Sunday Breakfast

I am the kind of person who can't start the day or..... function without a hearty breakfast. On weekdays, I always have 2 cups of green tea (I love it!!) and toast with butter and jam, a small piece of cheese and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Twice a week, I may also have for a change a bowl of wholemeal cereals with fruit and nuts and a fruit yoghurt. Only then can I start my day. My only snack in-between meals is a carrot and lots of water.

But, on Sundays breakfast is a special treat!It's eggs and crispy bacon or sausages, often with baked beans, tea or coffee, orange juice or a cocktail juice (orange, pink grapefruit and tangerine), hot croissants, butter and jam and, occasionally, pancakes or waffles. According to Kathleen M. Zelman MPH, RD, LD, the right breakfast foods can help us concentrate, give us strength and even maintain  a healthy weight. To be honest, I don't always have a healthy breakfast, but I never skip it! As a result, I am not hungry in-between meals and don't feel like bingeing on fatty snacks.

How about you? What's for breakfast?

How about you? What's for breakfast?

The Great and the Beautiful

We live in a world that seems to worship its own kind of greatness and produce its own kind of heroes. Popular tv shows  like Greek or American Idol X-Factor or Master Chef and reality television shows that are anything but reality, capitalize on this exact thing. Oprah Winfrey needs only mention a product on her "Favourite Things" list and the sales skyrocket. Athletes' are paid exorbitant amounts of money while teachers struggle on fixed income schedules. We have video games like Guitar Hero and Worlds of War Craft, where one becomes a "hero" by beating the game. It makes one wonder at our standard of measuremen when it comes to greatness.

Howard W. Hunter writes:

It's true that most of the world's heroes don't last very long in the public mind; but, nevertheless, there is never a lack of champions and great achievers. We hear almost daily of athletes breaking records; scientists inventing marvelous new devices, machines, and processes; and doctors saving lives in new ways. We are constantly being exposed to exceptionally gifted musicians and entertainers and to unusually talented artists, architects, and builders. Magazines, billboards, and television commercials bombard us with pictures of individuals with perfect teeth and flawless features, wearing stylish clothes, and doing whatever it is that "successful" people do.
Because we are being constantly exposed to the world's definition of greatness, it is understandable that we might make comparisons between what we are and what others are-or seem to be-and also between what we have and what others have. Although it is true that making comparisons can be beneficial and may motivate us to accomplish much good and to improve our lives, yet we often allow unfair and improper comparisons to destroy our happiness when they cause us to feel unfulfilled or inadequate or unsuccessful. Sometimes, because of these feelings, we are led into error and dwell on our failures while ignoring aspects of our lives that may contain elements of true greatness.

To me the elements of true greatness lie in little deeds of kindness in our daily lives like a loving parent, a true friend, a faithful companion, sharing your sandwich with a homeless person, loving yourself as you really are so that you can love others. This is the essence of the great and the beautiful.

Back from Sifnos

When you are on holiday, time flies. Ten days flew by in Sifnos without realising it. I went there alone but this did not prevent me from having a great time. I enjoy being my own company in the first place, doing whatever I want like swimming, fishing, sailing or  basking in the sun reading my favourite books. Secondly, I've made a few good friends there - all islanders - who won my heart from the very first day I set foot on Sifnos, 5 summers ago. Sifnos then was a very quiet island unlike most of the Cyclades. Only a few Athenians visited the island due to its proximity to Athens. Nowadays, Sifnos has become a very touristy island. Of course this is good for the islanders whose livelihood only depends on fishing and on tourism.
 



I spent most of the days fishing - I had a good catch! - then sailing to Sifnos' unspoilt beaches, meeting friends and, naturally, tasting for yet another summer the unique Sifnos traditional cooking.It is not accidental that Sifnos is the homeland of many great Greek chefs as for instance Nikos Tselemendes and Marcos. The traditional Sifnos cuisine cuisine is delicious and it includes dishes such as: chickpea croquettes, string beans with garlic paste, Sunday traditional chickpea soup, which is put in the oven on Saturday night and is cooked during the whole night with wood, caper-salad, meat cooked in the mastelo (traditional utensil made of potter’s clay). And fish, of course! Likecalamari, for instance.

Apart from giving birth to Dionysus, patron god of wine, Greece is the birthplace of the first VSOP wines in history. They were the wines of the islands of Chios and Thassos, renowned in the entire ancient world. Due to various historic and social reasons, as well as natural disasters, the art of wine-making was neglected from the middle of the nineteenth century until the early sixties. It was then that the ancient traditions of wine-making started being rediscovered and today, one can find many excellent Greek wines produced all over the country. When tasting Greek wine, bear in mind that it is a product of a distinctive environment and of grape varieties unknown to western wine lovers. Sifnos is no exception and produces some great wines,


My friend Manolis' reastaurant in Vathi is my favourite. The best clay oven food on the island. If you are lucky he may be roasting a lamb. Manolis has been the heart and soul of Vathi for decades. Though his son Stelios has taken over the runing of the restaurant, Manolis is always there acting as host and ambassador of kefi. A truly wonderful restaurant that should not be missed, particularly for a late and lingering lunch. Excellent wine from the barrel, baked foods from the oven, fried kalamari, whatever fish has been brought in, and the best Greek salads in all the Cyclades topped with arugula and mizithra, a Sifniot cheese less sharp then feta and the consistency of cottage cheese. When you are finished just jump right in the clean water of Vathi bay and then come back for a Greek coffee and baklava. If you decide that this is the life for you, then you can rent rooms right behind the restaurant, just like I did. (Manolis passed away in 2009 but his spirit lives on.)

So, how about you? Did you have a nice summer holiday? Where did you go? 

Summer Holidays

With the new recession in Greece  and a depression in Asian and European  markets yesterday (almost a black Tuesday), I shouldn't be taking a holiday at all! June and July were busier than ever before - hence all work and no play. It's not easy these days to be an economist and run your own business. Since June, people have been protesting all over Greece against the government's new austerity measures which are to me not only unreasonable but completely insane. The bottom line is that the average citizen will pay off our debt to Europe. No, this is not a joke!

Well, I was so tired and so exhausted that I promised myself to take a break. August 15, called Dekapentavgoustos in Greece, is like a second Easter to us. I can't imagine spending this important Greek holiday in any other place than Sifnos. This is an island I fell in love with many years ago, long before it started developping tourism.

Sifnos, lies in the middle of the Cyclades islands between Serifos, Kimolos and Antiparos and is about 80 nautical miles from Piraeus. It has an area of 74 sq. km. and a shoreline of 70 km, with a population of 2000. The island is reached on the ferries which run on the Piraeus- Kythnos- Serifos- Sifnos- Sifnos- Kimolos line, and there are also sailings to other islands in the Cyclades.

Sifnos was very wealthy in ancient times, thanks to its gold and silver mines. Proof of this, is the treasury which the Siphnians built at Delphi in the 6th century BC to house their offerings. However, it appears that something went wrong with the mines; either they were worked out or flooded by the sea -we do not know which- and their production ceased. In ancient times, Siphnos's wealth was measured by the gold and silver it produced, in the last two centuries it can be measured by its cultural output.

The Good of God

 Throughout your lifetime, you are going to be faced with many different kinds of decisions and temptations. Most of these will be small and hard to see coming towards us. Allow me to elaborate on what I mean by that. For example, it’s a Sunday night, and I know I have an important meeting at work early on Monday morning.. I need to spend time preparing that meeting.. My friends call me to go to the movies with them. I choose to go to the movies, instead of preparing the meeting.. Therefore, I am faced with a small everyday temptation. Instances similar to this approach us every day. These types of temptations are extremely hard to see coming, and occur many times in a single day. Some of them can affect you for the rest of your life.

It seems to me that life is a series of decisions we make and temptations we are faced with. We are put in a position to deny something we believe in. For example, take that prepare-the-meeting -or-go-tothe- movies situation. Depending on what you decide, you might find yourself opposing your own work ethic beliefs. The decision was all yours, and yours alone.


However, there is another type of situation. There are, unfortunately, times when people are forced into a situation that they cannot foresee in any way. This has nothing to do with a decision we make for ourselves, but a decision that was made by someone else.For example, if for no reason at all, out of the blue, someone walked up to you, put a gun to your head and asked if you believed in God, what would your reaction be? This situation is different and could lead to what I call the “Ultimate Temptation.” It is the denial of God. And just like in the past, it is very real today.

A lot of people in the past have been faced with situations similar to this. A lot of them were beaten, tortured, and even killed because of their faith. This kind of thing still goes on every day in different parts of the world. For example, in 1960, a monkpriest named Nestor was born in the province of Crimea in southern Russia. All the monks in Russia were required to be registered with the state which was atheist. Nestor did not register, so if he was caught he would be put in jail or killed. He was eventually ordained as a monk-priest. He found a church in Zharky and decided to stay there and serve God.

There were many times that Nestor’s faith was tested. His church was robbed several times. Eventually the people stopped caring about robbing the church; they wanted Nestor’s life. He was held at gunpoint in front of his own house. He ran inside and locked the door. They shot at him, but all he could do was shoot towards them to try and scare them away. He would never shoot at them. This scenario went on for quite a while in his life. Monk-Priest Nestor was eventually found dead outside the window of his house on December 31, 1993. His throat was slit and he had multiple stab wounds. This all occurred only 18 years ago.

I’m sure we have all heard about what happened on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado. There was a school shooting by two boys who went to that school. It was a very tragic situation. But there is much more to it than that. Cassie Bernall was a student at Columbine and was in the library at the time of the shooting. One of the boys walked up to her at gunpoint and asked if she believed in God. Her response after a short pause was yes. Apparently they did ask her why, but didn’t give her a chance to answer. She was killed instantly.

The only way for me to answer that question is to actually be faced with the situation. I am a strong believer in God, and I would love to say that if someone held me up and asked that question, I would without a doubt say YES! But until I am faced with this (and hopefully I never am) I cannot give you an answer.
If someone just walked up to me and asked me if I believed in God, I would say yes. Of course I believe in God. But would the circumstances change if that person was a complete stranger and had a gun to my head? Of course it would. I don’t think that I would be so quick to answer. I personally have thought a lot about this for the last couple of months. In the end, my answer would still be “yes.” Christ offered us the promise of eternal life, which means life forever after death. I could either die for Christ and live forever, or live and really die.

What would your answer be in this situation?

Flood Festival - Kataklysmos

A Greek Orthodox festival with strong pagan roots focusing primarily on water, Kataklysmos or Festival of the Flood marks the day of the Holy Spirit. Coastal cities make the most of the opportunity, staging concerts and games near the waterfront, but even inhabitants of inland towns and particularly children – their water guns a necessary accessory, enjoy a good ‘splash’. The feast of the Pentecost or Whitsun is marked 50 days after Greek Orthodox Easter. It is known also as the day of the Holy Spirit as it celebrates the descent of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles. In Cyprus, the celebrations also hark back to the Old Testament tale of Noah’s Ark, the Greek myth of Deukalion and ancient ceremonies in honour of Aphrodite and Adonis. Larnaka is particularly proud of the festivities it puts on for several days to celebrate Kataklysmos. The sea front promenade takes on the appearance of an open-air fair with scores of stalls selling toys and traditional food. Traditional culture takes pride of place with a competition for chatista or rhyming songs in the Cypriot dialect. Other performers include popular Greek and Cypriot singers and dance troupes. In line with the spirit of the celebrations, events include competitions in the water.

Adoption

It's natural for people who are adopted to wonder about their birth families (also called biological families) and where they came from. This curiosity often becomes more intense as part of the process of self-discovery that happens during the teenage years. Sometimes there are health reasons, or other important reasons, for searching for one's birth family. Adoption is the creation of a new, permanent relationship between an adoptive parent and child. Once this happens, there is no legal difference between a child who is adopted and a child who is born into a family.

Birth parents have many different reasons for putting children up for adoption. Some decide that they want better lives for their kids than they feel they can provide. Some feel their child would do better living in another country. Sometimes parents just can't take good care of a child because of illness or other difficulties. Many birth parents say that having their child placed for adoption with another family is the most difficult thing in the world, but that sometimes it is truly in the child's best interests.To my mind, adoption of any available children should be open to all couples with no restrictions imposed by age, ethnic background, wealth or personality factors.

If you could not have children of your own, would you adopt one? And if you could not bring up your own child, would you give him / her for adoption?

Green Houses

As the effects of climate change are felt across the world, both governments and individuals are beginning to take the task of building eco friendly houses much more seriously.  Fuelled by increased demand a new industry of eco friendly home building has grown up and a whole host of technological innovations have created an arsenal of eco friendly building materials and techniques. From wind turbines, to solar panels, to high efficiency lighting, ultra efficient insulation, glazing, water conservation, plumbing, recycling and much more.

The Good Old Days

When I was a kid, I used to play in the streets of the small neighbourhood in Athens where I grew up. We played lots of games like hide-and-seek or thieves and policemen. These games proved to be most beneficial for us kids as they involved a lot of physical exercise. Sometimes. they turned out to be quite addictive to such a degree that our mothers would start calling us to go back home because it was getting dark.

I always obeyed mum and as soon as she called, I'd go back home. All the family gathered around the dinner table. It was a sacred time for the family. During dinner time, we were not allowed to watch TV or play. We'd exchange our news of the day, and, as a family we talked a lot over dinner. After dinner, we were allowed to watch TV for about half hour but, unlike my siblings, I preferred listening to the radio. Then by 9:30 pm we had to go to bed and mum would turn off the light and kiss us goodnight.

Those were the good old days. Nowadays, kids are on Facebook, they gulp down dinner in front of the TV or while chatting to their online friends. Families rarely spend time around the dinner table exchanging their news of the day. And many kids at the age of 9-10 have already a mobile phone or an iphone - not to mention a laptop.  Most of them would rather have fast food delivered for dinner rather than eat their mother's home cooking.

Although I believe in modern technologies such as the Internet and social media, I still miss the good old days and believe that most kids nowadays are mere victims of the Playstation or Facebook.

Choices

I know I have been away from blogging for a long time and some of you rightly thought I had probably given up My Blog. But for the encouragement of a few good friends, I would have abandoned it - not because I had nothing to say, but because I had practically no time to spend on blogging. Anastasia, who is not only a  great contributor  but also a wonderful friend,  sent me an email the other day and said this: " If you ask me, I'd be very sad and disappointed if you gave up on your blog, But you are the owner of this blog, and the choice is yours." .Finally,  I made my choice and decided to come back.Eevery time we are challenged by opportunity, we have a choice. There is never an experience without a choice..

Along with this consistent gift of choice that we have, we also have the liberty to weigh things in special light. You could either choose the vibrant splashes of red, yellow, orange and green or the darker hues of grey or brown. The choice is amply reflected in the outcome of your actions and your persona. It is not always easy to be optimistic and see the proverbial glass "half full". However, it is also not very difficult to shed the typical mindset of observing the "half empty". The magic lies in the way you weigh the pros and cons. And these babies come along with every choice.

If you are trained to be a teacher and have to make a choice between a 2000 euros per month job in a globally acclaimed educational institution and a 700 euros per month job as a volunteer, it is easy to sit on a non-committal rostrum and choose the former. However, depending on the passion for the vocation and what you envision as "fulfilling", there will be scope to choose the latter offer too. If you do consider the first offer of 2000 euros per month, it may involve moving away from home and family or extensive working hours, while offering you a chance to connect globally and learn more. Likewise, in the 700 euros per month offer, you may have to take up additional tuitions to make the effort worth your while, while getting an opportunity to serve selflessly.

In this way, every other experience in life comes with the ability to choose and every choice is balanced with a flip side. There is never a choice without the pros and cons. But there is a mind set that can be developed to make the most of every opportunity. You could either choose to be an optimist or a pessimist. Your choice of the hues is personal and part of the fabric you are made of. You could either grouse through the experiences or smile your way through. You decide. One thing is for sure, grousing won't help. It never has and never will. Moreover, a smile always lightens your own burden and that of others.