viola's people watching blog
A few weeks ago Yiannis walked in and announced that we were invited to the 50th anniversary of the founding of this company that produced specialised building materials. It would be in Athens and they would be putting us up in a 5 star hotel and the whole shindig would […]
I came to certain crossroads in my life, my cooking life, when I peered into the cookie jar and found only a couple of crumbs from the almond biscuits from Marks and Spenser’s. I couldn’t run out and get more because the store was in the middle of town and […]
Two weeks before Christmas I was soaking up all that festive cheer, sauntering in the streets and stopping in front of shop windows and admiring the season’s apparel on skinny, long-legged, small-waisted manikins. They were wrapped in clothes of emerald green, the ones that glide over your body as you […]
We took whatever was available for a speedy escape from Chania before the autumn rains swept in and reminded us that summer was actually over. And the only place that was not fully booked was Budapest. We had never been to Budapest, a name that evokes images of sepia photos […]
It was a sunless autumn morning when we travelled through The Black Forest of Germany. The slopes on the right and left for miles and miles were heavily wooded with evergreens…conifers growing close together, tall and straight like sentries reaching for the sky, their conical tops piercing the clouds and […]
We set off on the road to Stavroupolis, which is about some 27 km north west from the city of Xanthi, after a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, one we would indulge in only on holidays… eggs sunny side up, cheese, bacon and toast, nice and buttery and dripping with […]
The week before last, we resumed our long awaited Saturday night outings. But before that, I once again had to do the dreaded deed… descend the stairs into the basement and rummage through those bags stashed with my summer clothes. I had taken a peek into them a week ago […]
Last Sunday marked the picking up of where we had left off, the revisiting of old habits missed so dearly. We were resuming our Sunday lunches out, now that restaurants have been given the green light to serve meals outdoors. No more cooking at home on Sundays or ordering a […]
We had our garden dug and prepared for the new planting season since the beginning of April. Normally, we would start planting before Easter. But this year the Greek Easter ambled in leisurely and coupled with the lockdown, we somehow couldn’t find the drive to plant early. Last Saturday, however, […]
We’ve battled hard for our rights…women’s suffrage, women’s empowerment, equality of sexes…chained ourselves to railings, burnt our bras and threw in girdles, curlers and high heels in the pyre…thank God not lipstick…..and here we are now… still trying to shake off the shackles of gender role. For many of us…` […]