“Are you the most famous bakery in Greece?” “Yes we are!” I said, assuming this random British traveler was joking and so I joked back. Alas, he wasn’t! He came here to Zitsa
Kostas & Tom
to see us – he said he had read my blog and also read about us in another blog and wanted to know why our bread was so good (we told him the secret ingredient was love – I am not sure if he believed us, but we really feel it’s true, as cheesy as it sounds). We had spotted him a few moments earlier outside the door of the bakery – an obvious traveler with a big rucksack and a blue hat to match. We yelled out the door “hello!” in English, and he stopped, turned, came in the bakery, and said he recognized us from our pictures online. Ha! Definitely not what we expected from the day, but there you have it. We invited him for lunch so after we finished work and cleaned up a bit, we all went upstairs and ate some fresh trout and oven-roasted potatoes we threw together quickly. We only had a little over an hour to eat as he had to catch a bus to Ioannina at 4pm so we chatted a bit about his family’s long-term interest in Greece and the area in general, and then a bit about the Olympics, and finally about the economy – always an interesting topic of late. From the little we learned of this gentleman, Tom Winnifrith (you can read his blog here), he lives in London, is involved in the running of a restaurant, he loves to write, and travel of course. And that was that! A few hours with a surprise visitor – hope the rest of your travels go well Tom!
Later this evening Kostas & I were wondering how often things like this happen to other people? How many other people invite random travelers into their home, for a meal, for a glass of wine, for a few nights rest? I don’t know, but I do know that we love it and it enriches our life tremendously.
Fire on the mountain at sunset, as seen from our kitchen window.
In other news, there are a lot of fires burning around Greece right now – I am not surprised and have been wondering when the wild fires would start. It’s been oh so dry and hot (today, again, over 100F).
In general, today was OK – better than yesterday in terms of our sadness about Petros. I think each of us only cried a little bit. It catches me at random moments. Yesterday and Mon. were really hard in the bakery because it is very standard for people to ask “how are you?” when they first come in, and the standard response is, “good!” But I just couldn’t say I was good; it hurt too much. So I hid in the back a lot and if people asked me how I was I just gave them a wan smile and tried to change the subject. At one point, one woman asked Kostas what was wrong because she could see that I just wasn’t OK, and so Kostas told her. But the way he told her made me even more sad because he talked about Petros as just “the cat that was outside the bakery,” when in my heart I felt he was our cat, part of our family. So I told Kostas that it hurt to hear him say that and then he felt awful about it and then we both felt awful and started to cry. But after a few moments I thought about it and realized it was not my place to tell him what to say to people – he could say whatever he wanted (including just giving the standard “I’m good” response to every customer who came in the bakery and asked “how are you.”) and that everyone grieves in different ways and just because I wanted to hide from people or alternately, display my grief openly, does not mean that his way of dealing with it was wrong or that it meant he cared any less (when clearly he cared as much, or more). I guess one good thing in all this is I learned that lesson, and I told Kostas that it was not my place to tell him what to say or do and I apologized for that.
Anyway, yesterday (Aug. 7, 2012) I wrote a few random notes during work that I thought I would share (some people might find some of these grief emotions familiar):
“I don’t want to be feeling this way, especially because of a fucking cat. I have no appetite because I can’t imagine anything tasting good right now. And I have no motivation to do anything, fun or otherwise, because I can’t imagine finding any enjoyment in anything.
I’m making stupid mistakes in the bakery and I catch myself looking for him, looking out the door to see if he is waiting there, being cheeky and sneaky, popping his head around the corner to see if we are looking or if the coast is clear for him to zip into the bakery unseen (he succeeded twice, but usually I was looking and when he would see me, he would quickly pull his head back around the corner, out of sight – such a little game player!)
Just got a text from my sister asking how I am doing today. I told her I’m sad and everything feels heavy and hard, but also that at times I’m angry at myself for feeling so much over a stupid cat. But I guess feelings aren’t always “rational” and also I’ve noticed that since moving here, I feel everything twice or three times as much as I used to – everything affects me so deeply now, the good and the bad.
Normal life goes on, doesn’t it? But for now, who knows how long, everything is a little less shiny, a bit more flat.
Thinking about feelings again – I’m not sure if things affect me more here, or if I’m simply more in touch with my feelings now (oh joy!). I’m guessing it’s both but more of the latter. It’s safe here, with Kostas – anything I feel or talk about, he holds safe for me and helps me through it (lucky him).”
So, ya, life goes on. Our 1-year wedding anniversary is Fri. – I think, I hope, that Vasiliki is coming back on Fri. which is probably the best anniversary gift we could get! Fingers crossed 🙂
It’s 12:30am now. Kostas is sleeping, which is good, and I will join him in a moment. Tomorrow we will have a boy work with us in the morning which means it will be easier for both of us – Kostas will do less heavy lifting, and I’ll get to sleep an hour extra, which makes SUCH a difference to me. I’m not sure how hot it will be – I don’t really want to check because I doubt it will cool off. The heat is oppressive again. I could not sleep during our rest time this afternoon because of the heat, and when I went down to the bakery at 7:30 to open up for the evening it was still quite stifling in there.
But, we head to America in exactly 3 weeks! At some point I should probably post some pictures from our first trip there. Someday….
Mmm, fresh chocolate, chocolate, walnut cookies….my dessert tonight after dinner 🙂
The Baking Barrister 