Tuesday 27 March 2012

Independence Day

The 25th of March is Independence Day in Greece. Back in 1821 the Greeks fought against the Turks and after 400 years of being in slavery they became free.
Greece is in a very bad state right now. People don't feel free at all. They are dependent on loans and credit cards, they owe the banks and the whole country owes to big banks and the Europeans who lent money to small Greece just in order to have it under financial and political control eventually.
Under the circumstances the 25th March parades were expected to be rather demonstrations and for that reason the Government held the people away from the great parade in Athens by using thousands of policemen. The parade took place with no demonstrations and no spectators and of course no flying yoghurts or sour orange throwing!(The Municipality had collected all the sour oranges from the trees around the politicians stand so that they are not used against them).
In other towns and cities of Greece as there was not so much police force there were demonstrations but the media did not care enough to show them on TV. The only reliable way to get the news today is blogland.
Anyway wanting to avoid all kinds of mischief we left the city on Sunday morning for our summer house. We hadn't been there for such a long time. Paying the loan for it but having no money for expensive gas to drive there is quite an irony.
Nature paid back for our sad moods.
 Dying....
 or budding....
 or blooming.....





 ...nature was beautiful.
We looked at the sea, walked the beach with not much sea glass finding unfortunately, we admired some blooming trees, took lots of photos and ate the traditional dish for the day cod fish with ayoli.
 We met dear dog friends.

It was a short sunny break in our dark lives.

Saturday 24 March 2012

Nikos Kazantzakis Kapetan Mihalis

The first book I read this year was Nikos Kazantzakis' Freedom and Death (Original title Kapetan Mihalis). I adored it. Fierce Captain Michael in Crete of 1889 swears not to laugh until Crete is free from the Turks. A man loyal to his beliefs ends up to fight all by himself against the enemy.

The reason I read it was because with the Drama team we had an invitation by the
International Nikos Kazantzakis Friends Company  to present the book. That took place on the 21st March, on the International Poetry Day.
We were again packed and every one enjoyed our presentation and the tsikoudia they tasted afterwards along with some great Cretan live music.
 Some of the audience with the Drama Club team.
Mihalis Mantziris and the Creatn Lyra
 Creatn Laouto
 Hubby and I waiting to appear dressed in black.
Hubby with a former student of his, Matina Noutsou, who sang at the presentation.
Stavros Vourvahis and Mihalis Mantziris rehearsing some lovely Cretan Music.

Sunday 18 March 2012

What a week!

At times weeks pass when nothing really happens.
But this week was totally different.
After a long rainy cold Winter Spring came with a sunny week filled with all kinds of emotions.
At first it was happiness and satisfaction at the Pensioner Teacher Performance and half-day trip to Kilkis.



Then it was unbelievable sadness hearing the death of a dear friend.


And then it was a long weekend filled with all kinds of various feelings.
On Friday I accompanied my mum to the funeral of our dear friend.
On Saturday we spent some lovely time with my sister-in-law talking and sipping coffee. The views of the sea at the sea front cafe were wonderful! After so many months a coffee outing with sea and sun!



And on Sunday it was the exhilaration of the last performance of our play "Koutornithia". The theatre was filled with people standing everywhere and little children sitting even on the stage! The reaction of the audience to the play was fascnating!
I am totally tired but deep inside me I feel so satisfied with what we managed to do!

Thursday 15 March 2012

At last Spring?!?!

We did a school outing today at a park near the school. It was the second day with sunshine although it was blowing hard.
I managed to take some photos!






No matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop myself from crying while at the day trip after hearing the news that today my mum's best friend and life long family friend Despina died at 66. She was the best person I ever knew. She took care of our family when we came immigrants back in 1970 in this city. We children played all together and she, a young widow, helped my parents settle down. Her daughter Athanasia, my best childhood friend died at the age of 19 and she was devastated after that! Knowing a person for 42 years of your life is ....really a long time! Good bye Despina; you are going to meet your beloved Athanasia, your sweet angel daughter at last!




Sunday 11 March 2012

An exhibition

It has been raining every day and night continuously for more than five days now!Unbelievable!
The last time we had some sun and lots of cold was last Saturday and we took the chance to see something interesting!
One of my new colleagues at school, Alexander Dimitriades is our Art Teacher. He majored in Painting and now got his second diploma in Engraving under the supervision of Professor Artist Xenis Sahinis..
Here are photos from his diploma exhibition. I loved his work. It is called Scripts. I wish I could buy one of his art pieces!
 This was fantastic!
Alexander gave us a great tour of his exhibition and the workshop.






 And that was the work of Art I would love to buy if I could.

 Alexander showed us how his art is created!
Paper gets its prints here.
 And colour here.
 Here the prints get dry.
 Lovely thick fresh red paint.
 Another artist's work. Of course I loved the sea theme.
 This is where the paper gets its print from. The engraved vinyl layer.
 Doesn't it look lovely up close? And so much work!
 That's the Fine Arts Department.

You can watch a video here.