Vote for change

I thought it was time I stopped complaining about everything and start doing something about it. Do the same. Vote for change.

Reconstruction

Well, we've been back to work for a couple of months now and work has fluctuated from breathlessly hectic to sluggishly slow. I would take part of the blame for the latter under different circumstances but being unpaid for three months and owing everybody I know money doesn't really help. Not to mention that I had nothing to do with the original project planning and only 'chuted here one day before it started.
Anyway, what's been done these three months' been done really well and that's what matters the most. We're going to go over the estimated time and budget but we're going to deliver. I'm positive. For a change.
In the picture above, Mihalis, our chief mason, sets the first stones back on the first elevation to have been knocked down and treated.

Overweight Butterfly

Surprise - surprise, I am unemployed yet again! Or as high rank Greek public servants would call it in between employments. Or as the average 8-month contract employee in a crazilly good mood and after a couple of stiff drinks would call it 'in jobless limbo'. Project proved trickier than expected, schedules are tight and european money will stop flowing next September but there's trouble in our castle and all advanced troops have been cut off any supplies.
The fact is that our Ministy's General Secretary had been porking his contract secretary for some time while ofcourse engaging in the usual "accomodating" of enterpreneurial party friends. All this happening with very little respect for european fund expenditure regulations but with european money nevertheless. The little lady eventually got ambitious started pushing for a permanent office and eventually got to the point of filming one of their "to know us better"s and threatening to go public with that and a lot more dirtier, I'm sure, stuff. The video was indeed launched, was tossed around like a hot bun by the usual suspect journalists for a while only to land on the prime minister's communications officer desk hotter still by all this friction. Poor GS, the weight of these revelations and their consequences was insupportable, what could he do?. So as this burly but generous butterfly was flapping its wings in despair on its way down from the 4th floor somewhere in Kolonaki two poor souls were left stranded, jobless and confused in the southernmost town of Europe. Talk about chaos theory...

Fountain Nr.2

I don't remember if I've mentioned this in any of my previous posts but the Ottoman Fountains restoration campaign actually consists of two separate projects. One is the infamous ablution fountain next to the mosque, talked about in previous posts and the other one is the fountain near the church of Aghios Spyridon. As it turned out (thanks for the research, Marianna!) the latter was built in the 2nd half of the 17th century, two centuries before the Mosque fountain. It's a simpler structure but it's a fine example of buildings of its kind. It had been hidden behind two enormous dumpsters, lighting and telephone poles and all the usual Greek town street clutter. But now it's as seen in the picture. Mihalis, our chief mason did an excellent job rebuilding parts of the roof and frieze and Aliki and myself took up the job of removing cement based pointing mortar, cleaning the stones and re pointing. Still some work to be done but we're very proud of what we've done with it so far.
On a side note, it's worth mentioning how the neighbourhood dealt with the whole situation of two city slickers messing about with part of their neighbourhood. Most congratulated us on our patience and fine job, some thought we were taking far too long and ofcourse there were the inevitable few who thought we should have knocked the whole thing down because it was turkish. Yes, there are still people like that (sorry to spoil your we-are-not-racist-they-are-foreign parade people. You know who you are. What? You don't? Well, I'll give you a clue: It's you who believe god is Greek.

Nylon

A couple of pictures of the Ierapetra plain from high on the mountains, as promised earlier. I shot them on the way to a local festival at the village of Anatoli, Sunday evening. Had so much raki that night that next day at work was a waste.

Aliki Stonepecker

This is a video of Aliki at work removing the evil cement pointing mortar.
Today my right hand fingers are sore. It's great luck Monday is a national holiday, a long weekend is right what we needed.
But tenontitis waves to me from the distance.

Ierapetra - Aera-petra - Air-apetra

The wind blows at 8-9 degrees on the Beaufort scale which is a real pain because it happens almost daily but I won't grumble over it. Because today I feel optimistic. It was about time I hear you say. Again! Work is tedious as ever of course. Removing rock solid concrete mortar from in between soft sandstone joints. Bleuchhhh! But I'm getting the hang of it. Not mortar removing, I knew that too good already. But the diplomacy of greek public sector survival. I won't let them decapitate me this time around at least not without a fight.
Once again I'm blessed with a lovely colleague and that certainly makes the experience easier. Aliki is a sweet girl that hates her job right now but I hope she hangs in this or I'm doomed...
And a few things about the place. Ierapetra is a nice little town surrounded by beautiful beaches and mountains. But in between spreads the sea of nylon that is the thousands of early vegetable hothouses. This is the capital of winter tomatoes. The view from high on the mountains is breathtakingly bizarre. Plastic sheets cover almost everything. Very little earth needed for green peppers and eggplants and a lot of petroleum...
I will try to post a photo of it in the future. Until then check Ierapetra on Google earth.
And this is the Ottoman Fountain conservation team at work...

Flinders

Take cover, I'm going to be tragic yet again!
My newest project falters on a razor-sharp cutting edge between loud failure and glorious recognition. My Ottoman fountain is very beautiful but in such a poor state of preservation I am more anxious about the outcome than I was before sitting my university entry exams. What's more, I feel kind of thrown at it, away from my superiors and any fellow conservators who could make some of the decisions or even give me a hand.
I suspect nobody really wanted to get involved so they gave it to the first victims that came along...

Gipsy Artisan

Well, it's been six months of glorious lazyness, decadence and depression but it's time to move on. Another mission awaits me at the southernmost town of Europe. Another 8-months-out-of-a-suitcase kind of life and I'm again (when will I learn?) super excited about it. It's going to be sunny and seasalty and carefree or so I hope it will be.
It will also be a return to my roots of sorts. My ancestors came from Crete so I hope to uncover the byzantine mystery of my family's first names. Were we fearless pirates, the dreaded corsairs of the Libyan Sea or noble squires of the levante feared and respected by Venetians and Turks alike?
Nah!! We were probably slaves to a local tyrant who freed our wretched souls when he realised we'd make nothing of it anyway.

Like shite on the wall

Alpha Bank HQ, Pesmazoglou & Panepistimiou Str., Athens. Poultice cleaning of a marble veneered gateway. Job went fine but my bosses thought otherwise. They 'let me go' coming up with a bunch of either groundless or ridiculously contradictory accusations. Well, if it's any indication at all of their administrative skills, they haven't even paid me yet, ten days after sacking me.
Does shite or bentonite slide down a marble wall? The answer is, it depends on its consistency...

Iridanos pt 2

Here's another video for you crazy archaeophiles (I just made this word up). This one shows a wall with a lovely ionian capital incorporated in it and a cluster of gutters leading to the river bed. It also shows the location of the site in relation to the metro's line 1 Southbound platform.

Ancient river, flowing still

Encased river-bed of Iridanos. My current humid tomb.
The temporary return to sanity I mentioned in my previous post? Well, it was less than fractions of a second long and very unworthy of a post. Gloom is back.

Hallucinations before the final breakdown

That's me, talking to Jesus ofcourse...
Join me again next week when I explain how I temporarily regained reason after I had left that wretched place and had cleansed my spirit in the ancient underground river of Iridanos.

Daphni is bad for me

Ok, long overdue post, 'cause Jani is out to get me and it's high time I posted something anyway...
I'll stick to the general blog theme but not spare you the raving nagging that earned me the title of Tragic Greek back in the days either. You lucky bastards....
I've been back at my pre-Edinburgh job for quite some time now after the deliciously sunny and carefree Kalymnos interval and boy am I happy about it! I want my Kalymnos job back and I want my mommy and I want a lolly. No, not my mommy that's a figure of speech . I just want to go back in time, to my early childhood if possible and start all over again, choose the right paths, love the right people kick all the rest in the eye, study my arithmetic, aspire to become an accountant, spit anyone who tells me it's going to be boring in the eye. I'm being delirius ofcourse. It's working right across from the asylum for six months now, that's what did this to me...

Arizona Trip

I've promised a few people to post some photos from my trip to Arizona last month so here they are although unrelated to the general site topic.
Needless to say that Arizona is a breathtaking place and it hurts me to think that I will probably never have the chance to go back there again. I'm afraid it was a once in a lifetime kind of trip...
So, from top to bottom here's what you see:
Desert view West of Tucson
The same
Downtown Phoenix
North Arizona, early morning
Downtown Tucson. Shadow of the Cathedral on a parking lot wall