say something

πόσο καλά ξέρουμε ακόμη και τα πιο κοντινά μας πρόσωπα? πόσο εύκολα μπορείς να πεις για την οικογένεια, τους φίλους, τη σχέση ότι πραγματικά τους ξέρεις? ή ότι εκείνοι σε ξέρουν πραγματικά? (είναι και λίγο το σύνδρομο του "δεν με ξέρεις καλά, κανείς δεν με ξέρει", εδώ...)

ξέρεις τι φοβούνται, τι ελπίζουν, τι κρύβουν, τι σχεδιάζουν? εκείνοι για σένα?

μιλάμε πολύ και λέμε λίγα. δεν ξέρω αν ήταν έτσι σε όλες τις εποχές. εγώ σήμερα ζω. και βλέπω ότι πολλά πράγματα εύκολα χάνονται στο δρόμο, ανάμεσα σε σοβαροφανείς και γι' αυτό ανούσιες κουβέντες. αλλά έτσι ξέρεις και πιο εύκολα ποιοι ένθρωποι είναι πιο κοντά σου. αυτοί με τους οποίους δε χρειάζεται καν να μιλήσεις για να καταλάβουν ή να καταλάβεις.

οι λίγοι και καλοί.

you're as tight as a hunters trap
hidden well, what are you concealing?
poker face, carved in stone
amongst friends, but all alone
why do you hide?

say something, say something, anything
Iive shown you everything
give me a sign
say something, say something, anything
your silence is deafening
pay me in kind

take a drug to set you free
strange fruit from a forbidden tree
you've got to come down soon
more than a drug is what I need
need a change of scenery
need a new life

say something, say something anything
i've shown you everything
give me a sign
say something, say something, anything
your silence is deafening
pay me in kind

say something

i'm open wide, open wondering
have you swallowed everything
pay me in kind

presents update

...that posting was a sore joke anyway. none of these things did i get. except for the ipod which i ordered and paid myself.

BUT i did get a couple of very nice clothes, a clock, a surprise cake from my family, quite a few phonecalls , e-mails, sms, e-cards from around the world and a surprise birthday cake at agnes' and miltos' wedding.

thank you all for bothering to celebrate one more year of the torture i tend to be for humans (and not only) around me! next year i promise to throw a party. i can't commit on the continent/country/city though yet. it would all be too early for that.

το τέλος του μήνα...

...ξεκίνησε με ανόρεχτο πρωινό ξύπνημα
...με μια ψόφια γάτα στην αυλή που έπρεπε να ξεφορτωθούμε (! ). η αυλή δεν είναι μόνο πλεονέκτημα
...με νύστα στη δουλειά
...με πολλή δουλειά που με κράτησε ξύπνιο
...με online ψώνια
...με τηλεφωνήματα με φίλους στην ελλάδα
...με όνειρα κι ανησυχίες. τι θα γίνει άραγε τον οκτώβρη.

ετοιμαστείτε για εκπλήξεις πάλι. αλλά πρώτα θα εκπλήξω τον εαυτό μου. όπως πάντα.

week of celebrations ended

congratulations, agnes and miltos!

just keep swimming

whatever happened to the "take one thing at a time"? it's gone for good. now you gotta get up and run. i had a great weekend in athens, and after 8 hours of travelling, here i am back home just before midnite, on time for my early monday wake up tomorrow.

dory said it right: just keep swimming! no time for breaks, everything has to happen at once and be in a constant flow sometimes.

PS: the photo is irrelevant, but it thought it's a cool photo that szymon took last week in portugal. the idea behind it is quite unusual.

mama, i'm coming home

well, not home as in my hometown, but greece anyway.

and not for long, only for the weekend.

i have only been away from greece for 45 days, yet it seems like i haven't been there in quite a while. i am looking fwd to a very good weekend.

:)

ατλαντίς

στο νησί τις γαλάζιες νύχτες
μες στα bar αγκαλιά ξωτικά καθάρματα
μου 'χες πει πως θα 'ρθεις και ήρθες
Ατλαντίς, στο βυθό φωτισμένα άρματα

μπρος στα μάτια μου περνάνε
φωσφορίζουνε και πάνε

στο νησί τις γαλάζιες νύχτες
μες στα bar τα παιδιά σε κοιτάν ανύποπτα
με ρωτάν από που να ήρθες
δεν θα πω ποτέ σε κανέναν τίποτα

μπρος στα μάτια μου περνάνε
φωσφορίζουνε και πάνε

μπρος στα μάτια μου περνάνε
και με παίρνουνε και πάνε

στις βιτρίνες που μου φέρνουν ζάλη
στις οθόνες που χτυπάνε τα computer γράμματα
καθρεφτίζεσαι μπροστά μου πάλι
Ατλαντίς, στο βυθό φωτισμένα άρματα

what is alcohol

In order to understand alcohol's effects on the body, it is helpful to understand the nature of alcohol as a chemical, so let's take a look...

Here are several facts:

• Alcohol is a clear liquid at room temperature.
• Alcohol is less dense and evaporates at a lower temperature than water (this property allows it to be distilled -- by heating a water and alcohol mixture, the alcohol evaporates first).
• Alcohol dissolves easily in water.
• Alcohol is flammable (so flammable that it can be used as a fuel).

Alcohol abuse has been a rising problem over the past three decades. With the continued exposure to alcohol, how does the human body respond or adapt? The body's increased tolerance to alcohol involves the following changes:

• Increase in level of liver's enzymes that are used to break down alcohol

• Increase in activity of brain and nervous-system neurons

These bodily adaptations change a person's behavior.

read the rest on www.howstuffworks.com

you can also read about the favourite in this (and many other) country. BEER.

so now you know alcohol is bad - like you and i didn't know before :p - for you, from a scientific point of view, will you stop drinking? i doubt it. there's no chance i will quit anytime soon. unfortunately, it seems that although we might not be "formally" addicted to a few things in our life, we wouldn't quit them even though we know they are bad.

think of your everyday life. how many things do you choose to do that you actually know are harmful for you, but you wouldn't give them up? and i am not talking only about drinking and smoking here. these are just the obvious options. i have my own personal list.

think about it.

wishlist

ladies and gents and the rest!

start preparing your budgets, cos my birthday is coming up this weekend. it's on saturday, i am warning you. i am a leo, for those who didn't know.

so here’s my wishlist, you better live up to my expectations and not go for the cheap options! anyway it’s not like I am asking for that much, am i? this year i am being rather modest.

i want:

• a new i-pod nano 4GB. all possible accessories included.
• a left (steering) wheeled car, preferably the new Golf or the A3. If you feel particularly generous, I’d give the new GTV a gok
• a few minor changes to the driving system in the u – everyone should drive to the right like the rest of europe. i am not a megalomaniac, my motive is clearly to accommodate and make the best use of my new car.
• an aquarium
• a piece of land on a greek island to start building my future dream house. i am not gonna be honest here, i know you guys want the best for me. i’d go for Milos straight away
• helicopter and yacht as means of transportation to the mainland postponed to a few years’ time, when I move there
• tickets, flights, accommodation to see coldplay, diana krall, pink martini, evanescence, bon jovi, roger waters play live. i'd give second priority to u2, radiohead, keane, rhcp, rolling stones, cranberries, metallica, moby and others which i have already seen live but would love to see again.
  
• a travel budget for the next couple of years, to include all continents.
• a job for november onwards, with a good salary, opportunities for travel and promotions, and nice environment.
• a few good ideas for my travel starting mid october, good company to join me in travelling
• a country without bureaucracy to live in
• a pool table

am i asking for much? get your act together. in a week's time i will be evaluating how much of this i actually got.

What are the chances?

now how are these two pictures connected? i will explain, hold on a sec. then you will realise once again how small the world is.

pic # 1: Vaggelis and Dimitris. I met Vaggelis probably around 20 years or so. He was learning English in my parents' school in Lamia, a 60,000 people town.

When he was 13, they moved to Athens with his family. When we were around 23-24, we accidentally met again through Vlasis, who is a friend of his from University, and a friend of mine from AIESEC in Greece. Fine all the way to here. We exchanged e-mails and didn't actually keep in touch.

So tonite it was Vaggelis' birthday and he knew I am in London (like he is for the past month) so he called me up join the celebration. What are the chances? We are only from a 60,000 ppl place, and we are both in London, at the same place.















pic # 2: but hey, wait, that's not all. when i actually went at the pub, a little later this girl who looked familiar arrived. it didn't take us much to work it out, she is Laura and I know her because she used to be in AIESEC in Sweden. I haven't seen her in 3 and a half years almost. She now works on the same project with Vaggelis.

And I ask you: what are the chances?

Anyway I had a great time tonight as well...it looks that this week is between weddings and birthdays. And the best is on Saturday, when my birthday coincides with Agnes's and Miltos' wedding. How cool can that be?

how does he do it?

#1: vivek always has the coolest ideas. last night we were just getting drunk for his birthday on a boat docked at embankment, with a bunch of other people (mostly indians) i haven't seen in a while, like Srini, Stanka, Adrian, Femi etc. etc. happy birthday dude :)

#2: i will never stop surprising myself at how i find the way home and i wake up on time next day for work :)

with the birds i'll share this lonely view

or with whoever is up for enjoying the summer. καλές διακοπές σε όσους πάτε.

a weekend in lisbon and much more than that

a weekend which felt more like a week, it's been so full of joy that i keep running with the same energy after barely having slept for 3 days in a row...! (and with the anticipation of my flight to athens in 4 days as well)

preparation

friday evening i left work at 5pm, went for drinks with my colleagues. i still couldn’t believe i would be going to portugal. just to put things into perspective, when i booked the flight 2 months ago, i hadn’t yet moved to the UK, i didn’t have a job confirmed, and i was broke and approaching my credit limit on my card (i am officially there with my last minute airport shopping last nite). went home, packed, left to gatwick, where I got at 1:30 am. tried to get some sleep before boarding the plane at 6 am.

before i knew it, it was 9:30 and the plane touched down in Lisboa aeroporto. i had an irritating kid next to me playing PS2 and elbowing me for the entire duration of the flight, but that didn’t matter much since i was too happy to bother.

straight after landing I took a cab to the hotel where i was right on time to check in and take the bus with the rest of the people staying there to be on time for the wedding (10:30). when entering the bus i was in such a daze from the amount of friends i hadn’t seen in quite a while that i didn’t know whom to greet first. i was really the last person to arrive, just half an hour before the wedding...

the wedding

...soon enough we were outside the church waiting for the bride (Anya) and groom (Pedro a.k.a. Pita). it was all in all an exciting experience. at the same time a new experience for a lot of us. just to mention a few, Sathe said he had never been in a Catholic wedding before (like myself), Pinar and Evrim said they had never seen a wedding in a church before, and soon after the wedding was over (no, we didn’t put up flip charts or divide in groups…!) we started discussing about different types of weddings and customs in our countries (of origin).

the wedding was really nice, with not a lot of people as compared to greek standards, which made it an even warmer event. at the same time the amount of internationals and familiar people around made everyone feel at home, it was just impressive. the priest even addressed the guests in english at one point, also mentioning that maybe we don’t understand a word of what is happening during the ceremony, but we will for sure understand when the couple says “I do” (or “yes”, in portuguese fashion) to each other.and we did! i also realised some similarities we have with the Greek orthodox wedding – for example throwing rice to the couple after the ceremony is over. to my surprise i could understand quite a bit of what the priest was saying in portuguese, thanks to my rusty italian and my christian background as well (also quite rusty, to be honest :-). i think after a couple more years of going to other people’s weddings I will be ready to run the show myself!

it was midday and about time to go to the place where the celebration was going to take place, in Sintra.

the celebration

the setting was very very nice, and started off with drinks and snacks and photo shooting. it looked a little bit like an AIESEC conference since we soon started taking pictures of the bride and groom with AI 02-03, AI 03-04, FTF, MCPs 01-02, AIESEC in Portugal etc etc. but it was lots of fun (of course) and lots of catching up to do, among great food and company, celebrating such a great event! there was some dancing happening in the evening as well. everything was perfectly organised to make everyone feel at home, and that takes exceptional skills for a couple that doesn’t live in portugal, to get the wedding so well organised while living at the other side of the world, in singapore.although this was a portuguese wedding, the international element gave another tune to it as well, since there were at least 30 of us there. i felt really privileged to have been invited and had a great time. When the bride’s family gave a speech (they are from Kazakstan) listen to this: the speech was being translated from Russian to English and from English to Portuguese. How cool is that? :-)


we came across a few interesting customs as well, such as the arrival of the couple on a coach and the fact that they handed out gifts to all the guests present. the party finished at about 1 am (if my memory is right, cause we lost track of time way before that, imagine drinking for 12 hours).

Lisboa

of course we went downtown lisbon for drinks after that, and ended up back in the hotel no earlier than 2:30 am or so. i have to admit that I didn’t see much of the country or the city, but that was not the purpose of my trip there, under the circumstances of not being able to take days off work. from what I saw though lisbon is an impressive city with nice architecture and wide avenues, and the people are cool and laid back.

i have seen a portuguese wedding though, and that tells me more about the people than a tour around the city.

but not having seen enough of the country, is no more than a good reason to come back.

the Atlantic

on sunday it was time to leave, but before that we arranged to go to the seaside. we went to costa da caparica along with rajiv, ripun, brenda, vaibhav, yumna, szymon, kshama, and all i can say is that i realised how much i miss the sea in my summer. it was a great feeling! costa da caparica is a coast that has 18 consecutive beaches, and you go from one to the next using a coastal electrical train (quite cool!)

the atlantic was fun, though swimming was not a lot of fun with big waves coming along and the temperature of the water was rather low. but it was fun to have my first swim (and sunburn) for the year, and possibly my only one in the summer. and i was a bit disapointed no sharks were around to add some excitement :p

but at least i can now officially state on my cv i have swam in the atlantic ocean. great, now i only miss just another couple of thousand places around the globe only.

after that, it was time to say my goodbyes and go.

the return

picture this:

• i left the beach at 15:00.
• got on the electrical train at 15:05
• got on the bus back to lisbon at 15:20
• arrived in lisbon at 16:05
• took the metro and walked to the hotel, where i got at 16:25
• took a cab to the airport at 16:45
• boarded the plane at 18:15
• landed at 21:00
• took a train at 21:20 to victoria
• took the tube from victoria, had to change once to get to liverpool street...
• ...where i got a train back home at 23:10 and after walking for 10 minutes arrived home at 23:35.

(NB: there is no time difference between portugal and the uk)

Conclusions:

1. travel today is very complicated, though it seems simple
2. there should be a plane from costa de caparica to my place. it would save me at least 3 hours.
   

more photos from the weekend are here.

i had an unforgettable time in portugal and hope to see all you guys sometime very soon again! thanks for everything, and wish pedro and anya a lifetime of happiness!

back from lisboa

just entered home after having traveled for about 7 hours within trains, buses, plains, metros etc etc.

i had a weekend that the word amazing is too small to describe. more to follow, just gimme some time to sort out my mind and my photos!

congratulations, anya and pita!

Zidane

a hot tempered guy, but one of the greatest football players of our generation. i think regardless of his attitudes in the field, this is what football fans will remember...

you don't need to like football to recognise beauty and genious in his play. and this is not even a video with his goals!

quote of the day

couldn't resist posting this - tribute to lefteris who said it's his philosophy in life:

"the day we'll be able to buy more beer than we can drink, we'll be rich!"

i'll drink to that.

:)

pennyroyal tea

και κάτι βγαλμένο από τα παλιά (τα δικά μου παλιά δηλαδή). τα χρόνια του λυκείου. κηνυγούσα μια τύπισσα που γούσταρε nirvana κι έτσι κόλλησα. εκείνη μετά από καιρό την έχασα. τους nirvana ποτέ. περίεργο, πολυ τους γυροφέρνω τώρα τελευταία, μετά από χρόνια.

άκουσε όμως το album version, εκείνο του unplugged χάνει όλη την ενέργεια που μεταδίδει το τραγούδι. και φόκους σε 2 στίχους:

"Distill the life that's inside of me"

"I'm anemic royalty"

αυτός ήταν ο cobain και δυστυχώς μας άφησε.

I'm on my time with everyone
I have very bad posture

Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty

Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld
So I can sigh eternally

I'm so tired I can't see
I'm anemic royalty
I'm a liar and a thief
I'm anemic royalty

I'm on warm milk and laxatives
Cherry-flavored antacids

Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
I'm anemic royalty
I'm anemic royalty

dimension

the time has come. i am going to portugal for the weekend! Woohoo (a la Homer)!

this week has gone by incredibly fast. i am so looking forward to this. work tomorrow, then go for drinks, then get my small luggage from home and find the way to gatwick drunk. spend the night there - board the plane at 5:30 am. land in lisbon.

am i being stupid? this is just one a half day over there. yes. but i am attending a good friend's wedding and meeting some of the people who gave me one of the most exciting years of my life so far. you know what i am talking about now...ripun, yumna, sathe, volodi, evrim, kene, pedro, pinar, zoe, brenda and even more are gonna be there. some of these guys i haven't seen in two years at least. once upon a time we lived in the same city - rotterdam that would be. now we live in london, new jersey, shanghai, singapore, brussels, amsterdam, rio, istanbul...

expect photos and stories next week!

μουσική!

έχετε ακούσει το federico garcia lorca από το σταυρό του νότου, live? έπεσε πρόσφατα στα χέρια μου κι έπαθα πλάκα...καμία σχέση με το δίσκο, αλλά τέλειο. όποιος το θέλει μου γράφει και βρίσκουμε τρόπο να το πάρεις.

just surfing

i'd rather surf in the sea (if i knew how to, that is, but sure enough i'd love to) but save for the non holiday summer this yr, i decided to surf online and try to beat my insomnia for tonite. wake up is always scheduled in 6 hours from now, sleep remains tentative for yet another evening. and frankly, it's too hot for sleeping anyway (i'd never thought i'd say this for london, but, hey, there's a first time for everything).

so i decided to go for a small surf in the greek blogosphere. i know the ppl who know the online animal i tend to be won't believe this, but i hardly ever read random blogs. random as in the definition of "people i don't know, are not my friends etc.". people i don't have a predefined interest in what they wanna say.

say, what do you know? i only know of 2-3 greek people who blog. out of these blogs one has stopped blogging (it's a touchdown on stories to tell when you move from ecuador to london), the other one is indifferent to anybody other than his close family probably and the third one is anastasia's, which has been fun to read over the past few months. so that was my starting point for tonite.

i discovered a few very interesting blogs, with cool stories to narrate, and people i can relate to (well, some of them). don't be surprised if you see a few of them popping on my blogroll in the few weeks. but i have to give them time first. not everyone can enter that list :) - you have to prove you are special. it was cool to read through the greek blogosphere for a change. i knew it's there, and there's thousands of bloggers, i just didn't know what they are all about.

oh, and one more discovery: most of these blogs have fancy names. mine doesn't. but that's ok. i also use my real name instead of a nick on the screen. i guess i never developed the habit of the nickname since i detested irc and random chat from the very beginning. but i admit that there is a certain attraction at the mystery of not knowing *exactly* who is on the other side of the wire.

enough of travelling online for tonite. now i have to continue making my plan to conquer the world. i am badly in need for a deadline on that task.

detached

is it just me?

it's interesting how there's major stories around the world right now and i read as much as i can about them online. so many things happening these days and most of the big ones are overly negative - the situation in lebanon, the tsunami in indonesia, the bomb blasts in india. it's like an entire world collapsing in some sense.

and yet everything seems like it's not really happening. maybe because i don't watch tv, therefore i don't have the images in my mind of all these major events. maybe because i don't really have anyone to discuss what's happening and their/my views on it. at least not at work or not at home.

unfortunately, life goes on in other parts of the planet, as usual. nothing can really change the pace of things downtown london. i do care but i also do feel detached from what's happening on other parts of the planet these days, in the city where i live. unfortunately.

anyway my thoughts are with people i know and don't know in the affected areas, who suffer unwillingly from other people's negligence or decisions...

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

i was talking to my sister on the phone tonight and she told me she came accross steve jobs' address to stanford graduates last year. decided to take a look at it and can say that although not many new things are mentioned, it's still a wake up call.

i am really wondering these days, about myself and people around me:
how many of us wake up in the morning and feel like what they do as their job is their destination in life? taking a wild guess, i would say very few of us...

keep looking!

famous leader test

i took this famous leader today, and here's what came out:

however i would question the results since i think i have taken it in the past and i was adolf hitler at the time [anyway i prefer kennedy!] :-)

it's fun to try it out though, go ahead!

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

quote of the day

i'd rather be hated for who i am than be loved for who i am not

don't forget you are abroad

there is one problem with the kind of adaptability we have developed by driving and flying and travelling around for most of our lives: when we get to a new place we instinctively try to get through the things which will bring us back to our comfort zone.

so for example i moved to the uk a month ago. what where the 1st things i naturally tried to do? get a place to stay - get comfortable with the transportation system - see where i am going to be shopping from for all everyday things i might need - locate my friends - get a phone and internet connection. and here i am, a month later, started working and everything - and it could literally be anywhere in the world, since i have reconstructed most of my standard everyday routine which i used to have in greece.

this is good on the ground that now i have sorted out the basics and can enjoy what life can offer me in this side of europe. however a lot of times i have noticed that as soon as we feel all comfy in a place we treat it as if we have been there forever (or as if we will be there forever). i try to bring this reminder to myself all the time, to not forget i am in london, uk and there's so much here that i don't know and i don't wanna miss: parks, theatres, museums, clubs, football, music - you name it. and i plan to enjoy them with my friends here :-) i don't mean to be a constant tourist but there needs to be a healthy balance between living the way you were used to and discovering new things.

the above also serves as an intro to telling you which kind of music is playing on my mp3s these days (after advice from locall music lovers) - i am trying to discover the english music scene contemporary and older one:

• "up all night" - razorlight
• "performance and cocktails" - stereophonics
• "exile on main st" - the rolling stones
• "mosely shoals" - ocean colour scene

my next step is of course a good gig. damn, i already missed roger waters who played in hyde park a while ago.

nomad?

just a thought i can't get rid of lately: i have missed travelling so much. i think there's a lot of stuff i compromised the last 2 and a half years in greece, with studies, army and no income for a while. i am not willing to do that anymore. i have been in london for a month only and already started forming scenarios of travel and escape. unfortunately there's not many new things to see in europe, though there's loads of beautiful places i still haven't been to (for example the czech republic, norway, denmark).

in october my current employment contract expires and that means during the summer i will start looking for a job either internally in the company or somewhere else. but my starting date will be in november. what am i doing in the meantime? a little bit of greece and a little bit of ...? right now i am thinking of going either to south america or south east asia. any suggestions are welcome, there's still time till the scenario actually materialises.

the taming of the shrew

I am not sure whether I have been to a play in any language other than greek before, apparently I cannot recall. On Thursday evening it was my first time then. Went to regent park at the open air theatre to see Shakespeare’s “the taming of the shrew” (under a completely different title in greek therefore before actually seeing the play I couldn’t relate to which of Shakespeare’s plays it was).

The setting was beautiful (I love open air theatres) and the experience quite unique. In the beginning I thought it was only me not getting 100% of the dialogues, but in the interval I discovered that many more people than me had the same impression, as the language was difficult and the acoustics of the theatre not perfect. But the acting was good, the humour was good, the story quite interesting and the audience engaged in the play itself. It turned out to be quite a good experience, and particularly different than the normal activities in London (going out for a pint or 10). It’s one to repeat, when I can afford it, that is. I now realise there’s still so much theatre I have to see in london.

Recommended experience – go if you get the chance to.

and....we're on again!

after a few days of making a ridicule of our country to the entire world, having personal debates among a few people in power impose sanctions on greek football by fifa, the government finally decided to abide by the ruls of fifa and amend the existing law. so now the greek football association is self governed (is it?) and fifa lifted their ban on greek teams participation in european football tournaments.

therapy

a note on reviews on my blog:

i have had a couple of comments bugging me (or making fun of me, take it as you wish) because i waste people’s time on my blog by writing book reviews – but well – as they say on tv – you hold the remote control, you can switch to another channel . or just don’t read my reviews (which i know are boring btw, bcos you can find reviews everywhere on the internet. but i don’t review everything i read apparently, mostly what i feel like reviewing and what i like much or don’t like at all.

anyway getting back to the main topic, i recently read therapy by David Lodge and i can’t tell you how much i loved it. maybe his humour has a special appeal to me along with his writing style but the book - without being a completely original story - made me laugh several times while reading. a very pleasant read indeed, which i recommend to anyone who wants to read something light and witty for the summer!

i found it particularly entertaining how Lodge plays with the different kinds of psychosis that we people of the modern age have, and that he keeps a thin balance between serious and funny throughout the book. you can discover a little bit of yourself or your future in everyone of the characters starring in therapy, particularly tubby, who is the main person!

i think i am gonna have a go at some more of his books myself shortly!

worldview

iI was shocked to read about what happened in India last night before i went to bed, just reading through the news on the internet. it’s really a disgrace and my thoughts are with the people who suffer and are in pain, because someone decided to kill them for no reason connected to their lives in that respect. they were just coming home from work on a normal day, ordinary people. i really don’t know how long this is going to continue for. and i also guess that’s what terrorism is about, providing you with this kind of insecurity, that you might be the next one hit, at any given time.

i was also surprised on the worldview of a lot of newspapers in this country where i currently reside. apparently they included the topic of the bomb blasts in the newspapers, but somewhere at the back stories. it didn’t even make the headlines on quite a few of the papers. it’s interesting, considering that his time of the year on year ago the entire world was concerned about the 7/7 attacks. it’s not about the size of the attacks either, it’s just that the world probably considers an event like this “less important” in less developed countries or not worth reporting on extensively, while when it happens in the western world the entire world has to care? human lives are not more or less important anywhere in the world. they are of the same "value". maybe I am generalising here, but I seriously don’t get it how this topic can be so bluntly ignored by the press.

quote of the day

just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you (kurt cobain)

disgraceful yet wonderful

don't get me wrong: the disgraceful goes to zidane's end of career, in the way he managed to get himself out of the match and end his career. he hit materazzi on the second half of extra time, and was shown the red card thus being sent off. up till that point he had an excellent match, the last of his career, was the maestro of his team once again and the scorer of the only goal for france in the game. i don't know what materazzi told him, but he shouldn't have taken the challenge. that doesn't erase the wonderful career that zizou has had and the great football he has played, but we all know that the first and last impressions are always important: because they stay in our memory.

on the other hand italy won at the penalties process, with david trezeguet from france losing a penalty shot, quite ironically since he was the one who scored the winning goal against italy on the euro 2000 final, six years ago. i believe that we saw a great game in any case, even though i was supporting france. this was a final to remember.

this was also the closing of a wonderful world cup (according to me). in the literal sense, it was full of wonders. we saw loads of goals, we saw favourites being kicked out by outsiders, we saw a lot of goals, took the occasional glimpses of good football, great organisation by germany, and a few records being broken, like the new all time scorer in world cups, ronaldo. all in all this world cup was grand guignol, and it got the ending that suited it the best.

thank you germany for a great event, and thanks to all the teams and players that played well after a very strenuous season most of the players have had with their clubs.

now taking about a month's break from football, till the national leagues begin again :). can't wait!

7/7 a year later - an eery thought

i guess we always feel upset when we hear on the news about something really bad that happened elsewhere, but to a certain extent it's not the same unless you know people involved somehow in the events or if you live there.

i was very upset last year to hear about the london bombings on july 7th, and yesterday was the memorial day, a year after the deadly attacks. there were memorial service in different places around london, including one near my work place. in fact i find that the bbc's article title "public mourning, private pain" is more than appropriate, since nothing can bring back the people who died in vain during the attacks a year ago.

it is a scary thought that we are so vulnerable and at any given time our life could be threatened by the will of other people. i was thinking about this yesterday morning on the train towards work, kind of a "what if scenario" of a terrorist attack. nothing can warn you or protect you against it, since apparently july 7th 2005 was just another normal day until the bombs started exploding. people were just following the trail of their lives not knowing what was awaiting them on that bus or that train.

yesterday was just another normal day in london as well. but you could see it on people's faces on the train, on the street, at work that mixed feelings were there, be this fear, rage, pain, hope or anything else. i guess forgetting is not an option.

Πρωτοψάλτη - Γαλάνη

είναι φοβερή η αίσθηση να ακούω έστω και σε mp3 στον υπολογιστή το "Δώδεκα - αν μου τηλεφωνούσες" από τον τελευταίο τους live δίσκο. Ίσως είναι κι η ώρα, και το εξωτερικό που μεγενθύνουν την αίσθηση βέβαια...

Μπορεί να μην τα κατάφερα να τις δω ζωντανά, αλλα τέλος του μήνα που θα πάω Αθήνα ένα πράγμα που θα αγοράσω είναι αυτό το CD!

Greece suspended from all FIFA/UEFA organised tournaments?

micha just told me this on msn and i just confirmed it from the fifa website. read the news for yourself. apparently FIFA has ruled that there is government intervention in the Greek Football Federation, has warned the government to change laws etc and the government has not responded well for a year now (not very surprising according to me).

What is surprising though, is the following:
1. who knew about this in Greece? i follow football news quite much and i have never heard a single word about this topic. some people up there must have been terribly irresponsible.
2. on what grounds does FIFA cancel the deadline it set to the country for the 15th of July, and makes the suspension announcement on the 3rd of July? Does this make any sense?

i hope the decision is not final. this is all a ridiculous case, and if there really is lack of responsibility on the government's side, i predict that we'll have elections very soon.

summer in the City

it's a weird feeling, knowing that they had 23 degrees in athens today, and we had 30+ in london. and the beach is not anywhere nearby at all...

hit the reply button

it might make someone smile :)

i sent an update e-mail to a few ppl today informing of my whereabouts...you know - one of these e-mails you receive from ppl you haven't seen in years and you pass it by unnoticed.

however, i am more than happy to have received a few answers, a few updates and a couple of phonecalls and smss, ppl letting me know that they are in london as well and arranging to catch up etc...i can tell you that the feeling is so cool!

and all it takes to make one's day is just to hit the reply button! after this, a relaxed weekend and today's bbq in our garden, i believe my batteries to be charged for a very good week!

do you believe in fairies?

i am starting to believe in them as there might be one of them watching out for me while i am here in london. i just realised today that things couldn't have been going much better than they already are for me over here...there's been a lot of pressure for me to get things in shape very fast and at the same time go thru 2 weeks of training at work and getting tested on it.

now that everything is in place i don't feel the pressure anymore and this is going to be the first weekend i really enjoy here, whatever i might do over the weekend. and somehow i have the feeling that monday onwards my stay here is going to become even more enjoyable :)

song of the day

Universally speaking - RHCP

I saw your face
Elegant and tired
Cut up from the chase
still, i so admire
bloodshot your smile
Delicate and wild
Give me she-wolf style
Rip right through me

Silveretta the jets of a lifetime
Go and get her,
I've got her on my mind
Nothing better,the feeling is so fine
Simply put,i saw your love stream flow

Come on, baby,'cause theres no name for
Give it up and i got what i came for
Universally speaking
I take it back and you make me nervous
Nothing better than love and service
Universally speaking
I win in the long run

I saw your crime
Dying to get high
Two of a kind
Beats all hands tonight

Silveretta the jets of a lifetime
Go and get her,
I've got her on my mind
All the better,to make it so fine
Simply put, i saw your love stream flow

Come on, baby,'cause there's no name for
Give it up and i got what i came for
Universally speaking
I take it back and you make me nervous
Nothing better than love and service
Universally speaking
I win in the long run

Silveretta the jets of a lifetime
Go and get her,
I've got her on my mind
Nothing better,the feeling is so fine
Simply put, i saw your love stream flow
Simply put, i saw your love stream flow

lets go