Friday Night

It’s Friday night, I’m on the balcony as it is too hot and humid to stay indoors. It seems that the everyone else in the neighbourhood has had the same idea. I can smell sovlakia and hamburgers bring grilled as Manoulis and Koula decide to have an impromptu barbecue.

In the street below there is a whole bunch of kids screaming and shouting, playing some game which involves a ball and a bunch of rocks piled up in the middle of the road. I’ve never been able to figure out quite how it is played.

To someone raised in the sepulchral quietness of an english suburb it is all very different indeed. Yet, in a strange way it is soothing, being able to watch and hear the world pass by and play, a reminder that we are not alone in this life, that we belong to a wider society.

As Thessaloniki grows more and more families are leaving such neighbourhoods to live in the comparative peace and quiet of the newer suburbs, such as Thermi and Retziki. While I can see the appeal of such places I wonder if the old addage,

“Be careful of what you dream of, it may come true”

might not be applicable here. Yes, you have more space and fresh air, but at at what cost ? Time will tell.