With everything shut because of Covid, I am seeing in 2021 in my little study/music room, with a small can of Heineken and some crisps. It is 10 minutes to midnight, but some people have already set off fireworks. It has gone silent again.
The Greek health services seem to have regained some control over the spike in Covid cases and deaths, the latter now a daily average of around 60 whereas it was over a hundred per day last week. As is the case elsewhere, we are being prepared (or softened up) for an extension to the existing restrictions. Last week I said I didn’t expect things to improve before Orthodox Easter (2nd May 2021) but now, because of the logistics involved in getting everybody vaccinated, I can’t see things getting better before June. The Greek Irish Society (GIS) is thinking a long the same lines. In today’s New Year email, the committee has written off St. Patrick’s Day (17th March) and is hoping to get things going again in May or June.
Midnight. The sky has lit up again. Quite an impressive display given that it is in a small town, there is a 10pm curfew, and a sizeable police station stands nearby! Being a small town (or a big village) there are more detached houses here, so I think people must be setting off the fireworks from their gardens. At 12:10am silence reigns again and neither a car nor a person is to be seen on the streets. It must be the quietest New Year since the German occupation.
Musically, the drought continues in Greece. The Sunday Zoom sessions with the Malta musicians, however, have introduced us to new people, new ideas, new methods and new technologies. There is also another session – not so interactive – on YouTube, something I will look into in the next few days.
And I’ll finish with a little treat that exemplifies the international appeal of Irish music. From Belgrade here are The Orthodox Celts playing The Star of County Down. After the second verse there is a little burst of the reel The Musical Priest, played in the Em of the song rather than the more usual Bm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEt2XdN_TbQ