Happy Birthday Helena – 7th July
Many happy returns to Helena who will be 5 next Monday. Helena has a boyfriend who lives down the road – and they like to cut each others hair and try out new radical styles.
Archive for June, 2003
Next Stop – San Diego
Well our next stop will be the sunny shores of San Diego. Christos leaves tomorrow morning (early!) as he has planned a couple of days with his family in St Louis. No doubt they will feed him up and he will enjoy a nice ‘quiet’ get-together with his nephews as well. I am flying over (el cheapo of course these days) on Thursday and we will meet up in San Diego. We are hoping that nothing goes wrong with either flights or timings as neither of us has a mobile (cell) phone that works in the US.
We will be staying for the weekend in La Jolla which is a posh beach-side community just north of San Diego. Christos is then attending a conference in town and I will do some window shopping and check out the sights while he does his conference stuff. JP will be joining us for the conference too and no doubt we will be out every night enjoying the San Diego restaurants – I think they both miss American food and service. I am also looking forward to the Zoo, the Gaslamp District and hopefully seeing a US Navy aircraft carrier – not to forget the beaches of course. So we will be back 15th July with a topped-up suntan and a much smaller bank balance – thank you again GSK for the redundancy money!
Visit to GSK House
Well just back from a visit to my previous place of work (yes that 4 letter word) – GSK House. It was lovely catching up with some of the OD gang who were in the office (Andrew, Lorraine, Doug, Stephen and Fiona) who all looked well – but I have to say I did not enjoy the 5 hours on the Nth Circular much. Amazingly, many of the folks from ETCM (Etcetera Management) were there as well (Simon, Martin, Chris, Melissa, Philip, Rick, Nigel, Charles, Andrew, Chris, Jeremy and Trudy – just to name a few). Actually last time I saw Nigel was when Christos and I spent a day’s skiing in Garmisch earlier on in the year. Christos and I were on the funicular going down the mountain when Nigel appeared in the same carriage – a bit worse for wear from the skiing and a few beers I think – anyway, sounds like Rob Harvey has the best meetings!
Thought people would appreciate the two photos – the first is a highly professional OD person in action (Dougie!) and the second is me in the arms of some beefy engineers at a team event (see what I am missing out on these days!)
Greece – Farewells: Our final couple of days were spent back in Athens. We did another shopping trip to Plaka (new briefcases for both of us) and we finally made it to Cape Sounion which is the location of the Temple of Poseidon. We enjoyed our last great Greek sunset there before heading for my favourite cafe in Athens, Verde. Our final day was topped off by another fantastic family meal before heading to the airport and back to Cambridge.
Greece – Meteora: Leaving Corfu, Christos and I drove the mountainous highway to Meteora. The road was winding, single-laned and hair-raising. Christos was a rally car driver in another life so thank goodness there was beautiful scenery to keep me from screaming too much. We went right up through some of the Greek ski fields and I have to admit I never realised that Greece had such nice mountain areas. Although a short distance on the map, it took us absolutely ages to get to Meteora where we met up with Maria and Dimitri who joined us for the weekend. Meteora is where there are monasteries built on the top of these really weird shaped rocky outcrops. The word Meteora means ‘hovering in the air’. The monks first settled up there in the 11th century, originally in caves, but then in these monasteries they built. You can drive up to the monasteries now but in the past they used to haul people and provisions up in baskets. We visited three of the monasteries which were really interesting – one had a room full of the skulls of past monks. Interestingly, Maria and I both had long trousers on but had to put a long skirt over these (provided by the monks and not really a great fashion statement). It was a great weekend and again we had good company and enjoyed some really nice meals. We also went on a trip to the nearby dam and despite getting lost had a great time. The trip back to Athens was a huge contrast to getting to Meteora – nice straight roads, thank goodness.
Greece – Corfu: Well the sun found us in Corfu which made Christos very happy. Corfu is a very different island to Santorini. It has lots of trees whilst Santorini is quite barren and the architecture in Corfu is Venetian in style whereas it is the whitewashed houses in Santorini. We were met at the ferry by my good friend Sophia (she introduced Christos and I, and she now lives back in Corfu where she grew up). We stayed at a great hotel (The Arcadion) overlooking the old fortress and right in the hub of the cafe and shopping area – the arcades of Liston and the main square. It was the best location and a really nice hotel. Sophia pointed us in the direction of the beaches and restaurants, and was able to join us for most evening meals. During the day, Christos and I spent most of out time either lying on the beach (they have both white sandy beaches and pebble beaches) or eating. We also got a great sunset from Kaiser’s Throne up on the hill and visted the church which has the remains of Saint Spyridon. Sophia was an excellent hostess and seeing her house and where she works, we can’t imagine why she ever left for England. Anyway, it was great to have her there and I really loved Corfu. One word of warning though – stay away from the English riff-raff in Sidari!
Greece – Velo: This is the home to Anna and Kosta and their three beautiful children – Panagiotis, Aliki and Amalia. They have built an American-Greek style house in Velo which is quite close to the famous Corinth canal. Anna has done amazing things with the garden and house, and while we were there we were treated to Kostas culinary BBQ delights – yum. The kids were great – Christos is Godfather to Aliki who just adores him – and vice versa. Apart from eating (a theme on this holiday), we enjoyed the latest Harry Potter video with the family – oh and did I mention the great baclavas? Anyway, we had to leave to head to our next stop Corfu – thanks to Anna and Kosta for the loan of their car which fortunately made it back in one piece (see Meteora).
Greece – Santorini: Our next stop was the island of Santorini where we stayed in the Arch Houses – these are traditionally styled villas (the white washed kind that are cut into the side of the hill). Our location was great – we were a short walk into the town and had the most fantastic view of the Caldera (crater). The weather was not too great though – we sat outside on our balcony one night to watch the sunset and were engulfed in the mist but we did manage to get a most fantastic sunset on our last night there whilst enjoying a drink at the famous ‘Francos Bar’. We toured the island during the day – on a very scary scooter that had bald tyres – and enjoyed the restaurants in the evening. Christos was pining for the sun though and when it did finally come out (for about an hour) we sat on a black sandy beach to soak up the rays. Apart from the weather and one bad restaurant experience (they charged us 27 Euros for a bottle of wine we latter saw in a shop for E3.50) Santorini was really nice and very relaxing.
Greece – Athens: Well first stop for us was Athens where we stayed with Christos family (Aunt Bessie, Uncle Tike, cousin Maria and her husband Dimitri – plus their two kids Christos and Panouli. It was just lovely staying with them – good company, funny kids and I have to mention the great food. More of Christos’ cousins (Anna & Kosta plus kids, Jimmy and Marhi plus kids) arrived for a family BBQ and friendly game of basketball – Panagiotis is definately the star player). While in Athens we also went into the city, where we enjoyed coffees under the Acropolis and shopping in the Plaka area. Best of all though was just enjoying the hospitality of the family.
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