I joined the Political Section of the British Embassy in Athens in December 1989, when people in Berlin were chipping off parts of the wall, hoping they were eventually going to serve as souvenirs of a bygone era. This actually proved to be the case and Europe, Greece and Athens were now very different places than they then were. Some 21 years later I still work as a Political Officer in Athens, contributing to the collective Embassy effort to deal with contemporary opportunities and challenges, promoting UK interests in Greece and building on the strong, deep UK-Greek relationship. I was born and grew up in Salonica and, among other things, I enjoy delving into my hometown’s past and reading history, poetry and crime fiction. If I had more time, I would paint and work on improving my Turkish.