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.”

Congratulations.... All Round!!

First off, hearty congratulations to Nassia who has just realized her dream! After hard work on her CV, undergoing several interviews and then after a gruelling wait for results to come out, she was selected for training as an air stewardess with Aegean Airlines. This is the largest Greek airline in terms of number of passengers, destinations served and fleet size. It has consistently gained the award as Best Regional Airline in Europe. Understandably, places there are coveted and it is much to her credit that she procured one just after leaving school. Well done, Nassia, we are very proud of you and wish you every success in your first career steps!Here she is with her very, very proud grandparents.

                                                             

Next up: hats off for The Tartan Epsilon – you’ve heard of them before!  Angeliki and I made our first commercial presentation for our Easing into English application (much more on that later) last Saturday at theTESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Macedonia Thrace convention. Things went well – apart from the fact that we had more people than the room had capacity for – so, not bad for us, not so comfortable for them! 

                           

 

Find us on our website at www.easingintoenglish.com  and on www.facebook.com/easingintoenglish/  

   Our niece, Konstantina, was kind enough to come along as support and technical assistant. Here she is, looking very sweet, enticing people to attend our session by offering them Greek delight! Clearly her interpersonal skills and powers of persuasion are very polished!

                                       

After the session, it was time to wind down and celebrate something else simultaneously – Zissis and I had had our birthdays that week. Here we are at a local meze restaurant, Peri Meze in Thermi,  which had live music. Great singers, great company, great food and wine – what more can you ask for?

        

 

Finally, congratulations must go to Sandy, pictured below. Now in the title of today’s post when I said “all round’, that would be a very good description of me after so long at the computer, working on the app materials and nursing my bound hand.

Ordinarily I would have been going to a local spa at the Nikopolis Hotel to swim and to have Pilates classes run by this lovely trainer  – doesn’t she strike a pretty pose? Without regular exercise, however, ‘rotund’ is the appropriate epithet for me. And last night’s Pilates session showed me just how out of shape I was and how my stamina level had dropped.

So Sandy, thank you for being so patient with me and let’s hope together our efforts can show some progress fairly soon!

                                   

Celebrate and Congratulate ... Despite Desperate Events.

First let us congratulate all those volunteers near and far, who are helping support the immigrant/refugees in whatever way they can.  All trying to offer food, clothes, comfort, medical services, whatever they can to those people  in need and currently in various places in Greece. This migratory mass is one of unprecedented dimensions, ironically being catered for by the European country least able to cope with the problems entailed. They are the displaced and dispossessed, desperate to find safety, security and a society where their families can settle and flourish                                                          

      These days, however, our thoughts and condolences go to those affected by the tragic events which took place in Brussels. Our thoughts go, too, to those who not only accepted the responsibility for the slaughter of innocent people but rejoiced over it.  These disturbed and demented minds are ready to engage with the   displeased and disaffected youth of the western world; young people who have no goals of their own, who feel somehow dissociated from the society they live in. These young people drink in the terrorists’ poison and adopt their pseudo-cause. These terrorists are shrewd operators, ready to pinpoint human weakness especially in immature minds, and manipulate   it to serve their own evil ends. They are particularly adept at running their campaign through the social media, presenting themselves, cowards that they are, in quite different guises from what they are in reality.

Our immigrant bands, unfortunately, could easily fall victim to their ruses and become, if not their foot-soldiers, ready to give up their lives, then at least become a  form of human shield, concealing, albeit unwittingly, terrorist strategic, international  movement within their mass.

We must all remain vigilant, to keep ourselves and those around us safe.

But we will not be stopped from appreciating life and celebrating events that make our days special.

• First up: Vassilis, our martial arts maestro – here he is winning another first at the Athens Challenge Tournament . Well done, that lad!!                        

    

 

             

                   

• Then we have our great-niece, famed for her cake-baking and design. Moving up to secondary school in September, Neve has earned herself a place in the secondary school in Durham that she had set her heart on.  Congratulations, Neve, may you enjoy every minute of your time there!
• Greetings go to, as the Queen says, ‘my husband and I’ who celebrated our birthdays:  me on the 22^nd and Zissis on the 23^rd. Thank you to all of you who sent us your good wishes. 
• Next our congratulations go to my niece, Jenny, and her husband, Mark.  Jen has a new job though still within Sheffield Council, working in the area of health. She recently completed her Masters, with distinction, in related subjects so we are very proud of her. Mark has just raised his professional operating level in the film-making world. They have both done very well and we wish them professional satisfaction and development in all they do. Just for the record, their new job titles are: Life Navigator and Clapper Loader, respectively. Intriguing!!

                                                         

 And finally, congratulations to the Tartan Epsilon, that is, Angeliki ‘n’me, on our web-page for our Easing Into English app going live – check it out on www.easingintoenglish.com.                                                   
Wish us luck!

Watch this space – more coming soon!