Coffee, beach and work

After a blotchy start, with rain, clouds and high winds, it feels like summer has finally set in.

IGUANA BEACH, Ayious Apostolous, my local beach, located near forested area, which is still free for all to use.

Frappe, beach and a good book to read. Today, I took along my work-related material. As I have mentioned on many occassions on my blog, much of my work is based on reading material that contains interesting information, which I often share with readers. 

Today's reading was very pertinent to my surroundings: PES (payments for environmental services). What is PES? It's basically a way to make money to protect forests and natural environment. What we take for granted is often spoiled by overuse or misuse. What may have been freely accessed in our grandparents' times when there were less than 3 billion people in the world now needs protection in the era of 7 billion people, where these places are used not just for self-sufficiency and survival, but also for recreation and entertainment, accepting visitors not just from the locality, but from all over the world.

A friend asked me if I could concentrate well enough to read a non-fiction book at the noisy busy beach on a Sunday afternoon. You can egotistically switch off at a Greek beach, because everyone who is there is doing their own thing. You may feel hunched up together with strangers vying for space, and there may seem to be a lack of privacy in Greece in general, but eventually, you realise that the personal space you create around you in a public space - be it a cafe, a beach, a taverna - is where you can be yourself, and in this day and age, as long as you are not bothering anyone or breaking rules, no one will object.

If you can multi-task effectively (I guess I am good at this, as reasearch suggests that most women are), you can do your own thing, while making sure that you don't miss out on anything extraordinary. This afternoon, the only thing that casued a great commotion was a bride in a cabrio which was beeping loudly and incessantly until it took her to the church on the little hill where the wedding was taking place. But if you know this Greek tradition, you will only look up momentarily to catch sight of the spectacle, before you get back to your own little world. 

My local and highly popular little beach is still free for all to enjoy - but for how long, I don't know. For now, it sounds luxuriousto have the freedom to combine coffee, beach and work: maybe it is a luxury...

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