Irish music and life in northern Greece
κουτσουπιά = Judas tree, also known as δέντρο του Ιούδα We drove down to Athens on 9th April, our Easter Sunday and Orthodox Palm Sunday. The motorway was unusually quiet - almost like driving in Peak Covid again. For large stretches, on both sides of the motorway one could see beautiful lilac-coloured trees. Apparently, they... Continue Reading →
Street names tell you a lot about a nation’s history. In my hometown in Ireland there is a Parnell Street and an O’Connell Street, named in honour of Charles Stewart Parnell and Daniel O’Connell, and these street names will be repeated in most Irish towns. On emigrating to Glasgow, I made a number of mistaken... Continue Reading →
Only in Greece! How can a small mountain town of 14,000 inhabitants host a 4- or 5-day St. Patrick’s festival? Well, Grevena manages it, and it is a commercial and artistic success. We set off at 10:30am on Saturday, 18th March, our destination a restaurant called Marmita in a village called Megalo Sirini (Μεγάλο Σειρήνι)... Continue Reading →
καρμίρης, plural καρμίρηδες, feminine form καρμίρω Basically, it means a miserable git, a bit of a miser, too mean to enjoy life if it involves spending money. Άνθρωπος μίζερος, κακομοίρης που δεν χαίρεται τη ζωή, για να μην ξοδέψει λεφτά. (Babiniotis) It seems to have developed from an earlier form of κακομοίρης, the Hellenistic κάρμοιρος... Continue Reading →
Taleporistan, a country in the south-east of Europe sometimes known as Greece. Ταλαιπωρία [taleporia] is a word one learns comparatively early when living in Greece. It means hassle or hassle plus, the shite we all have to deal with when queuing in banks, government offices, hospitals, or merely trying to survive the day in Greece.... Continue Reading →
Looking forward to our session next Sunday, 12th March. I will need to send a reminder out to the troops. A group of us have begun practising in earnest for a gig on 19th. We are meeting in a tiny theatre called Nemesis – a name that doesn’t augur well! Tuesdays and Thursdays up to... Continue Reading →
μπούλιγκ = bullying One of the surprising problems teachers encounter among English language learners is the -ing form of two-syllable verbs ending in “y” e.g bully, carry, marry, scurry, worry. Even good students will say and write bulling, carring , marring, scurring, worring, finding it hard to produce all three syllables. The problem is less... Continue Reading →
I’m more interested in the suffix than the word itself. ψαρίλα = the unpleasant smell of fish. Not a compliment. Babiniotis states: η δυνατή και απωθητική μυρωδιά του ψαριού Often preceded by μυρίζει or βρωμάει, it is a complaint. I suppose βρωμάει gives it added force.Μυρίζει ψαρίλα = It stinks of fish Βρωμάει ψαρίλα =... Continue Reading →
Is it a whole month since I’ve posted anything? Our session on Sunday 12th February went very well. Twelve or thirteen of us showed up. Again the bar was busy. Always good to see. Our next task is to get ready for March and activities for St. Patrick’s Day. We kick off the week with... Continue Reading →
14th January. A week ago about seven of us met here for cheese, mulled wine and a run-through of the sets for tomorrow’s session. We were not at our best, so I hope all goes well tomorrow. When we were using Zoom to practice during lockdown, we used YouTube clips converted to mp3s. These were... Continue Reading →
Hyperbole is a Greek word. And we have heard plenty of it recently regarding the detained Eva Kaili. First of all, her party (PASOK) disowned her instead of suspending her pending the results of the investigation. Not content with this guilty-until-proven-innocent manoeuvre, the leader of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, levelled the ridiculous accusation that Kaili was... Continue Reading →
κάβος Two meanings. 1) a cape or headland and 2) the thick mooring rope used to secure a boat Παίρνω κάβο = to begin to understand, the penny drops I saw it used with the verb ξεπερνώ as in ξεπέρασε η κυβέρνηση τον κάβο… meaning the government had got round one problem. Not to be... Continue Reading →
ξενέρωτος – η – ο adjective meaning 1) sober and 2) boring A good word to start off 2023 after eleven days of Christmas. One more to go and the festive period is over. ξενέρωτος comes from the verb ξενερώνω which means to sober up or to sober someone else up. This conjures up images... Continue Reading →
5th January 2023: It continues to be a mild winter. I drove to Halkidiki yesterday. It was sunny until I reached Toroni. I went there to check our house. One of the most important jobs is to make sure the drains on the balconies aren’t blocked. The house was OK, fortunately. A harsh winter combined... Continue Reading →
As the year draws to a close, it is time to reflect on the past 12 months. Attempts to form a band have been a failure. There is too much conflation between band and session material and personnel. Finding a practice time and venue that suits us all has also been a huge problem. The... Continue Reading →
μόριο – a molecule A molecular biologist is a μοριακός βιολόγος and μοριακό βάρος is molecular weight. Less scientifically it can mean a ‘speck’. In grammar επιρρηματικά μόρια are adverbial particles (words like δε, θα, να, μεν). And now we return to biology because μόριο is a euphemism for penis. In the article below, the... Continue Reading →
Ah! The romantic smell of wood-burning fires permeates the village. Except it is anything but romantic. It’s the smell of fuel poverty. Over the past four or five years, Greeks have been abandoning heating diesel in favour of gas central heating, but this winter heating oil is cheaper than gas. Of course, it is not... Continue Reading →
On Sunday, 11th December, we had our last session of 2022. Ten of us were there. Personally, being a fiddler, I missed the other violins, but we delivered the full program. I change the music every two months, usually adding around five new items, but with Christmas and New Year coming up, I will recycle... Continue Reading →
Φόλα = poison, especially poison laid out for stray dogs The bane of my life. A lifelong cat-lover, I have been betrayed by both my children, who prefer dogs. My elegant daughter has an equally elegant King Charles. My son has a rough-and-tumble Belgian Shepherd cross, a bit like him! Both are beautiful animals, and... Continue Reading →
18th Nov. The good news is that I succeeded in getting through the 17th Nov without reading a Greek newspaper or watching Greek TV. For me the 17th is a horrible, depressing day. It is supposed to celebrate and commemorate the student uprising against the junta at Athens Polytechnic in November 1973. For an event... Continue Reading →
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