The Christmas Gift that Kept on Giving......me a headache

Hello Dear Readers,

Here I am in sunny warm Cyprus!  I had intended this to be a blog intensive trip, full of photos of the fun stuff Chris and I were doing this time since he promised that we wouldn't do chores or see lots of relatives.  Well, he partially kept his promise in that I spent almost the first full week in bed (starting on Christmas Day) with a nasty, knock down cold courtesy of Chris.  According to his family, the cause of my cold was the change in weather in Cyprus, as it had just turned "cold" (14 C/ 60 F) when we got there. I pointed out that it was actually warmer than in England, which then changed the story to, "the drastic change in temperatures is what caused my illness."  I pointed out that Chris had the same bad cold a week before, but that didn't seem to make any difference, and people mused that traveling such a long distance in an airplane the day before probably also contributed to the cold.  So either it was the fact that it was cold in Cyprus, or much warmer than the UK, or traveling great distances, but not living with a sneezey coughing Chris that caused my illness.  Only by wrapping up warm and sweating it out could I recover, oh, or I could take antibiotics.  Sigh.  I think it was more tiring trying to explain basic biology principles than actually being sick.  I'm still stuffy and coughing, and seem to have pulled a small muscle in my chest with all the hacking, but I'm trying to cram in a few fun things now that I am vertical before we fly out tomorrow!

Before I got too ill, we were able to visit our friends Stavros and Margarita who have two little boys.  I love to make things for them, last year I did the sock monkeys and this year it was a dragon and a lamb.  For some reason Andreas was afraid of the lamb at first, but he took to it eventually with his usual good humour.  Somehow he seems to have skipped the terrible twos.  Here is his baby brother with the dragon I made him, lots of good sticky out parts for him to put in his mouth, which is exactly what I intended, along with some safety eyes that he can really get his teeth into.

Christmas day was a very quiet affair, as only myself, Chris, his mother and aunt and uncle were home (and I was in bed the whole day), but being Greek Orthodox Christmas isn't really celebrated, it's New Years (at midnight) that St. Basil comes and delivers gifts to children.  Chris's cousin and her boyfriend were here for New Years, and somehow we got into a discussion about traditional clothes.  Chris's aunt happened to have an old dance costume of one of her girls, which I immediatly put on and paraded about hte house in.  It's very comfortable I have to say, on a par with what I wore when I worked in Colonial Williamsburg.

 Further proof that I was born in the wrong era, I think, I make these outfits look so good!

New Years day we had the traditional lunch at his Aunt's house.  His sister's family was two ill to drive the 1.5 hours to come see us, so it was just the 7 of us.

L to R is Chris, his mother Nikki, Aunt Anna, Uncle Stephanos, Cousin Valando and her boyfriend Dolis.  I've been able to make good use of my Greek lessons this trip, though the fast paced, slang Cypriot dialect still gets the best of me most times.   Fortunately I've been able to use the time I wasn't comatose to finish up a sweater order that I got before I left. 

Yesterday we drove to the Capitol to see Chris's sister and her family.  His mother spent the whole day before cooking and buying food because she seems to think that the largest and capitol city in the island is a desert, devoid of food and, apparently, quality eggs.  It was a bit of a bust though as Odie is deep in his terrible twos stage, every item in the house is his, and you can't touch it or you get a whack with a plastic wrench.  When given a book as a gift from his great Aunt, he proceeded to tear the whole thing apart while his father watched and sighed "Oh dear, tsk tsk." Hmmm, someone really needed a nap, or perhaps everyone.  Not really endearing him to me yet, but I remember my brother was a little brat as a kid, so I'm hoping in 10-15 years he'll be fine.......

Today is our last full day, and it's sunny and warm.  I'm finishing up a job application (it's a never ending process in these austere times) and Chris is doing his annual servicing of his cousin's computer.  Afterwards we'll take a stroll on the new path by the sea and pick up a few groceries that we can't find in the UK.  Tomorrow it's back home to England, and snug in my own bed again!  I hope that Patrick has fufilled his promise to repaint the kitchen, we'll see....

Hope all my dear readers had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I think I've slept enough this week to last me through the rest of my contract at the Museum, and feel refreshed and ready to tackle the new years resolutions I've made.

Cheers.

Best vacation EVAH!

Hello Dear Readers,

Fear not, I have not perished from this earth, nor was I raptured a few weekends ago, for various reasons we lost internet at home and haven't been able to get it back. And every time I tried to log into blogger at work to write a quick note explaining why, blogger was inevitably down! That meant no Dr. Who, no Vampire Diaries and *gasp* no posting my achievements on Assasin's Creed Brotherhood online for the world to see.

But now I am in sunny, HOT Boston living it up having the BEST. VACATION. EVAH.

My favorite sister (pictured above, on the right, that's me on the left) as a birthday treat flew Chris and I out to Boston this week for a true holiday. We got in on Thursday after a lovely flight with British Airways and took the T and bus to her house. She was at work still so Chis and I had 5 whole hours to ourselves, no roommates, no neighbors, just peace and quiet. So naturally we took advantage of instant and unlimited hot water for showers, played with kitties, flipped through all the trashy TV channels about 50 times and gorged ourselves on Cheez-its, Triscuits, Graham crackers and Ritz crackers with peanut butter. Actually, that was all me in about 10 min of walking in the door.

Friday was reserved for Bridesmaid dress shopping and general pigging out on American culture. First stop was Express where Chris got some work shirts he can't find in the UK, then on to Abercrombie and Fitch, the sale rack, where I got my fix until I can get back to the US and cheap prices. A&F in the UK is RIDICULOUS, in terms of prices and how seriously they take themselves. I will wear my clothes with great irony, though no one else will probably notice. I also got my Quiznos and Chik Filet waffle fry fix at the mall, ahhh, food court. Sadly no bridesmaid dress yet, but we finished the evening with an amazing Vegan dinner at a local restaurant. Definitely going back in October.

Saturday we went to Walden Pond to see where Henry David Thoreau lived for two years and wrote many books, something Chris has been interested in doing since he has read a lot of philosophy. It's also just a lovely park to enjoy. I even saw several ladyslipper orchids growing wild. We stopped off at the wedding site on our way, which is in a lovely old house right next to a park.

Sunday was a great day because we got to meet the other half of the wedding, Jeff's parents and the best man Eli. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant and ordered from the "Authentic" menu, in Mandarin (well, Mrs. Wu did anyway). We were so stuffed we had to walk it all off with another trip to a different mall. We split up into girls and boys and man did Cat and I hit that mall hard, scouring for any semblance of a red dress. Finally with 15 min to spare at the last shop we scored a lovely strapless number that is going to make me look smokin', second only to the bride of course. Success! Good thing because I didn't want to be stuck looking for a dress on my own in London!

With important wedding stuff out of the way we were free to relax, Monday was a lazy day mooching off of the Netflix and setting all the high scores on the Wii Sports Resort (just try to beat my Frisbee scores, Cat).

We surprised Cat at the pharmacy where she was working that day (see photo above) and had lunch with her, she even let me behind the counter to look at, but not touch, the drugs. That night we played one of the funniest games of Taboo I've played in a while, and Chris and i managed to be only 4 points behind Cat and Jeff, not bad for the foreigners!

Tuesday we enjoyed more Netflix, and walked around Harvard square looking into all the neat bookshops and souvenir shops around and indulged in that American treat, Baskin&Robbins. We also went to see Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides, Chris's first 3D feature film. Today was more laziness, Wii and Cat and I had facials! I've never done one before, but it certainly made a difference! I think I'm hooked now and will have to do some more in a few months. I hear Lush does facials just a few miles away from our house, and Chris wants to come too!

Shiny happy sisters!

Right now we are enjoying a thunderstorm, watching for tornadoes, and waiting for a friend of Catherine's to come so we can go out for dinner. I can't remember the last time I was so treated, so pampered, wined and dined and well rested. Did I mention? Best vacation. Ever.

Hopefully I'll have some more internet when I get home, but if you don't hear from me, I'm probably just not plugged in and will try to be as soon as possible.

Cheers.

More Holiday Fun

Hello Dear Readers,

Another whirlwind week in progress here at our holiday house in sunny Cyprus. After recovering from New Years, Chris and I took a fantastic hike on a trail in the north-west peninsula known as the Akamas region. There is a sort of nature preserve there with four hiking trails. We took a 7.5 km one that started out going pretty much straight up a hill, what would in Texas probably be classed as a mountain. It did afford us spectacular views of the bay of Lachi which this photo hardly does justice to (yay for dipping into my 2011 photos now, love that fresh feeling of a new year!).
It got pretty warm hiking and I was down to just a tank top - I know Chris will not like the plunge back into the London cold next week! We saw some pretty good flora, including lots of cyclamins which are my favorite.

We also saw this strange new bush with unusual berries.......(the picture isn't great so I'll tell you they are shells from shotguns)
We heard quite a few gunshots while we were out, and even ran into a jeepload of hunters. I was repeating "don't shoot don't shoot" as we were hiking but as I don't know how to say it in Greek it probably didn't make a difference one way or another..... When we got to the top there was a large stone structure and some ruins, it looked like an old church or monestary, with a few remnants of paintings on walls still visable. I took some of the stones that had fallen off the ruined walls and put them back on - every little helps as they say in England.

Another day we went to the little botanic gardens that is set up here, but to be honest it was pretty dissapointing, mislabeled plants and very small gardens. We were also the only people there, I think they were preparing for some big event because the tavern was set up with chairs draped in white fabrices, but no one seemed to pay us much attention anyway.

One of my favorite things to do in the world is to finish things, specifically craft projects. Chris's mom has had these needlepoint projects in her closet certainly as long as I've been coming to Cyprus, and most of them were started when Chris's sister was 5 or 6.

This time I decided to really get cracking on finishing some. We took a trip to the local habadashary to see if they had some of the same yarn, the woman said whoah those are really old, we don't carry that knid of thread anymore but you can try a shop called Evros. We went there and took a look and lo and behold he still had most of the colors I needed! I asked about the white for the background and he said evyerthhign I have is there because the factory stopped making that kind of yarn a long time ago. I may very well be the last person that buys that kind of tapeestry thread off of him.
As of the writing of this blog I'm just about done with the one with the girl in the white background....... no idea really what I will do with them but they were just calling out to me to be finished and liberated from their bag in the back of the closet. If you see anything you like feel free to call dibs! I can make it up into a pillow, or it can be framed, turned into a bag.... you name it.

Finally on Tuesdsay we caught some of the solar eclipse that was visable here. I tried to take a photo of it but it didn't turn out at all. Here is chris checking it out behind the safety of some polarised glass he has just for that purpose.
I never saw a proper solar eclipse before, even a partial one like this. It was pretty special.

Tomorrow is the Epiphany, the last day of Christamas and an important day here in the holiday calander. We are going to try to get up early enough to watch them throw a cross into the sea an see a bunch of grown men swim after it to try to catch it..... not sure what that achieves but it'll be a good cultural experience anyway. After that we are driving to the capital to see Chris's sister and her family, in the quiet of their own home instead of the craziness of the holiday.

Home again home again on the 9th....looking forward to it. I like being here on vacation and learning lots of Greek, but there really is no place like home!

Visit Mania!!

Hello Dear Readers,

Been very quiet lately because I was getting ready to have guests (read: cleaning house top to bottom) and then playing hostess for a week!

My mother and sister came to London to see us all! Mom and Cat spent Tuesday hanging out in Putney and then Wednesday I took them into the City, here we are crossing Waterloo Bridge.

We did a lot of the tourist stuff, Covent Garden (think My Fair Lady)...

...and the British Museum.

Went to my brother's office in Holborn (three buildings down from where we stayed with the band in high school) and had lunch at a fish and chips shop in Soho. Fantastic shoe shopping district there by the way....

Thursday mom and Catherine spent the day at Kew Gardens while I was at work. In the evening we stuck around to participate in Summer Swing at the gardens and saw a production of "Dancing in the Streets."

It was a fantastic evening of pickle sandwiches, Stevie Wonder and co. and dancing of course! Also free samples of Grand Marnier and oranges and a general good time.

Mom and Chris headed to Cyprus on Friday while Cat and I spent the day recovering. Saturday the three of us kids had a day in the city together, but I'll post that later this week, right now my brother and I made seven layer Mexican dip and are about to start watching the World Cup (think Super Bowl, but with worse commercials). Go Spain!

Blue Skies, Blue knitting

Hello Dear Readers,

Just finished two projects, hot off the needles. One is a toy for Odie I's christening (Chris's cousin's son) and the other is a sweater for Odie II's 1st birthday (my nephew). Yes, both cousins had kids within a few months of each other and both called them Odysseaus.

Here is the elephant, based on the Susan B. Anderson pattern Elephante:



I photographed him with some basil, so as to feel like he's in his natural habitat. He can't forget his old home, being and elephant you know. Maybe he's a Thai elephant, and that's some Thai basil?
He's a bit heavy for a stuffed animal since I cut up one of Chris's holey undershirts to stuff him with (clean, not dirty!) but he's eco friendly! Donated yarn! Repurposed t-shirt! Perhaps I should call him EcoElephante. Odie's probably just going to suck on him anyway, but that's the fondest hope of any toy maker I think, that their creation will be loved to death. At least I hope so. I think I need to invest in some cool animal eyes since I seem to be doing a lot of toys lately.

Here is the sweater for the birthday boy:
I think it turned out pretty well, I tried to size it for between 18 and 24 months, and he'll be a year in May, so he should get some use out of it. I have three tags that say "made with love" or something to that effect that I would like to sew in there, but I'm worried that tags will irritate his skin. Perhaps I can put it in the center back, like they do at Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister. I have just one delicious ball left, I THINK I'll work on a little hat with a brim (here they call a brim a "peak", it took me a while to figure that one out, as a hat with a peak to me immediately brings to mind a dunces cap.....). Oh, and here is a picture of the little rug-rat, from his Christening:
That's his godfather, not his dad, holding him. Look at that HAIR! And the nose is even bigger :-).
Ok, I hear the laundry is done, time to get back to being a housewife.

A Grand Day Out in Gilford

Hello All,

Last weekend Chris and I went to visit his cousin Christiana in Gilford (yes, Chris has many cousins, and many are in England). It's a really quaint little town just south of us, and we got to take the train and everything. I LOVE the transportation here!

Here is a picture of Chris and I on the High Street. We, well, I, did a little yarn shopping (I'm making a giant pink baby blanket in acrylic! Help me Steph!! What was I thinking?) then met Christiana at the Slug and Lettuce (how cute a name is that for a restaurant!). After making another diversion to another yarn shop, we walked on the high street and enjoyed the street musicians playing American sounding blues..


and in true Cypriot style spent the rest of the afternoon in a coffee shop. My Greek gets phenomenally better after hanging out with a bunch of Cypriots, and their extensive use of hand gestures helps a lot! We went to Christiana's house for some more drinks, then Chris and I bolted for the train, just stepping on as the doors were closing. Still loving the public transport.


Today I went out for a while and saw two pretty neat things. The first was a crow actively dropping a nut onto the hard rocks of the river shore to crack it. Something I've read about a lot in biology, but the first time I've observed it for myself. On the same walk I also got to go through that quintessential British trail sight, a kissing gate! No one to kiss when I was there, but it was fun anyway.

We are looking to do something fun next weekend as well, and I'm going into the city some time this week to have fun too, so more to report later.

Cracking the Enigma

Hey gang,

What a fun weekend. I finished Patrick's hat (well it's fun if you are a knitter! and here is the Ravelry link if you are)


On Sunday Chris and I trekked up near Milton-Keynes to visit Bletchley Park where the Brits cracked the Enigma code during WWII. We went with his cousin (also called Christodoulos, but Dakis to the family) and his wife Rowena, who is British by birth but like me has moved around quite a bit and now calls Cyprus home. It was really amazing to see Alan Turing's code breaking machines in action, and the fantastically creative solutions they were able to come up with to crack the codes.

We have passes for a year so I think we'll be going back up there again to see more of the code breaking history. They are even rebuilding one of the computers (named Colossus) they used just from a few blueprints and photos, I would love to be a computer engineer in on that project. It also happened that this weekend was the LGBT heritage weekend (Alan Turing happened to be gay) and we heard two lectures about him, though there wasn't nearly enough math in it for Chris. We wanted some equations, dammit. What I want to know is, what about the hidden Lefty history of the world? The lefty community has been a silent 11% minority long enoough, I want to see Lefty history month celebrated, who's with me?

We went to the "Flying Fox" pub afterward for lunch (not a Freehouse I'm afraid Molly) and I had this yummy nut roast with Yorkshire Pudding (which is actually more like a bread bowl......very tricky to eat delicately). How English to finish up a rainy day walking around historic grounds than with Sunday dinner at the pub. It was really fun to visit "family" over here. I guess I've finally traveled so much I'm starting to cross back on myself! That, and London is a pretty popular place to live and visit. Open invitation still stands!

The trip where nothing went right...

Hello all,

Here is my first attempt at blogging. Some of you have asked me if I would start one, and I've been thinking about it for a while so here it is. I'm going to see about posting twice a week minimum, we'll see how it goes, there may also be some guest posts from a certain Mad English person I know....

Right now I am NOT in fact, a Lindon in London, I am mired in Snowmageddon Part 2 (see ski photo, taken in front of the house after the first 20 inches of snow), my Tuesday flight having been moved to Wednesday, then moved again to Thursday. The good news is it went from a two part over night trip to a one part day trip, so there is some benefit after all.

I will post from London, as soon as I get there....