I have been perversely proud of my ancient motorbike even though my wife was embarrassed to be seen with me on it.  This antique model of Yamaha could be any where between 40 and 25 years old.  You may know of it as one of those old green bikes.  I have dropped it a few times in the 6 to 7 years I have been riding it so it is missing a few pieces and others are held together with duct tape.  Yet I liked the way it rode, except for going up hills maybe, and it did the job for me.

BEFORE  Photo

Lately, however, the electrical was acting up.  I could start out at night with a working head lamp but usually not make it home with one.  Also more pieces were falling off due to corrosion and sun-dried plastic.  I could envision hitting a pothole and having the bike dissolve to a pile of rust with me on top of it.

So I went shopping.  My head was turned more than once by some classy looking scooters--I am a senior citizen after all.                                                          

Then I was all set to buy a new gray colored Honda motorbike with full injection and other electronic features when the salesman made the mistake of pointing out a slightly used Kawasaki KazerR that was substantially cheaper, came with a one year guarantee and was blue.                              

I bought it.  I will save for another story how it took three weeks of nearly daily dealing with government bureaucracy to get the title transferred.  I guess I will have to get used to the idea of riding in style rather than nursing along a piece of junk that is old enough to be in a museum.

AFTER Photo

Last week we had been invited to pop over to Antiparos, our neighboring island, for their community cinema club meeting.  We passed then because the movie didn't appeal to us, but this week it was  ***, an Oscar nominee.

  Update:  I learned from the first comment that this group wants to keep a low profile for their strictly local activities.  So I have edited this post a bit.  It is too late to retract it, I am afraid due to some of my automatic publicity.

Let me say I never buy bootleg CD's or DVD's--the itinerant vendors are in constant flow in any resort area--but my conscience was clear in attending this free showing.  If any readers are entitled to royalties of this film, first, congratulations, second, leave a comment and I will gladly pay your share for this group of 30 or so viewers.

This photo shows Karin and a friend boarding the local ferry for the six minute jaunt.  By the way there is an inside lounge which no one uses in the summer but all 10 passengers shared it for this trip as there was a cold North wind blowing.

I thought I would take a candid photo of the snack bar and some of the patrons but I was a little too long in focusing.  However I did not spend enough time composing.

The venue was the common room in the primary school.  The walls were lined with historical photos, probably from the 1960's as the young girl sitting on her mother's lap in the center photo had brought a fig tart to share.  I especially enjoyed the photos of the bakery in action because we have such romantic notions of these small ovens shared by every group of houses.

Probably the best part of the experience was the pre-show dinner we had at Pandalis's Taverna.  We had very simple grilled chicken skewers but his tomato and mayonnaise type sauce was the best I have ever had.

Oh yes, the film was terrific.  We thoroughly got into it.  I think the depiction of life in India while following the adventures of two young boys was quite well done.  It was graphic yet not as brutal as I have read in other accounts especially of the criminal underworld.  There were no scenes showing the lifestyle of the middle and upper classes, however.  Since I spend a lot of time on a computer I enjoyed the few scenes that showed a very large call centre in action.  We highly recommend this movie even if you have to watch it in an ordinary cinema.

Things are heating up around cold Greece.  When I left the coffee shop around noon yesterday they were setting up tables for a private party with a bottle of my favourite Paros red on each table.

Wednesday we received this notice from the Parikia community hall: 

Archilochos Society invites you to a pure fun Carnival Party
this Thursday 19 February, starting at: 21:00 until late!
Carnival mood, dance & songs in Brazilian tunes.

Everybody tries to brighten up the winter and let loose before Lent starts.  Patras in the Peloponnese area of Greece lays claim to the largest celebration in Europe.  These two photos are from there (http://www.patranews.gr)

I saw a news item that church authorities had petitioned the courts to stop a float in the Patras parade that depicted the recent church/government land swap scandal.

The first day of Lent is known as Clean Monday (Kathari Theftera). Read more about the day and other Greek festivals on our web site or see photos in several  blog posts by searching "kite flying".

We have at least two parties this weekend so I am off . . .

Cheers!

Finally some good news about Olympic Airlines.  First the bad news, two weeks ago the government rejected all bids for the company.  They have been trying to restructure or sell the money losing business for years but nobody wants to pay what the government can politically accept.  Meanwhile the EU has ordered illegal subsidies returned to the taxpayer and the airline's always bad service--like any government owned business, I might add--has deteriorated.  Read our sorry example  HERE

Andreas Vgenopoulos

This week it was announced that the Marfin Investment Group has entered the picture.  They are a very well heeled (Arab money) company, Cypress based I believe, that has a track record of money making companies.  They are also politically connected as shown by last year's deal in which they bought most of the government's share of the phone company and then resold it to Deutsche Telecom against the unions' strong objections.

Some of the companies with a local connection in which MIG owns large stakes are:  Delta Dairy, Chipita chips, Goody's fast food, SingularLogic and our favourite Blue Star Ferries.

The dark cloud on the horizon is that the MIG chief executive met with the Socialist opposition and promised that if they won the next election (they are leading the polls) MIG would back out so that the airline could again be turned into a featherbed organization.

The executive, Andreas Vgenopoulos, is quoted:

"We want new planes, good service and an Olympic Airlines that will
make us all proud, and we will achieve this if the tender is complete."

He went on to say that the existing employees were the obligation of the government although they would create numerous jobs for new and existing employees.

Of course, Paros will lose its subsidized air service but I think it will be worth it to pay more for dependable schedules.

What do you think?  Comments welcome.

My To Do list grows ever longer.  So until I get around to updating my blogroll of other Greece blogs here is a link to a Greek island web site that lists a few with the added benefit of edited descriptions.

Until I get my photos better organized here is a blog of Greece Images that are truly terrific.  You don't normally see black and white in this land of blue and gold so I chose this one to show.  Most images on the site are quite colorful.  http://greekimages.blogspot.com/

4 0 0  

This my blog post number 400.  I have not been able to think of anything special to commemorate it.

Then this morning I saw an announcement for embedding Google news.  I decided to give it a trial although I am not a fan of unfiltered news.  I never watch TV news; I select which stories I want to read from the internet or newspapers.  To me TV news is a daily dose of poison dominated by disasters and negative speculation by alarmists.  O.K. moving on . . . check out the news feature near the bottom of this blog.  It is filtered for these key words:  Paros island,Greek islands,Greece,expatriate

For this 400th blog on Blogger I should also comment that as a host Blogger is improving all the time.  I have wanted to change to WordPress because it is more adaptable and has more features available.  Lately I have been composing with Windows Live Writer; it is much better for composing photos and texts than the regular Blogger editor.  So no major changes in the foreseeable future although there are many facets that I am not satisfied with such as the Archives organization.

Next post will be more on Greek island life with photos, I hope.

According to Greek island wedding specialists 2009 is shaping up to be their best year ever despite a predicted downturn in general tourism.  They say this is due to the success of Mama Mia which recently beat out Titanic as the highest grossing British film ever at the UK box office.

We just watched this farcical musical for the second time and really enjoyed the comedy and the Greek island scenery set to Abba music.  Evidently brides-to-be want their weddings to also be full of fun in the sand and surf with romantic dinners and dance parties.  The island named in the movie does not exist so just about any Greek island will do, including our Paros.  Santorini is the most popular wedding site as well as the most expensive.

The next cinema due out to hype the Greece travel market is My Life in Ruins starring Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  This one involves the trials and tribulations of a travel agent escorting a group around Greece who falls in love with the bus driver--I home the flick is better than the story line.  The many producers include our neighboring Antiparos homeowners, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.

The modern grandmother of Greek island romance is Shirley Valentine.  That classic can be blamed for many Brits and others moving home and hearth to the islands.  So why don't you view it and start packing your bags.  We would love to share our piece of Paros paradise.

Cheers,

I just won a bottle of my favourite Scotch from BloggersBase.  Well they said $40, but to me $40 of found money means a bottle of Macallan.

"BloggersBase is a citizen journalism magazine powered by YOU!"  In other words a magazine like format in which bloggers and readers vote on articles and posts--and, of course, win prizes.

It is new and has some growing to do, but I like it.  Check it out by clicking the banner, then we both win.

Cheers,

Karin got up before the sun this morning. She was inspired to document its arrival and enthused "Can't you hear the music!"

Our weather has been mixed lately: both heavy rain showers and sun breaks with lots of clouds between. Last night lightening and thunder passed through for a few minutes; we felt it necessary to disconnect our umbilical cord to the world, also known as a DSL modem.

Karin entitled this composition, Rock on Rock