Irish temper in Greece

Found a huge pile of faxes sent by me from Greece when we lived there - here's a typical entry - let me know if this is scraping the bottom of the barrel and better left unspoken.

“My son is on his sixth week of a teacher’s strike and can scarcely believe his luck.  He’s convinced it is divine intervention.  He was on his way to school and had not done any of his homework and was beseeching God for help.  Can you imagine his reaction when he arrived to find the school gates chained with a sign saying the teachers were all on strike!  Six weeks later he is keeping his prayers going and is looking really smug and happy with himself.  I get the impression he is hoping this strike will last at least a year or perhaps even a life time. 

Having an Irish temper really works in Greece.  My English neighbour is periodically bullied by our high pitched shouting Greek neighbour who instructs him where to put our plants on the shared stairwell.   Over here she’ll tell him with loud protests and then make him move it again the next week.  I grew weary of it all and her blatant unreasonableness.  So one morning as I left the flat and she started lecturing him on plant positioning I told her roughly in Greek “Ase me!”  (rough translation –“leave me alone”)  That was it, end of story – no more lectures.  That is the weird thing about losing your temper here in Greece, it works so well.  It is as if there was a constant need to draw a line in the sand and say step over that and I’ll head butt you.  If you don’t then your private space is gradually eroded day by day.  Survival skills are always useful in every culture but I do worry that as a person I am developing the worst, rather than the best in me?”