Sea Life, Brighton.

 While in Brighton, we visited its Sea LIfe which claims to be the oldest, continually operating aquarium in the world. Designed by architect Evgenius Birch in 1869, it opened in 1872.

This was my first aquarium visit and, as you enter, the 68 metre vaulted corridor lined with water tanks containing rays, snails, turtles, etc., your attention is certainly held, especially with the constantly changing coloured lighting.

I think my favourite character there was the octopus. They have three hearts and blue blood, thanks to the protein haemoganin cyanin which contains copper. They are camouflage artists, possessing chromatophores which allow them to change colour, and papilli – tiny areas of skin which can expand and contract to change the texture of their appearance. Their 500 million neurons allow each arm to taste, touch and react to the environment independently. They are intelligent beings, able to solve problems such as navigate complex mazes and unscrew jars to access food. They can recognize individuals of other species, even human faces.

 Certainly, this one kept the one eye we could see trained on us, happily performing lazy, elegant arm movements before rising up the tank to retrieve his plaything resting atop a branch–a ball!                                         The octopus apparently has an artistic sense! Collecting their meal debris – the shells of clams and scallops – they adorn the entrance to their home. Cue in The Beatles’ ‘Octopus’s Garden!

As a linguist, I was interested to learn the collective nouns for jellyfish: a bloom, a fluther, a swarm or a smack – the latter being a sharp reminder of being a sting recipient in Greek waters! They are very simple organisms, being 94% water, and have a short life span, ranging from a few hours to several years. They have, however, been around for a long time – 500 million years or so - which means they predate the dinosaurs.

They move by contracting the muscles of their body and the water squeezed out from the cavity of their jelly belly😊 jet propels them in the required direction. I watched in fascination as the fluther – good word, that! – in the tank moved gracefully to and fro. They needed the accompaniment of some dreamy classical music. 

I was really happy to see some sea horses which I find beautiful. Despite their name, Hippocampus or horse animal, they are fish. Without a stomach, they suck food in through their snouts. Monogamous, it is the male who carries the eggs in his pouch, deposited there by the female, until they hatch. They, too, can change colour to avoid predators and, being poor swimmers, they tie their tails to plants as anchors, so as not to be swept away by currents.

 It was amazing to see several fairly large sharks swim overhead in some glass tunnels formations.

And it was fun to go into the little alcove and have the beluga whale holograms appear to rush over to welcome you.

 I was glad I had had that experience but, overall, my overall impression was that the aquarium was like a tired old dame, definitely in need of a revamp. Not like this bright, young dame below!

                                      

 

Non-Standard Grammar ....?

In British International Phonetic Alphabet, this heading reads Brighton Conference.

At the annual IATEFL conference we attended a presentation by John Hird, of Oxford University, entitled Non -Standard Grammar – Or Just Plain Wrong.               

I am continually dismayed by the standard of written English in evidence on Facebook posts and this in an age where spellcheck facilities are readily accessible. As a retired English teacher, I permanently suffer from a red-pen tic where errors simply beg to be corrected! ☹

John defined his term of non-standard grammar by appealing to our great grammar guru, David Crystal, who explains this as grammar features, forms and patterns and usages that are considered traditionally, technically and prescriptively incorrect but are so commonplace that perhaps we should consider them acceptable.

Traditionally the spoken word, being spontaneous and less formal, was the rich source of such forms, but the written mode in the social media is fast catching up!! American usage can frequently affect what is being expressed on a wider geographic scale, through advertising or what is considered ‘hip’. The McDonald’s ‘I’m Lovin’ It’ jingle is a case in point. Grammar books would generally not condone verbs expressing thoughts, opinions or emotions being used in the continuous verb form.

One form I rather like is ‘Be like’ as in the example below which has its origins in African American Vernacular English and is used to perform or mimic speech attitudes or behaviours – here the glottal stop which drops the ‘t’ in “British’.

Gretchen McCullock outlines the new language rules in her book entitled, ‘Because Internet’.           I must confess that in messaging, I may use the time-saving, non-ambiguous ‘Later I ‘ll go spa.’

I’ve often heard Gordon Ramsay tell his Masterchef contestants ‘Your 60 minutes starts now’, presumably focusing on the singular time period rather the minutes’ plurality.

John quoted ,’If I didn’t come along, there would be no NATO right now.’  But then no one expects Trump to be a paragon rule-observer, and he disrespectfully rides roughshod over the accepted chronological staging of verb tenses! I guess he could excuse himself and his linguistic knowledge by using the ubiquitous double-negative, ‘I don’t know nothing.’

The next phase of the talk I found fascinating when John had audience members access the mentimeter facility on their devices. He projected deviant language forms on the electric whiteboard and we had to plot them, as seen below, on a cline of least -> most offensive!

The overall ‘winner’ was the least contentious, the use of the adjectival rather than the adverbial form eg, ‘He did fantastic’ – sports-talk making its linguistic contribution.

Examples such as ‘I was sat on my own’ were deemed not too bad since they were ‘excused’ as genuine regional usage!  Verb forms and tenses were expected to be respected - examples as, ’I’ve drank it’ could not be forgiven!

Conditional clauses, especially those expressing the hypothetical, were given short shrift where faulty. Even Elton John’s lyrics from ‘Candle In The Wind’

..’And I would’ve liked to know you …’ would not have passed muster!

I must mention my pet peeves

a)       ‘Could of’ instead of ‘Could’ve’

b)       the use of ’less’ for countable nouns instead of ‘fewer’.

Our speaker admitted to disliking the extraneous ‘of’ in ‘He got off of the bus’ and drew the talk to a close by playing The Rolling Stones’, ‘Hey, you, get off of my cloud ‘!

Spring Is Coming In! 😊

Central Macedonia, recently, was aglow with peach tree blossom – a stunning roadside show! Spring is gradually approaching this year with short, scattered bouts of rain and cooler weather.

And that means nature goes into overdrive and demands hard work to keep things in order. Here we see members of the family, on holiday from Crete, painting the trees with a liquid to protect them from fungus. I imagine that will deter ants and other insects that damage the bark or fruit.

Under the hothouse arches, tomato, cucumber, courgette and pepper plants sit in straight rows. They should see us all through the summer months once they ripen.

The vines have begun to leaf, having been cleaned and sprayed to encourage healthy growth.

Paths and verges look neat after recent mowing and weeding. In our former house, Z had headaches for three days simply at the thought of cutting our grass – a vast expanse that Angeliki called Hyde Park!  It was a two-day task while here within less than two hours, he’s back and smiling because the deed is done! A much preferred option!

 By the house angelica is budding, soon to pervade the area with its intoxicating scent.

The rose bushes are producing coy buds, waiting for more heat before strutting their stuff.                   We greatly look forward to enjoying what these plants have to offer!

  

Unorthodox Easter !

 And so it was Easter! At the spa, one Greek lady remarked it was Catholic Easter. Couldn’t resist asking if we Protestants didn’t get a look-in, to which a friend of hers responded quietly Protestants are heretics. Reminded me of the nun at the nunnery denying us entrance to Heaven! Now I could have informed her that the Eastern Orthodox followers were the first heretics when they broke away from the Catholic Church in 1054. Perhaps she hadn’t heard of the Great Schism?! But when our newscasters claimed it was Jewish Easter (Pesach was celebrated that same week) I realized that the role of an educator has its limits! :0

But to the celebration: wood-fired ovens are heated,

the beastie is hung, and appetites are whetted.

Here the spread included lamb with its rice and liver stuffing, sausage and belly-pork, oven-baked beans, stuffed vine leaves, salads of lettuce, boiled greens, aubergines and a variety of cheeses.

I provided cheesecake and pavlova to finish the meal - and us – off! 😊     

To accommodate family members living in N Europe, that feast was held on the Saturday.

Znme had an invite to ANOTHER on Sunday!! Here we see the potatoes in the oven, lamb atop, and alongside a Thracian haggis-like dish of rice and liver, etc.  Also served: Russian salad, lettuce, and roast chicken. The special request was for me to bring a fruit crumble. Gladly! 😊

Yesterday when I was writing about our experience, I somehow omitted an ‘s’ in error, rendering the word an Eater celebration – think that was correct, after all!

Going Green

On our recent trip north we drove past the Saint Dimitrios Power Station, largest of the Greek power plants, generating a total capacity of 1,600 MW. It is easily recognizable with its three 200 metre-high flue gas stacks. Their red and white bands remind me of the patterned stockings worn by Pantomime dames!!

   

Since this area supplies most of the electrical power for the entire country, there are several plants in evidence but most are no longer productive. This is because energy production is undergoing a rapid transitional phase moving towards clean electricity production.

Lignite was traditionally the dominant resource but is now being reduced with a commitment made to phase it out by 2028. Other key energy resources are: natural gas: 36-45%; renewables:40-50% (solar 22.5%, wind 21%). From 2013 solar energy has been making an increasingly significant impact and great swathes of solar panels can be seen throughout the country.

Current goals are for over 61% of the electrical power to come from renewables by 2030  and an overall aim for Greece to be carbon neutral by 2050.

The lowcarbonpower.org diagram below demonstrates the changing face of electricity generation in Greece from 1980 to the present time.

Added to this is another energy-related development: the current EXXON exploratory offshore drilling for natural gas in the Ionian Sea. 

Current findings predict that drilling may begin in 2027. Success in this field could mean Greece would be well on her way to achieving energy sustainability and security. We live in very exciting times! 😊 

Flying High

We live in the eastern region of Thessaloniki and when we need to go to the centre, to avoid parking issues, we tend to use bus services from the local transport hub. We rarely use the Ring Road which in itself is congested at peak times and has a high accident rate. It was built in the 1990s, affording access to the city and the Egnatia Road motorway, which runs west to east across the country from Igoumenitsa to the Kypous border with Turkey.

Much in need of improvement to cater for high traffic volume, the 4-year project, costing around 478 million euros, began in late 2023.

Below is an artist’s impression of the broadened route spanned by an elevated crossing.

Recently, as we headed off for a trip to the north, we were able to see close-up the great progress that is being made.

What were previously little pockets of activity with isolated pieces of structure in evidence, now appear to be joining other disparate puzzle pieces so that we begin to comprehend how they fit into the overall design.

Certainly, local users have been frustrated by traffic flow disruption due to the ongoing work- including old bridge spans being dismantled and requiring total road closure. But their patience will pay off once the eastern section of the 22 km ring road is widened and upgraded. The additional construction includes a 12 km elevated expressway, 9 interchanges, 8 bridges and tunnels and it aims to redirect about 30% of the traffic to this higher level.

The Avax-Mytilineos Consortium, responsible for the major construction work, are to be commended for the efficient and rapid execution of the project which is due for completion in May 2027.

What with our new metro currently being extended, Thessaloniki is eventually moving forward.

 Once this Flyover Project is completed – and doesn’t it look grand above? -   we will really be flying high! 

Now The Carnival Is Over …

 

Orthodox Easter falls on April 12^th, the first Sunday after the spring solstice first full moon, one week after the ‘Catholic Easter’ as they dub it here. We’ve been celebrating the pre-Lenten period with Carnival revelry and fun. Below the locals in the nearby village of Souroti celebrate ‘Clean Monday’ when the 40 days observance begins, running up to Easter.

 

There are specific gastronomic no-nos: meat, dairy produce, fish with backbone – no me, neither :{ - olive oil and wine. This means vegetables and sea food dominate the diet of observing families.

We joined friends for lunch at a local ouzeri and it seemed that ALL the permitted dishes were there: beans, salads, octopus, kalamari, prawns, crayfish, lobster – hardly smacking of abstinence at all as we emptied the plates, downing quantities of ouzo and wine! Then we came back to ours for coffee and a definitely non-kosher cheesecake! :o

As February wanes the weather hasn’t yet settled and can be cool, but the sun is slowly  warming and there are signs that spring is on its way.

The almond trees are flourishing and sleepy bees busy about the blooms. Prunus roots Z planted nearby have taken and are now in flower.

Last night our night sky was a definite ‘red sky at night’- the sailors’ delight!  The carnival is, indeed, over and we must say our last goodbyes to February. Looking forward to new days in a new month with hope.