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?