Family Reunion in Durham.

 I said we were heading to the Highlands, but before that we converge on Durham to meet up with some family members. Here we are at our niece’s house, and Gillian’s daughter, Neve, displays a fine ballet pose while her brother, Guy, serves nibbles – aren’t they cute?

                                                          

The girls – my sister, Marina, Gillian, Neve and I – demurely enjoy a drink together in the lounge, while in the beautiful, new kitchen something very, very scary is happening!

               

 

Here the lads – Zissis and Gillian’s husband, John – enjoy a glass and a chin-wag. And I’m certainly not going to say anything about John’s choice of T-shirt, given that he was kind enough to lend us these cool wheels for our Highland Haj.  

John, as you know I am no bible-thumper, but your generosity brought to mind the lovely passage from the King James version,  1^st Corinthians, 13:13 :

‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; and the greatest of these is charity.’

   

 

On the way we saw an Eddie Stobart lorry. ‘So what?’, I hear you say. Ah well, there is a whole celebrity cult related to these vehicles. There is a Club Stobart which offers membership packs, calendars, magazines, etc..  But this goes out to the serious anoraks, the members of the Eddie Stobart Spotters’ Fan Club:  this lorry, the Rosemary Lynne, was spotted between 1400—1500 on Friday 15^th April, heading north to Glasgow, via Gretna Green, okay? Just wanted to share that with you guys! 

                         

 

                                  

 Of course, one has to record that wonderful moment when one crosses the border into Scotland - yay!!             

But that is as far as we are going for the time being. Tomorrow is May 1^st and Orthodox Easter Sunday  so I have some Easter soup to prepare- well, our own relaxed version of it!        

Neighbours, Anna and Ioannis show us how the lamb should be prepared and roasted while Zissis' sister, Voula, is THE ace Easter bread-maker.  

 

Our wish to you all is: may your souvla be sun-kissed and your tsoureki scrumptious!

Happy  Orthodox Easter!

                                                  

Skype Sessions with Sheffield, Old Friends Reunited and an Oban Reunion in the Offing.

Our Easing Into English app may be in the Apple app store but that deosn’t mean that our work is over.

Here are Angeliki and I discussing the items on our agenda, before hooking up with Jon Bollinger in Sheffield.  Jon is the Director of Appt Online Solutions – the daddy of our app, so to speak. It was Jon who transmuted our data from page to screen with many sea-changes being incurred en route.We have travelled  a long journey together – and had a lot of fun along the way – he’s the best!

             

                        

 

Major news item: good friend, Jean Rutherford, who has lived for many years in Canada dropped in to visit us.   No one can really get the opportunity to relax on the balcony without one of our animals demanding attention and affection. Here Mr Mao is almost defying gravity in his attempt to be petted!

Of course, Jean had to visit Thessaloniki and sample some of its great cuisine. We made short work of taramasalata, aubergine salad and oven-baked beans. Mmm! – these are my favourite.

 

                                                 

And as we celebrate our time together, we look ahead for soon we will be heading to the Scottish Highlands for an Oban High School reunion. We had a magic time at our last one in 2012, so are greatly looking forward to this one.

                                       

Although we may not be actually going to Islay, the lyrics of the old traditional air ring true:

 “Westering home with a song in the air, Light in the eye and it’s goodbye to care,

 Laughter and love are a welcoming there, Isle of my heart, my own land.”