{"id":3222,"date":"2012-04-30T18:58:22","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T18:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=3222"},"modified":"2012-10-13T19:18:53","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T19:18:53","slug":"how-greece-is-faring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=3222","title":{"rendered":"How Greece Is Faring"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3223\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/How-Greece-Is-Faring-006.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3223\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-3223\" title=\"How Greece Is Faring 006\" src=\"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/How-Greece-Is-Faring-006-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3223\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Costas and I &#8211; Liotrivi Restaurant &#8211; Spetses<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With the media reporting all doom and gloom, in the eyes of the world, Greece does not look flash &#8230; riots, poverty, high unemployment, suicides and even bankruptcy looming.\u00a0 However, here on Spetses, I live a dream life, where there are no outward signs of any of the above &#8230; with the exception perhaps of many businesses closed and fewer people around and about enjoying what island life has to offer.\u00a0 For me it is still the good old Greece I first came to know many years ago &#8211; a country and it&#8217;s people both possessing irresistible beauty.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This coming Sunday, 6 May 2012, will see a General Parliamentary Election.\u00a0 With five years of recession and continuing Government cuts and imposed austerity measures, the polls have shown a decline in support for the two main parties &#8211; PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) and ND (New Democracy).\u00a0 Seen as crooks and liars, many Greeks plan to abstain whilst others will make protest votes by voting for one of the many smaller parties that oppose the harsh reforms imposed by the European Union and the IMF.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I have been back on the island for a week now.\u00a0 Of course, it is Springtime and the weather is a dream &#8230; my days and nights filled with gathering memories.\u00a0 Yesterday afternoon we had a rendezvous at 1500 hours for lunch with Ray and Heather at Liotrivi Restaurant in the Old Harbour.\u00a0 Sitting at an outside table under an umbrella right on the seafront, partaking of the most wonderful, delightful food prepared by chef Roland, together with a first class wine.\u00a0 With Bar Spetsa to open, Costas left early for home, leaving we three to pile on\u00a0the bike and head for Paradise Bar\/Restaurant at Agia Marina beach.\u00a0 Joined by Mike and Debbie, a few drinks there then shortly after the sun went down, back on the bike and off to Bar Spetsa.\u00a0 Took a call there from my son Dave &#8230; the first time I have heard from him since leaving Wanganui &#8211; we chatted for well over an hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Today the weather has been more akin to a hot summer&#8217;s day.\u00a0 Costas and I lunched at Bouboulina Restaurant &#8211; Barbounakia (small red mullet), patates tiganetes (fries), marouli (lettuce) salad, bread and a shared Amstel.\u00a0 Tomorrow we will eat in &#8230; I have prepared fakes (brown lentils) which we will have with a broccoli salad.\u00a0 For anyone who may\u00a0see Greek food as uninspiring &#8230; such thoughts could not be further from the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; With the media reporting all doom and gloom, in the eyes of the world, Greece does not look flash &#8230; riots, poverty, high unemployment, suicides and even bankruptcy looming.\u00a0 However, here on Spetses, I live a dream life, where there are no outward signs of any of the above &#8230; with the exception perhaps [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3435,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions\/3435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}