki, is much more developed but, in my opinion, less beautiful than Sithonia. The third leg is Mount Athos. There are two requirements to enter Athos: maleness and a visa or permit from the Ministry of Northern Greece. Athos is an autonomous region composed of solely of monasteries, footpaths and nature. I hope to go there in the autumn with my atheist son.
Is there a connection between human progress and temperature? The heat at the moment lulls one into nothingness and passivity.
Three stories dominate the news here. The murder of a young British mother by her husband, who initially claimed they had been victims of a robbery during which the family’s pet dog also died. The husband later confessed to smothering the wife and drowning the dog. The heartless bastard also got the in-laws to fork out €4,000 for the coffin and the cost of flying his wife’s remains to Athens. He was undone by the wife’s fitness watch, which recorded her heartbeat as he drained the life out of her. The Greek media refer to her simply by her first name, Caroline.
Covid is still very much in the news. Boat services to the islands resume on Monday (5th July) provided passengers are doubly vaccinated or in possession of a valid negative test result. Latest figures are showing an increased number of infections from 729 on Wednesday to 771 yesterday, 186 are on ventilators and 10 people died. It looks as if intubations and deaths continue to fall in spite of the increase in cases. The current debate centres around “green passes”. More about that next time.
The third piece of news is that the presumed No. 2 of Golden Dawn, Christos Pappas, has been arrested. He had been in hiding since being sentenced to 13 years in prison, and he had not been seen since October. Rumors were that he had left the country or that he was hiding in a monastery. This latter theory reminds me of the Jake Thackray song, Sister Josephine, about a convict that hides in a nunnery.
“Admittedly her hands are big and hairy
And embellished with a curious tattoo.
Admittedly her voice is on the deep side,
And she seems to shave more often than the other sisters do.”
The full song can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vlzHQWKjE0
Pappas is the son of one of the officers who collaborated with Greece’s last dictatorship, so it runs in the family. A naturalized Ukrainian widow had been sheltering him. Didn’t she have a big enough job with fascists in Ukraine? It seems that after the rumours of Pappas being abroad or embracing monasticism had been dismissed, the police began a process of elimination. They gathered the names of 400 known GD sympathizers, and discounted couples and families. This left them with about 100 names, including the Ukrainian’s. Her flat was put under surveillance. Eventually, the cops noticed she was buying too much food for one person. Anyway, all the senior members of Golden Dawn are now in prison.
Last weekend we had our first live practice since September or October last year. Our Welsh member has a lovely house and garden that feels very remote though it is an easy commute to and from Thessaloniki. We played under the protective, shady branches of his walnut tree. The good news was that we were all comfortable with the material, so our online Zoom practices have paid off.
I was looking for a reel, Within a Mile of Dublin, on YouTube where I discovered this band. They are called Shelta. Shelta is the dialect spoken by Ireland’s travelling people. This band, however, is French. A set of reels, the first being Within a Mile of Dublin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrJ4_RIizFQ