hablas español ? ελληνικά?

Apart from all the construction works, the barking and coming and going of people, there’s a weird notion going on in my house. Both JJ and I are in the process of studying a new foreign language! JJ decided to study Greek and I decided to study Spanish! Between the two of us, we speak 5 languages! Fine, we have English in common, but I don’t think we’re doing badly. After the courses, we’ll be able to communicate in (alphabetic order) Afrikaans, English, Greek, French and Spanish.

JJ wanted to learn to speak Greek for some time now. At first he started a Rosetta Stone course some years ago. But he had some issues with his laptop and the whole we-need-to-buy-a-house malarkey happened and he stopped it. This time around he found a course in the London Hellenic centre. Most of his colleagues are people who are in relationship with a Greek and want to meet the family!

Unfortunately for him, Greek is not an easy language. The alphabet and the phonemes are different and can be complicated. The only good thing is that after you’ve learnt them, you can read any given word. In Greek what you see, is what you can read. A bit like Italian, although a bit more complicated. The bad thing is that even if you can read a word, it doesn’t mean you can easily find its meaning. I can help him though (duh).

For me the decision to learn Spanish was a bit out of the blue. A very good friend of mine found some discount vouchers for foreign languages courses. It could have been Italian, French, German or Spanish. She knows German and I know French, so the logical option was Spanish. I don’t have anything against Italian, but between the two, Spanish sounds to me a little bit nicer and more useful.

Since there are discount vouchers included in the deal, to be honest, I don’t have tremendous high expectations for the quality of the course. My only hope is that they’d like to do a good job, so that we stay for the next level and pay the full price then. But in any case, I’ll try to enjoy the experience. The last time I studied a foreign language in a classroom was the year before my university graduation, more than a decade ago, for my DALF (iplôme approfondi de langue française) which I enjoyed tremendously.

Do you think Penny will be even more confused if we spoke to her in 5 languages?

She's bored already... 

Becoming paranoid or cautious?

The world is supposed to end this Friday, which kind of sucks, since we’ll be missing the weekend. Why couldn’t the world end on the following Monday? Although to be honest, that Monday is Christmas Eve and it’s only half a day at work, which means that everybody will be in holiday spirit and not much work will be done. Apart from very emergency issues, the rest of the day will be spent chatting, gossiping and mindlessly browsing the internet. I think there will be a Christmas party for the employees’ children in the mess room, but I’ll try to stay far away from that one. Then it’s Christmas. Can the world end at the end of next week?

To be honest, I don’t think the world will end. Maybe, I’m being too selfish believing that I will not die this Friday, or maybe too optimistic. In any case, I have planned to do my Christmas food shopping late this Friday to try to avoid the weekend hordes of panicking consumers. My local big supermarket is open till midnight, which is very convenient. I’ll go home, have dinner and later that night, we’ll get ready and instead of going to a bar, we’ll go food shopping. On Christmas day, it’s going to be the two of us, so food shopping will be somewhat easy, even if we will stuff ourselves with food, as expected.

Anyway, what I wanted to talk about is ‘prepping’. According to the Google dictionary, prepping is ‘preparing oneself for an event’. During these modern times, prepping has a new meaning and it concerns people getting ready for an apocalyptic event, i.e. the end of the world. There are some people really serious / fanatical about it. They believe that a disaster of that proportion will soon happen, whether it is a zombie attack or a civil outbreak or a spreading killing virus, and they have made preparations. They have escape routes from their houses, evacuation packed bags with necessities, a destination where they believe they can isolate and support themselves for weeks, even months, and they train themselves in first aid, hunting and various other similar self-preservation skills.

My self-preservation skills are almost non-existent. Even in the most user friendly forest, I wouldn’t know how to survive. OK, maybe I would try to find a water source and some shelter for the night. But that’s it. I was never a boy scout and I don’t think I would be able to light a fire without a lighter. If the zombies came, I would be one of the first to go. To be frank about it, that wouldn’t be a very bad thing though. Who wants to live in a post-apocalyptic world anyway? Have you read the ‘World War Z’?

However, some recent events made me thinking. Without taking the situation too far, wouldn’t be a good idea to be somewhat prepared? I’m not talking about the zombies or aliens coming. I’m talking about more real everyday stuff. For example, if a natural disaster occurred, like hurricane Sandy that left so many people without electricity for days, do I have the proper equipment at home to sustain myself for these days? Do you?

So, I made a mental list of things needed. In case the electrical supply was down, the supermarkets remained closed for some days and we got stranded at home for a few days. It would be good to have some candles or source of light, lighters, some lasting cans of food, water and a small bottled gas cooker like the one my grandmother used to use to make Greek coffee. Am I taking this too far? Is this just the beginning of me turning into a crazy prepper? OK, that’s not a proper word, but anyway, you know what I mean... Will I start looking into conspiracy theories and wait for the dead to rise?

Back from South Africa Part 2...

The road trip that followed was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Overall, during our stay in South Africa, we did around 2,200 kilometres, most of which of course were done during that road trip. We had to travel to the Addo Elephant Park, which is very close to Port Elizabeth, but far from Cape Town, so far that we had to book hotels on the way there and back. That wasn’t really a problem, but part of an adventure. We spent quite a few hours in the car almost daily, but the scenery was great.

Between the Western and the Eastern Cape, I don’t know about the rest of the country, there are some massive mountains following the coast line. These mountains block lots of clouds from passing through inland. So, there is more rainfall in one side than the other. That means that the side closer to the beach is green and is called the ‘Garden Route’. Driving through there is like driving through Austria. There are lakes, forests and breath taking canyons through that route. It’s really beautiful. The other side of the mountains is drier, less green, with vast areas covered only in very low grass or bushes.  Since we were driving to Addo and back, we decided to take both routes. We drove easterly from the north and westerly from the Garden Route. It was so interesting to see the difference.

On the way to the Addo Elephant Park we stayed in two places, Oudtshoorn and Knysna. The first as a town wasn’t that amazing, but it hosts some amazing cave formations (Cango Caves) and a very interesting Animal Park, but the second is a very picturesque town by a lagoon next to the sea. In Oudtshoorn’s Animal Park we spent the greater part of a morning looking at beautiful animals, serpents and birds. This is where for a small fee I met and petted a cheetah. The experience was really nice.

Cango Caves

The animals were brought up in captivity since pups and they were used to people. So, guests were able to pet them. Being pure felines, during the heat of the day, they were simply dozing under a shadow. They liked being treated and petted, so they were simply happily pouring. I was instructed not to touch them on their paws, tail and face, especially to block their eyesight. But I could happily caress them on the back of their head, back and belly, which I happily did. The cheetah was happily dozing off while being treated to such attention.

When we finally arrived in Addo Elephant Park, we found out it was definitely worth the drive. We had booked a chalet for two nights, a sunset game drive (between 6pm and 8pm) and a sunrise game drive (between 6am and 8am). We didn’t know exactly what to expect. We hoped to see some animals, but we didn’t really want to be disappointed, so we hadn’t had our hopes high. Thankfully, we were wrong. Even upon our arrival to the chalet, when we walked on the veranda, in the front of the house, in about 30 meters away, there was an elephant munching happily on the surrounding bushes. We were so surprised we wanted to scream, but we didn’t, so that not to scare the poor creature!

So happy to see the elephant outside our door

In front of the chalet, 2 meters away there were the electric fences to keep the animals away, but after that the vast area of the Park stretched. There were over 25,000 hectares of wilderness with a variety of small and big creatures for us to discover! It was something I will never forget. The next two days after our arrival, during the guided game tours and during our own driven tours, we saw a variety or animals, mammals, insects and birds. We saw kudus, elands, bushbucks, elephants, dung beetles, eagles, cranes, jackals, buffalos, zebras and even lions!!!!

An amazing picture JJ took

Especially during our own drives through the well-marked roads of the park, we had the time of our lives. The map we had with us marked the various waterholes where the animals gather, so we tried to visit all of them. In-between we were slowly driving around and checking movements between the bushes and photographing animals. Randomly running into an elephant in the middle of the road eating from a nearby bush or galloping zebras is not something you easily forget. The excitement we were feeling exploring the area and discovering its beauties was great.

So cute...

A random encounter while we were driving in the Park

A very close encounter. He was hungry, we were waiting... 

lions...

A kudu...

On the way back, we stayed in village called Wilderness where we put our feet in the Indian Ocean. It was so warm but we didn’t go any further. The waves were massive and we didn’t know what we’ll find deeper. We did enjoy a very nice stroll on the coast. The road trip ended with some whale watching in Hermanus! Unfortunately, JJ wasn’t feeling that well and just to be on the safe side, I went on that boat trip on my own. Since it was so late in November, most of the whales were gone. After they give birth in that area, they travel thousands of kilometres southbound to feed. We managed to find some though. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get very good pictures. The sea was a bit rough and I was concentrating more on staying upright on the boat. Looking at whales though is something very exciting nevertheless…  

Reading material

Recently I finished reading a book called ‘Before I go to sleep’. I think it was a best seller here and in the USA. It’s highly enjoyable and well written. It’s about a woman with amnesia, trying to cope with her life and discover her past. There are some secrets buried there and not many things make sense to her. I’m not giving out any big spoilers, but a huge part of the book is about the importance of memory and life experiences. It’s about how our personal history, choices and familiarities really define us and our personalities, that, and the importance of the heroine’s diary. That diary is her source of information and doorway to her past, the same way our blogs sometimes are for us.

I don’t generally have a good memory. I forget dialogs, names and situations. However, I’m happy to have this blog and being able to go back, at least for the last 3 years that I’ve been writing, to check about events and people from my past. I hope to be able to keep on writing, even if I have changed since then and my writing with me. Its nice taking trips back in memory lane for a short while, in order to refresh some memories and relive situations.

I’m in the process of creating some new memories of a lifetime by travelling to Africa in a few days. I’ve done my first round of sorting out things I’ll take with me, last weekend. It’s fascinating separating summer clothes again like t-shirts, shorts and bathing suits when it’s so cold outside, here in London. It will be weird going from 2 degrees Celsius to 30 in two days. Most likely I’ll get a cold when I get back. Hopefully, not when I’m there...

I also spent part of my weekend reading about South Africa and watching youtube videos regarding the places we will visit, including the Elephant Park. If we manage to see some of the things I’ve reading/watching it will so great. ‘JJ’ bought a proper SLR camera as well and spent the last days learning in detail how to use it.

Going back to some of my older posts of this blog, I found out that I used to post various cartoon strips, like Garfield. So, in order to fight this Monday’s blues, here are some cartoons:

 

Political

(that was written yesterday morning)

Today’s all about politics. I’m not sure what time I’ll be posting this, but maybe the new president of the USA might have been announced (it has). If not, most (responsible) fellow Americas might have or will be casting their votes still. I haven’t finished my homework regarding this, but I feel like supporting the existing president far more. Some of the things I’ve heard of the other candidate are atrocious. Also, in some cases, it’s better the devil you know. So, hopefully it goes well (it has)…

A Greek friend of mine sent me an email that she read that the Queen is very sick and dying! Her source of information is the very reliable American magazine called ‘Globe’. Do you know it? It looks really trustworthy. Of course when I read her email, being the selfish bastard that I am, I instantly thought of my holidays. Would there be a problem with my flight? It’s a constant worry at the back of my head. Oh, it snowed in some parts of England! Gosh, I hope there are no flight disturbances. The Queen might die! Oh, I hope there’s no national mourning and all holidays are cancelled! I know it’s very selfish of me, especially when another human being is dying (even a blue blooded), but I really want to go on this trip…

On the same political subject, the situation in Greece is getting more tense. There are new austerity measures announced by the coalition government for the budget of the new year. The previous measures aren’t really working as sufficient as predicted and tougher laws need to be applied. The national debt is not really shrinking and the situation is not really improving much. The people are generally fed up and this week is all about strikes and protests, especially in the capital but not only. The situation is getting out of hand with public transport and the media not working for the whole week. Hospitals are only accepting emergencies and the lawyers refuse to work for 48 hours. Not all parties of the coalition government agree on every measure and decision taken and there are disputes and cracks on it. Hopefully there will be no schism and elections again.

There are dire social consequences of this situation. Most of the people I talk to have become so pessimistic, almost to a depressive level. It’s so sad hearing young people not having any hope left that all this can improve any time soon, not even in decades. And it’s not only that. There are almost every day now news on racist attacks and fascist comments. It’s a well-known fact that the party called ‘Golden Dawn’ is mentioned in gallops as being third in power. Third! The white nationalists, neo-Nazi racists with no respect of human rights.
I’m sorry. I get a little bit carried away with all this. The stories that I’ve heard made me ashamed of my country’s decadence. Hopefully, the storm might pass and things might gradually improve. I can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel yet, but there must be one, somewhere?

(today. I’m feeling so much better after my yesterday’s outburst)

Bad Karma

What is wrong with Japan? Who managed to put a curse on the whole country? Definitely 2011 has not been a good year for the land of the rising sun! After the earthquakes, the tsunami, the cyber-attacks and the nuclear plant meltdown there is now a typhoon on their way! Why? OK, that is a stupid question, but I strongly believe that the people of that country are challenged way too harshly for the sins they might have committed.

I salute them for the way they’ve been handling things. If you’ve seen any documentaries on the Fukushima disaster, you will see that the people seem generally disciplined, resilient and positive. They’ve been trying to help the authorities without complaining. It is unfair that they’ve been going through another natural disaster. OK, that is probably the wrong thing to say. No one deserves to get affected by natural disasters, but still…

I thought of trying to find what wrong they could have done recently to damage their karma so much but it’s not easy. I’ve learnt that Japan has more than 6,500 islands (wow) and a population of 127 million people (tenth largest population). They’ve done some really nasty stuff during the Big War, but who hasn’t? Also, I think that punishing the country now after 70 years, is a bit unjust.

On the top of my head, I could judge the country on their policies regarding whaling. When most countries have signed against it, Japan continues to turn a blind eye towards that issue. I understand that whaling is part of their culture and history. However, the gravity of the situation is such that there might not be whales in the future…

Anyway, I’ve always wanted to visit the country. I am fascinated by their history, culture, food, Manga and technology. I love how they combine the old and the new, maintaining values and looking at the future at the same time. I must postpone my visit for a few years though. Although now the prices must be cheap, I don’t want to bring back radiation as a souvenir.

Seriously now, I wish to them all the best

Treats in the kitchen

According to custom, when someone from the company goes away on holiday, he or she should bring some local treats back to the office. In most cases they are chocolate biscuits, cookies or some other kind of finger food. In the past, we had some really interesting dried stuff from exotic locations or even exotic fruit.

This time, one of my colleagues went back to his hometown, in Scotland. I was very surprised that apart from the customary and expected shortbread, he brought us, this:

Haggis Poo!

Yes, poo that came out from Haggis! I couldn't stop laughing! They are raisins dipped in milk chocolate. Once more for those of you that missed the name : Haggis Poo!

Just look at the box! It's hilarious! It's a personified haggis wearing a Scottish Kilt lifting his leg next to a bush and the toilet paper is running for it! The sheep in the back looks amazed and the rabbits in the front pass out, probably from the smell!

I generally don't like toilet humor, but honestly... Who had this brilliant idea? Who designed the box and named the product? I have to admit that it is a product difficult to forget, something like

Fetishes and Paraphilias

People come in all shapes and sizes and they have their own preferences when it comes to… well, everything. Internet helped various kinds of groups to come together and discuss, explore these preferences. I believe that gay people in particular should be happy about that.

However, what I find a bit funny, different but at the same time totally respectable are the number of sex fetishes that surfaced with the freedom of speech provided by the www. And I am not talking about the simple shoe, underwear or toe fetish, I’m talking about a little bit more let’s say extravagant approach to things. TV series like CSI introduced to the public some of these fetishes, like the guy who liked to be dressed and treated like a baby or bondage fetishes.

Let’s take for example a user in gay forum called ‘Chazz’ who’s fetish is really specific. He admits having a Superhero / Supervillain feet/shoe fetish. I quote: “I like characters like Spiderman, Venom, and Spawn who have shoe soles with colors like Blue and Purple that stands out with their dark costumes and such.” For a gay comic geek person, I think it to be quite reasonable.

Then there is ‘Formicophilia’. This is deriving sexual pleasure from insects crawling on the body, specifically on the genitals. The desired effect may be a tickling or stinging sensation, or the infliction of psychological distress on another person. That one is definitely not for me…

‘Hybristophilia’, involving being sexually aroused or attracted to people who have committed an outrage or a gruesome crime. In popular culture, this phenomenon is also known as "Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome". One of the most infamous examples of this is the large amount of women attracted to Ted Bundy after his arrest.

‘Burusera’ is a Japanese term for a panty fetish. It is an extremely prevalent fetish in Japan. There are burusera shops in Japan that sell used schoolgirls' panties, and there even used to be vending machines on the streets where men could buy them. The men buy them to smell them!

‘Forniphilia’ is a form of bondage and sexual objectification in which a person's body is incorporated into a chair, table, cabinet or other piece of furniture. It is an extreme form of bondage because the subject usually is tightly bound and expected to stay immobile for an indefinite period of time. They are often gagged and/or placed in position where there is a danger of being smothered. Proper safety requires frequent checks of the submissive's well-being.

‘Vorarephilia’ (often shortened to vore) is a sexual fetish and paraphilia where arousal occurs from the idea of being eaten, eating another, observing this process, or by the general process of eating. The fantasy most frequently involves the victim being swallowed alive, and may or may not include digestion. Since the fetish is very hard to achieve in real life, it is more commonly enjoyed through pictures, stories, videos, and video games!

The list can be endless and I'm missing so many interesting cases, but I couldn’t not mention Erika, 37, former soldier who lives in San Francisco. She has the slightly unusual fetish of falling in love with inanimate objects. As seen here, she in now madly in love with Tour Eiffel. She has pledged to love, honor and obey in an intimate ceremony attended by a handful of friends. She even changed her name to Erika La Tour Eiffel! I don’t want to be judgmental and criticize her but my poor little brain cannot understand some things. I will of course respect her feelings. But imagine being her friend and receiving an invitation for such a ceremony! What do you buy as a present?

(By the way, same-sex marriage cannot legally be performed in France, though some foreign same-sex marriages are recognized and the PACS, which confers some of the same rights and responsibilities as marriage, is available to same-sex couples. However, Erika managed to 'marry' the Eiffel Tower. Go figure...)

But at the end of the day, let’s celebrate diversity!!!

Friday random…

That's the I wrote and prepared on Friday but couldn't post due to 'Blogger' problems. I'm posting it now as written without any changes...

It’s the end of the week, so it’s an opportunity to celebrate. The weekend is upon us with vast opportunities to see friends, do stuff we like, get some rest, etc… That’s why, I don’t want to spoil anyone’s mood but I can’t help it.

Yesterday, really late at night for a school night, there was a documentary in BBC3 called ‘the world’s worst place to be gay’ and it was about homophobia in Uganda. A well known radio presenter and commentator called ‘Scott Mills’ who is a white gay male in his late thirties, visited the country to see firsthand how homosexual people are treated.

At first he does enjoys his visit but it doesn’t take long for him to see the signs. There are newspapers daily writing about homosexuals and forcibly outing them. There are articles about how gay people should be jailed or even hanged, an opinion shared by the vast majority of the population, even by the younger generations. Scott visits gay people living in the slums, disowned by their families, chased away by friends, beaten and stoned. Local priests preach about how gay people are like paedophiles, trying to seduce the innocent in their own evil schemes. They forcibly believe that being gay is something curable, so Scott visits a local witch doctor to be treated without any effect of course. The story of a young lesbian is introduced who was raped, in order to be ‘cured’ to like men. She was exiled, infected with HIV and got pregnant after that. At the end of the show, Scott visits a politician who’s favouring an anti-homosexual bill to be introduced in the country. After admitting to the politician that he is gay, the interview stops and Scott has to be rushed away not to be ceased by the police.


In general, the documentary is not of the best quality because I believe it’s a very superficial but is depressing nonetheless and proves how bad the situation is. In late January, a Ugandan well known gay rights activist, called David Kato, was beaten to death in his own house. Police say that the beating had nothing to do with David being gay but I don’t think they’re fooling anyone. I’m not sure if the anti-homosexual bill is already introduced or not, but it is a very scary piece of legislation.

This kind of stories makes me feel so happy that I live in the UK and I’m enjoying liberties I took for granted. Some might say that Uganda has much more serious survival issues to deal with than the gay minorities like malnutrition and sanitation but it is sad nonetheless. In a country of 33 million people, there must be more than 200,000 gay people tormented. In any case, Uganda is not a popular tourist destination to my taste…

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OK, with that out of the picture, I can concentrate on other, less important, things. I watched ‘Hanna’ and ‘Thor’ recently. The first one was good but not something exceptional. I liked the music by Chemical Brothers and the direction by Joe Wright. The appearance of a half naked Eric Bana was a nice touch as well. I also enjoyed Cate Blanchett in it. I found however the story quite predictable, unrealistic and somewhat boring. It is worth watching though if you like action movies. ‘Thor’ I watched in 3D, in IMAX in Wimbledon. The screen was huge and the visual effects impressive. I feared that it would be a disappointment and I was somewhat negatively prepositioned. However, I found it entertaining and the actor playing Thor quite good. If you’re thinking about watching it at a cinema theatre, go for it. I doubt it would be as impressive in DVD.

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I’m off for the weekend in Paris with JJ. It would be a quick visit for one night, but I know I’ll enjoy it nonetheless. Have a great weekend too! I’m living you with some hotties I quickly gathered online:

You have to love rugby players. That's Nick Youngquest

Chris Loulis - Greek Actor

A test: Do you know who this guy is?

Arguments against...

I ran into this in a blog that unfortunately I can't remember, but I loved it:

Post Easter (religious) thoughts…

I had quite a lovely long weekend. Jesus Christ was thankfully resurrected. I didn’t have any doubts but our priest did take his time and the resurrection was a bit late. It is supposed to occur exactly at midnight. Most people (sometimes me included) go to church a little bit before that, to leave right after. According to custom, you are not supposed to eat (much) during the day because you mourn. By the time it gets close to midnight most people feel extremely hungry and don’t stay long after the joyful message of the resurrection is delivered...

that is so blasphemous...

Speaking of Jesus Christ, there was a very interesting program yesterday on the television. I don’t normally blog or comment on TV programs but I was surprised by it. It was called: “Derren Brown: Miracles for Sale”. According to Wikipedia, the know-it-all portal of modern times, Derren Brown is a British illusionist, mentalist, painter, writer and sceptic (yes, all that). He is one of those magicians that perform on the street and on the television. I have to admit that I am not very familiar with his work since I don’t watch telly much and this was the very first time I watched a full episode. By the way, he’s gay and fairly cute… Here’s a recent interview of his.

Derren Brown

On this episode, he wanted to confront the so-called faith healers. These people in the name of religion, faith, Jesus or whatever you want to call it, take advantage of the believers to sell them hope. The price of this healing though is very expensive and very dangerous. There have been numerous occasions where people stopped taking their medication or spent life savings and vast amounts of money to be “healed” in the name of Jesus. There is some information here.


In order for Derren to prove that most of this healing is false and these religious ‘shows’ staged, he decided to take an inexperienced performer and make a healer out of him. Through normal casting he found an ex-diving instruction and he created a man called ‘Pastor James’. During the training period, all members of Derren’s group travelled to Texas, USA, where these faith healers are renowned to perform. In six months, ‘Pastor James’ learned how to perform in a religious gathering, hypnotise the crowd and perform ‘healing’!

The show does demonstrate how these well known healers make fortunes in the expense of human misery. The tricks they pull are well organised and they can trick masses of followers. At the end of the show, ‘Pastor James’ stages a very successful healing demonstration and does prove how this so call healing is not to be taken seriously.


However, I don’t think than any progress can easily be made. It has been proven in the past how lots of these shows are staged and the healers are imposters, but still people do get victimised in the name of religion. I do believe that lack of proper education is a key factor that unfortunately is very difficult to be provided.