Spilia Spiniada
I have been commissioned by a successful local (but offputtingly named) online mag to contribute to some anniversary issue and have chosen to write about the area that has always fascinated me, around the old fortress where the shops seem never to close and the people never to go to bed, including the children.
*I* thought i was writing about the area we refer to as 'spilia' but clever clogs pals correct me with 'spiniada' which I recognise but don't agree with.
Any way, my deadline is early September and I am wasting no time enlisting all pals to chip in, rather than my usual style of beavering jealously secretly away ("Wot you working on?" Not telling you. "Oh g'won")and then the article comes out and everyone phones up with those "My deah, if only you'd asked me ... Patricia's ex practically *owns* the quartier and could have given you a guided tour with intros and freebies galore. Such a pity."
This time I am playing helpless ignoramus even down to, "Oh really. I didn't know that ... hmm, i see from my notes that Diana says blih blah blih"
'Did she? Hrrmph, fat lot she knows. Look, darling, I'm terribly busy right now but i can see you're talking to all the wrong people so I'm setting aside tomorrow night for an absolutely crash course visit, take bags of notes and photos and throw all that misleading stuff away ... and I guarantee a top article." Gosh thanks! "And please don't listen to the likes of that Diana." No, right.
Later that evening. Brrr brrr. "Darling - how's the article going. I've got oodles more stuff for you so why don't we meet tomorrow evening for a lovely drinkie and briefing ... what? with whom? Oh my gawd, Chris - are you KRAZY? Do you want to be THE laughing stock in town? She knows absolutely nothing about the area ... sweetie, how long have you been out here? And still making dud judgements? Oh my ... "
And so forth and so on until i have consulted every harpie in town and got all the data i need. Then I'll ask P or CB to accompany me on an all-nite bender and together we'll cobble something together.
2 comments :
With great diffidence can I suggest that the goings on in this area include the debates, hi and low politics, local and international intrigues that surrounded the abandonment of the British Protectorate in 1864. Elizabeth Calligas but also the authors of the fascinating book - especially its first two chapters - mentioned on my blog: http://democracystreet.blogspot.com/search?q=binding+glue
Gladstone sent out by Disraeli said the matter of Corfu was the most complex he had ever encountered. Worth a sentence or two in any piece on the Spiniada given much of the rhetoric surrounding the joining of Kerkyra with 'mother Greece' resounded inside one of its most prominent buildings. S
See how very sensible I'm being? Leaving it to the experts and simply picking up the cheque and the laurels. Thanks, Baddeley, sir - I'm already rephrasing it in my mind and will of course be cadging tons from Democracy Street (where I *did* notice the bouquet, and thanks for not blowing the gaffe)
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