It's All Greek to Me: Aegean Airlines Guide Book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aegean Airlines published a guide to the most familiar Greek jargon.

Useful, if you are visiting Greece, are somehow fluent and want to mix with locals.

I must confess though that to my ears some phrases would sound extra wierd, coming from a foreigner!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A summer wedding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sunday afternoon wedding.

Fresh air in a warm summer evening.

Friends, white wine and laughter.

I hope we shall all enjoy our kids' happy weddings and wedding days,

one day soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter, looking for a house and our May wreath

He is Risen!

Hello, friends,

I am back to my blogging base. I took a Lent blogging break challenge to keep my mind more focused on the days leading to Easter.
I did pop over to Twitter and Pinterest from time to time.
I hope you all had a good time.

We spent some lovely days over Eastertime. Really relaxing, lots of naps and taking in the salty air and sunshine. It's great to be with people who love you and care for you. I am grateful.

Good Friday

 

 

Roses my father in law collected from his garden for the May 1st wreath

 

I spent this afternoon in bed. I have a toothache that will have to wait till Friday, a good two days, that's the closest dentist's appointment I could get. Thankful for a good dentist, though.

After a week of high temperatures, more Summer than Spring, at circa 30 to 35C, we had a fresh afternoon. The air smells of grass and fresh laundry that hangs in our back yard.

Housewise we have been trying to find a new house. Although I like this place, and we have been fixing it, here and there, the truth is it is an old house, that keeps asking for things to be done. And somehow DH has set his mind on moving, less than a year after we moved here. I must say I find the househunting experience interesting. With my combined experience of sales and customer service with home interiors, I believe I'd make an excellent Estate Agent ;-) But right now we are on the lookout for a rental.

We have seen one place that I and the kids liked but DH did not, because it was brand new and soul-less  -I looove brand new, especially a brand new bathroom would be great-, one place that DH loved and the kids disliked, and tomorrow we are going to see another two places, one that I saw on my own, and own we are seeing for the first time.

As I write, I realise I haven't shown you any pictures of our current home. So that's one thing to expect in the coming days.

Sending love and hugs to all of you

xoxo,

Irene

Sunday Moments

Hello, friends,
I so hope you all had a beautiful weekend. Here is a glimpse of mine.

 

*Started the day with a lovely magazine, my favorite dessert and my favorite blogs. Bliss.

 

 

*Cat napped along with cat #2.

 

 

*As of tomorrow we stop eating meat in preparation for Easter. We appreciated a friend's gift, homemade saucages, flavored with orange grid. Yum!

 

*Witnessed a power game unfolding between my girls. Eldest is legally adult now. Youngest has the more powerful character of the two. Oh dear. I am not taking sides, but I do hope they will work it out eventually and find their respective role and balance.

 

 

 

*I caught sight of the early Spring sun through my window.  

I love those moments when beauty shows up.

 

Wishing you all a lovely new week!

*

My Athenian Weekends-January

Goodmorning, dear friends,

I know I am blessed with one of the most beautiful mornings one can see from a window, that of the Acropolis. Its golden glow, different at all times of the day and night is just amazing.

Since we moved to Athens, we have been spending every weekend with my in-laws. It is so stramge how our lives change, our moods shift and once this shift happens everything falls into place and is as it was meant to be.

Soft and fragrant in a grammy hugging way, my mother-in-laws blankets have nothing fancy or modern, they are worn in places , but they smell divine. They are not machine washable but they get an almost ritual wash at the end of the winter and are kept tidily wrapped till the first cold winds of November blow.

At moments like these there is no place in the whole wide world I wouuld rather be.

In my garden, following a few days of rain and wind, the sun came out and the roses are getting new leaves.

I got a pair of pink UGG-style boots, all fleecy and cozy. Funny, my daughter has them in brown but I was smitten by pink.

At an one-day trip to our fome town of fifteen years, I found this, my favorite skirt ever. It is a deep emerald green doubled silk embroidered with pink flowers. I put it on on Saturday and went for coffee-to-go with my sweetheart. I managed to spill some of it on the skirt so I washed it in the woolen circle and it came out nicely. Yummy relief!

This lemon tree is just across my kitchen door. I look at it almost every day. lemon are ripening so slowly and i am thrilled to see them turn a beautiful yellow.

Can you see a little green one popping out , too?

Wishing you a beautiful, blessed week,

snow spot

what's your quiet spot today?

Christmas lights in Athens

Athens, December 2012

Keeping calm and carrying on

Hello friends,

Emerging from a time of silence. 

Strangely enough,

I am resting in this silence. 

I am actually praying for it, and I am grateful for this feeling of stillness in my heart and mind. 

It is a God's blessing, nothing less, to find a cluster of stillness in the eye of the storm. 

Mind you, it's not always there.

There are the problems that we face as a familly and as business people, the anger, the fear, the depressive atmosphere, one week having the feeling that things will eventually work out, then the next two weeks the shop produces nothing, nada, zero. Looking at last year's figures under the company's pressure to produce numbers, is maddening. 

But somehow I feel totally still. I do what I have to do and I stop thinking about tomorrow. 

Because nothing seems to be under my control apart from how I face the facts of the economy, of my clients, of the bills that pile up.

There is nothing I can do apart from taking care of my own attitude and my own feelings.

Can you imagine being in such a state of helplessness that you finally feel it is just OK?

You either feel trapped and want to hit someone in the face 

or

you decide to keep calm and carry on

cause there is nothing better to do.

And then there are the events that are violently unfolding for our country 

of which you no doubt are aware of.

There is anger and a certain sadness for the fate of this glorious country that has come up with such inadequate leaders. Inadequate? Or plainly executing a death contract for Greece?

People are angry but I am afraid they will once again be manipulated into being passive again and scared.

These are such fallen times.

And yet

...

There is the fun part of it all.

 I wish Greeks would kick the whole bunch of useless bastards out of our country.

There are times when I see all this as a blessing. A disillusionment.

Funnily enough, there are days I remember my mother insisting I follow my academic career in England.

I want to hear her say "I told you so"

and for the first time I shall reply "you were right".

And there are times I want to start writing "take me out to Alaska, to the North Pole, to dear old England, to the depths of the Black Forest, anywhere but this blessed place that gives me such heartache".

There are days I read all about solar cookers and chicken coops

cause I'm fearing we might need to live in DH's village and have to feed for ourselves~ litterally. 

There are days I remember that this time of the year I'd be preparing my Christmas shopping lists and in a little while I'd be packing Christmas presents. 

This year I wonder if we'll make it to the next electricity bil.

And yet

...

I find that our kids are landing in an unexpectedly softer place, less judgemental, where the shock of change of lifestyle gives way to acceptance and to seeing what is good in people.

I know they are not happy for what is going on, but in a way that is good, because they see politics for what it really is, and they are slowly shifting towards caring more about Greece. 

My eldest who was all set to go to England next year, is still hoping that she will get to go, but is now more resillient in the prospect of coping right here, right now. 

And my youngest is accepting that we were not exagerating when we talked to them about the endless strives and dramas of Greek history. 

She can see for herself that the land of Leonidas is equally prone to produce Ephialtes.

Yes, through this degrading experience, my kids learn to love the essence, the spiritual and moral dimension of Greece more. 

As for myself.

For a long time I read about surrendering to God and I found it unthinkable. 

How can you do it? 

How can you stop the internal chatter that keeps telling you you can do it, you are in control, only you have to try harder, work harder, please harder?

I can tell you,

God has the way to bring you to Him. Has a way to get you to let go. 

Don't wait till something hard hits you on the face to surrender to Him. What you should watch for is to surrender to the right force. I say, Do Not surrender your soul, your ideals, your principals, all that makes you human to anyone and for no reason whatsoever. 

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26

Often Sometimes at night I turn to my little book of prayers. I always liked to read from a book. Whatever I had to say to God, there was, there is, a phrase, a hymn, a verse that expresses what I have to say better than anything I'd say in my own words. Everything is already there, just for you.

Stick to Him and all will work out. Trust me.