News

Angela, the rains are a coming!  The ants are out in force.  They are scooping up any crumb they can find and the tiny little red ones are getting very aggressive.  Their bite stings and there's a fierce slapping of arm or leg.  Rain has been forecast for northern Greece from tomorrow and it may rain here on Sunday.  The ants say there will definitely be rain.

Up further North in the city of Katerini a warehouse of oregano was destroyed by fire.  40 tons of oregano.  I wonder if you can get high on oregano fumes.  I find it difficult to get my mind around 40 tons of the stuff.  Oregano is light weight.  How big was the warehouse.

Our national tennis hero Stephanos Tsitsipas has blackened his reputation lately.  In the early stages of the Covid crisis he was the leading man in the ad campaign,  wear your mask , keep your distance and stay home.  Now he has publicly said that he hasn't been vaccinated and won't unless he's forced to.  He says he's young and fit and eats healthily and won't catch it.  You'd think he would just keep his mouth shut but he and his father kept the story going for days .  Being young and healthy isn't going to keep him safe if someone with the virus coughs in his face.  It didn't help at all when Greece is trying its best to get everyone vaccinated.

Now he's in the news again for taking long toilet breaks during international tennis matches.  One opponent, on camera accused him of taking his phone with him and consulting his Papa who is his coach.  The camera swung around to where his Papa was sitting and there he was texting on his phone.  He lost the match by the way.

Playing against Andy Murray in New York he took a 9 minute break.  He later took another long loo break, halted the game to change rackets and then had a medical time-out.  These major players are not amused.  It breaks their rythym, which is probably what he wants.  He was booed at the US Open after another break playing Adrian Mannarino.

Foreign firefighters who helped put out Greece's wild fires this summer have been given vouchers to return and enjoy a holiday in Greece.  There were hundreds of firemen fighting the fires , from 11 EU countries and 12 non -EU.   Last week we watched on the news as a convoy of Romanian firetrucks left for home.  They got cheered all along the way.

And last but never least there have been 6 cases of the new variant of Covid 19 reported in Greece.  MU, first appeared in Colombia back in January and has now been found in 39 countries.