I've been vaguely aware of blogs and blogging for ages; people's on-line diaries and general dribble for all to see, but until recently I hadn't seen their potential to inform, connect, promote and proselytize. I started a blog last October to try to promote graphic facilitation and work I'd done in that field, but I haven't really got past writing basic information. Recently, however, I've been inspired by a blog a friend did of her trip to India and how she linked it into her Facebook posts. I also read somewhere about authors writing stories on-line or using blogs for research by getting feedback from people following them.
When Sue and I moved to Greece (and for quite a long time before) I really wasn't well, mentally that is. I'm a lot better now, but not entirely together. One of the things Sue suggested I do was write down how I was feeling regularly - sort of therapeutic writing - especially when I was very depressed or manic. Well I did some of that on paper, but not in a blog. As I eventually shared with friends on Facebook, I realised I could be expressing some of my thoughts and feelings on-line and I did write a few comments on my page. However, I'm not like some people who can share all sorts of stuff several times a day. I haven't made a regular habit of using Facebook like that. Mind you, it's fascinating to read what others do write.
Learning to live in Greece (I can't speak for other countries) involves major culture-shock. Now, that may seem like a bit of a cliche, but there are two sides to this. The first revolves around how you personal feel about that change in your life. Sue and I had had this plan to live in Greece since 1988 and we told everyone, even though we didn't do much about it. The long-term idea was that we needed to get some kind of security by paying off the mortgage on our house before we could seriously contemplate leaving the UK. In the meantime we visited Greece as often as we could, going to different parts each time. But, also in the meantime, life doesn't stand still. I moved on in my work, albeit quite slowly. We and everyone we know got older and in particular older relatives, our parents, etc., reached the later years of their lives. Our standard of living gradually improved over this time as well and life became more and more 'comfortable'.
So, I think gradually I went into denial of us ever actually moving and was less and less inclined to want to move. Sue on the other hand, saw the whole idea as my dream that eventually must be fulfilled. Although she loved her relationships with her clients, work for Sue was getting physically harder all the time, so she saw a time when she would need to give it up. I, on the other hand, got a job in 2002 that I thoroughly enjoyed. What's more, I was good at it! I put a lot into the first year, eventually establishing a settled routine. Then, as the main role got easier, I got more involved in additional stuff. Looking back on it, I didn't really give myself much breathing space in the main role, never mind anything else, and no-one really recognised this.
Eventually, the mortgage was paid off and Sue started to look seriously at how and when we were going to move. That's when I began to lose the plot; not obviously at first, but when Sue started researching into buying a house here I kind of closed up and began to panic. Other events contributed; my father had a stroke and was immediately mentally disabled. Over a period of about 5 years he became more and more dependant and eventually died in a nursing home in 2005. The final straw, in terms of my mental health, was when Sue's father died suddenly just prior to us coming to look for a house. And, of course, Sue was totally devastated. Well more of this, perhaps, in other posts except to note that when we finally moved here I wasn't exactly predisposed to being here; here I was in 'paradise' and I was screaming in agony and making everyone else's life a misery too!! Sue, on the other hand, held onto the dream.
The other side to the culture shock is the more obvious one. Greece is often seen as this easy going, laid-back country with beautiful scenery, friendly inhabitants and a rather complicated, but exotic language. Well, the scenery is outstanding (despite all the rubbish dumped everywhere), the people are friendly and the language does have lots of very long words written with a different alphabet. But, as the current economic crisis has revealed, Greeks are actually far from laid-back and have modes of thinking and behaving that are, at best, somewhat self-centred and, at worst, utterly bizarre (to the more Western mind, anyway). Dealing with the language barrier and trying to understand how to get things done could drive a person hastely back to the UK, where everything is relatively easy. Actually, there is a third, but similar element and that's the thinking and behaviours of ex-pats!
So, I'm going to try to describe all these things and my thoughts on them in my posts here and I would welcome any comments or discussions that you might like to contribute. Because I didn't do this from when we first came to live here, I'm hoping it wont read like a boring diary. I may transcribe some of my 'therapeutic writings' for future posts, but mostly I want to make each post about a separate subject. So why is it called the 'Tzokeika' Diaries? Because that's where we live.
When Sue and I moved to Greece (and for quite a long time before) I really wasn't well, mentally that is. I'm a lot better now, but not entirely together. One of the things Sue suggested I do was write down how I was feeling regularly - sort of therapeutic writing - especially when I was very depressed or manic. Well I did some of that on paper, but not in a blog. As I eventually shared with friends on Facebook, I realised I could be expressing some of my thoughts and feelings on-line and I did write a few comments on my page. However, I'm not like some people who can share all sorts of stuff several times a day. I haven't made a regular habit of using Facebook like that. Mind you, it's fascinating to read what others do write.
Learning to live in Greece (I can't speak for other countries) involves major culture-shock. Now, that may seem like a bit of a cliche, but there are two sides to this. The first revolves around how you personal feel about that change in your life. Sue and I had had this plan to live in Greece since 1988 and we told everyone, even though we didn't do much about it. The long-term idea was that we needed to get some kind of security by paying off the mortgage on our house before we could seriously contemplate leaving the UK. In the meantime we visited Greece as often as we could, going to different parts each time. But, also in the meantime, life doesn't stand still. I moved on in my work, albeit quite slowly. We and everyone we know got older and in particular older relatives, our parents, etc., reached the later years of their lives. Our standard of living gradually improved over this time as well and life became more and more 'comfortable'.
So, I think gradually I went into denial of us ever actually moving and was less and less inclined to want to move. Sue on the other hand, saw the whole idea as my dream that eventually must be fulfilled. Although she loved her relationships with her clients, work for Sue was getting physically harder all the time, so she saw a time when she would need to give it up. I, on the other hand, got a job in 2002 that I thoroughly enjoyed. What's more, I was good at it! I put a lot into the first year, eventually establishing a settled routine. Then, as the main role got easier, I got more involved in additional stuff. Looking back on it, I didn't really give myself much breathing space in the main role, never mind anything else, and no-one really recognised this.
Eventually, the mortgage was paid off and Sue started to look seriously at how and when we were going to move. That's when I began to lose the plot; not obviously at first, but when Sue started researching into buying a house here I kind of closed up and began to panic. Other events contributed; my father had a stroke and was immediately mentally disabled. Over a period of about 5 years he became more and more dependant and eventually died in a nursing home in 2005. The final straw, in terms of my mental health, was when Sue's father died suddenly just prior to us coming to look for a house. And, of course, Sue was totally devastated. Well more of this, perhaps, in other posts except to note that when we finally moved here I wasn't exactly predisposed to being here; here I was in 'paradise' and I was screaming in agony and making everyone else's life a misery too!! Sue, on the other hand, held onto the dream.
The other side to the culture shock is the more obvious one. Greece is often seen as this easy going, laid-back country with beautiful scenery, friendly inhabitants and a rather complicated, but exotic language. Well, the scenery is outstanding (despite all the rubbish dumped everywhere), the people are friendly and the language does have lots of very long words written with a different alphabet. But, as the current economic crisis has revealed, Greeks are actually far from laid-back and have modes of thinking and behaving that are, at best, somewhat self-centred and, at worst, utterly bizarre (to the more Western mind, anyway). Dealing with the language barrier and trying to understand how to get things done could drive a person hastely back to the UK, where everything is relatively easy. Actually, there is a third, but similar element and that's the thinking and behaviours of ex-pats!
So, I'm going to try to describe all these things and my thoughts on them in my posts here and I would welcome any comments or discussions that you might like to contribute. Because I didn't do this from when we first came to live here, I'm hoping it wont read like a boring diary. I may transcribe some of my 'therapeutic writings' for future posts, but mostly I want to make each post about a separate subject. So why is it called the 'Tzokeika' Diaries? Because that's where we live.
Beautiful honesty! Thank you for sharing some of your thoughts. Look forward to more..... xxx
ReplyDeleteHey Chris well done on getting started and great writing. I hope it's as therapeutic for you as it is entertaining for us.
ReplyDeleteMuch love
Pam x