NZ Day

T-shirts galore.  And more

Half the family turned up for coffee in their New Zealand t-shirts today.  They are always a popular choice.

Elli's has a Silver Fern down one side, a well known (in NZ) symbol of the country

K was wearing his old and beloved rugby style T-shirt

That's the silver fern again with New Zealand written underneath

Poppi has three mosaic kiwis

The kiwi is our national symbol, a flightless bird with a long beak who lays a gigantic egg, and only comes out at night

Luli has the ever popular I 'heart' NZ

Son-in-law is wearing a t-shirt with the map of NZs 2 islands, North and South

Cool kiwis crossing Abbey Road

There we were with our NZ t-shirts and in came a 

catamaran flying a faded NZ flag

I went over to talk to them as they were tying up and asked them if they had sailed all the way from New Zealand.  One of them had, starting out 5 months ago.  They were obviously busy so I didn't hold them too long, especially after one of them asked if I was an Australian.

NZ Lolly Cake

This refrigerator cake  is popular in New Zealand and made with ingredients I recognise by sight and taste.  The cake itself is not one I remember my mother making but it is very similar to one I make with my grandchildren.  We call it 'mosaic' here.

I made a greek/NZ version for grandson Dimitris, commonly known as Jamie (amongst other names!)





The original NZ version is made with eskimo lollies (sweets), a NZ classic.  I ate eskimo lollies when I was a child and I always chew my way through a packet ( biting the head off first) when I'm visiting.  They are like a chewy marshmallow in the shape of a little eskimo (probably not racially-correct sweets today but they are eons old, way before 'correctness' came into fashion).

I used chopped up marshmallow smurfs, or stroumfakia, as they are known here.  

My foolproof mix is -

Melt 120 grams of margarine (or butter)

with a tin of condensed milk

Melt the margarine slowly and stir till the condensed milk is well combined to make a thick sweet gooey mixture

Break up a packet and a half of biscuits.  NZers use malt biscuits.  We normally make it with 'Petite Beurre', a greek classic, but this time I used chocolate biscuits.  Some of them I just break up, some I whizz into crumbs.

Combine the two mixes and add a packet of your children's favourite chopped up lollies.  Maltesers would be good 

Some add walnuts or raisins.  Not popular in this family.

To be NZ-ly correct you should shape this into a log and roll it in coconut.  I just put it into a loaf tin and stuck it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

In a more adult version you would add a good slurp of liqueur or brandy.  Once I made brownies with chopped up mars bars.  You can imagine how sweet and sickly that was.  I didn't actually eat any and I'm not sure my daughter let her kids eat much either.

Although I have been reading recently the theory that sugar makes kids suddenly become hyperactive kangaroos is an urban myth.

Row Row Row Your Boat

You've heard of the Henley Rowing Regatta?  That's taking place next weekend on the river Thames near London.

This weekend  our local rowers, two grandchildren included are on their way to the Mytilene 'Regatta', row, row, rowing their boats to victory 

                                                        Team Poros

Our Poros rowers, ages  11-15, and coaches, on their way to Mytilene on the island of Lesvos for the Greek National Champs. 




  Ferry  boat from Poros to Piraeus, 2 1/2 hours.  A few hours wait in Piraeus (port of Athens) and...




..... on to the next boat.  Overnight to Lesvos

After a day of trials and course orientation, there's time for a visit to Ricky Raccoon and friends.  Their hotel has a small collection of animals, including the raccoon, emus, deer, a llama, pigs, goats and ducks.

They've now rowed their first races and are on to the quarter finals.

Go Poros Go

Poros Island

Poros got a plug on the news the other day

An island fisherman now takes tourists on his fishing boat.  They anchor off shore at one of the little bays, swim, fish and eat  seafood

The words under the photos say, loosely translated,

'The Captain who teaches tourists to enjoy the sea, fishing and greek hospitality'

Beans Piaz

Black eyed peas

Fassolia piaz

Any sort of dried peas, soaked overnight and boiled till soft or use a tin of beans

Mix well with a lot of olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar, finely chopped parsley, chopped onion, salt and pepper.  

I add vinegar and parsley, tasting till it has the right tang even mixing in a little hot mustard.  

This is one of my favourite summer salads.  

I think these beans needed a bit more boiling, their effects on the body were dramatic!

If you're looking for something more substantial you could add chopped tomato, olives, avocado, tuna, sliced green pepper, chopped celery, or  a handful of red kidney beans. You could even used lentils instead of beans.  Beware. Traditional greek people do not  like it this way!

Thanking the Saints

We had a near miss the other day.  K's eye was saved by a miracle.

He was putting up the shade-netting on the front of the house, helped by a friend and neighbour.  This year he had a new improved method.  The netting was supported by a tight wire across the middle to keep it from sagging.

And the wire snapped.  One of those horror stories you only see on TV.  The wire whipped back, went under his glasses, hit him in the corner of his eye and slammed into his nose.

Shock, horror.  Blood poured out of his nose and no one was sure whether the wire had actually gone into his eye.

Enough.  Thank those powers on high, besides a nose bleed and a blackened eye he was ok, just shaken.

Our nearest little church is dedicated to Agia (Saint) Paraskevi who is the protector of the eyes.  So, the next day we took a litre of olive oil to leave for the lighting of the oil lamps and went down to the church

The chairs are all stacked up to one side.  It probably won't be used till 25 July, the eve of the day dedicated to Saint Paraskevi.  There are candles and an honesty box to leave a few coins, the oil lamp and a cigarette lighter to light the lamp and candles.

K lights the lamp which will shine till the wick burns out

We each lit a candle thanking Saint Paraskevi for her intervention.

You never know

Elderly Vaso, our neighbour was down there a few days ago too lighting a candle.  She got sun stroke and just as she thought she was gasping her last breath she had a vision of the Saint and started to recover, so she says.

Quite a few people pop into this little church to light a candle and kiss her icon.  The church is always open.  You take one of the small brown beeswax candles and leave a few cents or a few euros in the box.  The candles are lit and placed in the tray of sand.  We snuffed ours out before we left.  Lit candles are dangerous at this time of the year.

23rd June

22nd June

All Saints
This used to be my name day.  Anyone not named after a Saint can celebrate their name day today.  However, I have a grandaughter named Lydia, the closest greek name to Linda, and just to make life easier for all of us I decided to have my name day on May 21st along with her.

23rd June

The observance of the birth day of St John the Baptist.  As you can see this has been lined up with midsummer and the summer solstice.  Very clever of the Orthodox church.
Besides the ringing of the bells and the church service it is also the day, or night

- We burn the May Day wreaths and
-  Leap over the flames of the bonfire


Time to burn the May Day wreaths on a big bonfire.  Time for the children and oldies who dare to leap over the flames.  Those who do will be free from fleas for the rest of the summer, so I was told 30 years ago when I first saw these traditions being carried out on a beach in Crete.

We used to build a bonfire in our neighbourhood, burn the wreaths and whatever big lumps of timber we could find and while the kids were leaping through the fire the adults were grilling souvlaki and drinking beers.  Now with the fire hazard we would need a permit and a fire engine at the ready, so the celebration for the whole island takes place down in one of the squares on the waterfront.

The grandaughters do a few traditonal dances

A fire is lit and the kids do still jump the flames much to their great delight