George's horse

This is the shed that George has recently built for his horse, complete with guttering and a water-butt. George works for the Hellenic Electricity Company as the island's linesman. The Hellenic Electricity Company is a monopoly and because it sends out bills to every household in Greece six times a year the Government uses it as a mule for collecting Community Charge and TV license payments. Yes, if you choose to live off-grid you pay no Community Charge and your TV is free. The Company is understandably extremely powerful and likes to flex its muscles when it is upset about something. Shutting off the power supply to the entire country is not unheard of and during 2007 was a very common occurrence indeed. Note; there has never been a power outage during an important soccer match.

So when we lose power we phone George to find out if it is a wildcat strike, scheduled maintenance or a fault on our line. If it is the latter George comes out to replace a fuse. We live about 5km beyond the village and the island ends about 5km beyond our house. During the winter time ours is the only occupied house in that 5km radius so if we don't call George nobody else will. We found this out one year when we had waited and waited all day for the power to come back on and finally called George at dusk, he came out straight away bless him, it was 1st January.

I imagine that George is quite well paid.