For those that don't know, I'll give a quick recap on what Ask Sara is.

Ask Sara is a monthly event where I select one Village friend on Facebook to tell us three things about themselves, and then they ask me three things about myself in return.

It's turned out to be such a lovely way for not only me to get to know readers of my books better, but for readers of The Greek Village Series to get to know each other better too!

This week I chose a lovely lady who turned out to also be very generous called Sam Clarke.

Here is what Sam told us:

:) What a lovely surprise to be chosen, I am honoured. Gosh, 3 things...

I realised last year that there is actually nothing 'commercial' missing from my life. It was my birthday and there was NOTHING I wanted. I have a home, a car, enough money to pay the bills, I have a garden and my dog and my chickens, enough spare to buy books (what more can a girl need?) So, I decided to give back and my big 45 was born. www.mybig45.wordpress.com if you want to have a look, and its THE most fun ever. I have the next 2 years lined up already :D

I had to leave work 2 years ago now, I always worked in Theatre, backstage, wardrobe mistress, stage crew, lighting then front of house manager as I got older and humping stuff about got hard work :)

Now I work for a knitting designer, knitting his patterns to be photographed for his books. I love it because I get to knit for a living, I get time to do my own projects and I get to spend my life at home with my family. Perfect.

I get weirdly obsessed with the strangest things, big things that are small, small things that are big, for example tiny Eiffel towers and HUGE chickens, I go through phases of buying everything to do with one thing, chickens, budgies, Eiffel towers, statues of liberty, wire fox terrier dog ornaments ...those are just a few of my latest. Then I go wild and decide there's no flippin room to move in this house, and they end up in the loft :/

Well, that's MORE than enough of me.

Here is what Sam asked me about myself:

Sara, what made you decide to move to Greece?
I'm quite new here so I apologise if these have all been asked before.

When I took my first holiday in Greece I felt like I had arrived home. It was more than the warmth and the people; it felt deeper - spiritual you might say.

But I was there on a package holiday so I duly took the plane home and arrived in the UK to find pelting rain. I took the bus home and it crawled along the motorway in a miserable grey traffic jam.

When I finally arrived in my home town I went straight to the travel agents and brought a ticket to return to Greece the next day. This was my first long term stay in Greece.

Any place that can create such an internal change, as Greece has done to me, must be pretty special.

Was it a hard move to make? leaving family, friends etc?

The first time I moved was no struggle at all - it felt perfect. I stayed until my money ran out and came back to the UK intent on finding a way to live in Greece permanently. Coming home was the hardship.

The second time I was more brave. I took jobs even though I did not speak Greek, and I signed a short lease on a flat which felt scary but gave me the energy to follow my dream through.

I had a lot of different jobs and moved around to where the work was in those first two years until I became confident that I could survive by drawing portraits and taking part time jobs. The process gave me a great deal of confidence in my ability to survive.

I visited home every year and leaving became harder, but that was because living in the UK with family and friends around me felt so easy and living in Greece took a lot of energy and I grew tired. But tired or not there felt like there was no choice, I just had to be in Greece however hard it was. In retrospect the whole jigsaw falls in to place so eloquently it seems obvious why I wanted and needed to be there.

Life has a funny way of taking you down the best route to suit your character. I am learning more and more to go with the flow and to stop thinking I have any real control!

Do you collect anything?

I am the opposite of a collector. I am an unhoarder, if there is such a thing! I would rather do without than have clutter.

I object to things that are necessities because by definition I am forced to ‘own’ them. If I could fit my life into one bag I would be very happy

As a result I no longer feel like I own very much at all. I see myself as a guardian of my home and the furniture in it as there is a very good chance they may, one day, be someone else’s, so for now I am just looking after these things for future owners.

On a slightly different tangent I suppose I do collect memories and friends, things that are irreplaceable, oh and stories, I love to collect stories.

Thank you Sam!

Remember to check out Sam's My Big 45; 45 random acts of kindness here: MYBIG45.WORDPRESS.COM

And if you want to join in the Village shenanigans then do come and find me and friend me on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/authorsaraal...

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