Our older three have been at school in portacabins since October 2010, and will be until the new school building (on the site of the old one) is completed, allegedly this summer. They're making good progress.
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| Parish church |
Opposite the new school is the Orthodox parish church building, on a pleasant square (which would be a great place to live near if the church bells weren't so loud - goodbye lie-ins), which now has a lovely nice new pavement - see below.
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| The new school building in progress |
Next door is the high school, which is where our kids will go if we've not moved by then (no plans for that) and if we decide that keeping the kids in the Greek state system is the best thing to do (about which more in a year or so when it becomes a live issue for Joel. There are significant pros and cons, at least from the perspective that we have at the moment).
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| Work continues on the last bit |
Anyway, the pavement.
The old pavement was perfectly fine. It had plenty of chewing gum (don't get me started) and was grey not yellow, but it really didn't need replacing. Even if Greece discovered oil.
It was level, had an appropriate level of friction, even when wet, and did its job better than many of Athens' pavements, which is to say it made it possible to walk across it without particularly thinking about it. It was inoffensive to eye, nose and foot.
But it was decided that it needed replacing.
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| Old (grey and chewing gummed!) and new (golden) in contrast |
I have no idea how many euros it costs to replace a pavement, a job that has so far lasted about a month. There is a cynical one-liner doing the rounds - λεφτά υπάρχουν (there
is money). It's just that it isn't being used very well. Financial crisis? Perhaps, but integrity and wisdom might be more useful at the moment. If you're going to fix pavements, at least do the ones with massive holes in them.
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