A recollection of memories Part 1

I remember, every July 14^th, July 20^th and August 15^th of my childhood, going home after playing football in the neighbourhood, and sitting on the veranda of our house with my parents eating karpouzi and halloumi and listening to the news talking about the 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, …..anniversary of the coup d’etat and the Turkish invasion. 34 years after the invasion here is what I remember…

I remember that CYBC was the only television channel in Cyprus.

I remember my parents telling my brother that by the time he has to go to the army, there will be no army in Cyprus. I remember them telling me the same. I remember my uncle saying the same to his son. I say it now too. The army is still there.

I remember my first football game. My uncle took me with the famous Opel Vectra registration numbers VZ609 (which at the time thought that was funny because when you say it out loud it sounds like “ViZi” which means “boob”) to my first ever Salamina game at a friendy game against Omonia at the Makario stadium..

I remember the final of 1989, Salamina-Omonia in Tsirio stadio in Limassol. The only thing that I regret in my life is that my whole family went to that game and I preferred to go to a friend’s birthday party…I was 9 years old, but I remember listening to it on the radio. I remember Pambis scoring, I remember listening to the last few minutes on the only radio we had in our kitchen. I will never forget.

I remember my dad’s navy Chevrolet pick-up truck which was then replaced by a newer white Chevrolet pick-up car.

I remember my grandmother telling me bed-time stories of her childhood.

I remember my grandfather, coming to our home riding his red Vespa and bringing along the only communist newspaper of Cyprus.

I remember my first ever trip outside of Cyprus, going to Egypt with the extended family. I remember that I was afraid to get inside the pyramids.

I remember being sick in the hospital and only wanting a specific nurse to put the IV on.

I remember the president of the Cyprus Republic coming for dinner at our house, and me feeling proud of it. I remember sitting outside talking to his guards.

I remember the gift the President brought me from Japan; a white robot which was eventually lost while moving to our new house.

I remember my brothers beating me on any occasion they could. I remember being afraid of them, but also wanting to live up to them.

I remember my brothers beating a guy who was trying to play cool with me.

I remember the Friday night they called me from the hospital to tell me that my grandfather passed away.

I remember the night they called us from Limassol to tell us that grandmother Stella passed away. I remember my dad returning from a trip and understanding what happened before we even told him.

I remember playing pilotta when my mother called me to tell me that grandfather Loukas passed away.

I remember walking to my uncle’s house almost every day after elementary school.

I remember waking up at 5am on Tuesdays during summer period to go with my father to work at the farm.

I remember being happy to see the pigs and felt close to them, not realizing that they were growing them up so they can kill them and make them pork.

I remember my brother returning home from his studies in London for the first time. He had long hair and all I wanted to do was show him the games of Salamina that I had taped.

I remember my English high-school teacher telling my parents that I will not pass my English O-level. I got a B.

I remember my Chemistry high-school teacher telling my parents that I will not pass my Chemistry O-level. She was right.

I remember playing for the high-school football team, training every Friday and the player with the most dedication would get a Sandwich and Coca-cola for free from the coach…who was also a Chemistry teacher.

I remember Mr. Chisios, the PE teacher who wanted me to play volleyball for the school team, but I always preferred the nap after school.

I remember the first time I got injured playing football, twisting my ankle. My parents were in Africa and my brother couldn’t pick me up from school because he had a phone interview with Bank of Cyprus.

I remember all the other times that I twisted the same ankle in the following years.

I remember every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday going at badminton training from 8pm until 10pm with my good friends.

I remember spending my childhood years with my best friends in the neighbourhood.

I remember my mum taking me to her work when I was 5 or 6 and her sweet colleagues saying “Ohh what a cute baby..is it a boy or a girl?”

I remember all my friends liking Power Rangers and me hating them.

I remember “Einai mia, mono mia I oneiremeni froutopia”

I remember my brother kicking me and me landing with my elbow on a rock breaking it…all because he tore a Salamina player sticker and I got mad and threw him a rock.

I remember all my birthday cakes when I was a little boy were in the shape of a Jersey and had the Salamina colors and logo.

I remember the barber with the large house in our neighbourhood who would not let us play football on the field across from his house because the dust would make the house dirty. I remember how he was hated by every kid in the neighbourhood.

I remember my mountain bike which had a malfunctioned chain and resulted in me returning home with a new bruise every day.

I remember unloading containers of plastic things at the local plastic store and the owner paying us 10 or 20 Cyprus pounds.

Time goes by so slowly..or does it..?

Like a movie...

I was reading the Guardian the other day and I found the following story:

A 31-year-old Greek man accused of beheading his girlfriend with a cleaver is in critical condition after being shot by police, the country's health ministry said today.

Restaurant cook Thanassis Arvanitis allegedly severed the head of his 25-year-old girlfriend yesterday on the island of Santorini.

Arvanitis was shot three times by police while trying to flee. He had initially agreed to surrender to officers, but then attacked one with the cleaver and tried to escape in a patrol car.

Three bystanders were injured in the clash in Bourboulos, near the island's main town of Fira. A 21-year-old Greek tourist was hit by a ricocheting police bullet, while the suspect crashed into an oncoming motorbike, injuring two doctors, both aged 26.

Arvanitis and the three bystanders, all women, were being treated in a state hospital in Athens. The two doctors were making a good recovery after suffering leg injuries, said health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos. The tourist was in stable condition. The injured policeman received treatment for facial wounds on Santorini.

Arvantis killed his girlfriend following an argument. "The (suspect) slaughtered their dog and threw it out of their home and onto the street and proceeded to kill the woman ... totally severing her head," a statement from the South Aegean police department said.

"The attacker walked around the village carrying the head of the victim in one hand and the cleaver in the other."

"It's hard to believe that people like this circulate among us," said Santorini's mayor, Angelos Roussos.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/04/greece.internationalcrime

In the last two weeks I've read about a guy in Canada who beheaded a girl in a bus and started eating parts of her body, another guy in Canada who stopped a taxi driver in the middle of the street and beat him to death and later told police that he wanted to see if it is the same as in Grand Theft Auto, a 20-year old Australian beaten to death by club security people in Mykonos and two Italian students stabbed to death in London...171 stabbings on one of them, and two teenagers in London who pushed a lawyer in the rail tracks of the Underground because she told them that smoking is not allowed on the station.

I really have no idea where I am going with this but it is Saturday night and I am bored. My week up to now has got me so tired that the only thing I was dreaming of today was my bed. That was exactly what I was dreaming of last night too followed by a sleep in in the morning but unfortunately the builders downstairs had a different idea. IT somehow seems reasonable to start putting holes on the wall at 9am on a Saturday. After all who would be sleeping at that time?

Two weeks left in London. As my time here is almost over, looking back at it, I will remember it as a great experience. I had the opportunity to work for the leading company in the world in its sector, meet new people, reunite and have fun with classmates from school, experience the London life and learn to not be amused by the sudden weather changes. The only thing I would have wanted most though was to be able to spend those 3 months with my baby. It has been a difficult three months being away from her and I am glad that we will reunite again in two weeks, hoping that we will never have to be apart again:)