viola's people watching blog
Louise taught me one thing…be careful what you say or do in front of a toddler. They’re little sponges, they soak up everything and squirt it right back at you. She was 17 months when she flew in with her parents in July for the summer holidays. The parents needed […]
The whole town was sparkling with festive lights, quivering in anticipation of the New Year. Even the sailing boats and creaky fishing boats in the old port were strung up with twinkling lights right up to the top of their masts, shimmering in the dark waters. The Old Market building, […]
I see women come out of the hairdresser’s with a spring in their gait, a toss of their head …a head full of shiny swinging tresses, looking all confident as if they could just take on the world and all its niggly fiddly problems. Well…I wonder why it’s never happened […]
As the summer buzz and dust are washed away by the first rains, I find myself slipping into the quiet pace and beauty of autumn…the rich hues of russet and gold of our vine leaves and the ripening of fruit, sweet and juicy…our pomegranates, apples and oranges. The skies are […]
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 […]
Oh what a fluster we were in to make preparations for the trio from Brussels. Weeks before their arrival, we went online and searched for baby furniture to prepare for Louise’s stay. I suggested to Annie over the phone that they could sleep in the guest room on the second […]
So there we were, Yiannis and myself, once again, bleary eyed, hopping on the early morning flight to Athens with a hurried connection to Brussels. We were excited to see Louise…Burpy…as Annie and I have nicknamed her as she burps like a champion. She started this charming habit right from […]
It had been such a long drawn out cold winter. Our White Mountain range, running the length of Chania, appeared to be closing in on us as snow fell steadily lower and lower on its slopes, layers and layers building up… glazed and glaringly white almost blinding under a winter’s […]
We woke up at half past four to a sky that was dark and frigidly cold with Venus still hanging low with a steady glitter. It was Sunday 6 February and we were taking the early morning flight to Athens and then a connecting flight to Brussels…to meet someone very […]
Christmas is upon us once more and our little coastal town is lit up with the brilliance of this magical season. People have been complaining about how our young mayor has been shelving all glaring issues, like our roads and pavements, which are badly in need of repair and invested […]