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 use 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 →
23/017 Greek Word
επαναχρησιμοποιήσιμος – a 10-syllable monster that means ‘reusable’. A Greek advert for the ‘braless bra’ crops up on my Twitter/X feed. I don’t know why as most of my tweets (now posts) relate to Ireland. Apart from the length of the word, it is noteworthy that the prefix επανα- and the suffix ιμος correspond reliably... Continue Reading →
23/012 Life in Northern Greece
28th October. Greece’s second National Day, the first being the 25th of March, the start of the revolution against the Turks in 1821. Today marks No Day (Όχι Μέρα), 28th October 1940 when Greece’s dictator, Ioannis Metaxas, said ‘No’ to another dictator, Mussolini. The Italian ultimatum was not exactly a demand to surrender – the... Continue Reading →
23/012 Irish Music in Northern Greece
17th November: We had our second rehearsal in Lost Angeles on Thursday, 2nd November. Very encouraging. We went through the first half of our set, worked out some arrangements and changed the order of one or two tunes. What is also encouraging is the fresh ideas being proposed by my bandmates. Our follow-up session on... Continue Reading →
23/016 Greek Word
νταβάς (plural: νταβάδες), also ταβάς, a shallow cooking pot or casserole dish. I had no idea what my mother-in-law was talking about when she asked me for a νταβά. As we were in the kitchen, I knew it was related to cooking. It’s from the Turkish ‘tava’, a frying pan. The Turks may have borrowed... Continue Reading →
23/011 Irish Music in Northern Greece
Our session on 15th October was a quiet one. The bar was quiet too. The highlight of the afternoon was the fact that one of our Greek friends came up with a name for our new band, a bilingual pun: ThessHooley. It can mean θες Hooley (do you want a party?) or Thessaloniki Party. We... Continue Reading →
23/011 Life in Northern Greece
Before I turn my attention to the Thessaloniki Metro, I want to look briefly at the Greek kiosk (περίπτερο) again. I wrote about the institution in 23/005 LinNG. An article just published in Greek Reporter goes over the declining numbers again. The article is a little bit romanticized too, describing the περιπτεράς (kiosk licensee) as... Continue Reading →
23/015 Greek Word
φυτευτός: literally, it refers to a plant that is not native to a region. I suppose potatoes and tomatoes in Europe fall into that category. The opposite - ‘growing naturally’ – is αυτοφυής as in αυτοφυή φυτά, native plants. The word has been used recently to describe Stefanos Kasselakis, the new leader of SYRIZA, the... Continue Reading →
23/010 Irish Music in Northern Greece
Angelochori 16th September. It is an unusual venue. It is called The Salt Flat Guardhouse, Το Σπίτι του Φύλακα της Αλυκής. When we played there in 2021 and 2022, the house was in a state of disrepair. Part of the roof had caved in, and one entered at one’s own risk. The Cultural Association stages... Continue Reading →