Good things and Bad things!

Last week was a mixture of good things (2 celebrations) and bad...(a black eye!)
First the bad. I'd been to Helios Bar at the top of the hill from my studio


view from Helios Bar



and had enjoyed a meal that was rather large so I had plenty left over for one of the cats that lives around there.  It hopped up onto a low table and as I leant forward to shoo it off, it swiped at me and got me above and below my eye, ungrateful little bugger!  It bled like mad and the following day I had some interesting swelling and bruising.  With a view to staving off any infection I doused an eyeshadow applicator in boiling water and then in Vodka, which seemed to do the trick as the cuts never went nasty like most cat scratches do.  (see, I knew liking a drink would come in handy!!).


my black eye!

Now the good.....Friday night saw the procession of the icon of Agia Paraskevi  for the "name day" of the patron saint of the island. There was a full marching band, the priest and choirboys (or whatever the greek equivalent is) and lots of chanting and incense during the blessing of the icon.

In Greece, everyone celebrates the "Name Day" of the saint that bears the same name. They celebrate this day instead of their birthday.  Saturday was a night of celebration for Agia Paraskevi, it also happened to be a new friends "name day", so there was a table of 22 of us for a meal in our favourite taverna, Archipeligos. There was live greek music and professional dancers which included our dance instructor, Yorgos and Aubrey (previously mentioned as he bought me some lovely earrings for my birthday!).  I'm very glad that when I go to my dance classes that I don't have to get kitted out in what they have to wear for a performance!!

Aubrey in full greek dancing getup!

People from our table gradually started drifting away at around 1am but I met another group of people that I knew and I was grabbed to come and join them for another drink.  A few of us then joined in with the dancing and I eventually got to bed around 3am, which would have been all very well if I hadn't then woken up at what seems to be my usual time of 6.30!!!!  Sunday was spent quietly trying to recover but by 3pm my hangover was demanding something heavy in the food line so I went in search of a burger.  It came in the form of a burger with mushrooms, bacon & cheese and homemade chips....much better, although I'm definitely getting too old for this lark and will make sure I'm on the last bus back to Patitiri at 00:50 when the BIG celebration happens on August 15th for the Assumption of Mary, otherwise things might get slightly out of hand as there is music and dancing, goat spaghetti and free wine!!!!