Carnival, Easter and a Canine Acquaintance

Today’s posting marks 29th February, our Leap Year Day- and it’s about time we had a new posting as my previous one still sports a Christmas tree! We have just celebrated Kathara Devtera - Clean Monday - the Orthodox equivalent of Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, marking the beginning of the Sarakosti - Orthodox Lent. This is the period of fasting , commemorating Christ’s fast in the wilderness, a period which extends beyond the proscribed 40 days, running, as it does, into the Holy Week, immediately prior to Orthodox Easter.

How do we account for the different Easters: the ‘Western’ and the Orthodox? Essentially we follow the mode of calculating the Passover according to the Jewish calendar, traditionally celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Thus Easter Sunday was the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. So far, so clear, but the Easter date differentiation depends mainly on astronomical issues rather than spiritual ones. Calculation had traditionally been done according to the Julian calendar, established in 46 BC, which added a leap day every four years to reconcile the calendar year with the astronomical one, which is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds! Though this introduction improved things, it meant that every 128 days we would be a day out in calendar terms. The Gregorian calendar was introduced in the 16th century to reduce this variance by amending the Julian leap year rule so that years whose number could be divided by 100 but not by 400 were not afforded leap days. This reduction in the number of leap years brought calendars closer to the astronomical reality – it now takes 3,600 years to be a day behind!

Without going into the Meletian calendar and further complications of concepts such as the ecclesiastical full moon and the paschal full moon; the astronomical equinox and the fixed equinox; in practical terms we can say that the Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian one, a fact that has little relevance for the daily lives of most of us. However, there are still those who follow the Julian calendar for church festivities and so, for example, some residents of our local village, Vasilika, who are ‘of the old calendar’, celebrate Christmas on January 7th. Orthodox Easter calculations follow the Julian calendar, plotting the equinox on April 3rd, 13 days after the established 21st March. This year, with the first post-equinox full moon being on Friday April 6th, we should really be sharing Easter on the same week-end. Ah, but we must also consider the Council of Nicaea in 325 whose ruling has been interpreted as stating that Orthodox Easter cannot fall on the same day as the Jewish Passover …. and so it falls one week later. Just for the record, Western and Orthodox Easters have recently coincided in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2011. They will be shared in 2014 and in 2017, but plan your Easter holidays carefully : their next coincidence will not be until 2034!
So there we are – Clean Monday, marking the end of Carnival, which has an interesting etymology: Carne : meat, flesh , as in Chilli con Carne where the dish is so spicy that the seasoning takes precedence over the meat; carnivore : a meat-eater.
Now we can have two interpretations for the Vale : according to Chambers Dictionary it could be from the Latin ‘levare’ to put away; my preference is from the Latin leave-taking ‘Vale’ , so we say farewell to meat – Carnevale!


This year the huge, annual carnival in Moschato, Athens was not celebrated because of the economic crisis. Vera, we miss your compatriots who used to whizz over from Rio to lead the procession of decorated floats and costumed revellers. How, fresh from the Brazilian summer, they endured our cold climes in their scanty costumes, I’ll never know. But I imagine their constant, rapid, rhythmic steps, rather than being an expression of celebration and excitement, were more of a circulatory necessity! Here we had biting winds and snow on the ground and we didn’t venture out to see local celebrations. Dressed very demurely (!!) and with muted revelry, we ate indoors.

Our main focus is on food; fasting food rather than fast food : lettuce, broccoli, spring onions and olives – all our own produce ! – along with squid, mushrooms a la Jamie Oliver, beans – home-baked, not tinned ones, all sorts of pickles,roasted aubergine,taramasalata and laghana, the traditional unleavened bread. So in the bread and in Pascha, the Greek name for Easter, we see Passover parallels, Pesach being the Hebrew word for Passover.

Just over two months ago H and I saw an apparition! From the road-side rose this spectre, whose shocking image truly haunted me for days. It was a being – barely recognizable as a dog and of indeterminate sex - covered as it was by a very dirty, long coat, covered in dried mud, dust and faeces. It was a ‘bag-dog’, doomed to constantly carry around all its ‘possessions’, like it or not. It had risen up from the dried grasses a few days before Christmas, and so its grey, ghostly appearance immediately made me dub it Marley, the ghost in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. Apparently this character was based on a real person, a Jacob Marley, born in 1785, who was to become an insensitive, immoral banker …..Can that be……? His ghost was weighed down by great lengths of chain, each link of which represented an unrepented sin. Our creature was weighed down by matted mop of such length and hemp-like texture that I decided that his nomenclature was doubly fitting, similar as his dreadlocks were to those of the Rastafarian songsmith, Bob Marley. Marley taught me the full semantic force of the term ‘hang-dog’. As we regularly made food-delivery stops at his ‘spot’, he gradually learned to gingerly approach us, but always with an awkward gait and a cowed, dejected expression that could eat at your heart.

Marley was ‘adopted’ by workers at a nearby warehouse who made sure he had water, shared some of their food with him and locked him in the yard at nights and at week-ends, thus protecting him from nearby speeding traffic, the sound of which still makes him jump in fright.
But one day in January, H could bear his predicament no longer and resolved that Marley’s coat was for the chop. That was when a minor miracle happened: not only did he accept H’s coming close and wielding scissors, but the dog welcomed his clipper, tugging at his tangle with his teeth as if to assist in the process! He also licked H’s hand to express appreciation. To see the mound of clippings was unbelievable ....as was the change in his demeanour: after being cropped he stood more erect and with a definite degree of dignity!

Marley wags his tail as he spies our now-familiar car and readily comes to us, extending a paw, requesting attention. He will leave food untasted while we are there for his preference is that we pet and pat him. What he doesn’t know is that once the weather warms up, H is planning a new experience for him- a good wash! We haven’t worked out exactly how that will happen but I really look forward to clapping a fragrant, immaculate Marley.


May we all enjoy this, our ‘extra’, day and may the month of March hold all manner of good things for us : Kalo mas mena!

Greece : tragic times

We had a great time over the Christmas season entertaining and being entertained by family and friends, even enjoying a delightfully unexpected reunion – Melina and Manoli, that was such fun!! But at Hogmanay as the bells pealed, fireworks crackled, ships sirens went off, and the first-footer having smashed the dried pomegranate outside to bring the household good luck, we all clinked glasses and wondered what this New Year would bring for us in Greece.
Here’s a further picture of what life in Greece is like and what we have to look forward to, given the application of the austerity measures. This is all happening on a background of increasing taxes, food prices, fuel costs, electricity bills and unemployment figures while public sector salaries are being constantly cut, and public sector employers follow suit. Politicians themselves say the following payments are not fair measures, but if they do not suffice then even more drastic steps will have to be taken.

Additional Payment 1
In December 2011 the first of two instalments was added to our electricity bill. This additional property tax is known as the ‘Haratsi’- which my dictionary defines as : poll tax, fine, heavy tax, extortion. I believe the term originally referred to a per capita household tax levied on the Greeks under the Turkish dictatorship - certainly, an equally unpopular levy.
The amount one has to pay under the present regime depends on the size of the property you own and on the area it is in. In January/February property owners will pay the second instalment – our total came to 646 euros. Refusal to pay this results in your power supply being cut off even though you may have paid for these utility services.

Additional Payment 2
This sum is levied through the Income Tax Department and is income related. Depending on their total income - be it from salary, pension, rental income, whatever - declared in the tax declaration for 2010, by the end of 2011 most people have had to pay a lump sum allegedly to support the unemployed. I say ‘most people’ for some, like us, have still not had their 2010 tax declarations processed.

Additional Payment 3
This third measure most decidedly falls within the extortion semantic range and is what I call the ‘dishonesty tax’. This was essentially designed to compensate for private sector owners’/employers’ tax evasion – a firmly rooted practice where, for example, private medical practitioners would regularly declare ridiculously low annual incomes for taxation purposes but were never challenged or inspected.

People like H and myself, former public sector and private sector employees, respectively, have our salaries declared by our public organization/ employers and so are verifiable, yet we are still considered eligible for the dishonesty tax which is where the gross unfairness comes into play.
Essentially what happens is that the Ministry of Finance looks at your property, car, land, pool, etc. - and says ‘Ah – to have all these you would have to have an annual income of x,ooo euros - so we are going to tax you on that amount’ – regardless of what you have actually earned, regardless of how long it may have taken you to accumulate these assets. Nor do we know yet what rate of taxation will be set on this ‘state-inflated income’. We do know it will have to be paid some time in 2012 after the 2011 tax declaration has been processed. In essence, making out your declaration is a rather pointless exercise since they are going to ignore what you have stated as your actual income, anyway.

Now here’s the real anomaly as far as we are concerned: we have never been big spenders, we are not plate-smashing, table-overturning, bouzouki night-club frequenters, we don’t go on expensive trips, don’t do designer. Our money we have spent on home-improvement, on two nice cars and on our pool and garden – our own home-grown holiday resort! H has estimated that the state-inflated income to be imposed on us will amount to a sum that our combined salaries have never ever approached. And we are expected to cough up tax on that sum now when I am drawing a pension, so on a greatly reduced income, while H who applied for his pension last September will have to wait for at least a year before receiving any payment whatsoever. At least they haven’t – as yet - imposed a tax on shirts and shoes, for that would really have us cleaned out!!

In the past couple of years one could see the face of the city change radically as even large businesses folded and commercial properties were vacated permanently. The enormity of the situation is becoming more evident. Just this week it was announced that those who are unemployed and pensioners now outnumber those in employment in Greece. Further figures showed a pronounced increase in the number of suicide attempts over the last three years. People in our circle of acquaintances are losing their jobs: middle-aged people with little hope of finding other employment, young people with mortgages to pay and families to support. We hear of people moving abroad in search of work, replicating patterns of emigration of around 50 years ago to the USA, Australia and Germany.

Trade unionists and politicians, who have promoted and maintained the mismanagement, ineptitude and corruption rife in the system over the last 30 years, continue to make grandiose pronouncements in pseudo-Communist jargon and political cant, reminiscent of Orwell’s Newspeak from ‘1984’. In such critical times the fact that they insist on calling strikes and planning elections clearly demonstrates that their chief interest is in retaining positions and power rather than exercising the responsibilities they have to those who elected them and getting the country out of the mire.
Joseph de Maistre is generally credited with having written, in 1851 in his ‘Lettres et Opuscules Inedits’, that every country has the government it deserves. What this people have done to deserve such governance beats me!
The Greek ‘ti na kanoume?’response is generally a spontaneous, non-considered response. It is one, nevertheless, that left me without an adequate answer…..‘What can we do?’ Two recent events got me thinking and helped me arrive at what is perhaps part-answer, part modus-operandi.

I watched the You-tube recording of Peter Economides’ ’Rebranding Greece’ presentation at the Hellenic Management Association’s 11th Aristoteli Conference in Thessaloniki in November 2011. His talk is not all doom and gloom but has an upbeat tone, stressing that it is not Greece that requires rebranding, but Greeks themselves. We need all the positive vibes there are!
Then came the Bus Incident. A bus driver, furious at another driver having cut in on him, stopped the bus, blocking the roadway, and gave vent to a barrage of foul invective aimed at the second driver, but with us, all the passengers, an unwilling, uncomfortable audience. An elderly gentleman sitting right in front of me spoke up and chastised him for subjecting us to such expletives and for not behaving in a professional manner. Our driver took this in less than good grace (!) but my fellow-passenger continued firmly and politely asserting his position. It takes courage to speak up and afterwards I regretted I hadn’t supported him in his bid to improve our immediate environment, if you like, against an arrogant, offensive uniform-wearer.

On my first-of-the-year meeting with my students preparing for the SAT exams, we talked of what they thought 2012 held and how they felt about it. There was a wide range of very articulate responses and informed opinions Together we decided to devise a New Year Resolution, a 'ti tha kanoume'campaign: that we make a point of behaving towards others with dignity, respect and kindness and of expecting the same from others. And if that means simply speaking up for old gentlemen on the bus, then so be it. In so doing, we are trying to manage and improve our own world, acting on sets of values we hold important, setting an example for others. Albeit a tiny step, it may just go towards changing perceptions in rebranding ourselves and those around us; in sowing seeds to show that there really is something we can do.
We have lost the way ethically and Greece is not alone in this: corruption and injustice are commodities no one holds the monopoly on. So I am sending you all a pomegranate image to wish you a Happy New Year with health, happiness and the moral courage to change what we can.

Olive-picking in the Cotton Fields!

I had to squeeze in a quick blog posting to mark my first one just about a year ago.
The winter solstice has just passed so the longer days are on their way – yay! With Christmas coming up, and after the year 2011 has been for most of us, everyone is ready to relax and take time out for enjoyment. We are heading off to a ‘boutique hotel’ in Halkidiki. It’s by the beach, but since our local mountain, Hortiatis, is now snow-capped, it will be heavy clothes and not beach-wear that we’ll be packing.

In my last post I ended with a pic of cats-in-olive-tree so how about this for a lovely piece of textual cohesion? My focus today is on olives as our recent activities have also focused on them.
Years ago I remember seeing a cartoon : a despondent hulk sitting in a corner being asked “Why do you look so glum, Genghis?” Response: “How many men do you need to make a horde?” So my parallel question is “How many olive trees do you need to make a grove?” We have 24 trees on our land and this year the ‘babies’ came on tap for the first time. Initially they caused us concern as the olives they had borne were strangely puckered – perhaps some disease? But the particularly wet phase we had late summer plumped them out and our young trees bore a fine first harvest.

Our first collection was of ‘eating’ olives – those to be preserved for eating with salads and savoury dishes. Firm fruit are separated into green and black batches, split with a knife, then put in containers of fresh water. These are kept there for a week, the water being changed daily. By this time they have lost much of their very bitter taste and are now put in brine for around five weeks. These pickled olives go to the final phase of marinating: after being drained, they are put into smaller glass containers with oil, garlic slices, lemon wedges and sprigs of fresh dill. They are ready to eat after about two weeks in the oil mixture and will keep good … for as long as they last! There are, of course, lots of variations depending on olive-types and texture-preferences – these instructions are not set…on olive stones! So next time you sit down to enjoy a ‘choriatiki salata’ – a village salad, spare a thought for the process that went into preparing your olives, starting from: first plant your tree!

Actually I came across a recipe for olive bread which used mortadella, not my favourite ingredient as I find it has too much fat, so I made some adaptations and here is the outcome:
Ingredients :
150 gr self-raising flour
100 gr mixed cheese – I used gouda and parmesan
160 gr pitted and chopped olives
3 eggs lightly beaten
80 gr melted butter
Chopped fresh mint to taste, season with pepper
Method :
• Preheat oven to 200oC
• Lightly grease a regular loaf tin(8cmx26cm ) and line with baking parchment
• Sift flour into bowl and add cheese, olives, mint and pepper
• Stir in eggs and butter and combine well
• Spread mixture into the loaf tin and bake, without covering, for about 30 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through.
• Remove carefully and cool on a wire rack
This is particularly good served with salads and meze as a light lunch. More on olives to come…….

Given the time of year, however, light lunches are probably not on the cards!
We’re packing a very small suitcase this time, travelling light and light-hearted.
Have a wonderful Christmas shared with friends and family, enjoying gastronomic goodiesand traditional treats.

Daily Life in Greece - November 2011

Firstly I’d like to thank all those who hospitalised us, as one of my students once said, over our holidays - and Highland hospitality being what it is, that’s not too far out! That is, thanks to Marina and John, Anne, Susan and Ian, Diana and Ian – and, of course, Freda and Derek and Jacqui and Ali for the grand wedding reception-spreads you offered. You helped us lay down wonderful memories to look back on now the going has got tough here. 

 Susan wrote recently from Mull, saying it was hard to get a true picture of what was happening here – you and me, babe! We seem to hear nothing but rumours, then responses to rumours, leaving us in that category psychologists fondly term ‘the perpetual know-nothings’ – often by choice as the ‘news’ that is served up is not informative, just frustrating  and distressing. 

 What is life like here? -  time to give you a picture of our daily life under the current politico-economic  conditions, for I suspect that some blog readers plug in with an expectation of reading something of that. 

Recently we were invited for a family lunch: the hostess who has had her monthly income cut by about 500 euros, (this includes permanent cuts now in place,  as well as retrospective deductions over the next few months) is helping support the family – her husband has been waiting for his pension to come on line since last December, which is par for the course. She supports her son, whose wife is unemployed, and whose salary is not enough for them to live on, while her self-employed daughter often works till 10pm just to catch the odd customer.  Daughter is fortunate because both she and her husband are fairly securely employed but they need mum’s help to look after their young son in the afternoons.  Our hostess is generous and an excellent cook; we all enjoy family-get-togethers with news-updates and, of course, the droll antics of her young grandchild. But this time the atmosphere was heavy. These are young people who are fortunate in having their own homes and a strong family support system; they should be full of fun, enjoying youth and life to the full - instead what is palpably present is their fatigue and, the worst, a sense of hopelessness. That’s the heritage that has been left for them. 

 We are invited to supper by friends – we are very fortunate in our friends and family! – the lady of the house has made pitta - pie -  and is famous for her excellent ‘politikh kouzina’ traditional fare from Constantinople, the polis or city.  They are both retired teachers and their pensions and superannuation allowances between them have been cut by about 600 euros per month. We talk of oil prices and the cost of wood, as we both have central-heating systems and open fires. Fortunately up to now our autumn has been mild and mellow so we can save on that outlay.

 On the bus into town an unknown fellow-passenger suddenly begins to offload, uninvited, her perception of current events - mainly that a prominent politician is an American agent. When hard data and real information is lacking or things are non-comprehendible, often imagination takes over; where critical analysis is lacking…. Conspiracy Theory readily steps in to fill the gap. Certainly, everyone seems  focused on the crisis and in a permanent state of not-knowing.

 Our SAT classes happened to fall on Guy Fawkes Day last week and so during the lesson we took a little cultural detour. Some of the students had already heard of Mr Fawkes  and thought intriguing the idea of wanting to blow up the Houses of Parliament, as he along with 12 others conspired to do in 1605 to replace the reigning monarch, James 1^st, , by  a Catholic  one. Now far be it from me to condone or encourage such treasonous acts but doesn’t it seem natural that children look forward to Guy Fawkes Night with its great bonfires and firework displays. So, strange to say, we view November 5^th as an enjoyable event. We may be called upon to

”Remember, remember the 5^th of November – gunpowder, treason and plot’

 but even if you did plot against your king and parliament and lost your life because of it, to be commemorated centuries down the line by happy children is the kind of celebrity many crave and strive for today! 

 I have since done my ‘homework’ and learned that on November 5^th, by very Act of Parliament, the populace were encouraged to celebrate the safety of King James by lighting bonfires, so that’s all right, then. But I do love the description of Guy Fawkes, quoted in J A Sharpe’s “Remember Remember, A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day’ as being

‘…the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions…’. 

  For some reason, perhaps our recent visit to Glasgow, I keep thinking on the bell, the book and the ring, the symbols of Saint Mungo or Kentigern, the city’s patron saint. Now, reading up on this seems to indicate it was, in fact, the bell, the fish and the ring that were the symbols- I wonder where my ‘book’ came from?

  In a nutshell: here, the warning BELL is certainly ringing. We have been lurching from one crisis to another, waiting for the decision from Brussels, that came, then the mooted plebiscite, which was then decided against - or was that plebicide? as this is really killing us!! At any rate, the EU decided they would BAIL us out, which fairly and squarely puts the BALL in our court. We know that it is us, the plebs, who are footing the BILL, so let’s just get on with it and have some action instead of gassing. We are weary of hearing what measures will be taken, without any change in the system being effected, the deductions from our salaries and pensions going ….we know not where. Now we have had a vote of confidence passed, but a defecting Prime Minister, and now the formulation of some kind of Coalition. We’ve been waiting for what seems like ages for the outcome, but black smoke is still being emitted on that, indicating no final decisions have been made yet.(The papal election metaphor seems apposite as Mr Berlusconi is now taking some of the heat!)  So all we can do is wait for the next ……news BULLetin!  

In the meantime, we carry on with our own routine. H has been pruning non-fruit-bearing olive branches with a little help. They say that cats adopt you and this is certainly true of our neighbours’ cats who see our two adjacent plots as their entire domain. They accompany us both at work and at rest. I realize we have had no pictures so far so here you are :  one  entitled ‘at work’; the other ‘retirement’! 

 

                                                                    C’est la vie!

Holiday then home-coming

Contrary to all evidence, we are still not on holiday!!
We touched down in Durham briefly, just enough time to catch up with family and to meet Moya from Santa Barbara for a quick Swan and Cygnet lunch.

Then… ahhhhh…off to Scotland -  first stop: Glasgow. We were staying at a hotel right in the centre, young, buzzy and a triumph of design over space. I was delighted to see they stock Island Bakery biscuits made on Mull – scrumptious! Met up with Fred and Derek and had that visit to the Burrell Collection I’ve been promising myself for years. Incredible that one person was able to amass such a vast, global collection in his lifetime. The setting in the Pollock Country Park is spectacular, made even more so by the friendly resident Highland coos!

We had a grand time in Glasgow – awash with kilts for the Scottish/Czech Republic International that day. At the wedding we were piped down from the church to the hotel reception- absolutely grand stuff! Turned a little Kintyre-sick and emotionally incontinent as the piper skirled away with ‘Campbeltown Loch’. Another form of incontinence struck us down while we were in Inverness as a virus wreaked havoc with our innards. We thought it was down to a bad kurma on our last night there – but it turned out it was our karma that was bad, instead! Anne drove us all the way round the renowned Loch Ness (Nessie, the local monster, was too modest to make an appearance) but we spent time fascinated, watching the locks operate on the Caledonian Canal, as boats moved on through to Loch Oich, Loch Lochy and Loch Linnhe to the west coast.

By the time we reached Oban the weather was dire; blustery storms had the ferries on amber alert. Still we made a bid for a crossing to Mull. Full marks for Highland humour to Donald, Callie MacBrayne employee, who batted nary an eyelid as rainwater from my hat cascaded onto his desk and who welcomed me with : ‘If I were a gentleman I’d get you a towel ………… but I’m not!’ Drenched as I was to the very bone and with a cold, unsettled tummy, but now with tickets for our crossing, a smile crossed my lips – well done, Donald! Susan and Ian served hot tea on arrival at Loch Don – a real welcome! The weather improved, Fiona and Ronnie arrived, and we all made for the Sea Food Festival where we enjoyed mussels, salmon and oysters, all served up with smiles from our Inner Hebridean volunteer hosts.

 

                                                         

 Then it was time to head south to prepare for Jen and Mark’s wedding in Harrogate. The wedding itself was a cosy registry office affair. Unexpectedly, I was called to present a reading which I just about carried off, what with croaky voice and a lump in my throat on realizing the text was Robert Burn’s “My luve is like a red, red rose”! The reception was a great get-together, even though the viral effects did not allow us to fully do justice to the buffet with lots of starters, (my mind’s eye still dwells longingly on the mounds of pork pies and tablet) before the lavish grill and salad spread. All the couple’s friends had played a significant part in the event : from organising children’s gift bags, putting up bunting, setting tables, the lot. My brother, resplendent in tartan waistcoat, executed a fine father-of-the-bride speech, formalities over it was time to party. Three of the Arctic Monkeys were among the guests – the bride introduced me to them as a ‘wayward aunt’! - and they did us proud by ‘ jammin’ ’ later on. Everyone up bopping : John Legbelos – eat your heart out!!

The next day we visited Diana and Ian on their Yorkshire farm, then, having admired their fine farmstead, her great art work and impressive veggie patch, we made a quick departure as storms were apparently blowing in to the west from Stateside.

It wasn’t quite time to get back to old clothes and porridge yet: some nice dinners to go, a visit to Durham to relish her green finery , then time to fill Apollo for our departure.





During our entire, happy holiday we had been blissfully cut off from media reports on the ‘The Greek Situation’, so we knew not what lay ahead. All I know was that when we landed at Macedonia airport, and I felt that balmy late-summer-evening air embrace my skin, I had a wonderful sense of home-coming, exactly as I had had when I first set foot on Greek soil many, many moons ago.

Holidays Durham Glasgow Inverness Oban Mull The Highlands Harrogate ......Heaven !

August's sole post is going to be brief.
Tomorrow early we  head off to Durham to cool off from this intense heat, walk by the river in the leafy shade.
 Next port of call is to Glasgow to attend Calum and Yvonne's wedding in Eaglesham - as luck would have it we were also invited to see Evangelia and Orestis wed in Aghios Dimitrios - will technology ever allow us to be in two places at once ??
 We have an arrangement to meet Anne in her new house in Inverness and we'd love to also meet up with Nessie, the resident monster.... if at all possible.
 Then down to visit Susan in Mull and take in the local mussel festival, and hoping to meet Fiona for the first time too! A breezy crossing from Oban on a Callie MacBrayne's ferry certainly seems appealing in current temps of 33oc.
 And then another wedding - this time Jen and Mark tie the knot in Harrogate at what will be a real music-fest.

 May the sun shine on these three young couples and may they enjoy a long and happy life together.


 The cases are packed.

 

This one is most apt : tartan design to match our destination, brand name , 'Apollo' .

H has this week taken the momentous step of deciding to retire so we are really and truly .........
ready for lift-off. Bye for now :)

Summertime

Leaving politics and economics aside ….let’s talk SUMMER- a subject taken very, very seriously in Greece.  The garden goes into overdrive, necessitating much pruning, mowing and clipping; the heat tells us it’s time to clean the pool.

  Our yuccas flourish, our glorious magnolia tree produces grande flora blooms, our spring efforts bear fruit ….and vegetables.

  Right now we’re in high summer and the temperatures in the upper 30’s in our balcony shade are reminiscent of what we became used to when living and working in Kuwait. I remember our friend Jan, who’d forgotten to take the necessary precautions of covering the dashboard on leaving the car and wearing driving gloves on return, in a rush to get home for lunch, grabbed the red-hot  steering wheel ….and lost the skin on her palms and fingers ! Despite our grass being watered nightly by the sprinkler system, and H doing additional hosing, it’s very parched in places what with constant heat and the searing hot winds. Feels like someone left the meteorological oven door open.

 There’s nothing like a cooling drink: years ago when visiting Jean and Max in Montreal, I was served home-made lemonade. I still remember Jean’s treat as being the height of hospitality on a hot summer’s day. Maybe she’ll share her recipe with us?

In the meantime, here is mine :

Ingredients : 200 gr sugar; thinly sliced rind and juice of 3 lemons ; 1 litre of boiling water

Method : Place the sugar, rind and boiling water in a bowl, cover it, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Once the syrup has cooled a little, (leaving it too long makes it too bitter) remove the rind, add the juice, then strain into a bottle or jug and cool in the fridge.

Served with ice, this is a thirst –quenching long drink.

And, try this : put 2 ice cubes in a glass, add a slug on white rum, two or three slugs of lemonade, add a few sprigs of mint and……enjoy your mac.mojito! It makes a lovely sundowner and is a fine way to welcome dinner guests on a balmy evening.

This week all schools in England are now enjoying their school holidays. In Greece we’re way ahead in the game – schools closed on June 15^th and go back 11^th September – now that is serious summer-taking!

For us, the end-of-school-year focus is on our school-leavers- to use the US parlance, the ‘graduating students’. In contrast to their daily school appearance, it’s sometimes difficult to recognize these sharp young men in suits and the delightful ‘debs’ in their white evening gowns. Each student is named as they take their seats and many are called onstage to receive merit awards for academic success, success in competitions, in music, sports and in a variety of extra-curricular fields, as well as for US university placement.

This brings me to the question, the hot potato of political correctness in education : should prize-giving be abolished in the name of egalitarianism? This in turn brings to mind the incredible short story ’Harrison Bergeron’ by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. which begins :

‘The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal!’

It’s a sobering read, showing where the dogmatic upholding of such ideas could lead us….

In Britain some schools have abandoned prize-giving on the basis of such thinking while others downplay the merit-bias by also offering endeavour awards. And, while we’re on the topic of education, there is the teacher role question : some school  operate policies of ‘no touch’ for fear of complaints or of teachers being accused of breaching human rights and child protection laws.  So a teacher may well be in the position where they cannot expect professional managerial support where they have touched a child in class either as an act of disciplining or of offering comfort in response to distress. I cannot recognize such an environment as an educational one, where the teacher is a circumstantial victim and not a classroom manager. Michael Gove, as Education Secretary, may have said that England’s teachers not being allowed to touch students is a myth , but where fear takes precedence over good sense then that ‘myth’ is actually being enforced. For who will go out on a limb – or even touch one?- where a court case or job-loss might ensue?  May common sense once more prevail in the classroom!

At any rate what we are doing here is celebrating : our students reaching a milestone in their life path, marking the end of their secondary education, moving on in diverse directions. They deserve their hard-earned awards.

I’d like to offer my own perspective at this point : as a swotty child, hopeless at sports, neither wildly confident nor poised, studying was something I could do and was good at. Gaining merit awards was a form of acknowledgement for who I was.

This year I was the happy recipient of three awards :

• On my retirement from the Panhellenic Forensics Association (more on that later )
• For my ‘long-term and valued service’ to the school and
• The Yale University Educator Recognition Award

 My point here is not a self-congratulatory trumpet fanfare but to express how important for me such acknowledgement was, bringing a lovely closure to my professional career.

 I’d like to make a special comment on the Yale award. It is given ‘for outstanding dedication to students’ and came about due to my being nominated by a former student currently studying at Yale.

 Yianni, I may have helped you construct your CV, but on my CV, which I worked hard to develop throughout my career, you hold a special place in its final entry.

For your generosity and appreciation I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

 Now then, where were we? Ah yes! Summertime in Greece. What’s it for?

 For having fun in the water…….

   Posing by the pool….                

    

 And reaching down for that very last drop of ice-cream!! 

  

                                                           Happy holidays, one and all!