2015 Briefly Reviewed

Very little of 2015 remains now. 

 It brought with it some sadness: we lost our brother-in-law, Petros, in April; more recently in November we learned that a dear friend, Kenny, from Edinburgh had passed on. Kenny was a former colleague at Forrester High School who sadly had not enjoyed the best of health of late. It is so sad to think these vibrant life forces are no longer with us – they are greatly missed.

Politically and financially Greece was in the …. mire …  and Varoufakis turned out definitely not the horse to back! Capital controls affected each one of us, but dealt vicious blows to swathes of the private sector – small businesses saw production and revenues decline dramatically.

Now I don’t know whether the Sheffield graffiti artist in question below was referring to politicians or bankers as the bad dudes, but I loved the moral and poetic nature of the accompanying legend:

I’d rather eat crumbs with bums                    than eat steaks with snakes.

                                                 

And of course there were pleasurable events during the year.

During our September trip to Sheffield, we met up with an old mate of mine: Colin from Edinburgh, who was a fellow-British Council employee in Yemen. Now living in Sale, he was kind enough to offer us an excellent dinner in his beautiful home. Here he is providing post-prandial entertainment as well!       

                                 

 

  Another trip, another meet-up, this time with Noufris in Larnaka. We shared several years together with him and his Danish wife, Birgit, in Kuwait. Here he is with two of his delightful daughters: Alexandra on the left and Marianna, our god-daughter, on the right. We made a little tourist trip up into the mountain foothills, finding a great watering-hole with excellent food in Lefkara.

                                 

 

So what were all these trips we made to Sheffield and to Cyprus for? 

 Well, the really exciting event of 2015 was that Angeliki and I incorporated our very own Sheffield–based business in September. Here we are both wearing Macphail tartan stoles - mine is Dress and hers is Hunting -  celebrating the founding of our new company. The tartan is important as it’s in the logo and the company name which expresses the Scottish and Greek elements of the directorship!

 

 

   What’s it all about? Watch this space!! All will be revealed fairly soon.

 In the meantime, we wish you a Happy New Year.  Sweet sixteen is on its way!   

Flavours, faith and festivities

Our extended autumn has meant that I had time to take advantage of the wonderful fruit and vegetables still ripening in our and in our neighbours’ gardens. Below all the ingredients are lined up for  ….can you guess ? A hearty chutney will be the end-product: a great way to use up those green tomatoes that will no longer ripen fully now. Chutney is one of the many flavours imported to Britain from the Indian subcontinent where it is a side-dish made of a variety of ingredients and with a variety of textures. In Britain we tend to eat it with cheese or with cold meats; here at home we enjoy it with ouzo, smoked meats and cheeses.

                                                 

Some of you may be familiar with Edward Lear’s nonsense poem entitled The Owl and the Pussy Cat.     In the opening lines:

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea green boat,

 They took some honey, and plenty of money,

 Wrapped up in a five pound note. 

Their romance blossoms, they are married by the ‘Turkey who lives on the hill’

 And for their wedding supper

‘They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

 And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand

 They danced by the light of the moon.’

I couldn’t resist adding the romantic stuff, though the only thing that’s relevant here is the quince. As a child I loved this poem: the quince added such an exotic flavor while the runcible spoon was surely the only utensil with which one could eat such fare.

 The quince has been baked, skin and all, and, once the stones have been removed, the pulp and skin are blended.   This mixture is then boiled with sugar until it thickens and then is spread out on a baking parchment-lined baking tray. After about three days in indoor sunshine, the mix can be cut into strips as shown below. These are then cut into pieces which are sugared then left for a further three days to fully dry out. Quince paste is delicious with coffee at the end of a meal and makes a delightful Christmas gift. 

  

              

Thankfully, nowadays we don’t need to pound the ingredients with a pestle – from whence came the name – to make that great pesto sauce. I use a recipe that claims origins in Bologna, rather than the traditional Genovese one, and it’s great for using up cherry tomatoes which give it a lighter texture and flavour. H is just ready to sample a fresh batch on pasta with a liberal helping of parmesan cheese and a nice chilled white wine ….mmm!

               

 

                

Last month, within the space of five days I was fortunate enough to visit two sites of great significance to the Orthodox Church. Below is the Church of Saint Lazarus in the Kiti area of Larnaca.  The Church is said to have been built on the site where the relics of Lazarus were found. After his resurrection, he was said to have fled to Cyprus ,  met the apostles Paul and Barabas and was ordained as Bishop of Kiti. Angeliki admires the impressive silver icons depicting scenes of the resurrection.

 

          

Below is the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is said to house the site where Jesus was crucified and to house the tomb where he was buried. Next to that we see the faithful kneeling to pray, kiss the stone and rub it with material which they will hold as special in commemorating their significant experience here.

 

                        

While wandering through the Old City I saw people from all over the globe who had come there on a pilgrimage.  Whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim, they were ‘people of the book’, united in their monotheistic beliefs and shared reverence for that holy place. It was hard to believe that close by, Syria was the theatre of a war being played out by ISIS in the name of religious extremism. How can adoration and faith sit side by side with hatred and merciless murder in the name of the spirituality of man?

At this time of year, in today’s world, the topic of faith raises many questions.

 This year, what with our economic crisis, capital controls, etc. etc. I have not sent so many Christmas cards.  But what I will share with every one of you is ………

…….    A Christmas Cat, our very own Mr Mao!   Isn’t he a wee cutie?                 

                                

                               

Merry Christmas, one and all!

                                                                  

Facing the Rough with the Smooth, the Tough with the Slimy and the Remaining Enchanted Ones.

When the going gets tough, the Greek Government leans on us for more taxes. The first picture is of a queue of people outside the bank (just imagine what inside scenes were like!!) getting ready, but not necessarily being ready, to pay their property tax. How much we had to pay was only recently announced and Friday was the deadline, otherwise you were fined.

You are allowed to pay in installments but I paid my share in one go: if you are going to suffer a wound, then let it happen once!

Taxes go up, our pensions have undergone further cuts. Could we possibly reach the stage when our tax demands are greater than our income is? This is not a droll or hypothetical question, since taxes are estimated not on our actual salary or pension as stated in our tax declaration, but on the income the state decides we must have to afford the property and possessions we have. L

 In the next picture, this nasty, slimy writhing mass is a miniscule amount of the black millipedes or diplopods which have invaded our perimeter area, some of them trying to gain access to our basement.

Apparently when their natural habitat is overrun by a population proliferation or when conditions are too damp, then some of this burgeoning mass must migrate- and we got lucky and were on their path.   H has been dispensing insecticide spray, chlorine, petrol to deal with those crawlers-in-their-thousands. When stamped on they emit a vile smell - our animals gave them a wide berth though they neither sting nor bite.

 This picture provides evidence that their migration wave is abating, fortunately. 

         

It’s beginning to get quite cool at night: today was a beautiful midday high of 17oC but will fall to 8oC at night. So you take full advantage of the warmth of the sun, soaking up as much as you possibly can. Below the fluffy Mr. Mao and his dad, Pushkin, toast themselves on the balcony while Prunella, true to her nature, strikes a more elegant pose on the kitchen window-sill. Now she looks a really cool and  smooth operator!

 

 

           

And now for the rough but only to the touch, for on the eye they are very pleasing– I complete the information from my last post on the final four Enchanted Ones, those seen on the outer sides of the pillars.

 First here we have Nike, a name not unknown to us today, so let’s see where that famous sports-wear brand took its name from. This winged goddess, daughter of the Titan, Pallas, and Styx, personified the concept of victory and she was the charioteer of the gods. Here she is shown descending from Mount Olympus to reward some victor with the cloth band she is holding. Victors could also be rewarded with palm branches or laurel wreaths.

       

      

   

Next is Aura, daughter of a Titan and a mortal, who personifies the refreshing, cool breeze of the morning. She is alo associated with the souls of the dead who appear and reappear like a breeze. Here we can see her light cloak billowing behind her to form an arch, a feature that usually identifies images of her.

                                     

 Below we see a Dioskouros, that is, one of the Dioskouri, Castor and Pollux, identified as the twin sons of Zeus.They were well known for taking part in the expedition of the Argonauts and other mythical campaigns. They became the constellation, Gemini, whose appearance is beleieved to be a good omen by sailors.They reperesent boldness and brotherly devotion  and were patrons of horsemanship, sailors and travellers.

  

           

The final character we will deal with is that of Ganymede, here seen with the eagle. He was reputed to be from a prominent  family in Troy and so handsome that Homer described him as ‘the handsomest of mortals.’  While he was tending the family flocks, Zeus fell in love with him and, transforming himself into an eagle, caried Ganymede off to Olympus where he became the cup-bearer of the gods. Here is a rather sensuous depiction of his abduction to Mount Olympus. 

 

               

And with that, our description of the scenes sculpted on the pillars, Las Incantadas, comes to an end.

 As I said in my previous post, these probably formed a part of an important public building in the late 2^nd and early 3^rd centuries AD. This building survived until the 19^th century in the Roogos Jewish quarter of Thessaloniki.

In 1864, Emmanuel Miller, a French paleographer, was given permission from the Ottoman authorities to take possession of this monument. He broke it into transportable pieces which he transported to Paris. The surviving pieces are still on display in the Louvre.

In 1957 a piece of a pillar with part of the head and wing of Nike was found in Rogkot Street and can be seen in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. 

 A final fitting shot, from the 19^th century, is the only surviving one of the Enchanted Ones, signed by Georgios Colomvos, an Athenian photographer. This is part of the private collection of Pierre de Gigord, Paris.

                                         

This is a moving scene of the past grandeur and rich history of our much-loved city, Thessaloniki .