Dear Belle
My last day. It's been a lovely holiday, if a bit tiring. I didn't seem to stop (no passing out permitted) and have rarely been asleep before 1am. And it has been such a delight and a miracle to find that without alcohol (for me - everyone else seems to have plenty) it's an even more lovely and magical place. The truth is that alcohol didn't create or enhance its magic, it just blurred the edges, or eliminated the whole thing altogether.
I'm none the wiser, about the big decision I thought I had come here to make - to stay in Bonnevaux, or to move here with my caravan and find some land - but maybe that was not why I came here really, at all. More about rediscovering a lover/loved one that I thought I'd lost, like some of the others, to booze.
I never really explained what my latest 'lapse' was about. I think it was more real fear of losing it here (so I thought I'd lose it before I came) and then the realisation, because of the lapse, that being sober on Naxos was more important to me than being sober anywhere else. That if I came here and drank, it would be alcohol that made the decisions, for good or ill, not me.
So, thank you for everything, as always.
love David
====
Returned the car to Evangelia at Naxos Way - she threw a hissy fit because there was a twig on her side of the car (the casuarina I parked under with Eleni 3 days ago) and charged me €10 for 'laundry' and was cross with me for leaving the windows open all the time. I asked her if she was OK and she said she was tired. I bought a coffee and gave her €10 and we kissed and made up.
Now on the Blue Star, ready to cast off. Much nicer than being marooned on Mykonos for the day, and the fare to Piraeus is less than the fare to Mykonos.
Nice goodbye to Aspasia. I told her her land wasn't really what I was looking for, and she was very nice, and to ask her for help any time, and there were lots of possibilities on Naxos, and plenty of time. She is really nice, as is her apartment. I would happily stay here again.
The ferry is playing its funny little digital 'I'm leaving now' tune, which I used to hear from Nektarios' studio on the other side of Court Square, if the wind was right. It's a greyish, overcast, warm day, flat as a millpond. More or less perfect I'd say, for a gentle day sailing back to Piraeus.
Now it really is playing its goodbye song. And we're off! 9.31. It's a rather sad tune. Appropriate I suppose. I wonder if I'll ever hear it again?
I've said hello and goodbye to everyone I think. Didn't make it to Mike's at to Elliniko last night. Finally got home after a long day with Eleni at 8.30 and couldn't face going out again, not drinking. So I went to sleep early, got eaten by mossies watching the first episode of Childhood's End, which I'm not sure I'll keep up with, although Stuart says there are only 6 episodes. I'm sure I've read the book (Arthur C Clarke, a sort of sequel to 2001), but can't remember it. Woke just before 7, and being not hung over, managed tea and coffee and shower and packing without panicking or I think leaving anything behind, apart from an enormous salami in the fridge and a lot of tonic water. Said goodbye to Aspasia and picked Evangelia up from Naxos Way at 9.05.
My account of my sojourn here has been sketchy, mostly snaps, but that's as much because so much has been said, so many new faces and places, so much feeling and beauty, and exhaustion at the end of every day, and rush at the beginning every morning, that there was never enough time to write it all down. Being stoned out of my brains most days with Eleni was obviously a bit of a distraction too.
(The pretty blonde with too much luggage who was boarding at the same time as me has sat down next to me and is tapping furiously at her smartphone.)
Lee had a lot to say yesterday about not being too starry eyed about Naxos and Naxians (Evangelia's performance this morning a case in point, albeit only a small one). They are human, very close, everyone knows everything, very conservative, very parochial (their attitude to straw bale building being a good case in point - 'malacca, it'll just burn down' - translation - everyone knows you can only build houses with concrete and rocks), pathologically resistant to change, and they are quite capable of being cunts. Every rock and crisp packet has someone's name on it, although they won't necessarily mind you picking it up. Lee is an all Greek Canadian, born and brought up and lived in Canada for 25 years, lived here for the next 30, and has had enough. She says she and her partners beat their heads against rocks the whole time, and got nowhere and changed nothing. Actually she has put me on to Costas and Manoli. I liked her very much. She's not leaving until she has sold her house and little patch of land (too small and expensive for me, but I said I'd put the word around). So she may still be here if I ever come back.
(Now the pretty blonde has a companion, or at least, she's talking to someone).
Naxos is disappearing behind a grey haze. I think I might be sitting behind Bob and Wendy, my English neighbours from Muloi, in 2013.
( as he is now fondling her tum, he's either her companion, or a fast worker . . . ho hum)
==============
email to Stuart, from the ferry
Kyrie Lagos Rachi
So I'm Simopolous then! Cool.
A nice lazy day with Eleni. We spent 2 hours with Lee, who is very nice, but deeply pissed off after 30 years of Naxos and Naxians, so a salutary counter to all my romantic notions. That said very interested and enthusiastic about my plans (!?!!) and put me on to Costas who owns the farm that Manoli the bouzouki player works for him, so Eleni and I dropped in on them (somewhere near Sagri) on the way back from the beach. He's young, and has money and land, and was very interested in my ideas, so we have exchanged email addresses. I'll send him a note of my schemes and he can tell me why I and they are total malaccas like every one else says we are. But he at least understands it is possible to build a house out of straw bales or rammed earth (i.e. cob). Obvs no one on Naxos thinks anything can or should be constructed without the liberal application of concrete and asvesti.
A lovely afternoon on Alyko beach, swimming and basking, and then a nice meal at a taverna there before Costa and Manoli and finally managing to dump Eleni at about 8.30 in Moni. She managed to make me stop one more time on the way back, in Halki, 'for an ice cream', but of course the ice cream shop was closed, so we gave Persephone a lift back to Moni which I suspect was the real reason we stopped. I was intending a final good bye tour round the fleshpots of Hora, to say goodbye to Mike, and Thomas & Marta, Nico, and Giorgo Goufas, but I couldn't face it, so went to sleep watching Childhood's End Pt 1. Too tired to know whether I like it or not - I read the book years ago but I think this only has a tenuous relationship with that.
Up and organised and out of the house in time to pick up Evangelia from Naxos Way and go to the ferry - not having a hangover is a great help. I've left an enormous sausage in Aspasia's fridge, hope she doesn't have your prejudices against processed meat products. Evangelia had a hissy fit when she found a casuarina twig in the car and charged me 10 euros for 'laundry'. I think she was PMT. I kissed her goodbye anyway, but Tripadvisor will be receiving updates. She doesn't want to be bracketed with Hippocampo. And she didn't offer me anything for all the fuel I've given her. Stupid old trout.
Please inspect the second sample I sent you carefully. Apart from the cover, which I will fix and send you an update of, I made a number of small changes, and we should double check the copy for typos etc. I've also inserted the monochrome icon of Evi's picture at chapter heads, a couple of variations, so see which you like. Once we are happy with it, I'll then start adding the remaining chapters and sorting out the back end for the book proper, and start work on the e-book version.
ta lemme
Simopolous / Simopoulos
=============
More ranty emails to Curtis Banks, Aviva and Advance Wealth, making threats (probably empty and futile or meaningless but I'm getting very pissed off with them all).
My last day. It's been a lovely holiday, if a bit tiring. I didn't seem to stop (no passing out permitted) and have rarely been asleep before 1am. And it has been such a delight and a miracle to find that without alcohol (for me - everyone else seems to have plenty) it's an even more lovely and magical place. The truth is that alcohol didn't create or enhance its magic, it just blurred the edges, or eliminated the whole thing altogether.
I'm none the wiser, about the big decision I thought I had come here to make - to stay in Bonnevaux, or to move here with my caravan and find some land - but maybe that was not why I came here really, at all. More about rediscovering a lover/loved one that I thought I'd lost, like some of the others, to booze.
I never really explained what my latest 'lapse' was about. I think it was more real fear of losing it here (so I thought I'd lose it before I came) and then the realisation, because of the lapse, that being sober on Naxos was more important to me than being sober anywhere else. That if I came here and drank, it would be alcohol that made the decisions, for good or ill, not me.
So, thank you for everything, as always.
love David
====
Returned the car to Evangelia at Naxos Way - she threw a hissy fit because there was a twig on her side of the car (the casuarina I parked under with Eleni 3 days ago) and charged me €10 for 'laundry' and was cross with me for leaving the windows open all the time. I asked her if she was OK and she said she was tired. I bought a coffee and gave her €10 and we kissed and made up.
Now on the Blue Star, ready to cast off. Much nicer than being marooned on Mykonos for the day, and the fare to Piraeus is less than the fare to Mykonos.
Nice goodbye to Aspasia. I told her her land wasn't really what I was looking for, and she was very nice, and to ask her for help any time, and there were lots of possibilities on Naxos, and plenty of time. She is really nice, as is her apartment. I would happily stay here again.
The ferry is playing its funny little digital 'I'm leaving now' tune, which I used to hear from Nektarios' studio on the other side of Court Square, if the wind was right. It's a greyish, overcast, warm day, flat as a millpond. More or less perfect I'd say, for a gentle day sailing back to Piraeus.
Now it really is playing its goodbye song. And we're off! 9.31. It's a rather sad tune. Appropriate I suppose. I wonder if I'll ever hear it again?
I've said hello and goodbye to everyone I think. Didn't make it to Mike's at to Elliniko last night. Finally got home after a long day with Eleni at 8.30 and couldn't face going out again, not drinking. So I went to sleep early, got eaten by mossies watching the first episode of Childhood's End, which I'm not sure I'll keep up with, although Stuart says there are only 6 episodes. I'm sure I've read the book (Arthur C Clarke, a sort of sequel to 2001), but can't remember it. Woke just before 7, and being not hung over, managed tea and coffee and shower and packing without panicking or I think leaving anything behind, apart from an enormous salami in the fridge and a lot of tonic water. Said goodbye to Aspasia and picked Evangelia up from Naxos Way at 9.05.
My account of my sojourn here has been sketchy, mostly snaps, but that's as much because so much has been said, so many new faces and places, so much feeling and beauty, and exhaustion at the end of every day, and rush at the beginning every morning, that there was never enough time to write it all down. Being stoned out of my brains most days with Eleni was obviously a bit of a distraction too.
(The pretty blonde with too much luggage who was boarding at the same time as me has sat down next to me and is tapping furiously at her smartphone.)
Lee had a lot to say yesterday about not being too starry eyed about Naxos and Naxians (Evangelia's performance this morning a case in point, albeit only a small one). They are human, very close, everyone knows everything, very conservative, very parochial (their attitude to straw bale building being a good case in point - 'malacca, it'll just burn down' - translation - everyone knows you can only build houses with concrete and rocks), pathologically resistant to change, and they are quite capable of being cunts. Every rock and crisp packet has someone's name on it, although they won't necessarily mind you picking it up. Lee is an all Greek Canadian, born and brought up and lived in Canada for 25 years, lived here for the next 30, and has had enough. She says she and her partners beat their heads against rocks the whole time, and got nowhere and changed nothing. Actually she has put me on to Costas and Manoli. I liked her very much. She's not leaving until she has sold her house and little patch of land (too small and expensive for me, but I said I'd put the word around). So she may still be here if I ever come back.
(Now the pretty blonde has a companion, or at least, she's talking to someone).
Naxos is disappearing behind a grey haze. I think I might be sitting behind Bob and Wendy, my English neighbours from Muloi, in 2013.
( as he is now fondling her tum, he's either her companion, or a fast worker . . . ho hum)
==============
email to Stuart, from the ferry
Kyrie Lagos Rachi
So I'm Simopolous then! Cool.
A nice lazy day with Eleni. We spent 2 hours with Lee, who is very nice, but deeply pissed off after 30 years of Naxos and Naxians, so a salutary counter to all my romantic notions. That said very interested and enthusiastic about my plans (!?!!) and put me on to Costas who owns the farm that Manoli the bouzouki player works for him, so Eleni and I dropped in on them (somewhere near Sagri) on the way back from the beach. He's young, and has money and land, and was very interested in my ideas, so we have exchanged email addresses. I'll send him a note of my schemes and he can tell me why I and they are total malaccas like every one else says we are. But he at least understands it is possible to build a house out of straw bales or rammed earth (i.e. cob). Obvs no one on Naxos thinks anything can or should be constructed without the liberal application of concrete and asvesti.
A lovely afternoon on Alyko beach, swimming and basking, and then a nice meal at a taverna there before Costa and Manoli and finally managing to dump Eleni at about 8.30 in Moni. She managed to make me stop one more time on the way back, in Halki, 'for an ice cream', but of course the ice cream shop was closed, so we gave Persephone a lift back to Moni which I suspect was the real reason we stopped. I was intending a final good bye tour round the fleshpots of Hora, to say goodbye to Mike, and Thomas & Marta, Nico, and Giorgo Goufas, but I couldn't face it, so went to sleep watching Childhood's End Pt 1. Too tired to know whether I like it or not - I read the book years ago but I think this only has a tenuous relationship with that.
Up and organised and out of the house in time to pick up Evangelia from Naxos Way and go to the ferry - not having a hangover is a great help. I've left an enormous sausage in Aspasia's fridge, hope she doesn't have your prejudices against processed meat products. Evangelia had a hissy fit when she found a casuarina twig in the car and charged me 10 euros for 'laundry'. I think she was PMT. I kissed her goodbye anyway, but Tripadvisor will be receiving updates. She doesn't want to be bracketed with Hippocampo. And she didn't offer me anything for all the fuel I've given her. Stupid old trout.
Please inspect the second sample I sent you carefully. Apart from the cover, which I will fix and send you an update of, I made a number of small changes, and we should double check the copy for typos etc. I've also inserted the monochrome icon of Evi's picture at chapter heads, a couple of variations, so see which you like. Once we are happy with it, I'll then start adding the remaining chapters and sorting out the back end for the book proper, and start work on the e-book version.
ta lemme
Simopolous / Simopoulos
=============
More ranty emails to Curtis Banks, Aviva and Advance Wealth, making threats (probably empty and futile or meaningless but I'm getting very pissed off with them all).
Comments
Post a Comment
Say anything you like. I do.