Play with me!

Happy theme Thursday everyone!

I wish I could say that the toy in the picture is the first dolly I ever got as a present. Well it is not (though it looked like it :-). It is a doll given to me, 3 years ago, by a good friend of mine, to remind me that when I need a hug and someone to lean on, I can turn to this doll. It would be my 'hug' every time I needed a friend and he wasn't around.

I had it on a drawer hidden and forgotten, somewhere. This Theme Thursday made me look for it and remember the story behind it. I dedicate this "big hug" to everyone who wishes to remain young at heart! Toys may be for children but they are also for adults who have never forgotten what it felt like to play, to 'built' castles and stories, to fight imaginary wars with the sole purpose of good prevailing over evil.

Remember to 'play' with your children, nieces, nephews, the kid next door more often...those are the moments that a child will remember when he/she grows up.

A big hug to all!

MEET...FLOX!

A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry featuring...my cat. Unfortunately the word got out, lots of gossip about it and now...my dog will not talk to me!

So everyone...this is Flox. He is a strange mix of dog races...you can not tell which or what. He has been with my grandmother for 10 years now. He barks for no reason all day and the only time he will stop is when...someone we don't know arrives at the door (it was supposed to be the other way around but...:-)

He always seems to be a little bored. He is a sweet old dog though!

Take care
peace and love
xoxo

"Rear Window"

So I am home with the flu, haven't been out of the apartment for...3 days now(!!) and the only thing left for me to do, actually, is...stare out the window and think...


While sitting and starring (and coughing:-) I remembered something, someone I know, said to me once. "I believe that there is a 'Peeping Tom' hidden in all of us" he said. "Oh come on" I responded..."first of all define 'Peeping Tom' and second of all...what do you mean by that?". "Well" he said "take movies for instance...isn't that a way of 'looking' into somebody else's life, from a distance, in the safety of your couch. Isn't this a way of satisfying our need of knowing and taking a glimpse through the peephole, without feeling guilty that we are doing something wrong?"

OK, I don't remember how this conversation ended but I remembered 'Peeping Tom' now that I'm looking out of my window. I see all these apartments around me and the parallel lives of people living next to me. I see a woman putting her son down to sleep and I smile (such a pretty site), I see a man in his kitchen preparing dinner (wonder what it is-I'm a bit hungry), I see a...omg I am the 'Peeping Tom' my friend was talking about!!

OK maybe I'm not but you got my point. To prove my friend's point though I got the perfect man with the perfect story...Alfred Hitchcock said it before me and better than me. Here is the story of a man 'trapped' in his house with a broken leg (like me with the flu!). What he does to spend his time? He looks out the window. What he sees? Things that are beautiful, strange, funny, sad, interesting, bad, sweet, lonely. He glimpses at life unfolding, through the frame of his window (well he solves a murder case while he is at it but remember...that is why they are called movies ;-)

So what's happening outside your window?

Take care now
peace and love
xoxo

Libre-ria or...f-read-om

Libraries, in my opinion, symbolize the freedom of the soul...

For example take the word itself. In Spanish "libre" means free. "Libreria" is a bookshop and it also means "freedom"...

Books contain thoughts, written words that will be forever. What is the expression in Latin? "Scripta mannet" ('the written word stays with you while spoken words fly away'-or something like that).

I love having conversations like the above with children. Love to talk to them about the freedom they will experience once they start reading a book or when they visit a library and smell, feel, touch an old book's cover. I still remember the first book my father gave me. I found it difficult to read at the time, since I was too little. I couldn't even understand what the title meant..."50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth"...


I still have that book...it reminds me of the days that parents bought books instead of dolls and children used to read more books and play less computer games. In the end I like to show this picture to my students and say..."reading is the way to freedom. Any thoughts why?"...

P.S The above is a picture I found while surfing on the net. It is from ABFFE (American Bookseller Foundation For Free Expression). I find it pretty clever and a nice stimulus for creative conversation.

Take care now
peace and love
xoxo

Greeklish and "pull over the donkey"!

In the uni, while taking a subtitling/dubbing course we were told that one should look at and study the way imported audiovisual products are translated for a country. The choice will give us the degree of tolerance this country has towards the foreign and the unknown. Greece opts for subtitles over dubbing (your conclusions :-)...

Personally I am for preserving ones culture and protecting the things that make us different and constitute a country's history, whereas at the same time there is room left for openness and education on other cultures and customs and languages. Of course all the above can be accomplished in a somewhat ideal world that hasn't turned foreign language education into a profitable commodity (as is the case nowadays in my country). It is all in the balance and as a Greek philosopher once said "pan metron ariston" (excellence is in keeping and preserving the balance).

On a more funny and interesting note on the subject I give you our...greeklish (blend for Greek and English:-). I don't watch much TV but I love funny and clever advertisements. Here is one that proves my point that the English language is here to stay...

Info: This add is about a Greek cable TV channel (it shows all the US series like LOST, Prison Break, House, movies and many more). The concept is really funny. It's about a Greek police officer in a village, affected by all the TV series and action movies he watches. He tries to stop an old lady who "drives" a...donkey. Since the officer doesn' t know how to say 'donkey' in English he transfers the Greek word 'gaidaros' (donkey) into English thinking that it is OK. Of course the old lady has no idea what he is talking about so she says "officer why are you speaking in English?". He goes on (as you'll hear) "your papers or I'm gonna SHOOT" and the granny says "you SHOOT" (when we say 'shoot' in Greek we ask somebody to stop shouting or to be quiet-kinda like "shush") so again homophones get in the way for the funny effect!

L-O-V-E

Love...kiss...hug (agapi...filia...agalia)

This music video is dedicated to all of you who feel and celebrate love. May your hearts be filled with this great sentiment everyday in your lives. It doesn't matter if you are "with" somebody or "alone". How can you be alone when you have a great family or friends by your side.

I discovered this YouTube page (SyrialovesGreece). Now how can one not celebrate when...love is all around (GreeceLovesSyriaToo :-).

Let Xaris Aleksiou (our loved and wonderful singer) take your minds far away, in a place where people strive to find love. Do they manage to find it in the end? That is the mystery of life and the secret is hidden, down there...at the bottom of the ocean (hence the title "Vythos"). Do not worry about the lyrics, music is a universal language...just listen...

Theme Thursday=fish

I'm living in a country surrounded by the sea. Thus I feel a special connection to...fish. They are everywhere in our lives, habits and culture. Aquariums, taverns featuring fresh fish (yummy), lots of fishing boats (with interesting names) at the docks or ports and many many more. One thing I always found interesting when it comes to the subject though, is our sayings and proverbs (I am translating from Greek so bear with me :-)

1. "A Fish Stinks From the Head" (gr: Το ψάρι βρομάει από το κεφάλι)
- Meaning that the decomposition and corruption of an organism or group of people starts from the "head" i.e the leadership. This proverb is quite popular in the Balkans.

2. "If you are not soaked and wet up to your neck, you don't get to eat fish"
- As in "no pain, no gain".

3. "Eat fish with your eyes" (gr: φάτε μάτια ψάρια)
(This third is related to the cartoon above but I ended up being kinda lost in translation :-)

- Meaning that if one can't afford and acquire what he/she wants or needs (for various reasons), one can only look and not touch. As in a person who is hungry and can not eat, he tries to relief his hunger just by looking at the fish. It would be interesting to know the origins of this proverb. Since Greece has been through many wars and hardships and poverty in the past, I believe that people were trying to 'entertain' their hunger.

Finally there is this beautiful aquarium we have in Crete (Heraklion). This is a video I found on YouTube (made by freddy71165) that describes it better than words...Enjoy and relax (I find the music to be so calming).

"Monmartre...Paris"

Ahhh, Paris...

My good friend Efi used to tell me wonderful stories about Paris. We used to plan where we we'd go and which places we would visit. We were students in Manchester then and she had already spent a good six months in this wonderful city. One of the things I remember vividly about her narrations, is the way her face would light up when she was referring to Monmartre. The street vendors and artists, the people passing by. Everything sounded so...magical!


I wish I could tell you this is my portrait being made by a street artist, one beautiful day, in Monmartre. Unfortunately, I never got to travel to Paris...one day I will (hopefully). However, part of the picture is true. This is actually a part of my face. I got no idea who is posing in my 'place' because this photo is a...fotofunia product. If you want to see what you can do with your face and a few PC clicks, just visit the link and enjoy!

Hm and tomorrow is Thursday. That means "theme Thursday" and a quite demanding subject, as I recall :-)

Take care now
peace and love
xoxo

"Saturday night...(greek) fever"

So Saturday night is finally here.

When I was a student in high school I remember that Saturday night and coffee with friends was a BIG deal. Of course it wouldn't be a Saturday night out without the usual..."curfew", the "if it is 00:05 do not bother coming in the house!" or Mum sleeping on the sofa, waiting, pretending that she is reading an, up-side-down, book :-)

I remember all that today while getting ready to go out with my friends. I am meeting them in a few hours, in a Greek taverna (you know lots of meat, ouzo and opa-if you know what I mean). I am all grown up now (no need to ask for permission). However, I usually try to take these trips down memory lane, trying not to forget what it was like when I was a kid (helps me in my job, to get into my students' shoes, to remember how it was when I was their age:-)

Good times...

I wish you have a pleasant weekend and enjoy your nights out or in, with family or friends, alone or with a company. Try to treasure the moments cause they only last...for a moment. As for all the wonderful, hard-working parents out there...trust your children and the trust will come back to you (at least that is what my parents did...sort of :-)

This is a great video I found on youtube...does it make you wanna dance?

theme thursday=statue

I thought a lot about this theme. Made me think about all the possible statues-landmarks that can be found in my hometown or in Greece in general. Their history or anything special or worth saying about them. However, I knew there was something that I was forgetting...two days later it hit me!

So I am in Crete (the biggest of the Greek islands) on holiday with my university girlfriends! We are strolling down the street, by the sea, amongst the tourists (it was August 2006). Suddenly we came across a huge building that used to be a church and it was now used for exhibitions about art...something like a museum.

We noticed people standing outside the beautiful building, admiring a Greek ancient statue. We figured it was something worth watching and photographing, so we took the above shot. It was late at night so I will help you with a closer look...




It looked so real and it was like the statues that one could find on the Acropolis, decorating the Parthenon! So we had to get close and take a better photo of the statue. It wasn't until we went close and stood there to take the picture, that we realised it was in fact...a person posing and standing still!




Remember now...it was late at night, dark and...well I am out of excuses :-)

That' s it. This is my first "theme Thursday" post. I hope it' s relevant to the subject and that you enjoyed it! Till next Thursday...

take care
peace and love
xoxo

It is never too late to post a...delayed entry

I was so caught up in the activities of the past weekend (taking an exam for a permanent teaching job:-) and I realised that I have postponed some things that I wished to put up here. Since it is never too late...here they go.

Thanks to Meg and her beautiful blog I took part in a rather joyful blog game...the "interview me", game like, blog activity where one blogger sends 5 questions to another blogger and he/she answers them on his/her blog. I found it an interesting and great way to get to know each other a little better. So I did my share by letting Meg interview me (for my interview click here) and I also was the interviewer for two other fellow bloggers.

The first interview was for the great screenwriter, director, musician Raymond De Felitta, whose interview can be seen here. If you haven't watched his movies you better hurry. I recommend my favorite so far, 'the thing about my folks' and his new film that is bound to come out (hopefully soon) with Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, which is called "City Island"! if you haven't visited his blog you should take a look. Educational, informative, fun to watch, historical, 'musical' (a few words that come to mind and characterize it).

The second interview was with my good blog friend, Jodi, who is a working mother with a great big happy family and two adorable children. Her blog can be seen here and her interview is quite interesting so go there in a 'click' second!

It is great that via blogs people from all around the world get together, share and realise the creativity, they didn' t know existed, in this vast and great world we live in. I think of several bloggers that I would most definitely want to read the answers to their interviews. If you wish to participate just comment on this post by saying "interview me" and will e-mail you asap! join in and have fun :-)

Meanwhile I give you a picture of a radio station's microphone (my 'link' to the listeners on my radio show). Since this interview game is an interview without physically seeing the other person, one could say that it is much rather like an on-air interview without...sound! The blogs are our 'microphones' so...let's have fun!

Take care now
peace and love
xoxo