It’s here: the time of the year that I perceive as starting out at the peak of a thin, upright ellipse which is the new year. Hogmanay miraculously shoots us from the nadir of elliptic base to its zenith. How weird is that?!
Now I want to remember some of our
special ’24 moments. Here we are belatedly welcoming in the new year – during
Hogmanay we were Covid contagious. ☹
We celebrated our birthdays in Gevgelija, in Northern Macedonia, staying at the quirky ‘Paint it Black’ hotel- all very rock’n’roll. A lasting linguistic memory: the sign at their border crossing urging us to ‘Declare smuggling and corruption.’ As if….. 😊
Our IATEFL conference was in Brighton again. I’d like to say Angeliki and I were scanning program session titles, but we were actually menu perusing!
I love this pic of Marina’n’me
sightseeing there. She had an entire breakfast sandwich lifted clean off her
plate by a marauding gull. This event was a local talking point – when I went
to buy her a porcelain gull as a memento, (!) the shop owner had heard of the
sandwich snatch!! 
Orthodox Easter was observed, here Z takes his turn
at observing the automatic rotisserie. 
Quite a convention as family members flew in from Lesvos, Paris and Zurich. My favourite quote was of a neighbour inviting Z to join them at the spit so that ‘three atheists can toast in tsipouro the fact that Christ has risen!’ Disrespectful? – a little. Memorable? - indisputably!
Z often happily offers homestead
help – here grape-picking. I sometimes even join in. The Boss kindly pays us in
kind: sometimes the produce and always ouzo meze! 😊
Family members feature in memory
stores: here enjoying the hospitality of Z’s cousin in Evros in July as
we celebrate the name day of the Prophet Ilias.
Here the Scottish clan branch: Marina and John joined us in Edinburgh where we were kindly invited by Jean and Max to help celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
A wonderful venue and meal, and
special to rekindle old friendships and form new ones. 
We moved on to Glasgow where we attended the World Pipe Band Championships. As if that wasn’t enough, we saw my ‘local’ Inveraray pipe band perform and become the ultimate champions – for the third time, bless them. Soooo proud and so justly deserved- impeccable!
We chalked up another Scottish island that Z
has visited: Bute - short for ‘beautiful’, clearly! We attended their
agricultural show and Z found a spectacular castle, complete with moat. :o 
We picked olives at various sites, including our former house. I love the liquid effect here of olives pouring into the container at the press. We now have pickled olives and oil to last a few years.
I succeeded in regaining the right to vote
in Scotland 😊 but, as a non-resident, not for
Holyrood elections only for Whitehall. ☹
Never
mind - I have a foot in the door. Let’s look forward to changes in that area
too in 2025!
