A great day

Yesterday was Saturday 12 September and it was a great day for both of us!

It started with some anticipation because the results of the Labour leadership election were to be announced late morning and given that we are two hours ahead of the UK here in Crete, we had to wait rather longer to learn the outcome.

Both Sheila and I had voted for Jeremy Corbyn but despite all the predictions from the media, we were not sure until the end that he had actually won. Now for the first time for thirty years, we have an avowed socialist as leader – something I never expected to see again in my lifetime, especially through the dark days of Blairism.

I was thinking about what I felt about all this, when I came across this piece by the Fabian, Marcus Roberts in The Guardian. He sums up better than I ever could, how this may pan out:

“Offering clarity on politics that for years now Labour has given complicated answers to will be well received by an electorate tired of long, caveated policy statements from politicians. Rather Corbyn will be to many voters refreshingly direct with a political stance which might be boiled down to ‘immigration good, spending good, welfare good; war bad’.

This clarity will underscore his authenticity – a vital ingredient for connecting with voters as the electorate will know swiftly who he is and what he stands for – hurdles that Ed Miliband even after five years in the job struggled to overcome. Expect even voters who disagree with Corbyn’s politics to give him high marks for having the courage of his convictions and clearly stating his beliefs.

The risk is that this may create a strange polling situation in which Corbyn enjoys artificially high personal approval ratings as even those with no intention of voting for him tell pollsters they view him positively whilst still having no intention of voting for him.”

We shall see but just for now, we are enjoying the moment. It was especially good to hear him being positive about the link with the Unions in his acceptance speech. That hasn’t happened for a while!.

It feels a bit like election night 1997 all over again. Let’s hope for a different outcome and that the membership really does take back control of our Party!

The weather here continues to be very hot, so how better to celebrate than to spend the afternoon at the beach! It’s interesting that we find that we do not do this quite as much as we used to. Time was when we were seeking the rays like tourists but this year we often just go for a swim and then come home for a beer. Does this mean we are beginning to go native, I wonder? The Greeks only usually spend a lot of time at the beach when they are on holiday, so perhaps this is the case. Certainly, it cannot be that we are busy. Heaven forbid!

While we were at the beach, I spent some time looking for a suitable large pebble to use as the base for a table lamp. An open window and a strong gust of wind caused a breakage earlier in the week and I am going to try to achieve something creative for just about the first time in my life! Watch this space.

Arriving back at the house, I find that Arsenal had managed to beat Stoke City for a first home win of the season. Can this day, get any better?

Well yes is the answer because what I haven’t mentioned is that yesterday was also our 32nd Wedding Anniversary! We had intended to have a weekend away to celebrate but having booked an apartment, we remembered in time that we had to feed a neighbour’s cats. Getting anyone else to do it was impractical, so we cancelled the booking and decided just to have a meal out in the evening.

So, it was into the glad rags and off to Mochlos (a small seaside village about five miles away) to see what Dimitri’s had to offer. Several people had recommended this restaurant and although we didn’t think the food was wildly better than your average Greek taverna, we did have a lovely evening. The menu refers to it being a ‘ταβέρνακι’ which basically means a small tavern and that is exactly what it was.

And it was packed and we were lucky to get a table! What really made the evening was the live music, especially when the two man band played some Theodorakis numbers that we know and like and one of the locals felt moved to get up and dance. OK – it was for the tourists really but it was fun.

And the star performer – well of course, my radiant beautiful wife, of course!

Plus supporting cast…

It had been a long day for the anniversary girl, so after watching the Women’s Final at the US Open, it was off to bed with her kindle…

And finally, when we were in Ag Nik last week, we spotted a haggis lurking in the bottom of the deep freeze at the British Shop. So of course we liberated it and ate it for supper on Friday. Very good it was too! Unfortunately, neeps are a step too far and so carrots had to do.

John