2025

 NZers will soon be waking up to a sunny first morning of 2025.

Perth West Australia will be clicking over to their new year in less than half an hour.

Poros Greece, we have almost 6 hours to go. Plenty of time to make a Vassilopita, New Years cake with lucky coin, bake a loaf of bread with another lucky coin and cook some bifteki. 

K needs a hearty meze, snack, with his wine so he can get through to midnight without going to sleep. 

I probably will go to sleep. New Year's eve no longer excites me. 

Poros Harbour this morning was sunny and bright. There was happy Christmas music warbling out from speakers along the front. Groups of young children banging triangles and singing the New Years Carol.

The shops were brightly decorated, people everywhere calling out

Kali Chronia

Happy New Year

And

Chronia Polla

Many years..many happy returns.  

Playing quoits in the square with a friendly Elf

The Poinsettia, Alexandrino, in greek

Is the Xmas flower

If you've got very green fingers you may even be able to keep it alive for a few months 

Our good luck Boska

Hanging on the front gate

Wishing for you all in

2025

Good Health

Happiness

And Prosperity

St Stephens Day

 27th December..... 

'Good King Wenceslas 

Once looked out

On the feast of Stephen'

Meanwhile, back on the island we await the next storm. It's a Ukrainian Snowstorm. Haven't had one of those before. 

Described as a polar air mass from the Ukraine. It could bring snow even to our little corner of the country.

The 3 girls left on boxing day for the delights of Athens. 

They were lucky the hydrofoil wasn't cancelled. It was a bit rough they said but the sea sick pills worked and they slept some of the way.

Its only an hour and a bit. 

28th 

Very rough seas. 

No boats sailing

Their brother, and cousin, had his own happy Xmas in Athens. 

Playing poker with his friends and partying. 

Good bro though. He cleaned the house before the girls arrived

Got rid of the beer bottles and bbqed some souvlaki. 

That 'boy' is a keeper

The girls from the accountancy office, and Luli, are excellent bakers too.  They made us a gingerbread house. 

Amazing. 

I really don't want to break it up and eat it. 

Can't eat it anyway. Sweet eating is over for me till easter. I hope. 

Has anyone got a recipe for using gingerbread houses. I imagine it would make a really good base for a cheesecake

Hope it was a Happy Name Day Steve and Stephen 

The Big Event

  Xmas day. 

It was a huge concentrated effort in the kitchen but we managed to get it all out. Brussels and bacon, enough stuffing to feed all of Poros, gravy, Yorkshire puds, garlic bread, parsnips, kumara, potatoes and chicken. We had to juggle the trays going into the oven and use the wood burner  as well. All good. 

Meanwhile, outside the Boy had charged up the wood oven where he cooked copious amounts of pork. 

It was delicious, the crackling crackled satisfyingly. 

He and the other 2 Boys ate bowls of goats foot soup to warm their cockles.

The stifado, wild pig and onions, didn't get touched and is now in the freezer

No tzatziki or Greek salad this year. No room on the table, no time, no energy. No need.

Various porks

And a few Greek potatoes

The kitchen crew

Kyriakos the Carver

With the jolly little elves

Crackers have been pulled, jokes groaned at and party hats donned

The end

Sprawled out

No energy left for anything but their phones

The Day After

A happy chaos yesterday.

Far too much food.

Rain, rain, rain.

Wind 

Snow further north.

Storm Elena is in full force 

But no leaking tiles this time. Cross fingers, spit 3 times and shake it all about

 

Christmas Greetings

Wishing you peace and happiness this holiday season

I hope your days are filled with laughter, music, good food and drink and the company you enjoy most

Parsnips on Poros

A christmas miracle.  Our grocer had parsnips.  Never seen before in a Poros shop. 

Great find Elli.

 We certainly are a cosmopolitan island 

Parsnips and fresh brussel sprouts

All ready for Xmas day

Granddaughter Nels has her driver's licence .  'Good roads' Nels.

She drove up to our place with her mother and sister to bring us the wine. The 2 athletic sisters easily lifted the 3 x 20 litre boxes of wine into Ks man shed. Plus a new gas bottle for the outside stove. That must weigh about 30 kilos. 

Poppi is the Dessert  Chef  this Christmas.  She is making 48-hour Brownies.  They will be accompanied by icecream, in this winter freeze.  I can no longer bother to whip cream or make custard.

Early morning -

No journey to attend a funeral after all. Salamina is an island about 2 hours away by car and ferry boat. The roads are icy, the weather iffy. We shall all attend the 40 day memorial service. 

K has wild pig in the pressure cooker and is preparing a kilo of little onions for ' wild pig stifado'. Yesterday he boiled a goats foot and stomach for patsas. Tripe soup.  As if we needed MORE food.

I am preparing in other ways for the big day tomorrow. 

The first thing ticked off. A list of jobs to be done, and a check list for the table for granddaughter Nels who will be in charge in the kitchen tomorrow. 

Elli and Me

And a glass of Sauv Blanc

Merry Xmas to all

And to all a goodnight

Xmas Baking

 I used the last of last years Xmas mincemeat to make something different

Christmas mincemeat cookie cake

A cake base, a layer of mincemeat and more cake mix on top. 

It turned out really well. 

Since then I've seen a recipe for Xmas mincemeat shortbread. Same sort of thing. Shortbread base, mincemeat, shortbread.  Looks easy and delicious. 

Then I made traditional fruity mince pies as well. Homemade filling and pastry

Great with custard says friend Jan, who should know. She's a local-alien from England and has eaten the 'real thing'. 

Even if it was 45 years ago

Gingerbread with Petimezi instead of molasses or treacle.  A simple gingerbread recipe using petimezi which is syrup of grapes. 

I made this by boiling down 5 litres of grape juice till a half litre remained. 

I've never seen molasses on sale here but Grape syrup is sold everywhere. It lasts forever. I use it in cakes and biscuits.

 Gingerbread men

This morning I took English Christmas cakes, doused in 5* Metaxa brandy, along with bottles of red wine liqueur, to the girls in the accountancy office where daughter Elli works. 

The 3 girls and granddaughter Luli  spent all day Sunday baking Xmas cookies and muffins. 

Their gingerbread men are epic. Nice and peppery. Ginger gives it the basic flavour but the recipe has salt and pepper too.

Elli and Maria are girls with mothers who are local aliens. One from NZ and one from Honduras. Honduras is the country whose capital city has the wonderful name of Tegucigalpa. One New Years Maria brought us homemade tamales! 

You could say that Katerina is another alien child. Her mother comes from Methana, the town under the volcano, down the road a while and round quite a few corners.

We're a cosmopolitan island. 

Sunday Before Xmas

 9am. Looks like another grey day .

Today we are scrabbling to make new lists and get things done a day earlier.

We will be away all day Tuesday, Xmas Eve, at a family funeral on the island of Salamina. Weather permitting. There's a cold front coming in. Snow forecast further north. 

Tonight I'll make paté.

Later.  Done and potted. 

Tomorrow we have to pick up 3 x 20 kilo cardboard boxes of wine. 40 kilos of white and 20 of red. 

Thanks to son-in-law Yiannis. Do you think we will have enough! That's besides the 2 bottles of sauv blanc in the fridge. One Greek and one French. Maybe it will last till Easter. Hollow laugh. 

We made a Christmas visit to neighbours elderly Vaso and her son Vangelis. I filled up a container of Xmas cookies that K had baked and a loaf of sweet bread called tsoureki. The latter from the baker. 

Vaso is still strong in body, lighter up top, staying beside the fire on cold winter days. 

They have an orchard of lemon, mandarin, orange and pomegranates. Vangelis gave me a bag of mandarins and told me to come back and pick more. I shall do that after Xmas. 

Evening

The sun came out but the day was chilly. We lit the fire around midday and sat comfortably watching TV and doing chores. 

K got a phone call from the meat 'boutique' in Nafplio where he had ordered a pigs head. No pig head available!

Imagine me doing a happy dance!, 

They were selling them for 6 euros a whole head. Obviously trying to get rid of them. And they did. 

We ended the day with cheap Lidls whisky and paté on crackers. 

A Saturday in Winter

 We went shopping in the big city, Nafplio, an hour away, even though rain was forecast.

Nafplio is one of the most picturesque cities near us. A modern city with a colourful  old town, narrow alleyways ending in squares full of cafe tables with museums, craft shops, traditional tavernas. A castle reached by climbing 1,000 steps, or driving your car up to the gate. More ancient ruins than you can shake a stick at and overflowing with Greek visitors . 

The last weekend before Xmas is not the time to go shopping anywhere.

It started raining as we entered town so decided not to go to the big farmers market. That was probably a bad decision. We went elsewhere and spent twice as much. Not because it was so expensive but because there was too much choice on the shelves. 

The first supermarket we went to was empty. Because it was still very early in the morning. That was Lidls, the slightly cheaper German chain. They had a tempting array of chocolates and cheap alcohol. 

The second supermarket was crowded. A huge parking area that was full. Long lines for all the cashiers. 

I'm too old for this sort of shopping. Their cheese counter seemed 100 metres long and the queue even longer. 

No cheese for us. It's all so damn expensive too. 

Long aisles, endless shelves. Everything from cheese to a new jacket or a sack of wood chips. 

I'll go down to our local grocer, get a bit of Danish blue, exchange a bit of banter with the grocer's wife and go home without feeling overwhelmed. 

The traffic was tail to tail when we got out of the 2nd supermarket. Nerves were taut. Not a day for relaxing shopping therapy. 

We crawled along and stopped on the edge of town for a souvlaki and tzatziki lunch. Most enjoyable. Their meat was tender. The tzatziki made in the shop. The fried potatoes obviously not pre-fried or frozen. But even that was more expensive. From 20 euros to 30 euros for the 2 of us. 

The rain stopped and we had a dry road home. 

I really am getting old. I'll be quite happy not to do that again for a few months. 

Pohutukawa 

The NZ Christmas tree

Greek Christouyenna

  Greek Xmas then and now

Christouyenna ....

  In greek

Χριστούγεννα 

My first Christmas here, in 1976, living in Piraeus was dark and cold. There were no decorations in Piraeus, no lights, no Xmas tree, no bright shops, music or happy shoppers. The western type celebrations didn't come for almost another ten years.

K was on leave from the Greek Navy and went back to Poros for the holiday to be with his family. I was not accepted back then, a foreigner who they hoped would just go away. I had a few English friends. It wasn't bleak but Christmas was not the huge festival it is now.

 Christmas day was simply a name day for those named Christos and Christina. The greek family ate together and visited their relatives named for Christ. The men were served whisky and the women a sweet liqueur. They were accompanied by pistachio nuts or a syrupy sweet. 

If you were lucky there were plates of roast pig, potatoes and jars of retsina, the local pine infused wine. 

Once enough wine and whisky was consumed the dancing began. Still does

New Years day was a more important celebration. Godparents brought presents, of new clothes or shoes. That was the tradition. 

 Saint Nick had nothing to do with Christmas or New Year. He was the protector of sailors and was celebrated on December 6th.

Saint Basil (Vasili) brings in the New Year on January 1st. It's another big name day. Vasili or female Vasiliki, Vaso or Kiki. 

Times have changed though. Name day gatherings are smaller. K spends all morning on the phone going through his phone list, calling those celebrating and wishing them 'Chronia Polla', Many Happy Returns. 

Back then the whole neighbourhood was likely to turn up in your yard to help you celebrate. For the men in the family. Female name days were far more sedate. 

Traditional Xmas Sweets

K makes the Greek Christmas cookies nowadays

Melimakarouna, honey cakes

And

Kourabiethes, almond and butter biscuits covered in icing sugar.

There's a plate of Xmas mince pies too. I make a few every year plus a few boozy boiled fruit cakes I baptise Xmas cakes

Xmas Trees

 Xmas trees this year

My daughter's Christmas Decor

I've tried to enlarge this photo but can't

In the middle of that red circle are two green legs and red Elfin boots of an exotiko who has dived head first into her tree

A stormy Poros waterfront and its boat of lights

We need to do a tour of the Poros Christmas lights.  

Last year we had hardly any decorations.  This year the new Mayor has lit up every corner

Our own, shorter,  Christmas tree up on the bench.

I have since arranged gnomes and presents underneath it too

The coffee shop, La Frianderie, just across the strait

They have the best coffee in the county and always have wonderful decorations, inside and out.

I had coffee with my English friend Jan there last weekend.  It was warm and cosy inside and a little wet outside.

We drank our cappuccinos and caught up on the news.

They also  have an excellent selection of handmade chocolates and biscuits.  I bought a few to fill in empty corners in Christmas parcels.

It's My Life

Rain, rain's gone away

We  got the rainfall we needed.  The fields are greening, the olives are swelling.  The islands that prayed for rain got their prayers answered. Rhodes got washed out and the island shut down for 2 days while they dealt with the flood.

And here on Poros there was heavy rain which woke me suddenly at 2am as  heavy splashes of rain shattered my dreams and spattered my face.  A leak in the damn roof.  K had already moved out into the spare room as he couldn't sleep.  Rain coming in over the bed has happened once before many years ago.  This time it was heavier, more splash than spatter.  I moved all the bedding away, put a big bowl under the worst and covered the mattress with a  heavy towel.  Duvet and pillow under arm I moved out onto the couch and left the drips to drop.  The next day it rained again but there was no water leaking in.  It just depends on how heavy the rain is and which way the wind is blowing. The other leak behind the fridge appears to have been fixed. 

Giving Blood 

We had our annual bodily fluid tests. Took the results to our cardio doctor who told us we were perfectly healthy. He took our blood pressure, gave us a cardiogram and charged us 100 euros. 

One thing less to worry about. 

6 December

Saint Nik's Day. He's the patron saint of the Greek navy. K put on his Sunday best and went to the service at the church dedicated to Saint Nikolas at the Navy Base. He met up with past and present officers for a glass of wine afterwards .

He was back at the base again yesterday, invited to the changeover ceremony for the new Navy Commander.

I don't go to these occasions. There's too much old-tar talk for me 

NZ calendars for 2025

We received our annual NZ calendars from brother and sister in law. They're wall calendars with colourful NZ scenes and big spaces for noting name days, birthdays, national days, baptisms and weddings. Mine hangs above the big desk computer so I can be reminded of each days important celebrations. The girls have theirs hanging on the kitchen wall. Thanks R and J

Book sale, raffles and a white elelphant stall to provide medicine and treatment for the strays of Poros.

2 lovely days. 

Cecile offered mulled wine 

Or coffee

I made a ginger cake

Jan who runs the show

And does the hands-on work for the strays 

Raffle prizes

Bottles of alcohol with nice glasses and dishes

I won a bottle of raki. K will be pleased when he sees it. 

The best part of the day

Sitting in the sun and chatting with other local aliens. 

I found  a few bargains too. Clothes, books and little pastry presses. 

Rudi, and Sotirakis, who have special needs will be looked after for a few more months.

Happy Birthday

The 4 days of Celebrations.

Me and my grandson George share the same birthday.  Poppi had her 18th a week or so ago, son in law Kyriakos, captain of the water taxi Socrates had his 50th and next weekend it is Grandson Jamie's 18th.  There are a lot of Saggitarians in the family, more in the extended family.

First day. Family gathering on Sunday. 

                                     

A birthday cake for us all. I blew the candle out and everyone sang 'happy birthday'. The song in Greek is about getting older and wiser with white hair. That's me 😄 

Then Poppi blew her candle out via WhatsApp. 

George was asleep. In Athens. He got a photo of the cake. 

Oh look! Another birthday cake. Thanks Yianni. He calls me Nana but as he learnt the word from me with my kiwi accent the 'a' sounds like an 'e'. I'm Nena and very happy to be so. 

These two cakes were caramel, so sweet, luscious. 

Even I enjoyed a slice, and a half, of both. 

Kyriakos about to blow that candle.  Again!! 

A much smaller crowd. No grandkids  🤔

Kids in the kitchen 

Thanks, once again. 

They sliced, served, cleaned, washed dishes and filled tupperware bowls to take home 😁

No grandkids

But here's Junior

And Boem

2 days later it was my actual birthday. And George's too. He went to work and had his blow-out the next day. 

His fridge full of alcohol and mixers . Not much food in there 😅

I went down to the harbour for a cold damp coffee. 

But, on day No 4....... 

K, Jan and I went for a wonderful meal at a restaurant across on the mainland. It's a few kilometres out. Not too far for driving home afterwards

It's a restaurant, not a common taverna. 

There was a roaring fire, cheerful and tasteful Christmas decorations, good service, excellent food, a very drinkable house rosé and great prices. 

A place that was missing in this area. 

I had a most enjoyable day with the best company. 

Me and my friend Jan

Or should I say 'my friend and I'.

And to finish the day we went for a quick shop at the big-ger supermarket on the mainland. Alpha-Veta. Or alpha beta if you're not Greek.

I was hoping to find some festive chocolate and alcohol for presents.

I found a little but the native was getting restless by then.

And the rain held off till we all got home.

72 and loving it.

Till next year..