Thank God, it's Wednesday

Anyone missed me? Actually here is a better question..anyone still reads this blog other than the 2 persons I know they do?

Anyway, I am still here. It is true what they say that as you get older the responsibilities and the stress increase.
Where are the good times when I didn't have to worry about paying rent, electricity, water, television?
Where are the times when, when I was looking for 3 more friends to play pilota, I would probably find 6?
Where are the times when I didn't have to worry about my job?
What about the times that I didn't have to pay photographers, wedding venues or decide what color tulips I like?
Where are the times that I would go to bed at 3am and wake up at 8 and be alert for the day?

Do I miss those times? Hell yeah! But it is what it is. I am older, more responsible, more mature. And everytime I think of the above, i start singing..."Never give up, it's such a wonderful life"

So, what makes this life wonderful? A lot of things but let me concentrate on the few extraordinary ones.

1. Going shopping with Blondie. It is the best excuse for me to start complaining. This is how it usually goes..
Blondie drags me into a store (surprise, surprise it only has women clothes) and grabs a piece of clothing.

Blondie: "Do you like this?"
Me: "It depends"
Blondie: "On what?"
Me: "How much does it cost?"
Blondie (after looking at the price): "Never mind"

There is a lap of 20 seconds now and Blondie picks up another piece of clothing

Blondie: "Do you like this?"
Me: "It depends"
Blondie: "On what?"
Me: "How much does it cost?"
Blondie:"It is only 50 Euros"
Me:"You mean 59.95"? (do all women do that??)
Blondie: "Well, yeah"
Me: "Nothing special"
Blondie: "I think I like it. I am going to buy it"
Me: "Have you done your budget? Do you have enough money? Remember you need to buy a wedding dress"
Blondie: "Yeah, you are right, maybe I shouldn't buy it"
Me (I start feeling guilty): "I mean if you really like it you can buy it"
Blondie: "Nah, I don't really need it"

2. A nice dinner out and some wine with Blondie. Always has and always been my favorite.

3. Saturday lunch with my family

4. Weekend Salamina soccer game. I tried to stop but this Salamina thing is like an addictive drug. I feel that if I am not there, I will regret it. Ask me the only thing I regret in my life. Be careful here, I made a lot of mistakes in my life but I don't regret. The one and only thing I regret is that Saturday of June 1990 when I preferred to go to the birthday party of one of my 10-year old friends instead of going to the Salamina game to watch them win the one and only trophy in their history......

5. Playing pilota with my friends. Doesn't happen as much now. We are all older, engaged, married, in relationships. Makes it harder to meet. We only do it once a week now..almost every Wednesday. It gives us the chance to catch up, forget everything and be like little children again.. And thank God, it's Wednesday today:)

Food on the grill please

Pork chops

Liver

Halloumi

Sausages

Pastourma

Chicken

Pork

This has been my diet for the last 4 days.

No greens, no salad, no healthy food.

4 consecutive days lighting the foukou (grill), eating everything that comes out of it hot, with good friends, no worries (at least for the weekend), with frequent breaks for the pool, pilotta, and XBOX.

And just the thought of this is what makes Monday more depressing.

Guacamole or better "God make me Guacamole"

Blondie was complaining last night that I turned this blog into a bunch of posts about politics. And she is right. Who cares anyway about politicians? In my eyes they are all the same.

So let me just try to go back to the topics of daily routine with unexpected moments that you all liked before.

First things first. If you ever hear of a movie called "Dogtooth" and you read the very good reviews online, make yourself a favor and do not watch it. You will not waste 1.30 hours of your life. Unless you are an artistic person, who likes to read between the lines and make scenarios out of nowhere.

It was the kind of movie that you keep watching because you have heard so many good things about it and you wait until the end..and when the end comes you are like "What the f***? This is it?"

Anyway, let me share with you the guacamole story now.

Blondie calls me on her way from work announcing to me that she will go buy avocados to make Guacamole to take to our koumparous house where we were invited for the night.

My first reaction was the usual one.."you don't need to make it, there will be a lot of food, blah blah blah".

So next thing I know is Blondie coming home with 4 avocados (2 were not enough) and she starts making the guacamole.

But guess what? The avocados are not ripe, the guacamole will not be a success because we cannot mix it. But wait, in our house there is always a solution for everything. So they put it in the mixer only to create something liquid, a substance which I am thinking right now and I get disgusted. I even had the guts to try it by the way.

So cutting the story short, I went down to the grass, played with the dogs and the boys and I went up, only to find the guacamole (or the attempt of the guacamole) sitting in the kitchen. Here is the conversation that follows:

Me: "Why didn't you throw this away?"

Blondie: "Somebody might eat it"

Me: "Are you kidding me? Somebody will eat that stuff?"

Blondie: "Your dad might eat it"

(At this point I take the bowl of "God make me Guacamole" to throw it away).

Like a synchronised musical opera, Blondie and my grandma yell at me "Nooooooooo".

I give up, I go up, get ready, go down after 45 minutes. I say goodnight to parents and I try to get out of the door.

Mum yells my name and I stop. She asks if I want the guacamole. I reply that we don't want it, but transferring Blondie's thoughts, I tell her that my dad might want to eat it. My dad replies that the "God make me Guacamole" cannot be eaten because it is tasteless.

I walk out of the door, with one thought in my mind.

- Next time you want to do something, just do it without asking -. I am sure that if I had thrown the guacamole away nobody would have even noticed.

15th July 1974

I was not born the day that some traitors changed history, causing the coup against the democracy of Cyprus, bringing the Turks in our island.

I know that they are as liable as the barbarian invaders. They are liable for the death of thousands Greek-Cypriots, for the missing persons, for the 200,000 refugees who were forced out of their houses.

I grew up, listening to the same things year after year. "We will fight for a just, sustainable solution to the Cyprus problem". Even today, 36 years after, I keep hearing the same thing.

I grew up going to school with notebooks that had the picture of our invaded island and the text "Δεν ξεχνώ" meaning "I will never forget our invaded land".

I grew up afraid, afraid that what happened in 1974 might happen again.

I grew up listening to my grandmother's and mother's stories of how they had to leave their house.

I grew up building hate for some people. And today, every day like today, every year on the 15th and 20th of July and on the 14th of August, this hate reaches its peak. For the traitors of Cyprus, for the invaders, for the people who have made my people suffer.

IQ potato made in Cyprus

So I reading my daily newspaper today when I came across an article describing the arguments of one of the Parliament members of why smoking should again be permitted inside public venues with dedicated smoking areas. These are his main arguments: (in red my comments)

1) A lot of women when going to a restaurant or bar have to go out in the street to smoke and there, they receive ridiculous and derogatory comments from people who pass by.

This probably qualifies for the stupidest argument I have ever heard in my life from a person who is not only educated but supposedly represents Cypriots in the Parliament. So what is the next step? Should we make separate beaches for women in case some men comment on them while at the beach? What if they comment on them while in the bar? Should we close down the bars? There is this Cypriot expression "αλλού μας τρώει τζε αλλού κνιθόμαστε" directly translated to "we are scratching where it is not itchy" meaning that the problem is maybe in our culture and not in smoking regulations.

2) This is a systematic social exclusion of smokers

Ok my friend. I am going to return your argument. If smoking was allowed wouldn't that qualify as systematic social exclusion of non-smokers? About 90% of establishments have outside areas where smokers can enjoy their cigarette. Why do non-smokers have to suffer too? Why were you not so concerned about social exclusion when you were making statements about homosexuality?

3) In the winter in villages in Cyprus, temperatures are very low and old men are forced to go outside in the cold to smoke their cigarettes.

NO fucking comment. Somebody must have ran out of arguments to present this as an argument!

Sometimes I wonder at what levels stupidity should reach before taking some measures against it. I am reminding that we are talking about the same person who has made disgraceful comments about homosexuality causing anger and disappointment among Cypriots and the European Community.

This is a person who does not accept gay people but at the same time talks about social exclusion of smokers. How, really how could he have been elected?

A couple of messages

I told myself that I will never say "I miss school".

But as you can see from the trend in this blog, after I graduated, my posts have become less and less frequent. I attribute this to three reasons:

1) I do not have as much free time as I had when I was at school. Or in other words, when I have free time now, I'd rather do something else

2) I don't feel like giving an update every now and then because most people know what I am up to.

3) I don't get any ideas on what to write. Actually I do get a lot of ideas but the fact that I decided that my blog will not be anonymous prevents me from writing things that I would like to write.

So I thought about closing down this blog. You know, deleting it, not having to think about it, not feeling guilty that I do not update it.

But I decided against it. It is going to stay where it is and I will only use it when I feel I need to write something. When I want to express my feelings. When I am angry.

Closing down here is my message of the day:

"You all assholes that are too lazy to walk 20m and park on the handicap parking spaces, just think (that is if your brain has anything in it) that maybe, I am just saying maybe one day you will be the ones needing those spaces"

And if you do not know who I am talking about... just drive around the airport and in the Mall of Cyprus and you will see what I am talking about.

At Athens airport

Two Cypriot ladies are sitting at Gate 7 of the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in Athens waiting for the flight back to Cyprus.

Sitting right next to them I couldn't help but hear about their childhood, about their work, their shoes, their origins, their daughters, the gossip about their neighbors, how they spent their time in Athens, their knowledge about flights, their complaining about their purses and anything else you can imagine.

After 5 minutes their husbands, get up from their chairs and start wandering in the gate. The dialogue that follows:

Lady1: "Ouff, my husband can't sit in one place. He has to go somewhere all the time"

Lady2: "I know, my husband does the same. He has to be doing something all the time. It makes me mad. They can't sit for 5 minutes"

HELLO LADIES. Have you ever thought that your husbands are just trying to get away from your non-stop talking??????

Now what?

I lost the count of beers, cappuccinos, amount of sleep and money I spent while we were in Budapest.

But who really cares? This was one of my favorite times ever. Spending four days with some of my best friends, drinking, laughing, dancing, gambling, eating, having fun.

Too bad strikes in Hungary are not nearly as common as in Greece. Then I could have hoped for a pilot strike that would leave us in Budapest for a few more days. I am not sure if I could have made it. My body is still recovering 2 days later from what I have done to it.

And now what? Let's see..2 weddings, a trip to Greece, and summer time. Not bad at all.

At least we have at least 3 more bachelor parties to look forward too.

Dilemmas

James Patterson's writing cannot catch up with my reading. I have already finished the 35th book of the writer and I just can't stop. Once you think you know the way he writes and what will happen, by the end of the book you are pleasantly surprised.

I have to admit that the last purchase was a random one. I was on my way to Brussels and was killing some time at the Cyprus Airport when "The Sail" caught my attention. I tried to quickly go through the list of the 34 books to make sure that I haven't read it before, I read the first page and once I was sure, I bought it. It didn't take me much to finish it. A few hours on the plane and a few hours before sleep.

And now I want a book! Something to keep me busy on times of boredom. Resident Evil on the Wii does that but only for a short amount of time. So, I decided that I am going for a new book! One of those days I am going to take my car and go to Larnaca to my favorite bookstore Bibliocosmos and I will get one. The problem is that I am not sure what I want. I am between a Cyprus history book and a business book. To be specific I am between Makarios Drousiotis book "Cyprus 1974 - The Greek coup and the Turkish invasion" and Moore's book "Crossing the Chasm"

History or Marketing? Or both? You will find out soon!

This is how I feel today

When you wake up today...

..in the comfort of your bed

..and you brush your teeth

..take a warm shower

..wear your clothes

..eat your breakfast

..drive your car to go to work

take a moment think of the people in Haiti

..who have no bed

..do not know what brushing teeth or taking a shower is

..do not have clothes to wear

..make their breakfast mixing mud with butter and sugar

..have no job

If you want, you can contact your closest Red Cross department on how to help.

Favorites

As I get older, the days (or nights) of going out to bars and clubs are becoming more and more a distant memory. Not necessarily a bad memory, but definitely a way of living that is way past me.

Instead of going on and on of what I do and what I like now let me just take you through some of my favorite moments of the last two months.

1. Saturday morning, waking up early, getting ready and going to the Mall for a Starbucks coffee and cheese pie with Blondie. By 11am when the people start crowding the mall, we are out of there.

2. Saturday night, enjoying a glass (or more) of wine at a local café/bar with Blondie and good friends

3. Saturday night, dinner with Blondie’s sister and brother in law and her brother, lots of wine, excellent food, fun and sleepover

4. Christmas night, Texas Hold ‘Em poker at koumbaros house, accompanied by whiskey and coke and good company.

5. Random weekday, walking with Blondie all over the mall and shopping
6. Wednesday evening, getting of the underground at Convent garden station and walking up the 193 steps instead of waiting for the lift.

7. Random weekday Binging on steak at the Brazilian restaurant in Indianapolis with Blondie’s family

8. Weekend spending with very good friends at the mountains, eating, drinking and playing poker all night.