Look Away Now if you get easily Incensed.

Mr B left befre lunch time on Friday.  He drove to Patras.  That bonding business with my van meant that he had to involve the Customs people before he boarded the ferry so that they would complete their paperwork verifying that the van has left the country.

Panagiota (neighbour) unbeknownst to us, had signed as guarantor for Mr B when she first accompanied him to Customs to start the bonding process.  We found out later.  So Mr B made sure everything was done by the book and nothing would come back to haunt P.

He rang to say that they hadn't put him in prison yet .... he had been sent outside the Customs office to wait in the van.

While he was on the call we heard someone speak to him in Greek.  Mr B doesn't understand Greek.  He said to us - "I'll call you back in a minute" but he didn't end the call properly and shortly after that F realized she could hear what was going on, so she put the phone on speaker and I heard it too.

The junior Customs officer who came out to accompany him to the ferry and verify he had boarded demanded Euro20 for his pocket.

F and Mr B mainly pay for stuff by card these days - human plague and all that, fewer people want to handle cash.  He didn't have Euro20.  He did have a 50euro note tucked away to pay for fuel in France.  He would be driving through France on Sunday, and we've had the experience before of France being closed on a Sunday and none of the self-service fuel stations taking UK bank cards (and that was when UK was IN the EU - it isn't going to have got any easier since the start of this year), so he had what we called the 'fuel insurance cash'.

We heard him slide the rear door open and then say to the corrupt official "this is all I have". Of course the greedy little bastard pocketed it, no change, no thanks, and no apology - and certainly no receipt.

We know corruption exists everywhere, but so brazen in a modern, first world country that trumpets its tourism attractions? 

"Why did you pay him?" F asked Mr B when he picked up his phone again.  Everywhere you go in Greece there are signs in shops and restaurants telling us that if we don't get a receipt we don't have to pay.  Government offices should not be exempt from that principle.

"I didn't want to create any scene that might come back on Panagiota."  And we get that, but we also know what Panagiota would have said about it, loudly, and with lots of words that start with M.  We've already had the benefit of her views on that in some previous conversation over coffee (such conversations veer into politics and the state of Greece more often than we've got an answer for, so we just listen), but she is in Crete this week and we might not tell her about this one.

Civil servants have no right to use their position of power to demand money for doing the job they are already paid to do.  In this country they are not underpaid, they are not starving, they have not been out of work for a year of COVID.  Their jobs are protected.... 

We quickly agreed on at least three things that Mr B COULD HAVE done but it's that shock factor when it is something you are not used to and you have to react quickly and instinctively..  Mr B is an honest and decent person and his reactions are honest and decent.

What would you have done?

I should have been there - I'm good at distracting border guards and customs officials.