Real life Greek style

On the Sunday after Sandra's birthday we had been invited to a Greek christening. In fact we were billed as the guests of honour although I doubt it very much but it was fascinating. It is very different to our version of doing things. It quite a long service, about an hour, the priest greets the baby and god parent at the door and chants at them for several minutes occasionally blowing at the baby (I assume to get rid of evil spirits) they then enter the church proper to more chanting and praying. The baby is then undressed and totally naked, is completely anointed from head to foot three times with olive oil and then fully immersed three times in a font which is like a huge brass and copper cauldron he is then washed off whilst in the font. The single god parent plays a big part in all this doing most of the anointing and washing along with the priest. The priest finishes by cutting a lock of hair from the child and placing it into a locket. All the people who attend are given a small broach thing and a sweet cake when they leave the church. This is followed by a Greek meal and traditional dancing in a taverna, there must have been about 100 people there. It was a spectacular event but I must admit I did feel sorry for little Dimitri (the baby) who just couldn't understand what all these people were doing to him, at times he was very distressed. At the moment I don't have any pictures because being to useless old sod I am I forget to take the camera. I shall get a couple of picture from Christos and post them here later.

Last Wednesday the “technician” came to try and make our heating appliance work, I think I have explained before that it’s a huge thing that burns diesel supplied from a small tank bolted to the rear of the device. Anyway, he turned up on an old Honda 50 which really was just a bike frame with an engine in no mudguards it did have a light at the front but it was hung down on the wires no back light ‘cos there wasn’t a mudguard to bolt it onto. All his tools (two adjustable wrenches, a few screwdrivers and a lump hammer) and a few bits of rag were in a milk crate with the dividers removed and strapped on the back seat. Anyway the heater got taken out onto the from lawn and totally stripped it looked like someone had been trying to burn olive oil in it rather than diesel and this had clogged up the entire works. To cut a 5 hour storey short we got it all back in and gave the guy, Niko, a couple of beers and he charged us 20 Euros, I gave him 40 because he had been working solid for 5 hours and we were grateful for the heater being available for use. And god does it stick out some heat ½ hour and the house is roasting. I have had to do a couple of mods since to make it quieter and I have extended the flue because it was under the veranda roof and it’s a very mucky and hot output so I want it going outside completely to reduce the muck and fire risk. I think Niko must have used the money wisely as I saw him yesterday and his headlight was back in it's case but still no back lights.

We finally got into our spare bedroom yesterday and found to our surprise that there was not that much stuff hoarded away in it. We found quite a few carpets rolled up in the top of the wardrobes which we have liberated to use as tiled floor are great in summer but they need carpets on them once the temperatures start to drop at night. The rest of Spiro's' stuff (including a shotgun and lots of tools) we have secreted away into the huge built in wardrobes. There was a bed frame and a single chair/bed both of which we have left in the room the put-me-up for occasional use and the bed frame just for somewhere to put it as it's knackered. We are going to Thessaloniki tomorrow (Saturday) to buy a new bed from IKEA along with a few other bits and pieces, it's a three hour drive but it'll be a day out and we haven't yet been to Thessaloniki. There is talk of an IKEA opening in Ioannina but it's not there at the moment so that's of no use. Sunday will no doubt be spent moving moving the beds out of our room into the spare and then getting the new bed up and running which means we can share the bed again for the first time in five weeks.

This brings us up to date (Friday 6th November 2009) hope everyone's had a good bonfire night!