We ended April with a gig in the Dubliner. Not our best. We started and finished strongly, but we were patchy in the middle. The pace of life, distances, crap public transport, the impossibility of parking in the city, and family commitments can all get in the way of practice. Our lack of practice –... Continue Reading →
24/003 Irish Music in Northern Greece
17th April 2024: We had our April session on Sunday 14th. The music selected was virtually the same as the March session. I think the players felt more comfortable, so I will leave the selection untouched until the autumn. The combination of Dubliner and session/gig seems to have put a jinx on Liverpool, who have... Continue Reading →
24/004 Life in Northern Greece: Bedrooms and Bathrooms
April 17th, 2024: In this update I will talk rubbish. In a previous post I spoke of Greeks’ penchant for dumping crap on the pavement. I attached a news report with household effects dumped on what Greeks call the pavement or sidewalk, το πεζοδρόμιο. Within 50 metres of my home in one in one direction... Continue Reading →
24/006 Greek Word – σκρολάρω to scroll (on a computer)
Another borrowing from English that is being used instead of κυλάω. Κύλιση (scrolling) is also losing out to σκρολάρισμα.
24/005 Greek Word – μπουρδουκλώνω = confuse, make a mess of, trip
In the passive (μπουρδουκλώνομαι) it means ‘trip’, often as a result of having one’s feet among cables and wiring. It’s a word that would have come handy in our last gig when six of us were occupying a small stage with instrument, mic and electric cables posing a real trip hazard.
24/003 Life in Northern Greece
I took this photo of a tree in our communal garden. This was at the end of February. Apparently, it is a Japanese acacia. I’ll take another pic when it flowers. It’s a lovely tree whose branches are very long-reaching, the length far exceeding the height of the tree. Winter is now well and truly... Continue Reading →
24/002 Irish Music in Northern Greece
March is always a good month. Plenty of practice and a couple of gigs, Sadly, our little adventure in Grevena didn’t happen. I don’t know if we asked for too much money or if the festival suffered from a lack of sponsorship. Or maybe accommodation was an issue. A brief look at www.booking.com suggests there... Continue Reading →
24/004 Greek Word – κουνουπίδι = cauliflower…
24/004 Greek Word – κουνουπίδι = cauliflower… … but on overhearing two young gentlemen in conversation, I learnt that κουνουπίδι as in έγινα κουνουπίδι means “I got hammered” ie very drunk. The discussion became livelier when one of them described his inebriation as έγινα κωλοτρυπίδι, an unlisted variant of κωλοτρυπίδα (literally arsehole). The best English... Continue Reading →
24/003 Greek Word – λαγκάρω = to lag
Our first example of “Greeklish” of 2024. I was discussing some of the latency problems we experience when having a Zoom music session with friends in Malta. The normal Greek for ‘latency’ is καθυστέρηση, but Greeks prefer to us the noun λαγκ (τρώω λαγκ) and the verb (λαγκάρω)
24/002 Greek Word – σταρχιδισμός
In LinNG 24/002 I talk about how an “I-don’t-give-a-fuck” attitude still prevails in Greek public life. As long as my house and immediate environment are OK, fuck everything else. The Greeks have borrowed the term ζεμανφουτισμός from the French je-m’en-foutisme, but they have a much better one of their own: σταρχιδισμός, a noun derived from... Continue Reading →
24/002 Life in Northern Greece
In the UK the illegal dumping of rubbish is called ‘fly-tipping”. You take the unwanted items to a remote area and dump them. The ‘fly’ refers to the sly illegality of the practice. No such problem here in Greece where we have blatant tipping. Just throw everything in the street. https://seleo.gr/seleo-thema/%CE%B8%CE%B5%CF%83%CF%83%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%BA%CE%B7-%CF%80%CE%AD%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BE%CE%B1%CE%BD-%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8C%CE%BA%CE%BB%CE%B7%CF%81%CE%BF-%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%BF%CE%BA/ There are some great... Continue Reading →
24/001 Life in Northern Greece
18th February. I am in Toroni with the dog. I came here just after Christmas to make sure the house was OK, and this weekend is my first outing of 2024. The winter months can cause a lot of damage to vacant properties. We’ve been lucky this year as, to date, winter has been quite... Continue Reading →
24/001 Irish Music in Northern Greece
15th February 2024: I have had problems with WordPress’s labyrinthine renewal processes and their access-unfriendly procedures. 6th of January. The Christmas Season has concluded. We rounded off the season with a Twelfth Night gig in the Dubliner yesterday evening. It was a good performance. We are also saying goodbye to the current set and introducing... Continue Reading →
24/001 Greek Word μπάκα
A nice bowl of tripe μπάκα – a pot belly A late start to the year. My apologies. However, μπάκα is an appropriate start as many of us will have put on a little weight due to Christmas and New Year excesses. Bruce Willis’s annoying girlfriend in Pulp Fiction says at one point that she... Continue Reading →
23/014 Irish Music in Northern Greece
31st December 2023. A mild winter so far. It would be perfect if Covid was not making a comeback. My daughter, who loves her granny and who prefers to stay with her rather than with her beloved parents, discovered late on Christmas Eve that she was positive. Not willing to put her grandmother at risk,... Continue Reading →
23/014 Irish Music in Northern Greece
On Saturday 9th December, exactly one calendar month after my surgery, I went to bed at 8pm. Headache, dizziness, tearing eyes, a sore throat. I wasn’t feeling any better the next morning so I sent a message on Viber to say I would be unable to play at our session. I also suggested Giannis, our... Continue Reading →
23/019 Greek Word
τεμπελόπιτα = lazy pie. A combination of τεμπέλης (indolent) + πίτα (pie or pita bread). What it means is any pie that avoids the hassle of making a pastry. And here is a recipe with the added attraction of tsipouro (τσίπουρο) among the ingredients: https://www.bovary.gr/living/taste/tempelopita-i-paneykoli-pita-me-feta-kai-tsipoyro
23/018 Greek Word
κατσιβέλα – a gypsy woman. Not a compliment. The masculine equivalent is κατσίβελος. My interlocutor said the word is used in Xanthi, and www.slang.gr supports this: Συνώνυμο του γύφτος, ευρέως γνωστό στην Θράκη. - Δες τον κατσίβελο τι φοράει!- Κατσιβέλια ρε, τι περίμενες;... As you can see from the above example, being a bad dresser is... Continue Reading →
23/013 Irish Music in Northern Greece
I find the unpredictability of our sessions a little stressful, but our November session turned out to be great fun. For me personally, the presence of another two fiddlers made my day. The pub was really busy too. Our band, ThessHooley, made its debut on 26th November. Of course, we had our entourage and camp... Continue Reading →
23/013 Life in Northern Greece
The excrement was everywhere. On the floor. On the door. On the walls. On the toilet seat. In and around the lavatory bowl. Add a little blood to the recipe to complete the scene. The Charge of the Shite Brigade. A fellow patient had fallen in the toilet. Following surgery to remove my gall bladder,... Continue Reading →