Home Decoration, Swedish Guests, Quilting and Sketches.

In my last post I focused on Athens street art. On my return home another kind of painting was well underway: our house was being redecorated inside and out. 

Question : is there any housekeeper out there who finds their house is absolutely spotless when large items of furniture are moved away from the walls?  It’s embarrassing to see how much ‘oose’, or furry dust, can be lurking in these little nooks and crannies which rarely see the light of day. 

 Then there’s choosing the colour: several little drops of unwanted ochre had my rich bordeaux turning to a boring brick-brown - eugh! Tired of whites and mushrooms, I wanted a splash of colour; but was the yellow too bright, the pink too Barbie?

                                          

What I was grateful for are the new materials that are environmentally friendly. In the past strong fumes could reduce me to a moaning mess as sinusitis kicked in – an allergenic reaction to specific chemicals in the paint. This time we had walls, doors and railings done without any symptoms. There are some EU-imposed regulations that I heartily approve of.

    

  

 

During the project, you can see the state of our balconies both downstairs and upstairs – I promise you they don’t usually look like that!  And when there is such upheaval, you have to take it in your stride, take a detour round about or ….  hole up in a room that’s been done, keep out of everyone’s way and snooze.
Well, that’s the philosophy of Mr Mao who has taken over the sofa. 

        

When Vasilis, our master-decorator, first arrived he brought some meat scraps and immediately endeared himself to Leondaris who then felt canine inspection of whatever was being taken out of the van was mandatory! And there are always accidents: note the badly bruised nail - a badge of busy-ness.

                    

 

Just fifteen minutes after our intrepid painters, Vasilis and Christos, left, our Swedish family guests arrived, with strict instructions not to touch specific walls and railings. As you can see Moschos, the Greek father, has a penchant for   ‘interesting’ shirts –  this season’s clearly being Inca-inspired.    

They first came to visit us here in 2000, again when workmen had just completed tiling the pool and left the cement between the tiles to dry. Charlotte was linguistically strict with her sons: while they were guests here they were allowed to speak only English or Greek - no Swedish whatsoever.  

Angelos the elder, eyed the situation: pool: great, empty: silly.   Clearly wondering why my husband had not effected the next obvious step, and observing his mother’s instructions, he asked in a piping Scandinavian lilt: ‘Where is the water?’  

  This year they were able to take full advantage of the facility – under the watchful eye of Leondaris.   Fifteen years have passed since the wee lads first came to the Cottonfields. Angelos has just completed his Master’s degree and is looking for gainful employment, while Andreas has just embarked on his graduate studies. They are two very charming young men with excellent skills in English and Greek. Mum’s insistence on task-based learning has certainly paid off.
We wish them all the very best in their future studies and careers.                    

                 

 

 Here is a post-decoration shot: the pink contributing a bright background to the quilted wall –hanging  which is a favourite possession created by dear friend, Jean Rutherford, master- ( or is that mistress-?)   quilter. Her home is a grand gallery of all her master-pieces. You can also see the beautiful quilted cover she made that was draped on my bed when I visited her and Maxwell in Mississauga in Ontario. 
 I’ll take commissions for a fat fee!!

       

 

My art work does not match that of Jean’s in any respect, but here are two pieces of my recent work. They are pencil sketches as I think we had enough colour this summer. 

 

 

 The first is of Tonka, my great-niece’s horse in New Zealand. This does not do him justice as he is a dark, dashing creature.

The second is my niece’s moggie, Kubrick. I have mentioned him before and predict he is going to become really well-known in future: watch this space!?

Summer Celebrations, CELT Athens Diploma assessments and Athens Street Art.

Summer proper is when you can invite folks for a meal out – i.e. to sit outside, embraced by the balmy atmosphere, surrounded by the sounds of nature- : bats flitting by to drink, night birds trilling, crickets chirruping, owls hooting, soothing sounds of us all enjoying summer together.

On July 26^th my sister-in-law celebrates her name-day: here is Voula with her brother, and next to them is her son, Nikos, with his lovely wife, Foteini. 

 

               

Voula’s daughter, Katerina, is very pretty but it is her son, Christos, who steals the show. I am glad to say he really liked my bread-crumb-coated chicken – or was it the accompanying Marie-Rose sauce that he preferred? Anyway, his enjoyment is evident …… and smeared all over his left cheek! Here he is with his uncle showing his blue dolphin and pink pig. For a time at the check-out Lidl supermarket gave its customers paper pouches containing little plastic animals. These quickly became collectors’ items for seven-year-olds. Christos was delighted to get two new models which he intended to add to his stash rather than trade with his little pals.

              

                    

Finally, our neighbours’ daughter kindly allowed us to share her birthday table at Aghios Prodromos, a nearby village in the Halkidiki prefecture which is famous for its roasted meats– it claims to have gained an award from the government of New Zealand! After scoffing the succulent, well-seasoned souvlaki, we then made great inroads into her delicious cake – isn’t Black Forest gateau just the best?                  

   Many Happy Returns, Zoe!

August saw me down in Athens to do some assessment of candidates who had been following a diploma course in teaching English at CELT Athens Teaching Development Centre. In the picture below to the left is Alexander, one of the tutors, and next to him, my dear friend, Marisa Constantinides, owner/director of the centre, strong cyber presence, inveterate teacher trainer and popular blogger – catch her on TEFL Matters.  With them are two candidates sharing a glass and a bite after the tension of their exam day.

In the next picture two other candidates flank members of the class they taught for the Methodology component of the exam.  The class was a cheery band of multi-national, hard-working learners.  And on the topic of multi-national, CELT Athens attracts clients from all over: these good people had travelled from Spain, Serbia, Transylvania and Denmark to follow the course.

        

  

 

The Athens area of Exarchia ‘enjoys’ an element of notoriety, to the extent that the US Embassy has warned travellers to stay clear. But it’s not all anarchists and unrest. As I enjoyed a quiet stroll there it seemed more of an exhibition of amazing street art.

Certainly, the grotesque-headed figure holding the incendiary device and with the ‘Welcome to Athens’ sign pinned to the window on the right has its political statement to make. And our pretty bubble-blowing lady means business too – the badge she is wearing and the ‘Antifa Forever’ slogan are associated with an anti-Fascist magazine.  

 

 

                                                      

I think the building that hosted the following piece also housed a Christian book shop. To me it exudes the sense of a strong, supporting unity that religion can provide for some. And amid all the urban chaos and graphic noise, isn’t the calm scene of an innocent, sleeping child just superb? I love this!

 

 

   

Local people make good use of graffiti; here a stationer employed a street-artist to paint his shutters. The result is a beautiful riot of colour: pens, erasers, scissors, highlighters all blend into a glorious advertisement left untouched by simple wall-scrawlers – surely a mark of respect to the painter? 

Such establishments do great business at this time of year when kids go back to school. Well, for some, like a friend’s daughter, it means going back to school but not necessarily being taught. Believe it or not, parents were told by the headmaster that their children in Primary 5 class were ‘unlucky’ in that they had no teacher. The teachers had selected the classes they wanted to teach – this one, being an exceptionally large one, had been non-preferred. Teachers with permanent places at that school who had requested transfers, had been allowed to leave without any stand-ins being secured beforehand. Add to that sad scenario a headmaster who is obliged to work at least eight hours but is not prepared to do so. This is the third time this pupil has been left without a teacher (that’s how ‘unlucky’ she has been) and that situation could have gone on for months. This time, however, the parents had had enough and went to the appropriate offices to complain. Today our pupil sat in her newly-formed 18-student strong class that now boasts the kitchen as their classroom - and the headmaster as their Maths teacher!

An improvement, yes, but not a solution. That’s the extent to which things can deteriorate when there is no organization, no responsibility being assumed, and there is inadequate supervision and inspection.

 Once again, things educational and otherwise are on hold until after the elections. This week-end, once again, we go to the polls - votes being our GDP, the Greek Diversionary Ploy. You’d think after so much practice we’d start showing signs of improvement?!

On a more pleasing academic note, I end this post with a beautiful thematic blend of education and street art.  In central Athens as I was about to get the metro to the airport, I came across this wonderful piece of art. A partial pastiche of Raphael Sanzio’s ‘School of Athens‘, which was painted between 1509 and 1511 and is housed in the Vatican Museum. It depicts two great Greek philosophers, Plato (428-347 B.C.) on the left and his student, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).

In the original, Plato, an Athenian, is pointing upwards – said to signify his belief that ultimate reality (The Forms) lay beyond our experience.

Aristotle, from Halkidiki, extends his right hand on the horizontal plane, allegedly alluding to his tenet of our empirical world being ‘more real’ than that of the Platonic Forms.

 Now it may seem droll that the street artist has introduced a wee bit of whimsy with Plato spinning a football on his index finger. Equally anomalous and anachronistic, but true to the original, is the copy of Ethics that Aristotle is holding.

 Given that the printing press was not invented until around 1440, I’m afraid a book as such at that time was not a reality in either of their worlds!