Irish music and life in northern Greece
4th March 2022. Salonika slopes downwards from the Seikh Sou Forest to the sea. About 40 years ago the “peripheric” ring road was built cutting through the forest. The areas that were city-side have since been built up. My mother-in-law’s home is near the forest, and I used to walk to the highest point, from... Continue Reading →
In GW 05/2022 and LinNG 05/2022 I referred to the murder of Alkis Kambanos, an Aris supporter who was killed, it seems, by rival PAOK fans. Alkis was stabbed in the buttocks. At the time I wondered if there was a ritualistic element to this. The answer is yes and no. The ‘no’ is the... Continue Reading →
One of the infuriating things about the UK media is their foot-dragging when it comes to identifying Muslim terrorists. When Sir David Amess was murdered, it was not until the next day that the fucker was named, whereas when the MP, Jo Cox, was murdered, we knew within minutes that the perpetrator was a white... Continue Reading →
In the space of two months, two former presidents have died. Karolos Papoulias in December and Christos Sartzetakis yesterday, 3rd February. Both men were 93. Both men were northerners, Papoulias from Epirus and Sartzetakis from our own Thessaloniki. Both men were equally well-known in Greece though Sartzetakis was better-known internationally. This was because he prosecuted... Continue Reading →
In 1986-87 Greece was covered in a blanket of snow. At the beginning of 2019, snow covered the north of the country. This month, very unusually as it turns out, Thessaloniki has escaped the worst (sunny but very cold) while Athens is in chaos and some of the islands are snow-covered for the first time... Continue Reading →
The reason why I didn’t go to Evosmos is because I looked at the map and saw that it was very built-up. I thought parking would be difficult and queuing long. Moreover, I couldn’t find information on which vaccine they were doling out. I decided to stick with my local health centre and finally managed... Continue Reading →
A very happy new year to everyone. Today, 3rd January 2022, we went to a fish restaurant where I learnt that my vaccination certificate/Covid pass had expired. I have already booked my booster, but it looks as if I am going to have to bring it forward if I can. Digital or e-government has really... Continue Reading →
I have briefly referred to the problems with Radio Arvila in GW 26/2021. Greek Reporter has covered the story in depth and goes out of its way to show how people have been driven to suicide on discovering intimate images and video clips of themselves have been uploaded. https://greekreporter.com/2021/12/15/revenge-porn-greece/ The other three presenters of Radio... Continue Reading →
2nd December 21. Sadly, the 38-year-old that I referred to in IMLiNG #25 has died. Her name was Parthena “Patty” Koutmeridou. Even while the poor woman’s corpse is still warm, a huge row has broken out. And in these circumstances the favourite weapon of choice is the blame-thrower. Some say it was her gynaecologist who... Continue Reading →
Thessaloniki 26th November 2021 A headline in a newspaper the other day claimed: “Matters are getting out of hand”. A customer, denied access to a café because he did not have a Covid certificate, bit the proprietor on the cheek. The full story is here: https://www.iefimerida.gr/ellada/andras-naoysa-dagkose-idioktiti-kafe-magoylo Even more surreally (the apt word), a young actor... Continue Reading →
Monday 22 November 2021. A bad day for Covid. Nearly 7,300 cases, 608 intubated and 105 dead – the highest daily death toll since 3rd May when 135 died. In spite of these numbers, there are some facts which seem to be immutable. These include: slightly more men than women are infected, intubated or dead... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 23/2021 Sunday 14th November. Our second session went very well. Encouragingly, at least four of the ten players were Greeks under 30 years old. I say that because it is pleasing to witness people with no connections to Ireland getting into the music. The second reason is... Continue Reading →
1st November 21: I feel as if I’m between a rock and a hard place or – to show off a little classical education – between Scylla and Charybdis, the Scylla of British infection insouciance and Charybdis of the looming Corona crisis in Greece. Yesterday witnessed the highest infection figures since the start of the... Continue Reading →
Monday, 25th October 21: This afternoon Fofi Gennimata, the leader of KINAL (formerly PASOK), died. She was relatively young, a month shy of her 57th birthday. Her father, Georgios Gennimatas, also died young, being only 54 when cancer took him back in 1994. Georgios Gennimatas’s main achievement lay in setting up the National Health System... Continue Reading →
What a joy it was to write in my last post about something other than Covid but, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Vaccination uptake is well below the hopes of the authorities, particularly in Northern Greece. In a small town called Drama, only about 40% of the adult... Continue Reading →
Success and lift-off. The inaugural Dubliner Session kicked off around 5pm on Sunday, 17th October. It was great to see a full pub. We were seated in a corner and, true to session “format”, we were facing in all directions. I think I was right to make sheet music available as several of the participants... Continue Reading →
21st September 21. Two bits of bad news today. The local paper Makedonia says the Health Secretary and his deputy are on their way to Thessaloniki to discuss possible local lockdowns. Now iefimerida – my go-to online newspaper has the panicky headline “The nightmare awakens in Thessaloniki – Red with 449 cases, 544 in Attica.”... Continue Reading →
2nd September: It has just been announced that the composer, Mikis Theodorakis, has died at the age of 96. Three days of national mourning have been declared. He is most famous for the music of the film, Zorba the Greek. His was a full life: imprisonment and exile during the dictatorship; a move from the... Continue Reading →
The dominant stories in Greece are forest fires and Covid. Covid cases are increasing. The table below shows figures for the beginning and end of August. Date (24 hours leading up to 3pm on)New CasesDeathsIntubated2 – August - 212,156818827 – August - 213,0762233728 – August - 213,0643533330 – August – 21*2,34319338 Numbers are generally lower... Continue Reading →
An encounter with the Greek health system. On August 2nd or 3rd, I left our first floor flat to do some shopping. Halfway downstairs I realised I’d forgotten my mask and charged back to the flat. By the time I got to the door I was completely out of breath and finding it hard to... Continue Reading →
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