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, she decided to put me at risk by spending the night with me. That’s not fair; I still have the antibodies. She returned to Athens on Christmas morning.
I spent Christmas afternoon with my brother-in-law’s extended family. Great food and wine.
With no daughter I was alone afterwards, so on St. Stephen’s Day, December 26th, I decided to head for Toroni with the dog. If you’re going to be alone, you may as well make it total! My sleep on the night of 26th/27th was the best I’ve had in months. I played fiddle and watched episodes of Castle. The dog was great company. He loved his daily walks in the hills.
There is a lot going on here in northern Greece. A young off-duty policeman was murdered in a local bar brawl by a Norwegian. More about that in the New year.
I also want to look into events surrounding a place in Albania called Χειμάρρα. It’s a majority Greek-speaking town in southern Albania, a region right-wing Greeks call Northern Epirus. As I’ve said elsewhere, geographical epithets are guaranteed to create problems.
Anyway, Happy New Year.