The world from my window

As the band struck up the theme music to Harry Potter , xylophones gently tinkling, I got up from my seat to find the best spot to take a photo. The plateia was atmospheric. It was a magical night, with a throng of people gathered under the trees to listen to the music. A sky of black ink, a bell tower picked out by spotlight and two lamps illuminating the church door. I half-expected the Knight Bus to come roaring through the village, slowing down to inch past the busy tavernas and forcing oncoming traffic to step aside, as coaches do around these parts. Or maybe Hagrid on a motorbike and sidecar. I clicked off the camera to stop filming and noticed a fluttering beside me. A small bat flapped by. Its wings almost touched the ground. I followed its progress as the bat wove in and out of the percussion section, swooping low over the timpani and bass drum and then up, higher and higher, to swirl around the bell tower. And then the band played the theme mu...

A high wind whips through the trees as the children prepare for the end of term show. The stage is set up outside on the gravelled playground and it's blowing a hooley. The mothers and fathers, aunties and uncles and grandparents are huddled around tables, waiting for the concert to begin. A group of six-year-olds, the boys dressed as ancient Greek soldiers and the girls in classical-style, white dresses, each with one shoulder bared, come on to the stage, egged on by their glamorous teacher in heels as high as the mountain that overlooks the village. There is a stage backdrop depicting the rocky outcrop of the Athenian Acropolis and the Parthenon. The children act, they dance and they sing as the women go on strike and withdraw their labour as a protest at their husbands being away at war. With Greek music, extracts from the sassy and laid-back theme tune to The Pink Panther and a disco ballad, the girls take the higher moral ground and refuse to co-operate unless the...