Overall I had an amazing time. I went to three different cities to see friends and family. I met some old university pals, friends from the army and mates from school. I tried to see everybody. It was at the end a bit tiring going through my same news for a tenth or fifteenth time, but I am not complaining. I even went out to some new gay bars in Thessaloniki (there weren’t that many). I was happily surprised to see them getting more popular and much busier than the old times.
The most common conversation topic is of course the recession and the mess that the Greek economy is in. I was very sad to see some of my friends going to unemployment, not being able to find work even if they are well educated, responsible people. My engineer friends were commenting on how almost all new constructions stopped and that the market is down leaving them without projects to work on. They just hope this situation will not last long.
On a happier note, I was spoiled rotten by my parents. I couldn’t easily say ‘no’ to my mother who wanted to stuff me with all kinds of food. She thinks that I lost a lot of weight (probably due to my running) and she wanted to change that. I started feeling like a small whale after some days, but I still couldn’t say no. It’s so nice not having to cook, do laundry, do dishes and get to taste the familiar lovely food that she cooks. Don’t get me wrong. If I suggested doing the dishes, for example, she would feel extremely offended. So, I spared us both the drama and I let her treat me the way she wanted to.
At the end, I had an overweight (apart from me) piece of luggage to check in for my flight yesterday. I had some gifts / food / orders of cigarettes that I had to carry with me. I have to get back to my weekly routine and start running / going to the gym again. The weather here seems to have improved drastically which always helps when doing outdoor sports…
I had some trouble coming to work this morning though. I didn’t know what I’d find. Apart from that, I didn’t want to leave a sleepy ‘JJ’ and a bed that seemed so welcoming. All is well though in the office. No major crises happened when I was away.
I have a deadline for something I have to finish till Wednesday though and I’m kind of under pressure. I blame the sales team who just promises everything to make a sale without much considering the time needed to do it and that I was on holiday and not having a very productive day. I have to get my hands dirty though and work if I don’t want to spend extra hours in the office the first days I’m back…
