Saint Basil's On the Way

January 1st is Saint Basil's Day.  He was known for caring for the poor and bringing gifts to underprivileged children. He thus became the Greek Santa Claus. 

He'll be bringing presents to Greek boys and girls tomorrow, although most have already opened their presents. They rip them open the moment their godmother, aunt or fond Mama brings them through the door.

I doubt he will come by sleigh pulled by reindeer and slip down the chimney. Somehow I think that is a Western myth.

The New Years bread is made. The loaf has a euro coin hidden in it. It will be cut up for New Years lunch. Whoever finds the coin will have a lucky year. So tradition says.

We actually watched the countdown to New Year in NZ on the 1 o'clock news. That was the days excitement.

Now we are waiting for New Year to ring in here in Greece. Will I be awake at midnight? Depends on what television has to offer.  Last year I think I went to bed at 10.

- Some 'jokes' from the Christmas crackers. Only they weren't jokes and they weren't written in Greek. On one side of the slip of paper it was English and the other side looked like Chinese. Probably was.

The crackers did contain the expected paper hat and small plastic toy both of which were discarded immediately.  It was all about the big bang when we pulled them, holding them around the table.

- How many animals have stars on Hollywood Boulevard?

2  - Lassie and RinTinTin

-  What smell is most recognized by North American adults?

Coffee

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Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2024.

Peace Over All

Chatter

 - Today was 'pay the monthly bills day'. All online nowadays. It sure is easier than standing for an hour in the bank.  Usually it's  a smooth procedure but often there are hiccups. Mostly our fault but the computer and the internet connection are also problematic.

Our phone bill has suddenly increased by 30 euros for no apparent reason. K phoned to politely demand the reason why.  Seems we have been receiving messages from 5 digit numbers which we have to pay for, all unnoticed  by us. One of those messages was from overseas and cost us almost all of that 30 euros. WT hell. 

We haven't been warned of these at all. No messages from the phone company. No reports on tv.

We have now blocked all messages from 5 digit senders.

- I'm finished with Christmas. If I could I would hide it away in boxes till next year. I have been quietly removing little extras. Remaining are our boats with lights, the Christmas tree and strings of lights along the fence. Someone else is in charge of lights.

- All my downunder family are in NZ this Christmas. Thank goodness for Whatsap, photos and instant communication .

I got a phone call from them at Christmas and met all the younger generation via the video phone, exchanged greetings with nieces and nephews, talked of this  and that with my brother . Modern communication is amazing. When I first came to Greece I had to go to the telephone company to make an overseas call. I stood in line waiting for a free booth and many was the time I woke my parents at 4am because I had no idea of the time difference .

Now I have the current time for Auckland, Perth and London just by clicking onto the google clock. And phone calls are free no matter how long I talk. Once upon a time I would watch the seconds tick by and hear the drachma mounting up. 

Photos of families, eating, drinking and playing back in the colonies are giving me much joy.

- K has a new toy. A treadmill. We had one for many years. He bought it after his heart attack and for a few months walked enthusiastically every day, noting his kilometres and his heart rate. Then the novelty wore off. As it does. I walked on it on and off over the ensuing years till it finally expired a year or so ago.  A friend of his, another heart attack survivor, was getting rid of his treadmill. Or the wife was. Treadmills take up too much space in these small Greek houses.  Now it is taking up space in our house. He has used it twice.

I continue walking outside. Hey ho.

- I got some very nice presents this Christmas. My Secret Santa gave me a bottle of 0% alcohol gin. Many would say, why drink gin, or wine, or anything alcoholic if there's no alcohol involved ? Well, since I've lost a lot of weight I've had to virtually stop drinking. One glass of wine and I'm tottering even more than normal. 

The gin tastes exactly the same to me. All the taste without the totter. 

I received a bottle of Prosecco rosé too. That is not alcohol free. I shall wait to share it with a daughter or a friend. Or better still, with both. Good wine and good company we all know makes for memorable moments.

I also received packets of seeds. One of the packets is for all year round lettuce. I see in England it is recommended to plant from March to August, their summer. I shall start them in February I think and plant before the 'big heat' here.

 Another present was a purple cauliflower which is being turned into cauliflower-cheese soup.

Elli was told, when buying the cauliflower that if you put lemon juice on it the purple would turn red.

I sacrificed a corner of my cauliflower.

She was right.

The corner turned pink. No doubt if I had squeezed more lemon it would have turned to a darker red.

Greeks love oil and lemon juice on their vegetables. I prefer plain salt and pepper. 

St Stephens Day

26th of December is a public holiday in Greece but is a day of no importance.  I see that elsewhere it is St Stephens day.  Him of 'Good King Wenceslas once came out on the feast of Stephen'.

In the Orthodox church, the western Orthodox church, however, St Stephen is celebrated on the 27th December, not the 26th.  

On the 26th we put most leftover-leftovers in tupperware bowls (as all plastic bowls here are called) and stashed them in the freezer.  

The girls had taken most of the extra  food with them on Christmas night and we sent away a couple of guests with enough rations to last them till New Year.  No-one went hungry and K kept face.

We then went down to the waterfront to find a sunny spot for coffee.  The harbour was an unusual sight.  There were few cars, fewer people, parking spaces everywhere, even in the middle of town.  It almost hurt to drive past and and not use those  empty spaces.  So much choice and no need to park. A once a year phenomenon.

We found a table in an empty but sunny square and had a glass of wine instead of coffee.   The next table filled with K's acquaintances and he had a few hours of conversation while I surfed the net and fretted because there was nothing at all interesting to take photos of.

Nothing of interest to write about.

A few more words about Christmas Day.  It was an organised chaos.  Everything got cooked.  The yorkshire puds rose and browned as they should, the brussel sprouts were not overcooked and mushy.  

We finally found fresh brussel sprouts.  Tiny wee things, cleaned one by one by Elli. Another vegetable affected by this summer and autumn's strange growing season.

The stuffing was the best I've ever made.  I'll write another post on the stuffing.  We had a deboned chicken roll ready stuffed with ham and cheese, red peppers and tomatoes.  The sage and onion stuffing was cooked separately.  

The gravy, made from scratch by Elli from a Jamie Oliver recipe and the tear'n share garlic bread also from Jamie was finger licking good.

Kumara (sweet potato) and smashed potatoes. Thanks Danae .

There were 3 dishes of pork.  Pork roast with crackling, roast pork and potatoes without fat and skin and wild pig stewed with onions.

Son in law Kyriakos expertly carved all the meat.  He's our go-to-man for meat.  At easter he debones any leftover lamb so everyone can take home ready-to-eat sliced meat.

Other son in law, Yiannis,  washes dishes and scrubs baking dishes.  

Useful sons in law! Thanks boys.

There was a coleslaw disaster.  The glass salad bowl was put on the big table and  the table was set, by Luli, with Xmas crackers on each plate. As the wine glasses were artistically arranged by Poppi one hit the salad bowl and broke, leaving glass shards on the table cloth and .... maybe in the coleslaw bowl.  So it all went in the rubbish and grand-daughter Nels made another one.  Our expert carver carved up another bowl of cabbage.  We had all the ingredients, pomegranate seeds, red apple, grated carrot and balsamic vinegar for an excellent sauce.  I think the 2nd turned out better than the first.

Pudding was a chocolate log made for me by a friend and colleague of my daughter.  Totally unexpected and so welcome and so scrumptious.  

It was all a lot of work but well worth it.

There was time to sit and chat, have a cigarette in the sun, take the dogs for a walk. Glasses were filled and emptied. Children, young adults, had Christmas stockings to rummage in, maybe for the last time. 

Today was clean up the house day.  Cleaning the floors mainly and washing tablecloths and t-towels, re-arranging chairs and setting cushions straight.

Christmas is over.  New Year will be much quieter.  

 

Christmas Day

 Happy name day anyone named Christos or Christina.

A very Merry Xmas was had by all in our house. 

We were all good little children and Santa visited with a sack full of goodies

 Secret Santas 

Screams of delight 

A table full of goodness

The Yorkshire puds, the stuffing, tear n share garlic bread, the gravy, brussel sprouts, smashed spuds, kumara and the stuffed deboned chicken, all the important stuff, were the best we had ever cooked.

Washed down with a few bottles of  NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

Down the other end of the table there was wild pig and some sort of local plonk.

And the best company ever

Me and my friend Jan

Christmas greetings to you all.

Christmas Eve

 8am

Christmas Eve preparation begins

Downtown all the kids are going from house to house banging triangles and singing the traditional Xmas Eve carol . These young singers are considered a blessing for the home and they are rewarded with a few euros.

K always hopes a child or 2 will appear at our door but we are too far away now. He has a few euro notes put aside just in case.

Down on the harbour Poppi's class did the rounds of the shops and cafeterias.

They are in their last year of high school and are raising money for their big 5 day trip at the end of the school year.

I missed all these traditional activities, as usual. It would have been nice this morning to sit in the sun, drinking cappuccino  watching the passing parade of children warbling away....instead of cleaning and cooking.

Baking the Christopsomo, Christ bread, is also one of the duties K has taken over. If he makes it himself he knows it has been made as his mother used to. No chance of any foreign ingredients tainting the loaf. 

It's your normal bread with some anise, decorated with a cross made out of dough and with walnuts and almonds arranged 'artistically'.

We were both very busy, hopefully making tomorrow an easier day.

Time for alcohol.

Sunny Day

 Not much to write about today. Last night I made 2 more fruit cakes to give away and 3 jars of onion chutney to give away. K was bored so I made him cut up the onions and leeks. The onions were strong. Both our eyes were streaming. No substitutes necessary this time for the fruit cake and I followed a recipe for the chutney. 

He wrapped the few Christmas presents we will  give this year. Then he humphed because there was nothing else to do. He doesn't read and rarely finds something he likes on TV. These long evenings can be difficult. Thank goodness he has discovered Facebook and loves social media. 

Tomorrow serious prep will begin.  Making the breadcrumbs for stuffing , slicing cabbage for festive coleslaw and all the other things on 'The List'. MY List. K will be busy prepping pork and lamb and checking the Greek food List, more than twice.  He will be plenty busy tomorrow and the next day. No time to get bored.

It was warm and sunny during the day. Good for drying washing. Every day now is a Saint's fiesta day and in olden days you wouldn't dare hang out your washing on a Saint's day. The older generation still goes by that. I'm often told by the elderly members of the extended family that they haven't done any washing, or ironing, or sewing or cleaning  because of the old tradition. They're still allowed to cook, serve and wash dishes though.

24th December is the feast day of Saints Eugenia, Protus and Hyacinth. Never heard of any of them.

Grandson and his girlfriend texted that they would be coming up to see us so that got K into action this evening. Fire was lit. Then we whizzed down to buy pork chops and the beer and wine grandson likes. 

Pork and potatoes now in the oven. They'll eat, drink and be merry. Or else.

They came and ate...... melomakarouna, fruit cake and cheese pies. 

Nice of K to cook pork chops for tomorrow's lunch for us 😂

Grandson told us stories of his days in the army, tramping up to the top of the Acropolis to lower the Greek flag at sundown.  Of standing guard in the pouring rain waiting for inspection by the President of the Republic. 

He's having a good time serving his 9 months in the army but can't wait to get out. 

K has just found a programme to watch. The history of one of the 20 Monasteries on Mount Athos. Called the Holy Mountain in Greek it is a peninsular in northern Greece, cut off from the rest of the country and no women allowed.

And so this day slowly ends. 

We need more Brussels sprouts and no-one has found any fresh ones. Someone will have to pick up another bag of frozen sprouts tomorrow. 

One daughter loves them, the other hates them, doesn't even want to smell them, let alone clean or cook them.  She posts green faced GIFs on our Viber group every time they're mentioned.

Shops will be open tomorrow here . I doubt we need anything, but sprouts. So much shopping done. So much food to be cooked. As usual.

Goodnight and goodmorning

A Pre Xmas Coffee

 Time for a pre-Christmas catch-up, a long chat in English and a steamy hot cappuccino. 

I went across on the car ferry to Galatas, the village across the straits.

The sun was supposed to shine today but it was cold and cloudy. 

This cafe is right where the car ferry pulls in. It's very popular because there's no doubt about it, they have the best coffee in the county.

At this time of the year it is beautifully decorated. It's one of the few places where we can sit in the cosy warmth  of the café and enjoy the spirit of Christmas. Perfect for a long coffee and a good gossip.

There's even a post box for letters to Santa . 

As well as coffee, cakes, muffins and hot flaky, or non-flaky cheese pies they sell freshly ground coffee, small pots of handmade chocolates and biscuits. 

It reminded me of a visit many, many years ago to a mall in Athens. It was just before Christmas and I walked in from a cold, wet city pavement to a magical, for me, warm atmosphere with Christmas carols echoing through the speakers, Xmas trees and Santas on every floor.

I suddenly thought, hey, it's Xmas, it really is.

The only other time I got close to that, also many years ago, was the Anglican Christmas bazaar in Athens. English voices, a roving band of carol singers, hot Irish coffee, mince pies, Xmas cards and Xmas crackers on sale and piles of lovely second hand books and clothes to rummage through. 

In days of yore.....