I once found a pile of old photos that had spilled out of a rubbish bin in a quiet suburban street in Athens.
After we had finished laughing, and after poking around in the bin for the rest of them, we realised that we had a family's entire history in our hands. 
From a photo of the port of Pireaus just after it had been decimated by the retreating Nazis, through pictures of a couple getting married in the 70's, to holidays in the Redwoods in California, with them posing proudly next to a ford Capri and ending up with an old couple sitting quietly holding hands in an Athenian park, we had their entire lives in our hands.
It was a very touching moment. And they had just been thrown out.
As if they meant nothing.
I treasure the pictures I kept. I didn't know them, but in some small way their memory lives on in a way it wouldn't have if we hadn't drunkenly stumbled across them.
I learnt so much about the country I love from that pile of randomly discarded photographs.

Bad bad teachers

Many many years ago, I think was 9, or possibly 10 years old, I fell over in the playground and made a lot of fuss about how much my arm hurt. 
Miss Carole Hind made me sit on my hand all afternoon for complaining.

I remember it hurt all weekend but I never got taken to the doctor because my teacher said i was just making it up.

When I was 19 years old I got run over in Crete, (totally my fault) and got taken to several doctors and eventually the hospital in Iraklion, by the incredible, lovely couple who had the misfortune to be driving along the coastal road when an English teenager appeared through their windscreen at 10am.

I got my face stitched up, and my broken wrist was plastered and fixed.

The doctor though, was confused. He said that the break was at least ten years old, a diagnosis later confirmed by a hospital in England.

My point here is , apart from praising the Greek medical services , who do amazing work on budgets that in the rest of the world would be considered laughable, is that perhaps teachers occasionally do and say things that are possibly not in the best interests of the children they are charged with looking after.

Summer, once again seems to be well and truly over and it's only early October.
I had my first full week off in a year and needless to say the weather turned bad. Rain, wind and cloudy skies. Equally needless to comment upon, is the fact that as soon as I return to work the weather gets good again. Ah well.
I'm not so sure what is going on with work either. It seems the snake has fulfilled my worst fears and moved in on a permanent basis. So how that works out for me remains to be seen.
Jack and Nikki, Aka Captain Gobshite and Lady Frightwig have just left after a fun filled couple of weeks, but they'll be back again next April to stay, at least for the summer so that's something to look forward to.
Sophy Pottymouth has also been here since Thursday and that has been fun too. She certainly seems to have been enjoying herself, and will no doubt bring a  choice collection of swearwords to the bar in the coming days.
 There's so much to write about since my last spittle fuelled post in May that I really don't know where to begin. So for the moment I won't as I think it's time to go home, lie on the sofa, stuff my face with junk food and luxuriate in equally junky TV for the last time until who knows when. 

2nd time in two days. im going for the record. I fear i will beat it as I know I will have lots to write about in the coming days. Currently we have a lovely couple here who are getting married on Saturday. Unfortunately, their very extended family is with them. the parents of the bride are lovely people, but I am at the moment quite upset  with someone I normally think is one of the best people on the planet. .
"Smile more" , can't you just try and smile"? "Look all i want to say is can you just try a bit harder tomorrow?
Yes, if you try a bit harder tomorrow to understand that running your arse off, trying to be nice to the sort of people who only go out twice a year, and expect everything at the drop of a hat, when cocktails , for eg, take time to be made, isn't the best receipe for a fun filled night at work.
 Funny,, that everyone except you attention demanding twats seems to be so happy that they leave 10 euro tips. I'm so so so sorry that whilst running around like a blue arsed fly, keeping note of what everyone has had to drink, I forgot to flash a smile at the table of stupid oozo drinkers whose combined intelligence would amount to a couple of snails after a good line of salt.
NO, for the third time in two hours, we do not have any fucking cheesecake.Yes, yesterday we did. today we don't. It's not fucking macdonalds, it's a bar on a small Greek island, run and worked by people who give over and above what is called for.

It;s stupid o'clock and I'm writing my first wittering for a long time but i can't do it in facebook posts anymore. there is too much to write about. the horrible granny who looks like the inside of a freshly roasted chicken and makes everyone sit inside every bar she goes to , hence Granny Sunblock, the simpering twat queen who sits and gazes lovingly at me every night, the fat turd, and the other elephant in the room; and the new queen, who escaped from The Whacky Races, only so far as Mutley has not yet caught up.

I did see Dan and Sarah today and whilst their baby like creature has not yet turned into the beautiful human person it is destined to be ( UGLY DUCKLING BABY TIME) did have a moment where i realised that the ugliest baby I have ever seen is in fact human. Very attractive parents.
 Also It was really nice to see  how Dan was with him. I could only wish my father was that good, even though I was a much better looking baby.

The next days are going to be difficult. Irish people, Stoke people, I might as well say , walking piles of nonsense on moneyed legs.

But. It seems that Karen, has tracked down Mr Darren Lockyer.
 And without him I would not be here in Greece now.