The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend. ~Aristotle

Imagine having a friend becoming your 50 enemies. And you've never had so many anyway so that's way more you can handle in one lifetime.

The last instalment of our homely saga goes like this. The psycho came back from his holiday in Greece to inform us he changed his mind about leaving the flat. I told him that the majority want him out so he should take a hike because this is fascism and he said:

"Actually I don't go by what the majority says but by what the contract says and what my need is, just like you do really. And I am not moving out. If you have a problem with me sort it out yourself and take responsibility. Besides you could take the whole flat under your name easily and you are not doing it. You can't have everything. As for you Evgenia, I don't care what you accept or not but not only did your credit check not go through but also you have no legal right to the property so back off really. So if you don't agree get a replacement and move out. P.s:Stavroula I am seriously advising you to take my place on the contract asap so that I can find a place by the end of june.Otherwise you'll have to suffer w/ me until the end of the tenancy agreement."

Evgenia actually bothered to write back to him and entered into a texting match to which he responded w/ threats of the kind "leave the flat or else", "I'll show you what I can do to you tomorrow" "Just you wait and see". I was at work when I found out. I told her "meet you at the Police Station" and so we did. The police said it's a civil matter as his threats weren't of criminal nature (i.e. I'll kill you!) but took down his description and said the Safer Neighbourhood's team will pay us a visit to have a word w/ him.

For some reason, he's got this crazy idea that the only way for him to leave is for me to take over his part of the lease so he can leave whenever he feels like without any responsibilities of any kind. WHAT A WANKER.

To make matters worse, I've kinda realised how illegal is our little scheme. Apart from the fact it's written in our contract that we can't sublet without the landlord's permission, I was actually told that my a friend/colleague, who's fiance is in the force. Fucking scary, mate. The wanker actually threatens to go tell-all at the agent, which is going to sound SO great ("I moved in w/ a friend and we've been subletting illegally to this other friend, but now she pissed me off and I want her out and she wont leave. Can you kick her out?" WTF?! If the agent wants can take legal action against us and we're going down together. Him mostly because he pays the rent and Evgenia transfers money onto his account so it's traceable. He has no idea...

We've left a note informing him we went to the police, which apparently, he took yesterday and left and hasn't been back since, which can be a good thing or a bad thing considering he's capable of everything, I say.

My life sucks majorly.

Yesterday I was out drinking from 6pm onwards till 5am w/ 2 different lots of friends. The fact that I came home early in this morning was heavily influenced by the fact that I didn't want to be home for fear he might. What kind of life is this when I'm afraid to be home? FUCK!!! I hate this.

Luck is probability taken personally

It's really hard for me to sum up the last 3 months. In short, we moved in, Nikos showed his true colours, I almost left and now he's leaving. Well, that was easier than I thought.

We all have the friends that we deserve. My need to be accepted and loved betrayed me. I'm disappointed, sad, surprised, angry, tired, exhausted actually and still miffed, if not slightly confused about my failures the past 8 years. What did I fail to see? What did I not want to spot? Apparently, I'm lenient w/ my friends. That's another slap in the face. Me, who I thought, was a hard nut to crack.

I'm actually pretty tired to write about the whole story as it's pretty long but the bottom line is I lost a friend. Or maybe I gained an insight on me. Either way, something extra to deal with it.

Whenever something bad happened to me, I used to say, "I've now seen everything there is to see". How wrong was I? Life keeps surprising me, not in the most delightful ways it has to be said, but beggars can't be choosers, innit?

What's going on

Are we going through a dry spell? Or has the excitement of blogging faded away? I can think of a few excuses myself but here I am again pondering the existence of this blog. It's not that no one reads it. How lame a complaint would that be since I seldom write in it. But that if I don't write, I don't visit the page, hence I don't read any of the blogs that I'm "supposedly" reading! I think their authors are similarly going through "just another phase" like me and everyone else, I guess.

It's a bit like writing poetry. Like all, I, too, went through the phase. I don't even remember the last time I wrote some. Maybe I'm supposed to just never come back to it. Maybe this blog will just be taking up space on the cyberspace like so many inactive pages. Gathering cyber-dust in the wed (geddit!).

I feel life's going with a snail's pace lately. I'm too eager. In a hurry. I've been living on the edge for far too long. I've been just ticking days off waiting... Waiting... It looks like the wait is over but not just yet. Another 2 months and we move in to a flat. I'm not saying a lot about it. Don't want to jinx it.

Get a new pad, look for a new job. Get a new job and perhaps put some ghosts from the past to rest. Or rekindle relations.

I'm tired.

Day 25

Well, iberia's not so bad after all. I've been bumped up 2 business class plus. Dunno why and i'm not going 2 ask. Wot u see is the control 4 the seat. I'll also get 2 massage. Wot's ironic is that i was jealous of the passengers in the inbound flight. I was reading bout this class in the iberia in-flight magazine daydreaming bout it. Wot do u know. Dreams do come true after all. All i need now is 4 my luggage 2 b waiting 4 me @ heathrow and of course nothing else wrong in between. And after! I have this feeling that i should keep dreaming and wishing cos apparently, u never know! Wot i did 2day is totally eclipsed by the current incident but i'll write it Neway. For posterity's sake. ;) i skipped breakfast again. Woke up l8? Packed and checked out. I went out w/ the intention of getting food and wasting time. I sat 4 2hrs @ the corner lancheonette eating acai and kibe and drinking mango juice. Thank u 4 tuning in. Fuck u, san diego. Over and out.

Day 24

This is wot i have 2 report 4 2day. Shopping Patio Paulista in Paraiso @ one end of Av. Paulista. 2 tops, the now customary pair of coverse all stars, a scarf, a manicure and 2 mall meals. Total 270 reais (£65). After a l8 last nite, i decided breakfast was Way 2 early @ 9.30am so went into a comma till 1pm. In between my alarm and my resurrection, i got a call from AA saying my luggage had arrived from BA and it'd make its Yay over 2 me 2day no head wot time. I also dreamt that it got delivered. Go figure. I decided 2 go out unshowered and all. I tried 2 meet w/ Tiago and Carol but network hiccups made sure we didn't. Boo.

Day 23

Wot a day. 1.5h delay @ ushuaia on top of the AA rep's statement that the luggage tagging wasn't automatic so i had 2 make sure my luggage didn't stay @ Buenos Aires. And stayed, it did. After paying a tax 2 use the airport (i did use their seats 4 3.5h and their loos once hey) i realised they allocated me a 1st class seat. Both flights. Admittedly, 1st class in AA is like economy in ne other but i wasn't gonna kick up a fuss. Fortunately 4 us going 2 sp the connecting flight was, according 2 the stewardess, 'on time. Delayed'. I don't have words. They wizzed us thru the airport while @ every step we were paying more taxes, filling in immigration forms, passing security checks in prob just 15'. They reassured us our luggage would make the flight. Well, it didn't. Hopefully, it'll b here tom morning. Bloody hell. It's past 2am. Better get some sleep.

Day 22

Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of the photos you´ve all been waiting for. The Penguins! Today, we drove through lush forests and over rivers to reach the Estancia Harberton, which owns Isla Martillo that is collonised with both Magellanic and Papua penguins. The former are going strong even after 5 years of tourists walking on the island with their population growing rapidly. The latter are a new colony and there are only 16 couples at the moment. It was a special time to visit them as they have newborn chicks only 1 month old. The chicks´feathers aren´t waterproof yet so they don´t swim. They therefore depend on their parents for their feeding. The babies had soft (it looked like it, I didn´t touch it!) brown feathers while the parents had thick & shiny black ones. There were thousands of penguins on the island and they were everywhere. On the shore, among the plants in their holes (they make holes deep up to 1m to make their home) and on the little hill. We were surrounded! They were not afraid at all to see us in fact, they looked curious, which was sweet. We walked around silently and slowly taking photos and marvelling at the little dudes and dudettes. They are cute but for us as our guide admitted that after having seen them for hundreds of times, he doesn´t find them cute anymore. It´s acceptable, I guess.

We went back to the Estancia for lunch were I met a Brazilian family and had a chat with mostly the mum, who wanted to practice her English but also to talk to a Greek and express how much she loved Greece. She ended up giving me her e-mail.

I came back to have a little nap as I was feeling dizzy. I don´t know why. Still don´t feel perfect but better. I had a chat with Tere(sa), the owner of the house I´m staying at and she told me she got here when she was 27 from Buenos Aires and decided to stay. She expressed her feeling of "infinity" as she said for this land of fire. She said, the only hours are ever pass are the hours she works. The rest is like this place never changes. She did admit tho to being the first lone woman to own a house "on the mountain" back in the ´80s. Actually, she´s on a hill above the harbour but one look further up her street will tell you the amount of development this place has seen ever since. Considering the position of the last house on top of the actual mountain, she´s down town!

The weather was almost perfect today apart from the windy bit on the island but hey, we can´t have everything. I must admit the weather has been perfect considering the location. Kate, the American, told me they´ve had really bad weather so no boat excursions were happening. Guess, I got lucky here. Muchos nicos!

Tomorrow I´m flying to Sao Paulo via BA. Pray that AA will make the connection on time.

Day 21 (and 20)

Dunno wot u can see but these r sealions and cormorans living it up on a party island. But let's take things from the beginning on a short post as it's 11pm and i'm knackered. Yesterday morning on a whim, i checked my email only 2 find a notification from AA paying my departure airport has been moved 2 Ezeiza. This, only 15' b4 getting in the cab 2 jorge newbury. The email, 2 make things worse was sent 9pm the previous evening. A was furious. Luckily i made it on time. The flight was ok w/ a bit of turbulance, super narrow seats and disgusting catering. On the bright side of things, the guesthouse is perfect. A house w/ 3 dl rooms and 1 single; mine. A lounge/breakfast/eating room, kitchen and garden. The 2 dls and i share the bathroom. The grnd floor have en-suite. Almost half of the front room's street-facing wall is window from roof 2 floor. I'm very impressed. Not by the breakfast however. After checking in and getting the low down by Tere bout the house i went tour shopping on the tourist wharf. I gave deposits 4 2 of them. I walked up and down the main str and went 2 the supermarket only 2 meet the dutch couple! Talk bout a small city, eh! Turned out they had also booked the same things but as it appeared l8r w/ a different company and @ different time. Went home, cooked some pasta and after lots of faffing around i went 2 bed @ 1am. I woke up an hr easier as my stupid phone doesn't want 2 update 2 tierra del fuego time. I met katy, an american from san fran, who has been here 4 1 month. That's wot i call patience. The outward boat ride was so bumpy, i still feel nauseous. But it was really cool when our guide, Daniella, explained where we were on the map and where we were going and also Ushuaia's position in relation 2 the rest of the country, the neighbouring Chile and antarctica. The sea lions were def a highlight but they stunk unbelievably. The other highlight was when we got rescued by the coast guard from Bridges island cos the pier collapsed in the sea and we couldn't board our boats! Talk bout adventure. I also checked out the yamana museum. It turns out these fuegian indians were extint by europeans, who hunted down their main food supply, namely whales and seals. Very sad.